Suburban Herbalist

27/12/2025

Herbal medicine is not just about herbs but spices as well enjoy a cup of festive tea!!

🎄🍵✨ Spiced Chai Festivi-Tea
Warming spices of chai with festive herbal notes

🫖 How to brew your festivi-Tea:
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan
add a cinnamon stick
2–3 cardamom pods (lightly crushed)
2–3 whole cloves
½ tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp dried orange peel
1 tsp dried thyme or rosemary
Simmer gently for about 5 minutes to release the flavours

Next, add 2 tsp loose black tea (or 2 tea bags)
simmer for another 2–3 minutes.
Pour in 1 cup of milk
sweeten with honey or sugar to taste.
Bring back to a gentle boil, then strain into mugs and serve hot 🍵✨.

❄️☕🌿 Why its perfect right now:
Get in the festive mood with a blend of spice, citrus, and herbs
Chai’s warming spices, boosts immunity & supports circulation with
thyme and orange peel, supporting immunity

08/12/2025

Winter wellness see a herbalist 🌿

Winter Wellness: Herbs & Herbalists 🌿❄️

During the cold months, many people experience fatigue, lowered immunity, and seasonal illnesses, making winter wellness herbs an important natural support.

✨ Elderberry - prized for its antiviral properties and commonly used to reduce the severity of colds and flu.
🌿 Echinacea - helps stimulate the immune system, making it more resilient against infections.
✨ Ginger - warms the body, aids digestion, and reduces inflammation.
🌿 Turmeric - valued for its anti‑inflammatory and antioxidant properties, it supports joint health and strengthens immunity.

Herbs provide an integrative approach to staying strong and healthy through winter, offering both preventive and restorative benefits. While these herbs can offer powerful support, working with a qualified herbalist ensures they’re used safely and effectively, tailored to your unique needs.

Why see a Herbalist?
Professional training → Medical herbalists complete thousands of hours of study and clinical practice, ensuring safe and effective care.
Personalise support → Tailor herbs to your constitution, lifestyle, and health needs.
Navigate safety → Ensure herbs don’t interact with medications or conditions.
Deeper understanding → Herbalists are trained in pathophysiology, meaning they treat the root causes of illness, not just symptoms.
Expert Guidance → Learn to integrate herbs safely and effectively into daily life.
Holistic care → Herbalists look at the whole picture, diet, stress, sleep, and environment not just symptoms. 🌿

👉 Find a qualified herbalist near you using our tool: https://buff.ly/qJppP0R

27/10/2025

A autumn wellness tea recipe!

🍂🕰️ With the clocks going back and the nights drawing in… it's time to warm up from the inside out! 🫖✨
Say hello to your autumn wellness ritual: Zesty Ginger Immuni-Tea - a spicy, citrusy hug in a mug that supports your immune system and lifts your spirits as the daylight fades 🌙💛

🔥 How to Brew Your Immuni-Tea:
Boil 1 cup of water.
Add 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 tsp dried Elderflower
Squeeze in half a lemon.
Stir in 1 tsp honey (optional but soothing).
Let steep for 5–7 minutes.
Strain, sip, and feel the warmth.

🌟 Why it’s perfect right now:
Ginger: Warming & anti-inflammatory
Lemon: Vitamin C boost
Honey: Comforting & antimicrobial
Cinnamon: naturally anti-inflammatory
Elderflower: Supports respiratory health and helps fight off seasonal bugs

Wrap your hands around a steaming cup and let the cozy vibes roll in 🍵

07/10/2025

Hello Autumn lets bring out those pungent herbs to chase the colds and flus away, also warming & comforting helping the circulation and draining the lymph.

We can experience a change in ourselves when the autumn arrives, sometimes colds, sinus and breathing becomes difficult as the circulation + lyphm function is congested allowing mucus to be a problem.
Time to bring in pungent foods: etc
Also pungent etc
Pungent + Spicy flavours improve flow, stimulate lymph and circulation some have antiviral, antimicrobial + in some cases antifungal properties too.
Raw onion is pungent but when cooked is sweet, many others transform with cooking, and when fermented as in the pic in
Both pungent + spicy give clarity to the senses, they excite + stimulate, but we don't want to be overwhelmed and then be exhausted + irritable.
The same applies to our body, overstimulated nerves, muscles and mucus membranes will exhaust and dry out tissues.
Balance gives harmony, each individual is different, how much + for how long to take something, is dependant on the unique person.

