I really hate wasting any part of the plant. It is such a gift to sit with a plant and cut from it’s bounty that I do my best to make craft of every little bit. We are not composting right now so my need to do this is even more intense. We recently grabbed a bunch of some crazy wild rosemary from my parents property in northern Arizona. After a week or so of drying, I garbled off the leaves and powdered up the stems in my Vitamix to use in an incense.

Making natural no additive herbal incenses is truly a spiritual experience. Blending and mixing and burning to get the just right smell can be mood altering….or maybe it’s all the smoke in the air. Either way, it sets the tone for a pretty fun day. I used to sell some in my etsy shoppe, but it’s a pretty time consuming endeavor so now I just blend it for myself now and then.

One of the most important ingredients in a homemade incense is wood. A good wood will keep it burning longer and hotter without needing the chemical additives or toxic salt peter and charcoal found in commercial sticks. I find most of my burnable scented wood in the most industrious way: these garbled stems of my favorite dried aromatic herbs. Rosemary, thyme, lavender, pine, cypress, and creosote are good options around here, but any woody herb will do. It’s really acting as a heat conductor more than anything, so even if it hasn’t retained any smell, it will still be helpful.

You can make sticks and cones by adding a little applesauce or makko powder to your blended herbs, but I make incense a pretty casual way, powder up a few favorite herbs and stems and burn them on a non-toxic, salt peter free bamboo charcoal brick. It’s super easy to do, all you really need is an extra coffee grinder and you can even do it with your kitchen spices. So save your garbled stems and make some delicious homemade chemical free incense.

Memories are Magical Incense
Rosemary stems
Star Anise
Citrus peel
Lavender

Anyway, so back to the neck. Determined to avoid ibuprofen, I set out to find myself an herbmama  approved remedy. I had just finished listening to a lecture by Paul Bergner on acute pain, oddly enough, on Sunday so I had my tools at the ready. He introduced me to a method of preparation I had never tried, nor really heard of or read about anywhere. I was exceptionally grateful for the opportunity to put this into practice right away, as this is always the best way to remember something, but come on! I couldn’t even bend my neck down far enough to see the counter and not make a giant mess. But I did it anyway, and I’m so glad I did.

What he talked about was using freshly powdered herbs in warmed and liquified honey as a method of delivery. Now I’ve made herb infused honeys but this was something different. I have to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of powdered herbs, at least from the store. I prefer my medicine as tea, vinegar, honey, and sometimes extract. But he sort of, well, know’s what he’s talking about so I decided to give it a try. In the lecture he stated that this was the most effective way for your body to use and assimilate the herbs. So I got to work powdering some turmeric, star anise, rose, and licorice. I placed them in a jar when finished and warmed the honey. When it was liquified I poured it over the herbs and added a bit of lemon. I took 1-2 tsp every 4 hours or so. It was miraculous. I’m not even sure it’s supposed to work this fast or on this type of pain, but well, it did. The pain quickly subsided and my neck was much more flexible, but still a little tense. I am all out of cottonwood and having the hardest time finding it this year so I had Drew massage the muscles with a rosemary mint salve (I originally intended for tired and dry feet) and some lavender essential oil to work out the remaining tension. We did this throughout the day as well.

Even though I’m the biggest fan of herbal remedies, I can’t believe how well everything worked. My neck is still a bit sore and tired, but I would say at least 70% improved since I woke up this morning. I had all sorts of things to write about today, but just had to stop and share this all too timely remedy. I’m taking the larger hint of course, and putting myself to bed early tonight (yep I am writing this last night), as clearly my body needs a little rest and even the best herbal remedies don’t hold a candle to the proper amount of sleep.

You can buy the mp3 of this lecture at the Southwest Conference on Botanical Medicine’s website here. It’s 09SW07 ‘Management of Acute and Chronic Pain with Botanicals’. It’s definitely worth the listen if you are dealing with any kind of chronic pain issues. The 2012 conference is coming up in April, I’ve gone every year but this one and would highly recommend it to anyone local who is interested in learning more about using herbs. It’s great for beginners as well as experienced herbalists.

So what do you think about this method of powdering herbs in honey? Have you tried it already? I’d love to hear your stories. Do you think you’ll try it, if you haven’t? I’m really very interested in learning more and plan to get some information to read more about this once we settle in Washington. If you have resources to share about it, I’d love to know.

Love and Besos,
Latisha

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