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Medicine making with children: Recipes to try at home

  • Ruth Weaver
    Ruth Weaver

    The Apothecary Forager, Ruthie Weaver is a Medical Herbalist living, teaching and practising in the beautiful county of Cornwall, her place of birth and upbringing. Ruth studied at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine, Glasgow and The University of Lincoln where she completed her Herbal Medicine BSc. (Hons). Since then (2012) Ruth’s Practice in West Cornwall continues to grow, working with clients with acute and chronic illness and of mind, body and spirit.

    Ruths work for Herbal Reality includes writing new monographs as well as working on an ongoing project to enrich current monographs throughout the site. The monographs are enriched to include further detail on in herbal energetics, pharmacological actions, new research as well as essential information on the sustainability of plants. In the work of writing through monographs and articles, Ruth works to a balanced view of traditional, scientific, energetic and practical insights.

    The roots of Ruth’s practice are in traditional Western herbal medicine, maintaining both a deeply holistic, intuitive and energetic approach to treatment. Ruth has sought diversity in her inspirations having worked with and learnt from many leading herbalists from around the UK. Ruth also spent a number of years working with a collective of herbalist first aiders at events around the UK providing orthodox and herbal first aid.

    Sharing the herbal wisdom is where Ruth’s passion lies, she believes everyone should be empowered with the knowledge and skills to treat simple conditions at home with the powerful medicines growing so abundantly around us. Ruth also offers walks, talks, workshops and courses both in Cornwall and beyond

    This author is in our team of writers who research and create our monograph articles. To explore our herb monographs, follow ‘Herbs’ on our homepage and search alphabetically or by herbal action.

  • 11:48 reading time (ish)
  • Children's health Making herbal remedies Western herbal medicine

Children love making potions and playing with nature and making herbal medicines is a great way to empower them with self-care knowledge. This article shares some great recipes to make at home.

Introduction

Making herbal medicine is truly one of the most naturally joyous activities for all ages. Whether using freshly foraged herbs or sustainably sourced ingredients, bringing children into the world of herbal medicine has so many delights- both connecting children with nature through practical fun activities and giving them valuable skills to support their health.

Medicine making with children: Recipes to try at home

Medicine making is both an incitement of timeless experiment, with children loving the theatre of making potions. Experimenting with natural materials, carrying out an accurate chemical fusion to create something that heals our body and brings us health. We can offer this heritage of knowledge to them and allow the practice of home herbalism to continue down the generations.

One does not have to be a confident forager to start making and using herbal medicines at home, because it is easy to source good quality, sustainable ingredients from trusted suppliers. You can even source ingredients from local herbalists, and organic shops are also a great place to start. Many simple herbal medicines can be made using household herbs and spices, and other kitchen ingredients too.

Herbal medicines can be made using a variety of different plant parts such as leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, roots and barks. Herbal Medicines may also be seaweeds, algae or fungi. With an equally diverse range of preparation types such as teas, syrups, honeys, tinctures, lozenges, glycerine’s, oils, ointments, creams, balms and more!

This article hopes to offer some simple yet exciting, diverse and delicious herbal recipes for the young budding herbalists. Herbal Medicines have hugely diverse taste profiles than that which is found in our regular western diets. So for the purpose of the recipes included here we will look at medicines that are both useful and effective for a multitude of minor childhood illnesses whilst also pleasing to taste;

Ruth Weaver

The Apothecary Forager, Ruthie Weaver is a Medical Herbalist living, teaching and practising in the beautiful county of Cornwall, her place of birth and upbringing. Ruth studied at the Scottish... Read more

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