In times when pain, anxiety, and sleeplessness plague us, California poppy offers us gentle relaxation and slumber. This member of the poppy family is much gentler than it’s cousin opium poppy and makes a great ally for your medicine cabinet.

Now that we have spent some time getting to more about nettles, let’s wrap this month up with a few tasty recipes.

The pain of arthritis can range from nagging to unbearable. Treatments and their side effects can as well. Counterirritation (rubefaction) can increase blood flow thereby decreasing inflammation and pain. Nettles have been used for this purpose for as long as we can remember.

Allergies affect around 20% of the US population and can range from irritating to life-threatening. Let’s learn more about allergies, what they are, how our bodies react, and what we can do to address them naturally.

Nettle is a potently nourishing Spring tonic that has some surprising uses. As medicine, nettles help with allergies, inflammation, increasing a mother’s milk supply, increasing energy, and decreasing the size of a swollen prostate. People have been using Nettle for food, medicine, and textiles for a very long time.

Now that we have spent a month discussing lemon balm and some of her uses, let’s have some fun and dive into recipes including kitchen sink medicine making.

While I love and appreciate herbs and their abilities to help us heal in many ways, they can only do so much. It is up to us to make sure our bodies are capable of mounting a correct immune response. There are issues of genetic inheritance that do make real difference, but how we live our lives, what we eat, and how we invest our mental/emotional energy can change how our genes work. This is the field of epigenetics and is a fascinating topic to study. We will also be incorporating some of the concepts of psychoneuroimmunology in today’s topic.

The summary of what we will discuss today is as follows:

• What you do matters!

That’s really it. In a world which at times can feel out of control and random, there are things we can do that can make a difference. Let’s jump right in shall we?

During stressful times, having a few mood supportive herbal allies around can be a great source of solace. Let’s explore some herbal friends who can gently support us by soothing frazzled nerves and uplifting our spirits.

Our thyroids are busy keeping our metabolism running, warming us up, and stimulating growth, development, and repair. Let’s talk about healthy thyroid function, a few key nutrients needed for optimal function, and signs to look for if you suspect an issue with your thyroid.

Lemon balm is a beautiful smelling and flavorful herb that gently soothes our frayed nerves. We can use this herb to support our memory, calm an upset stomach, support sleep, heal viral sores, calm an overactive thyroid, and gently lift us up during times of depression and heartache. Not too bad for this friend of the bees.

Here we are, nearing the end of March and our time focusing on Calendula. We have explored the healing this flower offers, we have looked at how healthy skin on our outside and through our digestive tract functions and how active it really is. Now let’s take some time to play with some herbal medicine recipes. For this month, I will divide the recipes into three categories: Calendula oil, fresh flowers, dried flowers. Each preparation gives us different options.

Health starts in our guts. We often hear that we are what we eat, but that’s just part of it. A more accurate phrase would be: we are what we absorb. Let’s explore the lining of our digestive tracts and learn more about healthy function. This is a continuation of our journey with Calendula as this sunny herb can help soothe and heal irritations all along our digestive tracts.

Did you know that our skin is our largest organ? Did you know that it’s constantly communicating with our nervous system, our hormonal systems, and our immune systems? When thinking of our skin, we usually think only about what happens when it’s not functioning well. Today, let’s stop to ponder what healthy skin feels like, means to us, and what it’s actively doing without our conscious input.

Calendula is a bright and friendly flower that is a powerful healing ally.  Got a scrape, bruise, or cut - call in Calendula.  Calendula is not only antimicrobial preventing infection, it also helps your body heal faster by calling in the cells you need to make new tissues and stimulating their activity.  Ulcers in your digestive tract?  Calendula tea taken internally is a powerhouse of healing here too. 

When I look out over my yard and see those sunny flower heads and toothy green leaves, I don’t see a nuisance; I see free nutrient-rich food. All parts of the dandelion are edible from their sweet and fragile blooms that make a delightful mead-like wine, to their slightly bitter tender early-spring greens, to the inulin-rich carrot-like late-fall roots. Working with the fresh plant is quite rewarding, but as you can see, not all parts of the dandelion are in-season year round.

We all know that our liver is important, but how much do we really know about the liver? Let’s explore this extremely important organ and come to a better understanding and appreciation of it. The liver is involved in five main areas of body functioning: filtering your blood, digestion via bile production, blood sugar regulation, blood clotting, and biotransformation of endogenous (made by the body) and exogenous (introduced to the body) toxins - AKA detoxification.

Spring is a popular time to consider “doing a detox”.  While this is a very common term to hear in the alternative medicine world, this can mean many different things.  I frequently get asked for supplements and protocols for detoxification, but often when I ask clarifying questions, people are unsure what their goals are beyond a nebulous idea of cleaning up.

Many stores and websites will be happy to sell you detox kits, but they only do one thing - make you rush to the bathroom. Don’t get me wrong, getting things moving isn’t a bad idea, but triggering diarrhea by taking large doses of harsh laxatives isn’t the best way to do it. Plus only focusing on clearing out our bowels misses the majority of detoxification capabilities. Instead of helping someone profit off of a misunderstanding, let’s educate ourselves and support our beautiful bodies in what they are already doing day in and day out.

Dandelion is one of my favorite herbs for so many reasons. Not only is this herb full of medicinal qualities, it also possesses an incredible tenacity. I can only dream of having the vim and vigor of this wild and weedy green ally. For me, dandelion says, “Eat me and grow!” Don’t mind if I do.

We have made it through a month of exploring flaxseeds and the role they can play in our health. From constipation to hormone regulation to blood pressure, these humble little seeds pack a lot of nourishing power!

Now that we know more about them, it’s time to find ways to bring them into our regular diet.

The easiest way to do this is to freshly grind your flaxseeds and stir them into what you’re eating. Smoothies, soups, oatmeal, salads, and salad dressings work well. You can also use flaxseeds in place of breadcrumbs in your recipes or make a breading with a base of flaxseeds for cooking fish, chicken, vegetables, or whatever you want to add breading to.

Most of us are aware that our blood pressure is one measure of our physical health and that there is such a thing as too high and too low. We also know that there are two numbers to consider and that 120/80 is considered a good reading. But many of us are pretty in the dark beyond this cursory information. Since blood pressure is something we hear a lot about and is often measured at doctor appointments, let’s explore this topic a bit more.