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Yarrow Sage Mint Toothepowder

Been experimenting the last few years with making toothepaste because I am allergic mint toothepaste and most toothepaste contains mint. And store-bought toothepaste with natural ingredients is quite expensive. Home-made toothepaste is easy to make with cheap simple ingredients.
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But does it clean your teeth as effectively as store-bought toothepaste? Yes, I think even better. I did research on natural toothepaste ingredients & learned that when you brush your teeth with clay, the minerals in the clay will remineralize your teeth. Also clay alkalizes the ph of the mouth and reduces acidity, which reduces the ability of cavity-producing-bacteria to thrive. I recommend using white clay if your sink is white, otherwise green clay will leave little green spots on your sink & mirror & wall after you brush your teeth.
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Charcoal whitens teeth. However, there will be little black charcoal spots on your sink, mirror & wall after you brush your teeth. The spots easily wipe away, but after using charcoal & green clay and having to clean everything after every toothe brushing I decided to stop using those ingredients.
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I also learned that glycerin is Not a good ingredient for toothepaste because it leaves a film on your teeth that promotes cavities by stripping the oral mucosa and altering the healthy microbiome in the mouth. Every ‘natural’ toothepaste I have seen in stores contains glycerin.
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I also learned that coconut oil is a fine ingredient for toothepaste because it is antimicrobial and has a tradition of use in oral care. Melted coconut oil added to toothepowder turns the powder into a paste, but as soon as the coconut oil solidifies at room temperature the consistency is no longer like paste, its semi-solid. Plus the oil will eventually clog up your sink pipe. So I don’t recommend using coconut oil as an ingredient.

The recipe for the toothepowder in this photo is: 1/2 cup white clay sieved, 1 tsp salt,2 TBSP dried Yarrow flowers, 10 fresh Yarrow leaves, 15 fresh Sage leaves, 15 fresh Mint leaves . Finely chop the fresh herbs with a mortar & pestle or coffee grinder. Mix all ingredients together. Spread out on a plate to dry for at least 5 days. You want the fresh herbs to be dry before storing in a container. Once dry, store in a container next to your toothebrush. Just dip your toothebrush into the powder when you brush your teeth. Tastes nice and leaves your mouth feeling refreshed! After using this toothe powder you won’t want to use store-bought toothepaste again, because it just tastes too sweet and too overpowering compared to this home-made toothe powder.

Much of my research on toothepaste ingredients is from Mark Burhenne DDS, who has been a dentist for over 35 years. His website is askthedentist.com

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Classic Cold Care Tea

Classic Cold Care Tea… Yarrow, Elderflower, Peppermint. Also known as YEP Tea or Gypsy Tea, is a traditional herbal blend that goes back centuries in folk medicine. This Tea is drank as a hot infusion at the first signs of cold or flu.
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Yarrow, Elderflower & Peppermint are all diaphoretic herbs, which means that they open the pores of the skin, allowing Excess Heat to leave the body via perspiration or sweat. (When sick, Excess Heat in the body can manifest as sore throat or fever or thick mucous or yellow mucous or feeling hot and achey).
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When drinking this tea you’ll quickly feel the heat in your body come to the surface of your skin, and then you will start to sweat a bit. This activates your immune system and will help to support the fever process as well as help break a prolonged fever. An elevated body temperature helps to kill viruses in the body, so fever & sweating is one way that the body fights off viruses.
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Yarrow is antiseptic & anodyne which means that she helps inhibit the grpwth of harmful micro-organisms, helps prevent infection & helps reduce pain.
Elderflower is expectorant, assisting in expelling mucous from the body. Elderflower is also a soothing nervine, helping you to relax and rest.
Peppermint is antispasmodic & decongestant, and so beneficial for a spastic cough or sinus headache.
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The combination of these 3 herbs has a quite pleasant taste! Sipping this tea while its hot, throughout the day, at the first signs of feeling sick will usually have me feeling better in 1-2 days. Of course its also important to rest, drink plenty of water and eat warm soup.
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Enjoy & Be Well.

Yarrow flowers
Classic Cold Care Tea
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Yarrow & Suopursu Tick-Mosquito Repellant

This summer I experimented with a tick-mosquito repellant that I made from tinctures of Suopursu (Rhododendron tomentosum, old genus name: Ledum) & Yarrow. It was put to the test because I was in the forest for weeks & biting insects up here are no joke. I’ve heard that mosquitos are referred to as Finlands Airforce? I can say that this spray worked pretty good. No ticks. And the mosquitos mostly stay away for about 1 hour. Then its time to re-apply. I sprayed this on top of my shoes, clothes, hat. I also sprayed it in the air when I was outside washing dishes or sitting on the porch. Careful not to get into eyes or on sensitive skin. Definitely do Not use on children or pregnant women or those who have a weakened constitution. Suopurso contains ledol, a volatile compound that is toxic in large doses when ingested internally. The amount of ledol in each plant varies greatly depending on the region where it grows. There are even related species growing in other parts of the world that are safely consumed as medicinal tea & spice. But I recommend that its better to be safe, and Not take Suopurso internally. The amount of ledol may be at a low safe level in one region, and at a toxic level in another region. Suopursu’s volatile oil has a narcotic effect that gives some a headache, and for others feels euphoric. Personally I love the heavy musky scents of Suopursu & Yarrow and I even spray it to clear the energy of a room. Yarrow is an ancient protector & healer of wounds. Suopursu dances between the seen & unseen worlds. An interesting alliance. To make: combine equal parts tinctures of Suopursu & Yarrow. Tinctures are made the folk method: fill a jar with fresh herb, cover in vodka, put a lid on, let sit for 6 weeks or more in the cupboard, shake the jar occasionally, strain. My tinctures were made last summer & infused for 10 month so they were extra potent! And the potency of these 2 herbs definitely helped keep the ticks & mosquitos away. If you do not have access to Suopursu then a spray bottle of a simple tincture of yarrow is a great tick repellant.

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Finnish Forest Soda

Finnish Forest Soda fermenting natural carbonated bubbles. Made with herbs picked while hiking in the forest, honey & yeast. So easy and you can make this too for a taste of Your Local Forest. This soda has: Spruce, Pine, Lingonberry, St Joans Wort, Heather, Blueberry leaf, Wood Sorrel, Labrador tea, Yarrow. Tastes like finnish forest. Recipe from Pascal Baudar’s book The Wildcrafting Brewer. Basically you just pick your herbs, clean your jar, utensils & hands. Place herbs in jar, add spring water, honey, yeast, mix. I used 79 g honey per L water. Add 1/2 ml yeast per L. Place paper towel on top to keep bugs out & stir 4 times a day with clean spoon. Wait 1 day for fermentation bubbles to appear. Strain into bottle, seal it, let sit 1 more day to ferment even more bubbles. Then refrigerate. Drink within a few days. So Delicious!! Also contains naturally fermented bacteria that are beneficial to intestines plus all the healing properties of the herbs. And how sweet to taste your own local forest plants while they are in season, a reminder of the time you were there walking through the forest….

Finnish forest Soda