Dawn Combs's Blog

I had such a great time Live with Mother Earth News at the Institute today. If you missed it you can watch it on Mother Earth News’ Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/motherearthn...

If you were watching and were looking for recipes, here are the demonstrations that I did online:

���Happy��� Pills:

Powdered herb or herb formula (���Happy��� herbal matcha was used in the demo)

Raw Honey

Water

Herb Powder for dusting

Mix your powdered herb together with a small amount of raw honey and water to form a dough-like consistency. Roll out small portions of the dough, cut into segments and roll in your hands. Roll your completed pills in a bit of loose powder to keep them from sticking together. The pills should be pea-sized and can be dried or kept soft in a jar in the fridge.

First-Aid Oil and Salve

1 cup oil

2 Tbsp calendula (Calendula officinalis)

2 Tbsp echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)

2 Tbsp plantain (Plantago officinalis)

2 Tbsp comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

1/4 cup beeswax

Infuse the oil and herbs together for 4-6 weeks. Strain the herbs out of the oil and compost them. To the oil, add the beeswax and heat gently to melt.

Anywhere Baths/Steams

1 box of knee-high nylons

1/4 cup of an herb or herb combination of your choice

Pre-fill one or more nylons with an herb of choice. Tie a knot in the end of the nylon and store in glass jar or ziplock.

I speak a lot about “whole plant health”. I think it’s really important to define that as a foundational principle of what I believe and what I teach. If you are visiting here and deciding whether you will or won’t use me as a resource, this is critical.

I am university trained as a botanist. This means that I study the physiology, structure, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance of plants. Within this field of study, I am considered an ethnobotanist, which means I am interested in how humans make use of, tell stories about and have relationship with the physiology, structure, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance of plants. As an ethnobotanist I am most interested in the way these relationships occur in relation to the medicinally useful chemicals in plants.

I am often called an herbalist interchangeably with my title as ethnobotanist. Both herbalists and ethnobotanists often look at plants in a way that I find to be problematic. Many herbal formulations operate as a function of choosing one chemical or another from the plant in question. We see this in tinctures, essential oils, even teas that isolate only what is soluble in the medium in question and leave the rest of the system behind.

As an ethnobotanist, I was trained to head out into glamorous places like the rainforest to gather information on unknown medicinal plant species. The idea is simple, get to know the local healers and walk with them to learn what plants they have traditionally used for various ailments. Once a promising plant is identified, the ethnobotanist gathers samples and sends them back to a laboratory in the United States where they are analyzed for their chemical make-up.

In principle, finding the active chemicals in important plants so that we can synthesize them is a good idea. The resulting medicine is then based on a lab creation rather than dependent upon denuding the rainforest of that particular plant, causing untold damage in the process to other plants, animals and humans.

Unfortunately, over the years I have come to the realization that our ability to determine what is “active” in a plant is limited by our human understanding of the chemicals found therein. We just haven’t been able to classify and describe everything in our environment and plants are no exception. In most any given plant under examination, the very gifted and intelligent folks in the lab will be able to identify a good number of the chemicals but there is almost always a pretty good chunk that we simply don’t understand. Sometimes we can narrow the unidentified constituents down to a known group, but go no further. This is much like the human appendix or tonsils. They are constituents in the human body. For many years we didn’t really understand what they did and could find no “activity” with any of our scientific abilities of the time. Thus, many people have had their appendix and tonsils out in non-emergency situations because the belief was that they just didn’t do anything. Only now, as our abilities are advancing are we learning that there are indeed functions undertaken by these seemingly useless organs and…. well…. oops.

Inside every plant there is a world of chemical interaction. Some of this we understand in parts and pieces. In some cases, we even understand some of the chemical interplay. In large part, I would put forth that we don’t completely understand what is going on inside the complex plant system of say, comfrey. There are chemicals inside comfrey that, if isolated and administered outside of the system, are known to cause problems in the human body. We know this through our scientific ability. That said, the folklore of the plant shows people using the whole leaf and often as a pot herb. They didn’t isolate out any one chemical, they ingested the plant as a whole system into the body and thereby failed to note any long history of systemic problems as a result.

