June 27, 2024 • 31 mins
Have you ever wondered how a small bottle of essential oil could revolutionize your daily routine? Discover the transformative power of essential oils and their fascinating history on Keeping it Real at the Gorham Homestead. I'll share personal stories from my own journey towards a more natural lifestyle, including how peppermint essential oil has become my go-to for headaches and sinus relief, and the many versatile uses of lavender, from skincare to natural deodorant.
You'll learn why quality is paramount when it comes to choosing essential oils and how brands like Young Living stand out for their commitment to purity. We'll explore the benefits of essential oils in daily maintenance, emotional well-being, and cleaning, with specific mentions of lavender and lemon for their calming and detoxifying properties. Plus, discover the incredible skin care and wound healing benefits of frankincense, lavender, and myrrh.
On the homestead, essential oils take on even more roles. Learn how lemongrass can help with bee swarms and inflammation, while Melissa oil, despite its cost, is a powerhouse against cold sores and shingles. Thieves oil proves essential for cleaning and maintaining milking machines, and tea tree oil stands out for its broad-spectrum usefulness. We'll wrap up with a heartfelt discussion on the importance of quality, encouraging you to research and find what works best for you. For more insights and to stay connected, visit TheGorhamHomestead.com and follow us on social media as The Gorham Homestead.
References:
Young Living - check out my favorite essential oil company here. (Full disclosure, I do earn a commission) https://www.youngliving.com/us/en/referral/4604050
Sponsors:
A Bee's Closet - Bon Aqua, Tennessee for all your beekeeping needs
Rogina, LLC - your mold testing specialist, water damage assessments, lead sampling, sewege contamination sampling located in Florida www.RoginaConsulting.com
TheGorhamHomestead.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hey y'all, welcome to Keeping it Real, the Gorham
Homestead podcast, where we talkabout real food, real natural
living, the real art of naturalhealing and real life out here
in our Tennessee homestead.
I'm your host, Dawn Gorham, andtoday is Thursday, june the
27th 2024.
So, as you can see, we'removing to Thursdays.
It works out better for myschedule to do this.
(00:37):
You're listening to episodenumber 17, and our topic today
is essential oils, and it'sliterally just going to be for
today why we use essential oilsand what our uses are, what we
use them for and just you knowthe top ones that are our
favorites.
So, just to get started, I'mjust going to kind of go over
(01:01):
what is an essential oil,because I know there's some
feedback out there on the web.
You know some people say oh,you believe in your essential
oils, you believe in the Easter,bunny and Santa and whatever
else.
But essential oils are just asuseful as herbs, and herbs have
(01:21):
been used for thousands of yearsand so have essential oils.
They go back to not onlybiblical times, but like even
before that.
So what is an essential oil?
Well, essential oil is the mostpowerful part of the plant,
it's the lifeblood of the plant.
It's what pumps through it andgives it immunity and gives it
(01:43):
strength and gives it itsvitality.
And they are distilled fromshrubs, flowers, trees, branches
.
Let's see, you can get themfrom roots, bushes, tree resin,
fruit, fruit peels and just yourbasic herbs that you grow,
(02:03):
fruit peels and just your basicherbs that you grow and those
oils.
They consist of over 100different natural organic
compounds and you can use themto kill, like mold, candida.
They can be antiviral, they canbe antibacterial, antiseptic,
anti-inflammatory,anti-inflammatory,
anti-neuralgic, which means youknow they can help your nerves.
(02:25):
They can be antispasmodic,which means they help with
muzzle spasms.
Antivenomous.
They could be antitoxic,antidepressant, sedative,
analgesic, digestive.
You can use them as a deodorant, you can use them as a diuretic
(02:47):
because they containses-squirtopines that pass
through the blood-brain barrierand there's just not a lot out
there in actual pharmaceuticalsthat can cross over the
blood-brain barrier and dothings actually in the brain.
So they leave the bodymedicinally and cosmetically,
and they enter and leave thesame way, medicinally and
cosmetically, and they enter andleave the same way, medicinally
(03:07):
and cosmetically, and leavezero trace, like there are no
side effects.
There is no anything leftbehind after you have used an
essential oil, and so I'm justgoing to kind of go through our
favorites.
One of my favorites ispeppermint.
(03:27):
I suffer from headaches andseveral, several years ago,
before I even really got intoessential oils, peppermint was
my introduction to whatessential oils can actually do
for you.
I like a combination ofpeppermint and eucalyptus when I
(03:48):
have a really bad sinusheadache.
And just by rubbing that onyour temple, rubbing it on the
back of your head, kind ofputting it under your nose, I'm
a glutton for punishment, so Iwill actually even put it up my
nose and let it burn, especiallyif I have a really bad sinus
headache, because peppermint oilreally helps with that.
(04:09):
And it's transportable.
It's something you can put thatlittle bottle in your purse,
stick it in your car, keep themin your desk.
It's not like herbs where youhave to make a tea or keep a
large amount on hand.
Essential oils are just reallyeasy to carry around and a lot
of times essential oils willwork much faster than herbs,
(04:32):
especially if you're doing teasor things of that nature,
depending on the application anddepending on what the problem
is.
But I will say peppermintessential oil is my number one
thing that I must have in justabout every room, in just about
every car, in the camper, in thecannery, in the house, at the
office, I keep peppermint oil,so that's one that you might
(04:54):
want to check out.
Another one that I reallyreally love and I've learned to
love in the last year islavender.
Lavender essential oil isreally really interesting
because it is super versatile.
It has so so many uses, but oneof the ones that I really like
(05:14):
it for is deodorant.
I haven't been able to find anatural deodorant and so I've.
You know I'm aluminum free andI haven't used aluminum
deodorant in probably 10 years,ever since I had a breast cancer
scare.
I just, I just that's one ofthe things that made me turn the
corner and start looking morenatural for myself.
