Remedies

  • Rosemary Salve Recipe

    This salve recipe turns rosemary infused oil into a soothing rub for aching joints and arthritic hands. It’s so easy to make too! What you’ll need: This recipe makes a mild, single-herb salve. To increase the pain relieving power, you could add 18 to 27 drops essential oils (for about a 2 to 3% dilution…

  • Rosemary Infused Oil

    Here’s how to make your own rosemary infused oil for warming and relieving sore muscles and aching joints. You can also incorporate it into soaps, salves, lotion bars, and more! Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus, synonym Rosmarinus officinalis) is a common kitchen herb that’s valued in traditional herbalism for its warming, circulation-boosting, and anti-inflammatory properties. This makes…

  • Pine Resin Salve Recipe

    Pine resin salve is a simple but powerful remedy to keep stocked in your home apothecary. It can be used for general first aid purposes, such as scratches, scrapes and chapped skin, but is especially valued for its “drawing action” – resin’s ability to stimulate circulation and immune response at the skin’s surface, helping the…

  • Ginger Pain Salve Recipe

    Here’s how to make a warming ginger pain salve for achy joints, sore muscles, and arthritis. Ginger is one of my top favorite herbs! It’s easily available in local stores and when taken internally, it helps ease nausea, indigestion, inflammation, motion sickness, colds/flu, and more! Here we’re using it externally as a warming agent that…

  • Easy Ginger Honey Syrup

    This tasty homemade ginger syrup is made with just two easy-to-find ingredients and is a snap to mix together! It’s excellent for: Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is anti-viral, antibacterial, and antifungal – so it’s also great for taking as a preemptive measure if you’ve been exposed to a stomach flu or other particularly nasty bugs. Making…

  • How to Make a Ginger Tincture

    A ginger tincture is super easy to make and is useful for treating: Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is also antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory. The best part is that you can usually buy fresh or dried ginger right from your local grocery store – so it’s a readily available and accessible remedy for most of us! More…

  • Foraging & Using Pine Needles

    Here’s how to identify pine trees, plus some uses for pine needles, including infused oil and salve, pine needle tea, and a sore throat elixir. Pines (Pinus spp.) are evergreen, resinous trees that are found pretty much everywhere; there are almost 50 species growing in North America alone! Native North Americans used decoctions from pine…

  • Pine Needle Chest Rub Salve Recipe

    Pine is a traditional herbal known to be warming and helpful for respiratory congestion. Today, we’re going to turn your locally gathered pine needles into a chest rub salve using pine-infused oil and (optional) essential oils. Pine needle infused oil has traditionally been used to help with congestion, and when optionally combined with essential oils,…

  • Pine Needle, Honey & Brandy Elixir (cough & sore throat remedy)

    Here’s how to make a pine needle, honey, and brandy elixir – a natural remedy for coughs and sore throats that combines the respiratory benefits of pine with the throat-soothing and antimicrobial properties of honey. Pine trees (Pinus spp.) have long been used in traditional medicine, especially for respiratory conditions and immune support. The needles…

  • Stinging Nettle Tincture + Uses

    Here’s how to turn stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves into a tincture that may be useful for allergies and inflammation. You can also tincture different parts of nettle, for different effect. For example, the root can be tinctured for prostate problems, while nettle seed tincture may be helpful for kidney problems. Today though, we’re focusing…

  • Stinging Nettle Magnesium Lotion

    This homemade magnesium lotion features stinging nettles (Urtica dioica), an herb that fights inflammation, plus cypress essential oil which gently warms and stimulates circulation – making it useful for those with sore muscles, restless legs, leg cramps, or arthritis. Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you click on one and make a…

  • Lavender Tincture + Uses

    Here’s how to make and use lavender tincture! You can use fresh or dried lavender flowers for this project. You’ll also need some 80 to 100 proof vodka, and a half pint or small jar with a lid. Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is a well-loved herb with anti-inflammatory and skin soothing properties. The flowers (and the…

  • Lavender Salve Recipe

    How to make a multi-purpose homemade salve using: lavender flowers, oil, beeswax, and lavender essential oil! Lavender salve is a handy remedy to keep around for: This salve is made in two parts. First you make a lavender infused oil, then you melt it with some beeswax to make the salve. Add a little essential…

  • How to Make Violet Leaf Salve

    Here’s a recipe for violet leaf salve, which is especially useful for eczema, dry skin, and swollen lymph nodes. While violet flowers are almost gone where I live, the leaves will still flourish in shady spots around my house for months to come. There are about 78 species of wild violets found in North America, plus…

  • Lilac & Lemon Infused Honey

    This delicious infused honey was inspired by a favorite recipe, Ginger Lemon Honey Tonic, that I originally shared on this site several years ago. One beautiful spring day when my lilacs were in full bloom, I wondered… what would happen if I used lilac flowers instead of ginger in the recipe? What happened was the…