Southeast Texas
Home Apothecary
Our Home Apothecary
Many years ago, we decided to take a more natural approach to our heath care. This is when we started cultivating our home apothecary. Now, don’t get me wrong, we are not fully opposed to conventional medicine, but there is a time for it.
For everyday ailments, common colds, viruses, aches and pains, sleeplessness, and upset stomachs (just to name a few) is where our home apothecary comes in. It has slowly grown over the years as we grow different herbs and learn new things. There really is an herb, or plant for everything!
What We Keep in Our Home Apothecary
There are so many wonderful herbs to keep in your home apothecary and we hope to grow ours even more, punt intended! Here is a list of what we keep in our personal apothecary.
- Lemon Balm: This is something we grow in excess. We try to drink it every night to get a restful night’s sleep. There are so many wonderful medicinal properties with this herb. We also infuse it in oil to make our ChapSticks and salves.
- Bee Balm: This is another nervine herb and helps with seasonal allergies. I have not had a sinus infection in over 3 years, and I believe this has helped me keep those at bay.
- Holy basil: We primarily grow this for its help in lowering cholesterol naturally.
- Sweet basil: We grow this in abundance! Not only does it have medicinal properties, but it makes a wonderful pesto. Basil helps with tummy troubles like fluctuance.
- Chameleon plant: This grows rampant on our property. It has anti-viral properties and works well in treating that well known virus that popped up a few years ago.
- Ginger: We use this for inflammation and stomach issues. To preserve, we run it through our dehydrator for teas. It can also be used to make a ginger tincture to help with nausea.
- Yarrow: Uses are wound healing, fights inflammation and infection, helps mastitis, manages blood pressure and helps with varicose veins.
- Calendula: A wonderful flower that is easy to grow. It has so many benefits for the skin and skin conditions. It helps with wound healing, sunburns, cradle cap, and helps prevent infections of the skin.
- Stevia: A natural sweetener that is easy to grow! It has also been known to help with blood pressure and indigestion.
- Rosemary: This herb is mood boosting, enhances memory and concentration, neurological protection, great for skin and hair, relieves pain, and supports immune system.
- Oregano: This is a natural antibiotic. We make a mean oregano tincture to help fight off illness. Oregano tea is also good for the throat in cases of strep throat.
- Thyme: Helps alleviated coughs, boosts immune function, disinfectant, antibacterial and antifungal.
- Orange peel: We use this in our teas, in our cleaning supplies and our elderberry syrup.
- Garlic: This is natural antibiotic and has so many health benefits. We use this in our fermented garlic honey cough syrup and our ear oil to help with nasty ear infections.
- Bees wax: This is used in our candles, salves, balms, chap sticks and everything in-between.
- Shea butter: This is a great base for salves and lotions. It is moisturizing and nourishing.
- Witch Hazel: There are so many things that witch hazel can be used for. It reduces inflammation, fights acne, reduces skin irritation, soothes a sore throat, helps varicose veins, helps bug bites, and it is also used in our perfumes.
- Vodka: This really could be any sort of alcohol. This is used in our tinctures, perfumes, and linen prays, just to name a few.
- Bentonite Clay: Uses are detox baths, arm pit detoxes, bug bites, deodorants, facial masks and more.
- Castor Oil: We use castor oil in a poultice, in facial moisturizers, salves, the list goes on. It is highly penetrating.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: The base for so many things. We use this for gut help, acid reflux, upset stomach and nausea, pickling, and immune boost.
- Honey: There are so many benefits of local RAW honey. We use it for cough syrups, our elderberry syrup, fire cider and so much more.
- Elderberry Syrup: This is an immune boost and can help prevent illness and help with a speedy recovery.
- Fire cider: This is an immune boost. I have been making our fire cider for several years at this point. At the first sign of sickness we take a dose and while sick.
- Cayenne Pepper: Relieves pain, supports detoxification, aides in weight loss, psoriasis, fights cold and flu.
