The Herb Loft

All About Oxymels

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 21:12:18 GMT

A simple and delicious way to take your herbal supplements

Oxymels are a great addition to your herbal repository, combining the herbal potency of a tincture with nutritive vinegar and honey. You can make them with any herbal blend of your choosing from roots to leaves, to blossoms and even bark! The base (or "menstruum") is very simple--equal parts raw honey and apple cider vinegar. It is best you use raw local honey for the added health benefits. And make sure your apple cider vinegar has 'the mother' in it!

Key takeaways in this post:

History of the oxymel
How to make an oxymel
Favorite Spearmint/Peppermint--Stinging Nettle--Raspberry Leaf oxymel recipe with video
More farm favorite blends to try

Oxymels date back to ancient Greece and Rome, as well as during the Middle Ages when they were popularly used in folk medicine. In the 1980's, herbalist Rosemary Gladstar reintroduced these tonics as "Fire Ciders". (Fire ciders are basically a version of the oxymel.) As the mixture extracts, it turns into a syrup without any heat reduction.

The combination of Apple Cider Vinegar and Honey together hold an abundance of health properties that may help:

metabolic function
digestive health
balance bacteria in your gut
provide key essential antioxidants for your body

To make your very own Oxymel :

First, get a clean jar. You can use any sized jar, but it may be easiest to start with a pint (16 oz) mason jar.
Prep all your ingredients such as your dried herbs, the apple cider vinegar and honey.
I recommend filling the jar first with both equal parts honey and apple cider vinegar. Then make sure you leave a bit of room for your herbs.
My go-to herbal blend would have to be Spearmint , Stinging Nettle, and Raspberry Leaf (which is also a great tea blend on its own-- see my blog post "Herbs for Hair, Skin, Hormones") .
Add your dried herbs, then close the lid, give it a good shake and store in out of direct sunlight for 1-2 months for maximum extraction.
Make sure the lid on your mason jar is either a plastic lid or to put wax paper in between the glass and metal top and screw on with the band; the vinegar will corrode the metal lid.

Peppermint--Stinging Nettle--Raspberry Leaf Oxymel Recipe (as shown in video):

Pint/16 oz sanitized mason jar, with plastic lid
6 fl ounces organic Apple Cider Vinegar with 'the mother'
6 fl ounces raw, local honey
1 heaping Tbs dried organic Peppermint
1 heaping Tbs dried organic Stinging Nettle
1 heaping Tbs dried organic Raspberry Leaf

Fill the jar with the vinegar, honey, and herbs. Label with date and ingredients. Shake to combine. Allow to macerate for 4-8 weeks, shaking regularly. When ready, strain and re-bottle. Take 1 tsp-1Tbs as needed.

Herbal Blends to Try:

Blend for Immunity

Blend for Digestive Health

Blend for Circulation & Brain Health

Give Oxymel making a try and see how wonderfully delicious they are and how beneficial they are for your health!

This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your physician. This information is for educational purposes only.

Rest and Digest with Blue Vervain

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 13:49:28 GMT

A relaxing blend that helps settle the mind and body

Rest and Digest with Blue Vervain

I consider myself a family herbalist and as such I am evolving as my family and friends request herbal remedies. This summer, my garden over-flowed with beautiful blue vervain. While harvesting her leaf and flower I am enticed to make a lovely rest and digest tea blend.

The blend consists of equal parts of the following herbs and infused in hot water for 10 minutes:

Blue Vervain
Peppermint
Lemon Verbena

Blue Vervain , classified as a nervine, is an herb that is nourishing and supportive to the nervous system. As a bitter it helps our bodies relax to enhance digestion.

Peppermint is an excellent carminative, having a relaxing effect on the muscles of the digestive system.

Lemon Verbena adds a lovely lemony summer fragrance, and in addition to aiding digestion, improves rest and anxiety.

This blend is perfect to drink after meals or before bedtime. I use this tea any time I feel the need to relax. I usually have a cup of tea at the end of my day after everyone has eaten. Then it’s my time to sit down, relax, and unwind—at times I’ve been known to fall asleep!

I hope you enjoy the blend!
-Fran, Herbalist, L.I. N Y

Favorite Barn Heal-All Recipe

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 21:00:51 GMT

Our stable go to for cuts, scrapes and bites is simply herb-infused coconut oil

Horses get scrapes. Like all the time. They have big bodies that always seem to have a bite, scab, or dry patch that needs to regrow hair. For years, I used plain coconut oil in the barn--so gentle, readily absorbs, and has antibacterial and anti-fungal actions. I used it on myself and my family for dry skin and lips. I also like that for the majority of the year, it is solid (73 degrees F and under) and easy to scoop out and apply. I loved how it felt and how it smelled, and it worked great, all by itself.

As I learned more about herbs and their healing capacities, I started infusing the coconut oil with three of my home grown favorites: yarrow , calendula , and lavender . Each of these herbs brings a host of benefits to a first aid salve, but I'll be to the point here: all three are considered antiseptic, yarrow stops bleeding, calendula promotes skin healing, and lavender's scent soothes equines and humans alike. I also choose coconut oil because it does not need beeswax to make it solid, adding to the simplicity of ingredients. (But there is no reason why you could not infuse this healing trio into olive oil and beeswax for a more traditional salve.). * It's important you only use dried herbs for this recipe. The water content in fresh herbs could cause the oil to mold.

