I’ve got something a little bit different for this week’s episode! You know all those commercials for pharmaceutical drugs? The ones that list all the crazy side effects while showing people strolling on the beach or at a dinner party having fun? Well, for this week’s episode I envisioned what it might be like if there was a similar ad for herbs. You’ll also hear about one of my online courses, Cooling Inflammation.  Not all inflammation is bad, but when it runs amuck, it causes all sorts of...

I’ve known Beth for many years, and I knew from experience that the two of us were going to have a lively conversation!  It was a joy to sit down with her to discuss kava - a plant that has been supporting her since day one of her herbal journey, and one that I have also found to be super helpful in times of stress and anxiety.  Beth has gotten to know this plant so well that her friends sometimes even refer to her as the Kava Queen! Beth has worked with kava in so many different ways, from...

I’ve only worked with black birch a little bit, and I was really excited when Amelia South told me she was interested in discussing this beautiful tree!  Amelia had so much to share about black birch, and I left the conversation wishing I could be out in the woods smelling and tasting it right then.  I’d be surprised if you don’t leave this episode feeling super interested in black birch, too! One of the things Amelia shared was how black birch has supported her with pain relief in so many...

I’ve heard about Pam Montgomery for many years, so I was excited to finally meet her!  Pam’s approach to herbalism really focuses on developing relationships with the plants, and it was fascinating to hear her discuss the ways she makes those connections and gets to know herbs on a deeper level. Pam recently had the opportunity to do a deep-dive with lavender in the fields of Provence, and she had so much wisdom to share about this lovely herb!  She also shared her very versatile recipe for...

It’s been many years since Patricia and I have been together in person, and it was an honor to sit down with her again and hear her stories and wisdom.  She had a lot of insights to share about the process of becoming a Registered Herbalist through the American Herbalists Guild (including why you would want to do so in the first place!), as well as tips about some of the most important herbal knowledge that new herbalists often don’t consider. And of course, Patricia also discussed how she...

It was such a pleasure to have Yarrow on the show!  Yarrow is a dynamic speaker who is super passionate about building relationships with herbs and their ecosystems.  As you’ll hear in this conversation, Yarrow sees herbalism as a bridge to help people tune back in to the natural world, and he weaves in nature connection with everything he does. Yarrow spoke extensively about reishi mushrooms - not just how they can benefit us physically, but also how they can improve our mental and emotional...

I’ve been emailing with Holly for years, but as much as we’ve interacted via email and recipe exchange, this was our first time face-to-face and it was great to finally get the chance to meet her!  In this episode, Holly shares so much fascinating information about elderberry (one of my very favorite herbs!) - from folklore, to crafty uses for the twigs, to tips for harvesting the berries, and of course the many ways this amazing plant can be worked with medicinally! Holly also shared her...

In place of a regular podcast this week, I’m offering an entire webinar all about working with herbs during the cold and flu season!  In this webinar, we’ll look at five of my very favorite herbs to work with to help with common cold and flu symptoms, as well as to help prevent getting sick in the first place!   When you join the webinar, I’ll also share with you my ebook, 5 Herbs for the Cold and Flu Season, which contains seven recipes that you can use when managing your health during the...

When I first started studying herbs over two decades ago, I learned herbs (like many people do) by memorizing herbal actions, memorizing lists, and then throwing it all together.  But I found that choosing herbs for people using these memorized lists didn’t always work, which was incredibly discouraging! Luckily, I found out about herbal energetics, and that’s what I’ve based my herbal practices on ever since.  However, I’ve noticed over the years that there are a lot of misconceptions about...

It’s easy to love the taste of thyme in stews and roasts and sauces, but have you taken the time to really taste thyme? When you have really good quality thyme, it’s highly aromatic and very spicy and hot! Tasting an herb and experiencing how it feels in your body when you take it as food and medicine is at the heart of herbal energetics. This system is a great way to really get to know the plants you’re working with, and to choose the herbs that are best suited to your unique body and...

There are so many medicinal benefits of meadowsweet herb! Some people think of meadowsweet simply as a natural form of aspirin.  While it does shine at relieving pain (especially a particular type of pain!), meadowsweet’s gifts go far beyond this. In this episode, I’ll be sharing my love of this beautiful member of the rose family, as well as one of my favorite ways to enjoy its pain-relieving benefits with my recipe for Meadowsweet Flower Pain Relief Tea.  You’ll find a link to your free,...

This is the first time I’ve sat down with Leslie, and I enjoyed listening to her winding story of learning about herbs through the decades!  I was equally amazed by the extensive information she shared about the medicinal benefits of magnolia.  She really opened my eyes to the gifts of this beautiful, ancient tree.  Leslie shared several ways to work with magnolia, including her recipe for Magnolia Bark Oxymel (and you’ll hear how Leslie uses it both internally and externally). A beautifully...

