I am happy to have my dear friend Serafina who is the author of A Gypsy Herbal sharing with you all today. I hope you learn a bit about how to build an herbal medicine cupboard.
Remember when I wrote about my herbal medicine chest? I ended then with the mention of the herbal remedies that don’t fit in the little chest, but instead need to go in an herbal medicine cupboard. Since then I’ve moved four times taking my Herbal Medicine Cupboard collection -or parts of it- all over the place. My first medicine cupboard was the funnest place! A closet full of all the sacks of herbs, jars of preparations, jugs of essentials – definitely much too much to keep in one box!
I’ve added to it, re-stocked it, made some changes, and finally typed it up in a list for you – along with some additional things that what I now keep in the original herbal medicine chest. I’ll share with you now the things that most fit into the medicine cupboard category. (Not all the teas and cooking spices.)
How to Build an Herbal Medicine Cupboard
First, a shelf for all the knowledge you can’t store in your head:
- A Heath & Herbal Binder (With information and print outs on all sort of things such as the heath and illnesses items I’m currently studying.)
- An herb notebook with my notes, concoctions, and ideas.
- God’s Healing Herbs
- Practical Herbalism
- Handbook of Vintage Remedies
- How to Herb Book
- 10 Essential Herbs for Life Long Health
- Comfort for the Burned and Wounded
Then all the other things that just don’t fit in the little chest:
A big bottle or jug of each:
- Raw Honey
- Aloe Vera
- Elderberry Syrup
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Witch Hazel
A decent size:
- colloidal silver (Jill’s Home Remedies explains all about colloidal silver)
- Epsom salts
- sack of candied Ginger
- bag of dried minced garlic
Additions to the original Herbal Medicine Chest:
- for cough: cough & cold tea
- for tooth pain, clove oil
- for sleep, lavender herb or essential oil
- for the tummy, slippery elm bark
- for burns, lavender essential oil
- and everything from The Medicine Chest
Make at home:
- Anti-Bacterial Salve (from Jill’s Home Remedies)
- Burn Cream (recipe from Growing Up Herbal)
- Bug Repellent (essential oils)
- Bug Spray (vinegar, from Bulk Herb Store Blog)
- Anti-Itch oil (or even use plantain astringent tincture)
- Black Drawing Salve (from Herbal Trading Post)
- Bug Bite Salve
- Bug Bite Salve (from Bulk Herb Store)
- Soothing Flower Bug Bite Salve (from A Gypsy Herbal)
- Calamine Lotion (from Nourishing Joy)
Keep on-hand in kitchen:
- raw honey
- fresh garlic
- lemons
- green leaves* (see below)
- aloe (kept ready in the refrigerator to cool burns when they happen)
Additional Suggestions:
- See the Burn chapter in Be Your Own Doctor for more specifics, or Comfort for the Burned and Wounded, to find out why you might want to *keep some green leaves (such as burdock, grape, cabbage) in the fridge, in case of burns.
- Katie Mae explains how she fights allergies, including use of a neti pot. (Using a saline solution or pre-boiled & cooled water helps reduce risk of contamination.)
- Eyton’s Earth Research project talks about mixing bentonite clay with colloidal silver for poisonous spider bites.
Finally, don’t forget the original herbal medicine chest we talked about!
So there you have it, my current list of things I like to keep stocked in my Herbal Medicine Cupboard. I keep learning and adding, and I hope you too are learning a lot and have added much to your own supply of knowledge and herbal remedies!
What item in your herbal remedies collection is your favorite, and what do you use it for?
Arnica gel for sprains and bruises, and the pills to really help with pain ! Also comes available for our furry family members too !
What an awesome post!! Just kind of curious on which version of Be your Own Doctor do you use? There are quite a few!! Added a few of your ideas to my own herbal medicine chest!! Thanks for all the info!!
Oh Michelle, I’m sorry! I was supposed to add in links, and haven’t done it yet. For now, you could find links to most of those herbal book titles at A Gypsy Herbal (http://agypsyherbal.blogspot.com/p/recomendations.html). I should have shared Nourishing Simplicity’s affiliate link though. (http://www.bulkherbstore.com/Books#a_aid=mexicanwildflower) I’ll fix that later in the week!
Great post! I am saving this! Our most used item is probably our essential oils because they are all ready to go and serve, no mixing, boiling, etc., necessary… However, we also like colloidal silver to spray onto sore throats, garlic to rub on bottom of feet for fevers, chamomile tea for soothing, rose hip tea for vitamin c boost, hmmm.. I think my list can go on and on so I am going to take a peak at your medicine chest instead 🙂 Thank you for linking this up to the Art of Home-Making Mondays. I love this information!
Oh I like your list! Reminds me of a couple things I left off! 🙂 Maybe we’ll all need to do a linky sometime, and then we can get even more ideas together. It’s great when we can share the wonderful herbs that are part of God’s provision for us! Thanks for the ideas!