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[00:00] Hey Pioneers, welcome to the Pioneering Today Podcast. I'm Melissa K. Norris, your host and fifth generation homesteader. Today, we are talking about herbs, spring herbs specifically, what to grow, what to use right now, and how this season is one of the best times of the year to start or expand your home apothecary. And this one comes home because I had both of my kids, my son is 21 years old and no longer lives at home, and my daughter is still at home, but both of them actually ended up with a cut on their hand. My son was on the palm and he works in construction, so anytime you've got an open wound there, it's getting a lot of friction and has a lot of opportunity for infection to set in. And then my daughter plays club volleyball, and that girl goes all out. She's like a flying squirrel and will dive for balls and I am like, oh my goodness. And so she ends up even with all of the guards, she ends up like with, it's not rug burns because obviously on a gym floor, there's not a rug, but like literally skin just gets scraped layers off, which of course does not feel very good. And again, you've got that many layers off of skin and you're touching a volleyball that, who knows how many people have touched in a tournament time. There's a lot of germs at bay. So they both had issues on their hands, and both of them came and was like, hey mom, where is your wound healing staff? So what was so special about that to me, it was kind of like one of those general reminders, is it is now been over a decade that I have been making pretty much almost all of our first aid and really our medicine cabinet. We actually have an apothecary and our medicine cabinet is full of homemade things or herb based things. And that's our go-to. That's what we reach for as a family and as a mom and my son, it was so cute because he had not been at home. So he had been using some stuff that he had at his house. And he came and he's like, mom, do you have anything? He was doing some work for us. I'm like, yeah. And so I got him the sab and he put it on and we put a bandage on it and then put a glove on. So it would hold it on because he was building fence. And it was so cute because he got done and he came back in the house. It was like four hours later and he was like, oh my gosh, my hand feels so much better. And I'm like, here, take some home with you, take some more, put some more on there. So I realized in that I'm like, oh, I have really not done any episodes lately on herbalism on the podcast here. And with everything coming into season, hence both of my kids needing to use herbs or getting ready to, it really felt like this was the prime opportunity. So whether or not you have a full herb garden or plans to put one in, I hope to enable you with that, or it's a few pots on the window seal, or you're just getting started and you don't know where to begin, this episode is for you. So we're going to cover herbs that are easy to grow in spring. What you can actually do with them, like what are we going to be using them for in the medicine cabinet, and then how to start building your confidence using those herbs. So section one is spring is a phenomenal time to get started with herbs. So if you've ever wanted to build a home apothecary or grow your own medicinal herbs, this is your moment. And I want to tell you why, because I think a lot of people wait too long. So there's this tendency with most things in life to think that you have to have everything figured out before you start, right? You need the right books, the right setup, the absolute perfect garden space. And pretty soon you actually don't get any of that put in because you're waiting for like the perfect everything. And then end of summer, beginning of fall runs around and you're like, oh, well, I kind of miss, I missed the boat. So I'll just start again next year. Don't do that. Here's the thing about herbs that differ from vegetables. Most of your herbs need to be planted in the springtime. And many of them will give you something useful in their very first season. Unlike a lot of our perennials, like fruit production plants and or even our perennial vegetables. So things like asparagus that you really shouldn't harvest that first year. With herbs, we're not waiting for years or even multiple seasons before we get a harvest. Many of them, you'll get a harvest that year. And some of them, you can even begin harvesting just a few weeks after planting. So here's what I love about starting with herbs specifically for your home apothecary, is you do not need a lot of space. You can actually grow a year's worth of a whole lot of herbs in just a container or really small space in your garden. So what we're going to talk about today is making sure you are intentionally picking the plants that are going to serve your purposes. Which ones we grow more for health and wellness purposes, not just culinary. I feel like a lot of times we focus a lot on culinary herbs. The great news is culinary herbs, most of them can also be used medicinally. But I want to talk about some of these spring herbs because they are also things of beauty. So much of my gardening life was spent only on production. I was so focused on production and growing a year's worth of this for the pantry. It was really vegetable and fruit based. That I didn't grow flowers or anything really just for the beauty of it, and I didn't focus on them. Then