Sea Willow Herbs

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 15:22:00 +0000

Susun Weed’s Healing Wise Book Review

Healing Wise was the first book I bought and read on herbs and herbal medicine. This book talks about the medicinal value of several plants but also goes deeper and describes a way to think about healing with herbs as an idea. Much like the ideas of cold/hot, exterior/interior, deficiently/excess, yin/yang, which make up the eight principles in TCM, Weed describes a way to think about disease, where it comes from and how to go about treating it.

She talks about the healing traditions and ideas that have helped shape western medicine and she then compares them to the tradition that she follows: The Wise Women Tradition.

The rest of the book contains in depth information on eight common herbs from dandelions to seaweed. Medicinal uses of each plant as well as easy to follow recipes on how to eat these plants as food are also included. The last part of the book goes over how to make basic salves, tinctures, teas, infused herbal oils and more.

Though reading this book you will get a sense of what healing using the wise women tradition is all about. Susun Weed really puts herself into this book and it is written with a lot of personality and humor. It is a great book for anyone interested in herbs, herbal medicine, food as medicine or a different way to think about health, wellness, and disease.

Book Review: Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook By Billy Joe Tatum

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 19:07:00 +0000

Billy Joe Tatum’s Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook Review

It’s a few days from the end of the year and normally a time when everyone’s thoughts are on the future, but as I think about the book Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook by Billy Joe Tatum, my thoughts turn to the past. It is not just that the fact that this book was written over thirty years ago, but also the fact that this book too looked to the past for it’s information and it’s inspiration.

I was born a year after Tatum’s book was written so I missed the back-to-the-land movement that was popular during that time, however it seems like many people are again looking to the land. After years of declining interest young people want to be farmers again, herbal medicine schools have spring up all over the country and the natural building movement is huge. With the widespread use of GMOS many people are worried about what their food is made of and where it is coming from. I often wonder what did we eat before the institution known, as the grocery store existed? Was the food better? Was the food healthier? Today the grocery bill can be a very large expense. It can cost a lot of money to be able to eat healthy food and the current state of stagnant wages has not helped. It is a world where organic is the gold standard of food. It is a world where not everyone can afford to eat all organic. It is a world where many of us eat organic when we can and most of us are stuck with eating food that is GMO, highly processed, full of salt, full of sugar, full of fat, and holds very little real food in it at all. At some point we stopped eating food we gathered ourselves and started buying and eating more packaged and processed foods. This shift was probably helpful in many ways but I think hurtful in others. I think we have gone a bit to far over to the processed side and are badly in need of a shift back a bit to the middle. We need to make food affordable but at the same time it still needs to be real food.

How do we do that? Where do we start? I don’t know the answers and I am not even close to an expert on this subject, but I would like to think that learning about wild foods, the food that grows just outside your door, is at least part of the solution. This is why I found this book very topical and still a valuable source of information. Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook is a book written to give people without any experience in the world of wildcrafting and foraging a place to start. It is easy to understand and contains the general attitude that anyone can do this no matter where they live. Tatum gently invites the reader to see the world in a different way. It can be a bit scary to think about finding, picking, and eating some plant in the wild when you are used to food that has always been processed, washed or that comes frozen in a box. Fresh vegetables even go though a process to remove dirt. If you want to give foraging a try there is a large gap to cross before you can actually do it.

The first part of the book goes through each of the four seasons of the year. Each season includes a list of what plants can be harvested and a nice little description of what each season is all about in terms of wild food. Tatum really makes you feel the spring breeze and taste the fresh strawberries. The writing here is a bit on the mushy and poetic side but I found myself loving it all the same. She really took me away and made me feel each season. Tatum tells the reader what each season means to her and at the same time gives us an idea on how to think like a forager. Since we have foods available all year long we have forgotten what grows in what season. This first section helps to reacquaint us with this idea.

The book’s two other parts are a detailed description of each plant and a large recipe section. The detailed description includes the Latin name and several of the common names of each plant, where to find it, what parts are used, how the parts are used and a black and white drawing. Plants range from the well-known blackberry to the lesser-known butternut tree, maypop, and black haw. The three hundred plus recipes give the reader lots of dishes to create with the plants that they have gathered. One thing to note is that these recipes are not all vegetarian or vegan so for people following those diets some tweaking may have to be done.

As someone who spends half her time as a cashier at a grocery store and the other half wildcrafting medicinal herbs, I think about food a lot. Many of the herbs that I wildcraft can be also eaten as food. The step from wild herbs to wild foods is very short.

Everyday as I ring customers up I see what types of food they are choosing to buy and I see how confusing it is to know what food to eat and what foods to avoid. I see how expensive it is and I see people struggle to afford to eat. I see people having to pick the unhealthy food because it is cheaper. We have free food just outside our doors and it would be so cool if we knew how to eat it!! Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook is a great place to begin and provides a nice overview of the start to finish process of gathering one’s own food from the wild. It won’t make you an expert but it’s a great place to start.

