Creamy Coffee Butter

I love coffee and I am experimenting with something I can smear on and help feed my addiction.  For the holidays I created a nourishing cream with shea butter, mango butter, almond oil, Ruta Maya organic air trade local espresso.  I added a bit of rose and vanilla to the blend for a little bit of sweetness.  Need I say more?  It is absolutely addicting.  Now on to lip balm

Double Compounded Arnica cream

Holiday time means Cream time.  I have been thinking about an extra strong version of an antiinflammatory formula in the form of a cream.  Steph and I pulled together arnica and juniper oil with Arnica tincture I gathered this summer and blended it to make a cream.  We added in essential oils of peppermint.  Its great!  Can't wait to give it out.  There is just so much you can do with cream.............

Winter Wellness Elder Honey

I have been wanting to make an immune building and general illness recovery formula. There is a very traditional cold and flu remedy that incorporates Elder, Yarrow and Peppermint so I put my own twist on it.

I pulled together elder berries(antiviral, tonic and blood building), astragalus root(immune building), reishi mushroom(immune building and restoring inflammatory balance), fresh echinacea root(cool, stimulating diffusive immune stimulant, ), ginger root(pungeant, diffusive, warming to core), rosehips(vitamin c, drying, cooling), and simmered them for about an hour.
I then turned the heat way down to infuse in peppermint leaf(pungeant, warming and cooing, stimulating diaphoretic) and yarrow(diaphoretic) blossoms.  I let the mixture steam off for about another hour and strained out plant material.  I then reduced the mix down to about 1/3 of the original amount by steaming it for several more hours.  I added in about 1 oz of cleavers glycerite, both as a preservative and to bring cooling, moistening energy to the lymphatic system into the blend.
Once cool, I poured an equal amount of raw texas honey into the formula to preserve and offer a nice medium for taking the mix. Raw honey has antimicrobial properties and is warming and moistening.
The result is a delicious syrup that can be added to hot water, cold water, porridges, teas, or just taken by the spoonful during the winter to prevent or help in recovery from a cold or flu.  It tastes sweet, sour, bitter and slightly pungeant.

Herbal Remedies for Pets

Treating General Anxiety for Pets: Rescue Remedy Flower Essence is very Safe and effective

Healing Broths for Pets
My dog was hit by a car and had a long road to recovery. She went from having a broken jaw, pins in a front leg, broken back (missed)....To paralysis and getting MRSA in her spine.....to being cured and healed but paralyzed......to being cured healed, and walking again after a year of paralysis.  Now at 10 and a 1/2 she leads a normal doggy life.  In the time of her recoveries(about 1.5 years) I found there wasn't much out there to help people who wanted to devote themselves to their pets with chronic illness.  I plan on adding more and more to the following information so that others can get a sense of how to get through such a traumatic time for the pet and the persons involved.

The following remedy is one you may want to try and can be amended with different herbs for different situations. The recipe I have been amending this basic broth to is one to help heal bones and spinal injuries. It is helpful to make this just after anesthesia or ther operations when they haven't been drinking or eating much or have been on iv fluids. In any case the concept of a healing broth in which the remedy is given.
You will need: The remains of a free range, organically fed chicken or other ethically-obtained meat, Glucosamine-Chondroitin Pills, Electrolyte Pills, Acidophilus Capsules, and Fish Oil Capsules Make some free range chicken broth or similiar broth. Make sure to include bones and cartilage in the broth if possible. Let the broth cook for several hours if possible. In the broth add a tablspoon of vinegar to help extract the minerals out of the bones.  After making the broth, remove bones and let broth cool.(Fish Oil and acidophilus should not be added to any hot broth it kills the constituents)If you do not have time to make the broth, then it can be bought-Pacific Foods has a good brand. Once the broth cools, add
an acidophilus pill-powder
1 electrolyte pill=powder and
4 fish oil pill-squirt out the oil
2 glucosamine pills-crushed add per quart of liquid.
Store in a mason or other sealed jar and shake prior to use. Use within 4-5 days of being made. Store in fridge. Use 1/2 a cup per 25 pounds of body weight. This broth can be given by itself or with water. Both my dogs go nuts for it. It can also be poured on top of food.