that really changed about five, six years ago now. I really started putting in a lot more herbs, was really focused on my own. I had been sourcing herbs a lot and using herbs medicinally, but I wasn't growing a ton of my own. All of that started to shift, and one, it is absolutely amazing to be able to grow your own medicine. But the thing that I wasn't expecting is how much I love the beauty. Not only is this medicine literally for our bodies, but it is medicine for the eyes and the soul. I love walking once everything is in bloom, and just like walking through it, like I imagine God walked through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve in the morning, and then in the evening after the heat of day. I love to start my day with the meander through the herb flower gardens, and then end it the exact same way. Plus, they double as beautiful cut flowers, a lot of them. Now that I have waxed poetically and hopefully have convinced you that you also need this in your life, let's get into the actual plants. I'm going to walk you through some of my top spring herbs, ones that are relatively easy to establish, available to grow in most regions, and genuinely useful. These are the ones that I come back to time and time and time again, in your home apothecary. A quick note before we actually dig into these is, wherever you're at in the world, but especially in the US, I know most of you are US-based listeners, is you want to check your last frost date before we put anything in the ground. Even when it comes to perennial herbs, which a lot of these are, and we'll go through which ones are perennial and which ones are annuals, even if they're perennial, if they are a very little tiny baby start, they can still be damaged by a first frost date. Now, once they're established, meaning it's only the first year of planting and you have to worry about this, then we don't have to worry about it. As they grow through the summer, they enter into dormancy in the winter, they'll naturally know when to come out and they'll be a lot heartier because they're not an infant. But when you are first putting them in, you do want to pay attention to what your last average frost date is in the spring, and make sure you're putting them out appropriately if they can be damaged by a last frost. Most of what I'm going to share can go out after the last frost. Some of them like lemon balm, those are usually fairly cold tolerant and can go out a little bit earlier. But you do want to know for perennials, your gardening zone as well as your frost dates. I gave it away, lemon balm. So this is one of my number one recommendations for beginners. And it's the first one I'll tell you to plant. If you're only planting one herb this spring, lemon balm is in the mint family, which means you will want to put it in a container or in a garden bed that you do not care if it takes over because it most likely will. But you are going to mind because lemon balm is a fantastic plant for a lot of reasons. It will spread. I just, you heard that first. I was upfront about it. So I have lemon balm in containers and the great thing we are going to focus on the good is it is actually self-seeded and it's growing beneath the container now. But what's really funny is it's on like a graveled area. And so I totally don't mind. But that's also the great thing is it's really easy to grow. It will even grow in gravel where it's not actually been planted. Now, what's really nice is in almost every climate, it's going to come back year after year. So plant once, harvest forever. It smells incredible. It's named Lemon Balm. Its official name is Melissa, which may also be why I'm a bit partial to it. But it is bright and lemony. And it's very fragrant. And so it's also got a lot of culinary flavor as well. So it is lovely in teas. I absolutely love Lemon Balm. It makes a delicious tea. You can do iced tea with it, all kinds of things, and it tastes phenomenal. What's really nice about Lemon Balm is it has a long history of traditional use for helping to support calm and relaxation. So a lot of times people will actually drink Lemon Balm in the evening before going to bed to help support a restful night's sleep and all of those other things. However, I wouldn't say lesser known. If you're a herbalist, you definitely know this. But if you're brand new to herbs, Lemon Balm, a lot of time because it is so well used for helping to aid good sleep is it's actually a great antiviral. It has some really good antiviral properties. So for any type of virus, it can be really great to help support the body in fighting viruses as well. So it's got multiple uses in the home apothecary, and it's a very gentle herb. So it is one that doesn't have a ton of contraindications with it. It's safe to use for older kids. It's really easy to use. You can do again as a tea. A lot of people use it as a tea because it does have, not all herbs taste well in teas, but this is one that tastes really good in tea. You can do it with fresh or dried leaves. I also do it as a tincture. Again, it's really easy also to dry to have saved up for a tea supply throughout the winter months. If you are looking to build your home apothecary and add some easy to grow plants in, lemon balm is one I totally recommend beginning with. Now, next, probably not a big surprise, is chamomile. This is another one that's really beginner-friendly and it's really pretty in the garden. I love it because it's so