today I want to share with you how to stop your healing pantry and create your herbal medicine cabinet this is a very important part of your prepper pantry hi sweet friends I'm Mary and welcome to Mary's Nest where I teach traditional cooking skills for making nutrient dense foods like bone broth ferment sourdough and more so if you enjoy learning how to be a modern pioneer in the kitchen consider subscribing to my channel and don't forget to click on the little notification Bell below that'll let you know every time I upload a new video the first thing I want to say is that anytime you want to jump ahead in this video be sure to check the description below where I'll have the chapter timestamps listing everything I'm going to cover the next thing I want to mention is that I have a printable for you no email required that's going to cover everything we're going to talk about today we'll go over this printable in detail and I think you'll find it very helpful as you begin to start stocking your healing pantry and creating your medicinal herbal cabinet and then it's a wonderful resource to keep in your kitchen Journal this is my kitchen Journal that I have in front of me it's just a homemade thing I have have a video where I share with you all about it and I'll be sure to link to that in the description below because if you are on your journey to creating a traditional foods kitchen and becoming a modern pioneer in the kitchen keeping a kitchen Journal can be a real life saver because you can compile all the various notes you have as you start to learn and make traditional foods and so you always have something to refer back to so definitely start working on your kitchen Journal if you've not had a chance well we're having a bit of an ice storm here today so I thought it would be fun to have a fire have some hot tea and have us all just sit down today and chat recently in an article that I wrote on my blog I began speaking about the healing pantry and I promised that I would do a video for you to go into more detail about this so today I want to expand on what the healing pantry is all about specifically it's an area that you designate in your prepper pantry just like when you were creating your emergency Pantry which is a part of your prepper Pantry that you dedicate to having those foods and supplies that you need in the event that you don't have electricity or you don't have clean running water and you need to know how you can make meals and be prepared and so on and so forth the healing pantry is very similar in that you carve out so to speak a certain area of your prepper Pantry where you begin to designate that space to store the various herbs and spices and supplies that you need to make your home remedies and within that healing Pantry where you're keeping all your raw materials your herbs and your spices and your supplies to make your home remedies you'll then have your little area that I like to refer to as my herbal medicine cabinet and that's where I like to keep those things that have been prepared and turned into home REM and I have a whole series of videos where I walk you through all types of Master recipes for making different medicinal herbal home remedies I show you how to make herbal teas tinctures oils sobs soups and syrup so it's a very broad playlist that I have going over a lot of different ways to make various types of herb Herbal Remedies using herbs as well as spices and I show you the various equipment that you need so today what I want to focus on is how exactly to go about carving out this space in your prepper pantry and what you should be stocking in it to be prepared to use those Master recipes that I've shared with you in the past to make the various home remedies you may need now I just want to share a word of caution with you when it comes to home remedies in general specific typically Herbal Remedies you do want to keep in mind if you're pregnant or nursing thinking of using these things with children if you're taking medication over-the-counter or prescription or if you have allergies you really want to do your research because certain herbs may not agree with you based on those various conditions you can certainly talk to your medical practitioner about this and certainly if you're not well definitely don't hesitate to get the medical the professional medical attention you need now speaking of doing your research I highly recommend any book out there by a woman named Rosemary gladstar she's been writing herbal books probably going back to the 1970s or at least she's been teaching herbal home remedies and whatnot since probably around the 1970s I've got two of her books here if you are completely new to this a complete beginner I highly recommend her medicinal herbs a beginner's guide this is a wonderful book it's just an oversized paperback it's not expensive and she covers a lot of different herbs how to know them how to grow them and how to use them I highly recommend this book she also has her herbal recipes for vibrant Health 175 teas tonics oil solves tinctures and other natural remedies for the entire family this is also a wonderful book also in addition to Rosemary's books I really like this book it's called The herbal kitchen and it's by Cami McBride and you know it's going to be good because guess who wrote the forward Rosemary glad star and she focuses on herbs and spices and basically how to take all of these relatively common culinary herbs and spices how to incorporate them into your food to improve your nutrition and also help to combat germs and illness and make you feel better whatever the case may be well let me enjoy a little sip of this tea I want to tell you about this tea in a minute hmm this is so good this is an herb tea but if you like caffeinated tea this tastes very much like a black tea or a green tea so you'll notice this very cute mug I have it says Mary's nest for those of you who know Denise over at this and that with Denise she's got the wonderful YouTube channel all about homemaking covers everything cooking cleaning uh wash the work she's really great you have to check out her Channel but she has a sister named Nikki who does a lot of artwork and sweet Mickey made this beautiful mug for me and it's got all the little Cardinals and I I just adore it so thank you Mickey shout out to Mickey she's a sweet lady what I want to say is that I wanted to share with you that although I think those of you who know me know that I always tell you I don't want you to stress about anything I want you to move to creating a traditional Foods Kitchen creating your four corners Pantry little by little four corners being your working Pantry your refrigerator your freezer and your prepper Pantry as well as these little subsets within your prepper Pantry the emergency pantry and and your healing Pantry but I never want you to feel rushed or overwhelmed I created these in essence or stock them so to speak over time none of this happened overnight and so I always like to explain that yes you can do a lot with bulk herbs and make a lot of home remedies especially herbal teas are very easy to pull together