Botany Everyday, With Marc Williams | Tea Talks With Jiling
Marc and Jiling discuss one of Marc’s previous keynote conference topics, “Weaving and Mending: Herbalism from the past, in the present, for the future.” Learn about empowerment through weeds, heart-songs, ancestral honoring practices, global healing traditions, and more.
Natural Shampoo Recipe With Herbs
Many people want to get away from conventional hair and skin care products for two important reasons; they are full of unpronounceable synthetic ingredients that make it nearly impossible to know what we’re rubbing all over our bodies, and those over-the-counter products are packaged in materials that often can’t be reused or recycled. A lot of us first came to herbalism looking for natural, DIY alternatives. But in regard to skin and hair care formulations, it’s often not so simple.
Tips for Labeling Your Herbal Formulations + FREE Label Template!
At Mountain Rose Herbs, we talk a lot about the importance of labeling homemade herbal remedies, essential oil blends, and the other handcrafted goods that we put in our apothecaries and gift to our loved ones. Proper labeling makes at-a-glance identification easy, ensures we have appropriate dosage information, and helps us keep track of the age of our formulations. On a purely practical level, it also makes it easier to avoid having a cupboard full of unused mystery bottles. We may think we will never forget what we put in that tincture, tea, or aromatherapy blend, or we may have the best intentions of making a label and writing helpful notes later. But then life happens, and we put it off. So there we are weeks or months after, realizing we can no longer remember the exact proportions or even which tincture is which. We have all been there and done that.
Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap with Soap Nuts
I have to admit, it was really difficult for me to believe that soap nuts could actually work. My skepticism caused me to walk by them at my local natural grocery store for years. I liked the idea of an all-natural laundry solution, but I figured soap nuts would not be effective enough to take on the heavily soiled laundry from homesteading and an overall active lifestyle.
That attitude persisted until about six years ago, when I first started working for Mountain Rose Herbs. Colleagues and customers alike raved about these mystical soap nuts (which aren’t actually nuts at all), so I decided to finally give them a try. I’m really glad that I did, and my wallet and septic system continue to thank me daily.
While many people enjoy the common method of using deseeded soap nuts directly in the wash, I prefer to make them into a liquid detergent. It is an added step and requires a bit more forethought, but I have found that you have more control over the concentration of saponins and the liquid disperses more evenly throughout each laundry load.
Interviews On Herbal Radio With Thomas Dick | Featuring Jiling Lin
Thomas sat down with our good friend and talented herbalist, Jiling Lin, over Zoom this past fall to get to know her a little better. We’ve had the great fortune of partnering with Jiling on numerous projects including filming instructional videos, writing poetic blogs and journal articles, emceeing Free Herbalism Projects, and of course hosting Tea Talks on Herbal Radio. We’re so grateful for the opportunity to get to know Jiling even more as Thomas and Jiling chat about her upbringing, the sharing of plants and stories, and the pivotal herbal plot points in her life. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Jiling as much as we did!
What Sustainability Means to Us
What does sustainability mean to you? Is it about balancing what we take and what we give? Is it about leaving a natural legacy for your children or grandchildren? Or maybe just leaving the land in better shape than you found it? Different people think about sustainability in different ways, but in the end it comes down to a recognition that this is the only planet we’ve got and we need to take action in our daily lives to do our part to caretake our home. We asked our staff members what sustainability means to them and how working for Mountain Rose Herbs reflects their commitment to put the care of our planet at the forefront. Listen in and let us know what sustainability means to you and what you do to live your best sustainable life.
Nourishing Herbal Infusion Recipe—A Tea With Purpose
When it comes to nutritive plants like these four treasured herbal allies, opting for the infusion method will impart your water-based brew with the full strength of the plant material. Certainly, you could steep these herbs in a tea bag for 10-15 minutes. However, you’ll receive exponentially more of the nutritive and tonifying benefits with the infusion method, which employs a hefty volume of herbs steeped for hours. This allows more of the minerals, chlorophyll, and other nutrients to be pulled into the solution.
Think of it this way: Infusions pull more of the power-packed punch out of your dried herbs. Brewing your herbs this way gives you a strong, nourishing brew—deep and rich in color, flavor, and constituents. Just the way you like it.
Herbal Tea Blend Recipe For Meditation
We know that meditation is good for our minds, our hearts, and our bodies, but for some of us, sitting still for more than five minutes is a real challenge, which puts a damper on the whole meditative process. That’s when we turn to our favorite supportive herbs that can help us slow down, take a breath, and stop the circular thinking that distracts us. Our Meditation Tea Blend Recipe checks all the right boxes to get us in the right headspace with a layered balance of nutritious base herbs, supporting nervine herbs, and delicious accent herbs. Take a minute, have a cup of tea, and give your body the gift of sitting still.
New Year Reflections & Journal Prompts of an Herbalist
Our botanical sanctuary and primitive homestead in the mountains of New Mexico runs on solar power, and during these shortest days of the year, solar can be in short supply. While this can make keeping up with online work more challenging, it also means we’re more likely to take advantage of the quiet and dark to reflect and reset. As I write this, our usually calf-deep river is raging through the narrow mountain canyon, too deep and fast to cross even in a kayak, much less on foot. The clouds are thick overhead and freezing rain pelts the gray skeletons of the cottonwoods.
I can neither leave our property for supplies nor even turn on most of our LED lights in the cabin, but candlelight and storms certainly make for a cozy atmosphere to consider the year past, and the years yet to come. We are at the cusp of change, a liminal space between the growing dark returning to the growing light, although it will be some time before we’re able to really see that shift. Likewise, internal shifts we choose to make this time of year may take a while to show up in the visible world, but that doesn’t make those changes any less real or profound.
Goal Setting for a Healthy & Fulfilling New Year + Journal Prompts
The transition from the old year to the new is a perfect time to reflect on our lives and determine what is working for us and what isn’t, what we should nurture, and what we should jettison from our day-to-day. We are blessed to share our friend Kiva Rose Hardin’s beautiful reflections on measuring time in the rhythm of the botanical world and developing deeper relationships with plants.
Journaling can be an effective and transformational part of the process—writing down thoughts, ideas, and insights can provide structure as well as a record of what we’re learning and where we hope to head in the future. Happily, Kiva offers some wonderful writing themes to help us all think about relationships, transformation, gratitude, and more! Happy New Year, friends!
