herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

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herbcraft
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herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by herbcraft »

hey all...

just putting it out there that if anyone is interested in herbal tinctures, salves, oils, or other plant medicines, I offer a diverse array of preparations. These are all made by me, and probably about 90% of what I make comes from plants I wildcrafted from the woods and fields myself. Everything is pretty much handcrafted; I rarely use electric gadgets to process the plants (I've literally spent 4+ hours chopping roots by hand rather than use a grinder or blender). Most of the oils and salves are made from olive oil, but I do have a small stash of hand rendered lard salves.

These are the same preparations I use myself and in my herbal practice here in SE Michigan; things I've used to treat everything from run of the mill cuts scrapes and chafes to 2nd degree burns and one side to the other puncture wounds. If you're hankering for a good all purpose salve (for surfaces cuts/scratches/scrapes/chafes/minor burns/rashes/chapped lips/ect) or an trauma oil (for bumps/bruises/contusions), drop me a line (and what ranger wouldn't have those?). I've also got propolis tincture, which makes the flat out best waterproof liquid bandage ever.

I have a few things ready made, but generally make stuff to fit people's needs. I can in some cases reproduce specific formulae, if I can collect the appropriate plants. And every now and again I make up some really nice pipeweed blends.
jim mcdonald
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Manveruon
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Manveruon »

This sounds brilliant! Have you ever considered opening an Etsy shop?
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Kiriana
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Kiriana »

*Just sits here all excited*

Oh YES!

I also want to learn how to grow some herbs and plants for making my own simple salvesa and things.

Unfortunately.. I have seriously brown thumbs hehe but I do have an aloe vera plant that I haven't killed yet!! It's been 3 months now hehe *is all proud of herself*

I can kill cactus.. and no, not by over watering hehe.
“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”

http://www.mackermakkeep.com
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herbcraft
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by herbcraft »

Manveruon wrote:This sounds brilliant! Have you ever considered opening an Etsy shop?
I've actually been planning to set something up on http://www.poppyswap.com - a much better, vetted herbal "etsy" type site (actually, I ~have~ a shop set up there, but haven't gotten around to taking pictures of salves and tinctures and piles of herbs and stuff to post). I know the woman who set it up, and a slew of the vendors. To get anything plant related, it's far far better than etsy, because it's specifically set up by and for herbalists.
Kiriana wrote: *Just sits here all excited*
Oh YES! I also want to learn how to grow some herbs and plants for making my own simple salvesa and things.
Unfortunately.. I have seriously brown thumbs hehe but I do have an aloe vera plant that I haven't killed yet!! It's been 3 months now hehe *is all proud of herself*
I can kill cactus.. and no, not by over watering hehe.
I'm also not an especially good gardener - I do cultivate some things organically, and I do do root divisions and seed spreading of wild plants, but mostly I collect the wild plants that grow all around me. Common lawn weeds like plantain, creeping charlie, common mallow, dandelion, & chickweed are in many ways as or more virtuous than most of the plants people cultivate, and only require one no to spray the filth or Mordor (mordor has arisen again under the guise of monsanto) on their land. Tolkien was knew this, which is why he made athelas a common weed, not valued by the herb master of Gondor but by Ioreth, more skilled in folk medicine. Likewise, in the History of Middle Earth Tolkien writes of a conversation between Saruman and Gandalf, in which Saruman states, "I know well enough that you have become a curious explorer of the small: weeds and wild things and childish folk. Your time is your own to spend, if you have nothing worthier to do; and your friends you may make as you please. But to me the days are too dark for wanderers' tales, and I have no time for the simples of peasants". ("simples" refers to herbs; the herbalist was called a "simpler").

Using cultivated medicines is wise, but if one is a wanderer they need to know how to use the wild plants. Also, using wild plants teaches you to be in an interdependent relationship with the land. One comes to realize that any given habitat is populated by plants to meet ones needs, be it field, forest or fen.