uh but I just wanted to share what I'm drinking here is a brand of teas that I really recommend and I have no connection to this company I just really like these teas and the reason that I wanted to share this with you if you want to have some really good high quality uh herbal teas on hand that really are touted so to speak as medicinal herbal teas because you're not in a position yet to be kind of making your own I wanted to share with you these are called organic India is the brand and this is Tulsi Tulsi if I'm pronouncing that correctly is holy basil and that's a an herb that I do recommend that you try to keep on hand holy basil is one of those herbs that's basically just a fix-all if something bothers you you often hear people recommend well have some holy basil tea it'll help you and it's really revered especially in India and so they make some wonderful what this particular brand organic India they make some wonderful teas and Tulsi just straight up which is what I'm having now you will literally think that it's like a regular tea so if you've never been like maybe a fan of herb teas but I hope that over time you your palate will become a fan of herb teas Tulsi is a great place to start because it tastes very similar to what we think of as traditional teas you know herbal teas are really if I'm pronouncing it correctly they're to sayings not teas per se although we use the moniker herbal teas but this taste to me kind of like I'm drinking a black tea or a green tea depending how long I steep it so this is something to keep in mind you can keep this right in your working pantry and I have a variety of them because they have they have a lemon ginger it's Tulsi with the lemon ginger flavor they have Tulsi turmeric ginger I really like this one because turmeric is so anti-inflammatory it helps with aches and pains among a lot of other things and then Tulsi Moringa this is like I really feel is like the star of their teas because the star of the show so to speak because Moringa like Tulsi is also considered one of those you know fantastic herbs that is just good for your overall body so I just wanted to mention that you know before we get into this because I never want you to feel overwhelmed you want to stock your healing Pantry little by little and learn how to make medicinal remedies little by little now speaking about home remedies or medicinal remedies whatever you like to call them something that you will eventually want to learn about is the concept known as homeopathy and there are a number of companies that sell different types of little tablets that you can either put under your tongue or you can chew and you'll also want to have a reference guide on hand that explains the different combinations of these homeopathic tablets or chews that help to gently treat particular conditions over time companies that make these type of things and again I have no connection to any of these companies they're just brands that I have used one is Highlands that's been around for years and they have some combination homeopathic remedies and then they also sell the individual homeopathic tablets another company that I've been using their products of and I like very much is called genexa and what's nice about genexa is and I'll link to all of this so in case you want to educate yourself and learn about it you know in the description below a genexa makes a lot of nice combination ones for allergies and cold and flu aches and pains you know different things like that so that's definitely something to think about as you educate yourself more about what you want to have in terms of under your home remedy umbrella and what you want to stock in your healing Pantry I think my fire is dying out and it's in the 20s today and it's still chilly in our house so I'm going to Put Another Log on the Fire now as you begin to dedicate an area of your prepper Pantry for your healing Pantry this inventory list will help you keep track of what you have and what you may need as you decide on the area of your prepper Pantry where you want to store your various healing Pantry supplies this inventory list will come in very handy for you this will help you keep track of what you have and what you need what I've done here is first list all the various herbs that I think are important to keep in a hailing pantry and this is all in dried form because remember your prepper pantry is the place where non-perishable foods and dried herbs dried spices so on and so forth are stored now I have two videos one where I go over what I consider are sort of my top 10 herbs that I like to keep on hand and then I did a follow-up video where I share with you my top five herbs in addition to the top ten for a total of 15.

Plus I've got some two extra bonus herbs that you had shared with me and I definitely wanted to include those so I'll be sure to link to those videos because I do list more than the that would be 17 herbs I do list more here but those where I was trying to whittle it down to the definite must-haves those first ten were kind of the must-haves but in any event I then have a column for the number that you have stored and then if you have any garden seeds stored as well so if you're going to be trying to grow any of these herbs in a sunny windowsill Garden on a patio a balcony or even if you have a kitchen Garden that's outside and dedicated uh four herbs if you have a little portion of it that you dedicate for herbs do you have any seeds on hand to grow those herbs so you keep track of what what you've how much you've stored of each you know and I'm talking you know bottles jars or you know however you want to designate the amount and then whether or not you have garden seeds to plant those herbs I think that's those are kind of the two important things what do you have how much do you have and do you have seeds ready to plant to grow what you might like speaking of seeds I just want to mention that if you've not had a chance to see the video I did where I did a review of the seeds that are so sold by the company survival garden seeds I highly recommend that you watch that video if you're interested in seeds and trying to grow some of your own vegetables herbs fruits whatever the case may be because the good news is I have a discount coupon code for you if you decide to order one of their three survival garden seed packages and I'll be sure to link to my shopping guide in the description below where you can find that discount coupon code and while you're over on my website be sure to check out the blog post that I have all about survival garden seeds there's some very exciting news about a promotion that they're going to be running over the next couple of weeks so little by little you can start stocking the herbs that you want to keep on hand based on what home remedies you think you might make and that's where having one of these reference books to help you determine what herbs you may like to keep on hand because you don't necessarily need all of these you may like certain herbs to help you with certain little you know day-to-day maladies that can be easily helped with various