(05:36):
I had been very aware of itwith my son and with my husband.
You know I worry more aboutwhat they eat and what they do
than I do myself.
But when that happened, youknow I started sort of turning
away from the aluminumdeodorants, away from any
(05:57):
chemicals, any sort of thinglike that in our household
cleaners.
For a little while I wasinvolved with a Melaleuca
company because I really likedtheir stuff it was, you know,
sustainable and which I kind ofhate that word, but it was
natural, chemical free, justreally really good stuff.
(06:18):
And I was, you know, involvedwith them for a while.
But it kind of gets old havingto order so much per month you
know you get end up with.
I think I ended up at one pointwith like 25 dishwashing
liquids under my sink because Ihad to had to order and it was
on one of those automatic orders.
So that's what I got.
(06:38):
But at any rate, lavender isreally really good for
deodorizing.
Lavender is really really goodfor deodorizing.
You can take just a few dropsof it, put it under the armpit
and then I like to follow itwith a little bit of coconut oil
or some sort of other oil tojust rub it around and get more
skin space with it.
So that's what I've been usingin bergamot.
(07:02):
So I will kind of alternateback and forth for deodorant,
because you can build up like atolerance even with deodorizing
if you use the same herb overand over.
It's not going to hurt you, butit's just over time it can be a
little less effective unlessyou alternate.
So for deodorizing, fordeodorant, I alternate back and
forth between lavender andbergamot, because those are two
(07:26):
that I really really like Nexton my list.
So we get a lot of tick bitesout here.
I actually right now I amcovered in tick bites on my
ankles and poison ivy on myankles.
Actually tick bites up my hipas well.
So ankle hip side, under my braline, I had about five tick
(07:49):
bites and you know they it forwith me they itch like forever.
Um, they, it's one of thosethings.
They just don't seem to go away.
So I've got tick bites, I havegot poison ivy around my ankles
and sugar bites on the buttbecause I sat in the grass
working on putting together thatturkey coop and I don't know.
(08:09):
And I've never been allergic topoison ivy in my life, never
had to look for it, neverlearned to look for it, because
it's never affected me.
Well, all of a sudden, twoweeks ago we were doing some
yard work and T pointed out tome poison ivy and I was like I
don't care, I'm not allergic toit, boy.
Next day I woke up it was allover my legs.
(08:33):
So for that I'll back up Tickbites.
My favorite, favorite, favoritecombination that I have found
for tick bites is thyme, oreganoand basil, and so I will take
like a drop or two of each oneof those and put them into just
like a little cup and then addsome oil to it and mix it
(08:55):
together and then rub those allover my tick bites.
And while it doesn't reallystop the itching because I feel
like nothing really stops theitching If you need to get it on
there quick enough it does helpkeep down infection and keep
that from spreading, and thereis some belief out there in the
community that that combinationalso helps to keep down the
(09:19):
potential for Lyme disease.
Now I've also been told that ifyou get that tick off within 24
hours of it attaching, that thechances of actually injecting
any Lyme or Rocky Mountainspotted fever or any of that
stuff into your system is much,much less.
So for the tick bites, do atick check, get your husband to
(09:41):
check your back, get your wifeto check your back, your wife to
check your back, your body,whatever, it's fine.
Do a tick check and then,beyond that, if you find the
tick, get it off.
Make sure you get the head outand then use thyme, oregano and
basil mixed together and really,really keep coating that tick
bite.
So that's what we use that, forit's also really good, for
(10:03):
basil is really good for earinfections.
We use that our dog, our doodleyou know doodles tend to get
ear infections a lot, so that'sone of the things that I will
use on our doodle if she gets anear infection is some basil and
it's just a basil essential oilmixed in with some carrier oil,
whatever you want that to beolive oil, jojoba oil, whatever
(10:27):
you have on hand and then rubthat around the outside.
You don't want it to go downinto the eardrum, but just
getting that on the inside ofthe dog's ears and even doing it
when you give them their bath,or once a week or whatever.
If you have a dog that's proneto ear infections, that really,
really helps to keep that down.
(10:47):
It works really good for kidsas well.
Basil is just one of thosethings that's good for that, and
I'm all over the place todayBacking up to lavender.
Lavender is also good for burns.
Now, it has to be true lavenderand not the other version of
(11:13):
that, and I can't even rememberwhat that's called, but there's
another version that's not.
It's lavengela.
I believe it has to be lavenderessential oil and, that being
said, I will go ahead anddisclose that I am a big, big
fan of Young Living essentialoils.
I may be proved to be wrong atsome point, I don't know, but so
(11:36):
far they have shown to me thatthey are a very reputable
company and that their stuff isauthentic and that it is used.
It is chemical free, pesticidefree, because if you think about
it, if you're using anessential oil from a lavender
field that has been sprayed withsome sort of pesticide to keep
pests down and then you distillthat down, think of what that
(11:58):
concentration would be ofpesticides in that essential oil
.
You're getting that as well asthe goods.
You're getting the bad stuffwith the good stuff.
And I know for a fact thatYoung Living does not do that.
They actually will not gettheir essential oils or their
(12:19):
products or their herbs,whatever it is.
They're growing their cedarwoodtrees, their lavender, whatever
, from a field that has had anysort of spray on it for 50 years
, which is much, much more thanwhat the requirement is to be
labeled as organic.
So I trust them.
You know, I don't know aboutall of the things that they
(12:41):
claim essential oils would do.
I'm not super big on believingthat you're going to cure, you
know diabetes or cancer withessential oils, because that's
just not going to happen andthat's not how herbs work.
Anyway.
Herbs and essential oils aremore for your day-to-day things
maintenance wounds, you know,colds, stuff like that.
(13:05):
They're really good for thatand they're great for cleaning.
And they're great for smelling.
Because if you think about it,you know when you smell
something that goes directly toyour brain and smells can really
evoke emotion.
