Stop & Smell the Herbs

One of the moms at the community center said she'll start helping us garden on weekends. We cleared out one of the bed's yesterday and there's a lot of space around the two kale plants. She suggested we plants herbs. I couldn't agree more! So I'm supposed to prepare a budget for the advisory council to purchase some transplants for next Tuesday. Herbs like sage, curry, rosemary and lavendar. The smell good stuff.

Just received a newsletter in my inbox regarding scented herb gardens. The top ten listed plants are: anise, artemesia, basil, lavendar, lemon balm, mint, catnip, geranium, rosemary, thyme. We currently have oregano flowering, but that's about it. Maybe if we clean up the garden and make it smell good more people will come visit.

Sun Suggestions

Love the email from yogajournal.com today even though it arrives in this dreary grey morning.

Too Much Sun?
If you end up with a sunburn this summer, soothing remedies can be grown right in your own garden.
The gel in aloe plants, for instance, lubricates and heals the skin. Cucumbers cool the skin and reduce swelling. Shred one to make a poultice for affected areas, or place slices of chilled cucumber on closed eyelids for 20 minutes to reduce puffiness.
The bright orange flower calendula (also called pot marigold) is anti-inflammatory and can help reduce the pain of sunburn. It is best applied up to three times a day, as a cream or an ointment. You can find calendula and other garden products at most health food stores or by doing a simple search online.
Accidents Will Happen
Common Sun Sense

I like them advocating for herbal self sun soothing. Here's how the calendula is doing outside on our portion of the sidewalk:

 Like lots of little sunshines. Now I don't mean to get weird about this but wouldn't it be great if everyone grew a little calendula in their yards?

*Harvest the flowers before they die, hang them to dry them in a paper bag, then store until the appropriate time to make salves.* That would make an excellent moisturizer to heal from sunburn.

Yogajournal.com also discusses suncare more generally: http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1303?utm_source=DailyInsight&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=DailyInsight or check out http://www.yogajournal.com/health/80?utm_source=DailyInsight&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=DailyInsight

Medicinal Herb Nap

Took a walk to UW's Medicinal Herb Garden. A fragrant way to spend a sunny Saturday. Places like these make me want to go back to school to study plant science (though I won't). According to their website the garden was established in 1911 and now spans 2.5 acres. A truly special environment. Though I get the feeling it's more for show than research purposes. There are all kinds of native and exotic (i.e. TCM) herbs flowering. Their borage doesn't look as good as ours though (even with the powdery mildew)!! They say they're showing over 1000 species but I wish they listed them on their website to satisfy the nonstudent students. At least they have little signs posted.

The last time I visited (I regret to admit) was in March, when most plants were still dormant. Great to see them in their summer season.

(Nuttall's Sunflower, UW Medicinal Herb Garden, 7/28/12 5:30PM, named for 18th century English botanist Thomas Nuttall http://www.forthall.net/plants/nuttal.htm)

Salmon Bay Remedies

(W 57th St in 1890!!)

I'm spending the afternoon in Ballard Library (and at the beach) reading Passport To Ballard, researching for another project, when I came across Chapter 14 "Staying Healthy On Salmon Bay". Before there were hospitals out here, there was indigenous plant healing, and then just after that there were pioneers with no medical assistance. Kay Nelson writes the medicine chests of those days were - alum, sulphur, borax, ipecac, camphor, ammonia, morphine and opium. My mom did not keep those things around in her first aid kit. So I'm very curious about them.

More so I wonder about their use of food, spices and herbs to deal with ailments (and also where Nelson got her information). Nelson lists: mustard/bran/oatmeal for poulstices, cayenne pepper, egg yolks and whites for burn ointments and eyewashes; bloodroot, mandrake, dandelion, burdock, yellow dock, chamomile, sassafras, Scot aloes, rue, red clover, gentian, pennyroyal, tansy, rhubarb.

