Michael DeJong, environmentalist and author of books on green living, has a new book called Clean Cures chocked full of affordable, easy natural remedies you can prepare at home to treat ordinary ailments with items you have in your own refrigerator and pantry. His goal is to reduce our reliance on packaged over-the-counter medications that come at a high price for us and for the environment.

In this interview, he shares a couple of his favorite remedies—one for chapped lips and another for common headaches.

Michael DeJong was born in Chicago Heights, IL, in 1962, earning his MFA from the University of Illinois in 1987 before moving to NYC. Once settled, to support himself as a working artist, DeJong ran a housekeeping business for 7 years. In response to his own health challenges caused by multiple daily exposures to toxic commercial household cleaners, he began researching healthier, natural alternatives, using his clients’ homes as his “laboratory,” formulating and testing his eco-friendly, human-friendly and pet-friendly cleaning recipes on his clients and his partner of 20 years, Richard Haymes. Since 2002 he has been living in an historic rowhouse from 1833 in Jersey City, creatively making a 180-year-old house into a green living space.