dainty. It's almost like it's this little smile all over the garden, wherever you see chamomile blossoms. Think of them as little kid smiles. They're just bright and cheery and they just bob in the breeze. What's really nice is German chamomile is the most commonly grown variety. There's Roman and German chamomile. Mostly German is the common variety that you'll find. It's an annual, so you'll need to replant it every year, but it self-seeds really readily, so meaning it acts like a perennial because in most cases, it will self-seed itself back. Meaning once let it grow, let some of the blossoms, don't harvest all of them, let some of them grow to seed, and then it will reseed and it'll come back the next year without you really having to do anything. It loves cool spring weather, so it's one of those herbs that does well before your last frost date if it's a light frost. Meaning if you're hitting 30, 31, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, you'll be fine. If you're still hard freezing down into the 20s, might want to wait a little bit till you're not quite so cold. And chamomile is traditionally used to help support digestion and promote calmness. So again, at nighttime, a lot of people like to wind down by having a cup of chamomile tea. It also tastes really good. And it's very gentle on the system, so it's one that we don't have a lot of precautions for. And it's one of the oldest home remedies, having a cup of chamomile tea before bedtime in the world for good reason. Now, the flowers are what you actually use on this one. As with lemon balm, you're actually harvesting the leaves. So the flowers, you're going to harvest them when they're fully open. So you want to let those blossoms open, and then you're going to harvest the whole flower head. And you want to dry them on a screen or in a dehydrator, and then store them in an airtight jar that is out of direct light. Then that goes for any of your herbs. When we're storing them, we want them once dried, I should say, out of direct light and sealed in a jar. Now, this herb is one of my favorites, and this is calendula. I probably am going to say this about every herb as it comes up, but really calendula is one of my favorites. It comes in a multitude of colors. So bright orange is kind of your standard, what most people know of, it's more widespread. But there's also beautiful ones. So I have a strawberry one, I have a lemon snowdrop colored one. I've got a sunset colored one that's like yellow and then it goes into orange, just gorgeous. I've let mine reseed themselves, they will reseed themselves once planted, you'll never have to replant calendula. It reseeds itself just like it's a perennial. If you've got the multiple colors, they will begin to cross-pollinate and you'll get new color variations. It's super fun. So the flowers, again, they bloom all season. They are one of the first ones up in the spring. First things that I see start to sprout and grow, one of my very first blossoms in the garden, and then they go all the way through light frosts even. They'll go through light frost, but then once you have that killing frost, then obviously they go back. Calendula is most well-known, especially in home apothecary for topical use. It is great to support healthy skin, soothe irritation, which is why it is one of the ingredients I use to infuse oil to make the wound salve that I was talking about. And I do have that recipe on my website. We'll link to that in the show notes. So it is fabulous for any type of skin, for soothing, for wounds, one of my absolute always go-to. But it also has internal uses. So you can do tinctures, you can put it into teas. Calendula actually has great antimicrobial properties. So it's one that I keep on hand and will brew a really strong, what we call an infusion, which is just stronger than a typical tea. If you were drinking it, you let it brew longer, so it's more concentrated. It's a great eye wash for pink eye or anything. If you get a scratch in the eye, really great to use for that. We also use that with our cattle as well, if they get any type of eye issues. It also helps with the lymph system. So this is the beautiful thing about herbs. Most of them have multiple functions, meaning they will treat multiple things. And it's beautiful. Calendula is, like I said, one of my favorite things. It's also a great companion plant in the garden. Just grow it for the love. Just put in some calendula. You'll not be sorry. Again, direct so after your last frost date in full sun, and then it will come back forever more. As long as you don't harvest every single blossom, let some of them go to seed and it will come back. And I just let it go kind of hog wild all over all of my garden beds because I just think it's so pretty and I love it, and I use a lot of it. Okay. Now up next is peppermint. So peppermint is like lemon balm. It's in the mint family. Anything in the mint family likes to reproduce and spread like crazy. So again, throw it in a container unless you don't mind that it takes over the entire bed that it's in. But peppermint has traditionally been used to support healthy digestion. Many people are familiar with that. It's one of the first things people reach for after a really heavy meal or if their stomach feels off. It's also great in helping to support the upper respiratory system. So especially like the smell of peppermint, if you're feeling a little nasally or a little bit congested, it