They can make you think of atime in your life that was happy
, or a time in your life thatwas sad, or it can evoke a
(13:26):
memory, like the smell of rainon hot asphalt immediately takes
me back to walking down a roadwhen I was a child, barefooted
on a freshly paved road.
My feet were super hot.
But the smell of that asphalt,I mean it takes me back
instantly.
And essential oils are sort ofthat way as well.
(13:48):
They can invoke good memoriesand bad memories, but they also,
I mean, they just go straightto the brain.
They cross straight across theblood-brain barrier.
So things that you know for,like lavender for anxiety, it
can really calm you down.
It's a naturally calming scentand there's actually
(14:10):
constituents in the lavenderthat helps your brain to calm
down.
Lemon essential oil is like oneof my favorites.
I love all things lemon, justlike I love strawberry.
I love lemon water.
I love lemon smell.
I love lemon cleaning stuff.
I love all things to do with itbecause to me it just smells
(14:31):
clean, it smells fresh, and solemon essential oil is one of
the things that you can mix ifyou like that smell.
It's really good for removinggrease, it's good for cleaning
windows, it's good for addingjust to anything that you want
to do that cleans in your house.
But it's also really reallygood to help clean toxins out of
(14:52):
the body.
And lemon essential oil can beadded to water because it's safe
.
It's safe to be ingested, soyou can drink it, you can put it
in your diffuser, you can putit in your diffuser, you can put
it in your cleaning supplies.
You can do whatever you want todo with it.
And it's also a really gooddigestive tonic.
It helps, you know it helps tobreak down food.
(15:13):
Just the citrus in it helps tobreak down any fats and whatever
that might be in your stomachand in your gut.
So it's really really good forthat and I love I mean, I keep
lemon in my purse the lemonessential oil in my purse
because I like, like I said, Ilike lemon water and a lot of
times when I go to a restaurantI can't get my lemon water
(15:33):
because they don't have lemons.
So I keep that in there.
(15:55):
So frankincense, so for my skincare.
I'm almost 50, so kind of haveto, startly, before I go to bed,
into jojoba oil in my hand andI mix that all together and then
I rub that all over my facebecause I don't have super oily
skin, I have super dry skin.
So it's not going to cause meto have any sort of you know,
(16:18):
breakout or anything like thatand I don't believe it does most
people anyway because it'sreally really close to your
natural, your natural oils inyour skin.
So I rub that all over my faceand then I just pat it dry.
So frank and frankincense isreally really good for wounds
and so is myrrh.
So those are two of my go-tosif I have a cut or if I have.
(16:43):
You know, a couple of weeks agoI had a really bad gash on my
thumb that needed stitches andwhat I went back and forth
between was frankincense,lavender and myrrh.
I was alternating those and itreally helped with the pain too,
I'll have to say, and it helpedit to close over and not get
(17:03):
infected.
And now it I mean looking at it, I see I have a little scar
where it is, but other than thatit's closed over and it, you
know, it never got infected oranything like that.
So frankincense, lavender andmyrrh are my go-tos for skin
stuff.
(17:25):
Now, before I go any further, Iwant to take a moment to give a
shout out to our sponsors.
Our first sponsor is A Bee'sCloset.
If you are looking for anybeekeeping needs, if you are in
the market for bee supplies, beesuits, hive tools, hives frames
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(17:48):
would highly recommend that yougo visit Joe at a Bee's Closet
in Bon Aqua.
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If you have any issues with, orsuspect that you have, mold
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(18:08):
They are very knowledgeable,they are veteran, owned and
operated.
They are a friend of thepodcast and a friend of the
self-reliance community Justreally, really good people and
you can trust them.
They are not going to tell yousomething that is not 100% the
truth, because they want to helpyou, they want to keep your
(18:28):
health good, they want to keepyour home safe and they want to
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They are in Florida, but theywill travel around the country
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(18:48):
determined that you really youknow if you have a problem and
you need to fix it.
So Rogina LLC, our friend, allright up next, on the essential
oils, since we just spoke aboutbeekeeping lemongrass.
Lemongrass is a good oil for ahomesteader to have, and the
(19:09):
reason that we use lemongrassessential oil out on the farm is
to catch bee swarms.
The cool thing about that isthat it is very akin to the
pheromone that bees emit whenthey are mating, and so putting
lemongrass in your swarm catcherwhen you're trying to catch a
(19:33):
swarm is very, very effective,and that's what you want to use
that for.
I personally use it because Ihad trigger finger on one of my
hands and I don't know how itworks, I don't know what the
specifics of it are, butlemongrass is really good for
inflammation.
So if you have an inflamedshoulder or inflamed hand or
(19:57):
arthritis or anything like that,I like lemongrass for that
purpose because it's one of thecheaper essential oils.
It's not.
There are some that areprobably better for inflammation
and better for arthritis, butthey're also a little higher on
the cost scale.
So for what it does for me,lemongrass is it's one of my
(20:20):
favorites.
I don favorites.
I don't put it on, I don't useit as deodorant or because you
can also use it to keep awaycertain other bugs not bees, but
like mosquitoes and things likethat.
But if you're a beekeeper, it'sprobably not something that you
want to wear out, somethingthat you probably just want to
use at night.
I don't know if it would makebees follow you around, because
(20:42):
I don't want to find out.
So just that's the matingpheromone for bees.
So just keep that in mind.
It's good to use, but don't goout onto your beehive with
lemongrass all over you.
I just have a couple of morethat I'm going to talk about
today, because when I get Joy onfrom Dr Hennerkoff's office, I
(21:06):
really want her to give a muchmore in-depth explanation of
some of the essential oils andwhat they can do, because her
knowledge is so much more vastthan mine.
I just wanted to give you, likesome things you know, the top
10 that you can start with thatare really really basic, like
(21:26):
cause.
There are some others that areout there that you can use, like
Melissa, also known as lemonbalm, the essential oil, the
young living essential oil.
