Category: Herbalism
-
An Herbal Remedy for Winter Crud featuring Mullein, Beebalm, and Echinacea
Here’s my recipe for an herbal remedy I use every year to combat what we’ve come to call “Winter Crud”. We also take it at the first sign of anything that feels like trouble coming on. This year’s formula uses mullein, echinacea, ginseng, and beebalm.
-
Plant Walk & Nature Journaling at Wild Ozark
There are other plant walks in Arkansas, but this one is probably a little different. The trails we’ll follow are deer trails and logging roads. The drive to get here is gorgeous. And the biodiversity here at Wild Ozark is incredible. Our 160 acres is far off of the beaten path six miles from pavement.…
-
Wild Mountain Mint – Whiteleaf Mountain Mint
Wild mountain mint grows in abundance here at Wild Ozark. This particular variety is called White-leaf Mountain Mint. (Click the title to read more…)
-
Lousewort, Bumblebee Food and Medicinal Herb
Lousewort (Pedicularis canadensis) is an interesting plant. It’s a medicinal herb said to be effective at muscular pain relief. The bumblebees love it! An interesting find In May of 2014, I noticed an interesting plant. Well, I’m *always* noticing interesting plants, so it wasn’t the first time to notice an interesting plant, but the first…
-
Build your Herbal Armory!
Useful plants grow all around us. It’s time to start building your herbal armory of plant allies now. My book, 10 Common Plants worth Knowing in a Long-term Survival Situation, will introduce you to ten at a time. I’ll help you make allies of them, enabling you to build your herbal armory. All-Heal Beebalm Echinacea…
-
Ginseng Jelly – A Delicious Wild Ozark Luxury Product
Oh, my … GINSENG JELLY! I love medicinal herbs, especially those that grow right here at home, and most especially ginseng. This year’s ginseng jelly comes in two varieties: Ginseng Gold (4-oz, $25) Ginseng/Apple (8-oz, $25) Soft-set: thicker than syrup, thinner than jelly Both are delicious, but you’ll get more of the ginseng active ingredients…
-
Elderberry Flowers Oil Infusion
Elderberry flowers have a light, sweet fragrance and all manners of pollinators love them. Which Elderberry Flowers? The variety I’m using for this is Sambucus canadensis, which is the native elderberry in our area. Black elderberry (S. nigra) is the european comparative variety. Don’t use red elderberry if it grows in your area because that one…
-
Wild Ozark’s Plant ID Challenge: May’s Mystery
This month’s Star Plant Guesser is Janet Webb, who correctly identified May’s Mystery plant as Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum). Each month, around the middle of the month, I’ll post a plant ID challenge for readers to test their identification skills. Every day until someone correctly guesses the true name of the mystery plant, I’ll post…
-
Black Cohosh or Doll’s Eyes? Companion Look A-Likes
Black Cohosh or Doll’s Eyes? Trying to differentiate between black cohosh and doll’s eyes before they come into bloom, has been frustrating. It’s very easy to tell once they begin the blooming process as the flower stems originate in different places and the flowers themselves are very different. Both of these woodland herbs grow in…
-
Mailbox and Back in Under an Hour
Yesterday I brought my camera with me when I went to the mailbox. If I had walked, I know it would have taken more than an hour because I would have seen so many more opportunities to stop and take a picture. There’s Never a “Quick Trip” Anywhere Out Here My intention was to make…
-
Top Questions from Readers: Healing Herbs
Healing Herbs: the first of the Top Questions and Topics of Interest from Readers Healing herbs and using the wild plants for medicine was one of the most often mentioned topics in the recent survey results. In case you’re just joining me here and aren’t yet a Wild Ozark Musings newsletter subscriber, I recently sent…
-
Photos of Plants – Medicinal & Useful plants down the Wild Ozark Driveway
I’m still mostly stuck in the house because of my knee (dislocated it a little over a week ago) but I took the four-wheeler and camera down the driveway to get a few photos of plants unfurling or coming into bloom. Doll’s Eyes versus Black Cohosh Late last year, after the flood in summer, I…
-
Update from Wild Ozark
