Sweet Remedies: Healing Herbal Honeys

by Dawn Combs

Overview

Taking medicine just got a whole lot sweeter! Honey is well known for its healing properties. When infused with the additional benefits of medicinal herbs and fruits, it turns natural remedies that can be unpleasant tasting into a treat to take. Author Dawn Combs makes these traditional herbal honeys — called “electuaries” — and has created her own formulations for addressing a variety of common health ailments.

With Sweet Remedies, readers will learn her methods for making electuaries in their home kitchens, using recipes that range from Ache Ease and Sleep Well to Heartful and Calcium for Kids, along with instructions for making simple honey infusions and oxymels — a combination of herbs, honey, and vinegar. Additional recipes offer creative ways to get a daily dose of healing by using herbal honeys in no-bake cookies, smoothies, cocktails, candies, and more.  For those with access to the hive, Combs includes an overview of other bee-produced products with healing properties — including pollen, propolis, and royal jelly — and offers advice on how to harvest them sustainably.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612129921
Publisher:	Storey Books
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	718,228
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Dawn Combs is the author of Sweet Remedies. She is the co-owner of the herbal health farm Mockingbird Meadows and the master formulator for a variety of the farm’s herb- and honey-based products. Trained in ethnobotany, she travels across the country to speak about botanical wellness and home health proficiency. She writes a column, Roots Rx, for Heirloom Gardener magazine and is a regular contributor to Mother Earth Living, Mother Earth News, and Hobby Farms. She has written two previous books about herbal healing. Combs lives with her family in central Ohio.
 

Table of Contents

A Sweet Journey
Honey, the Sweet Healer

Part 1: Honey and Herbs
1  From the Hive to the Jar
2  Honey's History of Healing
3  How to Make Herbal Honey Preparations

Part 2: Recipes
4  Mockingbird Meadows Original Herbal Honey Spreads
5  Infusions, Oxymels, and Tinctures
6  Sweet Treats, Drinks, Desserts, and More

Part 3: How You Can Help the Bees
7  Be a Bee-Friendly Gardener and Consumer
8  So, You Want to Be a Beekeeper

Appendix: Starting Your Own Business
Acknowledgments
Resources/Metric Conversion Chart
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In Sweet Remedies, Dawn Combs heightens our reverence for the bee and its honey.  As she takes us from hive to kitchen apothecary, she gives us the tools to create delicious, powerful preparations and shows  us that honey is so much more than a tasty sweetener.” — Marlene Adelmann, herbalist and founder of the Herbal Academy
 
“This book is more than good. It’s exceptional. Along with a host of honey-rich and herb-abundant recipes, Sweet Remedies offers us a delicious journey into the heart of responsible beekeeping, ecologically-minded herbalism, and sound advice on health and healing. As Dawn Combs writes in Sweet Remedies, ‘combining herbs with honey as a regimen for daily health is a growing revolution.’ Her book puts Dawn at the  forefront of this sweet uprising.” — Rosemary Gladstar, herbalist and author
 
“Bees are living reminders of the magic that takes place in nature’s medicinal garden. In Sweet Remedies, Dawn Combs provides an overview of honey’s rich history, along with practical recipes for health and insight into how we can be vital advocates for our precious pollinators and plants.” — Susan Leopold, PhD, Director of United Plant Savers
 
“Dawn Combs opens our eyes to the many creative ways the natural pairing of herbs and honey can infuse our lives with sweetness and health. Her expertise as a biodynamic beekeeper, herbalist, and small-batch producer takes making herbal honeys to a whole new level. Pulling from tradition, personal experience, and a little bit of science, she’s crafted a bright, beautifully laid-out book that’s chock-full of recipes, ideas, and inspiration.” — Maria Noel Groves, author of Body into Balance
 
“Honey has been used as medicine for centuries. In Sweet Remedies, Dawn Combs expands your knowledge of the healing powers of this golden elixir, whether you want to take honey for its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting properties or you simply want recipes for infusing it with herbal flavors. I highly recommend this guide book as essential reading.” — Shawna Coronado, wellness and health author
 
“Sweet Remedies is just that — sweet. With great wisdom, Dawn Combs explains the absolutely fascinating life of honey bees, grounds us in modern research and ancient healing traditions from around the planet, then leads us to recipes for mouth-watering, time-tested preparations. Give Sweet Remedies a place on your kitchen shelf and just try to keep these gorgeous pages from merging with your sticky fingerprints.” — Margi Flint, RH HM, Earthsong Herbals Family Practice

From the Publisher