02/04/2026
My remedies aside, let’s talk about an herbal preparation thats easy to make, and makes a HUGE difference. Nourishing Herbal Infusions
When I did frequent classes, this was one I did often and always booked out. So here’s a quick break down on this small lifestyle change that can have profound impacts on overall well being.
Traditionally NHIs are made from dried plant material, with nutritive food herbs. They should be non aromatic and low in volatile oils and few alkaloids or other constituents that could cause issues at such a strong strength. NHIs are made with herbs that can be found in abundance and are not rare or endangered. You normally want to use one plant at a time on rotation so you can get a feel for that specific plant and how its supporting and interacting with your body (not to say you can't do more then one after you've learned the plants). I like to stick with one plant per week initially so I can learn how it works with my body. Once I know the plant I do daily rotations based on intuitive needs. Its helpful to sit with yourself and see how you're feeling at that time to see which plant might support you best. Are you feeling hot? Cold? Dry? Having plants on rotation also gives you a better range of nutrients. Getting to know the plant allows you to explore the individual properties, actions and effects.
Herbs have different weights, roots are heavier than leaves obviously, so the general rule of thumb is one ounce of dried (minerals and phytonutrients in nourishing herbs are more accessible when dried, not to say you can't use fresh, but dried is preferable) plant material per quart. That's the general rule of thumb, if you wanted to get a bit more precise, you can do 1oz of roots and barks per pint (steep for a minimum of 8 hours), 1oz of berries and seeds per pint (steep for a max of 30 minutes), and then follow the 1oz per quart for leaves and flowers with 4 hours minimum. The plant material is then covered with boiling water and steeped for prolonged periods. This allows for maximum extraction of water-soluble nutrients. You normally want to drink 2-4 cups per day. Drinking them within 48 hours is best, as they start to deteriorate after that and spoil. Some herbs are high in tannins, so if it's a bit too bitter you can add a pinch of pink salt or mint or honey. You can also do cold infusions with those plants for a milder brew. Now to drink it hot or cold? Either way is fine! Some prefer it iced, some prefer to reheat it and drink it hot/warm. This again normally reflects an individual's energetic constitution. If an individual has a suppressed immune system, drinking liquids hot or warm is preferable.
Drinking nourishing infusions heals you on a cellular level, everything from energy, blood pressure issues, mood disorders, pain, insomnia, acid reflux, have all been relieved by NHIs. When you're utilizing such bioavailable nutrients, you're able to eliminate supplements. Nourishment that is directly absorbed into the blood and into the cells. It's important to shift our perspective to create this habit in our lives. We aren't "taking" nourishing infusions. Just like you wouldn't "take" an apple. You eat an apple, you drink infusions. You nourish your body. This shifts the "supplement" perspective into a food perspective. The better nourished someone is on all levels (physical, emotional, spiritual) the more they can enjoy their life, creating a sense of stability and vigor. Obviously, life happens and sometimes we fall out of practice, but continuing to be deeply nourished helps us get through those harder times with more ease. The simple act of steeping nourishing herbs in water and creating such powerful effects, to essentially "feed" your body is empowering. A nourished body knows how to heal itself. It takes us 21 days to form a habit. 21 days. Let's see how much our bodies can heal and thrive in 21 days. It may surprise you!! "Vitamins and minerals exist in food and herbs with hundreds of constituents that create something so much more effective than a pill"
Here are the most common plants for nourishing herbal infusions. Most are leafy greens that have lots of vitamins and minerals, others like Rosehips are full of bioflavonoids. Linden can be rebrewed into a second cold infusion and you only need half the amount of herb you would with other herbs, this will extract all of that mucilage and create more of a gruel (a thick tea)
There are two types of infusions, hot and cold. Cold infusions are often prepared to extract the mucilaginous properties of a plant (like marshmallow root)
*Chickweed leaf and stalk
*Comfrey leaf and stalk (not officinale but uplandica)
*Nettle leaf and stalk
*Plantain leaf Violet leaf (best as a cold infusion)
*Mallow leaf Marshmallow root
*Raspberry leaf Hawthorn leaf or flower
*Oatstraw stalk, leaf and milky oats
*Alfalfa Sassafras leaf
*Red clover flowers
*Linden flowers and leaves (double extraction)
*Dandelion root
*Burdock root
*Rosehips
*Hawthorn berries
So how do you know what's right for you?
From Herbalist Rosalee De La Forte
"Energetics of People. Every person is born with a unique blend of the four qualities, and the energetics of a person is often referred to as their constitution. A person’s constitution exists within a moving scale. External influences, such as weather, food, illness, medication, sleep habits, and stress, all have an effect on your evolving inner landscape. Think of your constitution as different shades of gray rather than simply black or white, hot or cold. Sometimes people’s constitutions can be seen in their preferences. If someone tends to be colder, they may enjoy hot weather more than someone who has a warm constitution. Someone with a lot of dryness may be aggravated by the desert but thrive in a more humid environment. The more you pay attention to these things, the more the concepts of energetics will become recognizable within your own life.Everyone contains some aspect of all four qualities. But you contain a unique mix of strengths and challenges. Look for general tendencies—in other words, how you feel most of the time. For example, if you normally feel warm, but you don’t like winter and there was that one time you felt cold in a blizzard, warm wins. Although external forces can affect our qualities, we are born with a particular constitution that doesn’t change dramatically. If you can’t decide on an answer, think back to how you were as a child."
What to do with the spent plant material? Some plants you can rebrew for a double extraction, others you can toss in the compost, feed to the chickens, some folks like to make spagerics, poultices (Comfrey warmed and placed on sore muscles or frozen into ice packs, second infusions for hair rinses, body scrubs for exfoliating, the options are endless.