Are Herbalists and Ethnobotanists Wrong?

No. This isn’t to say that there is no value for medicines that isolate chemicals any more than it is wrong to use herbal formulas that do. There is a time and a place for each.

There is a time to remove the appendix. Perhaps the individual is so threatened by an imminent rupture and regardless of the function that we remove when we take out the appendix, it is worth the “side effect”. In the same way, there is a time and a place where the isolation of one chemical from a plant is worth the side effect that occurs when we remove it from its system of checks and balances, buffers and potentizers. I would rather like to put to you the suggestion that we need to err on the side of wholeness in our healing modalities as much as possible.

Whole Plant Health

When we use plants in their whole form, we are taking the system as it was working directly into our body. Nothing inappropriate is amplified, and it is just possible that some of the things we believe are dangerous on their own have a benefit when left amid both the chemicals we understand and those we do not yet. After all, in the field of ethnobotany the same pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are vilified in comfrey have a long history of being studied for their cancer fighting abilities.

Hippocrates said, “Let they food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” There is no more pure form of whole plant health than that. It is why I teach what I teach and create products the way I do.

If you’ve been reading anything from me for the past several years, it may surprise you to hear that I do not recommend herbal medicine for everyone. This is something that I am particularly passionate about so I ask that you bear with this long post and hear me out.

I have always been a person to whom language matters. “Herbal medicine” is a term that has come to represent just about any kind of application of herbs to health, when in reality it has a pretty specific definition. It’s not for everyone to practice at home! Herbal medicine is practiced by experienced herbal practitioners or very dedicated lay persons. It involves extensive knowledge of body systems and herbal application and nuances in disease approach.

“But Dawn, you’ve always said that herbal health should be available to everyone!” Yes, but let us focus on the word “medicine” to understand my problem here. As we don’t (or shouldn’t) seek “medicine” for a cold, bruise or a headache we don’t need “herbal medicine” to deal with daily health naturally.

I think our societal confusion began when we accepted the notion of “over-the-counter” medication. By the mid-19th century, Americans had come to a consensus that we needed to go to the doctor to discuss a more serious ailment, but what about the day-to-day aches and pains? If Western Medicine could help us with diabetes, then shouldn’t it also help us with a common headache? YES! Over-the-counter gave us the ability to medicalize daily aches and pains giving us access to medicine that didn’t require an experienced practitioner to dispense.

The boundaries of health thus became blurred in such a way that our shared consciousness is dominated by the idea that health and medicine are inextricably intertwined. If we truly value the scientific method, we must admit that this theory is not testing well. The more we tie our health to medicine, the sicker we become.

What’s The Difference?

Everyone should have the knowledge of how to maintain health with the help of the plants that grow right outside their back door or in their neighborhood. They should know how to add these plants to their food, apply them to bruises and burns and tincture them for headaches. But that is NOT HERBAL MEDICINE! It’s simple common sense and a shared cultural heritage that we must value in order to access. It’s the product of a relationship that we are supposed to have with the land and plants where we live.

We do not need advanced education or a strong understanding of physiology to apply it.
We do not need to feel a spiritual connection to Gaia or call ourselves an “herbalist”. There is no one way or correct way to express this heritage.
We do not need “over-the-counter” permission to wield these simple solutions.

The more we doubt ourselves and our abilities to apply common sense at home without the need of medical intervention, the more our laws reflect the need to control every aspect of the body. If we cannot be trusted to know that our headache is due to too much sun and a lack of sleep and requires only a simple herbal tea and rest rather than an MRI, how can be be trusted to make our own reproductive or end-of-life decisions?

Is Western Medicine Evil?

NO! Western medicine, or just plain “medicine”, is necessary sometimes. It is appropriately called medicine because it should be used when we are sick beyond the ordinary or broken.

