I've been using a lot more of our local plants in the last few months.
To help my immune system this fall & winter, I’ve been harvesting mostly from various trees & stuff that grows on trees and having great results. There’s still a lot to harvest out there even though it is winter.
I usually go through our rainy winters with a low grade feeling coming down with a cold. And holding classes in prevous winters has been hard, I seem to catch a cold from students who are even slightly sick.
Using local plants has really begun to change all that. Plus I have been choosing my herbs based on my constitution, so now I am choosing the right herbs for what is going on in my body. My new herbs courses will be based on this knowledge. For all my herbs students who didn't get to learn this (or others who already have a basis in herbal knowledge), I'll be offering this as distance learning on my forum in Feb & March.
My forum is here if you want to sign up & get to know how to use it:
Anyway, I found that some of the local trees are a huge help with the immune system. When I've been going on walks I pick bits to dry & add to my morning tea, and have made a few tinctures.
I have been making my morning teas different as well. Instead of an infusion, I have been adding the herbs to a pot of water & simmering it gently for about 10 minutes, so a gentle decoction is more what it is. This extracts more constituents from the plants.
Also found some Reishi growing locally & made a wonderful elixir out of that. And I always wondered why the medicinal mushrooms hurt my stomach. I realized they have to be cooked first, so remedies made from medicinal mushrooms need a 2 part process.
The other thing I have noticed when choosing plants based on your constitution is that you need way less of the remedy. You only need to use a few drops of tincture to kind of wake your body up to do its own healing. So instead of taking a whole bunch of herb to counteract some ailment, you are choosing herbs based on several factors & using a tiny bit to get your body to heal itself. This method also incorporates the taste of the plants & you feel like you are getting to know the plants better, by really tasting them.
That is part of what I teach my herb students: getting to know the herbs on many levels. If you buy a capsule with powdered herbs inside you have no idea what the plant looks likes or tastes like. I believe it is important to your healing & to becoming knowledgeable about the plant and to experience them as much as possible. This includes seeing them growing in all seasons outside, seeing what the plant looks like dried, and tasting the plant as an infusion. What I want to instil in my students is a good basis of herbal knowledge from which to branch out & make herbalism your own. And a few ways to really deepen your knowledge with the plants & get to know your local plants.
