Yesterday I made the decoction and infusion for the Winter Crud syrup that goes into my annual herbal care gift set that I make for each of my adult children’s households. The other items include a bottle of sting oil, …
Category: Herbalism
These are the posts that have to do with herbalism and our native medicinal plants.
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An Herbal Remedy for Winter Crud featuring Mullein, Beebalm, and Echinacea
Here’s my 2023 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 …
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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 …
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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. While this post was originally created in 2016, I still enjoying seeing and using these aromatic plants. My own use of them …
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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!
Rosy colored variety of Pedicularis, with a bumble bee visiting. 
A pale yellow-colored lousewort. …
Some lousewort, showing -
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 …
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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,
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Rattlesnakes and Dogs don’t Mix – Snakebit dog
A WildOzark Timber Rattlesnake 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 …
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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.…
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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 …
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Solomon’s Seal Unfurling
Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
There’s a nice patch of Solomon Seal at the front of the driveway that was so choked out last summer that I don’t think any of them got a chance to bloom. I was …
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Ever Heard of Herbalism for Plants?
Is herbalism exclusively for animals and people? Why not herbalism for plants?
I’ve never heard of anyone else using herbs to treat plants. There’s lots of information about how to use plants to treat people (and animals), but not for …