can really help to open up that breatheway. It's why a lot of people like to smell essential oil of peppermint, or diffuse it. So peppermint can be really great for that. It can also be really refreshing. A lot of times people will also use peppermint if they are having a tension headache. Well, or stress headache will find that peppermint can be really soothing and helpful, especially if you're feeling kind of sluggish or foggy. And the one caveat that I will give you with peppermint is if you have a really bad GERD, peppermint actually can relax the muscle and allow acid to come back up. So if you have a really bad GERD or really bad stomach acid, you might not want to use peppermint. Peppermint is better for digestion, not if you've got, like I said, active acid reflux. But fresh peppermint leaf is one of the easiest herbal preformations there is. You can dry it, you can make it into a tincture, you can infuse it, I even make peppermint extract to use in baking. So peppermint is a great herb to have on hand. Next up, this is an annual, and this one might be new to you if you're a lot newer to herbs, but it's tulsi or aka holy basil. But it is a wonderful adaption, adaptogen herb. Now this is an annual, meaning you're going to have to start it from seed, or you can buy little plant starts. Oftentimes you'll find them. I've even started to see it in a lot more gardens. It's becoming a bit more well known and talked about. But what's great about tulsi is because it's an adaptogen herb, this means it's used to help your body respond to stress more effectively. And a lot of us have a lot of stress in our lives, right? So it just helps your body adapt more easily to stressful conditions. It's warm, it's kind of spicy a little bit. And I don't know, some people say that it has a clove-like flavor. I abhor clove. I do not put clove in any of my baking. I hate it in apple pie. I know that's a strong word, but I really, if you can't tell, I don't like clove. I happen to love tulsi. So, if you're like, oh, I don't really like clove, I don't think it tastes like clove. But if you're like, oh, I love clove, okay, you probably love it too. So give it a shot is all I'm saying. It's really good in tea. And actually, it's not going to give you the same basil. Like if you're thinking like, you know, basil like an Italian cooking basil, it doesn't have the same flavor profile. But I actually love it in fresh salad. So I will take a couple of fresh leaves in the summer of holy basil, and I just kind of rough chop them, like mince them up, and then sprinkle it on top of our salads. I love the flavor that it imparts. So I actually do use it culinary wise too, but a lot of people use it in tea. Again, it does need warm weather. It is not frost hardy in any way, shape or form, and it's going to thrive better when it's warmer out. So wait, keep your little starts or your seeds indoors, wait well until after the last frost to put it outside. Just kind of think of like you're going to plant it like when you would your tomato plants. That's the kind of warm it likes. So in warmer zones, it may come back. I however, live in a very cool zone, so mine has never came back. But again, if you let those flower blossoms go to seed, then you can save those and replant them, but I don't just let them drop where they're at, I bring them inside and then replant them in the summer or seed stardom. So again, it's traditionally used to support your nervous system. It helps to promote balanced mood and support overall resilience. So if you are a busy lady or a man, you might want to consider getting to know Tulsi and throwing it in the garden. The good news is it just takes up a little bit of space. I just grow it in two pockets of my Greenstock vertical container garden. Now, the garden would not be complete without these two, next two, and that's lavender. Lavender is one that I get asked about a lot, and for good reason. It is beautiful. It smells incredible. It is really useful for the home apothecary, but I want to set you up for success because when I first started trying to grow lavender, I got a little frustrated with it, and that was because I was trying to start lavender from seed. Unless you are well in advance and are doing cold seed stratification, it's very slow to germinate and very slow to get established. So can you start lavender from seed? Yes. Is it easy? Not so much. I would recommend that you buy a start or a transplant, and you will be a lot happier, and your plant will become established, big enough that you can actually harvest off of it that much sooner. So you want to plant it after your last frost when it's a baby start, in full sun with excellent drainage. It doesn't like super wet, like soggy soil feet, especially over the winter months, probably more than any other herb. So I actually grow mine. We have like a little rock area that's a little bit higher, that has a lot of drainage, and mine has come back there every year. How old is my oldest plant out there? I think it's like 12 years old and still, I still have it coming back, which is pretty impressive for lavender. So, but again, make sure it's not like low, where like all the water drains, especially in the winter months, you want to put it kind of on a little bit higher ground, really good drainage. A lot of times people do raised beds or containers with gritty soil. But here in the Pacific Northwest, I have never done mine in raised containers and it's