Practical herbalism from practicing herbalists. Conversations, botanical deep-dives, Q&A with clinical herbalists Katja Swift & Ryn Midura of CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.
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August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out…
Hi everyone! August is a Fallow Month for us, and so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212 ! Or if you'd prefer some…
I don’t know about you, but my social media feed is filled with stuff that is supposed to “give me more energy” to get through perimenopause. What does that even mean? Perimenopause isn’t causing fatigue for no reason. Your body is doing things: some are new, and some are a sort of inverse callback to your teenage years. Yeah, that’s right – menopause is like a second puberty. Fun! This is work.…
We like to sign off our show by saying, “Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and drink some tea.” It’s our favorite little motto and it’s a great reminder that herbalism and self-care go right alongside mutual aid! In our episode 283: Vetting Your Herbalism Sources: Red Flags & Green Flags , we talked about how it isn’t actually bucking the system to ignore the FDA and FTC laws about…
Do your friends ask you, “what’s a good herb for…” IBS, or PMS, or fibromyalgia, or whatever is bugging them? If you’ve ever struggled to answer such a request, you’re not alone. It’s not just about the difficulty of the pathology, though – it’s also about the complexity of the person, and the variability between people. Everyone thinks they can ask “what’s a good herb for IBS” and that you should…
Today’s episode is about hibiscus energetics – a quick clarification on plant species & parts, and how herbal energetics & actions may differ among them. The hibiscus you find most often in stores or shops or herbal drinks is Hibiscus sabdariffa, and it’s the specific part of the flower called the calyx. The calyx of Hibiscus sabdariffa is distinct from those of other species in the genus. From…
Herbal confidence takes some work to develop. The whole point of learning herbalism is to help people – but when you’re still a student, that’s a little bit tricky! You don’t always know the answer. It might be something you just didn’t learn about yet. Or maybe you know part of it, but you’re not confident about the whole story. Maybe the question was just really intimidating! So you feel…
How do you know when you can trust an herbalism teacher, influencer, book, or blog? How can you determine whether a scientific study has relevant information for your practice? Vetting your herbalism sources of information is an essential skill for students and practitioners alike. Today’s episode, we lay out some red flags and green flags for this determination. These are indicators that you…
Today we’re sharing some thoughts about uncertainty versus imposter syndrome, and learning herbalism. Recently, we did a 20 Questions video for the folks at HerbRally – it ran nearly four hours long! Two of the questions we were asked wove a theme together, and we wanted to share them here. The first question was “how do you deal with uncertainty as an herbalist?” The person asking this may have…
Accessibility in herbalism is not something extra or something nice-if-possible, it’s a critical part of our work. The prices of the remedies we recommend can sometimes be a determining factor in whether our clients take them, or take them long enough to get results. In many cases we can identify less expensive herbs, or formulae of herbs, which can do the job of more costly ones. In order to make…