Melissa lemon balm is reallyreally good for things like cold
sores.
It's a quick fix.
(21:46):
It can be used for anythingherpetic and that has become my
quick fix go-to If anything likethat happens.
We have had friends that haveshingles.
We have my son gets cold soresevery once in a while.
He picked that up as a littlekid, wrestling as a
four-year-old.
That's the only place that wecan figure that the poor kid
(22:07):
picked it up Because we have no,no other issues.
Nobody else in the family hadhad cold sores up until that
point, so I have no idea, but hepicked it up as a four-year-old
and as just a little wrestlerand so now that's something that
we have to deal with.
So he has the Melissa essentialoil and we keep it, like I said
(22:32):
, for anything.
That is a very goodanti-herpetic, it's also good
for nerves, it's good forcalming, it's good for lots of
things.
But because it's so expensiveit's like $150 for a little
bottle we use it very sparingly.
That's not something that weuse on, you know, on the regular
(22:53):
.
But back to my last two that aremy regulars.
One is Thieves.
Thieves is really really goodcleaner and it's really good.
Like from Young Living you canget things that they have a
Thieves line of all of theircleaners and things.
You can also just get it as anessential oil and use it however
(23:15):
you want to.
I use Thieves to clean mymilking machine once a week,
like I do the regular dailymaintenance.
What I have to do, where I runit through the clean in place, I
run the water through, I runthe acid detergent through and
then just a tiny, tiny littlebit of bleach through the third
(23:39):
cycle and then I'll rinse itagain.
But once a week I will do allof that and then I will also
take everything apart and cleanit with thieves, because I have
seen in person where theymeasured the bacteria count
before cleaning with thieves andafter cleaning with thieves and
it was chicken that they wereusing and once they were done
(24:03):
cleaning with the thieves, thebacteria count was zero.
So I really like using that inmy milking machine just as an
extra layer of cleanliness, likeI said about once a week, and
I'll use it anytime that I needto clean something and I need to
know that it is super, superclean.
And I don't like using Cloroxor any sort of caustic cleaner
(24:27):
on a regular basis.
I don't use them in my house.
I don't use them.
I can't use them in my septictank because I don't want to
kill the bacteria in my septictank.
So I'm very, very careful aboutthe cleaners that I use.
And Thieves is really great.
You can also diffuse it in theair and it cleans.
Like if you've got a sick kidand you want to run the diffuser
(24:49):
in there and you want to runThieves in the air.
It kind of helps keep thebacteria level in the air down.
It's also good to use.
It's not the best tasting.
I don't care for the smell ofit.
Personally it's not my favoritesmell, but it's good.
You can put it in water, youcan add it to teas, you can do
(25:12):
any of that kind of stuff andit's really an amazing
antibacterial.
And there's a lot more storybehind the thieves and that goes
back to like the bubonic plague.
But that's a story for anothertime.
The very last one that I loveWell, shoot, I had it written
(25:35):
down, thieves.
What was my last one?
I'm thinking, oh, tea tree oil.
Tea tree oil, that's anotherone that I really like for
wounds, things of that nature.
It's good for dandruff, it'sgood to put in shampoos,
(25:58):
anything that you know would beitchy, a skin condition.
You know I told you that I havethe other ones that I like, but
tea tree oil they actually usedit, I believe, in World War I
as an on-battlefield way tocleanse wounds when the military
was hurt or the soldiers gothurt.
(26:20):
Tea tree oil was one of thego-tos.
So it's really good if you geta cut or something superficial.
It's probably not really goodfor deep wounds, but it's really
good for things like that.
I believe you can also brushyour teeth with it.
It gets really good up there inthe gums.
You can also brush your teethwith it.
It gets, you know, really goodup there in the gums, helps
clear out any bacteria in thatarea.
So tea tree oil is another onethat you should check out and
(26:44):
see if it's something thatyou're interested in.
It's also known to be good forinflammation, and so you can rub
it on sore muscles, put it onthe back of your neck, rub it
all over your shoulders and ithelps if you've got like the flu
.
Things like that kind of helpsthose body aches and helps you
(27:06):
to get over that just a littlebit quicker.
All right, so we are going towrap up.
That is my top ones, and I havemany, many more Like I've got a
hundred essential oils I thinkpretty close to that that I use
for different things, differentblends, different things for
different applications.
You know, I use herbs, I useteas, I use tinctures and I use
(27:31):
essential oils.
But I love the essential oilsbecause, like I said, they're
transportable.
Like you can keep a little bagof your top 10 essential oils
and carry it with you everywhereyou go and you always have, you
know, your little emergency kit.
So whatever might come up,whether it's a headache or
whether it's indigestion,anything like that, essential
(27:55):
oils are really really good foracute things like that and
they're good for cleaning, andwe are all wanting to live a
toxic-free life and for me thatis the most important part of
having essential oils is thatthey do so much.
Their applications are so broadand you can make different
(28:17):
smells.
You can make soaps, you canmake salves.
You can add them.
You know they are great to addin with herbs when you're doing,
say, a comfrey salve or a facesalve or something like that.
You can always add in somefrankincense and some myrrh to
your facial cream and all of asudden you've got a powerhouse.
So just keep that in mind.
It's really cool to learn aboutessential oils and, again,
(28:41):
young Living is my favorite.
I do believe that the quality ofessential oils matters, because
I was one that tried cheapessential oils and just didn't
really get much benefit, but Ithink it was because of the
quality.
It wasn't a pure essential oiland I have learned now the
(29:02):
difference.
You can literally smell and seea difference between an
adulterated essential oil thathas fillers and other things
that they use as solvents,versus a true, pure essential
oil.
So I encourage you to do someresearch and find out what you
(29:23):
believe and what you like andthen start using essential oils
in your home in the best waythat you know how.