Practitioners of medicine should be respected for the education and experience they have accumulated and conversely they should respect our ability to make decisions for our bodies.
They should be afforded the luxury of being wrong, or of not knowing all the answers.
They should also be given the time needed to focus on those that are truly sick beyond the ordinary or broken instead of needing to wade through those of us who fill their waiting rooms with common illnesses that should be cared for with our own knowledge and skill.

Is “Herbal Medicine” Ever Appropriate?

YES! Herbal medicine exists and I firmly believe it should be practiced, but it is for those times when someone is sick beyond the ordinary. It, like Western Medicine, should be the exception and not the rule if we’re doing this whole thing correctly.

It should be practiced by someone who is willing to do the work, to do the research, to go deeper into their understanding of their own body or the body of others.
It often should be practiced in concert with Western Medicine.
It can most certainly be practiced by a lay person on themselves, but that person must be willing to do the work!
It is not appropriate for anyone who is just looking for an herb or an herbal pill to “take” to make their disease go away. This is not a condemnation of you if you are such a person. Not everyone is interested in going that deep into health issues and that’s ok, but we must know our limits.

The use of plants in dealing with those who are sick beyond the ordinary takes an advanced skill that not everyone has. The average person cannot just read in a blog that a certain herb is good for blood sugar maintenance and take that for a disease cure. That is not how herbs work and the idea that we can “take this for that” is precisely what creates some of the distrust between the medical professional and the professional herbalist. When the body gets into a diseased state, it is never that simple.

What’s The Solution?

In a traditional model of home health care everyone knows the basics of day-to-day self-care. we’ll call this the “routine-care-and-maintenance-of-the-household-human”. This good care is intended to head off the need for medicine, and of course if you get sick beyond the ordinary or you are broken there is always access to someone who is more skilled.

Unfortunately, we have become disconnected from the land, ourselves, our community, our food and the knowledge of how to use all of these things to bring about health. The average adult who realizes this situation and begins to study herbalism often sees through the lens of a medicalized society. It is difficult to see the nuance between daily health maintenance and “herbal medicine”, because our cultural consciousness is structured around the idea that medicine is how we stay healthy.

My argument is similar to the one I often see in the realm organic farming. It seems laughable that we have to call it “organic” when we should just call it “farming”. It is simply good common sense that our ancestors knew about the relation between the land and those who worked it and expected to be fed. Maintaining daily health is not “herbal medicine”. It is just good common sense that should have been passed down from parent to child on “routine-care-and-maintenance-of-the-household-human”. It is only a very special skill now because our ancestral heritage has become so very foreign to us.

So please don’t call what I do everyday for my family “herbal medicine”. It makes me bristle to my marrow. I have simply reclaimed some of the knowledge my ancestors knew about their relationship with the plants in my backyard. These plants grace our table on a daily basis to nourish us, supporting our daily health in a bid to avoid medicine. Yes, in full disclosure, I am someone who has gone deeper in my knowledge of the herbs and feel comfortable dealing with sickness that goes beyond the ordinary. I have balanced my own body in the face of medical diagnosis, but it was HARD WORK, dedication, change and a deft hand at using the right herbs at the right times. I did not simply “take” an herb as medicine, or use something better than what Western Medicine had to offer, and make it all better.

When I need “herbal medicine” or “Western Medicine”, there has been a breakdown in the natural vitality of my body’s systems or those of my family and I am happy for the access to both. Shouldn’t we all strive to avoid “medicine”? Not because it is evil, or it means some sort of failure on our part, but because we are spending our energy being healthy.

Please let me know your thoughts! I am passionate about my ideas, but I am very interested in dialogue.