I do also have DVDs with wild plant info: http://ranger.budgetauthenticity.org/fo ... f=2&t=1309
Last edited by herbcraft on Wed Dec 28, 2011 6:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
jim mcdonald
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Ringulf
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Ringulf »

Herbcraft,

I was just wondering if there were a small "kit" that you could reccomend for some essentials that we might be able to assemble and make a small leather or canvas pouch or container to house and carry them on the trail. Just some half dozen or so, of the most useful subdtances, be they oils or tinctures or herbs for a tea or something like that that we could make as a standard starters kit for a Ranger.
Perhaps even a list of essential items by catagory that could be selected from. I have been making some leather and canvas pouches and I thought it would be very interesting to make a few basic sizes like a small and a medium belt pouch and possibly a larger bag that had specific places for each small vile or tin/bamboo tube or small herb pouch etc.
The size would designate how many of the particular types of items could be carried much like a rangers first aid kit. We could look at the list and say we have loops for "x" number of vials and "X" number of jars and so many spots for drawstring bags and fill them as reccomended.
Then when something was running low we could order or replace with extra stock.

If you put some thought into the things that would serve us best in the feild and the way they are packaged I would enjoy putting together something with you, if you do not have anything already made up in this way.
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed! :mrgreen:
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Peter Remling »

Excellent suggestion.
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herbcraft
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by herbcraft »

Ringulf wrote:I was just wondering if there were a small "kit" that you could reccomend for some essentials that we might be able to assemble and make a small leather or canvas pouch or container to house and carry them on the trail. Just some half dozen or so, of the most useful subdtances, be they oils or tinctures or herbs for a tea or something like that that we could make as a standard starters kit for a Ranger.
Perhaps even a list of essential items by catagory that could be selected from. I have been making some leather and canvas pouches and I thought it would be very interesting to make a few basic sizes like a small and a medium belt pouch and possibly a larger bag that had specific places for each small vile or tin/bamboo tube or small herb pouch etc.
The size would designate how many of the particular types of items could be carried much like a rangers first aid kit. We could look at the list and say we have loops for "x" number of vials and "X" number of jars and so many spots for drawstring bags and fill them as reccomended.
Then when something was running low we could order or replace with extra stock.

If you put some thought into the things that would serve us best in the feild and the way they are packaged I would enjoy putting together something with you, if you do not have anything already made up in this way.
So, I've currently got a leather belt pouch that looks like this:

http://tinyurl.com/cdo4nws

It's actually not a part of a kit, but something I wear day in day out. In it I keep:

` some kind of fire starter (strike anywhere matches/flint & steel/lighter)
` paper birch bark (which is highly flammable even when wet). You could also use sapwood here.
` maybe a small piece of tinder mushroom, which can hold a coal or be used medicinally)
` a small container of all purpose salve (usually in an aluminum tin, simply out of the practicality of weight. Suitable for most minor injuries, or for a lip/cheek/face balm on cold windy days)
` dried osha root. Strongly antimicrobial (and strongly flavored) to chew against contagion (be it the black breath or influenza)
` dried calamus root. Also good against contagion, good against many digestive disorders, good to restore the voice, be it lost from some ailment or from too exuberant singing at the pub or from not speaking one's truth. Calamus root also was used by native peoples in north america similarly to the way south american native peoples used coca: as a stimulant to enhance endurance when on lengthy travels. Calamus was planted all along native trade routes for this reason. Though internet reports it to be carcinogenic or halluconigenic, its not either. My site has one of the best pages on its use online. Also, this is generally chewed. Its bitter. Right now I have a bottle of spagyric tincture in my pouch that was given to me by an alchemist (yep; they're still around). But I prefer dried root.
` athelas, of course. Hard to come by nowadays, but judging on tolkien's description of it, we know it to be a potent aromatic herb, both stimulating and relaxing, with marked antimicrobial and antiseptic properties. My friend Matthew Wood (he writes awesome herb books - try The Book of Herbal Wisdom) posits monarda fistulosa as a reasonable analogue; I agree it would meet many of the apparent qualities possessed by athelas, though unfortunately not evergeen.
` an infused trauma oil - could be a blend of arnica, st john's wort, yarrow, calendula, goldenrod... Something you'd put on bruises or aches after a fall, or sore muscles from an overexerting trek.
` tincture of propolis (awesome liquid bandage, though it's high alcohol content and hurts like hell going on a bad wound the first couple coats - I used it on a second degree scald once: YIKES! But it healed awesome. It's in an amber glass dropper bottle. I prefer corks, but again: practicality - spilled propolis tincture is a nightmare)
` various other tinctures (herbs extracted in vodka/brandy or wine)... what you'd want depends on an individuals needs, and where you're at. Because I once had a car sort of fall on me, I carry around a mullein root blend which is good for an out of sorts back - that's personal to my needs. If I had asthma, I'd carry around new england aster tincture. If I was in an area with lots of venomous beasts, I'd carry around echinacea tincture, which is an exceptional antivenom (that was it's original use; it was also used to bathe injuries in to prevent gangrene). So, what tinctures you'd have on you are determined by a blend of personal needs and where you're at.
` a container of a mixture of slippery elm bark and goldenseal root powders - better than salve if a wound is damp/purulent/ulcerous.
` some pipeweed (I make a mix of tobacco, raspberry leaf, red willow, bearberry and yerba santa, but have a few others as well, with an without tobacco.
` I might pick some fresh plantain leaves to carry around with me is I saw them and knew I was going somewhere they wouldn't be - they're very common where people are, much less where people aren't. Excellent for a number of uses, but especially for insect bites.
` some aromatic amber essence (to smell nice for my elven lady)

Of course, in different parts of the country, I'd have different plant preferences. If I lived in the southeast, I'd for sure carry around a bundle of yellowroot. In the northwest, oregon grape root tincture.

Authentic containers can be an issue; ceramic and glass is heavy, and corks (especially on bottles filled with oils) come off. For corked bottles, I'll try and get something with a lip on the neck and wrap a piece of leather over the top, then tie that one with some cordage (ok, or maybe a hair-tie). But I do carry my tinctures in dropper bottles, just based on the practical reality that its the best way to administer them. I do have some beautiful apothecary jars with self dispensing ground glass stoppers, but those just aren't practical on the trail, and pouring tincture inevitably creates waste. I have made salve in rosewood screwtop containers, but they're kind of small.
jim mcdonald
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www.herbcraft.org
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Kiriana
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Kiriana »

it won't redirect the url to the pics properly.. do you have a better link?
“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”

http://www.mackermakkeep.com
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herbcraft
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by herbcraft »

Kiriana wrote:it won't redirect the url to the pics properly.. do you have a better link?
fiddlesticks - I tried tweaking that link a few times now; the site doesn't allow hotlinking... so:

Go to www.skyravenwolf.com
After gawking at the home page, go to belt pouches, then to page 2.
My pouch is four rows down, three pics over; the single oak leaf one.
jim mcdonald
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Kiriana
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Kiriana »

Oh very nice
“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”

http://www.mackermakkeep.com
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Ringulf
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by Ringulf »

Well I must say that that is very nice leatherwork! And also that I am both dissapointed and inspired that they are products of the UK.

Dissapointed because it makes them harder and more expensive to aquire,
but inspired and excited because a shameless mimic like myself can be cajolled by so many lovely examples to make my own! :wink:
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed! :mrgreen:
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herbcraft
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Re: herbal potions, poultices & other divers preparations

Post by herbcraft »

the pouch I got cost $100, shipping included. When I considered that the pouch I was replacing (a buffalo hide one made by the folks at Bald Mountain Moccasins - they make sodhopper-like mocs) was about $80, and nowhere near as nice (machine stitched, the pattern stamped on the leather, and not made with environmentally friendly leather), it was totally worth it. Chris made it to my specs so it was sure to hold what I needed (and added an inner pocket). I'm totally happy - I like making leather stuff, but this is just lots better than anything I could do....
jim mcdonald
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