So with that.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you have liked the podcastand like the work that we do, it
would be really cool if youwould subscribe and leave me a
review.
It helps other people to findmy podcast.
You can also find me atthegormhomesteadcom and on all
(29:46):
the socials as just the GormHomestead.
Whatever you've got on thedocket, I hope that y'all just
keep it real.
See y'all and my mama was awaitress where they parked M18
(30:08):
wheeler trucks.
We didn't have much money.
Times were kind of hard, livingin a trailer on the edge of
grandpa's farm.
Yeah, I may not come from much,but I've got just enough.
(30:37):
As long as my baby's in my armsand the good Lord knows what's
in my heart, I refuse to beashamed.
It's just a southern thing.
Hey y'all, welcome to Keeping it Real, the Gorham
Homestead podcast, where we talkabout real food, real natural
living, the real art of naturalhealing and real life out here
in our Tennessee homestead.
I'm your host, Dawn Gorham, andtoday is Thursday, june the
27th 2024.
So, as you can see, we'removing to Thursdays.
It works out better for myschedule to do this.
(00:37):
You're listening to episodenumber 17, and our topic today
is essential oils, and it'sliterally just going to be for
today why we use essential oilsand what our uses are, what we
use them for and just you knowthe top ones that are our
favorites.
So, just to get started, I'mjust going to kind of go over
(01:01):
what is an essential oil,because I know there's some
feedback out there on the web.
You know some people say oh,you believe in your essential
oils, you believe in the Easter,bunny and Santa and whatever
else.
But essential oils are just asuseful as herbs, and herbs have
(01:21):
been used for thousands of yearsand so have essential oils.
They go back to not onlybiblical times, but like even
before that.
So what is an essential oil?
Well, essential oil is the mostpowerful part of the plant,
it's the lifeblood of the plant.
It's what pumps through it andgives it immunity and gives it
(01:43):
strength and gives it itsvitality.
And they are distilled fromshrubs, flowers, trees, branches
.
Let's see, you can get themfrom roots, bushes, tree resin,
fruit, fruit peels and just yourbasic herbs that you grow,
(02:03):
fruit peels and just your basicherbs that you grow and those
oils.
They consist of over 100different natural organic
compounds and you can use themto kill, like mold, candida.
They can be antiviral, they canbe antibacterial, antiseptic,
anti-inflammatory,anti-inflammatory,
anti-neuralgic, which means youknow they can help your nerves.
(02:25):
They can be antispasmodic,which means they help with
muzzle spasms.
Antivenomous.
They could be antitoxic,antidepressant, sedative,
analgesic, digestive.
You can use them as a deodorant, you can use them as a diuretic
(02:47):
because they containses-squirtopines that pass
through the blood-brain barrierand there's just not a lot out
there in actual pharmaceuticalsthat can cross over the
blood-brain barrier and dothings actually in the brain.
So they leave the bodymedicinally and cosmetically,
and they enter and leave thesame way, medicinally and
cosmetically, and they enter andleave the same way, medicinally
(03:07):
and cosmetically, and leavezero trace, like there are no
side effects.
There is no anything leftbehind after you have used an
essential oil, and so I'm justgoing to kind of go through our
favorites.
One of my favorites ispeppermint.
(03:27):
I suffer from headaches andseveral, several years ago,
before I even really got intoessential oils, peppermint was
my introduction to whatessential oils can actually do
for you.
I like a combination ofpeppermint and eucalyptus when I
(03:48):
have a really bad sinusheadache.
And just by rubbing that onyour temple, rubbing it on the
back of your head, kind ofputting it under your nose, I'm
a glutton for punishment, so Iwill actually even put it up my
nose and let it burn, especiallyif I have a really bad sinus
headache, because peppermint oilreally helps with that.
(04:09):
And it's transportable.
It's something you can put thatlittle bottle in your purse,
stick it in your car, keep themin your desk.
It's not like herbs where youhave to make a tea or keep a
large amount on hand.
Essential oils are just reallyeasy to carry around and a lot
of times essential oils willwork much faster than herbs,
(04:32):
especially if you're doing teasor things of that nature,
depending on the application anddepending on what the problem
is.
But I will say peppermintessential oil is my number one
thing that I must have in justabout every room, in just about
every car, in the camper, in thecannery, in the house, at the
office, I keep peppermint oil,so that's one that you might
(04:54):
want to check out.
Another one that I reallyreally love and I've learned to
love in the last year islavender.
Lavender essential oil isreally really interesting
because it is super versatile.
It has so so many uses, but oneof the ones that I really like
(05:14):
it for is deodorant.
I haven't been able to find anatural deodorant and so I've.
You know I'm aluminum free andI haven't used aluminum
deodorant in probably 10 years,ever since I had a breast cancer
scare.
I just, I just that's one ofthe things that made me turn the
corner and start looking morenatural for myself.
(05:36):
I had been very aware of itwith my son and with my husband.
You know I worry more aboutwhat they eat and what they do
than I do myself.
But when that happened, youknow I started sort of turning
away from the aluminumdeodorants, away from any
(05:57):
chemicals, any sort of thinglike that in our household
cleaners.
For a little while I wasinvolved with a Melaleuca
company because I really likedtheir stuff it was, you know,
sustainable and which I kind ofhate that word, but it was
natural, chemical free, justreally really good stuff.
(06:18):
And I was, you know, involvedwith them for a while.
But it kind of gets old havingto order so much per month you
know you get end up with.
I think I ended up at one pointwith like 25 dishwashing
liquids under my sink because Ihad to had to order and it was
on one of those automatic orders.
So that's what I got.
(06:38):
But at any rate, lavender isreally really good for
deodorizing.
Lavender is really really goodfor deodorizing.
You can take just a few dropsof it, put it under the armpit
and then I like to follow itwith a little bit of coconut oil
or some sort of other oil tojust rub it around and get more
skin space with it.
