Bellebuono - The essential herbal for natural health: how to transform easy-to-find herbs into healing remedies for the whole family

Written in the warm open style of the best of the herb classics, The Essential Herbal for Natural Health embraces the art of kitchen and backyard medicine and anchors it firmly to hearth and home. An eminently practical guidebook filled with Hollys favorite herbal recipes, healthful hints, and practical suggestions, The Essential Herbal is also an inspiring and powerful treatise on this ancient healing tradition.

Rosemary Gladstar, author of Rosemary Gladstars Family Herbal

A treasure trove of simple recipes and ideas for healthy living for the whole family. Hollys love of the natural world and of the healing power of the plants around her is contagious! It will undoubtedly inspire readers in their own backyard herbalism adventures.

Amanda Blake Soule, author of The Rhythm of Family

A fascinating compendium of herbal formulas for every common problem, from cradle cap to athletes foot. Something for everyone here.

Susun Weed, author of the Wise Woman Herbal series

ABOUT THE BOOK

From tinctures to ease tummy aches to elixirs to enhance energy, making your own remedies from easy-to-find herbs can be a satisfying and pleasurable way to connect with nature and your familys health. While entering the herb world can be intimidatingmany of todays herb books are filled with cultivation tables, harvest techniques, dye charts, and aromatherapy guidelinesThe Essential Herbal for Natural Health provides a welcome entry point for those wishing to experience the beauty and simplicity of natural herbal remedies safely. By focusing on just thirteen foundation herbs, you can easily jump into the world of herbs while still creating a wide range of remedies and recipes. With something for everyone in the familymen, women, and childrenthese simple recipes can be made to cure coughs, calm anxiety, moisturize skin, and more.

HOLLY BELLEBUONO is an award-winning herbalist of seventeen years. Shes taught, mentored, lectured, and published articles for Appalachian Voices, Carolina Mountain Living, United Plant Savers Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, and Marthas Vineyard Magazine. She studied Therapeutic Herbalism with Welsh herbalist David Hoffmann and with natives of Appalachia, learning nearly forgotten folk healing methods. Hollys Marthas Vineyard business, Vineyard Herbs, provides womens herbal therapy for a global clientele.

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THE ESSENTIAL HERBAL FOR NATURAL HEALTH

How to Transform Easy-to-Find

Herbs into Healing Remedies

for the Whole Family

Holly Bellebuono

Boston & London

2012

Publishers Note: The recipes and formulas herein have been created based on personal experience and the study of a vast heritage of herbal healing. They are presented here for the enjoyment of the reader and in no instance are meant to take the place of the care of a qualified health practitioner. For injuries, illnesses, and emergencies, please seek the advice of a trusted health care practitioner.

Roost Books

An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

roostbooks.com

2012 by Holly Bellebuono

Illustrations 2012 by Geninne Zlatkis

Cover art by Geninne D. Zlatkis

Cover design by Jim Zaccaria

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The following recipes are trademarks of Vineyard Herbs Teas & Apothecary: Vineyard Herbs Breast Milk Fountain, Breast Milk Fountain Tea, Childrens Sleepytime Tonic, Katama Chamomile Calming Blend Tea, Wild Yam PMS Jam, Menopause Friend Tincture, Marthas Vineyard Wise Woman Herbal Tea, Womens Ultimate Tonic Elixir, Squibnocket Soother, Chilmark Chai, West Chop Winter Tea for Colds and Flu, Elderberry-Ginger Syrup for Colds and Flu, Rosemarys Blessing First Aid Ointment, Bye-Bye Bugs Insect Repellent Spray, Digestive Aid/Gas Relief Tincture, Menemsha Mint Tea, Aquinnah Cliffs Licorice Tea, Mood Mend Tincture, Vineyard Summer Lemon Tea, and Edgartown English Breakfast.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bellebuono, Holly.

The essential herbal for natural health: how to transform easy-to-find herbs into healing remedies for the whole family/Holly Bellebuono.

p. cm.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2771-4

ISBN 978-1-59030-947-6 (pbk.)

1. Naturopathy. 2. HerbsTherapeutic use. 3. Self-care, Health. 4. Alternative medicine. I. Title.

RZ440.B45 2012

615.321dc23

2011022507

Dedication

To Mom and Dad, for supporting and inspiring me.

To Rocco, for being a wonderful husband and father.

To Gabriel and Madia, for the joy

youve both brought into my life.

May this book inspire many creative endeavors.

Fourteen years ago, I walked across the long bridge over the Watauga River in Sugar Grove, North Carolina. The rural valley was dotted with farmhouses and barns, and wildflowers blanketed the riverbank. I turned right at the abandoned yet structurally sound Farthing farmhouse and entered what appeared to be a last remnant of old-growth hemlocks, towering and quiet. Rhododendron grew beneath them like little plump balls of green, and here and there a sheep or a cow lay at the foot of a massive hemlock trunk. Ahead of me, on the lower slope of the mountain, sat a little 1950s brick ranch and beyond that the original farmhouse for this holler (valley), abandoned and used for storage. On the brick ranchs doorstep, a woman appearedstocky, in her fifties or sixties, and sensibly dressed. I had already discovered that everything about Georgia Gillis was very sensible: her dress, her collection of historical artifacts and photographs from the region, even her approach to livestock and farmingshe had turned part of the valley she inherited into a Christmas tree farm.

Going out again today? she asked, grinning.

Yes maam, I replied.

Georgia nodded and led me past the long-abandoned farmhouse farther up the hill, explaining again that this had been her familys homestead and that she and all her siblings had grown up here. I peeked in the windows as we walked past. An old iron water pump still presided over the enamel sink; wooden crates sat tucked under old sash windows.

For several years, Id spent every spare moment following old-timers into the deep blue forests of southern Appalachia, and since Id moved into this beautiful valley and, by chance, had met this guardian lady of the mountainside, Id shown up regularly on Georgias front porch to ask if she was heading up into the hills that day. Invariably she was, and I would have the good fortune to tag along and learn some of her folk-healing wisdom.