Your Medicinal Herb Garden

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

One of the questions I get asked frequently is what herbs would I recommend for a small medicinal herb garden or for someone just starting out so they don’t get overwhelmed. So that’s what I’m going to cover today. Of course, I don’t know everyone’s specifics. I will have to make a few assumptions – there will be plenty of sun, access to water, and the soil is healthy. One other important point is that these are herbs I believe allow for a beginner herbalist to begin treating their family with, they are also good for more advanced herbalists (for instance, I use chamomile in many preparations because it’s good for so many things). I’m hoping this will enable more and more individuals to grow their own “farmacy”!

Matricaria recutita – Chamomile

Like I mentioned before, I believe Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) to be one of the most important…

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What Is Carvacrol?

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Carvacrol may not be a widely recognized household name, but its source — oregano, probably is. As it turns out, oregano offers more than a pleasant taste; research has shown that carvacrol, its active ingredient, offers a wide range of health benefits; including protective effects for the liver, antioxidant, activity against harmful organisms, and more. The next 8 facts about carvacrol are sure to make it a known name in your household.

1. Interesting Results Against Cancer Cells

I’m not going to tell you that carvacrol is a cure for cancer but it certainly is demonstrating some interesting activity in preliminary research. When tested against breast cancer cells, it expedited cancer cell death… while being non-toxic. Long Island University researchers reported similar results when putting it up against prostate cancer cells. Actually, carvacrol exhibits the same results regardless of cancer. Lung cancer cells, oral cancer cells, and malignant brain tumors……

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Top 10 Health Benefits of Thyme

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

There are few things a sprig of thyme won’t make immensely better. This versatile herb blends well with a myriad of flavors and is packed full of health-promoting compounds, vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients.

Thyme belongs to the genus Thymus which is part of the mint family and closely related to oregano—another powerful herb. Native to the Southern Mediterranean regions, this perennial herb is now grown around the world for its culinary and therapeutic uses. While this herb will liven up your cooking, thyme may also help expel harmful organisms from your body and support your mental and physical health.

What Is Thyme?

Thyme is an evergreen herb that blooms with small white, pink, and purple flowers. They hybridize easily and grow quickly in sunny areas with well-drained soil. Thanks to its ease of cultivation and growth, there are over 300 varieties of thyme in existence today. Each variety has…

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Cedarwood Essential Oil

Good Witches Homestead

Cedarwood essential oil has a steady, reassuring strength.

It’s versatile, gentle, and powerful. It offers support in a wide range of blends, from respiratory inhalers to skin care creams, and both adults and children love its warm, woody aroma. Something about Cedarwood reminds me of sitting on a park bench under the shelter of a tall cedar tree.

In the blends below, I’m using three different Cedarwood essential oils: Cedrus atlantica, Cedrus deodara, and Juniperus virginiana. These three Cedarwoods are often good substitutes for each other, but I’ve included the Latin name in each blend so you’ll know exactly which Cedarwood I’m using.

1. Cedarwood connects us with our calm inner strength.

Cedarwood essential oil has the ability to see us through tough times. It can help us move steadily and securely through long projects . . . or through long, cold (sometimes dark) seasons like winter.

This…

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Patchouli Essential Oil

Good Witches Homestead

Patchouli has a reputation for being peaceful, even in the face of conflict, and connecting us with the earth.

It’s all about calm, ease, and natural beauty.

In my mind, Patchouli’s mental and emotional effects are reflected in what it can do for our bodies. It calms inflammation, soothes anxiety, reduces bacteria, is astringent, and helps skin to heal.

The recipes in this Spotlight showcase Patchouli’s talents nicely!

Patchouli essential oil a perfect ingredient for natural acne relief blends.

This recipe is popular with boys, who I’ve found don’t often gravitate toward floral fragrances (but girls love this blend, too!).

You can make this in a 1 oz (30 ml) flip-top bottle:

1 oz (30 ml) aloe vera gel (Aloe barbadensis)
5 drops Patchouli (Pogostemom cablin)
5 drops Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
3 drops Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia)
2 drops Lemon (Citrus…

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Sacred Tree Profile: Magic, Medicine, Folklore and Ecology of Ash (Fraxinus Americana)

The Druid's Garden

I remember the first time I met an Ash tree suffering from the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) in South East Michigan. She was a young ash, about 20 years old, about 4” thick at her widest point typical age, and had begun producing seeds. She stood proudly to the south-east of my sacred grove behind my pond, and I would visit her often. All of her elders in the surrounding area had been killed by the Emerald Ash Borer some years before. The EAB is a bright green beetle that came into the Detroit, MI harbor in 2002 and spread quickly into the surrounding ecosystem (now threatening ash trees along the midwest and eastern seaboard). The EAB larvae eats the cambium (green inner bark) of many ash species; however, the borer ignores trees that are young and instead goes for more mature trees that have a more developed cambium. As…

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Ozark Encyclopedia – C – Cranesbill

I love seeing this along the roadsides in Western Maryland.

Ozark Encyclopedia – C – Corn

Itty Bitty Witch — 🌸 Edible Flowers & Witchery 🌸

https://legeia.tumblr.com/post/160803053839/edible-flowers-witchery

Ozark Encyclopedia – C – Cocklebur – Mountain Man Traditional Healing

Author: MMH

Cocklebur – Xanthium spinosum, X. strumarium

Parts used: burrs

Traditional uses: Infusion of root given to induce vomiting. Roots chewed for rattlesnake bite. Plant used for the kidneys. Decoction of seeds used for bladder ailments.

Tea used for rheumatism – “A tea made by boiling cockleburs in water is another remedy for rheumatism.” ~Randolph OMF 108

Used in love divinations – “Another girl picks a cocklebur, names it for her lover, and throws it against her skirt; if it sticks, she knows that her lover is true to her, if it doesn’t stick she thinks he is false.” ~Randolph OMF 172

Tea made for cold – “We always drank cocklebur tea for a cold. Dried burs, boil them in water, put a little sugar in it, strain them and drink it.” ~Carter and Krause HRIO

Used for coughs – “Boil ripe cuckleburrs. Make a tea out of the juice. Add enough sugar to make a syrup.” ~Parler FBA II 1970

For gall bladder – “Drink a quart of cockle-burr…tea each day for gall-bladder trouble.” ~Parler FBA II 2289

For kidney stones – “Take dry kickleburrs and place them in a stone jar. Then fill the jar with water (hot but not boiling) and set on stove next to fire. Let them simmer for 2 to 3 hours and then drain juice into jug. Take 1 tablespoon full 3 times per day for kidney stones.” ~Parler FBA III 2592

For kidney health – “Cucklebur…tea is good for kidneys.” ~Parler FBA III 2593

With alcohol and glycerin for tuberculosis – “To cure tuberculosis take dry cockleburrs, alcohol, and glycerin. Cook down and drink the water of it. You will spit up the T.B.” ~Parler FBA III 3474

Carter, Kay & Bonnie Krause Home Remedies of the Illinois Ozarks (HRIO)

Moerman, Daniel E. Native American Ethnobotany (NAE)

Parler, Mary Celestia Folk Beliefs from Arkansas (FBA)

Randolph, Vance Ozark Magic and Folklore (OMF)

Source: Ozark Encyclopedia – C – Cocklebur – Mountain Man Traditional Healing