From Susun W**d
"Vitamins and minerals coexist in foods and herbs with hundred of other constituents that cause them to be much more effective than any vitamin or mineral in a pill. Health has never come in a pill, and I doubt that it ever will.(For instructions on making nourishing infusions, please check out the comment section below.)
Vitamins are groups of closely-related enzymes (proteins) that work together synergistically. Vitamin A includes over 1800 carotenes and carotinoides, vitamin B has about twenty different factors including niacin, folate, riboflavin, and laetrile, vitamin C includes more than one hundred substances in addition to ascorbic acid, vitamin D is found in at least three forms, and vitamin E contains eight different factors. Vitamins in pills are simplified versions of complex substances, so they can't promote health, although they can counter true deficiencies. Vitamin supplements, unlike the vitamins in foods and herbs, can cause harm. Supplementation with vitamin A has been found to increase a woman's risk of hip fracture. Supplementation with vitamin E can make breast cancer more lethal.
Minerals may seem simpler than vitamins, but they aren't. Elemental minerals cannot be used by living things; cells require the salt, or ionic, forms of minerals. There are hundreds of ionic forms of each mineral in foods and herbs but only one in a supplement. Once again, loss of complexity leads to less health, not more.
Nourishing herbal infusions -- made from non-poisonous herbs such as nettle, red clover, oatstraw, linden, and comfrey leaf -- provide complete vitamins and lots of mineral complexes along with synergistic activating compounds. You can't go by the numbers. I've maintained for decades that the nutrients in herbs and whole foods are at least ten times more active than those in supplements. A chemist recently challenged me on this. According to his research, the nutrients in foods and herbs are a thousand times more active than those in pills. One molecule of vitamin E in a pill can only absorb on free radical. A molecule of vitamin E in a cup of nettle infusion can absorb a thousand free radicals. If an herb has 100 mg of measurable calcium, it will actually have the effect of at least 1000 mg of calcium. Numbers don't tell the whole tale.
I don't take pills. I do drink 2-4 cups of nourishing herbal infusion daily; and include plenty of seaweed, yogurt, miso, cooked greens, whole grains, olive oil, and lacto-fermented vegetables (also known as sauerkraut) in my diet. My students report noticeable improvement in their health, skin, and hair after drinking nourishing infusions for as little as ten days. Over longer periods of time bone mass improve, immunity grows stronger, digestion becomes problem-free, and energy soars."
Now, let's break down some of my favorite herbs for infusions and what exactly the offer in support.
I tend to reach for Nettles most often, as do most, I think. Nettles are strengthening and restore vibrancy and vitality. They have impressive amounts of calcium and magnesium, and unlike in supplements, prepared in this way makes them incredibly bioavailable. It is important to know that Nettles are both drying and cooling. If you're particularly sensitive to either of these energetics, you can add a bit of Marshmallow root for the mucilage, or a touch of ginger for the heat.
Oatstraw and Oat tops are my next go to. It's an incredibly restorative herb. Oatstraw is a nervine so it's helpful for those navigating overstimulation, stress, and exhaustion. Most every ailment that's related to the physiologic activities within the nerves can benefit from Oatstraw. It's also highly nutritive. Like Nettles, its nutritional profile is impressive, the highest being its calcium and silicon. Another wonderful component to Oatstraw is that it has natural nootropic agents which enhance cognitive function. There's also some evidence and historical use of it being used to aid with addictions and withdrawal symptoms.
Then there's Linden! Linden is my favorite herb for kiddos. Did you know that the window of opportunity to harvest Linden blooms are about 2 days out of the whole year? And it starts 1-3 days after they start blooming and the air fills with their intoxicating scent. The time of day matters too, and they're best harvested on a beautiful sunny morning after the dew dries. Linden has several names, and American Linden (Tilia americana) also goes by Basswood and Lime tree. You'll notice that they have two types of leaves on them. The darker green toothed leaves, and the lighter green/pale bracts which are attached to the flower stalks. When harvesting the Linden blossoms, you want to harvest both the flowers as well as those light green bracts. The darker leaves are edible though too, and taste like a mix between lettuce and spinach. A great edible in Spring and Summer, but I generally stick to the blossoms and bracts for medicine. Linden is such sweet medicine. It's one of my absolute favorite herbs for kids. It's so soothing to the nervous system and is helpful in relieving stress, anxiety and panic. It's also a great aid for sleep disorders. Now, the reason I love this herb for kids so much, is not only is it calming and truly just brings peace, but it supports the immune system too! Linden supports the immune system and the respiratory tract. It's an expectorant so it helps in breaking up stuck mucus and getting it up and out. It's also an antipyretic, which helps to lower fevers (but not suppress). Linden is mucilaginous, which supports our bodies in several ways. One being our respiratory tract and soothing inflamed mucus membranes and easing dry coughs, but also aiding with acid reflux, indigestion and digestive upsets. It's also very relaxing to the circulatory system, which can help relieve headaches, lower blood pressure and a number more. I've always thought Linden was incredible because it's the only herb (that I know of) that you only need half as much as every other herb when making nourishing herbal infusions (normally 1oz by weight of herb to 1 quart of water- but with Linden you only need half an ounce). Not only that, but you can double brew it, once hot and once cold and pull different constituents from the plant and not lose potency! With the cold infusion you'll pull more mucilage, and it will be more of a gruel (thick tea). Another little fun fact about Linden blossoms, is the farnesol in them actually stops some unwanted body odor.
Mullein is another great herb that I love for infusions. Its nutritive, but also has an affinity to the lungs. So this is a wonderful herb if you're dealing with any chronic (or acute) lung related ailment. It's incredibly healing and strengthening to the lungs, and so soothing to inflamed mucus membranes but also supports lymphatic flow.
I can go on and on. Explore, experiment and have fun!!
