aquarianbath's blog
20 weeks 2 days ago
This is my second year growing Moringa oleifera trees, but the first year they have bloomed. If you are not familiar with Moringa, it is a highly nutritive tree, which has the highest protein concentration of any known plant. It is also very easy to digest. Since they did not bloom last year and I was harvesting a good amount of leaves I decided to just let them go over the summer and see if we got any flowers. So here are the first blooms from one of the trees at the Fair Share Garden. I am hoping that we will end up with many seeds to share. All parts of the plant have a variety of...
20 weeks 5 days ago
I spent another Saturday at Maggie's Herb Farm in St. Augustine teaching an advanced soapmaking class for Creating Shampoo Bars and Spa/Salt Soaps. The class itself when very well. I had some mild anxiety on the way up that I had maybe not packed all the ingredients that we needed, but everything was packed and it was a very smooth class.
The last time I was at the farm I finally noticed that there was a huge neem tree in one of the large green houses. When I talked to the owner on Thursday before the class, I asked her if I could harvest some for myself. She sounded very excited about the...
22 weeks 3 days ago
Yesterday I mentioned in my natural perfumery blog post that the Aromatherapy effects of dynamic natural plant essential oils cannot be duplicated by man-made chemical fragrance oils. Aromatherapy is a branch of plant medicine that has nothing to do with synthetic fragrances. However, because the health-promoting properties of true Aromatherapy are desirable, many companies use cheaper chemical fragrance oils that do NOT carry these benefits, but will mislead customers (knowingly or unknowingly) by using the terms aromatherapy or aroma to make it seem like they are the same thing. The most...
22 weeks 4 days ago
I am pleased to announce for the first time on my blog that I am now offering a line of Natural Perfumes at http://www.AltGlobe.net. By natural perfumes I mean those that are made with plant based fragrance ingredients, which are pure essential oils. Essential oils have been used in perfumery for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians, East Indians and Hebrews used them. Perfumes were used in bathing, anointing, ritual and as incense. Plant essences were used primarily in perfumes up until the early 1900's, at which point synthetic perfumes began to be developed. These chemical...
22 weeks 6 days ago
I spent national Herb Day yesterday at Maggie's Farm in St. Augustine teaching a class on seasonal recipes for cold and flu. We had jam packed day full of herbal activities including preparation of fire cider, an herbal chest salve, Holy Basil tea, and an excellent cough syrup. I know there were some of you who wanted to go, but couldn't make it. So I'm posting a recipe from class that you can try at home.
As our primary ingredient we used English Thyme grown in the Fair Share Garden Herb Spiral in Daytona Beach. I'm very proud of the garden volunteers for keeping the Thyme growing through...
23 weeks 3 days ago
In the last few years I've come across a number of people taking or teaching "Master Herbalist" programs. It always makes me cringe to hear the phrase. It is counter intuitive to me that one can become a master by taking a year long program. To me a master herbalist is someone who has had many years of practice. One of my herbal heros is Hua Tou. Even though he was the most famous herbalist in China during his time, he disguised himself to learn from other herbalists anonymously. I now tell the students in my classes, some of whom are in Master Herbalist programs, that I am a Junior...
23 weeks 4 days ago
Many thanks to Paul Bergner for his promotion of Elderberry as well as other herbs in this video as a suggested treatment for Swine Flu/ H1N1 Virus. As mentioned by Paul, Elder Flower and Elderberry have been in use in Europe and North America traditionally for use with colds and flu. An Isreali scientific study also found that influenza patients taking Elderberry syrup fared better than those in the control group. There are various types of Elder. The more well known is Sambucus nigra. Another commonly used Elder is Sambucus canadensis. In Florida we have Florida Elder or Sambucus...
33 weeks 2 days ago
This blog post is part of an Herbal Blog Party hosted by Kiva Rose about Herbal Sweet Medicine at Bear Medicine Herbals.
Garlic is a common kitchen herb with many medicinal uses. It can helps resolve colds, coughs, sore throats, and sinus infections. Externally it can be used for skin infections. For chronic concerns, Garlic helps reduce blood sugar and high blood pressure.
It is also helpful to treat Malaria and boost immunity for AIDS. It is famous as a de-wormer. I remember my grandpa taking it powdered on everything. The fresh garlic is the most potent to use medicinally, but I am just...
33 weeks 3 days ago
I spent a relaxing Sunday restocking my Black Drawing Salve. Most often I use it on wounds that are open, red around the edges, or oozing/weeping. Later after the pus is pulled up by the black salve, I use my Skin Soothing Balm which contains Comfrey, Yarrow and Calendula and helps close the wound quickly.
I like to make my salves with fresh herbs that are in season, so they sometime vary a bit. This time I used a base of Extra Virgin Olive oil infused Rose geranium and Plantain (Plantago major) leaves. Rose geranium is antiseptic and toning. Plantain leaves are a favorite for...
33 weeks 6 days ago
Today I had so much fun at the garden. I helped Fair Share Garden volunteer Jason Aufdenberg paint a second layer of Acrylics onto his Rainbow Sundial. Jason, pictured below, is a professor of Astronomy at Daytona's Embry Riddle University. We are so lucky to have him. He also gave us a free Garden Sundial workshop back in the Spring.
Here are Jason and Joel Tippes laying down the hour line guides for the sundial. This sundial is set to day light savings time. The hour lines we put down in rainbow colors. Next we will add month markers in black.
I put a double coat on 9 o'clock through 2...