How did the pioneers prepare these plants? Perhaps sometime I should try one of their remedies for heatstroke (after all it's summer now): a wet cloth is wrapped around one's head, while a second bandage soaked in salt is wrapped around the neck. Then dry salt is applied behind the ears. Then mustard plasters are applied to the calves of the legs and soles of feet. Worth a try I guess?

Did the pioneers bring the plants here or learn to make use of native plants? Mustard originates from the Himilayas, oat from the Fertile Crescent, bloodroot and sassafras from Eastern U.S., dandelion, yellow dock, chamomile, red clover, gentian, pennyroyal, tansy, and burdock from Eurasia, aloe from Africa, rue from Macaronesia, and rhubarb from China. But I guess we can't blame the pioneers since they had to take with them the knowledge they had. Go figure many of these plants are now so well established. Can't get rid of the dandelion, that's for sure.

Managing Mosquitos & Bites

Gone backpacking this past weekend our camping place on the river heralded mosquito grounds. I was not up for the bites, and was not prepared with spray or citronella incense. My campmates decided to take the blows and the next day were covered in bites. I have a few of them myself.

Personally, I don't mind the itching. But I never want to be in this situation again. So now I'm checking out online what people have to say about healing bites and avoiding them in the first place. The easiest and most common sense thing to do is to clean up (not that easy when you're backpacking). Plunging into the cold mountain river was helpful. For my buddies who couldn't stop itching, I suggested aloe vera gel or a bath of chamomile flowers. But there's a bunch of other ideas worth trying too (if you have this many, you might as well experiment): baths of apple cider vinegar or epsom salts; pastes of baking soda, toothpaste, or salt; the direct application of onion, lemon, honey, garlic, or essential oils tea tree, rosemary, neem, lavender, witch hazel and cedar. How funny we could have appeared licking our wounds by the river.

So for avoiding this in the first place? Don't attract them if you can help it. (Don't camp by water!!) Get dry after the exercise, don't eat too much high salt/potassium foods, don't wear a bunch of scented outdoor products, wear protective clothing (I'm pretty sure they avoided my raincoat) and arm yourself with essential oils. This website suggests: castor, cedar, celery extract, clove, citronella, geranium, lemon eucalyptus, fennel, lavender, lemon grass, peppermint, rosemary, and tea tree oil. And cites a study from University of Guelph showing citronella candles reduce mosquito bites by 42% and citronella incense by 24%. Next trip I'm preparing my own spray based on the idea of rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, olive oil and essential oils.

SIZIZIS infused

My roommate introduced me to a lovely tea shop in Olympia, owned by the Dark Dentist. I guess the purpose of this tea shop is to fix your mouth with aryuvedic/herbal/occultural goodness (darkness). At least that's what their menu proposes. I missed the Occultural Music Festival in Seattle scramming to Olympia for a night but then a menu tipped me off to Ouroboros Press - based here in Seattle. Which led me to the Book Arts Publishing Group. Which led me to...

What does this have to do with herbs? Something tells me I should be reading these books while drinking my herbal concoctions. What do I need to read/drink before the Esoteric Book Conference in September? http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/index.htm

These are the kinds of things people do through the power of herbs.

Can't Get Rash About Rashes

The last time I had a noticable rash was when I was backpacking between farms in 2007. I developed a large one on the back of my calf. So drank dandelion root tea to cleanse out my liver - and it totally did the trick.

Something has manifested on my right arm (oh the metaphorical implications) and perhaps I will never learn the cause. -> You probably can't see it that well in this pic.

But I want to clear it up as soon as possible. Herbalists say it's important to eliminate toxins from the liver. Ironically I'd made a decoction of dandelion root, burdock and oregon grape last night. Then today the rash appeared. Hmmm...

Homemade Medicine - contains a bunch herb recommendations that could be mixed into teas

Natural Herbal Healing (FreeWebs) - suggests making polstices of herbs I hadn't thought to use, such as oats (one of the most common ingredients for soap - of course). I sure wish I had a clean bathtub to soak in oats with!

Natural News - discusses a variety of treatments from food to ointments, with an emphasis on dealing with allergies

But really I just need a little time to pass...