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rainierelixirs · 6 months

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Starting your first Apothecary! It’s hard to know where to start when creating your first herbal collection, and can be overwhelming looking through all the herbs in any herbal book or website or apothecary. By the time you’ve got a list made, you’ve probably got 50+ herbs to learn about and hundreds of dollars to spend getting there :(

Let’s simplify that experience! You don’t need to start with all the herbs, and you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars. The best way to start is slow & small - get to know a handful of herbs really well! This is where a lot of people go wrong in the beginning - they try to cram in learning as many herbs as possible in as short a time as possible and end up only skimming the surface of each herb’s potential & not really knowing any of them deeply. You’ll have a one up on a lot of us if you take it slow and get to know a small handful of herbs very well before moving on.

To start - Where are some good places to buy herbs? Okay honestly - Mountain Rose Herbs is just the best - their quality just can’t be beat, they grow a lot of their own herbs (I’ve visited their farm and it’s amazing), they have SO many herbs to choose from that are usually always in stock, they are very reliable & their customer service/returns policy is just amazing. Their downfall is that you can only buy in bulk, so only in amounts of 4oz or more. But really, if you’re trying to get to know an herb, you’ll want at least 4oz. I went through a whole pound of calendula when I was learning it, so I promise that you’re going to want at least 4oz of your herbs.

If 4oz is too much (which I get it, the cost can add up when you’re buying 10 herbs) a secondary option is to buy Mountain Rose Herbs herbs through an independent apothecary - any good apothecary will carry a ton of Mountain Rose herbs! You can do a quick search to find an apothecary near you to check out, or if you don’t have one nearby, you can order online from lots of apothecaries (my favorite is @moonriseHerbs in Arcata, CA where I first started my formal herbal training!).

There are of course a good amount of smaller farms/suppliers that have great quality herbs (like @fosterfarmsherbs), but for simplicities sake we will leave that exhaustive list for another time.

Ok second - let’s start with a well-rounded apothecary of 10 dry herbs for tea that can be formulated together to work with to address a ton of different imbalances. Trade out wherever you want, this is just a starting point! But if you want to just take a load off your shoulders & are feeling overwhelmed with all the herbal choices, just shoot for this list. This list is seriously well-rounded enough to work with for your first year of herbal studies.

Chamomile - affinities for digestion, cold & flu care, emotional health, pain management, & sleep issues

Ginger - affinities for digestion, pain management, cold & flu care, reproductive health, & cardiovascular health

Marshmallow - affinities for digestion, urinary health, respiratory support & moistening mucous membranes everywhere

Passionflower or skullcap - affinities for emotional/nervous system health & sleep issues (skullcap & passionflower are a power duo!)

Valerian - affinities for emotional/nervous system health, pain management, reproductive health & sleep issues

Elecampane - affinities for cold & flu care & lung support

Motherwort - affinities for emotional/nervous system health, cardiovascular health & reproductive support

Poppy - affinities for pain management, sleep issues & emotional/nervous system health

Yarrow - affinities for digestion, emotional/nervous system health, reproductive health, urinary support & cold & flu care

Stinging nettle - affinities for urinary support, emotional/nervous system health, allergy support, cold & flu care, & cardiovascular health

These 10 herbs will get you & your loved ones so far when it comes to so many common imbalances as you can see. And this is absolutely not an exhaustive list, these are just the most common use cases for working with these herbs!

Third - you can simply store all of these herbs in the bags they come in, in a dark area, or you can move them all into airtight glass jars if you’d like! Just make sure they’re not exposed to sunlight - I like to keep mine hidden under a throw blankie just to be extra cautious about light damage. The internet has some pretty cool & affordable airtight glass jars, but mason jars totally do the trick & can be found at most grocery stores.

Remember to label your jars with the plant name, latin name, where you bought it & when you bought it! If you don’t do this, I promise you will forget (I speak from experience!).

Lastly - You can learn about these common herbs from just about anywhere, pretty reliably since they are so well known. The internet is absolutely full of bullshit about a lot of herbs, but I will say that these 10 are so common that most of the information out there about them is legit. But if you’re looking for a great starter herbal book to learn from, my favorite is still @RosemaryGladtar’s family herbal. It is basic & simple, and I really think that’s best to start.

Side note which I will elaborate on in a future post - there are actually a lot of crap herbal books out there. Like a LOT. And just because you recognize an herbalist’s name because they’re famous in the community does not mean they know wtf they’re talking about. Just proceed with caution and question anything that doesn’t seem quite right.

And VIOLA, you’ve got yourself an apothecary! Practice drinking infusions of these herbs alone, and combining them together for different effects! You can really use this set of herbs to help with almost any common imbalance that might come up, and they also make for some delicious teas :)

I’m slowly rolling out herbal spotlight/materia medical graphics on each of these herbs in much more depth, so check back here & on my IG for more info!

#herbalism #apothecary #herbs #medicinalherbs #tea #herbalist #pnw #tincture #elixir #naturallifestyle #health #natural health

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rainierelixirs · 1 year

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All about Yarrow

I just absolutely fucking love Yarrow. Have you worked with this plant?

Yarrow is cooling & drying, and tightening to the tissues. It can be considered an herb that works with fluids (digestive fluids, sweat, blood & urine, what a lovely combination). Its taste is bitter, which is unmistakable in an infusion. All bitters herbs are digestive stimulants & tonics, and yarrow is no exception. Along with stimulating digestive fluids, yarrow also tones & heals the digestive tract as a topical vulnerary (healer) & astringent (tightener).

Yarrow also has an affinity for the urinary tract, and is an antiseptic indicated for hot conditions (such as an infection) and lax conditions (such as mild urinary incontinence). It will also provide a general toning action to the entire urinary system.

Most people are first introduced to Yarrow as a hemostatic (blood-stopping) plant, useful for cuts & bloody noses. But did you know that Yarrow’s actions as a blood herb are even more extensive than that? Yarrow works in the cardiovascular system a lot like it seems to work in the urinary system - it has a general toning action on the entire system and is considered a circulatory tonic, working to strengthen our veins which in turn helps with tings like varicose veins and hemorrhoids.

In the same vein (see what I did there?), Yarrow works with the female reproductive system’s blood by toning & easing cramps & heavy bleeding. It will work best in cases where internal blood is involved if taken as a tonic, daily over a period of time.

Lastly, Yarrow is an excellent fever herb, helping the body to open its pores & produce a sweat (as a diaphoretic), thus cooling our fever (as a febrifuge). It should be used in this case when a person is feeling hot & having trouble “breaking” their fever, not when a person has a fever but is feeling cold, as Yarrow can exacerbate the situation in that instance.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Yarrow’s scent is amongst my favorite on the planet. It has such a rich, earthy, musky floral smell to it that I cannot get enough of. I have been slathering myself in a beautiful Yarrow-infused oil that @cascadeWildcraft made and I’ll probably go through the whole bottle as perfume before I get a chance to use it on an injury.

Have you worked with this lovely plant? Tell me your favorite things about Yarrow!

#yarrow herbalism herbalist rainierElixirs learningHerbs

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