Herbal Remedies and so if you know oh gee we have a little trouble sleeping and maybe we'd like to make a a tea that would help us relax well then by all means you'll want to keep chamomile on hand and I have a video where I show you how to make what I call my I think it's great night's sleep tea or something and it's got some chamomile in it it also has some Lavender in it and these are relatively easy herbs to grow as well as to find in various sources that sell dried herbs but I highly recommend that you even if you think oh I don't have a green thumb I highly recommend that you give a try to Growing some herbs because I've often said that in many cases herbs are kind of like weeds as a matter of fact some you may even have some in your yard right now if you have a a little grassy area and you may have something like plantain and not it's not the one that looks like a banana it looks like a green leaf and you probably just thought was a nasty old weed but it's actually an herb so herbs often are easier to grow than a lot of other things and herbs are a wonderful place to get started if you're new to gardening uh years and years ago herbs was really what I started with that and cherry tomatoes yeah because they're relatively easy to grow as well so definitely think about that but no something I want to mention that I alluded to in the beginning about you know when you are educating yourself about herbs and you need to be careful depending what condition that you may be having if you are prone to allergies that are related to things like hay fever you want to educate yourself as to which herbs May aggravate hay fever and sometimes people who are subject to hay fever chamomile can aggravate that so you just want to be conscious but you don't have to feel bad because even though we often think of chamomile as the wonderful sleep you know the the ingredient often used to make sleep teas there are a whole host of herbs that can help relax you and help you drift off to Dreamland that are not associated with causing a hay fever reactions so that's why you know I really can't stress enough I know I talk a lot whenever we get on the subject of herbs I talk a lot about Rosemary gladstar and Cami McBride I just love them and I don't know them but I love them because they're so knowledgeable yet they keep it so simple and that's what we really need you know as home Cooks as I often use the Expression you know modern Pioneers in the kitchen on a traditional foods Journey you know in whatever way you think of yourself we're often very busy and we need things really kept simple for us it's not like it's an insult to our intelligence of course not but whenever we're learning something new especially about herbs and spices and also how to make home remedies using herbs and spices the the more simple the explanation the less complicated it makes the journey easier yes you you want to read something more complicated down the road there's so many scientific articles written about the healing properties of herbs and the healing properties of spices it can become fascinating you can quickly what do they say go down a rabbit hole or a rabbit Trail on the internet you know reading about all of the things scientists have studied but when you're new to this when you're starting out the simpler things are explained the better and that's why I love books like this and I really wanted to create that series that I share with you four Master recipes for making medicinal Herbal Remedies because I wanted to keep things simple and easy so as you go through the herbs you really can store them any way you want I do like to keep them you know out of direct sunlight I keep them in the area that sort of under my stairwell where I just have sort of carved out so to speak an area for some of my herbs I also keep some in a cabinet wherever I can find Space because I so relayed that you have told me you don't necessarily have a big dedicated prepper Pantry area and I don't either you know I find little places here and there throughout my house to stock what I need what I need to have on hand uh so that I'm not running out of things so I'm not rushing to the store so I'm not having to buy things at full price so that I can take advantage of sales so on and so forth and I know you've asked me about these jars they're Fido fideo jars they're made in Italy they used to be very reasonable with inflation I'd have no idea now how they might be priced but I have found them at World Market and I have found them at thrift stores and of course they're you know available online and don't worry if you they make quite the nice airtight seal don't worry if you find one and the gasket is all dried out or it's uh or it's missing still get the jar because you can come home give the jar a good washing let it air dry and then you can find these often at different places you know sort of you know like sometimes your little supply stores your little uh hardware stores they'll often have these replacement gaskets and then of course yes they're always available online and they're reasonable so definitely don't turn your nose up to jars that you find like this that don't have a satisfactory gasket or missing it it's very easy to find the replacement parts for that canning jars work great you can use the white storage Lids you can use a spent you know one that you've already used a spent canning lid with the ring you can even use the new lids that uh The Ball canning company is selling their gray they're supposed to be airtight they have like a little gasket inside so there are a lot of options available to you to how you want to store your herbs another option is if you're very concerned like maybe you live in a very uh a damp climate or whatever the case may be I have heard from you that some of you will put your dried herbs in a brown paper bag and then put it into one of those FoodSaver type bags there's different ones foodsavers one particular brand there's a lot out there and again you know I have no connection to any of these companies and you put the brown paper bag into the plastic bag and then seal it so you've got this beautiful airtight well preserved dry herb or spice and the reason for the brown paper bag is as you have told me you like to protect your herbs from the plastic you don't necessarily want it be you know the plastic touching you'd rather just have you know the brown paper bag touching it so so that I think is a very good option also we're going to talk about these in a minute because this is part of when we get to the supplies part these are are just little Muslim bags and if you like to not you know have waste or whatever that's associated with maybe paper that yes you can certainly recycle it but you know bottom line is you know you're disposing it if you want something that's not disposable you could get these unbleached little uh muslin bags they're they're usually made I'm not sure specifically about these these may be made uh I think these are made from even organic cotton and they're at least when I bought these they they were affordable you could put your herbs in here and then you could put them into the plastic bag and use the FoodSaver to seal it I think that might work too I'd be interested in hearing from some of you if you've tried that and if you were happy with the results next what I've listed here are spices and again the I really look forward to hearing from you in the comments if when then you download this and print this out and by the way speaking of downloading printing out I have if you're new here welcome I have a lot of printables for you that they're free there's no email required nothing I really feel I'm very passionate about this and I really feel we all need to help each other as much as we can so print out as many as you want or download them keep them on your phone whatever way you work with these things and share them share them with your family share them with your friends share them with your neighbors the more we are all prepared the better I think we all learned that after 2020.

