Virginia Ahearn

The use of herbs for healing and medicine has been in practice for thousands of years. This knowledge has been handed down through generations in cultures throughout the world, and the effectiveness of using plants as medicine has stood the test of time. Herbal medicine, along with many other forms of alternative and holistic medicine all made a comeback of sorts during the “New Age” movement in the eighties, however, most folks don’t have a clear notion of exactly what herbs have to offer us, let alone how they are used, where to buy them, how to prepare them, etc.

Goldenseal (Hydrastis Canidensis) is a wonderful, fabulous herb. It is a blood cleanser, antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, kills yeast, stimulates the liver and smooth muscle tissue, it is bitter, and a mild laxative. Some say it will even clean the system of recreational drugs to change results of drug tests administered at the workplace. What’s true and what’s not? Sounds like it can cure anything. Can it? Some people believe this and take it all the time. Should they?

One of my favorite herbs is known to many folks as a common, annoying weed. Each year this wonderful plant is sprayed with lawn chemicals, or dug out of the ground with a vengeance. I remember when I was a little kid, one of my jobs was to dig them up in order to keep our yard looking ‘well kept’. There was even a special gardening tool to dig them up: the dandelion digger.

This month I am going to talk about herbs for the holiday blues. To anyone who is prone to depression, the holidays can be a dangerous time. There is an expectation that you WILL enjoy the holidays can be enough by itself to cause stress and anxiety. What if you hate your job and don’t want to go to the company party? What if you dislike your family? What if you feel obliged to purchase gifts even though you may be in debt? Add these factors in, and it is enough for some people to fall apart, or worse, try to hide their blues.

Autumn Greetings everyone! As promised from last month’s article, my topic will be on herbal steams. This is apropos for the autumn and winter when the air is dry, and our skin and bodies are in need of moisture.

It is harder to judge exactly when winter is going to arrive with all the planetary changes; so let me say that I hope with all sincerity that this information will continue to be relevant for generations to come.

‘It’s summertime…..and the livin’ is easy’…..one of my favorite summer songs. I associate summer time with childhood memories of riding bikes, climbing trees, playing in the woods, going to the beach, all of which came with the occasional falling off or down, getting sunburned, or getting scraped up, scratched up, bitten by bugs, and stung by bees. These are priceless memories, injuries included. No wonder I found herbal medicine in my adult life, I played outside all my kid years.

wanted to let you all know how my dandelion root tincture turned out, which I talked about in the last post. I strained it out after about 6 or 7 weeks of soaking in grain alcohol, and while it is not a strong as commercial tincture, it has that signature bitter flavor.

My work with herbal medicine has so far been focused [...]