Henriette has 7 dwarfs plus worker elves and perhaps a few fairies

From Henriette's blog: You have data on how many plants?

Some of the various herb-related sites out there proudly exhibit things like "7000 plants in our database" and similar.

So on a whim, I did a quick and dirty database query: count the number of unique latin names with URLs attached.
I have data on 4200 different plants, give or take a few.

And, lemmesee, I have photos of 2164 genera online

On a whim? Are you kidding me? How do you find time for this Henriette? I am suspicious. Let's see you have your site, your list (which is a very tight ship let me tell ya, she doesn't miss a beat) Your blog, You teach, you practice as an herbalist, and who knows what else. You have the perfect answer for everything herbal at the drop of a hat, your a computer wiz techi, I am sure I have left out 1000 more things you do.

Tell us, do you have elves, fairies, dwarfs, and several pixies you are not telling us about? You see I am conducting this little experiment to see if one of your elves finds my site. Waiting for comment.......should take approximately 2.2 seconds.

In case you have been under a rock some ware and missed it here is Henriette's site. Everything herbal, you can find it there. Oh and it is the best site, save your self some time and go there!

http://www.henriettesherbal.com

Chickweed itch oil

Growing in my yard is the chickweed plant. It is the first thing I see when I go out my back door. My Dog is suffering from flea bite dermatitis, he was hanging around some dogs with fleas. Now he chews, bites and itches himself. He is getting the mange type sores from the flea's saliva that he is allergic to. His diet is great so the fleas are gone, just have the sores left to deal with. After giving him a sea salt water bath with some calendula flowers I am going to follow up with some chickweed itch oil. He is a Bernese Mt Dog so he is covered with long thick hair. An oil will work better than a salve on him. Since I have so much chickweed available I am going with this plant for the itch oil.

The chickweed is in flower so now is the time to pick it, it is most potent at this time, according to Nancy Phillips, I will get better results from an extract of the freshly dried than the fresh plant ( the chickweed does not retain it's alkalinizing constituents for long, so it must be recently freshly dried for this to be true- experiment with both, fresh seems to be good as well). Certain herbs are best dried before being processed, other examples are Cascara Segrada, actually has toxic qualities when fresh and Fresh Angelica root can be hard on the digestive tract when fresh. I'm going to use the dried plant, but if you were to use fresh plant to make an oil, you may want to add a little sodium benzoate.

Chickweed is a very palatable plant & packed with nutrients including Vitamins B1, B2, B3, C & E, Calcium, essential fatty acids, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, silicon, sulfur, & zink. You can eat it right there on the spot, or add it to your sandwich as a sprout replacement, or add it to your evening salad (Just make sure the area has not been sprayed with pesticides.) It reminds me of a bright sunny day, just it's name sounds happy. I have grabbed some chickweed, chewed it up and used it as a quick poultice out in the woods when I get scrapes and cuts from passing by thorn bushes (the superficial ones that itch). So this is the last "weed" I am going to get to harvest from my current home.

Resource: The Herbalist's Way Nancy and Michael Phillips

OIL

An oil is an extraction of herbs in oil for external use as massage oils, creams, and ointment. Herbal oils made from flowers are usually cold infused, while those from leaves are best prepared by hot infusion. To make a cold infused oil, pack a quart glass with the fresh or dried herbs. Cover with the oil. Cap tightly and place on a warm, sunny windowsill for two weeks, shaking each day. Strain through a jelly bag, squeezing hard, and then repeat with more herbs. After two weeks, strain again and pour into sterilized, dark glass bottles. Cap tightly, label and refrigerate for up to a year. To make a hot infused oil, combine 8 ounces dried herbs with 2 cups oil in the top of a double boiler or for roots you can use a crock pot set on medium. Heat gently for three hours or longer, careful to not let the lower pan boil dry if using a double broiler. Cool. Strain through a cheesecloth, jelly bag or muslin. Pour into sterilized, dark glass bottles. Cap tightly, label and store in a dark, cool place.
Above Picture Taken By Angie Goodloe Sandy Or

Kava Kava Massage Oil / Good for therapist and client

Kava Kava massage oil, an ingenious idea I got from Jim McDonald. It gives you this wonderful tingling warming sensation, and the muscles respond wonderfully to it. I practice medical massage so I had not had the chance to use oil that often (in this type of massage very little if any lubricant is used) However, Lomi Lomi has become a recent interest of mine as well as everyone likes the occasional plain old relaxation massage. The one thing I have noticed about this oil since I have been using it more, not only does the client love it, but my hands feel GREAT after using it! Light, Warm, & magical! This is something to take note of considering most LMT's get sore wrists and hands. I suspect this oil along with some do it yourself deep tissue & soft tissue release technique on the forearm would be a great preventative for carpal tunnel sydrome. Do this exercise daily, place your thumb of your other hand near the top (proximal) of your forearm (the one that is sore) palpate until you find the area that is just between your two arm bones (radius and ulna) on the top of your arm, press firmly, rotate the wrist and hand of the arm you are pressing on back and forth (from right to left palm down) Continue to move down your arm (proximal to distal) with your thumb applying pressure & rotating your hand. After the exercise, liberally massage with the kava kava oil. This exercise is great for hands and arms that are sore from typing as well. This deep tissue move will get the muscles to release, easing the pressure on the nerves that are causing the pain sensation.