Hello! January 2016 and Looking back at 2015 - Sea Willow Herb Vlog

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:48:00 +0000

Annual Infused Herbal Oil Sale 2016!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 15:24:00 +0000

In my Etsy Shop 1/15/16 to 2/12/16 take 50% off All infused herbal oils! www.seawillowherbs.etsy.com

Herbal Book Review: Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs A Beginner's Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 12:46:00 +0000

My review of the book: Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs A Beginner's Guide.

Reading right now with a review in December: Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook by Billy Joe Tatumhttp://www.amazon.com/Billy-Tatums-Fo...

Blog Post - written version of this review

http://seawillowherbs.blogspot.com/20...

I asked my Tumblr followers what was their first book or books on herbs and below where the responses and where to buy if interested.

Have anything to add to the list? Leave it in the comments.

-Culpeper's Color Herbal

https://www.etsy.com/listing/23604658...

http://www.amazon.com/Culpepers-Colou...

-Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs

https://www.etsy.com/listing/16883573...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/15077161...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/24352705...

http://www.amazon.com/Claire-Kowalchi...

-James Green

http://www.amazon.com/The-Herbal-Medi...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Male-Herbal...

-KP Khalsa

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Ayurved...

Find me at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/seawillowherbs

http://seawillowherbs.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Sea-Willow-H...

Music in this video by Snerple: https://soundcloud.com/snerple/tracks

Thanks so much for watching!

How I make Infused Herbal Oils

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 18:14:00 +0000

There are many ways to make infused herbal oils. Below is the method that I use the most often. This method uses fresh wildcrafted plants.

1. Pick a dry sunny day

2. Discard any diseased or soiled part of the plant

3. Do not wash the plant material, and use it when freshly picked with the following exceptions:

*Root: wash, chop, and dry for 4 hours in sun or good ventilation

*Plants that have high water content (comfrey and calendula) wilt the fresh herbs for 12 hours

4. Rip or chop the plant coarsely

5. Completely fill a clean, very dry glass jar (I use mason jars) with the herb.

6. Leave some space a the top of jar

7. Pack jar with the herbs till you can feel no spring or give when the herbs are pressed on with your fingers.

8. Slowly pour oil (I use extra virgin olive oil) into the jar, poking with a chopstick or knife to release air bubbles and make sure oil penetrates into all layers of the herb.

NOTE:

Use only olive oil in a can. Oil in a jar can spoil on store shelves before you buy it. If you can't find oil in a can use oil that came in darkly colored glass jars. The dark glass helps keep the oil from going bad.

9. Add enough oil to thoroughly cover all the plant material and fill the jar very close to the rim

10. Cover with a lid. Place in a bowl (or baking pan) because oil will seep out of the lid during the infusing process.

11. Label the jar with the name of the plant, plant part used, the kind of oil used and the date.

*Example: Plantain leaves, Greek Olive Oil, April 2002

12. Keep the jar of infusing oil at normal room temperature, out of direct sun light and on a surface that will not be ruined by seeping oil.

13. Strain the infused oil in six weeks.

14. The plants can be left in the oil longer, but have a tendency to mold and spoil if not kept very cool.

15. Check the oil leave everyday for the first week and once a week every week after. Make sure oil level stays at the top of the jar and all of the plant material is always covered by the oil.

16. After the six weeks strain out the oil into another clean dry jar and allow the oil to sit for one more week while the water in it (from the fresh plant material) settles to the bottom of the jar.

17. Then carefully pour out the oil, leaving the water and other junk behind.

18. Store at cool room temperature out of direct light

19. Keeps for one year or sometimes longer.

Compiled by Corinna Wood based on Healing Wise "Herbal Pharmacy" by Susun Weed. With additions added by Sea Willow Herbs based on personal experience and classes with Corinna Wood.

November Vlog - Sea Willow Herbs

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 00:10:00 +0000

All about what is going on in November on this channel. I am going to be reading and reviewing a book on herbalism or wild foods every two months. If you want to read along with me I put the name of the book below.

Reading right now with a review in December: Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook by Billy Joe Tatumhttp://www.amazon.com/Billy-Tatums-Fo...

https://www.etsy.com/shop/seawillowherbs
http://seawillowherbs.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Sea-Willow-H...

Music in this video by Snerple: https://soundcloud.com/snerple/tracks

Thanks so much for watching!

Book Review: Medicinal Herbs A Beginner's Guide by Rosemary Gladstar

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 21:17:00 +0000

ROSEMARY GLADSTAR’S MEDICINAL HERBS: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

I have been studying herbs and herbal medicine for a while and I often get asked the question: “ How did I first start to learn about herbs? The answer I give is that I was lucky enough to attend a one-day herbal medicine making class. This class taught me all of the basics from how to make a salve to inducing many of the most commonly used medicinal plants that grow wild in my area. However if you don’t have access to such a class I would totally recommend checking out the book: “Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide. It is a great book for beginners as well as a good read for those that have a more intermediate knowledge of herbs and herbal medicine.

