Steven Horne's Newsletter Articles

April 26, 2022

Yellow Dock

The doctrine of signatures is the idea that the characteristics of a plant give clues as to its uses. This is a very old idea in herbalism, and even if it’s not always reliable, it can be very helpful in associating plants with their uses. Yellow dock is a good example of the doctrine of signatures. As the plant dries out in the fall it turns a rusty color, which associates it with iron. In Advanced Treatise in Herbology, Edward Shook says that all the docks (Rumex sp.), not just yellow dock (R.…

April 19, 2022

Parsley: More Than a Garnish

Have you ever been served a meal with a sprig of parsley on the plate as a garnish? It used to be a common practice, although you don’t see it as much these days. If you do see parsley on your plate, though, I hope you eat it. Parsley is more than just a fancy garnish, it’s also a wonderful medicinal herb for digestive and urinary health. Parsley is both stimulating and nourishing to the kidneys. It contains a volatile oil that is excreted through the kidneys, thus stimulating urination. But,…

April 12, 2022

Horsetail and Health

Horsetail is one of the first wild plants I knew how to identify. One of its common names is joint grass and I remember how as a child I enjoyed pulling the stem sections apart at the joints and trying to reassemble them like a plant-based jigsaw puzzle. Another common name is scouring rush, and I learned the reason for that moniker as a boy scout. You can actually use the plant like a scouring pad to help clean the dishes. There are two basic varieties you’ll find. The one that gives it the…

April 5, 2022

Bee Healthy

Bees are amazing creatures, and without them, many of the crops we depend on for food would not grow properly. They also produce three substances that we can use for healing—bee pollen, propolis, and honey. We’ll discuss each of these briefly in this article. Bee PollenAs bees fly from flower to flower collecting nectar to make honey, flower pollen collects on their legs. When this is mixed with enzyme secretions, it forms the golden granules we call bee pollen. In the hive, pollen is used to…

March 29, 2022

The Value of Oats as Medicine

Along with wheat and barley, oats are another excellent example of a grass that is both a food and a medicine. With a long history of cultivation as a food crop, oats originated in three separate geographic regions, Abyssinia, the Mediterranean and China. Today, oats (Avena sativa) are grown in the U.S., Canada, Russia, Turkey, Iraq, UK, Spain, and Germany.The Oat Type The grain (seed) is harvested and milled to produce oatmeal and oat groats. The oat grain is a highly nutritious whole grain that…

March 22, 2022

Wheat: The Staff of Life

In these days of gluten-free foods, talking about wheat as healthy food, much less as a healing food, might seem strange to some. However, I think there are ways to use wheat both for health and for healing. Definitely not as white flour and probably not in the form of bread or pasta either. I’ll address why I think these foods have become problematic for many later, but for now, I want to lay a continue the discussion I started in the barley article about grasses as food and medicine. The Miracle…

March 15, 2022

The Health Benefits of Barley

One of the most popular grasses used for it's health benefits is barley. The seeds (grain), sprouts, and grass have all been used for food and healing.

March 8, 2022

Brighten Your Eyes and Support Your Liver with Lycium

The ancient Chinese saw a correlation between the liver and the eyes. They recognized that sour tasting herbs tonified the liver qi (energy) and also tended to “brighten the eyes,” that is, to aid vision. The herb I’m writing about today, lycium, also known as goji or wolfberry, is one of these herbs. One possible reason for this connection is that the liver and the eyes are the two parts of the body that require the most antioxidant nutrients. The liver needs antioxidants because it generates…

Yellow Dock

Parsley: More Than a Garnish

Horsetail and Health

Bee Healthy

The Value of Oats as Medicine

Wheat: The Staff of Life

The Health Benefits of Barley

Brighten Your Eyes and Support Your Liver with Lycium

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