"Ways of Her Household" ~ A Modern Day Herbal ~ Free Printable

"The kitchen is a country in which there are always discoveries to be made.”

~ La Reyniére

If the concept of creating your own "herbal" excites you as much as it does me, then I would love to share our printable with you! There are so many ways that one can organize an herbal.  I have included many "subject tabs". You can print out what you think would apply to your household. This is basically a "shell" as you would be responsible for filling it with recipes/instructions that pertain to your home. We will be sharing some printable recipe packets for each topic in the future. We will also be doing a one-month link up series to help you fill your herbal (details are shared below).

For more information on "What is an Herbal?", visit here.

List of recommended supplies:

• 3" Three Ring Binder (You can use a smaller binder but the spine insert may not fit.)

• Optional: Sheet Protectors (I put my recipes in these so they can be wiped off when dirty.)

• Adhesive Tabs with Writable Inserts

• Our Free Printable which includes a cover page insert (shown in first photo), spine label insert (shown above), subject pages which you may want to tab (as shown below) and a back cover page insert (shown in last photo).

Suggested Use:

Print off your herbal (located at the bottom of this post), place the subject pages inside plastic page protectors (optional), tab the subject pages for easier access (adhesive tabs are nice for this), place all your recipes inside plastic page protectors and insert them behind the appropriate subject tab. Place all content inside a sturdy binder (I found mine at Goodwill for $1.00). 

Here are some ideas of what to include in your herbal per "subject tab":

Recipes for soap-making, lotions, lip balms, bath salts, body scrubs, natural bug sprays, creams, bath oils, body washes, shampoos, etc… 

Recipes for canning, drying, freezing and fermenting foods… This might be a good place to store instructions on how to make cultured dairy products, kombucha, kvass...

How to make potpourri, room sprays, candles, herbal wreaths, how to dry herbs, herbal sachets, pressed flower decorations, etc...

Recipes for all purpose cleaner, window cleaners, cleansers, furniture polish, carpet deodorizer, etc… 

Note: You will find our convenient printable recipe packet for household cleaners here.

Recipes for clothes detergent, alternative bleach recipes, fabric softeners, natural stain removers, linen sprays, etc…

Options: Print out a Stain Removal Chart, Ten Tips for a Perfect Wash, Martha Stewart's Stain Basics Chart or our Wash Day Prayer and add them behind your "Laundry Room" section. 

"Healing by herbs has always been popular both with the classic nations of old, and with the British islanders of more recent times. Two hundred and sixty years before the date of Hippocrates (460 B.C.) the prophet Isaiah bade King Hezekiah, when sick unto death, "take a lump of Figs, and lay it on the boil; and straightway the King recovered." 

~ Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by William T. Fernie, M.D. (1897)

Information for making your own cough syrups, cough medicine, cold fighting medicine, ointments, tinctures, poultices, chest rubs, first aid sprays, fever inducers, herbal tea remedies, etc…

Options: Frugally Sustainable offers a free "Herbal First Aid Kit" printable that I included in my herbal.

Do you want to be authentic?

An herbal of old would include sketched pictures of medicinal plants. It would detail its many uses along with its characteristics such as aroma, texture or habitat so that you can easily identify them.

Option: You may want to consider using this section to inspire you to document your backyard plants and give you incentive to study what useful herbs and flowers you have in your area. To make it easier, you can print out the proper botanical pictures (instead of sketching), paste your photos onto paper and handwrite your findings. This would help you to conveniently identify your herbs for future use, for future need. An index of knowledge pertaining to your local plants would be very wise to have! You may want to make this into a home education project (this is our plan).

This might seem like a duplicate page because of the "Food Preservation" section. However, I thought that this would make a nice area to include other useful information such as homemade mix recipes (pancake, muffins, cake mixes, cornbread, etc…), making your own extracts (such as vanilla or lemon), making your own apple cider scrap vinegar, creating your own condiments (mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard), custom tea blends, how to render tallow from beef, etc…

Options: Include our "Essential Pantry List" printable in this section. I have also added a chart inside ours on "Soaking Grains".

And alas, the final section which will include those odd items that don't really belong anywhere else… 

For frugal medicinal, bath/body, pantry, housecleaning recipes, etc., visit here.

I have also included a subject tab on "Aromatherapy" due to my recent rebirth in essential oils but wasn't able to include it in the pictures because of the last minute addition.  This section can showcase the medicinal properties of each essential oil or anything else of that nature.

Matching Label to Further Customize Your Herbal

We also included a blank page which you can fill in to fit any additional needs you may have. Perhaps you would like to add a "Dairy" section because you own a cow and would like to document cheese making, kefir, yogurt recipes, etc… Or some of you may want to create a "Farm Animal" section where you place tips on how to care for certain animals, etc… We are sharing the blank label above to further customize your herbal.

Finally, the back cover insert page is designed to give you more inspiration while adding some decoration to your herbal.

Do you feel the vision? Are you ready to make your own herbal? Do you want to link yourself back to the chain of resourceful women who acquired invaluable knowledge (such as how to survive without a Walmart)?!... I thought so!

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, The Homesteader Hop, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, and Shabbilicious Friday. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them).