Category: Plants

Wild Foragers, Violets, Spring Enchantments

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarGood Witches Homestead

Violet has been on our minds this spring as we see her pretty little flowers blooming here in southeastern Utah. Violets are one of the earliest wild plants to appear in the season, and we are reminded of her beauty as well as her long history of culinary and herbal use that may have us deciding to seize spring for all that it is!

Violet, being rich in vitamin C, indeed has our attention for a supportive immune boost! 

We love to harvest the fresh leaves and flowers to incorporate into springtime salads, juices, and refreshing smoothies. Violet, of course, also makes a really lovely tea, vinegar, or syrup, not only for the vitamin C content but also for soothing respiratory symptoms. 
Violet has a cooling and moistening energy, and its demulcent and expectorant properties are soothing to a sore throat, dry cough, and other respiratory irritation.
The recipe for…

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Woad as natural antibiotics | Joybilee® Farm | DIY | Herbs | Gardening |

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Isatis tinctoria for a broad-spectrum antibiotic

I have a guest post on the Herbal Academy of New England blog about using one of my favorite herbs, Dyer’s Woad, as a natural antiviral. It works so well as an antiviral because it is also a natural antibiotic and so it prevents secondary infections.  Woad and other Isatis spp have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years for their unique ability to prevent viruses like influenza and measles from replicating in human cells.  Check out my post to find out more about this unique and generous plant.

A brief history of woad

Isatis tinctoria or dyer’s woad is an easy to grow biennial that originated in the Caucus area, near Turkey. It was valued for its rich blue pigment and archeological evidence traces its use as a natural dye back to the Neolithic period in France, the Bronze age…

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Bidens Can Help Fight Infections and Viruses: Get to Know It

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Bidens, a common weed of pastures and vacant lots, has antiviral and antibacterial superpowers.  Get to know it better.  You never know when you might need to call on it as your herbal ally.

Bidens, an overlooked weed that will help you in the fight against MRSA infections

If you spend any time walking through pastures or vacant lots in July and August, you may have met Bidens. And if you haven’t met it, your dog probably has. Bidens sticks like a needle into your clothing. If your dog walks through a patch of Bidens, you’ll be picking the needle-like seeds out of his coat for hours. Also called, “beggarticks”, “Spanish needles,” “demon spike grass,” and “needle grass,” 1000 Biden seeds weigh less than a gram. If you walk through a patch of Bidens in the fall, and you’ll probably have 1000 seeds in your socks. Hint, wear jeans not…

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Brew a cup of calming tea and enjoy it!

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Making a good herbal tea blend is a profoundly simple art; it involves a few guidelines and a generous dash of creativity. 

Steps to creating the perfect herb tea blend:
* Start with an idea of what flavor and/or feeling your wish to create
* Know the flavor and properties of each of the individual herbs you are using in the blend.
* Blend for beauty, aroma, and harmonized flavors.  Mix the herbs according to taste, color, and texture.  Use primary flavors as the foundation of the blend, then add and harmonize with the secondary flavors, aromas and textures.
* When your blend looks just right and smells delicious,  give it the all-important taste test.   Have a pot of water boiling.  Make a sample cup of tea and test for flavor, color, texture, and aroma.  Adjust flavors.

All that’s needed to make a good pot of herbal tea is water…

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Tarta De Venus: A Not So Traditional Easter Cake — Gather Victoria

This simple almond tart is inspired by the Tarta de Santiago, a very dense, moist, cake traditionally served during Holy Week in Spain. It usually features the image of the St. James Cross dusted in powdered sugar but I went with a scallop shell instead. Venus goddess of love, beauty and fertility mythically arose from…

via Tarta De Venus: A Not So Traditional Easter Cake — Gather Victoria

Natural Remedies for Anxiety: 8 Tips to Find Relief

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

The funny thing about anxiety is that it can come even when you are generally happy. Anxiety symptoms often show up like pressure in your chest, shallow breathing, a racing heart rate, or scattered thoughts. No matter the cause or how it makes you feel, time-tested tools and techniques can restore your inner sense of calm.

What Home Remedies Work for Anxiety?

While it might motivate you to get things done, most people do not want to feel anxious and stressed. It can take a toll on your health, and anxiety comes with higher levels of cortisol — the stress hormone.

Many natural solutions are practical and easy to fit into your life. We’ve gathered the most helpful ways to deal with the anxiety that you can easily incorporate into your daily routine.

Eat Healthily

The food you eat has a tremendous impact on how you feel mentally and physically. When you…

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Ramps

The Herb Society of America's avatarThe Herb Society of America Blog

By Paris Wolfe

When Jeremy Umansky was at culinary school in 2006, a professor took him foraging in the Hudson Valley. They were looking for fiddlehead ferns, morel mushrooms, and ramps. Umansky –a James Beard award semi-finalist, and owner of Larder Deli in Cleveland – was converted. He has been harvesting that harbinger of spring, ramps, ever since. 

For those who haven’t yet heard, Foraged.Ramps 14the ramp – also called a wild leek — is a species of wild onion (Allium tricoccum) that is native to North America. The bulbs resemble a scallion, but the leaves are wide and flat. They cover Appalachian forest floors before trees fully leaf out. The flavor is a mix of garlic and onion. And, if you eat too many raw, you will sweat that aroma.

Ramps are high in vitamins A and C, and in lore, they are considered a blood cleanser and part of…

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Benefits of Laurel Essential Oil

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Laurel Leaf essential oil has a fresh, spicy scent that opens your lungs and your mind.

It’s invigorating and inspiring.

Laurel has a host of therapeutic properties. I like to remember that it’s associated with achievement and victory. So it’s a great helper when it comes to clearing away anything that stands between you and your best—that’s why it’s good for healing so many issues! (That’s how I like to think of it, anyway!)

Stay focused and clear with Laurel.

I especially love using Laurel for decongestion and mental focus. It is the perfect companion when you have a cold or allergies but still have to go to work.

Use 5 drops of this stock blend in your diffuser.

Ingredients:

  • 10 drops Laurel (Laurus nobilis)
  • 10 drops Rosemary ct. camphor (Rosmarinus officinalis ct. camphor)
  • 20 drops White Spruce (Picea glauca)
  • 10 drops Distilled Lime…

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A Passion For Violet: A Video Preview — Gather Victoria

I’ve been busy making videos on foraging & eating wild spring greens over at Gather Victoria Patreon but in April with the entrance of Venus, Goddess of Beauty and Love, I’ll be paying homage to her flower. Yes, that spring seductress of the wild woodland – violet. Used in perfumes, enchantments and love-spells throughout the…

via A Passion For Violet: A Video Preview — Gather Victoria

A Brief History of Chloroquine

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

FDA fast-tracks the drug, modeled after the natural substance quinine in cinchona bark, for use in COVID-19 clinical trials

Editor’s note: The nonprofit American Botanical Council (ABC) is disseminating this information to its members and other stakeholders in the medicinal plant community to provide historical insight into the ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery with respect to chloroquine and its derivative hydroxychloroquine. ABC is not recommending the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, or any of the quinoline alkaloids on which these drugs are modeled, as treatments or for the prevention of COVID-19. This includes any naturally occurring botanicals with similar or related chemistries. Such recommendations must come from appropriate medical and regulatory authorities after appropriate testing is done. ABC emphasizes that the use of these drugs carries a substantial risk of adverse side effects. ABC has always supported the process of modern drug development from medicinal plant and fungal sources, insofar…

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