I do a lot of wild things in my kitchen. I make supplement smoothies that make my boyfriend’s face scrunch up, I make all knds of tonics and teas, plant-based meals and I occasionally even dance. I could go on for days about wild herbs and I am glad to be here to tell you all about it, but the best way to start is to work with what you already have in your kitchen or buy regularly. Here are my favorites and their benefits.

Ginger: Ginger is a kick ass all-star for so many things. It naturally helps with digestion and nausea. It also is a big star in the fight against chronic pain. It is anti-inflammatory and it aids in relieving muscle and joint pain. It is great as a tea or chopped/grated and added into recipes. I also just just chew on raw ginger sometimes when I am having a back flare up. It is intense but you get used to it! For overall health, ginger has shown to be great for your brain, as well as lower cholesterol – pretty major!

Garlic:  Garlic is a little herbal trick I like to pull out of my pocket for anyone who comes to me with a cold or chronic pain. Most people react like I am insane and ask me how to use it. Now, I am Italian so I like to put garlic on pretty much everything and I support that life but the only way to get the benefits I am going to talk about is by eating it raw. So there is an enyme in Garlic called Allicin. The only way to activate this is by crushing the garlic and eating it raw. Some good ways to do this without gagging are making tea – you can throw your crushed garlic cloves into a steeper or cup of hot water - it actually tastes good! Another way to is chop it and mix it with butter or ghee on some toast. As I recently told one of my friends it is a “less sexy version of garlic bread.” Allicin is anti-inflammatory and I like to say that its like natural advil. It also helps with regulating blood pressure and diabetes. Vampires beware!

Basil: A few nights ago I decided to make a Caprese salad. I bought everything including fresh basil, which ended up left over. I thought on it for a day until I decided to try steeping the leaves to make a tea and by the way, it was delicious. Basil is filled with antioxidants which help to prevent cancer, but what I love most about basil is that is an adaptogen. This means that it literally helps your body adapt to external stressors, as well as emotional or mental stress. It also reduces inflammation and swelling and contains anti-aging properties. Because of this you can also use it externally as a fast mist or body rub.

Have you ever tried any of these natural remedies? If not, which one interests you the most? Let me know in the comments  below! 

Hi everyone and welcome to the WILDCRAFTED blog! This is my first post since I had a blog from 2012-2016 (ok, now I feel old), but I wanted to use this type of forum to share my knowledge and journey with you in hopes that you may find some healing through the things that have truly helped me. I promise it will be fun. Also I am beginning a program to become an Ayurvedic Health Practioner and I thought you might like to come along for that journey with me. So whats this going to be like? Well, I will include recipes for teas, tonics and nutritious foods that I love. I will tell you all about herbal remedies, things you can do at home and my experiences with things like hydrotherapy, meditation, oil massage, etc. (PS if there is anything you want me to touch on or try shoot me a note in the contact section!) 

Okay so to dive a little deeper this is my story - the shortened version since I know we all have things to do, places to go, peeps to see.... 

A little over a year ago I had spine surgery for a severely herniated disc and spinal stenosis in my lower spine. In this year that followed I’ve had 2 steroid injections, 2 epidurals, 10 nerve blocks (more steroids!) and 2 procedures that involved burning my nerve ends so that I could no longer feel the pain I experienced on a daily basis. Instead of relief from the pain, I just was left with more chronic nerve pain, nerve damage, arthritis, inflamed joints and muscle spasms. Not to mention I couldn't even feel the right side of my foot. Everyday felt like it took more and more energy for me to do things. With a flip of a switch had gone from someone who once lived to exercise and be active (I taught kickboxing!!) to someone whose leg would randomly collapse from exhasution on a walk around the neighborhood. I had to let go of a person that I thought I was and change my life and my mentality. I could no longer rely on exercise as an outlet for my anxiety (oh hey bad thoughts!) or measure my self worth through how "strong" I was physically. Most of the time I struggled in silence and othertimes I would snap or become irritable (shout out to my bf and my family for sticking by me!) After my third doctor within eight months told me that there was no fixing this, I just had to manage the pain I knew would have to change my lifestyle in order to get through this.  

 I decided to rely on what I believe to be true; that I could use my 10+ yrs of health and wellness learning to fix this. I knew a lot about health and wellness but I wanted to learn more. You always hear stories about how people changed themselves through health and wellness. How? I wanted to be like that, so I read those books and those stories. 

I also read countless books on herbs, nutrition, meditation,and ancient natural healing techniques. Things started to work - slowly but surely. Just like a plant grows slowly from a seed into something beautiful these plants and herbs began to recreate my life and body. I created a line of products that with the knowledge I had gained. I changed my eating and my lifestyle in a totally different way then I had before and lost 30+ lbs in the process, more than I ever had in 6 years of hardcore exercise.  I worked on reducing stress, emotionally and physically. I treated my body as a WHOLE. I may not be “fixed” but I have weeks now where I am not in pain and for anyone that knows what that is like, it’s a lot, and the "bad days" they come less and less. It is a process, and it is hard AF, but for those of you who suffter from inflammation, auto-immune, hormone imbalances, chornic pain, fibromyalgia, etc. you know know what this is like and this is blog is for you as much as it is for me. I will be sharing the things that worked for me and continue to work for me because it is an ongoing process. 

I hope you will come along for the ride and find things here to wildcraft your own story.

Stay wild and comment below if you can relate!