The more prepared the better we help ourselves we help our families we can help our neighbors you know it's very important to be prepared so that's why I spend a lot of time talking about the Four Corners pantry and everything that goes into that including the prepper pantry and so but what I'd like to hear from you in the comments is as you download this as you look through this if you feel that there are herbs and spices that are very important and that I've left them off let me know because I update my various Pantry lists my various Pantry inventory lists my various meal plans you know menus all of this I try to update this by incorporating what you share with me so it's very important so definitely let me know you know in the comments below and I would also love hearing from the different hearing from you about the different herbs and spices that you've used that have helped you with your health so anyway so then we've got spices again dried and I just start alphabetically I've got anise up here the seeds or the Stars whatever you have and I go all the ways down to turmeric the turmeric root and and keeping that in a ground form can be very helpful now what about fresh herbs and spices can you keep fresh herbs definitely you might be cutting them from your garden you might have them that you got at the farmer's market or at the grocery store and you have them in your refrigerator or you've chopped some up maybe and froze them in little ice cube trays all of these things are wonderful and all of these things are worth keeping on hand they can not only assist you in making different home remedies especially the medicinal herbal soups that I share with you but they also serve wonderful culinary purposes and in essence when you use herbs whether they're fresh frozen or dried in your meals you are not only enhancing the flavor because they are often used as culinary herbs the herbs that are known you know for culinary herbs like oregano and basil and so on and so forth but that also have medicinal properties as Cami explains in her book you're introducing wonderful flavor but at the same time you're also ingesting basically you're taking in all of the healing properties that are associated with those herbs in addition to their flavorful culinary properties so you can never go wrong having a sufficient or I would even say like a really good supply of fresh herbs Frozen herbs and very important dried herbs and spices but turmeric root if you find it at your grocery store and it's fresh it's wonderful for throwing into a bone broth but if you don't have that you can use the ground turmeric you know they often can trade off just in slightly different amounts and I always share this in detail with you so that you know how much to use of a dried versus how much to use a as a fresh but the good news is a lot of the traditional foods we make are not an exact science so don't worry you very rarely can go wrong but I have a great video uh I love bone broths you know that but I especially love making anti-inflammatory bone broths I think those are so important for helping you know to fend off colds and flu to help with aches and pains you know anti-inflammatory herbs and spices do so much for our over overall well-being because tamping down inflammation is one of the best things that we can do for our bodies because if our bodies don't have to work overtime fighting inflammation they can help to fight any germs that we may be exposed to just through the course of daily living for spice section for this particular printable I often want to say handout like I'm a teacher at school handing this out I basically just got boxes and you can just check those I didn't go into the same level of detail for how much you have stored and whether you have garden seeds to grow these and the reason is I focus a lot on Stocking my particular healing Pantry with herbs and often these spices that I keep on hand are in smaller jars that are actually in my working pantry now do I have backups that I can refilm my working Pantry jars with yes and I keep those in my healing Pantry in my prepper pantry and so I don't always necessarily focus on exactly how much I have I just will put a check mark indicating that okay yes I do have backups to refill the jars that are in my working Pantry also I didn't focus on seeds because these are often things that may not easily grow it really depends where you live these are things that may not uh be easy to grow in your area especially in the northern hemisphere but there are some things that you may decide that you want to try your hand at like trying to grow ginger you know taking I think I've talked about this with you in my video about how to grow various vegetables and spices from scraps and you can take a knob of Gingers sometimes you'll notice if you leave your Ginger out on the counter it'll get like a little dab sometimes it'll even start to sprout a little Greenery and you can plant that and you can grow ginger and there's someone wonderful videos by other people who just focus on gardening and they show you you know how to do this now it does take a while and you have to be patient so you may or may not you know be growing your own fresh ginger but it can be fun to experiment with that the same with garlic the same with onion garlic and onions are a little easier to grow and you can have some fun with that but other things like cinnamon you know that's the bark of a tree and and whatnot you know are often things that I do purchase I keep a small container in my working pantry and then I have a backup Supply in my healing Pantry so that's basically why I've just done that if you would like me to prepare some type of inventory list that went into a little more detail let me know in the comments below but I find that this this work usually works very well one thing I want to share with you if you live in an area where there are a lot of juniper trees because under the spice area I do have juniper berries I like to cook with juniper berries very much especially like when I'm making a sauerbraten or something like that and we have a lot of those around here in Central Texas we call them cedar trees so you may be