When I think of trees I think of firewood, log cabins, shade, and more. I don’t usually think about medicine, but for a few exceptions (slippery elm, white willow). In this Podcast I talk with Andrew Ozinskas, a Kentucky herbalist, about the wide variety of medicinal trees and how to make medicines from them. We also talk about adventure travel and end the interview with a tasty recipe for a Kentucky Moonrise.
Andrew Ozinskas is a self taught herbalist and Bastyr grad from Kentucky. He has walked parts of the Appalachian trail without provisions, living just off the land. I had the opportunity to meet and travel with Andrew this past summer on an herb trip of the east coast through Bastyr. In this podcast he shares with us some of his vast knowledge of the plant world and more.
Guide:
Intro –
Herbal Adventure Travel – what it is and how to do it.
How traveling and wildcrafting share similarities
6.30 – An Intro to Medicinal Trees
How diverse are they? How much Knowledge has been last?
9min – The Tulip Poplar
– major digestive and respiratory medicine in Native American culture
– in the magnolia family
– aromatic parts – go to lung
– great for sinus infections, expectorant
– a fine bitter
– compare with Lomation
– warming and heating digestive stimulating
13min – Preparing Tree Medicne
– easy to harvest and low impact
18.30 – Harvesting Slippery Elm sustainability
22.10 – How to tincture
– What proof to use and how long
– What temperature to store
– how to determine the shelf life of a home made tincture
33 min – Assesing store bought herb quality
– Tincture vs Dried Herb: Andrew’s take
40 min – American Holly
– How it is similar to herba mate
– Preping leaves for consumption
47.30 – The American Elm
– how it compares to slippery elm
52.30 – THe American Chestnut
– how it was a survival food and how it isn’t entirely extinct
1 hour 1 min – Black Birch
– how sweet birch, yellow birch and black birch are related
– the source of wintergreen oil
– a good source of methyl salicylates – good for joint pain, arthritis
– usually gives topically
– can use internally, but does have some toxicity
– slippery elm, sweet birch combinations
– good for urinary pain
– good for skin conditions too
– how to increase the methyl salicylate content though a simple process
1 hour 10 min – Kentucy Moonrise Recipe
Andrew can be contacted via email at andrew.ozinskas-at-gmail.com (replace the -at- with @)
