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The common plantain plants – Plantago major & P. rugelii & P. lanceolata – are medicinially identical, so we’ll cover all of them together in our entry this week. Break Up Biofilms When we say “plantain”, you might think of those little banana-like fruits – but that’s not the plantain we mean. Instead, we’re referring…

This week’s featured herb is meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)! A Boon for Braces Meadowsweet has been one of my best friends on this whole orthodontics experience. It’s so soothing to the irritated insides of my cheeks, I can’t even tell you. It drastically reduces the pain, and noticeably speeds healing. When my braces are really bothering…

Garden basil (Ocimum basilicum) may seem like just an ingredient in pesto, but wait! There’s more to this week’s herb! Mood Lifter One of my favorite things about basil is its ability to uplift the spirit – much like its close relative, tulsi (Ocimum sanctum). During stretches of grey weather in the winter, I find…

Calamus (Acorus calamus) is this week’s herb of the week! There is so much amazing about calamus, but the reason I picked it for this week is that we’re kicking off a Whole30, and calamus is a big help when you’re kicking the sugar habit. So here we go, calamus: let’s get through this week…

Also known as basswood, lime flower, and tilleul, linden – Tilia spp. – is our herb of the week this time. A Hug In A Mug We like to call linden “a hug in a mug”, and I don’t know what I would do without it! This morning was a perfect linden day: I woke…

Sage is the other plant in our logo – lavender for me, and sage for ryn. Sage was one of his very first herb-of-the-month plants when he was first learning herbalism, and at the time, it wasn’t really a plant that I worked with much. I’d had a lot of teachers who revered sage, but…

Lavender is one of the plants in our logo, and has been since I began working as an herbalist. When I first started practicing, I wanted to choose a plant that would be relevant. I loved the stories about old apothecaries who had signs without words, because the general population didn’t read, but they were…

The St. John’s Wort card in my oracle deck says: blooming at the height of summer, St. John’s Wort is like solar batteries, ready aid when everything is grey and damp. St. John’s Wort has been touted for depression, but its function is more about the gut than the brain – and so are our…

Winter is the Fennel time of year! Fennel is a warming herb that improves digestion and liver function, which is why you see it in recipes for sausage and other heavy or fatty meats. Fennel is particularly suited to the cold, stagnant digestive conditions that we see so commonly in our culture today. A lot…

If you listened to last Friday’s podcast, you know that Ryn was sick last week with what we affectionately called the “Lung Crud Plague”. If you’re also sick with lung crud, Elecampane is the herb for you! But before we talk about the why, let’s just get this right out in the open: Elecampane tastes…

Ashwagandha is one of my very favorite herbs: it supports the adrenals and other endocrine organs, improving the function of those organs and helping the body to better cope with stress. You’ve probably heard about the “HPA axis” – which is the connection recognized between the hypothalamic, pituitary, and adrenal glands. But I submit that…