done just fine. It's a perennial in most zones. So once it's established, it will come back year after year. And why we want to grow it for the apothecary, however. So lavender is a long traditional historical use of helping to support calmness, helping with restful sleep and helping to ease like you feel like really tense. Lavender is used a lot in aromatherapy for the reason of helping you to relax. And not only is it aromatic, much more aromatic even when dried than a lot of your herbs. So a lot of times you'll see it as like sachets and like, you remember how people used to do? I don't see this so much, but especially when I was little, you would have like these little like potpourri, potpourri, I always say it wrong, potpourri sachets that people would put like in their clothes drawers or hang in their closets. Well, a lot of times lavender is one of the herbs that people will do that with. And I love to use lavender. I'm funny, I love the smell of lavender and I love using it medicinally. I hate the flavor of lavender. I know some people are like cuckoo for cocoa puffs over the flavor of lavender and they love like lavender infused teas and cookies and all those things. And if that is you, that is awesome and amazing. I don't like the flavor of it. I love it for all the other reasons, but it's obviously edible. So a lot of times, however, I prefer to use it aromatherapy wise and or topically. So lavender is great for helping to soothe the skin. It also has anti-microbial, antibacterial properties. So it is great for any type of wounds, any type of irritation, rash. And one of my favorite ways to use it as a lavender works really well for me if I'm having any type of itchy response. So like if you get a little bug bite, especially those ones like you never see the bug and you're like, I don't know what this is, but there's like a little welt. Had this happened to me last night. All of a sudden I was like itching like crazy and I looked down and there's like this perfect little welt. I never did see the bug. I don't have no idea where it came from. I don't even know what it was. But you all know what I'm talking about, right? Red itchy and there's like this little raised welt in the center. I take lavender. You can either take, you can do an infused lavender oil, lavender essential oil that's been diluted. Or if you're outside, just take the leaf and crush it up and rub it. I don't know how you get the wet stuff when you crush up a leaf fresh. Rub it over it. I keep it like in almost every room of the house. Like it's my go-to or any type of sting. Like if you get stinging nettle sting or bee sting, lavender is my go-to for my tropical. So even though it's really known for promoting that calmness factor, I use it way more for skin topical use than almost any other herb. Now, when you're harvesting the lavender flower spikes, however, this one is a little bit different than when to get the maximum potency of it. You want to harvest it before the buds have opened. So opposite of chamomile, opposite of calendula, you want to do it like they're still in bud form. You've got a little flowering spikes, but before those little buds start to open. This one, I feel like is often overlooked in the herbal world. Like a lot of times lavender gets a lot of focus. Yarrow. Yarrow is really easy to grow, but it's just less commonly talked about herbal wise. It's a perennial wildflower, which means hallelujah, amen, it's going to come back and it tends to seed like crazy. With many of these, they are really good at reproducing, and I think it's just because God knew how wonderful they were for us and wanted to make sure that we were never without them. It's really pretty, it's got the really feathery leaves, and it's got the flat top cluster of tiny flowers, and they come in white, yellow, or pink depending on the variety, and I love the pink ones, the yellow ones are pretty too. It spreads by both rhizome and seed, so meaning like the little roots underneath the ground, as well as it will seed, so that's why it spreads so fast and easily. You can try to contain it like in a container, but if you let it go to seed, the wind's going to carry the seed and it'll just start popping up. So you have to deadhead if you don't want it to go to seed. Plant it in spring. Now honestly, I have ones that they pop up by seed. I would just sow the seed. They pop up and do just fine through starts. It's pretty tough. It's very resilient. If you want to get some established and going, you can definitely seed start it. You can plant it out right after your last frost in full sun, and it'll just go like crazy for you. It's very tough. It's very drought tolerant, which is also really nice. Traditionally, yarrow is one of the longest records of use in Western herbalism. It's helped to support healthy circulation, a healthy inflammatory response, and support your body during seasonal wellness challenges. But where it really shines. Yarrow is one of those herbs that can make you sweat, which is a way that our body naturally sweats when we need to cool down. It's an antipyretic, which means if you have a high fever, how does your body cool itself down? Well, it sweats. That's why when we get to exercise and we're hot, the body is going to sweat to cool itself down. Yarrow can be really great in helping to aid that. It's really good though, and historically used as a first aid herb, and especially the leaves. It's actually the leaves, not