“kids these days”! or so i’ve heard. we can’t connect. but are we, ourselves, connected? to anything? why do we wonder that we can’t connect to our children when we can’t connect to ourselves. they are imitating our own dumbass behaviors, and we are not showing them our best side.
can foraging bridge that emptiness, the hole in our hearts? the hole in our families? does a family-either a blood family or a chosen family-build bonds by watching television? by playing farmville, by catalog shopping or by microwaving burritos? or does a family build a strong foundation by roaming the woods and neighborhoods together, searching for plants or fungi, identifying insects and birdsongs?
i want to be open-minded and say-oh, hell a family can build bonds around reality tv. but my heart says no. because, my friends, out there in the woods it is a holy sacrament. eucharist means thanksgiving, and tasting the forest is a sacrament we can all share. flesh of my flesh? fungi IS the actual fruit of the actual soil, no leaps of faith needed. making or own medicine is a connection you will never find at the store. growing our own food feeds both body AND mind.
have we humans somehow evolved, in only 2 or 3 generations, out of our foundational need, our desire, our instinct, to forage for or own food? have we somehow evolved into a technological mindset which does not value touching, smelling, feeling the source? NO, we have not. the need is still inside of us. even with our brains held captive by modernity the communion is still valid.
becasue why would god, however you view them, not be in the fungi, in the insects, in the soil and muck and plants and stone? why would spirit not be found in a forgotten piece of woods where old TVs, underpants, loising lottery tickets and beer bottles snuggle with wild goldenseal, beautiful trilliums and rotting logs? why would the earth’s energy suddenly become unavailable to all people?
answer: it has not. the earth and its gifts are all around us and we CAN return at any time. we CAN choose to see what is all around us. we can choose to celebrate what is under this pavement. we can, right now, get off our asses and look behind the strip malls and dumpsters and see the spirit of renewal in action, pollination, turning of the wheel, rejuvenation, plants protecting soil, earth breaking down someone’s discarded undies, dogs eating dropped doritos, bees on “invasive” knotweed and pigeons bathing in puddles. it’s a clusterfuck celebration and it’s the foundation we can build our lives upon.
we can go to the taco bell drive-thru-again!–or we can finally choose to participate in the animal-vegetable-mineral magic that spends all day trying desperately to get our attention, taking moments away from safety and away from antibacterial panic hell to let reality in.
and, friends, reality tastes good.
the family that forages together, stays together. May 19, 2013
OH, it’s a FUN plant ID contest May 15, 2013
#10
#9
#8
#7
#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1
Hello, friends. I present here for your botanical pleasure 10 plant photos. Feel free to enjoy them with no attachment to the System of identification. However, if you’d like to try your hand at ID here is the deal: first person to id all 10 correctly will win one 1 oz. tincture from Fellow Workers Farm apothecary. Tincture is of your choice, and will be shipped to you or– if you’d prefer– you can pick it up in the apothecary.
Please post guesses in the comments. You must get all 10 to win.
the joys of spring May 3, 2013
fiddleheads
horsetail
rather tiny snail
viburnum
ground ivy
violet
aspen
don’t mind me, just go on about your, um business…
romance is in the air!
signs of spring. April 15, 2013
honeybee
sweetfern
mullein
hawthorne
trout lily
pussy willow
tuliptree bud
don’t be an herbal enabler~! April 8, 2013
Have you ever had a client come in and ask you for help with foot pain? “I need something for my feet! They hurt every time I wear these shoes!” Or indigestion-”help! Whenever I eat hot weiners I get terrible indigestion. I need herbs!” Do you give them something? Do you give out salves for skin fungus? “Herbal antibiotics” for colds? Alleged Fat burning herbs to lose weight? If so, you may be an herbal enabler.
It’s OK, I understand. It is very common to want to help others! But in order to really kick ass, it helps to treat underlying causes. If someone gets foot pain from high heels, they don’t need a salve. They need flats. If someone wants palliative care for their ulcer but can’t/won’t deal with stress that induces it, they need support and a nervine, not just “ulcer tea”. If someone gets recurring infections, they may need air flow or movement rather than an “antifungal cream”.
We do ourselves and our clients a disservice when we let them off the hook too easily. When we don;t ask questions, when we “don’t go there”. Dudes, it’s time to go there. Insomnia? Ask about mommy issues, exercise, food, sexuality. Light pollution, safety, dreams.Talk about sugar, talk about screen time, talk about fear and shame, talk about classism and racism. Relationships. Addictions. Trauma.