able to actually forage for your juniper berries if you have those types of trees in your area and again not unlike the herbs the way I'll store my spices in my working Pantry I'm just you I usually just have small little containers they may be jars similar to this or they may be jars that I actually purchased the particular ground Spice in generally what I store in my healing Pantry will be as I said the backups to fill those jars and I will often buy those in larger bags that are very easy to basically keep nice and dark and you know my prepper Pantry the area that I dedicate for my healing pantry is what I would describe as a cool dark place but I also like to purchase those larger supplies in bags that are specifically made for trying to retain the freshness of those spices as long as possible and I'll show some of those to you I'll link in the description to some of the brands again yeah with no connection to any of this but some of the brands that I've purchased in bulk and I've been very happy with especially when it comes to the cinnamon because I like to buy cinnamon actually there's two types of cinnamon two types of spices I should say that are called cinnamon but I really like to search out the ceylon cinnamon because although both have healthy properties to them the true Ceylon cinnamon can be the more beneficial so I and I use a lot of cinnamon so I will buy that in a bulk bag that I keep as I said in my sealed that way in my healing pantry and when I do open that I then try to seal it up very tightly and maybe take a next step and put it in some sort of air a jar that has a good airtight seal but I keep I actually roll the bag up and put it into the jar because I I really like the way some of these bags are made to help preserve the taste and Aroma fragrance whatever you say of that particular spice and again like the herbs if you come across some of these in fresh from fresh forms like the ginger and the turmeric those are great for keeping in your fridge you can also freeze them I freeze a lot of Ginger I love Ginger I use it in all different forms I do buy the powdered ginger in bulk in the same way I buy the cinnamon in those really what I consider very high quality storage bags that keep everything nice and dark and cool but when it comes to garlic I have a lot of fresh garlic when it comes to onions of course I have a lot of fresh onions on hand as well but I definitely like having onion powder and garlic powder on hand as well because they're wonderful for use in culinary purposes but they also bring their medicinal properties to the table so to speak but when used in a culinary way and Cami goes into a lot of detail about this as I mentioned earlier so know that you're going to have these in dried forms or in powdered forms or in ground forms in your healing Pantry so that you have everything ready to go for everything ready to go for you when you're making a remedy or even using in your culinary dishes that you're preparing and you have them at the ready to restock what you might need in your working Pantry when you are cooking with any of these herbs and spices so that's really the focus of the healing pantry is always to be thinking do I have everything I need to make the remedies I want do I have everything I need to make my culinary preparations that are also as I said bringing their medicinal properties to the table so that if I don't have fresh if I don don't have Frozen if I'm running out of something in my working Pantry in even in the dried form do I have something backed up in my prepper pantry and ready to go that is the whole reason that we create these prepper pantries or you know some people will think of them as extended they use the term extended pantry and then we nickname it the prepper Pantry but learning more about the overall pepper pantry and I have such a detailed playlist for you if this is something that's new to you where I talk about the whole four corners Pantry I have a specific focus on how to stock a prepper pantry and I'm not talking about stocking it with junk food or anything fancy or expensive that you have to order online I show you how to stock a prepper Pantry with foods you can buy right at your grocery store I show you how to do it for just adding as little as five dollars a week extra to your grocery budget and then I show you how to properly store what you buy so that it does have a long shelf life that you can extend that shelf life as long as possible and I show you the difference between silica gel packs and oxygen absorbers how to use them and when to use them how to use mylar bags and so on and so forth so if this is very new to you what we're talking about today the concept of the prepper Pantry as well as the emergency pantry and now the healing Pantry I'll definitely link to the in the description below to the entire playlist I have it all organized for you and I think that it can make this project very easy and keep in mind you don't do this in a day you do this little by little week by week and then before you know it you're going to have a well-stocked prepper Pantry that also includes your emergency pantry and also includes your healing pantry and don't forget when you're over at my website be sure to download my 36 page I think I got these the essential Four Corners Pantry list and that can be very helpful to you wherever you are on your journey to creating a traditional foods kitchen because I go over everything you want to think about stocking in your working Pantry in your refrigerator in your freezer and in your prepper pantry and I don't just give you lists I have a lot of information in there and I share why you want to stock these things plus links to all kinds of recipes to make meals based on what you stock because that's very important you don't want to just stock stuff you know was talk stuff willy-nilly you want to stock things with which you have recipes then that you know how to use those things to make meals and to make tasty meals and easy meals and nutritious meals yeah so know that that's 36 pages and it's really it's free and it's very very comprehensive and I think that it'll definitely help you and while you're over there you can if you want at least add up to be on my email list and basically every week I I don't inundate you just once a week I send out a newsletter and hopefully that will also help you on your traditional foods Journey because I cover I'll usually share with you my most recent video that I've released and I release my videos usually on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock Central Time and my newsletter goes out about the same time and in that newsletter I also share a lot of other information relating to tree two creating a traditional foods kitchen and and how to I'd like the idea of being able to stay in touch with you because I feel we're really we're a community you know where you're as I often say you're my sweet friend you know and I feel we're creating a community of people who are on this journey and we may be anywhere on this journey you know I often say we're leaving a processed foods kitchen behind and