so much the flower. It's a styptic herb, it also is antimicrobial, antibacterial, for the bad bacteria, right? A lot of times, yarrow is great to take with you on a hike. Historically, it would even be used, soldiers would take it into battle. If you get a wound, it's going to help it not get infected, but it also will help to staunch the bleeding, which can be really, really great. It is wonderful to have in the garden, and it's so pretty. It makes a really pretty cut flower, they last a really long time, and they dry well. Those are one of those that I will put them in bouquets and then even dry some for over the winter months when I don't have any fresh flowers in the house. But one note of precaution with yarrow, if you're pregnant, you want to avoid yarrow, and if you're allergic to plants in the daisy family, then you would want to use caution because yarrow is a relative, so you'd want to make sure that you don't have a reaction to it. Then if you have the space, elderflower, I know elderberry gets a lot of talk and I do love elderberry. If you're growing elderberry, you also have elderflower. But if you've got a little bit more space, I would highly recommend growing some elderberry. And for the berries, obviously, but elderflower is actually fabulous too. And you get the elder blooms first, right? So you get the elderflower in late spring to early summer, depending on your region. And elderflower is phenomenal to help support respiratory health as well as seasonal wellness. And it does well in tincture, tea, or even elderflower syrup. And these are great. So I always make sure that I grab some of my blossoms, leave some to turn into berries, and dry those to have on hand for teas. Now, before we get into what we actually do with these herbs, I want to take a quick break to tell you about today's sponsor. Now, this is going to feel very on topic because there are so many herbs that we could be growing. And if you're like me, you want to grow them all. But it's usually not possible to grow them all, nor do I recommend trying to grow them all in the very beginning, because you will totally overwhelm yourself. But that doesn't mean that if you're not growing it, that you can't use herbs. 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I know I love using earthly wellness products because I know that I'm actually getting the herb that it says, and they have a great commitment to education alongside their products, which as you can tell is a big deal to me. I like to be very well educated, especially on things that I'm using as medicine for myself and my family. I just started using their products a few weeks ago, and I'm in the early stages, but I am really enjoying these, and I want to tell you what drew me to them and why I'm paying attention. This one I'm using and it's the Nourish Her Naturally. This is the first product that I'm using from them. It's mineral-rich herbal blend designed to support women's overall wellness. It's specifically formulated with herbs that are traditionally used to support hormone balance, hallelujah, amen, energy and nutrient replenishment. So as a busy woman, and I know that a lot of you are in the same boat, this caught my detention because it's designed for what so many of us are running low on. So not just those energy in the afternoon slump senses, but the deeper kind of depletion that comes from doing everything for everyone and not always getting back what we're putting out. And when we are operating in a higher stress mode, so hello, high cortisol levels, paramenopause, all of those fun, I'm being facetious there, not fun things, we deplete our minerals. And then that causes its own cascade and issues with everything else that we're dealing with. So I've only been taking it for a few weeks now, and I'm still in the early stages of noticing how it works for me. But I will say the ingredient list is exactly what I'd expect from a quality herb product. And these are the herbs I know and trust formulated for daily use. So this one in particular has catnip, dandelion leaf, raspberry leaf, alfalfa leaf, nettle leaf, and spearmint leaf. And what's really nice is this one is formulated. It looks like a tincture, but this one is actually an alcohol-free glycerite, which means it actually tastes good. So this is one that I can just put straight into my water and drink it and it tastes great. Whereas some of the alcohol tinctures, depending on the herb and the strength of alcohol used to make sure the medicinal properties are pulled out of specific herbs, like I have to hide them in a flavored tea or coffee, or you just are like, okay, I'm just going to deal with the gross flavor and get it down. This one, however, tastes really good. And so this one is really easy for me to consume on a daily basis because I can just drop it in my water and I'm not like trying to plug my nose and drink it and all those things that we do when one doesn't like the flavor of something. And the great news is they have a coupon code for you, 10% off your order, and it's Pioneer 10. So Pioneering, because this is the Pioneering Today Podcast, but Pioneer 10 and you get 10% off of your order at checkout. Now, this does exclude sale items, but everything else is fair game. One of the other ones that I've been trying from them too, and a lot of the herbs that I was talking about in today's is for calm and clarity. Aka, I think we all need that. So this one has branny