If you want to make your own Herbal Remedy Products, try Wild Crafting instead of the Yellow Pages

Herbal Remedy products can be hard to create, especially if you life in an area without a herbalist. However, nobody said you had to buy your ingredients from a store. You may or may not have heard of wild crafting before but, for the uninitiated, wild crafting is all about harvesting plants from their natural habitat.

The age-old practice of collecting plants in their natural habitat for food, medicine, and craft is not only healthy for the body, but great for the mind, too. Wild crafting is a perfect companion to Home Spa

Wild crafting can be the collection of such things to make herbal remedy products as moss, ginseng, natural dyes, mushrooms, wildflower seeds, berries, and saps such as maple or pine. Although wild crafting is usually associated with countryside harvests, it’s just as easy to practice it in the city, or even your own back yard.

You may have already been on your own wild crafting trip just by collecting mushrooms in the wild. A word of caution though, never consume any mushrooms you aren't sure are safe.

What Sort of Common Ingredients have Healing Properties?

Crabapples and quinces are two great examples of plants that that have healing properties. Furthermore, the fruit often goes to waste. Another great example is the common flower Impatiens, which can be used to treat bites, stings and even Poison ivy rashes.

Other opportunities for wild crafting in your own backyard include native persimmons, walnuts, blackberries, dandelions and wild roses. Specialized harvesting techniques look at things like Nettles, Basil, Horsetail, Wild Cherry Bark, Willow Bark, Plantain and Butterbur.

Blackberries are often found growing in the wild.

Foraging for wild edibles and medicines in their native habitat was normal before the invention of agriculture. This was long before supermarkets and the internet when most humans relied on wild plants for sustenance. In addition to the healing qualities of the herbs you gather, the practice of Wild crafting can be very conducive to relaxation.

Be Careful you don’t Break the Law

Harvesting to create your own herbal remedy products can seem harmless. However, due to the abuse of some areas, in many places it is against the law to collect wild plants and fruit in their natural habitat.

Many native cultures practiced their own versions of sustainability and ensured that plants were only harvested with long-term views. One of the drawbacks of wild crafting has been humans not harvesting with tomorrow in mind and endangered plant stocks being further diminished.

Always check if there are any legal or cultural obligations before harvesting in the wild.

Always be Kind to the Environment

Plants like ginseng, goldenseal and lady’s slipper, have suffered despite the best intentions of many humans practicing wild crafting. The fact is that wild crafting has become so popular that it is virtually impossible to practice sustainability.

If you wish to collect your own wild-growing plants, learn to identify the endangered or threatened varieties so that you aren’t doing damage. Keep in mind that some of these plants are also poisonous, another good reason to learn to identify the different types of plants.

Many endangered or threatened plants can be grown in your own garden. It’s a good idea to do this to preserve them for future generations. Just be careful not to do more harm than good, and remember that you are probably not the only one harvesting for herbal remedy products.