How to Build a Natural Medicine Cabinet | Natural Antibiotics, Tinctures & Preparedness What should you actually keep in a home remedy cabinet—and where do you even start when natural medicine feels completely overwhelming? In this episode of The Homestead Education Podcast, Kody Hanner sits down with Lesli and Coleen from Prep Mart to talk about natural remedies, preparedness, herbal medicine, and the practical skills families can learn to become more self-reliant. The conversation covers everything from tinctures and essential oils to elderberry, herbal infusions, and what the guests describe as natural antibiotics. Lesli and Coleen also share how their own families' experiences with preparedness and natural living eventually led them to build Prep Mart and begin teaching other families the skills they had spent years learning themselves. In This Episode: What people mean when they talk about natural antibiotics The difference between tinctures, essential oils, teas, and herbal infusions Why different herbal preparations may be used for different purposes How Lesli and Coleen first became interested in natural remedies Building a home remedy cabinet without buying everything at once How to decide which herbs and remedies make the most sense for your individual family Elderberry and why it has become a staple in many homestead medicine cabinets Colloidal silver and the personal experiences that led Coleen to learn more about it Oregano oil and other traditional remedies commonly discussed in natural-living communities Why preparedness is about more than extreme emergencies Creating a 72-hour preparedness plan Slowly building a pantry when you can't afford to stock a year's worth of food at once How unexpected job loss, storms, power outages, and financial difficulties can make preparedness valuable The importance of building a community of farmers, medical professionals, and other skilled people Teaching children science through tinctures, fermentation, cooking, gardening, and homestead projects Why real-life skills naturally become part of homeschool education Raising children who know how to identify problems, find answers, and take responsibility Natural Antibiotics and the Home Remedy Cabinet One of the biggest topics in this conversation is something many families searching for a more self-reliant lifestyle eventually encounter: natural antibiotics. Coleen explains how her family became interested in colloidal silver and describes how she makes it at home. She and Lesli also talk about their personal use of herbal remedies, including oregano oil, elderberry, mullein, tinctures, and essential oils. But one of the most important moments in the episode comes when the conversation turns to serious infection. Kody shares the story of her brother developing cellulitis after a seemingly minor wound while working outdoors. His condition progressed rapidly, eventually contributing to a medical crisis from which he did not recover. That experience is a powerful reminder that self-reliance doesn't mean refusing conventional medicine—it also means learning to recognize when something has moved beyond home care. This episode shares personal experiences and traditional home-remedy practices for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Serious or worsening infections, breathing problems, high fever, cellulitis, or other concerning symptoms should be evaluated by a qualified medical professional. Where Should You Start? One of the best pieces of advice from this conversation is surprisingly simple: Don't try to build your entire natural medicine cabinet overnight. Instead, look at the problems your family actually deals with most often. A family with young children may prioritize completely different remedies than an older couple. Someone who struggles with seasonal respiratory issues may build a different cabinet than a family primarily dealing with bug bites, upset stomachs, or everyday bumps and scrapes. It's the same approach Kody recommends for becoming more self-sufficient with food: identify the five or ten things your family uses most often, then learn how to produce, source, or prepare those things first. Preparedness Doesn't Have to Mean a Bunker Lesli and Coleen also challenge the stereotype that preparedness means preparing for some massive end-of-the-world event. Sometimes preparedness looks like having enough food when you lose your job. Sometimes it's being snowed in for several days. Sometimes it's losing power. Sometimes it's simply having what your family needs when getting to the store isn't an option. Lesli shares how her family's stored food and preparedness supplies helped them through a period when multiple financial problems hit almost simultaneously—job losses, losing their housing arrangement, a totaled vehicle, and discovering they were expecting a baby. The supplies weren't there for a dramatic disaster. They were there for real life. Teaching Self-Reliance Through Everyday Life The conversation also moves into one of the central themes of The Homestead Education Podcast: children learn an incredible amount when they're allowed to participate in real life. Fermentation becomes science. Baking becomes fractions. Making tinctures becomes chemistry. Identifying elderberry, mullein, and goldenrod becomes botany. Raising livestock becomes biology, economics, and responsibility. And solving real problems gives kids something that's much harder to teach on a worksheet: confidence. Lesli and Coleen explain how their children help with gardening, animals, fermentation, food production, herbal remedies, and even butchering—and how much academic learning naturally happens along the way. As Kody puts it during the conversation, we're not simply raising kids. We're raising adults. And one of the most valuable things we can teach them is how to look at a problem and believe, I can figure this out. Resources Mentioned Prep Mart Natural-living, preparedness, and home-remedy resources from Lesli and Coleen. Use code HOMESTEAD EDUCATION for 10% off through Prep Mart. Prep Mart also offers educational resources designed to help families gradually build preparedness skills, including a 72-hour preparedness checklist and pantry-building resources. Follow The Homestead Education Podcast If you're interested in natural living, homesteading, preparedness, agriculture, and raising capable kids, follow The Homestead Education Podcast so you don't miss the next episode. We're not interested in simply collecting more information. We're interested in learning skills we can actually use. Until next week, keep growing. Find Prep Mart www.prepmartusa.com Discount code: HomesteadEducation FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576608654246 IG: https://www.instagram.com/prepmartusa/?__pwa=1 Kody's Links Homestead Education Curriculum – http://thehomesteadeducation.com/homesteadeducationcurriculum Homestead Family Reading List – https://www.thehomesteadeducation.com/homestead-summer-reading-list/ ESA Funding: https://www.thehomesteadeducation.com/funding/ Instagram – https://instagram.com/homestead_education Facebook – https://facebook.com/thehomesteadeducation Raising Self-Sufficient Kids Book – https://www.thehomesteadeducation.com/product/raising-self-sufficient-children/