we're on the journey to creating a traditional foods kitchen and it doesn't matter where you are on your journey because I never want you to feel stressed about any of this as I often tell people when they ask me Mary where should I start where should I start and I always say just start with a roast chicken you make a whole roast chicken you sit down and enjoy it and it's going to be better than anything that you can buy pre-made or pre-prepared for you or from a fast food restaurant whatever the case may be start with a roast chicken the next thing you know you've got a carcass leftover over and next thing you know you're making bone broth roast what I call roast chicken bone broth and you're on your way to creating a traditional foods kitchen so it really can be a lot easier and a lot stressed a lot less stressful than you think now I want to talk about the supplies that you should probably be stocking in your healing Pantry so that you can make the home remedies that you want and again all of this whether it's the herbs the spices or the supplies all of this is going to be based or what you stock is going to be based on what you decide based on the books you read or the videos you watch from me on the master herbal recipes what you want to make you may not need every single one of these supplies if you're making just specific types of things that just require certain supplies so always keep that in mind and so again similar to the spices I just have little boxes here and you can check do I have this do I you know do I not have this and we'll go over that in a minute but I just want to mention once you have your herbs once you have your spices once you have your supplies you've got your healing Pantry stocked then you know as I mentioned in the very beginning I like to think of carving out an area within the healing Pantry that I often call my herbal medicine cabinet because for the most part A lot of the remedies that are home remedies that I would make are based on herbs and I can store them in my actual prepper Pantry slash healing Pantry area because they're not perishable the things that I do make that are perishable I will keep in my refrigerator or my freezer what's ever appropriate but for them most part most of them can be kept in that little area within my healing Pantry that I refer to as my herbal medicine cabinet you may refer to it as your home remedy medicine cabinet if you want or your healing medicine cabinet within your healing pantry you can see I can really go down many aravitra with all of this but and it's just I find it fun I find it a lot of fun doing this and I find it a lot of fun uh that really having a prepper Pantry that kind of hits on all the bases I I have also also in the past shared with you a couple of videos where I say uh to the home cook or to the Homemaker who whomever you are man or woman that if you are in charge of the prepper Pantry there is a lot more to it than just food there's a lot more to it than just the non-perishable foods or shelf-stable foods that you stock you need to make sure you're prepared for emergencies and not just with food but with the right supplies and I I shared a video with you about all the different things that you need to think about including whether it's a generator or solar solar power stations like what we have here being We Live in Central Texas we have a lot of a lot of sun it's pretty easy to power up one of those little solar stations solar power stations but also coolers what do you do in the event that you have and special types of coolers that can be powered by a solar power station because what do you do if if you have someone in your household who needs refrigerated medicine and you like us in in Texas we were a week on and off you know with power so what would you do in a situation like that how would you keep the medicine of someone in your your family or even maybe a neighbor who's caught off guard and needs to keep that medicine cold so I I that's a very extensive video I'll be sure to link to that in the description below because I go over the whole host of things of supplies and equipment that you want to think about keeping on hand and so that's why but I I have just learned I mean I I grew up like this from my parents and then when I got married I realized how important it is that if you're the person in charge of being prepared and often it falls on uh the person who's in in charge of the kitchen the person who's in charge of making the meals and making sure in the beginning your focus is making sure you have enough food to feed everybody and so that in the event that there's bad weather or illness or job loss or whatever the case may be that you have some backups and then from there you start to think okay I'm in charge of this I have to be very prepared I have to make sure that I have and and it could be over-the-counter medication it could be prescription medication it could be home remedies you know I I've shared with you I'm I'm a big proponent and I know everybody feels differently about this but in my humble opinion I'm I'm a big proponent of Integrative Medicine or what sometimes is referred to as complementary medicine and I like Dr Andrew Weil very much how he takes the Best of Both Worlds yes you know there are times when we need modern medicine you know modern Western medicine and what our medical doctors can provide us but we also like to bring in especially those of us who are on a traditional foods Journey we know the healing power of food and herbs and spices and we like to bring that into our healing Journey along with whatever modern medicine we may be incorporating into our healing journey and that's what I really like about Dr Andrew Weil because he talks about the modern medicine but also bringing in all of these traditional medicines if you will from traditional cultures that cultures have used for centuries and how they can often work very beautifully together and because of the interest in integrative medicine and many patients asking their doctors about Integrative Medicine you're seeing more and more studies done on the benefits of traditional foods on the benefits of herbs on the benefits of spices so there's a lot of good news there's a lot coming down the pike so to speak there's a lot on the horizon where we're learning more and more every day and so the more we can educate ourselves about these integrative medicines about these traditional medicines and the more we can learn how to make them it just allows us to be more prepared I'm a real proponent I learned this from my parents they were two of the most self-sufficient people I ever met they really believed you know you stand on your own to feed you pull yourself up and you take care of yourself and you get the job done you know and I really believe the more self-sufficient all of those all of those of us who are able to work hard and to create a self-sufficient lifestyle all the better for everyone else because there are always going to be people the elderly the infirmed maybe young children who are going to need our help who may need help of the community may may need help