Herb of the Week for 16th January
Amazing Arnica by Lynn Kirkland
It's a busy time at the herb farm with harvesting of our herbal extracts
underway.
Each day the herbs that are perfect for making extracts are collected and
prepared for making herbal tinctures or sun infused oil.
It is important to know your herbs and do your collection at the optimum
time.
Some herbs are better collected before flowering whereas others have more
healing constituents when the herb is in full bloom.
Sometimes we gather roots however we usually use the aerial parts of the
plant and depending on the herb we will gather some after a prolonged period
of sunshine to ensure high resin and/or essential oil content.
Arnica montana in the photo is one of those precious herbs that we get very
excited about when we see them flowering.
The healing of arnica is in the flowers and these are coming into bloom
now.
Arnica is actually a mountain plant as you can tell from the botanical name
and as such does not get very prolific in our gardens.
We use every little offering from our plants and then also prepare oil and
tincture from dried organic flowers.
Arnica is a fantastic herb for alleviating the effects of bruising and pain
and is most effective when applied as soon after the trauma has occurred
as possible.
So arnica cream is one of those first aid must haves to keep in your herbal
first aid kit.
Do not apply to broken skin but put it straight on to any injury to prevent
the pain and inflammation associated with bruising and contusions. You will
be amazed at the magic effect that this simple herbal flower has when applied
as a cream or oil.