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| Herbal medicine cabinet has arrived! |
Lesson one in "The Science and Art of Herbology" course instructs you to take inventory of your current herbal medicine cabinet. Prior to this weekend, mine was seriously lacking. I had lots of dried chamomile that I had picked and dried from our office garden last year. I had about two cups of stevia powder that I had acquired through working on the Mother Earth News article, All About Growing the Stevia Plant. I had three supplements - ginkgo, melatonin, and zinc - as well as some neem oil. My essential oils included cinnamon, sweet orange, peppermint, spearmint and marshmallow root. I'm not the type of person to collect products that I don't need only for them to gather dust around my house. I've decided, however, that in order to really take this herbal course the right way, I need to be able to whip up all sorts of elixirs, salves and teas with the blink of an eye. If my throat gets sore or my ear starts to ache, I want to be able to go experiment in the kitchen right away.
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| Stored in glass bottled with cork tops |
So now, in addition to my aforementioned medicine cabinet, the dried herbs that I have on hand are....
- Peppermint (Mentha piperita)
- Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
- Lobelia (Lobelia infiata)
- Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
- Hops Flowers (Humulus lupulus)
- Comfrey Root (Symphytum officinale)
- Wood Betony (Stachys officinales)
- Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)
- Feverfew (Tanacetum Parthenium)
- Lemon Balm (Melissa Officinalis)
- St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum)
- Scullcap (Scutellaria barbata)
With all these new herbs on hand I'm ready for less reading and more doing.
