Infusion

This is a fancy term for a strong tea. To make your herbal infusion, pour 1 pint of boiling water over 2 Tbl. of dried herbs. Let this steep for 10 minutes if you are taking the infusion internally. If you are applying the infusion externally, let it steep for around 3 hours.

Ointments

To make an ointment, you mix one part powdered herb with four parts heated lard or similar fat. Stir them together until it is mixed evenly. Add a few drops of tincture of Benzoin as a preservative. You can find Benzoin in your local pharmacy or online. Tincture of Benzoin is a solution of Benzoin resin and alcohol. Benzoin resin comes from the bark of many different trees from the genus Styrax. It is used in perfumes, incense, flavorings, and medicine. See chapter on Tinctures for information on how to make your own!

Decoction

This is where you simmer your herbs (2 Tbl.) in a covered pan with 1 pint of water. Do this for 5-10 minutes.

Methods of Herbal Healing

Poultice

This is a bag of hot herbs that is held against an infected area or aching spot on the body. Be careful when using this method, not to burn the patient. Let it cool slightly before applying directly to the skin. Also, once the poultice has gone cool, immediately replace with a fresh warm one. Never reuse your herbs, it's not a tea bag.

Some Helpful Poultices to Make

• Comfrey Leaves Healing Poultice

To make this, chop up 3 comfrey leaves coarsely. Add to this about 1/4 c. boiling water. Mash up well and wrap in a hot cloth and apply to desired area.

Comfrey is one of the BEST healing herbs we have. It is useful for treating arthritis, broken bones, sprains, cuts, burns, bites, bruises, and more. It grows quickly in the garden and flourishes, so once you have planted a few seeds you are set.

• Hops Healing Poultice

Mash fresh hops up with your mortar and pestle. Add to this 1 c. hot cider vinegar. Wrap in a cloth and apply to desired area. This is used to soothe boils, inflammations, relieve pain from facial neuralgias, rheumatism, toothache and sciatica. Hops contains even more healing qualities when ingested. See my later chapter on Hops for more information.

• Linseed Poultice

This is used to help with aches and pains. To prepare, mix 1/4 lb. linseed in 2 c. hot water. Stir well and often as it will thicken up and become dough-like. To this mix in 1/2 oz. olive oil. Take the mixture now and spread it over a pre-warmed cloth. Fold over into a bag and apply to aching body.

Salves and Ointments

Salves and ointments are made by mixing an herb with a carrying agent which is then applied by rubbing onto the problem area of the body. A lot of these salves/ointments use a wax/oil base to them. The most common one used is an olive oil/beeswax base. Another alternative is to use fresh lard, which can last a long time in your ointment if it is stored in a cool place.

Ointments and Salve Recipes To Try

• Balm of Gilead Salve

Gilead balm (aka Populus Trichocarpa,), is the sticky brown colored buds found on the black cottonwood.

This is found in the wild usually from California up to Alaska. The buds are harvested in the spring before the leaves form. Make sure that the buds are at the sticky stage. Once your buds are collected, add enough lard to cover them completely once it the lard has melted. Simmer this mixture together for about 2-3 hours. Strain and put into sterilized jars.

Medicinal Uses: Great for applying on scrapes, cuts and chapped hands.

• Chickweed Ointment

To make this take 1/2 c. dried powdered chickweed and add to it 1 c. warmed lard. Mix well. Using a dehydrator, put the mixture inside and set the temperature for 100-100 degrees F for 2 days. Once the mixture is finished, it will look very green. Store in a cool place of your refrigerator.

Medicinal Uses: Mosquito bites, itches and irritations, and minor cuts and scratches.

 

Herb Pillows and Sachets

These are made by taking small fabric bags and filling them with herbs, flowers and sometimes crushed spices. To this you also need to add a fixative of either isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol sprayed on, or orrisroot.

Types of Herb Pillows/Sachets

• Headache Pillow

Mix 1/2 oz. of cloves with 2 oz. each of lavender, marjoram, betony rose leaf, and rose petals. Set this all into a pillow and sniff deeply to cure headache pains.

• Good Night Sleep Pillow

Mix 1 oz. mint with 2 oz. of rose petals and 1/4 crushed clove. Sew into a small pillow and insert into your pillowcase at night.

• Traditional Herb Sachet

Mix 1 part each of dried thyme, dried rosemary, dried marjoram, and dried basil. This does not need a fixative.

Oil by Evaporation

Take your herbs or flowers and boil them in a tea kettle. Strain out the liquid, and boil again. The idea is that you are separating out the oil because it boils at a higher temperature than water. So after the water has evaporated off, the oil is left behind.