It’s time for us to say : Hey, maybe you don’t need a salve for that rash? Maybe you need to take a daily walk, solve a longterm problem, switch to cotton underpants or as herbalist Rebecca Altman geniusly calls it “tree time”. Outside time. Earth time. A notebook and pencil, a chair in the shade.
I am not saying we should withhold palliative care and force our clients to conform to our ideas of what is up. Quite the opposite, as we sometimes must palliate as a step towards something else. But that is all-a step, not the end.
We as herbalists have a responsibility to ask questions, to be obnoxious if needed,(and it IS needed) to observe and point out patterns, to explore those places where it hurts to go. We need to do our job, as problem solvers, as jesters or as shapeshifters, a job that is as old as dirt but is now mainly filled by a few remaining great comedians.
It helps noone to abdicate our responsibilty, it is a copout to hand out some cream and see ya later. We CAN tell people “you are beautiful”. We can tell people “I hear you”. We can point out that the emperor wears no clothes, that they are not insane, that they are not “toxic”, that the pain of this world is real, that they CAN let go. That we are all in this together and hell we’re all stardust anyway, so Gimme a freaking hug.
We can point out the relationship between having a great ad and your product being crap, between fancy packaging and actual content. We can talk about the follies of Dr Phil, Dr Oz, overmedication, New age bullshit, pubmed, repression, “some guy on the internet”, the “last 10 pounds”, and expensive green cleanses. We can dive into the places where fear takes us, and come out better for it.
For like it or not we are on the fringe. It’s called alternative medicine, so act like it. Be the alternative. Be flexible, Ask why. 1,000 times. Kick some ass, my friends, stop waiting around for a certificate or someone else’s approval and dive in, ask questions. and don’t be afraid to hear the answers.
brand new magic miracle weight loss herb! March 25, 2013
I am staggered by the sheer amount of claims out there for a magic health bullet. But even more so in the area of weight loss. There is a willing team of marketers working day and night to exploit our self-hatred, our body shame, our total confusion about health and our overwhelming desire to be “saved” from ourselves. This is NOT a holistic approach to health or weight loss. There is no magic weight loss herb. There is no combination of exotic supplements that is going to replace exercise. And why would you want to? The health benefits of exercise extend WAY beyond weight loss to cardiovascular health, stress reduction, community building and muscle building. There’s no community in a bottle of raspberry ketones, my friends.
So how DOES one lose weight then? I would argue that emotional work needs to be done. A long, slow process for some of uncovering our excuses, our misconceptions, and our addictions. That’s right, I said addictions–we are hooked on convenience, distraction and crap. No magic pill will get your ass out of a rut, it must be fought for. And fighting is the key-do you see yourself as a warrior, an athlete? I didn’t. How easy it was for me to live all up in the head, to seek comfort and avoid confrontation with reality. But the connection of body and mind is so abundantly clear and amazing that it can no longer be denied.
And there comes a point in life when one must say fuck it. When we have to FEEL the fear, to push through the crap that we cover ourselves up with like a blanket, go and go and go until you feel your burden lifting. Mom didn’t love you? Dad called you fat? You don’t have the “right” outfit?You couldn’t run the mile in high school? You really really like cheese? Let it go. Give it up.
Oh, there is pain involved. There may be tears, and pushback, and exhaustion. Bring a hankie. But one day you may just realize that noone gives a hoot if your arms are jiggling in Zumba!tm class, and others are so high on their own endorphins that they don’t even see you, and suddenly all that crap that held you back seems very insignificant. There is no feeling as empowering as finally asking oneself “What the heck was I so afaid of?!?”
It’s about taking our power back from advertising, from bullies, from judgement, from our own or others’ ideas of “perfection” and feeling, for real, what the body can do. Taking pride in our muscles, in our booty dances, in overcoming obstacles-both literally and figuratively! Feeling the wind in our hair and the sweat in our armpits and finding our own inner peace. Movement is medicine! It can help with many many common health problems-from digestion to insomnia to stress to poor circulation–which we currently throw buckets of pharmaceuticals and “natural” remedies at.
Herbs will NOT fix your repression, pills will NOT give you determination, supplements will NEVER address self loathing. 100 Dr. Oz shows won’t take your fear away. Action will.
