Yarrow Herbal Bug Spray-Herb Mentor News 53

Here is the newest newsletter from Herb Mentor-HerbMentor News 53: Yarrow Herbal Bug Spray. They use alcohol for the recipe, but I'm sure that vinegar would work just fine. Let me know how this works if you make some.

 I was also going to start my bulk baking series yesterday, but I was up to my neck in pickles:) I canned quite a few and it was my first time doing pickles, so it took most of the day. I am planning on doing a separate post on the whole process for those of you that would like to know How to can pickles in the next few days.

So back to the bulk baking thing... I've been thinking this over and I thought that doing a series on Homemade Convenience foods and mixes would be better instead of a series just on baking, what do you think? I figured that I could do some on baking, some on soups, some on pre-made things like Homemade Riceroni etc, and some on spice and dressing mixes. I am gathering some recipes for this and hope to get them all selected for the post soon. If you make some mixes yourself, what are they, and how has that helped you in your kitchen?

Where can I buy Medicinal Herb Plants?

I have recently wanted to grow my own medicinal herb plants, so that I can have the ones that I am planning to use on hand year around. I looked for awhile and was surpirsed that it took a long time to find this website- Crimson Sage Nursery.

They offer medicinal plant sets like:
Cold and Flu sets
Salve Making sets
Respiratory support sets
and many more.

I would like to eventually have a little greenhouse like the one I posted about a few weeks ago for just medicinal herbs, but probably not this summer.

How to make Herbal Popsicles- Herb Mentor Newsletter 52

I just recieved my new e-newsletter from Herb Mentor. I really like this website as it has so many practical how-tos and recipes with great pictures. This edition is a recipe for how to make Chamomile Popsicles.

HerbMentor News 52: How to Make Chamomile Pops

Enjoy:)

Make your own body products-Homemade Homemaking part 2

I recently got my order from Azure, and made my own shampoo using this recipe-Make your own herbal shampoo.  I had stop using commercial shampoo for about 3 weeks when I made this, so my hair had been clean of all that extra gunk for a while.  I did a few things differently than the recipe; which is probably why I got the results that I did.  Instead of using rose buds, I used packaged tea that had some rose blossoms along with chamomile, lemon grass and mint.  I also used a handful of fresh mint and made the "tea" to add to the shampoo.  I  left out the jojoba oil, since I was using Dr.Bronner's tea tree soap which has jojoba in it, and I left out the essential oil too.  When I washed with it the first time, I was pretty disappointed.  It felt dry and brittle and also like there was a big glob of hair gel on some of my hair.  When it dried it was really yucky feeling and greasy, like I hadn't washed my hair in a few weeks.  I know that it is supposed to be different that using commercial shampoo, but it didn't do much of anything except put more stuff on my hair.  I will try it again sometime when I can make the recipe the way that it was supposed to be made. 

In the meantime though I will use what I was using before I made this shampoo.  This combination might sound a little strange to some of you, but I had been using this for three weeks , and it works really well.  My fellow sister and churchmate Joanne shared this with me after she received it from a friend.  It is a bar of unscented homemade soap that you scrub into your hair, then you rinse it with powdered ascorbic acid.  I know, sounds crazy huh!  But it really works!  We are almost out of the bar, so we will make some ourselves using this recipe-Homemade Borax Soap.

I've gathered a list of some sites that have more homemade recipes for body products such as;

• Soap-  Homemade bath recipes,  Great soap and scrub recipes, Borax Soap (This is what I use for my hair with the ascorbic acid rinse)

• Homemade shampoo and conditioners-  Pioneer Thinking, Long Locks

• Homemade Deodorant-  How to make your own deodorant

• Toothpaste, Mouthwash- Make your own toothpaste and mouthwash,  Tammy's Recipes( all kinds of homemaking stuff here from homemade laundry detergent to whole wheat tortillas

• Where to get supplies for these recipes-  Mountain Rose Herbs, Bulk Herb Store, Glory Bee Foods, Azure Standard, Places to purchase lye for soap

If any of you are making and using your own homemade body products,  how are they working for you?  Please share in the comments.

Make Your Own Natural Cleaning Products-Homemade Homemaking Part 1

I have been doing a lot of research and learning a lot about herbal and natural products.  I'm not interested in the New- Agey stuff or homeopathic, as I have read lot about these types of alternative medicine/natural practices and think that they are just plain ridiculous or they have some kind of weird "spiritual" foundation or idea.  A long time ago I read this book- A Look at the Facts on Alternative Medicine, and it was very informative.

So I have been looking at natural products and how I can use them to help my family save money and for our health.  I started finding all sorts of neat and cheap ways to use things like vinegar, backing soda, lemon juice etc... around the house and for our bodies.  I was pretty excited as I went through all the information about these types of cleaners and quickly became convinced of their value.  I just wanted to share what I found regarding using natural cleaners.

Here are some benefits of using natural cleaners:

•Less packaging waste. You’re not buying new bottles over and over.

•Less expensive. You probably have some in your kitchen right now, so you wouldn't have to go buy a seperate cleaner

•Less harmful (often not harmful at all) to humans, animals, and the earth.

•Less noxious home smell. Homemade natural cleaners always smell better than store bought. Well, except vinegar, that can be worked around somewhat by using  Lavender essential oil and lemon juice, or I have boiled Cinnamon and let it sit where the smell was strong and "steam" the smell out.
 
I have gathered a list here of some sites that give information on how to use and make your own Natural Cleaning Products;

• 131 Uses for Vinegar
• Make Your Own Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
• 25 Safe Non-Toxic Home Cleaning Supplies
• Make Your Own Natural Cleaning Products
• More Make Your Own Cleaners
• Pioneer Thinking-Household Cleaning Solutions

I'm sure that there are oodles and oodles of websites out there that you can find, so if you stumble across any that are note worthy, let me know:) If any of you use natural cleaners already, how and for what do you use them, please share in the comments!

