Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Medicinal Herbs ~ Tea Time


Some days I don't look up an herbal/medicinal tea recipe.  I simply open my encyclopedia on herbs and pick a few I harvest, and brew the tea.
 


I think I picked this one up at a book sale years ago.  Not sure.  It contains a good amount of information on all herbs, but I noticed if I looked up "Stinging Nettle" it only mentions the medicinal use for asthma and regrowth of hair. No mention of allergies, poor circulation or other ailments.



Yesterday's tea was nettle/peppermint.  Nettle grows here wild and the peppermint I grow from organic seeds.


I also picked this one up for $2.49 at a thrift store.  I like the illustrations for identifying, and the medicinal uses are more detailed than the first book I posted.

I am taking the time this winter to order more "encyclopedias" on herbs, specifically looking for books that have more information on the medicinal herbs.  I am not able to get all of the books from my library, but will post if any are worth sharing.


This book is a complete instruction manual on extractions, solvents, infusions, decoction, distillation of hydrosols, tincturing, other infusions, ointment and lotion making, syrups, oxymels, and more.  It's the how-to on medicine making with herbs. 

I borrowed these two from the library, and had the chance to flip through them.  The one on the left is strictly medicinal herbs, and the one on the right is both culinary and medicinal.  I liked the one on the left better, but I am also looking for "medicinal" books.


Both upper photos are from the encyclopedia on just medicinal herbs.  In the back of the book they show you how to infuse, make poultices, etc. and they give you suggestions on what to keep in your medicinal first aid kit.  There are also many photos in it this book that are real life plant photos vs. the the other book (which are color drawings). 

I returned many books to the library but ended up bringing home more.

The one on the right has been on my wish list for a while now.  For now, I continue to borrow it (my wish list is long and expensive this year, ha ha!).  The one on the left has good information, but older publication.   I also borrowed one titled "Healing Spices, How to Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices to Boost Health and Beat Disease.


There are so many books available to us these days.  I hope you all have a library to borrow these from too. 

The rain fell upon us in bucket loads yesterday.  I was about to get the canoe out to wander out to the chickens, but last night it finally stopped.  The river behind our homestead is flooded, our pasture is saturated.  We are told we will have a break from it now, and I hope the wind dries it up quickly.  It will become an ice rink if not.  I guess Mother Nature felt we did not get enough rain this year, so she dumped more upon us. 






9 comments:

Mama Pea said...

I sure do admire your knowledge and quest for more knowledge (!) concerning the use of herbs. Our ancestors knew a lot more about that subject than we do now, that's for sure. The great thing about using herbs is that they have no side affects (IF, of course, you know what you're doing!) as so many of the chemically manufactured drugs do.

The rain that you've had in the past year is nearly unbelievable! How can the soil handle more?? After our very warm, mild first-of-winter weather, we had lots of rain right before the cold weather set in. Now we have solid ice EVERYWHERE under a few inches of snow. Dangerous out there, it is!

Susan said...

That is a lot of information! I have the first book and I always was a little disappointed with it. I'm interested to know which books you find to be the most useful, as I'd like to beef up my medicinal herb library this coming year.

Sam I Am...... said...

We don't have any of those books at our library that I know of. I've noticed you have a really good library! The ones you like and know you will use again and again you could get really cheap at Thrift books (.com) probably. I like them because they have a lot of older books. I love anything that is Rodale and also DK publishing is great. We got lots of rain too but I'm grateful for no power outages or tornadoes! All of Missouri is flooded practically so I'm REALLY glad the kids didn't try and come down for Christmas as they would have never been able to get back! LOL! TTYL!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Mama Pea, I wondered how you were doing with all the rain. I'm glad you are okay. I do try to stick to just natural remedies when I can. I do see so many allergic reactions developing in Mom with all her medications. When my leg had an injury I healed it with tea tree oil/mix and Hubby doubted me. I do want to learn much more too.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Susan, it's so hard to find one book that contains all the information. The medicinal encyclopedia is somewhat good, while the other one was not.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Susan, it's so hard to find one book that contains all the information. The medicinal encyclopedia is somewhat good, while the other one was not.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Sam I am, we finally got a break from rain, but it's flooded everywhere. Roads to town are okay now, but you can still see where it flooded over it.

Michelle said...

I was at the library today picking up books on building coops and barns for our homestead. I also pick up a homestead book. I really need to check into herds. Thanks for the book suggestions.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Michelle, I love to check out books to look them over first. And sometimes I forget which ones I've checked out, so I now keep a list, ha ha!