And there are barriers–class, race, gender, disability-I understand the challenges our society places in front of us. Poverty. Junk food. Stereotypes. Accessibility. Seek and destroy barriers whenever possible. True wellness is not a “diet”, it’s a way of life. Movement, emotional processing, relaxation, vegetables, music, fresh air are all tools for us to use. Mantras can be helpful-mine is currently “I HAVE NO EXCUSES!” So build your own toolbox with what works for you! Ditch the grapefruit and the supercleanses, toss the hydroxycut and the magical bioslimmer fast and easy crap.
Seek and destroy, baby! It’s time to take our power back from those who wish to exploit us-for their own financial gain. And damn, girl-have some fun and shake that thang while you’re at it.
black haw kicks ass March 12, 2013
One of my absolute favorite herbal medicines is Black Haw-Viburnum Prunifolium. It spent years in the Caprifoliaceae family amongst the lovely Honeysuckles and Elders but someone moved it to Adoxaceae, I’m going to need to mull about that one for a bit. The Viburnums are a pretty big bunch and also includes the more well-known Crampbark plus Nannyberry, Arrowwood Viburnum and Possumhaw. What’s a haw? It means fruit, as in “Hawthorne”. Oh, and it also means “a command to a horse, telling it to turn left”. Just in case you’re reading this on horseback.
So Blackhaw-it’s a shrub. On the large side for a shrub, with opposite branches and it flowers in late spring with tiny flowers not unlike the Elder’s flowers. I’d call it cream color, and the bark is grey and sturdy. It is a common shrub in my area of upstate NY but is native to the whole northeast and midwest area and has been, in my experience, pretty easy to grow in a moist to medium area with part to full sun. I have yet to see it decimated by critters and the haws are not super desirable because they are mostly seed-one big flat seed in each dark purple haw, sometimes called a drupe amongst botanical types.
To make medicine I harvest bark and twigs, taking just a bit from each shrub so as to not be a jerk, and tincture it fresh. I use it both internally and externally. I will make a liniment with rubbing alcohol for external use only and a tincture with grain alcohol for both internal and external use.
My most important use of Black haw tincture is to address spasms and muscular tension. Our muscles spasm for various reasons-tension, dysmenorrhea, “charlie horse”, injury, overwork, asthma. I take a high dose-1/2 to 1 dropper-internally for menstrual cramps and I’ll do so every 2-4 hours if needed. But all types of so-called uterine colic responds to Black haw including the pain of endometriosis, fibroids, threatened miscarriage, afterbirth pains, ovulation pains, and -I haven’t tried this-but Winston says testicular pains.
“As a uterine tonic it is unquestionably of great utility”-King’s American Dispensatory. Yup.
The urinary tract also responds to Black haw and I’ve started to add it to my standard UTI formula of Alder/Monarda tincture if there is pain of a spasmodic nature.
I also use it in tension headaches. I will use it straight up or mixed with Crampbark and Lobelia-a little bit internally, and a lot externally. In my first aid kit this blend is in a spray bottle-it is a great way to get tincture on places you can’t reach that well or-when you are in the throes of a debilitating tension headache or spasm- to just push the sprayer and avoid messing around with a dropper. I strongly recommend addressing tension and other headaches BEFORE they get bad, thus the joy of carrying such a blend about. Of course, no tincture will deal with all tension, and I recommend combining herbal treatment with deep breaths, tree time and whatever therapeutic practice works for you. My favorite meditation to use with Black haw is “let go”.
For neck pain I blend it with Goldenrod tincture-fresh flowering tops. Aviva Romm recommends adding Jamaican Dogwood bark for headache, which I love for menstrual headaches but is a bit more relaxing than some folks may want. Experimentation is always called for when formulating!
The Eclectics call it a specific for leg cramps and I have used it externally on very intense calf cramps to near-miraculous effect. It is indicated for restless legs, pregnancy induced leg spasm, pain from overwork or over exercise in all parts of legs, feet, and it has a place in back pain formulas.
Matthew Wood calls it a nutritive tonic which improves the powers of digestion and nutrition and Margi Flint indicated it for high blood pressure, these are 2 areas I have yet to explore but seem to make sense to me.
Black haw is an ally which has been used for a long time and has no reported negative qualities that I’ve found. It is a special plant which I love in every way and which deserves a place in our forest gardens, in our first aid kits and medicine chests.
