Prescription for Learning Herbs

The following is my perscription for learning about herbs and using them effectively.

1. Stop buying herbs and and natural medicines

Instead learn what herbs are growing in your own yard or in the local forest around you if you live in town, however even city folk will have a number of medicinal herbs in their own yard.

Everyone will have some plantain, dandelions, and even pineapple weed in their yard. Learn to use just those herbs. The natural world of healing is so vast and varied that it is too easy to let your eyes glaze over with the sheer volume of information out there. Use what you have in your own yard or what you can get nearby. It will always be there and will be the cheapest confidence boosting thing you can do.

2. Gain confidence in herbal medicines by using them. Yes I know that sounds like a no brainer and it can take some courage and persistance when you are first starting out. I know that for a long time I just simply stored store bought herbs in the cupboard and only used them half heartedly still relying heavily on allopathic medicine.

Know what to do for common childhood complaints such as ear aches and stomach upset, colds etc. Then have the stuff ready at the first sign of a problem. As you use them and are sucessful with them you will grow in confidence.

Example: Our dog last year went wandering off and came home the next day with his head split wide open exposing his skull. Apparently he was grazed with a bullet. My friend told me he would die if we didn't call a vet. Instead I applied liberally cayenne pepper covering the wound with aloe vera and honey as a carrier for the pepper. The dog healed perfectly in a few days. This really boosted my confidence in what I know works and what I know works as well as the allopathic counterpart.

Another example: In Liberia my youngest son Joe got a flesh eating tropical ulcer on his toe. The flesh was gone almost to the bone. I applied aloe vera liberally and kept it clean and in two days it was healed with healthy pink skin growing.

Last example: I have used faithfully the juice of fresh squeezed garlic in the ear of my kids for ear infections and it has worked perfectly every time. I even used it once on my husbands middle ear infection it healed almost immediately.

If I had to do it all over again I would start out with the following herbs:

1. Garlic!!!! There is a saying in our house that garlic cures everything!

2. Aloe Vera

3. Pine needles

4. Yarrow

5. Mullien

6. Plantain

7. Dandelion

8. Cayenne Pepper (most people don't have this growing in their yard but it is easily accesible).

9. Milk Thistle



So all that to say, learn what grows around you and what is most easily accesible and then study just those herbs as you grow in confidence you can add new herbs to your knowledge.

- The Herb Girls

Red Clover

I thought you could start with something easy. Red Clover is everywhere! Find some, pick it, wash it, dry it with paper towels, then lay them on clean screens to dry in a clean enviroment or put them in a dehydrator. To learn more about this read my post 'Drying and Harvesting Herbs'

Tell me how it turned out!

Drying and Harvesting Herbs

I want to get a youtube channel up for some tutorials I want to do but our camera is broken! So that will have to wait. So I guess here's what I know about drying and harvesting herbs.

I dry my herbs using a wire hanging in our basement and in our pole barn. The thing is to find a cool dry place to dry them. Root cellars and attics are also an option. Make sure that when you hang your herbs up to dry they are in loose bunches or the ones in the middle will not dry out. It normally takes 2-3 weeks sometimes less and sometimes more depending on what the plant is. Before drying any herbs make sure you wash them or you will have rotten herbs! And they will not store as long.


I also use a dehydrator that works really good! And it dries them fast! Put the herbs in on the lowest heat setting and check periodically. The herbs should crumble at the pinch.



Sorry for the really garbag-y pic! Here's my dehydrator.

I store my herbs in ziplock baggies. You can use canning jars and airtight container too.


The shelf life of herbs normally lasts for 1 year sometimes more. But it is so so important that your herbs are CLEAN before drying and storing them! I heard that a salad spinner is very good for rinsing the herbs after washing.




Harvesting herbs:

They say you should harvest the herbs/plants in mid-morning. Cut them after the morning dew and before the afternoon wilting sun.

Right away get them washed and hung up or put in the dehydrator.

Next time I think I will talk about how to use and prepare your herbs!

~ The Simple Herb Girl

Welcome!

Welcome to my 3rd blog! I love my other blogs but this one I am really excited about.

I really enjoy reading about herbs I love identifying them, I love using them!
On Monday I was pretty sick and miserable with a sore throat and fever. For my sore throat I gargled cayenne pepper with warm water for as long as I could stand it and to soothe the soreness I drank warm water with organic honey and I got rid of that by the next day or so. And to get rid of the runny nose, fever, and good for nothin' cold I just take a clove of garlic once in the morning and once at night and of course ate no junk food. It is now Friday and my nasty cold is almost gone!
Now you may say "how do you get garlic down?" Well you can't swallow it whole because your body cannot break it down. So I take a paring knife cut it into little tiny pieces and then swallow it like that. I can hardly taste it and the smell will not be really bad if you take a breath mint when you are done.

Keep an eye out for more posts!

~ The Simple Herb Girl