leaf, catnip, nettle, turmeric root, alfalfa, and dandelion root. And so this one is really great for helping calm, support calmness, as well as our clarity. And so I know a lot of times when we're feeling super overwhelmed or super stressed, it's really hard for us to be focused. And so this helps to aid with both of those items. So this one is great for those really stressful days when you know you have a lot of things going on or things are just kind of hitting. So this helps to support your nervous system. And a lot of us, if you're going through the Whole Health Reset Challenge, we've been talking about this a lot. Both our hormones as well as our central nervous system. So this is great for both older kids and adults. So I love knowing as a mom, this is an actual option I can feel great about for everybody in my family. So again, go to earthly.com and it's earthley.com. And it's Pioneer 10 for 10% off at checkout. All right. What to do with your spring herbs right now? So we talked about some of the best ones to get started with growing. But let's talk about what your plan is to do with these, because the growing part kind of feels more accessible, and we get that in and not the use part. And there's a learning curve to herbalism. And that can feel intimidating. What do I make? How much do I use? What is an actual therapeutic dose? Who is this safe for? When is it not safe? Are all parts of the plant safe? Like there's a lot there. So I'm going to give you some very practical starting points. The simplest herbal preparation is tea. Now, in the herbal world, when we're doing medicinal wise, we're going to call it an infusion. So you take fresh or dried herbs and hot water right off the boil, and you're going to steep it for 10 to 15 minutes. So this is typically a little bit longer than what you would be doing for just a flavor drinking tea. Then you're going to strain it and, of course, consume. So that's it. So herbs work super well with this is chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint. All of these makes very excellent simple teas. Now, if you want to be more intentional, you can start doing blending, which you probably notice that's what we were talking about here with these blends from Earthly is you've got multiple different herbs there picked for different reasons but are also complementary to one another. So lemon balm and chamomile together is a very classic calming blend. Peppermint and tulsi is energizing and clarifying. So this can be a really great way to just try pairing two herbs together at once. This is how people have been using herbs for thousands of years. Now up next is to dry what you grow. If you're growing herbs this season, I want you to plan on drying them. Most herbs, if you are harvesting the flower, are at peak potency just before they flower. That's when the volatile oils are the highest. But it depends on if you're harvesting the blossom or if you're harvesting the leaf. So if you are harvesting the leaf, like on lemon balm, peppermint, and tulsi, then you want to harvest those leaves before they have went to blossom. Now they still have some flavor and medicinal potency, but the highest level is in the leaves before they've went to flower. However, if you're harvesting the flower, like lavender, it's before the bud has opened. Most of your other flowers, lavender is kind of the exception there, calendula, chamomile, elderflower, it's going to be right as it's opened. Now, notice it's on its way out the door as it starts to get wilted and kind of, they kind of start to look raggedy as they move on past their peak. So right when they're open and they're still really fresh, that's when you want to harvest the blossom. If that's the part of the plant that you're harvesting. And ideally, we want to harvest in the morning right after the dew dries. We don't want to wait until midday or end of day because as the plant gets hot, then it starts to move, so it kind of looks wilty. You know, a lot of times plants, if they get really hot or start to dry out, they look wilty. It starts to move all of the volatile essential oils out of the leaves and out of the flower, if it's feeling super stressed, down into the root. So we want to get it before it feels stressed. We want to bundle them loosely and hang in a warm, dry place with really good airflow, but not indirect sunlight or you can use a dehydrator on a low setting. So for medicinal herbs, that needs to be 95 degrees Fahrenheit or lower on your dehydrator. So I don't recommend using the oven to dehydrate herbs that are going to be used medicinally wise. Instead, either use your dehydrator, 95 degrees Fahrenheit or again, the upside down bundle method works fabulous for almost all of your herbs because the leaves and the flowers themselves are relatively thin. Once they're dried, you're going to store them in glass jars out of direct sunlight and label everything for the love. I know, I always think I'm going to remember, I'm going to know what this is. Funny story or not so funny story is, I had a jar, I was certain when I put it up, I would know exactly what it was. Yeah. It was either red raspberry leaf or stinging nettle. One would think that you could tell the difference, but after it's been dried and sitting on the shelf for six months, because stinging nettle and raspberry leaf don't really have very strong scent. Peppermint, I could tell with a dried leaf. You crush it, you're going to know. Lemon balm, you're