By now some of you may have heard about the controversy over fire cider. If you know about fire cider you either are an herbalist or know one. If you don’t know about it you’re part of the rest of the world. So here’s a quick summation:

Since time out of mind there has been a traditional recipe known to many cultures at once. The recipe has always included various combinations of vinegar, honey, onions, garlic and cayenne. It’s been used as a digestive tonic and an immune system supportive and is a traditional medicine owned by no one and no culture. In the 1960s an herbalist named Rosemary Gladstar was working to repair the loss of traditional medicine culture in the US. Part of that work was teaching others all she was learning from old-timers, antique books and her travels. She wrote a manual for these students and wanted to teach them some of the traditional medicine she had gathered. No one had really written down the formal recipe, but Rosemary captured it in her own interpretation and dubbed it “Fire Cider”. Since then the recipe has continued to be in her lesson manual and in several copyrighted books. Rosemary has never claimed to own “Fire Cider” either as this is just her term for the distillation of several cultures around the world. She has passed her version of the recipe on with a larger understanding of the mix of powerful plants and what they can do. She has also passed it along with the understanding that while her recipe is a placeholder on the map, so to speak, it is really just a place to begin each individual’s own innovation. Our version of “Fire Cider” is called Buckeye Fire and contains turmeric and sage in addition to the traditional ingredients. I have seen some pretty clever innovations over the years.

Enter the Controversy

A couple years ago, one of the folks who had heard about Rosemary’s “Fire Cider” tried making her own version of the recipe. Everyone in her community loved it. This individual started her business, Shire City Herbals, and had some really clever ideas about marketing the ancient recipe. At the time there were many products on Etsy, on personal websites and at farmer’s markets that called themselves “Fire Cider”. No one minded that each person had the same name on their product. It was understood that everyone was making their own version of traditional medicine. Unfortunately, the individual I mentioned above got some legal advice. They were told that the only way they could make it to the big time of product sales would be to protect their claim to the name “Fire Cider”. They proceeded to file a trademark. To understand clearly what this meant, it would be like someone wanting to own the word “cupcake”. We can agree that that’s a common name many people use at home and many more use at bakeries. Everyone understands what a “cupcake” is and everyone knows that each bakery is going to make their own version. This is why the trademark office has a list of common terms. Anyone applying for a trademark must be held up against that list and if they have chosen a name that is common in cultural relevance they are turned down.

The Meat of the Problem

In the case of Shire City Herbals, when their application to trademark “Fire Cider” was compared to the list, the term wasn’t there. A cursory search on the internet would have revealed a plethora of instances where the term was already in use. No one knows why this wasn’t done. The trademark was approved. Once you own a trademark you are required to defend it, so Shire City set about doing that. Many herbalists have been threatened and currently three herbalists are being sued over this controversy. Some have been threatened because they have been making “Fire Cider” for 20 years or more and now aren’t allowed to call it that. Some have been threatened because they are speaking out over the appropriation of a medicineway that belongs to everyone and shouldn’t be held by just one person or company.

The Real Issue

If we get caught up in the current fight we miss the forest for the trees. There are many other bits of folk medicine that are out there. The real issue is that they are no longer in a place of cultural relevance that they can be found on a list such as the trademark office prepares. You may have started reading this piece and thought, “what the heck is Fire Cider”? Traditional medicine is there for us all, but many in our culture have become disconnected from the importance of that. Because the culture at large has no awareness of this birthright they are ripe for someone to trademark it and sell it back to them. Let’s pause for a moment there. Because we no longer value our own belongings (in this case, our rich local medicine tradition) they can be stolen from us and then sold back in our communities with a slick marketing campaign one bottle at a time.

What Can Be Done?

First, it is important to share the knowledge. We can all make traditional recipes at home instead of purchasing them. You can find the Fire Cider recipe here. Making Fire Cider at home can be an act of protest. Each bottle that is made by you or purchased from your local herbalist is a vote against the trademark of cultural knowledge. If you see Shire City advertising in your favorite magazine or showing up at your favorite conference, write and ask why their tactics are being supported. Currently, Rosemary Gladstar is working with the US Patent office to create a list of common traditional medicine terms. I think this is brilliant and will head off the next attempt to creep into our houses and take another recipe that we own.

Here At The Farm

I’ll be teaching a class on traditional recipes on August 17. Four Thieves is another recipe and name that has been stolen. Young Living Essential Oils has trademarked that name and it is even older than Fire Cider! I use it for cleaning around the house and not in an essential oil format. It is a close race for me which is my favorite traditional recipe, but I think that the Queen of Hungary’s Water might be it. I just started some a few weeks ago. It takes fresh lemon balm, chamomile, rosemary, calendula, roses, lemon peel, sage and comfrey. When it’s done it makes the best beauty treatment you can imagine… and it’s beautiful to look at while it’s brewing! Join me in my farm shop on August 17 and learn these recipes.