So that's what I've been usingin bergamot.
(07:02):
So I will kind of alternateback and forth for deodorant,
because you can build up like atolerance even with deodorizing
if you use the same herb overand over.
It's not going to hurt you, butit's just over time it can be a
little less effective unlessyou alternate.
So for deodorizing, fordeodorant, I alternate back and
forth between lavender andbergamot, because those are two
(07:26):
that I really really like Nexton my list.
So we get a lot of tick bitesout here.
I actually right now I amcovered in tick bites on my
ankles and poison ivy on myankles.
Actually tick bites up my hipas well.
So ankle hip side, under my braline, I had about five tick
(07:49):
bites and you know they it forwith me they itch like forever.
Um, they, it's one of thosethings.
They just don't seem to go away.
So I've got tick bites, I havegot poison ivy around my ankles
and sugar bites on the buttbecause I sat in the grass
working on putting together thatturkey coop and I don't know.
(08:09):
And I've never been allergic topoison ivy in my life, never
had to look for it, neverlearned to look for it, because
it's never affected me.
Well, all of a sudden, twoweeks ago we were doing some
yard work and T pointed out tome poison ivy and I was like I
don't care, I'm not allergic toit, boy.
Next day I woke up it was allover my legs.
(08:33):
So for that I'll back up Tickbites.
My favorite, favorite, favoritecombination that I have found
for tick bites is thyme, oreganoand basil, and so I will take
like a drop or two of each oneof those and put them into just
like a little cup and then addsome oil to it and mix it
(08:55):
together and then rub those allover my tick bites.
And while it doesn't reallystop the itching because I feel
like nothing really stops theitching If you need to get it on
there quick enough it does helpkeep down infection and keep
that from spreading, and thereis some belief out there in the
community that that combinationalso helps to keep down the
(09:19):
potential for Lyme disease.
Now I've also been told that ifyou get that tick off within 24
hours of it attaching, that thechances of actually injecting
any Lyme or Rocky Mountainspotted fever or any of that
stuff into your system is much,much less.
So for the tick bites, do atick check, get your husband to
(09:41):
check your back, get your wifeto check your back, your wife to
check your back, your body,whatever, it's fine.
Do a tick check and then,beyond that, if you find the
tick, get it off.
Make sure you get the head outand then use thyme, oregano and
basil mixed together and really,really keep coating that tick
bite.
So that's what we use that, forit's also really good, for
(10:03):
basil is really good for earinfections.
We use that our dog, our doodleyou know doodles tend to get
ear infections a lot, so that'sone of the things that I will
use on our doodle if she gets anear infection is some basil and
it's just a basil essential oilmixed in with some carrier oil,
whatever you want that to beolive oil, jojoba oil, whatever
(10:27):
you have on hand and then rubthat around the outside.
You don't want it to go downinto the eardrum, but just
getting that on the inside ofthe dog's ears and even doing it
when you give them their bath,or once a week or whatever.
If you have a dog that's proneto ear infections, that really,
really helps to keep that down.
(10:47):
It works really good for kidsas well.
Basil is just one of thosethings that's good for that, and
I'm all over the place todayBacking up to lavender.
Lavender is also good for burns.
Now, it has to be true lavenderand not the other version of
(11:13):
that, and I can't even rememberwhat that's called, but there's
another version that's not.
It's lavengela.
I believe it has to be lavenderessential oil and, that being
said, I will go ahead anddisclose that I am a big, big
fan of Young Living essentialoils.
I may be proved to be wrong atsome point, I don't know, but so
(11:36):
far they have shown to me thatthey are a very reputable
company and that their stuff isauthentic and that it is used.
It is chemical free, pesticidefree, because if you think about
it, if you're using anessential oil from a lavender
field that has been sprayed withsome sort of pesticide to keep
pests down and then you distillthat down, think of what that
(11:58):
concentration would be ofpesticides in that essential oil
.
You're getting that as well asthe goods.
You're getting the bad stuffwith the good stuff.
And I know for a fact thatYoung Living does not do that.
They actually will not gettheir essential oils or their
(12:19):
products or their herbs,whatever it is.
They're growing their cedarwoodtrees, their lavender, whatever
, from a field that has had anysort of spray on it for 50 years
, which is much, much more thanwhat the requirement is to be
labeled as organic.
So I trust them.
You know, I don't know aboutall of the things that they
(12:41):
claim essential oils would do.
I'm not super big on believingthat you're going to cure, you
know diabetes or cancer withessential oils, because that's
just not going to happen andthat's not how herbs work.
Anyway.
Herbs and essential oils aremore for your day-to-day things
maintenance wounds, you know,colds, stuff like that.
(13:05):
They're really good for thatand they're great for cleaning.
And they're great for smelling.
Because if you think about it,you know when you smell
something that goes directly toyour brain and smells can really
evoke emotion.
They can make you think of atime in your life that was happy
, or a time in your life thatwas sad, or it can evoke a
(13:26):
memory, like the smell of rainon hot asphalt immediately takes
me back to walking down a roadwhen I was a child, barefooted
on a freshly paved road.
My feet were super hot.
But the smell of that asphalt,I mean it takes me back
instantly.
And essential oils are sort ofthat way as well.
(13:48):
They can invoke good memoriesand bad memories, but they also,
I mean, they just go straightto the brain.
They cross straight across theblood-brain barrier.
So things that you know for,like lavender for anxiety, it
can really calm you down.
It's a naturally calming scentand there's actually
(14:10):
constituents in the lavenderthat helps your brain to calm
down.
Lemon essential oil is like oneof my favorites.
I love all things lemon, justlike I love strawberry.
I love lemon water.
I love lemon smell.
I love lemon cleaning stuff.
I love all things to do with itbecause to me it just smells
(14:31):
clean, it smells fresh, and solemon essential oil is one of
the things that you can mix ifyou like that smell.