How to make our simple Barn Heal-All
You will need:
Dried Yarrow (approx 1/3 cup)
Dried Calendula Blossoms (approx 1/3 cup)
Dried Lavender Buds (approx 1/3 cup)
Coconut Oil (approx 1-2 cups)

Pint (2 cup) Mason Jar

Directions :
1) Fill the jar about half way with equal parts of the yarrow, calendula, and lavender. It's ok to be approximate!
2) Top the jar with coconut oil (If oil is solid, heat it over low heat in a pot, then pour over herbs) and mix well.
3) Label jar lid with the contents and date, then place in a warm, sunny spot for 4-6 weeks, or longer, shaking regularly.
*Expect the coconut oil to be solid overnight or when temperature drops below 73 degree F. I often use a yogurt maker to keep the oil liquid. You could also infuse over the LOWEST heat on the stove for a few hours. It must be liquid to properly infuse .
4) When ready to strain, return the oil to a liquid state, and strain the contents through a fine mesh sieve or multiple layers of cheese cloth. This is usually messy! Then re-jar and allow to cool. This simple salve is shelf stable, but will turn liquid over 73 degrees. Use for all minor cuts, scrapes, bites, itchies, dry skin and lips. Because it contains no essential oils and and is edible, it's perfectly safe for lips, for all our animal friends and for young children.

This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. For educational purposes only.

Herbs For Hair, Skin, and Hormones

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:36:51 GMT

Herbs for Hair, Skin & Hormones

I’ve made plenty of random tea blends in the last few years. Usually when I make my nightly tea, I grab a pinch of 3-5 herbs depending on my mood, the phase of my cycle or what I feel like I need and/or am lacking that day. However, there are three key herbs I feel like I couldn’t live without in my everyday blend.

One of those essential herbs is Nettle . Nettle is an all-around nourishing herb; it is high in vitamins and minerals like iron, calcium and magnesium.

Another herb in my rotation is Raspberry Leaf . Like Nettle, Raspberry Leaf is also high in vitamins and minerals, it is also an essential herb in women’s health. It’s become a very popular herb over the years with pregnant women, but it is beneficial for women in every stage of their lives and their cycle!

And lastly an herb I've been using a lot is Spearmint . I love Spearmint because not only does it taste refreshing (hot or cold), but it also has more benefits than people might think! Spearmint has been one of my favorite herbs because it helps with digestive issues, stress, anxiety. I have noticed after consistently drinking this blend of herbs on a daily basis, my cycle is more consistent, my hair nails and skin have less shedding; are not as brittle. Additionally, I feel like I'm able to stay asleep longer and not feel as stressed after a long day. Below I've included a simple recipe you can add to your medicinal tea collection!

Recipe:

-1 tsp Nettle

-1 tsp Raspberry Leaf

-1/2 tsp Spearmint

Directions:

Add to tea strainer and steep in 8-10 oz of hot water for 5-10 minutes. Add honey or preferred sweetener and enjoy!

Note: Feel free to blend with other herbs of your liking! I also love adding in Skullcap or peppermint ... the world is your oyster!

Start Here: Doing Herbs Better

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 12:10:49 GMT

Hi, I'm Nicole Williams and I want to welcome you to my certified organic medicinal plant farm and nursery, located on the beautiful North Fork of Long Island, NY. We are leading the way with small scale herb farming that does not compromise on quality or ethical agriculture, all grown right here in the US. Please get to know a little about us and the dried herbs we market.

We are a small scale farm

Our farm is 7 acres, but the bulk of the herbs are grown in our one acre medicinal plant garden--featuring over 50 raised beds laid out for ease of care and efficiency. This allows us to hand tend all of the herbs and beds, employing regenerative growing practices like no-till. The rest of the farm is kept in pasture for our horses and chickens, with a few unmaintained buffers for native wildlife, birds, and insects.

The only inputs are our farm made compost and vermicompost
We are USDA certified organic through NOFA-NY. But we are beyond organic and hold ourselves to the highest standards of what we consider to be regenerative, closed-loop agriculture. Rather than use approved inputs and chemicals, we keep ahead of pests and challenges by staying small and focusing on soil and plant health.

We control the whole process, from start to finish
We start, grow, harvest, dry, process, and store all our herbs on farm. The plant material passes through very few hands from field to shelf to end user. Nothing sits in a moldy warehouse in a foreign country, waiting to cross oceans. All our herbs are small-batch harvested at peak potency, and immediately dried. It doesn't get more local than this. If you want to learn more about the global herb trade, please read Ann Armbrecht's The Business of Botanic als , and visit her work at the Sustainable Herbs Program .

We handle our own content and storefront
We are growers, but we are gardeners, herbalists, plant lovers, and online shoppers too. We understand having an easy to navigate online storefront is key to consumer confidence. All our photos are our actual herbs and products--no stock images. Our signature 1 ounce pouch is the right size for the majority of users--it's approximately 1 month of tea, or 6-12 months of tinctures or infused oils. Our prices reflect the true cost of bringing high quality products to the market through transparent and sustainable practices, including paying a living wage to the helpers who hand care for the herbs.

I hope you will support us as we work hard to do herbs better!