Have you ever made a “hot infusion”? Most likely, but you may not have called it that.
That’s how herbalists like Doc Jones typically refer to tea, and it’s a very common – and delicious – way to take herbs.
But the fact that it’s familiar can be misleading, since steeping your bag of chamomile tea at bedtime is not the same process as preparing a genuinely medicinal cup of tea.
Until you really start learning about and using herbs, it’s hard to appreciate just how much you can rely on them for common ailments.
Are they the silver bullet for every health problem? Of course not, and Dr. Patrick Jones is very clear about that throughout both of his classes at the School of Traditional Skills.
Herbal infusions (teas) are one of the tastiest ways of taking your medicine, but sometimes you need help in a hurry. Or you need a certain herb that just doesn’t make for a good tea. That’s when you might reach for a tincture.
Despite the intimidating name, there’s nothing scary about making tinctures. Really, if you know how to make tea, you can make a tincture.
Modern medicine is remarkable and often life-saving in the right context. But it’s hard to deny that we’ve lost a great treasure when, instead of practicing the traditional plant-based medicine of our forebears, we reach for a pharmaceutical drug every time we feel unwell.
When most people think about keeping bees, they picture their honey harvest bottled and in the pantry. But herbalist and beekeeper Kaylee Richardson’s workshop at the School of Traditional Skills, “Honey & Herbs,” reveals something many overlook: beeswax is a powerful ingredient for natural medicine-making.
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