Welcome to our new site, Heal Local! The idea for this site was born after my book Heal Local, 20 Essential Herbs for Do-it-Yourself Home Healthcare was published. I’ve spent a lot of time observing what’s available on the internet while writing for several other online blogs. One of my biggest frustrations is the prevailing idea that there is “one way” to do health. Usually, that one way is supported with a lot of research and fact, but there is always a feeling that you should think the way the owners of the site do. This goes against what I believe about the body.

Growing up, I was taught to gather information and to make my own decisions. Because of this I am very distrustful of people who try to tell me what to think. Health is a very personal matter. Our bodies are individual from one another. There are NO universal answers. It seemed to me that what we needed was a place where people could go for information on a variety of ways to get to health without bias.

Heal Local is the home site for my curiosity. It is my intention that the information found on this site should meet you where you are, rather than ask you to come to my way of thinking first before we have a conversation. When I have a bias I’ll express it, but I’ll always invite you to disagree and question. This won’t be a sterile environment devoid of opinion. I’m inviting you into my family, where everyone is free to do it their own way and we all respect each other for our choices. In my family, no one is offended because someone else thinks differently. The pull of ideas allows everyone to grow and often provides a new and unseen perspective. I intend to learn as much from those who comment and take part in this community as you will from me.

There is too much stigma in natural health. There are too many people standing in their corners shouting that their way is the only way. We have unnecessary drama between complementary medicine and Western medicine. We vilify each other for our choices and chase away those who would like to make a change. This muddies the water and makes it difficult for many of us to know our options. This site is intended to be a clearing house to find information on those options- what does a functional medical doctor do? What are the pros and cons of some of the most popular ways of eating (vegan, paleo, blood type, etc.)? Using the video channel and the blog I will explore many of these questions, looking for answers and always asking you to think about how what I find applies to your life.

Because I believe that food is your medicine you will find recipes, videos and blogs focusing on how to use food to heal your body.

Because I believe in knowing the plants on a personal level, you will find botanical information on how the plants grow, how to identify them and how people around the world have used them for food, medicine, clothing, household goods and more.

Because I live a life where food and medicine grow side by side in my gardens and I believe that everyone should be self-sufficient in their home healthcare, you will always find real life experiences and instructions to help you grow in these skills as well.

It is my hope that everyone feels welcome here. It is my hope that the person who is eating an entirely processed diet and on several medications finds this site as approachable as the healthcare professional who runs a clinic. We all have valuable insights and none of us can start towards a healthier life from anywhere other than where we are today.

Today I’m a guest contributor for the E-Newsletter at Harmony Farms in Tipp City. Since I will be teaching a class on plant communication this week-end, I thought I would share a bit more about what this means to me.



Have you ever wondered how we originally found out which plant would be useful for which ailment? It was in college that I first realized I didn’t know. At the time, I was preparing for a trip to a rainforest nature preserve where botanists and anthropologists were working with the remaining shaman of the area to catalogue ancient knowledge before it was lost. The general process was to walk the forest with these gifted medicine men and women and identify the plants that they were using. That was just the first step, because of course, we can’t rely on centuries of application. The plant was then collected and mailed back to a lab in the United States for analysis. In this way, scientists were able to determine what the active chemicals were and how they might have action in the body.

The shaman of the Amazon have been working with plants for the purpose of healing their community members since the beginning of their cultural memory. They have done this without lab equipment and the ability to reduce the plants to their molecular foundation. How is that possible? How could they just know this plant and not that plant?

The scientific answer I was given was that in the beginning of human/plant interactions, humans started with a mass campaign of trial and error. It is believed that when someone was ill, the medicine man would select a plant at random and use it as a treatment. If the person died, it was most likely not the right treatment. Time evidently proceeded in this way, randomly treating until there was success. For a brief moment, this appeased me, but my mind continued to tickle. Quickly I thought, “Really?!” Taking into account the sheer number of plants on the planet and the amount of knowledge that was amassed before laboratories were available, that just isn’t plausible.