of of local Services local governments whatever the case may be and the more the more there are those of us who say we're okay we're self-sufficient we can stand on our own two feet we can take care of ourselves we may also be able to take care of some of those people who need help you know friends and neighbors you know who who are up in years and and may need to have a helping hand from somebody who's nearby but that's why I really stress this I I stress the importance the more self-sufficient all of us can be the better and the more self-sufficient those of us who are still able to work hard who are still able to work toward being self-sufficient all the better okay excuse me I have to get off the soap box now as they say but I feel very passionate about this and so that's why I really wanted to introduce this concept of creating a healing Pantry as part of your prepper Pantry because yes it's wonderful that we can use these type of remedies to integrate and support Western medicine but it's also good to know that we can be self-sufficient are these cure-alls for everything and anything no but what if there was a situation where we weren't immediately able to get the care that we needed and it could even be something except from a cold a flu sore throat whatever knowing that we even if you have something over the counter if that's how you want to stock your healing Pantry that's fine too but having these things at the ready are wonderful and I really think that I I don't talk a lot about this but there are some wonderful books about how to really help how to really maybe become you can become the person in your family and even band together you know with your neighbors and just learn basic first aid knowing basic first aid is is very important and there's some wonderful books out there uh what what if there's no doctor or things like that but knowing some basic first aid can really help you help yourself or help others until actual you know Western medicine can arrive or Western uh help Western medications and and you know an ambulance or whatever the case may be arrive you hear so many stories about how even young children sometimes because they were properly educated in basic first aid have been able to help adults you know until Emergency Services arrived so definitely educating about yourself Magic yourself about these things if you are the one in charge of your prepper pantry is all the better the more knowledgeable we can be the more prepared we can be the more so self-sufficient we can be will never serve us wrong uh will will always be one step ahead ahead of the game so to speak if we work towards always being prepared and always being self-sufficient now getting back to supplies what I wanted to mention the kinds of things that you need as I said will be determined by the type of Remedies or home remedies that you like to make and what I've got on here or like for example if you like to make tinctures you're going to need something in which you can steep your herbs and I generally as I've shared with you in my master recipe for how to make medicinal herbal tinctures I share with you uh that I use some type of alcohol I usually usually use vodka and just a mid-range price vodka nothing fancy uh but I know that you've asked me what are some other options and yes you can uh you can steep herbs and glycerin Heidi over at Rain Country Homestead has some wonderful videos on this if you'd rather use glycerin instead of alcohol now I do think and you'll want to double check with Heidi on this glycerin may have a little bit of alcohol in it I'm not sure I don't use glycerin but that is an option and then a third possibility is you can use uh your vinegar this is just a raw apple cider vinegar it's got the mother it's gonna I don't know I might have shaken it so you may not be able to see it but this is just a homemade raw apple cider vinegar I have a video where I sh it's a three-part series actually on how to naked how to steep it how to decant it the whole works and you can use this to extract the medicinal properties out of your herbs and spices and then decant them and when you have tinctures a really good way to keep them on hand are in dark bottles that have like a little eye dropper that works very well and also too if you're the kind of person that likes to make something called hydrosols I'm going to be doing a video on that I've not done one yet but that's a way to use steam to extract uh some of the essential fragrances and oils out of herbs it's not to the level of strength of a essential oil but it is something nice to have on hand and if you have these like little spray bottles these are great too and I just want to mention you may laugh at this but I have a a video and I think it's called kitchen Treasures from the garbage or something like that and I'll definitely link to that where I talk about all the things to keep your eyes open for you know that others you know before you recycle or throw out anything and also in your community if if you know of your neighbors having different types of bottles and jars you could ask them could you have them you know before they put them in the garbage or the recycling bin and sometimes if you've got little uh oh those Charming little thrift shops in your area that really are more and and I do I do not use this word uncomplementary please let me stress that but my son and I used to call these little shops they're like they're just packed with all kinds of stuff and and they're often very tiny and maybe a little Dusty we used to call them junk shops and we used to love to go junking and we loved these shops so please know even though I use the word junk I don't mean it uncomplementary but you can find a lot of things there too you often don't need to buy a lot of these supplies New but I'll tell you about hydrosols I uh when my husband worked outside the home I would iron his shirts and I would spray them with a hydrosol you know how you would spray their Cotton shirts and I would spray them with water and you know to when I'm ironing them to get the wrinkles out and whatnot and I would use hydrosols made with herbs that I felt were very therapeutic like lavender and I did this because it in my mind I was saying to myself this gives my husband like a little armor so to speak on his shirt to protect him from cold viruses and flu viruses you know whatever may be going around the office so that's something that you may want to make uh I also mentioned we've talked a lot about books already and I think that if you're going to stock any of those homeopathic chews you definitely want to have a homeopathic manual and I will link to the one that I like which actually I want to share with you that one that I have that book that was actually recommended to me by my girlfriend who has raised God bless her what a blessing she has had she has raised 11 children and she was a huge she's really the one who introduced me to Homeopathy many you know like 20 years ago and uh this is the book that she had recommended to me that I keep on hand with my homeopathic tablets and I I think it's a wonderful reference