Welcome to Urban Herbal
from Bill Varney, URBANherbal

Dec. 2010

Your source for herbal advice about plants, recipes using herbs, personal care products and much much more . . .

Dear Family & Friends,

After 22 years of nurturing and growing Fredericksburg Herb Farm, I decided to sell the business, and reinvent myself into a smaller, more personable business known as Urban Herbal. The idea is simple, 'Bringing Nature Back To Civilization.' Far too often our business and personal lives drive us away from what is most important, foundational inside ourselves.

Urban Herbal is about returning to your roots, and escaping from all of the stress, fears, and anguish that accompany day to day activities. We offer varying lines of personal care, cooking, pet care, room fresheners, and, of course, gardening to help you take the bricks off your shoulders and enter into relaxation.

On our website we have lots of herbal tips, gardening, and cooking ideas; and our shopping cart is filled with homemade items from our garden and greenhouse.

Blessings,
Bill Varney

Holiday Good Scents

Special times are truly most memorable when associated with special aromas. Family traditions involving natural native materials have created the legacy that we enjoy today. Unfortunately, our urbanized lives have eliminated many natural products that gave us the original aromatic seasonal connection.

Christmas pine trees have been coated with preservatives to stop their needles from dropping, consequently inhibiting their scent, or have been replaced altogether by artificial trees.

Wood fire places have given way to electric faux fires.

Holidays just aren't the same anymore!

So we've put together a list of good scents for the season: Bay Pine Orange Cinnamon Clove Cedarwood Peppermint

To help your Urban space have good holiday scents try a few of these ideas;

1) In a small pan on the stove fill with water, add a cinnamon stick, a few cloves, a few slices of oranges and apples & put it on simmer.

2) Help your decorations come alive by putting a few drops of your favorite essential oil on cotton balls & putting them in sealed bags with the decorations overnight.

3) In a small plastic spray bottle fill 2/3 with vodka & 1/3 distilled water, and about 12-15 drops of your favorite essential oil or a blend of two or three different ones. Shake well, spray around the house to heighten the festive mood.

Enjoy the holiday scents!

"It is clear to me that unless we connect directly with the earth, we will not have the faintest clue why we should save it." -Helen Caldicott