I wait and I wait. And I patiently wait, until out of thin air, the little brown paperbag-like sheathes slough off the tips of the branches and float away.... revealing the new little spruce needles that are the most beauteous little tender chartreuse new born tips of deliciousness. Seriously. They're like little slightly sour lemony chewy gumballs. Not as astringent and definitely more palatable than the more aged needles. I'm not certain I can even describe it correctly. It has a piney/balsamic character with a sweet almost fruity lemony woodsy-like under tone. They some how remind me of the little yellow sour grass flower forest, (Oxalis I think they were) those clover blossoms that grew all over the side yard and I would pluck them by the handfuls and chomp and suck the sour juices from their stems. Kinda like that but not as sweet and juicy. And I guess not so puckery. Well, they have a wild, sour-wood flavor all of their own.

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My boys kept me super warm last night with their perfectly running fevers and kept me up with their irritating coughs. So I'm off to give hugs and make soups, and syrups, and herbal pastilles and sleepy teas and probably some kinda cookies, maybe big soft ginger molasses cookies....because you've gotta have lots of herbaly goodness and hugs and kisses and cookies when this kinda madness goes down.

Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people, and plant medicines are not only simple, but safe, effective, and pretty much free. Our ancestors used plant medicines, and our neighbors around the world use plant medicines, and you can use plant medicines for healing just the same. It's super easy and super fun and I even let my littles help sometimes.

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I'm thrilled to finally be adding some new herbals to the website that I spent all Spring, Summer and Fall growing, loving, tickling, singing too, harvesting and now are ready to be shared! 

Even though I had to leave behind my ever so loved food and medicine garden in California, I was able to harvest a little bit from almost everything before setting off on this new journey. And now, as I cozy up for the Winter I'm busy planning out my new garden space where there is sure to be an abundance of herbals in the years to come.

So here's a peek at some of the newly added herbal goodies below: garlic mullein flower oil, fire cider and a few new tinctures here on local harvest as well as my website.... natural medicines made with love from me and my gardens.

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Clary sage was once thought to make people immortal and many believed that it could clarify the brain, the eyes and even the “inner eye”, and that those who drank a tea of the leaves and flowers could see the future. Today, clary sage is used as a flavoring in everything from cigarettes and omelets to muscatel wine, but it does have many medicinal properties too. In fact, it has a medicinal pedigree going back to the ancient Greeks, but it's probably not the first herb you think of to treat complaints like hot flashes, indigestion and anxiety.

The young tops of Clary were used in soups and as pot herbs. It gives a new lift to omelets, and was used to flavor jellies. The leaves were chopped into salads. Culpeper recommended a 17th century sage dish where the fresh leaves were first dipped in a batter of flour, eggs and a little milk, fried in butter and served as a side dish. The flowers have an aromatic flavor and make a lovely contrast in salads. All sage flowers are edible after removing all greenery and stems.

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Mallow is one of the earliest cited plants in recorded literature. Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance")

Know your weeds: Look down, because Common Mallow (Malva neglecta) probably grows around you. The flowers, leaves, young shoots and roots are edible, either raw or cooked and are very nutritious. The seeds alone contain 21% protein and 15.2% fat.

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“A glass of absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world, what difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset.” - Oscar Wilde

I tend to have interest in anything historical and/or herb related and I'm a great fan of herbal liqures, wines, beers, sodas etc. I’ve made beer, I’ve made wine, I’m working on sodas and I’m intrigued by liquors. I’ll probably never make this but non-the-less very interested by the medicinal history. I’m also deeply intrigued by some of our most controversial and self-impoverished artists, writers, poets, musicians, free-thinkers, and the like and find it fascinating that this herbal drink was the "beaverage du jour" or drink of choice among these great thinkers in the mid to late 19th century. It inspired many and appeared in works by Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh, it was drank by the scandalous playwright Oscar Wilde, the eccentric Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the poets Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allen Poe, and the famous 20th century author Ernest Hemingway, just to mention a few....intriguing right? I’d say so.