So, if trial and error is not logical, where does that leave us? I found my answer several years later while studying to become an herbalist. Humans have been interacting with plants since we’ve been on the planet. We have been guided in many ways. Some of us are gifted and “called” into nature. There have been people like this in every age. They were often the shaman or the village wise woman because they seemed to have a knack with the plants. Some of us are completely unaware of this interaction, but just inexplicably seem to have a “green thumb”. My grandmother was like this. She grew tea roses that would knock your socks off. She spent every day from early spring through the first snowfall fussing with them, feeding them, trimming and telling them her troubles. They responded with growth, health and abundant blooms.

The space where we can communicate with the plants is a meditational quiet. You’ve felt it every time you walk into a forest, or spend an hour in your garden. We receive inspiration in nature because we relax and open our heart space. The part that we must learn is giving back as well as the ability to recognize this inspiration comes from outside ourselves rather than within.

The techniques of plant communication can be taught. In some cultures it was effected with hallucinogenic substances. What I teach now is a meditational practice and a heightened awareness. It is gentle and can deepen your experience of any natural place. Knowing how to meditate with the plants can change the way you garden and the way you look at your potted plants.

I’m teaching a workshop at Harmony Farm in Tipp City this Saturday (July 12, 2014). Of course I’ll be teaching plant communication techniques, but where would we be without just a touch of science. There have been many, many studies to date that verify that plants are communicating. Not everyone is able to learn these meditations in the same way. For some, knowing that there is a good science foundation increases their confidence. There is always a need for application of any technique as well. We will learn how plant communication methods leads into the creation of a very special plant medicine called flower essences. To make a flower essence properly is to meditate with the beauty of the plant world in the open sunshine of a warm day…. come join us

It seems that when many of us think about medicinal herbs that will be the most healing for our bodies, we picture an exotic, far-off locale. We order our herbs from mail order companies who work with growers from around the world to collect everything we need to treat our families.

Why is it so easy to see the healing potential in a plant that grows in some exotic climate? Is it because we can’t believe that there is the same potential in a place that is familiar to us? “Common” and “taken for granted,” these herbs stand silently by while we ship herbs in from the living medicine chest of other cultures.

Looking only at the exotic herbs that grow far away from where we live negates the connection that we have to the land and our plants locally. Those far away plants seem to hold the allure of a “cure”, but we overlook the specific healing characteristics that local plants have for us because they come from the same soils from which we eat. They come from the same climate in which we maintain homeostasis. They soak in the same sunlight and grow under the same night sky.

This notion is commonplace when we discuss wine, cheese and even chocolate. Terroir is a consideration of how the location from which one of these food items originated has a specific geology, geography and climate that interacts with the plant genetics that make up a given product in a unique way. The result is kind of a “chicken-soup” effect- the same ingredients in several different mother’s pots will all taste different somehow.

If we accept that there is something about the way we interact with the living world around us that imparts a unique flavor profile to our food, why then can we not accept that it is the same with medicinal compounds within that food? With each soil type, a given medicinal plant will vary in its chemical make-up from region to region. It may even differ depending on the other plants that can be found in the neighborhood so to speak. Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) that grows in Russian soils tends to have a higher concentration of pyrrolizidine alkaloids and those that are found growing in the United States tend to have less or none. Why is that? Could it be that there is a greater need for these compounds among the Russian people than Americans because of their given soils and climates? Something to ponder…..

As the seasons change and we look forward to another growing season, we should consider a greater awareness of plants in our own backyard. Medicinals from the other side of the planet will undeniably contain useful phytochemicals, but will they really get to the root of what we need? By reconnecting with ourselves and the plants that grow in community with us, we might get to the root of our imbalances in a much simpler way.

