Verdant Healing ~ The Evocative Nature Of Plants

The snow level has fallen and the mountains, now colored black and white, threaten to begin blanketing the river valley with the same frozen rain that will cover them through the winter and into summer. Smoke from the moxa Ellen made wafts out of the bamboo box it burns in and the room is doused [...]

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My Essential Pregnacy Herbs

On September 17 2009,  I welcomed my first baby into the world.  I was either incredibly lucky that my labor lasted only nine hours or incredibly unlucky that my labor began at midnight with back to back contractions that didn’t let up for nine hours straight:)  Either way, it was an incredible experience that began [...]

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Fall Harvesting, the essential herbs of September

  While some medicines are available to us throughout the year, every season brings a unique collection of  herbs into their prime and typically we have a finite window of time for harvesting. Pay attention! Nature is not confused about when and how to provide for us. What is growing wild in your backyard may [...]

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Elderberry, flu healer from the bowers.

My experience with plants and using them for medicine has included a lot of reading. There are many books that lay out common usage of plants, dosage information, chemical constituents and preparations. And though I find many of these book to be priceless in their breadth of knowledge and information, I also find that the plant is [...]

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Lavender, here to please and perform

Lavender is one of the most commonly cultivated ornamental herbs. I am certain that with it’s dazzling grace and incredible aromatic impact, it would make an appealing plant for growers no matter how much care and finesse it required. But really, lavender is a lazy gardener’s dream. Once it has become established it requires almost [...]

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Peach Salal Berry Sorbet

This is the first summer that I have enjoyed the tangy taste of Salal Berries. As our August medicine gathering approached, I watched day by day as the berries came into their late summer fullness and waited for Kate (one of my favorite human versions of google)  to confirm for me that Salal is, in [...]

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