first herbs to buy

vickeym

Since it is winter here in Alaska I am going to buy some herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. Can anyone recommend some good ones? I currently have calendula, yarrow, comfrey, marshmallow and elderberry as well as plantain oil and hyssop oxymel.

I am looking for pain relief (back, hips, knees and shoulders) Also for any good general health and healing. So far I have made infused oils, teas a salve and an oxymel.

Torey

@vickeym Mullein leaf is very useful for lung conditions. Chamomile is always a nice herb to have on hand. I like having astragalus root for adding to broths, etc. as food medicine. If you are into making nourishing herbal infusions, check out Susun Weed's recommendations for herbs at: http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/September08/anti-cancer.htm

If you aren't completely frozen in yet, you could be harvesting Oregon Grape Root to tincture. Wonderful antibiotic. Has similar compounds to Goldenseal. You have so many wonderful things in the wilderness around you. In another few months the Cottonwood buds will be fattening up and you can make an excellent oil which can be turned into a salve on its own or combine it with other ingredients for healing salves or lip balms. Very good all-round oil to have. I like it combined 50-50 with cayenne oil for joint and muscle pain. So I would order some cayenne powder from Mountain Rose. Following the Cottonwood buds are the spruce tips. I like making a honey with them (or an oxymel) for coughs and colds. Willow bark can be harvested at any time to tincture as a pain reliever.

When you say you have elder, is that the dried berries or the flowers?

Are you on the coast or more inland?

This is a book about the Gwich'in people of the Yukon and Northwest Territories but I think it would be very applicable to you as well. Gwich'in Ethnobotany: Plants Used by the Gwich'in for Food, Medicine, Shelter and Tools.

This is another one written by Beverly Gray in Whitehorse. The Boreal Herbal, Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North.

chimboodle04

Not sure if they sell dandelion, but my father-in-law said the salve I made from them earlier this year worked better on his knee pain than the CBD oil he had been using previously...

vickeym

@torey I am in south central Alaska, so inland (small town called Talkeetna) not sure what Oregon Grape looks like yet. Have not heard of it up here but will look it up. It will be a few months for the cottonwood buds but I am trying to get more information on when they are ready in our area from some locals.

A lot of our spruce trees throughout the state have died due to spruce bark beetle infestations. But I am looking forward to finding some younger ones that have survived and collecting spruce tips. And hopefully I will also find some spruce resin or pitch to collect for various uses.

I actually have the Boreal Herbal book. A friend introduced me to that one not long before she moved from our area. Will have to look for the other book. The elder I have is dried berries. I made a syrup from them while fighting a bad couch from whatever the crud going around at the time was. That is also when I made my hyssop oxymel. Have not yet tried using the willow bark. Is there a time to harvest that is better? Is it the inner or outer bark or can you just tincture a bit of the stem?

@chimboodle04 Amazingly while others complain about all the dandelions I have only found a couple on my property and the same in my area, just a few scattered plants here and there. Might have to put some in my order. Thank you both for your suggestions. Hoping by spring I will be more confident in my plant identification and will find much more to wild harvest from my property.

wbt.affiliates

Also, eliminate sugar from your diet. Sugar is an inflammatory, man-made product with little to recommend it. It attacks anything in your body that's already weak, such as old joints or a damaged back. It can raise an infection to a dangerous level. As if that weren't enough, it FEEDS cancer.

By the way, I STILL fight my addiction to sugar.

Torey

I have never been to Alaska but I do know where Talkeetna is. Have watched many programs on Alaska and have travelled throughout Northern BC and the Yukon. Oregon Grape is reportedly found from Southeastern Alaska to Northern California but might not be as far inland as you and it’s probably not common. Here is a picture of it so you can look for it next year, although you might have to travel closer to Anchorage to find it. There might be a nursery in Anchorage that would carry it as a landscape plant. So that is something I would definitely get from Mountain Rose. I have seen it do wonderful things with topical staph infections.

The reason I asked if you had elder berries or flowers is that they are both used. I would add elder flower to the list to brew with Yarrow and Peppermint. This is a famous infusion for colds and flus.

It is the inner bark of the willow that is used but the outer layer on younger twigs (which is what you want) is very thin, so sometimes I will just leave it on. Best time to harvest is in the early spring just as the buds are fattening but you could harvest at any time if you had the need.

For pain relief, you could also try Meadowsweet (same aspirin compounds as Willow). A teacher of mine makes a trauma oil with equal parts each of St. John’s Wort, Arnica and Mullein and it is very effective. There is another discussion going on in Natural and Home Medicine re Wild Lettuce as an effective pain medicine. And, there is turmeric.

Have you checked out what can be purchased locally in Anchorage? They might have some dried plant materials that have been locally harvested. I am always a fan of using local whenever possible. 

