Welcome to Supermarket Herbalism!
Learning about herbs is an incredibly rewarding, inspiring, creative and nourishing experience, not to mention healthful.
I remember how overwhelming it can be as well. All those plants, all those remedies, Which ones to use? How much? Is it safe? Do they really work?
I admit that it does take a little time and some experimenting to find what works for you. Some of you may want to know a lot and become teachers or practitioners. Others may simply want to know what works and what they need to do to keep their families healthy.
That’s where I come in. Even though herbal medicine is incredibly simple to learn and use, it doesn’t seem like that to the beginner.
There is a very important secret that the herb books forget to mention.
That secret is that the key to learning is taking it ONE EXPERIENCE at a time.
The more experiences we have, the more we learn. For example, if someone tells you that ginger tea is good for a cold, that will inspire you to make the tea. If it works, you might go and look up ginger in your reference book. You’ll find out HOW ginger works for a cold and you might find out a few more things out about ginger on the way, such as the fact that it helps with digestion issues. The next time you need a digestive aid, you might make ginger tea. Also, in looking up ginger, you might also read a bit about other herbs, remedies, and recipes. Before you know it, you’re off making a remedy with a different herb.
The more you use herbs, the more you will learn. Many herb books are meant to be for reference. You grab them off the shelf when you need them.
The more you experiment and use your books, the more you will learn about plants and what you can do with them to bring health into your life. Many buy several herb books, really wanting to learn, but are still confused and don’t know where to begin.
Why a Supermarket Herbal?
I chose to call this the "Supermarket Herbal" because I wanted to make sure anyone could run out to their local market and get the ingredients you need to do this course. No need to buy dried herbs or go out and pick something. That will come later if you choose.
Right now, let’s stick with some things you are already familiar with and use them in new ways. You probably didn’t know that there are wonderful herbal remedies located right down the street at your local co-op or even Safeway.
Once you make these remedies with items you probably already have in your kitchen, you will see just how simple it is.
I am hoping this free herb course allows you to access even more of the free remedies posted on LearningHerbs.com.
You are now officially on your way to becoming a home medicine maker!
Let’s get started with…
Day 1: Gathering your herbs
Well, there may come a day soon where you will go out and gather herbs from the field or shop for them at your local herb shop.
For now, let’s take a look in the fridge so you can get started.
Time to build our first herbal apothecary..
SO LET'S GO TO THE SUPERMARKET! Watch the video below...
Click on the the little play arrow on the lower left of the video to play it. This goes for all the lessons in this course.
This is a YouTube embedded video. If it does not work for some reason, search for "Supermarket Herbalism" within the YouTube.com web site.
Check to see if you have:
1) a bulb of garlic and an onion
2) a 3 inch or more piece of ginger root
3) a lemon (or 100% lemon juice)
4) a jar of honey
5) a potato (optional)
6) a small container of oats
7) peppermint tea (bags or loose)
8) chamomile tea (bags or loose)
9) A pint of whole milk (external use) (if you're vegan, just skip it rather than email me on the evils of milk)
10) A muslin bag or pack of cheesecloth (available at all supermarkets)
For the tea, often Celestial Seasonings brand has plain peppermint or chamomile. If not, look for tea names such as “Calm,” which might be chamomile or ‘Refresh,” which might be mint. If you can’t get straight chamomile or mint, then do the best you can with these other teas. For now, it’s ok that the teas are in tea bags.
Hey, I wanted to learn about herbs, most of these are just food from my supermarket!
Garlic, ginger, oats, potatoes, lemons…yes, common foods…that are plants. Herbs are plants. It’s all semantics. They are all considered important medicinal herbs...even honey.
Isn’t it great that you didn’t have to purchase any herbal supplements or pills?
A bonus lesson for today....
You saw I talk about using a potato for burns in the video. Here is a bit more on that..
The potato, a burn remedy?
I bet you never though of the potato or honey as a burn remedy.
Herbs are excellent for first aid. I take care of virtually every first aid situation that comes up in my family with the herbal potions and salves that I have made.
However, did you know that there is a first aid friend in the potato?
About burns
These treatments are for minor burns or sunburn. For burns that effect a large area or for more serious burns, seek medical attention.
If you have a minor burn, make sure you get cold running water on it immediately. If it is not clean, make sure you clean out the burn with cold running water.
THEN, peel and slice or peel and grate a potato.
Apply the potato onto the affected area. Keep replacing it as needed. At some point, you may need to hold it on with a bandage or gauze.
This mass of grated potato you are using is called a poultice. Now you know that a poultice is a mass of plant matter that you apply to an affected area in a first aid situation. You see this term a lot in herbal books.
Potato is excellent for drawing out the heat.
Other uses for potatoes:
-Itch relief, a poultice for sties
Perhaps the most ironic thing would be getting burned making french fries. Then you could treat the burn with your left over raw potatoes!
Another minor burn remedy: your honey!
Once you are finished using your potato, protect and heal the burn by simply applying honey to it. Wrap in a sterile bandage. Honey has soooo many uses that there are entire books written about it. We’ll use honey again tomorrow!
Myrl Evans of Harvey, Louisiana recently wrote me.
Myrl writes about honey:
I was bitten by a pitt bull last Summer. I went to the doctor, got a tetnus shot and a prescription for $150.00 threw it away.
I went home found my info on honey and washed the wound and used the honey as a dressing for a week.
Today you Can bearly see where I was bit. You can put tea tree oil in with the honey and it heals faster. I am a firm believer in
Using honey as a dressing, food, facial moisturizer. I also mix honey and cinnamon and put it on toast instead of using butter or margarine.
Another idea: you can also wrap a burn in bandages soaked in apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is yet another supermarket herbal remedy that has a myriad of uses. In fact, I own a book called “Honey, garlic, and vinegar.”
Ok. Go gather your ingredients at your local market...
See you tomorrow!
RSS Feed (xml)
1 comment:
Great article! Thanks for sharing!
Post a Comment