Essential Oils for Your Home Apothecary
Some go back and forth on essential oils and if you should use them. We incorporate them into our home apothecary, we just make sure our dosage ratios are correct for what we are using them for. These are great to add into salves, creams, self-care products, candles, cleaning supplies, the list goes on. We believe they are safer than the “fragrance” that is used in so many items. This term “fragrance” is broad and can mean any number of things. More than likely they are endocrine disruptors and Reak Havick on your body.
There are many different companies that sell essential oils, so do your research on who is legit! We personally use Plant Therapy.
Euipment and Utensils for Your Home Apothecary
There are a few things that come in handy when building your home apothecary. This is a list of things that keep us organized and well situated.
- Mason Jars: In these you can store your dried herbs, bees wax, dried fruits, cinnamon sticks, etc. We like to use the wide mouth jars in particular because it is easier to fit your hand or scoop in the jar.
- Scale: This helps when making salves in particular. Many recipes call for weights in grams rather than cups. We also use our scale to weigh out our herbs for sale.
- Tins, dropper bottles and the like: These help to store your homemade salves and tinctures
- Disposable tea bags and tea infuser balls: If you grow your own herbs for teas, these are a must. We really like the infuser balls because it is less waste, but the disposable tea bags are great for bringing on vacation or gifting a tea to a friend. They are also awesome to use for a poultice.
- Labels
- Morter
- Recipe box and index cards
- Liquid measuring cup
- Double boiler
We also have a system in our Apothecary Hutch that helps us stay organized with our tinctures. Now, of course this makes sense to us but anyone else would not see the system. On the left of our hutch, we have two shelves. The top shelf has oils and tinctures that are infusing and not quite “ready” yet. The bottom shelf is our bulk tinctures that are done and ready to be bottled. I do keep some in smaller quantities on our middle shelf for our daily use. I do know I tend to be a little neurotic in the organization department, but hey it works for me!
You may also want to invest in some reference material. One can never be too educated when it comes to your health. Here is a list of some of our favorites.
Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs for Beginners
Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies
Things That You Can Make with Your Home Apothecary
This is where you can put your home apothecary to work! We make several things using our home-grown herbs and some of the natural products listed above.
- Herbal teas
- Tinctures
- Salves
- Perfume rollers
- Balms
- Chap sticks
- Facial creams and serums
- Elderberry syrup
- Fire cider
These are of course just to name a few. There are endless possibilities. Be creative and try to replace what you use that is commercially made.
Other Items that We Keep on Hand
There are many other things that we keep on hand in our home apothecary. They also have medicinal and healing elements and are readily available.
- Colloidal Silver: Antibacterial, heals wounds, pink eye, ear infections, immune support, and respiratory support.
- Ivermectin: We use this when we have a virus (like the one we all know). This can also be used to treat head lice and mites in our animals.
- Genexa: More natural alternative to acetaminophen. This comes with or without acetaminophen. There is a cold and flu version that does not contain Tylenol and it helped us get through that yucky virus. We were able to find the one without acetaminophen on Amazon.
- Zinc: Helps prevent the replication of virus cells, gives and immune boost. We use the Now Brand because it also contains copper.
- Vitamin D3 and K2: Gives an immune boost, helps regulate mood, reduces inflammation, and aides in bone health. We buy the one from Micro ingredients because it uses coconut oil and has the correct ratios of each.
These are ready made tinctures that we buy and do not grow. We had the Flu running through our house and these were some things that we incorporated to prevent illness and boost the immune system of those that were sick.
- BoneSet: This is new to our arsenal. It helps with the symptoms of flu, sore throats, headache, muscle aches, enhances immune function, malaria, Lyme, Rheumatism, spasms, urinary stones, cysitis, relieves constipation and promotes sweating. We bought the one from Hawaii Pharm.
- Propolis: This is an immune support that we get from Herb Pharm.
- Echinacea: Another immune support that we get from Herb Pharm.
- Mullein
- Ashwagandha
We hope this gave you some awesome ideas on how to start a home apothecary. There really is a plant for everything and with the right resources you can use them. God Bless.
