My heart beats green.  Really. The place in my heart reserved for all that is green and growing is so big its basically green.  The earth and all her offerings heal me, from good food, to the beauty, to physically healing me with its medicines. Through the years I have read extensively, taken many classes and enrolled in schools for herbal medicine and traditional healing. As I have journeyed and researched I’ve grown a small collection of my favorite medicinal plants and have integrated them into our lives here on the farm.

Calendula flowers, wonderful for supporting skin, digestion and immune system. These will be infused in olive oil for about six weeks then made into salve that is perfect for soothing irritated skin.

While there is no set season for harvesting medicinal plants, it really depends on the plant and what you are harvesting, it seems that fall is when I do most of my gathering and brewing. I’ve been busy picking all the leaves, flowers, berries and roots and getting them soaking in tinctures, oils, honey, vinegar and syrups so they can either be consumed or made into other products.

Plantain, this beautiful weed that is a powerful skin healer for cuts and scrapes. My favorite use is to sooth insect bite, especially mosquitoes. This batch will be infused in olive oil and made into my famous bug balm.

From right to left we have Motherswort, Croneswort and California Poppy. They are being infused in vodka for tinctures specific to supporting women’s health. The Motherswort and California Poppy also go into my Serenity tincture.

Honey infused with fresh Elderberry. I use this to help sooth coughs and sore throats. Its made with raw honey we harvested on the farm a few years ago and save for medicinal purposes.

I plan on expending my booth at the farmers market next season to include herbal remedies and soaps, winter is the perfect time to prepare for that, as the garden rests and I have a break to focus on other passions. My mind has been a flurry of ideas and formulas that I can make  to help others support their health and happiness.