 If you are not really interested in making your own cleaners, you can get great natural, non-toxic cleaners from Meleleuca. 

Most of their products are cheaper than commercial ones you get at you get at your local grocery store and they are do the job well.  I have used the tub and tile cleaner for getting soap scum out of the bathtub, and it works better than Kaboom!

Garlic Ginger Cough Syrup

Here is a great video on how to make cough syrup. This syrup is excellent for treating coughs that are deep and won't go away. I have used this with my children and they like the taste and the relief it provides.


Here are the ingredients used:


1/4 cup water

1/4 cup Honey

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 large garlic cloves

1 t. grated ginger

dash of cayenne pepper

Enjoy:)

The Best Herbal Remedies Book!

My husband took me out for a "date" last night.  Our place of choice-Barnes and Nobles:)  We looked around for a good hour or so, and while I was over in the Alternative Medicine section I came upon this book.

It's put out by DK Publishers and it isTHE BEST book on this subject that I have found so far.  Why is it so great, you might be asking?  Well, because it is full of beautiful pictures, accurate resources and information and it is just plain simple to use!  It tells you the history of herbal medicine, the safety of herbs, how to make remedies, where to look for the plants, how to harvest them, how to store them on so much more.  It even tells you how much scientific research has been done on a certain plant. I have not found anything that comes close to how organized and simple this book is.  The main reason I like this book so much is that it is geared more towards the "visual learner", which I am totally.  Even if you are not interested in herbal remedies, just by glancing at it, you would learn something.  I was practically begging to get it and my husband could read the delight on my face, so he gave me a very sweet "yes" to my asking for it ;)

I realized after we got home, that I could have found this book on the internet for cheaper, but hey, you live and you learn.  This is a great site that I go to when looking for books on discount- fetchbooks.info. So far I have found every single book that I have looked for on this site. Anyways, just wanted to share my excitement with the rest of the world.

Home Remedies 101- Onion, Mustard and Garlic poultice

My little boy has had so many issues with his lungs as he was born with 2 collapsed lungs from having GBS (Group B Step) when he was born. We have had to get him antibiotics too many times to count. I was determined to put an end to this cycle, so when he got this round of respiratory problems like coughing and deep congestion, I was prepared(sorta).

I gave him some JC Tonic everyday before breakfast, some Immune booster  from the Bulk Herb Store that I had made into a glycerite throughout the day. I also had some honey ginger onion cough syrup that I had made for coughing fits. It all helped it to not be so severe, but it was not helping him to get rid of it. So I was going to buy the cough tea from the BHS in hopes that it would help. Then, I stumbled upon an old timey recipe for an onion garlic poultice, and was like OH GOODY GOODY!

I used a cheese grater and grated one whole onion, then pressed 2 cloves of garlic. I put this in a steamer and steamed it for about 2 minutes. I had lined the streamer with cheesecloth so that all the good stuff would stay in the cheesecloth. I removed it and dumped it into a bowl , then added 2T cider vinegar and 1/2 cup flour and about 1t dried mustard. I mixed this all together, then I spread it into a big rectangle in the cheesecloth and wrapped it up with the rest of the cheesecloth. I then made it a little hot by nuking it for about 25 seconds in the m-wave. I also had a rice bag that I made and heated it up for about 1 minute in the m-wave to keep the poultice warm on his chest for about 20-30 minutes.

 I put the poultice on his whole chest from the neck to the abdomen and put the rice bag on top. I waited until it was cool to the touch before I took it off and also checked to see if his chest was red( which is what you want to see) I did this last night right before bed and also first thing this morning.

 All I have to say is WOW! His coughing has basically stopped completely and he does not sound congested! (sigh of relief) It feels so good to be able to help your children with simple remedies that work! Praise God for giving us what we need to help our bodies fight off things naturally and safely.

This is my first real big step forward with home remedies and I will be trying more after the amazing results from this. The best thing about this is that what he received was all natural and had no side effects.  I feel quite empowered now to not ever use another over the counter cough syrup or cold medicine again! 

I hope that this will be helpful to some, let me know if any of you have used some similar home remedies and how they worked for you.

Blessings,

HerbMentor News 51: How to Make Herbal Shampoo

I recently joined this website-learningherbs.com, and they send out a really neat newsletter about twice a month.  This was the first one that I recieved.  I will post more when I get them . Enjoy:)


HerbMentor News 51: How to Make Herbal Shampoo

New to herbs? Want to learn how to use them for FREE?

I just stumbled onto this site- learningherbs.com  and was like YIPPY!  I am not good at learning from books, especially about stuff like this with all those scientific names and things.  They have all sorts of neat stuff on this site and they also have another site called herbmentor.com.  I will post the articles that I receive, which have herb news, how to videos, and remedies.  Check back to get the lastest ones.

Do you ever feel helpless when your children are sick?

What a silly question! Of Course we do!  Well, I do every time my little ones are sick and I have no idea of what to do to help or relieve them.  So I started looking up sites that give a "Children's herbal remedy medicine cabinet" list of what people have on hand to treat their children at home.  I don't know about some of you, but every time in the last year that we have taken our children to the doctor, they basically told me what I already knew.  I feel like I should have a little more control over the health of my children, so I hope to invest some time and money into making some remedies to have in our medicine cabinet. Here is a pretty good site that I found that looks very informative. Do any of you have some remedies that you have on hand that have worked for your family?  Please do share in the comments and maybe we can get a good list going...
God Bless