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November 24, 2024

Happy Sunday, Reader!

Oooooh, I've got a treat for you today!

Even though we're in later fall, and some of us are edging into true winter time, you can still forage this special herb....

What is it?

It's Pine! (Pinus spp.)

With Christmas on its way, pine is the perfect medicinal plant to start working with right now, and it can be foraged year round.

Pine trees are so common and usual for many of us to see, and I think this fact makes them seem kind of "boring" or at least not worth mentioning.

But the fact is....

Pines have many wonderful medicinal and health uses. Did you know the needles contain way more Vitamin C than oranges and most plants we associate with Vitamin C?

Pine trees grow everywhere too. Even in Las Vegas, Nevada in the center of the Mojave Desert, Mondell pines were common landscape plants years ago...and very beautiful too. **They were cultivated, there, of course and needed plenty of water.

In the mountains of Southern Nevada, many naturally growing pines include giant Ponderosa pines at higher elevations and sweet-smelling (like Christmas) Pinyon pines grew a bit lower.

What pines grow in your area?

Do a little research to find out because you'll be able to make some wonderful products and herbal applications for your health.

In this article link below:

​Foraging, Identifying, Harvesting, and Using Pine for Wellness​

you'll find a wealth of information on pine as a medicinal herb to forage in any area of the country.

SAFETY: There are some plants that can be confused with pine that are NOT true pines and are toxic. Yew and Norfolk pines are two of these. Be 100% sure you're working with a true pine. The article above will help you.

Here are some more videos and articles about using pine you might enjoy:

​1) Grandma's Old-Fashioned Pine Tar Soap recipe​

​2) Healing Powers of Medicinal and Edible Evergreens​

​3) Tincturing Evergreen Tips​

​4) Health Benefits of Forest Bathing and How to WITHOUT a Forest​

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How to Infuse Pine Resin in Oil for Herbal Salve

Pine resin has incredible health benefits for us from our respiratory system to our emotional state, and with certain skin conditions, too! Pine resin is a natural substance that oozes from the pine bark in response to injury. It has antimicrobial and antifungal properties for our own skin, too.

Pine resin can also support circulation, and this can be helpful for use in joint pain and sore muscles. It's great for inflammation of joints too.

Pine also supports the immune and respiratory system.

Emotionally, pine brings peace, calm, and is grounding.

This Pine Resin Infused Herbal Oil I'm sharing just below here can make the perfect base for herbal salves in terms of supporting:

• Improved circulation
• Pain relief
• Anti-inflammation, especially of joints
• Respiration---it's a great base for a vapor rub ​
• Immune support

Wow!

And you probably have pine trees near you!

The Steps:

1) Harvest pine resin from the tree.

To do this, it's best to harvest when it's chilly outside because the resin will be hard and easier to gather. Only gather a bit---you don't need a lot. You don't want to remove all of it from a tree's wound. You can simply use a butter knife and scrape it off into a jar.

2) Allow the resin to warm a little bit.

You can just set the jar on top of a warm stove or on top of the fridge to bring it to room temperature or a bit warmer. Warming it a bit will help it release into the oil.

ALTERNATIVE: If the resin is frozen, then powder it in a spice grinder. It will stick to the blades, but powdering it will help it infuse, too.

3) Place the resin into a wide-mouth pint jar and cover with oil.

You'll want the jar about 1/4 to 1/3 full of the resin bits. Fill the far a little more than an inch below the top with olive oil or other carrier oil of your choice.

4) Macerate:

Shake the jar daily for the next four to eight weeks as the resin releases its constituents into the oil.The option is to use the fast method. Find out more about the fast and slow herbal oil infusing process here.

5) Strain and Bottle

Strain through a strainer. I like to use a bit of cheesecloth too.

You can bottle it up and have it for later when you need it. It's fine to use as a massage oil. Or, you can make a salve of whatever type you like!

Here are some salve ideas you can substitute the pine oil in:

​Herbal Anti-Itch Salve​

​Lavender Flower Salve​

​Black Drawing Salve​

And there are MANY more on the Healing Harvest Homestead website, too. And on YouTube.

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The steps are basically the same in all cases. My favorite ratio of oil to beeswax with salves is roughly 1 part beeswax to 4 parts oil for a total of 5 parts. For example, 1/4 cup beeswax to 1 cup of the herbal infused oil.

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Black Friday is nearly here!

Stay tuned for Wednesday's note, when I'll be sharing the deets about our ONE big sale of the entire year. We rarely put courses on sale, so this is a special time! If you've been waiting to take a course, the time to do it is coming up! You can also buy courses as gifts, too. Here's a link to School of Botanical Arts & Sciences (SOBAS) by Healing Harvest Homestead:

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Encouraging Thought:

The following verse has been on my heart lately. When you have troubles in your family; when you're feeling sad or guilty; or when you wake up and realize that an important relationship in your life isn't at all what you thought it was....and so many other kinds of things, I love this verse as an action to take, and you can apply it to your own self, too:

"Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Comfort one another, and love one another. It's good to comfort yourself, if you need it, too. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you on Wednesday for Wednesday's Weekly Herbal!

Hugs, Health, and Herbs,

Heidi

P.S. Here's a couple of FREE things that you may want to download. You'll need to put in your email address, so just use the same email address you're using here and you won't get doubles from me.

Both are great for this time of year!

​1) BEST Diffuser Blends for Winter​

​2) Herbal Steams Guide for Respiratory Health​

Do you have a friend who'd like this note? Sharing is caring! Please forward it along.....

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Today's note is sponsored by the Confident Herbalist Tribe, the BEST Herbal and Aromatic community resource.

Courses, videos, live weekly chats and plant talks, formulation, remedies, and SO much more, it's crazy!

Check it out if you're ready to become an herbalist or to expand your practice!