Echinacea Tinctures From Your Garden

This article appeared in the fall issue of Green Living Journal.  It is a very basic explanation of tincture making.  For a more in-depth exploration, please see the article Making Weight-to-Volume Tinctures. Throughout New England, gardeners treat themselves to the charming long-season blooms of echinacea, or purple coneflower as the ornamental cultivars are sometimes known. Folks … Continue reading Echinacea Tinctures From Your Garden

Why I Don’t Pick the Flowers: Leave the Spring Ephemerals Alone

I love this time of year: the first wildflowers' hopeful surge to sunlight before the leaves cast shade on the forest floor, the birds' joy in life and love as they chase each other around the edges of the yard in pursuit of the next generation, the sudden sunlight in the midst of a rainy … Continue reading Why I Don’t Pick the Flowers: Leave the Spring Ephemerals Alone

Bioregional Herbalism, or “Go Outside”

North America is a big place.  Every region has its own potent medicines that fulfill humans’ biological needs.  Coevolution is a beautiful thing, as is biodiversity.  There is no reason to believe that the newest trendy superherb from South America, India, or anywhere else is going to do something for us that we can’t accomplish … Continue reading Bioregional Herbalism, or “Go Outside”