Plant Nations

I use Light Mountain Natural’s “Color the Gray!” hair color and conditioner to color my gray hair. That’s all use and all I need! I love it!!

I used to use Clairol Natural Instincts hair color. I hoped it was a little more “natural” than all those other Clairols. (and other such brands you can buy in your grocery store) Eventually, I found out about the Environmental Working Group’s “Skin Deep” cosmetic safety database. (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php) If you go there you can look up the ingredients in your personal care products to see how toxic they are or aren’t. (Usually it’s are.) After I found out how toxic my hair color was I went gray for a while, (from shock!) enduring taunts and finger pointing (jokes!) while seeking a healthier alternative. (I still have mostly my own copper brown hair color, but quite a bit of obvious gray in there too.) Finally, I found Light Mountain’s “Color the Gray” alternatives. I had to order them through my local health food store as nobody in my area stocked them.

In my experience, Light Mountain’s colors are natural looking, and instead of damaging my hair they provide brightness and shine. The only ingredients are henna (lawsonia inermis) and indigo, (indigoferae tinctoria) two lovely plants used throughout the ages for their dye properties. Talk about natural!

Available colors range from light blonde to black. I use medium brown and couldn’t be more pleased.

Things I have learned about these haircolors:

1. Although it still says in the directions to set the colors with heat, you don’t have to. In fact, it is not recommended to set the henna part with heat as it tends to bring out that fake, orangey henna look. Without heat, it is much more natural looking. It is the combination of the indigo applied over the henna that produces such lovely, natural-looking color.

2. They last as long as the semi-permanent grocery store colors. The color fades just a little bit with time, but I find I don’t have to recolor until I start noticing gray roots.

3. You can leave the indigo part (the 2nd step) of the process on your hair for much longer than the directions say. I left it on my hair for four hours last time and I got a nice, rich color. (I would not recommend leaving the henna step on any longer than the directions say, however.)

4. These colors are very messy! It is more like applying a mud pack to your head than anything. I found a nice suggestion on Youtube to use a plastic applicator bottle for applying the color. I used a plastic honey bear last time. Or if you can get a friend or husband to help you, a strong, wide paint brush would work.

I have no reason to endorse this product other than that I think it is a very good one: good for the Earth, good for me, good for my hair, and effective!

Seems to me like plants can solve just about ALL of our problems!

I began brushing my teeth with baking powder about 9 months ago, because I think the price of natural toothpastes is insanely high. I did some research online about baking soda as a tooth cleaner and, satisfied with what I found out, decided to use it. (even though I was not all that fond of the taste) Super! I have never wanted to turn back to commercial toothpaste of any kind! My teeth feel cleaner longer and the soda seems to counteract stains as well. But my 12 year old son got tired of the taste and has been bugging for me to buy him some toothpaste.

On Herbmentor.com I read that you can brush your teeth with cinnamon! “Whoa,” I thought, “let’s try this!” I mixed 1 T. cinnamon powder with about 1/3 cup of baking soda. My son likes this tooth powder! His only complaint: it has stained the bristles of his brand new toothbrush brown. (It doesn’t stain your teeth though!)

I got a recipe from Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir (again, from Herbmentor.com) for a tooth powder as well:

1/4 C. kaolin clay

1/4 C. baking soda

1/4 C. sea salt

1 T. ground sage

30 drops spearmint essential oil

Since I can’t find and food grade essential oil, (and we are always warned never to take essential oils internally as some can be fatal) and I have so far not found any kaolin clay, I have adapted this recipe by leaving the kaolin clay out, and adding 1 T. cinnamon instead of the spearmint oil.

I like it! My teeth are clean and shiny and it tastes pretty good, if a little salty. Plus, cinnamon is a competent antiseptic that kills decay and disease causing bacteria. Sage is in the tooth powder for a reason too. Used by traditional cultures to stimulate gums and to clean and whiten teeth, sage is endorsed by the German Commission E as a treatment for gingivitis. Cool, no?!

Baking soda is an effective tooth cleaner and low in abrasiveness. It penetrates cracks in tooth enamel that other cleaning agents can’t reach and effectively removes food particles and stains.  It’s also a good mouth deodorizer!

If you want flouride, drink green tea. Green tea is known to counteract tooth decay and it does contain flouride.

On my snowy walk with my prince today, I grabbed some frozen hawthorn berries from a branch hanging over the path. “Hmm, wonder what these will taste like?” Wow! So sweet! So delicious! Just strain the seeds out with your teeth.

When my oldest son was five, he backed into our wood stove and got a nasty, big burn on his back.  I consulted my natural healing book and put honey on his burn.  Then my mother called the doctor.  He told us to take the honey off.  I left it on.  My son’s burn healed quickly and beautifully with no signs at all of any kind of infection.  (If the burn had been very serious, I would have taken him to the doctor.)

Today I learned (from my new friends at www.learningherbs.com) that a poultice of grated raw potato effectively pulls the heat out of a burn.  First you run cold water on the burn while someone grates a raw potato.  Then you take the burn out of the water and put on a wad (poultice) of the grated raw potato.  You can put on fresh potato wads as needed until the burn feels better. Then you can put on the honey and a sterile bandage.

Learningherbs also reminds us about the old vinegar remedy for burns in which you wrap a burn in a clean cloth soaked in apple cider vinegar.  I have never tried this, but if I don’t have a grated potato handy, I will!

I discovered an exciting herb site yesterday.  It may be the best one I have found so far. Take a look at: www.learningherbs.com.  They have free courses presented on video. You can watch a video they made on making nettles infusion:  www.revver.com/video/1130170/nettle-infusion-herbal-nutrition-with-herbal-infusions/.

A decade ago I went to an herb use class.  Manuela (the herbalist) told us about making infusions and incorporating them into our daily lives, but somehow it is so much more helpful to SEE it than to just hear about it.  Then you can see the simplicity of the process. You know you can do it yourself.  And for me it is always so amazing that you can receive so much benefit from something so simple.

The plants just give up their goodness and their power to us! Just like that!  Magic!

I have now achieved a luxuriant growth of chard.  This happened because each year I built the thin soil in my rocky, shady garden bed.  All that compost, manure, and straw has begun to make a difference.

Because I live in the woods and my site has shade moving across it throughout the day, I concentrate on growing greens there, and put the super sun lovers in at my mother’s house.  Some sun lovers are doing pretty well in my garden, however.  I have some pretty happy herbs, and yearly tomato volunteers.

In my current garden I have so far failed to achieve an abundant growth of Swiss Chard. It grows slowly, stays small, and I never have enough to meet my needs, especially since it cooks down so much.

Curly Dock (in my opinion) has too mild a flavor to stand alone, but I finally thought to add a bunch of dock to bulk out my sauteed chard. It was excellent! I turned out a true mess of greens. (Finally plenty to go around!) The chard provided depth, breadth, bite, and complexity of taste while the dock provided needed volume and a new light, lemony top note!

Sinia Kester (left) with Martha Baker

My great-great grandmother, Sinia Louisa (Price) Kester, was a traditional herbalist. Back when she lived, (in northwestern Arkansas) traditional healing was about all there was, and she was one of those who knew the plants. She kept her medicine plants in a little black bag she carried with her at all times.