Lots of things going on – or rather, NOT going on lately. If you’re a subscriber to my monthly newsletter, you’ve probably already seen the update that I won’t be doing the farmer’s market this year. I forgot to add some of the items below to the newsletter, so this post is not a complete…
-
Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) Unfurling
The blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) is awake early this spring. I found some the other day, in three different stages of unfurl. The one completely unfurled is in a pot in the nursery area, the other two are in the ground in the same area. I missed the initial unfurling of the stem this year. I’m…
-
Yellow dock (Rumex crispus), one of the useful “weeds” to know
I saw a young Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) the other day when I walked down the driveway. Usually, unless I’m specifically looking for younger plants, when I notice this plant it’s already matured and ready to produce seeds. Yellow dock, while not native to our soil, is one that will make its way into the next…
-
Exercising in Nature – or – Why it takes me an hour to walk to the mailbox and back
Exercising in nature is as easy as taking a walk to check the mail. It helps if you have a long driveway. One of my resolutions for the new year and the rest of my life is to get into better shape. So I figured I’d use our natural resources here at Wild Ozark to…
-
Busy Days at Wild Ozark
I’ve been busy lately, but you wouldn’t know it from my lack of posts to the blog. New projects started (Wild Ozark Nature Journal) and a new website to go with it, new products, and new adventures. Last Friday I spoke at Compton Gardens in Bentonville about the habitat of American ginseng. Afterwards I talked…
-
The Business ‘Circle of Life’ at Wild Ozark
An older post, but still representative. Eventually I’ll update it but for now, I’ll leave it alone: This is the second year since making Wild Ozark my full-time endeavor. Over the past year, I’ve noticed a life-cycle of sorts. It’s risen organically, and next year I hope to be more efficient at taking advantage of…
-
Gathering Lobelia inflata Seeds
Looking for Lobelia Today I donned a surgical mask to go out and gather the seed pods of Lobelia inflata. Why the mask? Well, it’s the time of year when ragweed tries to assault me when I go outside. I’m hoping the mask helps alleviate tonight’s misery when the pollen launches the sneak attack. It’s…
-
An Herbal Hoof Poultice for a Horse
Both of our horses foundered recently and I’m not sure what caused it. I suspect there was a large fruit drop from the persimmon and plum trees after the big flood in June. The problems caused by eating something like that don’t show up in the hooves for several weeks after the incident, so it’s…
-
A Review Round Robin
*** Sorry, but this event has ended *** Join me in a “Review Round Robin” I’ll send you 10 Common Plants in paperback format, and none of this costs anything for you, not even postage (but you don’t get to keep the book, unfortunately – you’ll send it on to the next reviewer). 1. I’ll send you…
-
Rattlesnakes and Dogs don’t Mix – Snakebit dog
They’re not aggressive. Really. This one just wanted to be left alone. It’s the second one I’d encountered that week, and both were relatively calm. Badger even stepped on the first one and didn’t notice until after doing it. The snake didn’t bite, just coiled up and started rattling. This one took a long time before…
-
Unripe Fruit
I have a hard time believing I have no pictures – at all – of ripe elderberry fruit. After digging through file after unfruitful file, I thought it might be faster to just go get a new photo. Not quite. The berries aren’t ripe yet here at Wild Ozark. But maybe they are on top…
-
Link correction for previous post
Something didn’t work right and the previous post went out with the wrong link. Here’s the right one: https://www.wildozark.com/10-common-plants/
-
What’s that plant good for?
“What’s that plant good for?” A curious thing I’m noticing by selling plants at the market is that people almost always have the same question, phrased in various ways. It’s often the first thing they ask, in general about any of the plants, when they first walk into the booth. It seems to be a…