A Work In Progress

THIS BLOG IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING MEDICAL ADVICE. I AM NOT A LICENSED MEDICAL DOCTOR. All information, content, and material of this website is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider. If you have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.



Barbarea vulgaris - very early growth wintercress

Following through the stages of plant growth is enlightening in many ways.  Watching growth in ANY living thing requires patience and persistence.  Growing takes time.  Healing takes time.  There will be detours and even roadblocks along the way, but persistence pays. 

This fledgling wintercress is part of the mustard family and will be quite tall with yellow flowers when it is mature.  The principles of holistic wellness embrace the ideas of patience and persistence. 

It can be challenging to wait, especially in a society bent on instant gratification.  Yet, much of life progresses as it has since Creation, plants begin as seeds, they need certain conditions to be met for germination.  They eventually grow, and if they thrive, they will flower and produce more seed.  But, this process is never instant.  It is never overnight. 


Rosmaranis officinalis - fresh cuttings to propogate

Holistic health is not instant, it is not overnight.  Foundations (nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, including spiritual and mental growth) need certain requirements to be met in order for sprouting to occur.  Then, the tender new growth will still need outside help (this is where herbal medicine and nutritional supplementation and various holistic techniques come into play).  At maturity, we still need to address specific acute issues that arise, like droughts, mildew, and slugs (in our metaphor these are the "big guns" of aromatherapy, trigger point massage, and clinical herbalism). 

Holistic wellness is much like Advent as well - it begins with HOPE.  Advent means "coming", and it starts with hope.  In our quest for better health, we have hope that improvement will be forthcoming.  Keeping the eye focused clearly on the goal, and not becoming discouraged along the way is the crux of holistic health.

Herbal tea

Sometimes, the simplest solution is best.  For example, replacing soda with herbal iced tea can work in at least three ways to improve health and wellness:

1) Elimination of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives

2) Greatly reducing or eliminating intake of sugar or high fructose corn syrup

3) Nourishing the body with water, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients

Herbal teas are easy to make and a delight to enjoy.  For flowers and leaves, add 2tsp of herb or blended herbs to a pot, pour 8-10oz of hot water over it and cover.  Let it come down to room temperature, strain, serve over ice.  To make 1/2 gallon at a time, increase the herbs to 1/4cup, follow the same process and store the strained refreshment in the refrigerator.

Useful souvenir

Our family recently took an extended vacation camping and driving to and from Alaska.  In , we stopped at the Alaska Bowl Company.  It is quite the place!  My sweet husband bought me a set including this knotty birch and a Ulu.  A ulu is a traditional native Alaskan knife.  

The ulu made quick and easy work of chopping this fresh anise hyssop.

Anise hyssop ready to be tinctured.  It smells so fresh and yummy!

The birch bowls from the Alaska Bowl Company are formed from the burls which form on birch trees.  It is pretty fascinating actually and many of them are genuine pieces of art!  

Aroma-gardening

I am currently taking two classes through Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine (highly recommend!) In the Immersion course, gardening is a theme, and is required for the certificate!  Although I am an experienced medicine maker, herbalist, and aromatherapist, I have never gardened other than a few vegetables and a lot of tomatoes.  Herbs are different, they are more tender, more sensitive, dare I say, more fickle.

From the beginning, my plan was an aromatic garden, growing a few of the beautiful volatile oil producing plants to be distilled in Rosie,the copper still, for hydrosol and essential oil.  Yarrow, oregano, spearmint, several varieties of basil, monarda, anise hyssop, and thyme, in addition to the rosemary and lavendin which is already established from the fall.  Additionally, calendula is in the plan to be distilled for its wound-healing hydrosol.  Other medicinal a such as spilanthes and star chickweed are also pictured.

These seedlings started indoors with a heat mat and a grow light.  Sadly, more than 95% did not survive after being planted in the garden.

Next, I tried direct seeding.  This went much better, some with excellent yield, such as Genovese basil, chickweed, yarrow, and calendula.  Some with very low yield, such as spilanthes and holy basil.  Others didn't come up at all (monarda, anise hyssop, spearmint).

For some of the non-sprouted, I was able to acquire established plants from the local garden store and from local gardeners (oregano, thyme, monarda, anise hyssop).  I also purchased two established "geranium" plants, again, to be distilled for hydrosol and essential oil in the fall.

Now, it is a matter of caring for the aromatic garden as it slowly grows.

Of course, the aromatic garden is not for distillation alone.  The culinary and medicinal uses of these plant-allies abound.

Culinary finishing salt made with fresh thyme, rosemary, oregano, and sage in Himalayan pink salt. (It is especially good sprinkled on fresh, ripe tomatoes!)

Catnip and lavendin for an evening cuppa.  Can't you just smell the loveliness?

The second course I am taking is Foraging.  Through it, I am learning about all the nutritious edibles which volunteer and grow wild all around me.  Violets, day lillies, mouse-ear chickweed, cleavers, lambs quarters, and more.  

I never imagined that I would enjoy gardening, but knowledge is indeed power, and now that I know more about the once-annoying-but-now-useful "weeds", such as purslane and lambs quarters, weeding has become a daily forage for dinner salad additions.  Pinching off the tops of the aromatic plants has added fresh herbs to our meals and teas.  

"Root yourself in this earth and it will root itself in you." -Sheniz Jammohamed 

Plants

Herbalism, aromatherapy, holistic nutrition.  It all boils down to plants.  

I am making a concentrated effort to learn more about the actual plants from which we derive our food and medicine,  As a little girl, I spend many a summer day out in the sunshine with a berry bucket, foraging from the hill behind our home.  I was intrigued by sumac as we drove by a huge grove of it near my grandparents home.  My mom treat common ailments at home with herbal teas and salves.  But it wasn't until I had my own children that I truly began to seek out the healing powers of plants and they various products.

This year, I am returning to those days of berry picking, by learning more about foraging and gardening through courses at Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine.  I am already adept at turning harvested and dried botanicals into medicine, and even using fresh aromatic plants to distill hydrosol and essential oil, but now, I am venturing back to the plants and soil.  To that end, I am also expanding my library beyond the materia medica to growing and gathering.