It's really good for removinggrease, it's good for cleaning
windows, it's good for addingjust to anything that you want
to do that cleans in your house.
But it's also really reallygood to help clean toxins out of
(14:52):
the body.
And lemon essential oil can beadded to water because it's safe
.
It's safe to be ingested, soyou can drink it, you can put it
in your diffuser, you can putit in your diffuser, you can put
it in your cleaning supplies.
You can do whatever you want todo with it.
And it's also a really gooddigestive tonic.
It helps, you know it helps tobreak down food.
(15:13):
Just the citrus in it helps tobreak down any fats and whatever
that might be in your stomachand in your gut.
So it's really really good forthat and I love I mean, I keep
lemon in my purse the lemonessential oil in my purse
because I like, like I said, Ilike lemon water and a lot of
times when I go to a restaurantI can't get my lemon water
(15:33):
because they don't have lemons.
So I keep that in there.
(15:55):
So frankincense, so for my skincare.
I'm almost 50, so kind of haveto, startly, before I go to bed,
into jojoba oil in my hand andI mix that all together and then
I rub that all over my facebecause I don't have super oily
skin, I have super dry skin.
So it's not going to cause meto have any sort of you know,
(16:18):
breakout or anything like thatand I don't believe it does most
people anyway because it'sreally really close to your
natural, your natural oils inyour skin.
So I rub that all over my faceand then I just pat it dry.
So frank and frankincense isreally really good for wounds
and so is myrrh.
So those are two of my go-tosif I have a cut or if I have.
(16:43):
You know, a couple of weeks agoI had a really bad gash on my
thumb that needed stitches andwhat I went back and forth
between was frankincense,lavender and myrrh.
I was alternating those and itreally helped with the pain too,
I'll have to say, and it helpedit to close over and not get
(17:03):
infected.
And now it I mean looking at it, I see I have a little scar
where it is, but other than thatit's closed over and it, you
know, it never got infected oranything like that.
So frankincense, lavender andmyrrh are my go-tos for skin
stuff.
(17:25):
Now, before I go any further, Iwant to take a moment to give a
shout out to our sponsors.
Our first sponsor is A Bee'sCloset.
If you are looking for anybeekeeping needs, if you are in
the market for bee supplies, beesuits, hive tools, hives frames
, honey, supers, any of thatkind of stuff, joe at a Bee's
Closet is your guy and he is soknowledgeable and so kind and I
(17:48):
would highly recommend that yougo visit Joe at a Bee's Closet
in Bon Aqua.
The second sponsor of the dayis Regina LLC and they are your
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If you have any issues with, orsuspect that you have, mold
issues, highly recommend thatyou give them a call.
(18:08):
They are very knowledgeable,they are veteran, owned and
operated.
They are a friend of thepodcast and a friend of the
self-reliance community Justreally, really good people and
you can trust them.
They are not going to tell yousomething that is not 100% the
truth, because they want to helpyou, they want to keep your
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health good, they want to keepyour home safe and they want to
make you know your environment agood environment to live in.
So I'll highly recommend thatyou call Rojina LLC.
They are in Florida.
Highly recommend that you callRogina LLC.
They are in Florida, but theywill travel around the country
and they also have contacts formold remediation if it is
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determined that you really youknow if you have a problem and
you need to fix it.
So Rogina LLC, our friend, allright up next, on the essential
oils, since we just spoke aboutbeekeeping lemongrass.
Lemongrass is a good oil for ahomesteader to have, and the
(19:09):
reason that we use lemongrassessential oil out on the farm is
to catch bee swarms.
The cool thing about that isthat it is very akin to the
pheromone that bees emit whenthey are mating, and so putting
lemongrass in your swarm catcherwhen you're trying to catch a
(19:33):
swarm is very, very effective,and that's what you want to use
that for.
I personally use it because Ihad trigger finger on one of my
hands and I don't know how itworks, I don't know what the
specifics of it are, butlemongrass is really good for
inflammation.
So if you have an inflamedshoulder or inflamed hand or
(19:57):
arthritis or anything like that,I like lemongrass for that
purpose because it's one of thecheaper essential oils.
It's not.
There are some that areprobably better for inflammation
and better for arthritis, butthey're also a little higher on
the cost scale.
So for what it does for me,lemongrass is it's one of my
(20:20):
favorites.
I don favorites.
I don't put it on, I don't useit as deodorant or because you
can also use it to keep awaycertain other bugs not bees, but
like mosquitoes and things likethat.
But if you're a beekeeper, it'sprobably not something that you
want to wear out, somethingthat you probably just want to
use at night.
I don't know if it would makebees follow you around, because
(20:42):
I don't want to find out.
So just that's the matingpheromone for bees.
So just keep that in mind.
It's good to use, but don't goout onto your beehive with
lemongrass all over you.
I just have a couple of morethat I'm going to talk about
today, because when I get Joy onfrom Dr Hennerkoff's office, I
(21:06):
really want her to give a muchmore in-depth explanation of
some of the essential oils andwhat they can do, because her
knowledge is so much more vastthan mine.
I just wanted to give you, likesome things you know, the top
10 that you can start with thatare really really basic, like
(21:26):
cause.
There are some others that areout there that you can use, like
Melissa, also known as lemonbalm, the essential oil, the
young living essential oil.
Melissa lemon balm is reallyreally good for things like cold
sores.
It's a quick fix.
(21:46):
It can be used for anythingherpetic and that has become my
quick fix go-to If anything likethat happens.
We have had friends that haveshingles.
We have my son gets cold soresevery once in a while.
He picked that up as a littlekid, wrestling as a
four-year-old.
That's the only place that wecan figure that the poor kid
(22:07):
picked it up Because we have no,no other issues.
Nobody else in the family hadhad cold sores up until that
point, so I have no idea, but hepicked it up as a four-year-old
and as just a little wrestlerand so now that's something that
we have to deal with.
