Contents:
Taking Care of Ourselves - Grow and Gather Herbs
A Practical Tip/Solution - My Current Favourite Herbal Tea Mix
I Recommend - This Supplement Company
Contact & Policies

Taking Care of Ourselves - Grow and Gather Herbs
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Do you know how easy it is to grow and gather herbs? Herbs are often seen as weeds by those who don't know their value, and you will find that once you have them started in your garden the herbs will settle in and start to spread. You won't have to worry about reseeding them each spring, or protecting them from the elements. Herbs are generally hardy plants.

I've just made a list of the herbs growing in my garden, and I'm rather astonished. I didn't realize I had so many! Calendula, chamomile, chives, comfrey, dill, green onions, malva, mint/peppermint, parsley, plantain (plantago and other names), purslane, sorrel, and summer savoury. (And I have a feeling I've missed some - oh, like clover, dandelions and thistles - which i did not invite!)

Like I said, once they make themselves 'to home' in your yard, they care for themselves. (I think parsley is the only one I have to pamper a bit, and reseed each spring). I assure you, it is very easy to grow and gather herbs!

When you come up my front walk to the door, you can look down and see mint (not sure if that is peppermint or spearmint), in the flowerbeds, and the large-furry-like-leaves of the comfrey plant spreads out right under the rain spout.

When you come through the house and out the back door, you see that almost my whole backyard is a garden. Under the nearest tree is a clump of chives, more mint, and along the sidewalk through to the back is plenty of plantain (also known as plantago). Glancing toward the neighbours' fences, you will large clumps of green onions, and some years, sorrel (that one does skip some years until it is well settled. I need to reseed it this year.)

Throughout the whole garden calendula and chamomile and malva pop like weeds. In fact, I have to pull or dig them up in the area where I want to grow vegetables and other flowers. I really can't resist most flowers, so I often yield and let them stay. At least until I see how invasive they are.

Calendula is from the marigold family but has a single layer of orange/yellow petals instead of the many ruffled layers of my French marigolds. Chamomile has tiny daisy-like flowers on the ends of very lacy, fern like stems and leaves. Malva grows tall, with large crepe-crinkled leaves and very pretty mauve to purple trumpet flowers. It puts down a long white carrot-like root which is hard to get out, so once you have malva - you've got malva in your garden! Ah, but wait until you discover what all these herbs are good for!

Let's see... Oh yes, I usually sow a row or so of Italian parsley, summer savory and dill, but the latter two often survive through our winters with lots of snow, and come up wherever they please all through the garden.

I still have a large jar of my sister's rose hips in my kitchen. These are the buds left after a rose falls off a rosebush, and when dried, rose hips are like wrinkled mini-marbles, but so rich full of vitamin C, and a great addition to any herbal tea. Roses don't seem to grow well for me. I've tried a few times; at this point I think it is because I need to learn to raise them well, so it is not their fault, but probably mine. However, here in Saskatchewan we have a lot of wild roses growing along the sides of country roads, and in the ditches. So if you go out in late summer and stops by the roadside, you can gather the rose hips from the wild prairie roses when the fragile pink petals have fallen away.

Gathering and drying herbs is not hard either. Simply pick them into a basket or bucket, and wash in your kitchen sink, then lay them out on sheet of wax paper in a cool, dry non-sunny place. A basement works fine, or a shelf in your pantry. In a couple of days you can go back to turn them over if necessary. When the leaves are dried crisp and crunch easily in your hands, break them up in your hands, and put them into jars or bottles. Be sure to label them, as you may not recognize or recall what kind they are later.

If you want to know what are the benefits of these herbs. I have put up a number of pages on my website that describe individual herbs in detail, and offer ideas for teas or ointments to make. If I offered you links to each one, this ezine issue will be filtered out as spam in your email program. Instead, I'll give you the link to the Sitemap of my site, and suggest you go down to the section called, Handy Herbs which is about 2/3 of the way down that long list of links to all the pages on my site. There are six specific herbs with their own pages. (I wish I had time to get more done in a hurry). The other pages are more focused on certain health issues and which herbs would be best suited to those problems, particularly if you turn the dried herbs into teas.

By the way, you didn't think green onions, chives, or parsley were herbs, did you?

Yes, they are edible as foods, but they are plants that we can take internally, so, sure enough, they show up on a list of herbs! There are many more in fact. I'm just sticking today to how I grow and gather herbs for my own use.

A Practical Tip/Solution - My Current Favourite Herbal Tea Mix
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You can be creative and mix your own herbs for a tea to solve personal problems. I haven't named it yet, but my current favourite herbal mix tea goes like this;

I line a spice ball (soup size) with a clean piece of paper towel to keep the bits of herb from escaping through the little holes and making the tea look muddy or untidy. Then I put in;
three or four pinches of dried horsetail
a frozen parsley root from my freezer, (broken into pieces that will fit the spice ball)
three or four pinches of dried nettle

Next, I fold the corners of the paper towel over the top,
and screw on the lid.
By the hook and chain I hang it in my teapot,
and add about a teaspoon of honey
Lastly, I pour over it hot water from my kettle, put the lid on and let it steep about ten minutes.

This pot of herbal tea gives me several tall mugs full of tea to sip throughout the day, and I don't mind drinking it cold when it looses the heat. Or, I'll even put a mug full in the fridge to drink 'chilled' the next day.

What good does it do? Well, the horsetail has silica which makes for stronger nails and hair. The parsley root helps to clear up the edema I seem to be getting in my slightly swollen ankles. The nettle has dozens of benefits; it cures early stages of edema, stops internal hemorrhages, and is great for backaches. It will even expel phlegm from the lungs and stomach, and is great for fever, colds and flu. Nettle is one of those herbs about which it can almost be said, "It will cure you of whatever ails you!" Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it is truly powerful.

I Recommend - - This Supplement Company
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I have more or less given up being able to order from this supplement company for myself, but i highly recommend it to you if you live in the United States of America.

When I first discovered this company online I was able to order whatever I wanted, and because of their special deals that are offered so often they are almost a permanent feature, I was able to stock up and get almost a year's supply of each supplement that I ordered. This included an absorbable calcium that really seemed to improve my bones. (I could see the results in my ragged fingernails which became firm and hard in a matter of days). Any vitamins and minerals I wanted were available there too. If I ordered two bottles, they would throw in three extra! Well, five bottles would be all I needed for five to six months or more!

Best of all, their quality control is excellent. It is hard to find any products so good at any price, and these are very affordable.

Plus they carry a lot of herbs, both in the powdered or ground up state, or as capsules. I went there first for the aloe vera capsules, and I still miss them most.

So why do I sound so discouraged? Because our Canadian government has put restrictions on many of these products so that they cannot even enter our country. When I try to order them from Puritan's Pride, I get notices that they are not allowed to ship these into our country. I am terribly disappointed over this. However, I feel that I should let Americans know that you have access to this treasure trove of wonderful products. Do yourselves a big favour and check them out! I don't think you'll be sorry!

Shop Puritan's Pride Vitamins and Supplements

Blessings & Thanks!

Ruth Marlene Friesen

Contact & Policies - Constant
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CONTACT INFO: Ruth Marlene Friesen (306)856-7785
903 23rd Street West, Saskatoon, SK. S7L 0A5 Canada.
www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com/reachMe.html

Ruth@aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
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