14/08/2025

A show case by one of the members of the national institute of medical herbalists of the work herbalists do.

Great to see one of our members, Simon Mills , on Diary of a CEO showcasing the wonderful work of herbs and herbalists. A great way to find out more about herbal medicine. Steve Bartlett

Why not check out our podcasts resource, and find more of our members sharing their expertise. Visit https://buff.ly/u94gA9u

10/07/2025

Herb of the month!

🌿 Herb of the Month: Meadowsweet - Filipendula ulmaria 🌿

Where Meadowsweet grows, on a warm sunny day you can’t fail to smell those medicinal constituents on the reeze, which some compare to almonds, and others Germolene!

Meadowsweet has been found in Prehistoric graves all over Europe, and has been used medicinally for as long; primarily for relieving pain, fever, diarrhoea, and in the treatment of peptic ulcers. Its anti-inflammatory effects can be accounted for by the presence of several salicylate compounds, including salicylic acid.

To read the full blog written by Jenny Carden-Porrett, visit our website: https://buff.ly/t2kMLm1

Note: When taking herbs, we recommend seeking the advice of a qualified medical herbalist.

13/06/2025

Please look at event below!

28/05/2025

For all your health needs book in at the sanctuary. There are loads of practitioners to choose from.

23/04/2025

Herb Robert used to stem nose bleeds by making a plug with the plant!

🌿 Wayside Herb of the Month: Herb Robert - Geranium robertianum 🌿

Herb Robert likes to grow in shade, often along walls and the edges of woodlands, the stems turn a vivid red when the plant is exposed to too much sunlight or too little water.

Not often seen in the Herbalist's dispensary these days, Nicholas Culpeper mentioned that farmers used Herb Robert in diseases of their cattle, recommended it for green wounds, stopping bleeding, old ulcers in the privy parts and reminded the reader "consider it is an herb of Venus, for all it hath a man’s name". It was once carried to bring luck and fertility.

Head to our website to read the full blog written by Jenny Carden-Porrett: https://nimh.org.uk/herbal-resources/

Note: When taking herbs, we recommend seeking the advice of a qualified medical herbalist.

11/04/2025

Herb of the month!

🌿 Herb of the Month: Cardamom - Elettaria cardamomum 🌿

Aromatic and resinous, many people enjoy the scent of cardamom even if they aren't partial to the taste! Known as True or Green Cardamom, and from the 19th century as 'The Queen of spices' - it has been recorded for thousands of years as a useful digestive aid.

In the same family as Ginger, it is considered a more cooling alternative when an anti-inflammatory or digestion remedy is needed. A primary constituent α-terpineol and also 1,8-cineole, have been demonstrated to possess anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-nociceptive (analgesic) properties, alongside mucus thinning effects, making it useful in clearing mucus and helping a weakened digestive system, or to give alongside digestive bitters to avoid 'griping' sensations.

Cardamom's antiseptic action has also made it a popular breath freshener, and a remedy for colds, tonsillitis and bronchitis, where it can also help clear mucus congestion in the lungs. Myrcene is also present, lending Cardamom a gentle relaxing quality, another useful component when stress and stomach are so closely linked!

Personally I can happily chew on the seeds and work with Cardamom a lot in clinic, but would love to know how other people feel about cardamom, do you consider her a medicinal herb or more something to be used sparingly in cooking?

Note: When taking herbs, we recommend seeking the advice of a qualified medical herbalist.

27/03/2025

Spring is with us! Do you feel you need a spring tonic after all the excess of the christmas season! Read below and make your own!

07/03/2025

See what ground ivy can do for you!

🌿 Herb of the Month: Ground Ivy - Glechoma hederecea 🌿

Despite its common name, Ground Ivy is actually in the mint family. It was historically taken for bronchitis, sore throats, digestive problems, as a diuretic, to help headaches, arthritis, menstrual disorders and topically for skin irritations. This apparent wide variety of healing uses could be due to the antioxidant properties from various phenolic compounds, including rosmarinic, caffeic, and ferulic acids, and flavonoids such as rutin, isoquercetin, genistin, and daidzin, among others!

Read the full blog written by Jenny Carden-Porrett here: https://buff.ly/7Zm2h2Y

Note: When taking herbs, we recommend seeking the advice of a qualified medical herbalist.