podcast

We’re continuing our “herbs on our shelf” series from A to Z today! This time our herbs are elder and sassafras. The most famous part of elder (Sambucus nigra) is the berry, which is indeed an helpful herb in fighting viral infections including colds, flu, and even COVID. It’s a rather safe one, despite occasional…

There’s a basic rule when it comes to herbal businesses in the US: “Don’t tell and sell.” Due to rules and regulations set forth by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there are many limits on what one can say about herbal products. You may already know that it…

We almost never do interviews, but our friend Anna Rósa is collaborating with The Lotus Flower to empower refugee women in Kurdistan to care for their own health, their families and communities, and to start herbal businesses to support themselves as they rebuild their lives. We are so excited to support her efforts, and we…

Today’s herbs are sage & rosemary – two herbs whose botanical name Salvia indicates they can keep us “safe, healthy, and secure”, if we go with a literal translation. Sounds pretty good to us! And tastes good, too… Sage, Salvia officinalis, is the subject of a great many old sayings & adages, like “if a…

In ancient agriculture, the farmers observed the need to let fields rest every year or two, so they could recover their fertility. Letting the fields lie fallow in this way actually yielded more food than trying to force them to grow every year. We can apply this same insight to the learning process. You cannot…

Today we’re discussing the entire genus of Rubus plants! We focus most on blackberry & raspberry, because we know them best, but with 1400+ species found on every continent, there’s certainly a local Rubus to be found wherever you go. Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) & raspberry (R. idaeus) leaf and root are excellent astringents. Not just…

Snow-delayed by a couple days, here’s our next episode! Today we’re talking about yellow dock and rose. Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) is also known as curly dock. We also like to work with broadleaf dock (R. obtusifolius) in all the same ways. These herbs can be tinctured or prepared as decoctions. They’re great help for…

Is it more accurate to say “I am an herbalist” or “I’m doing herbalism”? To us, if “herbalist” is an identity, a name, a noun – then you’re subject to imposter syndrome. Why? Because you’re treating it as something you can be, once and for all, based on a credential or status. But like all…

Today we’ve got two astringent herbs to discuss, though their similarities pretty much end with that quality. Rhodiola and staghorn sumac are our topic! Rhodiola rosea has been commercialized and popularized as an adaptogen and “antidepressant” herb. It’s quite warming, drying, and tonifying – really great if you need to row a viking ship across…

Today’s herbs from our apothecary shelf are self-heal and lungwort! Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris, is a lovely lymph-moving herb who we often find in woodland trails. You can find it in lots of places – “vulgaris” does mean “common”, after all – but you probably won’t find it very readily in commerce. It’s not the easiest…

Relaxants come in many varieties. Today we come to two herbs who relax tension patterns in the body, yet are quite different from one another. Pedicularis densiflora, P. canadensis, and P. groenlandica are just a few of the “louseworts”, also sometimes known as wood betony. We ourselves usually mean Stachys officinalis when we say “betony”,…

Our herbs this week are pine and plantain! A mighty tall tree and a humble herb of the packed earth. Pine trees come in many varieties. Around Boston we mainly find white pine (Pinus strobus) and red pine (Pinus resinosa), but many others are similar. Pine can help sustain energy and mood, so we consider…