going to know. Those two, I still have no idea. Now, the good news is, they're both really great for things and I still could put herbs to use, but please trust me, label them and put the date on it. Then you want to make sure that they are out of direct sunlight in an airtight container and they're usually at their highest potency within a year. General rule of thumb is they're good for a year. I would really encourage you to make an infused oil. If you want to go one step beyond tea, infused oils are great and easy to do and calendula is one of my favorites for that. On my Wound Salve post, I was telling you I had that recipe in a video. I walk you through how to do all of that with calendula. It's really great and then you have it to use in all kinds of topical applications. But knowing what you're reaching for and why. The biggest shift in my own herbal practices and in my teaching has been moving from like, don't have just an apothecary of random herbs, be really intentional in that herb use. Knowing not just that chamomile is calming, but why, like how does it work on your nervous system? What kind of stress is it best for? What does it pair well with? And herbal energetics can help teach you this. So once you understand that framework, the whole world of herbs opens up in a way that actually sticks on helping you pick the best herb for you and your body in your exact circumstances. And I have got a complete free herbal energetic chart. You can grab that link and you'll see that in the blog posts that accompanies this episode, which you will find if you go to molliscainorris.com/508 because this is episode 508. So just molliscainorris.com/508. And you will see where you can snag that herbal energetic chart. So I want to close with just a little bit of a vision of where you're going, because I think that this helps people. So your home apothecary does not need to be complicated. You can start with just a few select herbs. It doesn't have to be a whole room or hundreds of jars with years and years of study. It's just really basic. Your home apothecary is knowing what's on your shelf, why it's there, and how to use it. It's not volume. That's it. So if you were to finish this spring with just five or six of the herbs growing, even in your just in pots on the porch, and if you've dried some of them and made one simple preparation, and you understand why you reach for each one, you have a home apothecary and you are a home herbalist. So here's what I suggest is your spring goal. Pick three herbs from what we talked about today, grow them, use them, and get to know them and learn one preparation for each one. Maybe it's a tea for all of them. Maybe it's an oil. Maybe it's a simple tincture. But that is a fabulous way to actually build out a usable home apothecary. There is no better time than this spring. Again, if you want to try Earthly Wellness products, remember the code is Pioneer10 for 10% off. Link for that is in the show notes. And if you found this episode helpful, I would adore it if you would share it. So you text it to a friend, share it in a homesteading group, leave a review if you've been meeting two of the podcast. It really helps more people find this podcast, and that matters more than I can say. So I also want to share this verse of the week. And this is one where I kind of would, let me know if you would like me to dive deeper or maybe do a whole episode on this. But it's Revelation 22, Chapter 22, verse 2, Amplified Version. In the middle of its street, on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now, obviously, this is talking about Revelation, right? Its future forward, but what I find so lovely about this verse is that the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And so much of what God has created is actually there for our benefit. And there's lots of instances throughout the Bible, or quite a few, I should say, of using plants for healing. And so even though we are not in the period that Revelation is talking about in this particular verse, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have context for us today, because God's word never comes back void. Meaning anytime that we read it in anything that we study in the Bible, there's always and there's something in there for us right now, today, where we are at, because God's word is living. And so I firmly believe that there is healing in plants and that he very much intends for us to use those plants in our healing. And so I'm just curious, if anybody would like a podcast episode where we kind of dive into all of the references of the Bible, where it talks about plants, sometimes it's specific, sometimes it's not like this where it talks about leaves, right? It's not a specific plant. Other areas are. Would you be interested in, it's going to be like a Bible study, really, episode, but talking about all of the biblical spots where it talks about plants and healing, and then tied to how does that work and what do we draw from that, what does the Bible actually say about specific plants and using plants for our healing? So if you would be curious in that, let me know. It's something I've been kind of playing with and I might just do it in my own study, but if you guys are interested, then I totally could do an actual episode on that. So I will leave that verse with you for now and that thought, and I leave you with blessings and mason jars, and I can't wait to be back here with you next week.