Hi! In ceremonies, we've used white sage to clear negative energy and sweetgrass to encourage/invite positive energy. -- e.g. we burn sage first then sweetgrass. Both are also wonderful for "refreshing" dreamcatchers (cleansing them of caught dreams). Chia is an extremely healthy, energizing seed that can be eaten raw by the (small) handful or incorporated in breads, added to salads, etc. Can be grown as an outdoor annual at least as far north as Z6. It's the Chia in Chia Pets. Bulk by the pound, it's cheap. BTW, frankincense is also a great for clearing negative energy, hence its long life in the RC church. Very smokey resin burned on incense charcoal; I prefer the essential oil in a diffuser. Or, try putting a couple of drops essential oil in your rinse water when washing floors. The difference in the air is very noticible afterwards.

Sage: Leaves can be strewn in bathwater and in rinse water to enhance dark hair, cleanse oily hair and help prevent falling hair. It can be used as an aftershave and skin lotion. The leaves yield a yellow-beige dye with alum mordant, yellow with chrome mordant and green-grey with iron mordant. Sage repels cabbage moths, carrot fly and ticks. Combined with rosemary, it acts as a preservative, due to its antibacterial property. Use the fresh leaves to rub over teeth and gums - helps prevent build-up of tartar, removes plaque, freshens the breath - beautifully! Because of its antiseptic qualities, sage tea is used as a gargle for sore throat, gum and mouth infections, or as a wash for acne, and as a hair rinse for dandruff. Boosts insulin levels, so may be useful in treating diabetes. Used to regulate menstruation and to treat menopausal symptoms, especially hot flushes. Quickly reduces perspiration. Sprinkle dried leaf powder onto wounds to disinfect. Sage improves the memory, treats liver and gallbladder problems, cleanses the female genitals, relieves flatulence, stimulates cell growth. Helps reduce milk flow when weaning babies. Use the tea as a gargle for bleeding gums, and apply it to cold sores. It is sometimes taken to treat mild diarrhoea, carpal tunnel syndrome, tonsillitis and AlzeimerÂs Disease. The essential oil can be massaged in to ease muscular tension or pain, and to treat cellulite. Warning: Avoid large doses when pregnant. Sage will dry up breast milk. Excessive consumption should be avoided due to the thujone content of the plant which can cause dizziness, convulsion, and rapid heartbeat. Avoid if suffering from high blood pressure or epilepsy. Medicinal doses should not be administered to young children. Oh! and you can eat it too (and the flowers)! There was a thread about sage on either the Cooking or the Recipe Exchange forum quite recently, if you want to browse through.

It's definitely the artemesia ludoviciana. It's a known medicinal plant used by American Indian tribes. It's got its uses in cooking but I don't think you could make an entire salad of the stuff!!! https://keys2liberty.wordpress.com/tag/artemisia-ludoviciana/ By the way, you won't find wild sage all over the place in the Midwest since it's sensitive to cold and wet in the winters. It's easy to grow from seed.

dbarron, I didn't go look. I'd have to venture into the woods and we were too busy with the grandkids all day Sunday. I could have dragged them off into the woods with us to see what we could find, but the youngest is only 4 and she thinks we live in a Bambi world where all the wildlife more or less love one another and everything lives happily ever after, so I hate to ruin that for her at such a young age. She'll learn soon enough. I also am not overly fond of stumbling upon animal carcasses because I'm just not into all that blood and gore. I thought I'd just wait and see where the vultures show up.....if they show up. Sometimes, you know, the larger predators carry their kill away. We are close enough to the Red River that they often drag away what they kill back down into the river bottomlands where they tend to roam, or sometimes the cougars cache it underneath brush. In particular, I do not want to find anyone's cache because that would be too scary. I'll tell you this, though. The deer usually come and eat their deer corn overnight. This morning, the deer corn we put out last evening was untouched. It didn't even look like bunnies or coons had been around (still muddy enough to see their tracks if they show up) overnight to nibble at the deer corn. This morning, the deer came around 8 or 8:30 a.m. to eat, and they came in a large herd, not in the usual small groups of 3 or 4. So, of course, at the very least we know that they heard what I heard, or they smelled death....or....somehow....they just know. I wish they could tell me what they know. There's not many predators that scare the deer so that narrows things down in my mind a bit. Rebecca, I do try to plan herbs somewhat, but they also have their own way of popping up in random spots---particularly the catnip. I think the cats sometimes carry catnip seeds on their fur and deposit it just wherever. When they do, I just leave it wherever it pops up. Grasshoppers love catnip and lemon balm, so both of them are early indicators of a developing grasshopper problem if I just pay attention. When I see the catnip and lemon balm leaves riddled with many, many small holes as the grasshopper hatch is occurring in Spring, I can tell from the damage level if it is going to be a bad grasshopper year or not, and if I need to order Semaspore or Nolo Bait and deal with the young hoppers or if the population is so small that I don't have to bother. That's one surprising way herbs have proven to be very useful in the garden. Dawn