Pioneer Woman at Heart

Here is yet another draft resurrected, and this one was drafted up way back in September of 2018.  There are probably so many more remedies, but posting this. ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ S ummer time means some folks may get poison ivy while doing yard work, foraging, camping, or just gardening.  One year, we had wild growing milkweed, and we simply cut pieces each day, and applied the milk from the weed to the poison ivy.  It will burn a bit, but we left it on for about 20 minutes then removed it with cool water.  It dried up the poison ivy fairly quickly. You can soak in a bathtub with warm water and plantain tea bags (1-2 tsp of dried plantain per teabag).  I have large muslin bags I use for bath teas. A dandelion poultice can be applied to poison ivy to help dry it up, and reduce the itch. Cleaver poultices.  They cool the inflamed skin, and aid healing.   Chickweed salve is also good for healing poison ivy.  ...

Spring weeds are here now.  I wonderful time to gather, eat,  and store. I put some weed pesto in the freezer already.  I weeded about 95% of my herb garden, and all of the weeds, aside from the little bit of grass, were edible (or useful for natural remedies). I've had quite a few experiences with dandelion since I first made dandelion jelly.  Over the years, I have made dandelion bread (which we absolutely love), dried dandelion for tea purposes, blanched and froze dandelion for meals (we love dandelion pesto), dried the root for a coffee substitute and medicinal purposes, and now I am making poultices. Dandelion poultices, can be used to treat eczema, skin rashes, boils, and to reduce itchy skin (helps with itchy poison ivy).  I am putting these poultices together in the freezer, like I do with comfrey and plantain.  There is nothing more comforting than a cold poultice in the summer, for an itchy rash too. I am also putting cleave...

This is the jewelweed solution prepared by an acquaintance.  She simply boiled it in water, strained it and cooled it.  She gifted it to us in an old soda bottle.

Remember the organic ginger I dehydrated ?  Well, I recently made a cup of hot tea using it with my tea infuser.  You could use a disposable or reusable tea bag too.  Anyway, the infused color is different from using freshly grated ginger, but the taste was pretty close to using fresh, just not as strong.  I'll be drying more when I find it available.