Dawn Combs will be giving a talk during May Herb Day in Gahanna (May 10, 2014  – 9am-4pm) entitled “Three Local Medicinal Natives That Deserve a Second Look”. Join her on the plaza and learn more about the plants that are available in your own community for living in full health and vitality.

More and more each day, people are turning to botanically based health aides to support their health. There is quite a variety of ways in which plants can be used, from tinctures to capsules to powders to teas. Of course, the best way of all in my opinion is to use them daily in your food rather than “dosing” or worrying about “recommended daily allowance”. We tend to limit our plant allies too much when we focus solely on their chemical make-up and how that applies to an arbitrary valuation of vitamins and minerals we should get on any given day.

That said, many botanical preparations that can be bought at the store have directions for their use on the side of the box or bottle. They actually have to be there per FDA rules, but is there such a thing as a one-size fits all dosing when it comes to herbal supplements?

The answer is simply, no. You can assume that the amount to take is a general suggestion based on the average sized (about 150 pounds) adult. If you are giving the product to an adult who differs from that size, or to a child, you must adjust accordingly. Beyond that, there are questions about what kind of issue you are suffering with that the box just simply can’t ask you. On our farm, we make a Honey Spread called Inflammabee. Our suggestion is to eat 1 teaspoon up to three times per day. My father is the person for whom I originally formulated this spread. For a while he ate one teaspoon a day just before bed and it relieved the pain of his arthritic neck enough for him to sleep. His immediate problem was solved, but he admitted one day that the pain would return the next day. I explained to him that herbs can be used to relieve a temporary pain, or they can be used to help rebalance the body and stop a cycle. In order to break a cycle such as inflammation, it is necessary to eat three teaspoons spread evenly throughout the day. He grudgingly followed through with my suggestion, broke the pain cycle and now just uses our Inflammabee for preventative measures during times of great activity. Here are some guidelines for how to determine the different ways to use herbal supplements:

Tonic/Daily Vitamin
If you are hoping to use a supplement for general maintenance, like a daily multivitamin, you may take the suggested amount just once a day.

Chronic Health Issue
If you are struggling with an imbalance in your body that is causing health issues and it has been ongoing for quite some time you will want to use your supplement more often. In that case you would eat an herb or herbal combination three to four times a day and you would spread it out. An easy way to do this is to add it into your breakfast, lunch and dinner routine. It is not helpful to just eat three times the herbal supplement at one time. Herbs don’t remain in the body for long periods of time. The body recognizes them as food and therefore uses them up and passes them through. You must eat more every few hours to keep up the concentration of the healing benefit. Over time, the herbs can help give your body the space it needs to heal itself.
Herbal Extracts: 1/4 teaspoon three to four times per day (or as directed)
Teas: 1 (8 ounce) cup three to four times per day

Acute Health Issue
Herbs can help in acute situations as well, such as in the case of a headache. In this situation, you want to get the body to take up the herb’s healthy benefits quickly. Small amounts in quick succession is the best way to use herbs for this type of relief.
Herbal Extracts: 1/8- 1/4 teaspoon every 15-20 minutes
Teas: 1/4 cup every 15-20 minutes.

There are so many ways to add herbs to our lives. In a culture that focuses so much on the medicalization of health, though, it can be just as important to know how to add dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) to a delicious soup as it is to understand the amount needed to help with an uncomfortable situation of bloating. The label on your favorite herbal product may not be able to give you recommendations for how to use it in every situation. Keep these general guidelines in mind the next time you reach for some herbal help and you may have better success.

Dawn Combs will be demonstrating how to make delicious no-bake cookie snacks that incorporate healing herbs during May Herb Day in Gahanna, May 10 (9am-4pm). Join her in the Ohio Herb Education Center to taste how good herbal health can taste!

Wow! Tis the season for cakes and candies and cookies. I haven’t started my traditional cooking marathon and I’ve been reflecting about how I plan to go about it. This year brought more changes in my diet as I decided to go gluten-free. We’ve been on a journey toward whole, traditional food for years. Small changes have occurred until finally, we are somewhere very far from where we originally started. When the person who is responsible for the cooking in the family makes a dietary change as big as gluten-free it has effects on everyone else who eats in the home.

