Originally Published on Cortes Radio.ca

Herbal medicine 101 – keeping it simple: how to make herbal medicine in your own kitchen with locally abundant and common plants

Yulia Kochubievsky, herbalist and founder of Made by Yulia (madebyyulia.ca) joined Manda Aufochs Gillespie for this week’s Folk U Talk Show. She was every bit as inspiring as she hoped to be and primarily discussed how even the shy and reluctant could begin to work with herbs. 

You don’t need to know or have lots of herbs to use herbs successfully for health says Yulia. Rather, she advises getting familiar with the uses of a few plants that are readily available around you. Most herbs have multiple healing functions and thus a person can have a healthy apothecary at their fingertips by just learning a few herbs. Many people worry about starting with making their own plant medicine for fear of getting it wrong, not knowing what is poisonous or what the different plants do. Yulia described this as being very similar to how she used to feel about plants. She encouraged want-to-be Folk Herbalists, to remember that all that is easily available on the computer and internet and not to let it stand in the way of getting started. 

Yulia likes making her own tinctures, balms, honey or whatever from fresh plant material that she has gathered herself. Homemade is always her first choice for medicine. Second, she chooses making her own medicine from purchased herbs. And third buying already made medicines. 

Yulia discussed some readily abundant plants found easily in and around Cortes, Quadra, and much of BC. She discussed the healing potential of cedar, mother wort, plantain, lemon balm, and elder berry. As well as giving basic recipes for making herbal honey, tinctures, and decoctions. She also encouraged listeners to look into high dosage of Vitamin C as one non-herbal but nutritive therapy that many could benefit from in caring for their own health.  

Click here to see the Associated article: Questions About Elderberry by Yulia Kochubievsky