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How to harvest Burdock Seeds.

Dust In the late 1980s and early 90s London gave itself a facial. On the facades of London’s grand buildings mud masks and latex were applied to peel off 300 hundred years of grime from the walls of the city.  Artist, Jorge Otero-Pailos, collected the latex peelings, black with soot and centuries of fifth, and hung them like flayed skin in Westminster Hall, the British house of Parliament. He called the exposition The Ethics of Dust. His hope that by bringing 300 centuries of grime into the house of government politicians would be reminded of the mistakes their predecessors made.…

Everything you put in your mouth passes through your liver before moving onto the rest of your body. One could hypothesize that any herb taken orally in a tea, tincture, capsule, oil, powder or glycerite is a liver herb as it passes through your liver and therefore in some way effects the largest organ in your body. For example, in my clinical experience, when folks have a “weak”, “burdened”  or “stagnant”liver it is wise to go easy on the amount and number of herbs offered until the liver has been nourished and strengthened. Folks with liver challenges, whether diagnosed or…

There was an odd stirring yesterday. And being solstice there was a potency to the oddness. I generally do not watch for “signs” but I do pay attention. Yesterday driving into Ottawa to go to clinic there were two deer in different places dead on the side of the road. This is unusual on that road. The first deer, I startled like it had jumped out in front of me. As I drove, I was listening to a radio interview about the missing murder women, children and men from the indigenous communities across Canada. I cried all the way to…

Are you feeling a little overwhelmed with the complexity of the relationships within holistic medicine? Life is complex. The web of life is vast, beyond imagination. But there is also a simplicity to holistic medicine that can be trusted and relied on. Let’s turn to another story of consider the simplicity underlying the complex web of life. This is an old story about a witch, a girl and doll that comes to use from Eastern Europe. There is a girl named Vasalisa whose mother dies. Luckily, just before her mother gasps her final breath, she gives the girl a tiny…

H-plyori or Helicobacter pylori is a bacteria found in at least 50% of all human stomachs. It is one of the top 5 most studied microbes in the world. How it lives in the stomach, why it lives in stomachs, how it gets there and why it sometimes causes disease is not understood.  H-pylori What is most hotly debated about H-pylori is whether or not the bacteria has a symbiotic  pathogenic or an opportunistic relationship with the human stomach. Scientists are not sure if it a good thing or a bad thing. Here is what they have learned.  It was…

Sitting at my kitchen table, amongst the salt shaker, cups of tea and books, I watch the birds come and go from bird feeders: one near the blue berry patch, another by hulking hops climbing a later and two near the kitchen window where morning glories bloom in the summer. A storm howls outside. Snow blows and swirls. The white pines, along the fence line, bend yielding to the wind. Their branches gesticulate the story of storm. I am grateful the bird feeders are filled with Sunflower seeds. Sweet Chickadees quickly come and go from the feeders. The Sunflower seed’s…

Chapter One of The Vessel: Plants, Women and Contraception We are the Granddaughters of the Witches you didn’t burn! – A protest sign carried during the Woman’s March January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Dear Reader: Elizabeth Francis and Agnus and Joan Waterhouse were tried for witchcraft during the summer of 1566 in Essex County, England. The following is both a factual and imagined account of their lives. When Elizabeth Francis was twelve years old, her grandmother, Mother Ev, shared with her the medicine plants carry. On the morning of summer solstice, the old woman and the…

When the wind carries a warning of cooler weather and leaves scurry across the path, herbalistsdig up roots. Putting on rubber boots with wool socks, down filled vests and knitted hat,herbalists, who have been waiting patiently for leaves to die back as the frost creeps higher andthickens with each morning, take out their shovels for the final harvests of the year – themedicine buried beneath the earth.Gathering flowers for medicine in the spring and early summer is a delight. A herbalist’s basketcarries the scent of tender violets and rose petals. The sweetness hidden in the red clover’sclusters of purple petals…