This year is the first year I have questioned the need to have five or six different kinds of cookies and candy in the home in the last couple weeks before Christmas. Having removed sugars and refined grains from our diet, it suddenly strikes me as illogical to pile it all in for the holidays. On a normal day you would not find cookies on the counter or ice cream in the fridge, so how do you reconcile the need for holiday treats?

What’s worse is I traditionally make a lot of the Christmas gifts we give. This means homemade candies and treats like real marshmallows. It seems wrong to buy sub-standard food products and things I wouldn’t give to my family when giving to others. At the same time, I do not want to be a holiday grinch.

The holidays should be focused on special time with family and friends. It should mean special crafts with the kids and walks in the snow. It should be drives through the country to look at the Christmas lights against the snow. How did it come to mean LOTS of sugar and holiday weight gain?

My solution? This year I will make some of our usual holiday treats. For the cookies I will use a gluten-free flour mix like the one my friend over at the Fluttering Foodist has created. I will use organic sucanat or evaporated cane juice instead of refined sugar. Butter and lard will provide healthy richness. For hard candies, instead of using GMO corn syrup I will be using maple syrup. My chocolate candies and fudge will be coconut oil based. I will feel good about the food that I make for our family and friends. But I will probably not advertise that I made it with “good” ingredients.

Making treats the way I do is important for my family because I am responsible for their health. I’m not responsible for the health of my friends and extended family. Their food decisions are none of my business… I never want my friends to open a gift from me and see a box of judgement on their lifestyle. They should open a box of delicious, decadent fudge that I secretly know won’t hurt their blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

This Christmas, I will make treats available in our household in reasonable amounts. When I make treats for others I will choose real food ingredients and work to make them just as tasty, if not more so, than their store-bought counterparts. We give others our best because that is how gifts show our love. If you are a traditional, real food foodie you cannot bring yourself to give something made with ingredients you feel are unsafe and unhealthy. If all the ingredients are healthy but they include sanctimony, it will surely be a bitter treat to swallow for your loved one.

Preparations for the big holiday season takes many forms on our farm. About a week ago I decided to spend some time in the apothecary. It was time to get a good inventory before the next round of products needed made.

Herbs should be stored in glass for them to retain their quality for as long as possible. If you have a small apothecary, it may be possible to always follow this rule. If you’re like me, you get curious about more herbs all the time. I always have to have a little bit of something exotic that I’d like to learn better. Inevitably we all accumulate more herbs than we can fit in our various sized recycled glass jars. When that happens, it is important to come up with a system for organization.

When I began to uncover all the herbs I had tucked under the counter I was rather dismayed at how poorly my system was working. Or rather, how poorly I was doing because I had no system to begin with. Ironically, I found at least four different bags of thyme. Time seems to be something I have greatly lacked and without good organization… it appears that I do things like buy too much thyme!

In the end, I catalogued over 170 different herbs and that is before I headed in to inventory the kitchen and medicine closet! That may seem like quite an accomplishment, but for the average home herbalist it simply isn’t necessary. We have so many different herbs because I am making herbal products and teas and I am also formulating for both our family and my clients. The truth is, your apothecary can be made up of only a few herbs or even just one!

If you are just starting to outfit your apothecary I recommend you start small. Pick one herb at a time and really get to know it. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) for instance can be used for many different things. It is antispasmodic and expectorant. It has a long history of being used in chronic cough. It is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiseptic, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-parasitic and antioxidant. Thyme is a great detoxifier and has an affinity for the liver and the kidneys, assisting with the removal of toxins from the body. It is a well known support for the immune system. As you can see one could easily adapt a formula for many common family ailments with just the one herb.

By choosing just one or two herbs to fill your apothecary your need for organization diminishes. All you need are a couple large glass containers. It also gives you the opportunity to choose an herb that either grows naturally where you live or can be grown in large quantity as an annual. Growing your own medicine in this way is empowering, money saving and wise. It might also free up the time to go organize a different room in your house instead!