Sun Extracted Oil

Gather as much as you can of the herb or flower of your choosing. Press them into a crock until they are slightly bruised. Pour distilled water or rain water over them until they are fully covered. Set the crock outside in full sun in a place where it will be undisturbed. If rain comes, bring your crock inside. After about a week in the sunshine, an oily residue or scum will start to develop on the surface of the water in the crock. Take some pieces of cotton and absorb all of the oil that you see in the crock. Squeeze the liquid into a dark colored glass bottle. Do not put a lid on this bottle, first cover with a cheescloth to keep dirt and dust from getting in, but will allow it to breathe, and any water in the bottle to evaporate, leaving only the essential oils. After about 3 days you can seal the bottle.

Cooked-Out Oil

Take the crushed herbs of your choice and put them into a bag. Put this bag into a kettle of water and slowly simmer this for about 24 hours over a very low flame or a slow fire. Cool the mixture slowly. Skim off the oil that rises to the top of the water. Squeeze the bag to help get all the oils out. You can even use a mop wringer to help squeeze as much out as possible of the essential oils.

Oil Into Oil

Since so little oil comes out of your herbs, and if you only have a small quantity at your disposal, you can use this method of mixing your herb directly with an oil of your choosing. Grind to a pulp your herbs in a mortar and place it in a small bottle. For a 1 cup bottle, you only need 2 Tbl. pulped herb. Pour a high quality cooking oil over the herb until the bottle is almost full. To this, add 1 tsp. distilled vinegar. Cover your bottle tightly and place it in an area that gets full sunshine daily. Shake this twice a day for 3 weeks. Strain out the herbs and your herb oil is ready to use.

Herb Oils For Cooking

Take any of the above mentioned extraction methods for herbal oils and make it for quantities in pints or quarts for delicious herbal oils for salad dressings and cooking.

Gather your herb of choice fresh from your garden or the market. Using a mortar and pestle, grind down to a pulp the selected herbs. Then once mashed, take the herb and put it in a solution of either alcohol, pure distilled vinegar, corn oil, sunflower oil, or olive oil.

If you are using alcohol, never ever use Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol-this is not meant for consumption. Back in the day our grandmothers and their mothers would use 180 proof edible alcohol, but that is a little tricky to find these days. So instead, use vodka! Vodka is half water half alcohol in equal volumes in 100 proof.

The measurements of herbs to liquid of any of the liquids mentioned above is 2 Tbl. mashed herb to 3/4 c. liquid.

Mix and shake the solution well, keep in a warm spot in your home, and shake daily for 3 weeks.

Citrus Extract Recipe:

Peel away the outer skin of your citrus of choice- this layer is called the Zest. Be careful not to use the white layer beneath called the Pith. Fill a wide mouthed bottle about 1/3 of the way up with your fresh zest. Next pour in to fill the remaining 2/3 of the bottle with alcohol. Let this mixture set for 2 weeks, shaking its contents 2 times a day. Strain out the zest chunks, and then bottle your new citrus extract.

There is nothing better than fresh ground herbs, so when choosing between whole and pre-ground, go for intact herbs and grind away at home. It's recommended never to make more than a 6 month supply of ground up herbs at a time. Once they have been broken down, they will immediately start to lose their flavor, so if you are storing them for long term, whole is always best.

To grind your own herbs you can use a mortar and pestle, a pepper or salt mill, or your blender or juicer-whatever is easiest for you, it doesn't really matter. Then store them in the ways mentioned in the chapter Herbs-Harvest Time.

How to Make Herb Butter

This delicious and gourmet treat is easy to make. First decide whether you want salted or unsalted butter (Salted butter will keep longer than unsalted F.Y.I.). Then soften your butter up and cream into it chopped herbs of your choice. You may want to add a touch of lemon juice as well, but it’s to your taste. Use 1-2 Tbsp. fresh herbs (well packed), or 1-2 tsp. dried herbs, for every ¼ c. of butter.

Make Your Own Candied Leaves and Flowers

You can candy rose petals, mint leaves, and the blossoms of oranges, lemons, lilacs, violets and sweet peas.

You candy them by dipping them into a stiffly beaten egg white. You can color and flavor your egg whites to suit your taste or décor. Coat them with sugar. Then dry them in an oven preheated to 110 degrees F. with the door left slightly open, or use a dehydrator.

Crystallizing Herbs

To crystallize more delicate items like rose petals, ginger root, etc, first cover the item to be crystallized with water. Boil for 5 minutes and then drain the water off. Now repeat this process 3 more times. Save the liquid used to boil the item the 4th time. After it has cooled, measure the liquid and the herb content by its volume and add sugar equal to that volume plus half more. Now boil this herb sugar water solution until the herb becomes more translucent. Drain the herb, dry it and then roll it in white sugar. Store this in sealed jars to be used later.

How to Dye Fabrics Best With Herbs

Make Your Own Natural Dye’s: These colorings will be softer than the artificial ones, but you are not adding any toxins to any products in this fashion so overall, it is better for your health.