I’ve been working on a book about plants used for contraceptives. In the research journey I learned about Silphium, an extinct plant that was a wildly poplar contraceptive. The story goes like this: during the time Alexandra the Great, he was born 356BC, on his yearly visit to the Delphi Oracle a Greek king was advised to send his people across the Mediterranean sea and set up a settlement on the arid land that rises from the glistening waters of the inland sea. The Oracle told the King that city state established in this place would become the wealthiest and…

Thank you to Ilse Turner and Ruth Salmon who invited me to read parts of The Weaving at the library in the village near my home. IIse’s questions and insights made the reading so much more interesting. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9ACV-3IUYs&t=1085s

Last night I felt a chill. So I made a ginger kidney poultice and crawled into bed with a novel. The ginger kidney poultice is deeply warming and relaxing… perfect for a damp, cold night. Because the kidney’s are organs of detoxification, a ginger poultice gently influences detoxification processes in your body. I also find it eases tension associated with pain along the spine. You can also place a ginger poultice over any part of your body that feels cold, tense and achy. How to Make a Ginger Kidney Poultice Begin with putting a small pot of water on the…

Nettle Seed (Urtica dioica semen)Etymologyurtica from the Latin “urere” meaning to burndioica from Latin for “two houses” – this refers to male and female flowers occurring on separate plants. Nettle from the Anglo-Saxon word “noedl” meaning “needle”.In contemporary western herbal medicine, nettle seed is essentially an energizing trophorestorative for the kidneys. Some herbalists also refer to nettle seed as an adaptogen. Let’s begin with historical uses. First historical use of Nettle SeedNettle seed was part of the feed given to horses that were much loved. It made their coats shiny and they appeared to have more vigor. This is important,…

Enjoy this old story of initiation from The Weaving: Plants, Planets and People. “A long time ago, a young girl went into Starodubsk, an old Oak forest, searching for mushrooms to fill her basket. As she wandered, a strange looking root caught her attention. Curious, she crept closer to the root and as she bent to get a better look, she saw the strange root was a nest of snakes. Horrified, she stepped backwards and fell into a hole. It was the hole where the snakes lived. It was dark in the hole and hissing sounds filled the dank air.…

She, the woman with ribbons on her skirt, spoke quietly. I had to lean in to her words. She said, “I am shy,” with a voice like the wind that ripples water. That cold winter’s day, I had gone to see the butterflies. They drifted through the warm, humid room pausing on lush tropical plants, a cement wall and tiled floor like restless hearts seeking a moment of clarity. I had worn a blue shirt with a red flower print hoping the butterflies would mistake me for a flower and land. My friend took my picture with a luminous blue…

If I had to pick the greatest pleasure of being a herbalist, beside watching people become well and fall in love with plants, its picking flowers in the morning for medicine. There is a very old flower meditation from India. In this meditation you are ask to go out and pick a particular of flower, it could white, red, yellow, blue, even green flowers, until you have full basket. Then you sit quietly and gaze upon the flowers, imaging your body is being infused with the flowers’ softness. When you mind feels soft and still, you close your eyes and picture…

Bear One I feel you move through darkness – a painful shadow. The darkness of a forest – bare trees, moonless, twigs snapping. I know you are there. Groaning, alone in your heavy, tired body. Hunger keeps you awake.   On my knees, my finger traces your track, sticky in mud. I know- where you have been.   I long to bury my face in your musky scent, know the rhythm of your wild heart, feed your hunger.   A twig snaps. Leaves rustle. I feel you move through the darkness.   Two The question is the gift. The hardpart…

The Moon affects plants as much as the sun. The Moon pulls water. Plants love water. Water defines the relationship between plants and the moon. The ancients named each month after a Moon the changes or activities it evoked. Living with rhythms of the Moon, as our ancestors lived allows a profound understanding of the relationship between celestial and terrestrial events. To begin to understand this complex relationship, a careful study of the new moons and full moons and the germination, leaf development, bloom of flowers and going to seeds of plants will lay down a good foundation for understanding…