it covers everything and so then I've got different things you know if you're making subs you want to think of some beeswax maybe you want coconut oil olive oil you know these can be things that you have right in your working pantry you can have some backups olive oil I don't tend to store a lot because you know over time it can go rancid more easily than some of your saturated fats but I will often have a backup bottle of olive oil in my freezer and we're very lucky here in Texas in Central Texas we have a a number of Olive branches as they're called and we can buy Texas olive oil so that's kind of fun but I do keep backups of coconut oil in my healing Pantry because coconut oil first of all it's it's very therapeutic it's very healing and it can be wonderful to use when making solves also I like to have Tallow and I have videos where I show you where I make Tallow bomb both for your face and for your feet and you will uh if you've been with me a while you've heard me say this but you know Tallow is rendered suid what is suet suet is beef fat it comes from around the organs of the cow and when I make Tallow bomb I always joke and say Yes ladies we're putting beef fat on our faces but Tallow is very when when it's been rendered from Seward it's very shelf stable you can certainly keep it in the refrigerator or the freezer but it is shelf stable which is nice for at least a year so that's something good so those are some of the things that I cover here you also you know want to have different types different size funnels you know fulfilling uh jars with various dried Goods or liquids you know whatever you're you're going to be making and you want to think about keeping some type of liquid sweetener on hand if you like to make syrups I really like to keep honey a pourable honey on hand certainly there are other liquid sweeteners you can use but I find honey raw honey especially and in a pourable form it's loaded with nutritional properties and healing properties and so I I that's the one I like to keep and then you need you know a few different other things like mesh strainers you know you can if you see my master recipe series you'll see all the little different things I have but that's kind of the bulk of it mesh strainers sometimes a mortar and pestle is Handy to have on hand but if you don't want to do that you can certainly use it you know you just grinding something or crushing something in your mortar and pestle you can certainly use one of those electric spice Grinders they can make the job very easy and one thing I want to mention is sometimes you may be making a particular remedy that may be odorous and what I think is comes in very handy is having one of those little portable cooktops if you've seen my video my cooking videos you know that I often will use that the one I have it's made by Cuisinart and and I'm happy with it I I think they're all pretty pretty similar you know in how they operate but having a little portable cooktop that you can take outside if you're making something that's exceptionally odorous that can come in very handy also you want to make sure that you have you know a pots and pans that and you can pick these up at thrift stores nothing brand new because you want to have certain pots and pans a dedicated to using to make your home remedies because sometimes they might stain or they might just get sticky and different things you know but I have a dedicated pot that I use when I'm making things like solves and oils or using oils to make sobs and uh you know with the beeswax and all this that and the other thing having dedicated saucepan can really come in handy and what I do want to talk about here is these uh Muslim bags I mentioned um earlier but just made of some type of you know as I said it might be organic I'm not 100 sure but I do know they're 100 cotton and often referred to as cotton muslin and these are little what I like to do with this is my son always recalls this from when he was a little boy I'll sometimes just fill these with dried spices things and and dried herbs so I might put in here maybe some Rosemary it's very stimulating and I'll put in some cinnamon sticks maybe I've got on here cloves various things and then I'll kind of just work it with my hands to help release some of the essential oils and when my son would have a cold I would give this to him and he would take this to bed with him and he really liked it because he would smell it and it would help kind of open up his nasal passages so that can be something very handy but this this is something I want to show you because I just think these are so cute if you like to make herbal teas and especially you know the medicinal herbal teas like ones that can help you with sleep or relieving uh or sort of maybe lessening some of your cold and flu symptoms these are so cute because these are just again little muslin bags and you put your herbs spices whatever you're making in here and then you just pull this little string and you close it right up like that and now you have your little tea bag and when you're done you can empty out your herbs and spices and you can wash this and reuse it I think this is great do they make paper versions of these for people who like to make homemade teas yes but this I find is just nice because you can reuse this they really hold up well and last beautifully another option is you can always use a tea Bowl it's used I know some people may steer clear of them if they think they're made of aluminum you really want to look for t-balls that are made from stainless steel and those are great because they are endlessly reusable but what's nice about using these little bags is that you can make these in advance and then you can just keep them in a jar you know and one of these nice ones that has a gasket so it's kind of like an airtight jar and then when you want to make a cup of tea especially when you're not feeling well you can just grab one of these uh so that's it's just very convenient and also if you like taking something if you work outside the home and you want to take your tees with you these are very handy and then you can just transfer the contents you know just to a little container that you bring with you and then bring it home and wash it the tea bowl is a little more involved because you're going to have your loose tea say in a container and you're gonna have to scoop some out put it into the tea bowl and then make your tea now if you have your mixture already made as opposed to just individual herbs it's really not that big a deal it's pretty easy to do you can just scoop it and then let it steep in the tea bowl once you print out your inventory list and you start creating your healing Pantry within your prepper pantry and then you start creating your herbal medicine cabinet be sure to click on this video over here where I have all the master herbal recipes for you in one playlist along with a lot of other home remedies that you can make and I look forward to seeing you over there in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen love and God bless

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