When seasonal shifts and everyday stressors take their toll on our vitality, we often look to herbalism to support our well-being. And while we love coming up with creative new formulations to keep us in good form, we frequently find ourselves turning to a few tried-and-true folk remedies to see us through times when our wellness is threatened. If you're looking to enlist your herbal allies to bolster your defenses, these three recipes are an excellent place to start!

For refreshing, pungent, and herbaceous aromas, the Myrtaceae family is an excellent place to start! These woody evergreen botanicals include allspice, manuka, clove, eucalyptus, and a true aromatherapy staple: tea tree. We offer three varieties of oils from this fragrant family of herbs, spices, and bushy shrubs, and putting these energizing essences to work in your scent stylings is an excellent way to brighten your day!

Matcha tea is trending everywhere, from tantalizing treats such as cheesecake, lattés, and buttery shortbread, to skin nourishing facial masks and scrubs. What once started as a traditional cup of ceremonial tea has now become a cross-cultural phenomenon. Matcha is made from finely powdered, high-quality green tea leaves, and its healthful benefits, paired with its rich, earthy flavor, make it an intriguing addition to almost any kind of recipe.

Miso soup is an absolute must for me during the winter months. I’ll often make a large batch of it and warm some up for breakfast, cracking an egg into the umami-packed broth. It’s a common staple served at Japanese and Korean restaurants, often simply garnished with bits of tofu and chopped green onions. The two main components to miso soup are dashi and miso paste. Dashi is typically made with preserved fish and kombu, a flavorful and nutrient-rich seaweed. I decided to try making a vegan dashi stock using dried shiitakes along with my seaweed, and was pleasantly surprised.

Valentine’s Day is a day dedicated to love—love for a partner, for friends, or for family, yes, but it's also the perfect excuse for some self-love too. Simple to create, our plant-based recipes are perfect for pampering those whom we cherish. These sumptuous preparations are formulated to relax the body and mind, uplift the spirit, and incite feelings of closeness and love.

Scents surround us everyday, everywhere, but we often find ourselves lacking the language to adequately describe them. Those who craft fragrances for aromatherapy or simple enjoyment often borrow from the lexicon of music to characterize different scents, and familiarizing yourself with the concept of these "fragrance notes" can help you create harmony and balance in your own essential oil blends. 

The use of tea in cooking is an ancient and common practice in China and Japan for adding depth to a variety of dishes. For dishes as varied as steamed rice, tea eggs, soups, and desserts, there are endless recipes to experiment with by adding tea.

Some people might tell you that making your own leave-in hair conditioner is as simple as watering down the wash-out product already in your shower. But if you've adopted a no-poo hair care routine or need a little extra nourishment to bring your dry hair back to life, a deeper moisturizing treatment might be in order. An oil-based leave-in conditioner can help tame wild flyaways, soften brittle hair in dry temperatures, and protect a healthy mane.

Feeling a little blue is pretty common for all of us. Sadness can strike on any scale, ranging from a simple Blue Monday to lingering, debilitating heartache. We all struggle with difficult emotions that, at times, can seem to overshadow everything else. Luckily, our herbal allies may be able to help ease the hurt.

Another year has passed, and 2020 is now upon us! As we look forward to sharing 12 more months of herbal learning and discovery with our readers, we'd like to highlight our most popular how-to posts from 2019 (ranging from natural body care formulations to herbal remedies) to motivate and inspire you from the get-go. We hope you'll revisit these ideas (or try any you may have missed the first time around) and let us know how they go—and stay tuned for more plant-powered content to come! 

Making homemade tahini is both fun and easy. Tahini’s unique flavor can enhance a variety of dishes, most commonly hummus and other dips. With its roasted and ground sesame seeds, this savory and nutty tasting paste is even better when blended with hemp seeds.