To make

I make mine with dry or fresh kava kava roots.
I made some in Johoba oil or Jim Suggests:
almond (75%) and sesame (25%) oils, infused for a couple days
in a slow cooker or double boiler.

Pressed Herb Cards for Mother's Day

Here is something easy you can make for your favorite Mom on Mothers Day. The picture shows leaves but you can really use any delicate cuttings (because they dry easily) Maidenhair fern & Goldenrod come to mind. Working on an ironing board, place leaves and or petals on top of three layers of plain newsprint, available at art supply stores. Place another sheet of newsprint on top. Press with an iron set at medium temperature until the plant cuttings turn slightly paler, about 2 minutes. Attach dried cuttings to card stock and spray with adhesive, let dry.

Urban Sprawl Fever

Above Picture Me & My Mom
I am deeply sad when I see the destruction of the woods. When I was a child our house backed up to a big wonderful woods full of wildlife. I remember having hiding places where I would go to talk to the plants, salamanders, frogs, & birds. There was something magical about that place. Well, Fugi sold his farm and they built mobile homes and apartment buildings right below us cutting down most of the woods. Native American artifacts were found there and sent off to the museum. This broke my heart as a child and it continues to break my heart now. Here in Sandy someone is attempting to burn down the new construction they are building. The news said someone is upset because they are cutting down a very old wood area. This is walking distance from my house. It seems we now have to go farther and farther to really enjoy the woods. (I do not condone the burning of new construction) My car broke down and I see just how hard it is to really get to the woods from here now. There are little patches here and there, and now that I carry Ella I can't walk as far and carry plants. I am getting "urban sprawl fever" sort of like "cabin fever" although I can still go outside. Sometimes I just need to be far enough out where you can't here the cars from the hi-way, people talking, see garbage, et. I tried Kava Kava Massage Oil (Thank you Jim McDonald for the Kava contact for the Purple Moi and recipe), Goldenrod externally (thank you Kiva Rose for the idea and Jim for the fast ship of the tincture since I couldn't wait 2 weeks), although they helped temporarily, a new pain would pop up in some other area. Little head aches, moody, I need to get out! I am looking forward to wildcrafting soon, my Mom is coming over from Prineville and we are headed for the Coast (she heard my whining and is driving over early). Plenty of woods there. Can't wait!

My dog the herbalist

Well it's that time again, flea season. Other dogs that Koa mingles with are flea ridden. He is healthy, on a raw diet, so fleas aren't so bad, but he has very sensitive skin. When we lived at our other rental we had a walnut tree. The hulls would fall to the ground, I saw him out there, eating away, no need to worry about worms that year. He is great at healing himself. He even digs up the dandelions and eats the roots! This year the winter was pretty warm, we also have a cat who picks up fleas from who knows where. There is this quaint little herbal/ liquor store near the beach. The lady is a clinical herbalist and had a flea powder. We were just chatting away when I said "hey, I could use some of that". Bought it without even looking at the ingredients, got it home and the main herb was Wormwood. Wormwood, worms, makes sense right? However,As a powder you can't control the amount, the dog or cat chews and licks it off. Any animal that is sensitive will have a reaction, or accident when you least expect it where you least want it. Wormwood can be very hard on the host, wormwood has an assortment of strong bitter principles and tannins. If you use to much it can irritating to the liver and kidneys. I suppose you could use wormwood, but extra moderation and care should be considered, and the amount controlled. For some safer substitutes consider, garlic, sage, black walnut hulls, thyme, pumkin seeds, oregon grape. For the skin a salve with caledula, aloe and plantain works well.

Raw Milk Rant

OK, last night I couldn't sleep (what a surprise for me) some nightline type show was on TV. They had a farmer on there that sold Raw Milk. The FDA came in armed strapped with guns (no exaggeration) and shut him down. The farmer said he was just trying to make a living for his family, his wife was pregnant with their 3rd, and customers really wanted this milk with no hormones. A customer comments "hey I am 65 years old, I haven't died yet, my family has been drinking this for generations" "How much did you spend" the journalist asks "Don't tell my husband, $132.00, I am stocking up". "It is in demand, the customers won't let me stop selling it", The farmer replies, the FDA was taking away his livelihood "I'm scared I have a baby on the way". The solution, he had to mark his product "Pet food" his regular customers said "Hey I don't mind eating pet food" LOL. This guy was not getting rich by any stretch of the imagination. The FDA reply "Don't you want to be safe?" (my first thought, let's see those preservatives in foods you OK are really safe obesity is killing this country) Another farmer's solution was to make all of her customers part owner of her cows, in that state you could only use raw milk if you owned a cow. I am not even eating dairy products now, that is not the point, what is with all this control? Don't we have a choice? We should be able to eat McDonalds (YUK), Alfalfa or raw milk if we want to. No one is going to stop me from picking weeds out of my backyard and making them into anything I see fit. There has been a lot of talk about the FDA taking away our rites to make, use or sell herbal medicines. Maybe I should come out with a new product, PET FOOD medicinal herbal tinctures and teas. Just in case.