Torey

Should have address the above to @vickeym

nksunshine27

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/842518/first-herbs-to-buy

It sounds like your off to a good start. if moutain rose doesnt have what your looking for try homegrown herbalist.

also i didnt realize that milk was the cause of my joint pain till i listened to a webinar and then i went to Peru where they dont drink milk they do make some cheese well i was there for 2 weeks and i felt pretty good, got home and started drinking milk and could barley move. tried process of elimination and found it was the milk. i could explain more why later if you want

herbantherapy

@vickeym

I love MRH since they are practically in my backyard🙃

I have found turmeric/pepper has greatly reduced inflammation I just “put that s$&t on everything!” Lol and I have found Ashwaganda has been super helpful with, well everything. Cramps, bleeding, migraines, General aches, mood levels are all on the positive side after adding a 1/2 tsp to my tea every morning.

shllnzl

@nksunshine27 For me, tomatoes are an obvious cause of joint pain.

vickeym

@torey I do have the Boreal Herbal book, will have to look for the other one. Unfortunately I have never seen or heard of Oregon Grape as far north and inland as I am. The South Eastern area is several hours from where I am. But I will be checking the nurseries around Anchorage to see what they might have available come spring. Have not looked into herb shops there yet. Anchorage is a 2 hour drive each way. And things here are often more expensive than ordering online by the time they cover their freight and the markup they need to make a profit.

Will definitely look into the elder flowers. Got a bad virus a couple years ago. I'm pretty sure it turned out to be bronchitis though our local clinic never diagnosed it. They just kept throwing more pills at me until it finally went away. None of the pills seemed to help much. After my third time that sick and with a cough that would not go away a new doctor they had recently hired saw me and told me I had bronchitis.

We have tried the golden milk (turmeric drink) Was not fond of it but am working on adding it to more of our food with the pepper to help our bodies use it. Will be harvesting the willow come spring. And I have heard good things on the St Johns Wort. Might have to add it to my order.

@chimboodle04 Dandelion sounds like one I should add.

@nksunshine27 Milk does not seem to be an issue in our case. We get ours straight from the farm, not store bought. But even when there are periods we don't have it for a couple months (just before calving) there is no change for us and we do not use store bought during that time.

@herbantherapy Will look more into the Ashwaganda as well.

@wbt.affiliates Sugar will always be an addiction we fight.

vickeym

Here is a related question for anyone who uses comfrey. How do you go about preparing it to use in a salve. I have some comfrey root powder. Saw a video on Mountain Rose Herbs blog where the lady was doing infused oils with first a small amount of vodka, then adding the oil, run everything in a blender just till it starts to get slightly warm, then strain off the oil.

Decided to try it with my comfrey, arnica and calendula. Starting with the comfrey. I knew confrey was listed as a demulcent. I was not anticipating Just how sticky, slimy, snotty it was going to be. lol

Eventually I would like to have each of the three herbs as an oil and combine a portion of the oil into a salve. Just wondering how any of you might use your comfrey when you are making a salve and how you prep and store for winter when there is no fresh available.

Thank you all so much for helping to guide this newbie on my journey to providing better medicine and health to myself and my family.

Torey

@vickeym

I have never used the root before. However, I would use it more as a poultice rather than an oil. I use the leaves for making oil, fresh or dried. If fresh, I chop it up and barely cover with oil, then put it in a slow cooker (turning it on and off, so it doesn't get too hot) for about 6-8 hours, then strain it off. If dried I use the 1:10 ratio. So if you had 100 grams of dried material then you would use 1000 ml (1 litre) of oil and the same slow cooker method (or 1 oz. plant material to 10 oz. oil). You can use this same ratio for your other ingredients. You can also use the cold method which takes much longer or the solar method. Here is a link to a very good article on infused oils. https://theherbalacademy.com/herb-infused-oils/

The map I checked says Talkeetna is zone 3b-4a. So you should be able to grow comfrey. It grows from zones 3-8.

One thing about Arnica; it should not be used on open skin (wounds, etc.) but calendula and comfrey make great wound salves. So good that you want to make sure there is no sign of infection because they can seal up the wound so well that infection might be trapped inside. Calendula is mildly antimicrobial but can still seal a wound very quickly. Comfrey, calendula & self-heal make a nice wound salve or add cottonwood bud into the mix. Chamomile is anti-inflammatory and soothing. So many different combination choices! Arnica is better as a salve for bruising (one of its best uses) or as a joint & muscle salve.

vickeym

Thanks. I did get a comfrey plant near the end of the season. It was small and I was not sure how to use it yet, figured I would wait till next summer and let it get a bit bigger first, and for me to learn a bit more about what I'm doing with it. LOL

Torey

@vickeym Rosalee de la Foret has a website called Herbal Remedies Advice; really good information on a variety of herbal subjects. Very good for both newbies and experienced herbalists. She regularly publishes herbal monographs and here is the link to the one on comfrey: https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/benefits-of-comfrey.html

vickeym

Thank you. I love her site. Have learned a lot there. Can't remember why I ordered the powdered comfrey instead of the leaves. But since I had it I thought I would make a salve. Did not think about how demulcent it would be.

Jannajo

@nksunshine27 Milk, abt that milk (&problems with it), I am all on this and wld soooo like what other info u might have, this is a great idea - been almost a year I use no dairy, like, none. Think it is great this way. T Colin Campbell is my expert on this, he grew up on a dary farm, wrote The China Study, casein(in milk) promoting tumor of cancer growth.

shllnzl

@2majomix I just read that the main dairy corporation declared bankruptcy because milk consumption is down.