An amendment to this to further help bones heal you can warm the broth before adding all the supplements and add 1/2 oz of comfrey leaf and/or oat grass to infuse in the hot broth for 15 minutes. Strain and cool. Then add the supplements

An amendment for neural injuries add 1/2 oz Wood Betony (Stachys) and/or St John's Wort. You may also squirt tincture onto food but make sure it is mixed in well Some dogs are very finicky(1 drop per pound of weight)

Neural Pain: Prickly Ash--strong taste so may not take, Skullcap, california poppy,

General Pain: Skullcap-safe generally with other pain meds

Anxiety, Nervousness: Choice of Oat Grass Seed/Vervain-strong taste so may not take/Passionflower

Muscular Spasms: 1 drop of Lobelia per 25pds of weight--Must be fresh plant tincture. Very strong, no more than a drop XXX

UTI's from catheters: Uva Ursi or Manzanita. Cranberry tastes to strong from them to take.  Make sure to keep wipes around and clean your pets private parts if they can't to prevent infection

The liver is usually traumatized from injuries so adding a 1/4 tspn per 25pds or weight of freshly ground milk thistle seeds to food every day for about a month after the injury

New Sunsafety Butter Formula

I have just refined my sunsafety salve to a butter.  The salve is a bastardization of a escharotic salve.  It has similiar ingredients, yet different.   I got an order from Florida where a woman wanted to use it with clients on their skin cancers.  My salve is both protective, extractive, and highly antioxidant.  I have really been wanting to use chaga mushrooms , but trying to figure out how to get it into the salve since most mushrooms must be extracted into water to get their full benefit.  I decided to do a reduction of chaga and add it into the salve with some shea butter.  The result is a butter that your skin literally sucks up.  I have never seen quite the consistency before.  I have high hopes.  My salve had had good results with small skin growths shrinking or even falling off but with the addition of a chaga reduction I can't wait to see what happens....
http://onibasu.com/archives/cl/27368.html
http://www.ibizadeluxe.com/chaga_medical.html

Hill Country Throat Honey

I decided to make a quick and easy throat syrup since I just pressed my fabulous Bee Balm Honey in my delicious raw, local, honey from Round Rock Honey.  Bee Balm, or Monarda citriodora, is full of Thymol(kind of like a super oregano) and tends to go directly for the throat.  I always take a dose of it at any indication that I have been exposed to some sort of infection and it usually clears it up very quickly.  Like one dose quickly.  I have also used it in formulas to allay the symptoms of mononucleosis.

In the honey, I added some native Plantain tincture (which among its properties and indications for use, I remember Matthew Wood in his Book of Herbal Wisdom using it for prickly and tickly throat irritations).  I also added some Grindelia tincture to help with wet coughs, or humid type conditions in the respiratory tract. Grindelia also acts as an antispasmodic and expectorant.  I added 4 parts of the monarda honey to 1 part grindelia and 1 part plantain fresh tincture.  The result was a sweet but potent brew that settles right in the throat to go to work.
I am now prepared for people who don't cleanse as our shift of weather comes and get some sort of respiratory tract infection.
Happy Honeys!

My Favorite Student Preparation 2010: Savory Superfood Bouillon

So we wanted to make a superfood in class but several class members didnt want it to be sweet.  We settled on dehydrating heirloom tomatoes, kale from the garden, kelp powder, himalayan pink salt, nutritional yeast, 14 mushroom blend powder from Mushroom Harvest, chickweed and alfalfa powder.  Everything was finely ground into a powder and mixed together.  The result was a tasty bouillon of sorts that we could sprinkle into dishes for added nutritional potency.  What really surprised me was how delicious the dried kale was.  It smelt and tasted great, almost adding a peppery punch to it. 

Mother of Minerals(MOM)

As our winter weeds begin to yield to our spring wildflowers, I am quickly harvesting and brewing as many plants as I can into vinegars, glycerites and tinctures.  What a winter for chickweed, even 18 degree freezes didnt hold it back! A couple of years ago my students and I began creating a new blend, originally entitled FloraYoni, now toned down to Mother of Minerals.  It was our answer to Floradix, an nutritive blend for iron and other mineral support often seen on the market.  I gather my winter greens(collards, kale and spinach) from my garden, add in wild chickweed, cleavers, henbit, cilantro, alfalfa, nettles, kelp, and whatever other nutritive goodies I have growing, some fresh beets from the garden, and blend them into a mix of glycerin and apple cider vinegar.  These stew and brew together for a month.  I add in a bit o black strap molasses and Voila, a tasty nutritive base for folks.  No pills needed.  This brew is a tasty way to get all sorts of extra blood building nutrition into you.  Pederson's Nutritional Herbology gave a nutritional profile of Chickweed that blew me away.  Seasonal Yumminess that even kids will take.