It was truly a pleasure to chat with Richard Mandelbaum about self heal!  He not only discussed many medicinal gifts of this lovely little herb, but also dove deeper into nature connection, herbal energetics, and the intricacies of medicine making, weaving all of these things together in such a beautiful way.  Richard’s joy in embracing his curiosity about the world is so delightful, and I just know this episode is one I’ll be listening to again. Richard also shared his  incredibly detailed...

This was my first time meeting Molly, and it was an absolute joy to talk with her and hear the many ways she is working with herbs to strengthen relationships and build connections.  I just loved when Molly walked me through how she connects with mugwort through the five senses - what a delightful way to begin to build a relationship with a plant! Molly shared many ways of working with mugwort, including her process for creating beautiful, seasonal herbal garlands using this dreamy plant...

It’s been on my mind to have Michael Pilarski on the show for quite a while now, so when he dropped by the other day to see my garden, it seemed like the perfect time to invite him to be here.  I loved talking with Michael about his experience of both wildcrafting and farming, and his perspective about the benefits and drawbacks of both of those ways of working with the land.  And it was so much fun chatting with him about our love for herbal gatherings! Michael also shared some fantastic...

I had such a great time catching up with Phyllis Light in this conversation!  Hearing Phyllis’ unique herbal story and her philosophy about herbs and herbalism was a real treat.  Plus, she shared such an abundance of information about sumac and its medicinal gifts that I am inspired to start working more with this amazing plant! Phyllis shared so many ways to work with sumac, including her recipe for Sumac Elderberry Syrup (along with several suggestions of how to use that syrup).  You can...

It was so much fun to meet the famous Brigitte Mars, who has been an herbalist for over fifty years.  I’ve admired her work for such a  long time, and found in this interview that she is also quite the character!   Brigitte has such a strong thread of creativity that just bursts out of her, and our conversation went in many unexpected directions – way beyond simply talking about our mutual love for dandelions! It’s truly bizarre to me that some people reach for poisons to eradicate certain...

I have fallen in love with Mary Morgaine Squire’s plant love letter newsletters lately, and when I sat down to interview her, it was made even more clear to me just how deep her connection with the herbs is!  I’m excited that she chose ginkgo (GIngko biloba) for her herb – it’s a new plant for the show and one I haven’t worked with much myself. I really enjoyed learning more about it.  I’m even trying to find a place to grow a ginkgo tree in my own yard now! Mary shared so many wonderful...

I’ve known Kristine Brown for many years, and it was such a delight to sit down and chat with her about her love of nettle – a plant that herbalists love to love!  Even though I have immersed myself in nettle love for years, I learned some new things about this wonderful herb during our conversation.  And it was so much fun to hear about Kristine’s herbal journey and how she came to develop her herbal zine and amazing herbal learning system for children. If you homeschool your children – or...

It was so delightful to sit down and chat with Anjali Deva about Tulsi.  I just love it when I interview someone and their love of the plant they choose shines through so clearly, which was definitely the case in this conversation.  Anjali’s descriptions of seeing Tulsi growing in India made me wish I could grow whole fields of it myself! Anjali discussed the many ways she loves to interact with Tulsi, both on a physical and a spiritual level, and I loved her very practical and specific...

I am a huge fan of the work done through United Plant Savers (UPS) and so it was truly an honor to have Susan Leopold, the executive director of UPS, on the show!  I had so much fun talking with Susan.  Of course she discussed the UPS’s efforts to catalog and protect at-risk native medicinal plants, but this conversation also went places I didn’t expect,  including some of the history of herbal medicine in the United States and a sneak peek at next year’s International Herb Symposium. Susan...

It was so much fun to interview Dr. Jillian Stansbury!  She is a plant nerd in all the best ways, and every section of this conversation has so much wisdom infused into it.  Not only does Dr. Stansbury give a ton of information about chamomile’s many gifts but she also touches on the differences between the use of herbs and pharmaceuticals, her passion for ethnobotany, and so much more. If you like to nerd out on herbs then you are going to love this conversation! A master at herbal...

This is Maria Noël Groves’s second time on the show, and I’m thrilled to have her back!  You can tell that Maria is an herbal teacher, because this episode is packed with in-depth herbal information about lemon balm.  She shares so much wisdom about lemon balm’s gifts that I just  can’t wait to get into the garden and work with this wonderful plant again! Maria also shared many ways to work with lemon balm, including her recipe for Lemon Balm Fresh Tincture.  (You can find the link to your...

I've spent many hours poring over Thomas Avery Garran’s materia medica books.  In fact, his first book was one of the first herbal books that I bought when I started studying Chinese medicine!  And as you’ll see in this episode, Thomas clearly loves plants and has wonderful insights into them, from their gifts and energetics to how to grow and harvest them. I was surprised when Thomas chose motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) as his plant for the interview – I just didn't see it coming!  But as...