The book starts with a bit about the author and how she started learning about herbal medicine making. Most of you may already know who Rosemary Gladstar is but for those who don’t it is great to have this included. From there the book starts to cover the very basics of herbal making. The reader will learn how to make salves, tincture, infused oils, syrups and more. Questions like: what is a medicinal herb, how are they used and what are the benefits of herbal medicine are answered. Information is also included on how to start a medicinal herb garden and tools that are needed to set up a kitchen pharmacy. Rosemary writes that the purpose of the book is to act as “an introduction to using herbs to enhance health and well being and to reintroduce the traditional practice of home health care for everyday common illnesses.” This book is all about how to treat the cuts, winter colds, headaches, poison ivy, sore throats, joint pain and all of the everyday junk that we encounter. The last part of the book is broken up into little sections that go into deeper detail about one plant at a time. These sections include beautiful color close up pictures, recipes, medicinal uses, growing tips, safety factors, parts used and more. There are also little boxes of additional information and stories along the way.

It is hard to pick out just one thing I liked about this book. It is made up of great parts and those parts add up to make a great book. It was written in such a way that I could tell it was written by someone who is not just very knowledgeable about herbs but by someone who really has a love and passion for them. It was written with a lot of love, care and thought. For any beginner I would definitely recommend this book because it contains lots of good information, it is easy to read and understand, and the pictures are great for identification as well as nice to look at. As for anyone above the beginner level I would first check this book out of the library or borrow it from a friend. I found that even though the information in this book was very familiar to me it still held great value in all of the wonderful recipes; the easy to understand charts, like the one on dosing, and is a good quick reference guide for many everyday herbs. I enjoyed reading it!

Herbal Workday - Packing up Sales!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Some products almost ready to mail out!

More Amazing Chickweed Pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 10:00:00 +0000

Chickweed from last spring.

Rosemary Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 01:00:00 +0000

My brother gave me a ton of fresh rosemary! Look for died rosemary and later rosemary infused herbal oil in my shop this summer!

Herbal Workday - This week's sales!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:00:00 +0000

Packing up some orders! After Sun and Wildflower Toner going to Kansas in the USA and Norway!

Dandelion Flower Fritter Recipe!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:00:00 +0000

Dandelions! Dandelions! What to do with them? Great recipe for Dandelion Fritters by the Pixie’s Pocket

New Lip Balms! Lavender Flower and Herbal

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 12:14:00 +0000

Two new lip balms are now listed in my shop! Lavender and Herbal

Wildcrafted Dandelions

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 12:10:00 +0000

First wildcrafted dandelions of the year! All ready to dry and make into infused herbal oil.

Wild Greens Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 13:53:00 +0000

Tasty Wild Greens salad from Ashevillage!

Wild salad harvested by our garden crew this morning! Dandelion, violet flowers, comfrey, garlic mustard, wild onion, winter pea shoots, clover, and nettles! Here at Ashevillage, we treat our #foodasmedicine

Wildflowers Facial Soap New Look!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 12:01:00 +0000

My wildflowers facial soap in it’s new bottle and label!

Violet Time

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:59:00 +0000

Lovely picture of violets by Morgan Botanicals

Caring for your crystals

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:50:00 +0000

seraphickalmagick:

Caring for your crystals is important! The reason crystals need to be cleansed is because they easily pick up negative energy, that you don’t want them to be carrying around. It is a good idea to cleanse your crystals when you first get them, after you use them in a spell or ritual, or whenever you feel like they need a clean.

Crystal series:
[Part one]
[Part two]
[Part three]

Chickweed Love

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:42:00 +0000

Chickweed Love!

2 oz Herbal Toners New Look!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:57:00 +0000

My 2 oz toners with their new labels! In my shop now!

Bug Stuff for a Texas Wedding!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:52:00 +0000

A large order of my Bug Stuff already to go to a wedding in Texas!

About Plantain

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:49:00 +0000

Amazing post by Susun Weed on Plantain!

Plantain is one of the world’s great “wound herbs.” I’ve used it to heal scrapes and scratches from playing sports, cuts and bruises from heavy work, and even sprains. When Sue arrived to apprentice, she came with a crutch, explaining that she had re-sprained her ankle a few days earlier—after spraining it for the first time several months ago. She was willing to use the plantain oil I offered her. Read More…

About Chickweed

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:47:00 +0000

Great facebook post by the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine on Chickweed!

“The moon-white rays of Chickweed’s small, starburst blooms. Note the five white petals, so deeply divided, they appear to be ten. Chickweed also has a nifty clue to aid in identification: it has a single line of hairs spiraling up its stem. This low-growing herb has opposite leaves without any teeth.
Succulent and mild in flavor, Chickweed mixes well with salad greens and tempers the stronger flavors of other wild greens. Chickweed makes a divine pesto - I often combine it with violet leaves, purple dead nettle, olive oil and garlic…..” Click for more

Rose and Citrus Toner - New Look!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 15:56:00 +0000

New label and look for my Rose and Citrus Toner!