These herbs make these different colors:

Black- Barberry Leaves

Blue- Blueberries

Brown- Coffee, Tea, Rose Hips, Tobacco, Hickory Chips and Nut Hulls (Walnuts make the best color)

Green- Sunflower Seeds, Birch Leaves, Beet Tops, Elderberry Leaves, Spinach, Rhubarb Leaves, Cabbage, Spanish Onion Skins (outer leaves only)

Orange- Orange Juice

Pink- Beets, Sassafras Roots, and Cherries

Purple- Cherries, Huckleberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, Grapes, Raspberries, and Purple Cabbage

Red- Beet Juice, Red Onion Skins, Bloodroot, Madder Root, and Logwood

Yellow- Cinnamon, Curry, Goldenrod Flowers, Stems and Leaves; Mustard, Paprika, the Stems, Flowers and Leaves of Apple Bark; Saffron, Turmeric, Ginger, and Pear Leaves.

Secrets of Using Natural Dye's



In the interest of all please do not use your cookware for dying fabrics. Mordants (substances used to set the dye in the fabrics) are often times highly poisonous.

1.)Do not use iron, aluminum or tin pans to do dying in. They can effect the color and chemistry of your dying process. Enamel pots and pans are best.

2.) Plant coloring can vary from batch to batch, so do not be surprised if you see different shades come from the same kind of plant. Factors that change the makeup of the plant and thus the color as well are amounts of rainfall, soil composition, light intensity, etc.

3.) When deciding how much plant to use for your dye project, use the same weight of plants to match the weight of the fabric.

4.) Flowers are the best place to extract color from, but roots, stems, leaves and fruits may produce a color too.

5.) Heat, steep or boil the plant to produce a water that has a strong color from the plant.

6.) Mordants placed into this colored water will make the color set into whatever substance you are dying and will many times make the color brighter. Alum, Acetic Acid (from vinegar), and ammonia are mordants. Keep in mind that using different mordants wiill give you completely different colors.If you are low on cash, lemon juice, salt and white vinegar can be used as mordants.

7.) Natural fabrics take dye best. Cotton, wool, jute, silk, linen, and rayon (cellulose based)

8.) To make sure your fabric takes the dye best, first wash the fabric out. Then soak it in the mordant. Next add your dye.

9.)To dye the fabric, heat it slowly in the mordant and dye solution to almost boiling. Then cool it down equally as gradually. Do not ever actually boil the fabric in the dye solution or allow the fabric to soak in the dye for more than one hour. For silk keep the temperature of the solution below 160 degrees F.

You have two options on how to store your herbs; you can either dry them or freeze them.

Drying- You can either spread the leaves on a clean cloth in a dry well circulated area, or you can oven dry or use a dehydrator. Do not put your herbs in direct sunlight to dry. This will only cause the leaves to turn brown and burn. Some light sun at the beginning and end of the day is alright.

You can also hang your herbs in bunches from a string in a dry room or maybe an attic space. You will need to make a cutting from the herb plant of about 6” and then tie in groups and hang upside down. You may want to spread some newspapers below your hangings, to catch any leaves that fall off. The total drying process should take about 2 weeks.

The hanging method for drying works well with the following herbs: Anise, Basil, Marigold, Marjoram, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Savory, Tarragon, and Thyme.

It is best to keep your herbs in whole leaves, when powdered they start to lose their flavor. I recommend only powdering up the herbs right before you use them for cooking or scent.

Store dried herbs in dry airtight containers in a dark place away from heat. This will preserve the color and taste of your herbs and prevent evaporation of its natural oils.

Drying Herb Seeds- To save the seeds of your herbs, pull up the entire plant stalk when it has gone to seed and formed the pods, but the pods have not burst open yet. Spread the pods out in the sun to dry fully. Stir them around to prevent moisture from accumulating on the bottom. When your seeds are dry, shell them and store them in airtight containers in a cool dry place.

Harvesting Herb Flowers- Collect your flowers just after they have bloomed. Be careful not to bruise or overheat them. Put them on a screen to dry, do not pile them up, make sure they are spread out evenly.

Oven/Dehydrator Drying- This will take about 8 hours. For the oven you want the temperature to be 110 degrees F., with the door left ajar. Don’t dry different herbs together in the oven, only one kind at a time.

Freezing- Herbs that are good for freezing are Anise, Basil, Chives, Coriander, Dill, Marigold, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Savory, Sorrel, Sweet Marjoram, Tarragon, and Thyme. Put herbs into boxes or plastic baggies after rinsing off herbs and freeze immediately.

Cooking With Dried Herbs- The herb becomes 3 times stronger when it is dried then when it is used fresh. So to give yourself a measurement guide, 1 tsp. dried herb equals 1 Tbl. fresh chopped herb.

Saving Seeds

When your herb has flowered and then produced seedpods, it is best to remove the entire stalk for drying instead of just taking off the pods. Spread the stalks with pods on a nice clean cloth in the sun to dry. This may take you a couple of days to make sure they are completely dried out. Do not leave them outside overnight during this process, as the cool air and morning moisture will ruin the process. Figure between 2-3 days to dry your seeds completely.

Store the seeds in a dry container or envelope and keep them away from heat and light.