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The papaya has been regarded as one of the most valuable of tropical fruits and was first cultivated in Mexico several centuries before the emergence of the Mesoamerian classic cultures, but is native to the tropics of the Americas. Christopher Columbus reportedly called Carica papaya "the fruit of the angels" because they are rich sources of antioxidant nutrients, minerals and fiber.

It is now known that the papaya fruit is an excellent source of dietary fiber, folate, vitamin A, C and E and also contains small amount of calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamine and niacin as well as being rich in antioxidant nutrients, flavonoids and carotenes, plus it's low in calories and sodium.

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The use of medicinal clay in folk medicine goes way back to prehistoric times and was first recorded in ancient Mesopotamia. The indigenous peoples around the world still use a wide variety of clays for medicinal purposes - primarily for external applications, such as the clay baths, but also internally. Clay is one of the most effective natural intestinal detoxifying agents available to us and has been used for hundreds of years by native tribes around the globe. Among the clays most commonly used for medicinal purposes are kaolin and the smectite clays such as bentonite, montmorillonite, and Fuller's earth.

The Native Americans called Bentonite "Ee-Wah-Kee," meaning  "The-Mud-That-Heals". The Amargosians (predecessors to the Aztecs ), the Aborigines, and natives of Mexico and South America all recognized the benefit of clays. They knew that the healing mud not only drew toxic material out of the body if taken internally, but also reduced pain and infection in open wounds on both humans and animals. Animals in the wild are drawn to clay deposits by instinct, most people have observed some animal licking rocks and clay as part of their everyday diet as well as rolling in it to get relief from injuries. 

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Growing up as a child with extreme asthma, I spent my initial herbal learning years trying to understand the whats and whys of this condition.  Was it stress, weak immune system, our animals, what? I grew up in a non smoking home with a health freak mother and an environment that was cleaner than any hospital. So why was I having such a hard time. Ultimately, I believe it was stress induced asthma, and I had to find a way to control it.

So, being dependent on an inhaler for what seemed most of my childhood, and despising that I felt  'addicted' to this silly breathing apparatus, I searched for alternatives. I first turned to eucalyptus essential oil to ease my breathing troubles. I found that by simply inhaling straight from the bottle, my whole body relaxed. This was simply amazing to me. I mean really...it really was amazing. I had control for the first time, not my inhaler. So now that I could relax enough to catch my breath, I thought, maybe I needed to strengthen my lungs and immune system. I was on the hunt for herbs and oils that were going to help me breath. I so wanted to just breath. Sounds silly to those who have never suffered an asthma attack, but for those who have, not being able to breath is hell.

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Chaparral is one of the most widespread plants found on the desert floor, and some of them are noted to be the oldest living plants in the world. Expansive areas of these shrubs are found growing throughout the desert in western San Bernardino County, and some near Ridgecrest Ca are estimated to be 11,000 years old. Botanists believe that many of surrounding plants are clones of these original plants. Chaparral is regarded as one of the most adaptable desert plants in the world; as it was one of the first to grow back in Yucca Flats after the 1962 nuclear bomb tests done there.

Also known as the "creosote bush," Larrea tridentata is a flowering evergreen shrub that's native to Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. One interesting characteristic of this plant is that it produces a sap that prevents competing species from growing near it. So this is why we usually see just this plant species in Chaparral populated ares. Also, its extremely bitter taste keeps it safe from animals that would otherwise graze upon it. The common name Chaparral derives from the Spanish chaparro, meaning "evergreen oak," and the name "creosote bush" comes from the smell that the plant exudes when it rains.
As a medicinal herb, Indians of the Southwestern desert regions used the sap as a sunscreen, as the sticky resin is known to screen against ultraviolet radiation. The dried herb, when brewed in tea has been used for numerous aliments and appears to help the body rid itself of parasites as well as chemical toxins. Internal use is not recommended unless under the care of a qualified health care professional. Chaparral contains saponins and medicinal qualities that are especially beneficial to the skin. Applied to the skin, chaparral can have a remarkable healing effect on dandruff, eczema, herpes, cold sores, psoriasis, and contact dermatitis.

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