With Christmas and New Year just gone, people have been busy on HIVE so there's not been a lot of #herbalmedicine content - but boy we're excited about what HAS been going on and are looking forward to when the new challenge starts in February. We've been having a little bit of a break too though we do pop on and upvote daily, so keep those #herbalism posts coming!

@kyleana certainly got into the citrus vibe Christmas spirit with her shea butter soap with tangerine and cinnamon, and mandarin infused oil. We can just smell it! @didivelikova opened up her oxymels and was delighted with the taste and smell. If you haven't tried making an oxymel yet, it's highly recommended and a fantastic way to get some extra herbal nutrition. @riverflows shared how she processed her blackcurrants - note, Ribena does NOT contain as much vitamin C as you think and is full of inflammatory sugar! How do YOU process your vitamin C loaded fruits? @traisto shared her joy over processing olive oil and various herbs in her garden. Did you know rosemary was often used for protection, and thus graced doorsteps in Europe for that reason?

We also really loved a post from @rosmerby that talked about what she learnt from her grandmother. This is so relevant for many of us that learnt plant wisdoms from our elders.

Many plants, that the grandmother took care of; she would have to study in detail to mention them all, but among many other things she always relieved my discomforts, how did she do it? I don't really know, but I remember her asking him: Grandma, why do you like plants? And she lovingly replied: "Daughter, they have healing properties, that's where they prepare the medicines that doctors send us, so it's better to have them at home." And she was very right, although I was able to study it scientifically many years later, but at that time, if I got sick with asthma or had a tired chest, she would prepare a “sage” syrup that she made me drink for 7 days, today I can still photograph myself next to the medicinal plant.

When we can't find anything else to vote under the #herbalism tag, we often go vote posts under #gardening and #homesteading #plantbased #fungilovers and #naturalmedicine, where we find many great posts related to our #plantmedicine community. This is how we found @ligayagardener's post on making apple scrap vinegar. I've been making oxymels out of my own apple scrap vinegar so it's definitely something us herbies should be doing to save money!

We usually choose a beneficiary either at random or for an underrewarded or excellent post. I'm sure you will agree that @kyleana's creative efforts this month are well worth her recieving a beneficiary on this post! The rest go toward powering up so we can upvote you even more!

Much Love!