So he has the Melissa essentialoil and we keep it, like I said
(22:32):
, for anything.
That is a very goodanti-herpetic, it's also good
for nerves, it's good forcalming, it's good for lots of
things.
But because it's so expensiveit's like $150 for a little
bottle we use it very sparingly.
That's not something that weuse on, you know, on the regular
(22:53):
.
But back to my last two that aremy regulars.
One is Thieves.
Thieves is really really goodcleaner and it's really good.
Like from Young Living you canget things that they have a
Thieves line of all of theircleaners and things.
You can also just get it as anessential oil and use it however
(23:15):
you want to.
I use Thieves to clean mymilking machine once a week,
like I do the regular dailymaintenance.
What I have to do, where I runit through the clean in place, I
run the water through, I runthe acid detergent through and
then just a tiny, tiny littlebit of bleach through the third
(23:39):
cycle and then I'll rinse itagain.
But once a week I will do allof that and then I will also
take everything apart and cleanit with thieves, because I have
seen in person where theymeasured the bacteria count
before cleaning with thieves andafter cleaning with thieves and
it was chicken that they wereusing and once they were done
(24:03):
cleaning with the thieves, thebacteria count was zero.
So I really like using that inmy milking machine just as an
extra layer of cleanliness, likeI said about once a week, and
I'll use it anytime that I needto clean something and I need to
know that it is super, superclean.
And I don't like using Cloroxor any sort of caustic cleaner
(24:27):
on a regular basis.
I don't use them in my house.
I don't use them.
I can't use them in my septictank because I don't want to
kill the bacteria in my septictank.
So I'm very, very careful aboutthe cleaners that I use.
And Thieves is really great.
You can also diffuse it in theair and it cleans.
Like if you've got a sick kidand you want to run the diffuser
(24:49):
in there and you want to runThieves in the air.
It kind of helps keep thebacteria level in the air down.
It's also good to use.
It's not the best tasting.
I don't care for the smell ofit.
Personally it's not my favoritesmell, but it's good.
You can put it in water, youcan add it to teas, you can do
(25:12):
any of that kind of stuff andit's really an amazing
antibacterial.
And there's a lot more storybehind the thieves and that goes
back to like the bubonic plague.
But that's a story for anothertime.
The very last one that I loveWell, shoot, I had it written
(25:35):
down, thieves.
What was my last one?
I'm thinking, oh, tea tree oil.
Tea tree oil, that's anotherone that I really like for
wounds, things of that nature.
It's good for dandruff, it'sgood to put in shampoos,
(25:58):
anything that you know would beitchy, a skin condition.
You know I told you that I havethe other ones that I like, but
tea tree oil they actually usedit, I believe, in World War I
as an on-battlefield way tocleanse wounds when the military
was hurt or the soldiers gothurt.
(26:20):
Tea tree oil was one of thego-tos.
So it's really good if you geta cut or something superficial.
It's probably not really goodfor deep wounds, but it's really
good for things like that.
I believe you can also brushyour teeth with it.
It gets really good up there inthe gums.
You can also brush your teethwith it.
It gets, you know, really goodup there in the gums, helps
clear out any bacteria in thatarea.
So tea tree oil is another onethat you should check out and
(26:44):
see if it's something thatyou're interested in.
It's also known to be good forinflammation, and so you can rub
it on sore muscles, put it onthe back of your neck, rub it
all over your shoulders and ithelps if you've got like the flu
.
Things like that kind of helpsthose body aches and helps you
(27:06):
to get over that just a littlebit quicker.
All right, so we are going towrap up.
That is my top ones, and I havemany, many more Like I've got a
hundred essential oils I thinkpretty close to that that I use
for different things, differentblends, different things for
different applications.
You know, I use herbs, I useteas, I use tinctures and I use
(27:31):
essential oils.
But I love the essential oilsbecause, like I said, they're
transportable.
Like you can keep a little bagof your top 10 essential oils
and carry it with you everywhereyou go and you always have, you
know, your little emergency kit.
So whatever might come up,whether it's a headache or
whether it's indigestion,anything like that, essential
(27:55):
oils are really really good foracute things like that and
they're good for cleaning, andwe are all wanting to live a
toxic-free life and for me thatis the most important part of
having essential oils is thatthey do so much.
Their applications are so broadand you can make different
(28:17):
smells.
You can make soaps, you canmake salves.
You can add them.
You know they are great to addin with herbs when you're doing,
say, a comfrey salve or a facesalve or something like that.
You can always add in somefrankincense and some myrrh to
your facial cream and all of asudden you've got a powerhouse.
So just keep that in mind.
It's really cool to learn aboutessential oils and, again,
(28:41):
young Living is my favorite.
I do believe that the quality ofessential oils matters, because
I was one that tried cheapessential oils and just didn't
really get much benefit, but Ithink it was because of the
quality.
It wasn't a pure essential oiland I have learned now the
(29:02):
difference.
You can literally smell and seea difference between an
adulterated essential oil thathas fillers and other things
that they use as solvents,versus a true, pure essential
oil.
So I encourage you to do someresearch and find out what you
(29:23):
believe and what you like andthen start using essential oils
in your home in the best waythat you know how.
So with that.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you have liked the podcastand like the work that we do, it
would be really cool if youwould subscribe and leave me a
review.
It helps other people to findmy podcast.
You can also find me atthegormhomesteadcom and on all
(29:46):
the socials as just the GormHomestead.
Whatever you've got on thedocket, I hope that y'all just
keep it real.
See y'all and my mama was awaitress where they parked M18
(30:08):
wheeler trucks.
We didn't have much money.
Times were kind of hard, livingin a trailer on the edge of
grandpa's farm.
Yeah, I may not come from much,but I've got just enough.
(30:37):
As long as my baby's in my armsand the good Lord knows what's
in my heart, I refuse to beashamed.
It's just a southern thing.
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