Laura’s Homestead Alternatives is excited to partner with clinical herbalist and professional medicine-maker Andrew Ozinskas to offer you potent, targeted healing products made from whole, wild-type Kentucky medicinal plants. Andrew Ozinskas is a clinical herbalist, sustainable wildcrafter, forest farmer and apothecary. In practice since 2002, Andrew is passionate about a full-spectrum approach incorporating research-based medical science and analytical chemistry, along with spirit oriented awareness & traditional folk wisdom. Based on 9th generation family land in Owen County Kentucky, Andrew uses a forest management system that ensures he increases the populations of wild herbs while tending them over time. A graduate of Bastyr University, he taught for the Bastyr Appalachian Herbal Intensive, and has taught around the world at universities, festivals, health food stores and wildlife centers.
~We started our line with three winter forest finds that support immunity and respiratory health: turkey tail, slippery elm, and goldenseal. In Spring we launch Wild Greens and ‘Spring Cleaning’ to help restore health with the precious gems that pop out as the days begin to lengthen. Below, read about the plants that help keep us well, the benefits of herbal medicine, and what sustainable wildcrafting means to us. Together we will reclaim vital health by building relationship with the plant medicines of our home lands. ~
Meet the plants
Turkey tail is known for its powerful antioxidants, immune boosting molecules and prebiotic support for healthy microbes in the gut. Slippery elm’s “dependable demulcents soothe the tissues of the mouth and throat. Recommended for professional singers since 1847;” that is, for over a century slippery elm was the go-to sore throat lozenge! Goldenseal has been a workhorse medicine root known by multiple cultures for centuries to address a wide range of health challenges. The NIH recognizes that goldenseal can support wellness in relation to conditions from colds and other respiratory tract infections, allergic rhinitis (hay fever), ulcers, and digestive upsets such as diarrhea and constipation. It is also used as a mouthwash for sore gums and as an eyewash for eye inflammation, and it is applied to the skin for rashes and other skin problems. Our Spring Cleaning and Wild Greens blends are chock full of nutritive and supportive plant partners.
. Click here to access all our articles introducing the plants that we work with.
Why Herbalism?
Herbal medicine is the use of plants and plant extracts to treat injuries or disease. Many modern medicines were originally extracted from plant sources. Today, herbal medicine referred to as “alternative,” but for thousands of years, the vast majority of human history, all medicine was herbal medicine. The recognized “pharmacopoeia” of the United States of America, or any place, was made up of plants which had been observed in practice, often for generations by medicine-makers and healers in a family line or community. Click here to read more.
What ‘Sustainably Harvested’
Means to Us
We view wildcrafting as a relationship, a way of working together with nature to increase the vitality and abundance of medicine and food, of life itself! The heart of sustainable wildcrafting is in living a day-to-day connection with the land, across the seasons, learning how to increase abundance through immersion and careful observation of nature over the years, decades and generations. Click here to read more.
Click here for certificates of authenticity for our herbal medicines from our clinical herbalist partner.