Laura’s Homestead Alternatives: Herbal Alternative Medicines

Laura’s Homestead Alternatives: Herbal Alternative Medicines

Laura’s Homestead Alternatives is thrilled to collaborate with clinical herbalist and expert medicine-maker Andrew Ozinskas to bring you powerful, targeted healing products crafted from whole, wild Kentucky medicinal plants. Andrew is a seasoned herbalist, sustainable wildcrafter, forest farmer, and apothecary who has been practicing since 2002. His approach blends research-based medical science and analytical chemistry with traditional folk wisdom and a deep, spirit-oriented awareness.

Operating from his family’s 9th generation land in Owen County, Kentucky, Andrew employs a unique forest management system that not only protects but also enhances the populations of wild herbs he tends over time. A graduate of Bastyr University, Andrew has shared his expertise at the Bastyr Appalachian Herbal Intensive and has taught at universities, festivals, health food stores, and wildlife centers around the globe. We’re proud to offer you this rich heritage of herbal healing in our products.

~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.

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