The Music of Sarah Stockwell Arthen & Provident Peasant Workshops

The Music of Sarah Stockwell Arthen & Provident Peasant Workshops

Home Health Herb wksps 6-13

Grow your own medicinal herb garden…

Home Health Herb

Garden Workshop

how to grow and use them – with plants for sale

Saturday, June 8 (10:00 to 11:30 am) or

Wednesday, June 12 (6:30 to 8:00 pm)

Cummington Community House, 33 Main Street

(by gift economy: free or donation)

*Improve your foundational health

*Build your natural defenses

*Deal with common ailments

Sarah Stockwell-Arthen with grower Carly Leusner

Taproot Commons Home Health Herbs is a carefully selected treasure trove of about 35 cultivated and wild/weed medicinal plants that grow well here. This garden of plants (and wild allies) is designed to support your family’s general health throughout the year and deal with common ailments. You can start large or small growing this garden plan, and you may already have some of them!

These plants are simple to acquaint yourself with, and are easy to incorporate into your daily routine and health habits with simple, water-based “infusions” or strong teas. Such plants have traditionally been used for digestion, children’s ailments, colds/flus, calming, sleep remedies, and even herbal first aid.

 

Herbs as medicine work differently than medicines you get at the drug store.

Plants that you grow and care for and process on your own will nearly always give you more potent and effective remedies than those you purchase. This is because harvest and handling are critical to the quality and potency of the plant, and also because your care and gratitude for the plant enhances your openness to it, and its giving to you.

The plant gives its life for you.

Beginning in June, most of these plants – grown by Carly – will be available as starts at the Taproot Commons farm stand. (And you can find the wild plants such as Dandelion and Red Clover right where you live!)

Home Health Herb Garden list

(5/20/13)

Home Health Herbs at Taproot CommonsGarden & Wild Plant Allies

* = use these lavishly as infusions (strong tea).

17 Herbs To Grow at Home: Plant starts (seeds or bulbs… and some tinctures) available at Taproot Commons Farm Stand. For workshops to show you how to use and grow these plants, go to www.sarahstockwell.com. Many of these plants are very generous, and will spread and self-seed, esp. not used prolifically! So use them!)

 

*Lemon Balm (perennial: may self-seed prolifically if not used.)

*Chamomile (perennial)

*Peppermint (perennial: spreads by runners)

*Nettle (perennial: spreads by seed and runners)

*Tulsi/Sacred Basil (annual: may self-seed)

*Oats (direct seed in your garden)

*Catnip (perennial: spreads and self-seeds)

Motherwort (perennial: may self-seed)

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale, perennial: spreads and self-seeds)

Calendula (annual: will self-seed)

Marshmallow (perennial, will self-seed)

Mugwort (perennial: spreads by runners, pull them back)

Boneset (perennial: will self-seed conservatively)

Elder (perennial shrub)

Sage (perennial)

Garlic (annual bulb: plant in late fall for next year)

Echinacea (perennial: will self-seed reasonably)

 

To Grow Indoors:

Aloe

 

Wild plants to encourage and gather:

*Red Clover flower

*Violet leaf and flower

*Red Raspberry leaf

*Dandelion leaf, (flower, root)

*Chickweed leaf

Mullein leaf and flower

Evening Primrose/Borage (eat flowers, collect seeds for oil nutrients)

Burdock root (biennial: use 1st year root)

Blackberry root

Goldenrod leaf

Plantain leaf

Yellow Dock leaf and root

Evergreen needles (such as pines, firs, cedars – not yew)

St. Johns Wort leaf and flower

Yarrow leaf

Wild ginger (Asarum)

Pickles in my root cellar!

S

Living Sustainably in the Hilltowns: The Waulking Song (with friends, part 4)

“Ballad of Mary Magdalene” – Live at the Iron Horse

Richard Shindell’s, “The Ballad of Mary Magdalene” at

the Iron Horse Music Hall on August 29, 2007.

“I Knew This Place” – Live at the Hilltown Spring Festival

The Hilltown Community Development Corporation (www.hilltowncdc.org) is a great organization here in the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts — its annual Spring Festival is one of my favorite events of the year.  I’ve been singing Dave Mallet’s “I Knew This Place” for a couple of decades (www.davidmallett.com).  Reminds me of  my family’s connection to my grandparent’s land.

“Solid Ground” – Live from a hay field

Singing Dougie MacLean’s “Solid Ground” in Kip Sear’s hay field, Cummington, MA.  Video and inspiration by Rose Wessel (www.threesalamanders.com).

“Just a Bum” – Live at the Iron Horse

Greg Brown’s “Just a Bum” at the Iron Horse Music Hall

in Northampton, Mass. on August 29, 2007.

Healing in This Night – Live at the Iron Horse

Sarah sings Bob Franke’s “Healing in this Night” at the Iron Horse

Music Hall in Northampton, Mass. on August 29, 2007.

The Dead Egyptian Blues – Live at the Iron Horse

Sarah sings Michael Smith’s “The Dead Egyptian Blues” at the Iron

Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass. on August 29, 2007.

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