This is the second post in a series. It’s a follow-up to My friends the plants.
You might like to read that one first, for context.
Once upon a time, I believed herbalism was a kind of alternative medicine, prescribed by a clinical herbalist.
Which it sort of is, but that’s a small part of it.
Over the years, my concept of herbalism has gradually expanded, from getting advice from a highly trained and experienced expert, to include cultivating a personal relationship with plants.
In this blog I’m sharing some of my favourite fun and fascinating ways into herbalism.
Growing into herbs
My first step was growing herbs.
That’s the part of gardening that I love most.
My garden usually has rosemary, lavender, sorrel, fennel, parsley, mint, dandelions, lemon balm and other herbs. Also, some thriving kawakawa bushes. Kawakawa, Piper excelsum, is a New Zealand native with many wonderful healing properties.
Thyme doesn’t flourish in my garden. But that’s okay, because I can borrow it from friends.
I also grow comfrey. I add it to compost and garden fertilizer.
I especially enjoy growing nettles.
I acquired a stinging nettle plant (Urtica dioica) from Kaye Baxter at Koanga Gardens, many years ago.
I keep the nettles in big pots, but they are always trying to escape into the rest of the garden.
Also, they “ping” my husband. He is not very happy about this.
Nettles aren’t common in the wild in my region of New Zealand. Some of my English cousins think it’s hilarious that I cultivate them on purpose.
Here’s a blog I wrote a while back, about my adventures with nettles. A tale of the sting: celebrating nettles
My nettle plants manage to flower and produce seeds when I don't trim them regularly.
Expert or DIY? My introduction to clinical herbalism
When my sons were small, we were often catching colds. The kids would recover quickly, but my cold would drag on for weeks.
After struggling for far too long, I went to see the local herbalist.
Suzanne Woods had a clinic down the road from my brother’s place in Auckland.
She asked me questions, used a pendulum to support her decision, and sent me home with a bottle of herbal remedy, and another bottle of Bach flower essences.
My long-lasting cold disappeared within a few days.
After Suzanne moved to the United States I went regularly to her apprentice, Anna McVey.
The science and art of herbalism
Most of my favourite clinical herbalists encompass both the science and the art of herbalism.
Herbalism intersects with western science in a complex way.
It’s not materialist, reductionist science. Some effects of herbalism can be “proved” by double-blind tests, and some is more complex than this.
Erika Galentin, of Sovereignty Herbs, teaches herbalists how to get their heads around scientific research (amongst other things).
Herbalism is intersectional. It’s a field (and/or garden) where science and traditional knowledge and ecology and agriculture and gardening and our personal, individual senses, spirituality and wellbeing and our personal relationship with nature all connect up.
Every human culture has herbal knowledge.
The cultural and scientific traditions of India and China have deep and authoritative fields of herbal expertise.
I’ve discovered that my personal affinity is mostly for the herbal traditions of northwestern Europe.
Another field where science intersects with herbalism is ethnobotany.
Ethnobotany is about the plant knowledge of different cultures.
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s fascinating book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, is an example of ethnobotany.
British-Malaysian TV presenter James Wong describes himself as an ethnobotanist, but some of his popular books, e.g. Grow Your Own Drugs, are (in my opinion) herbalism. (Although many ethnobotanists definitely aren’t herbalists.)
In New Zealand, Rongoa Maori, which includes traditional Maori herbal knowledge, is surging in popularity.
Thyme is one of my essential herb friends, but it doesn't thrive in my garden. Usually I have to borrow some from a friend.
DIY ways into herbalism
Clinical herbalists fill an important role as specialist healers and teachers.
But if you’re a hands-on DIY home herbalist, there are many fascinating and fun ways into herbalism.
This personal experience gives me a renewed respect for the skills and knowledge of professional herbalists.
More is not always better
Some herb-human relationships benefit from repeated regular does. Some are just one single big dose, one visit, one conversation.
But mostly it’s small doses, gentle, subtle. A relationship nurtured over time.
Many herbal creations work on the “less is more” principle. Flower essences for example.
Here are some of my favourite herbal concoctions:
Herb infusions and tisanes
Also known as herb teas.
Some people say infusions and tisanes are the same thing. But they’re not quite the same, in my experience. (Although maybe this is about definitions.)
Tisanes and infusions both involve steeping herbs (usually dried) in boiling water.
This is very different from dipping a peppermint tea bag from the supermarket into a cup of hot water. Supermarket tea bags do not usually contain quality herbs. Although they’re better than nothing.
Tisanes
A tisane can be an aesthetic experience. There’s the aroma and the heat, as well as the flavour.
A tea cup with a lid is ideal for brewing a tisane.
A high-quality tisane can be as effective as a bottle of tincture, for some medicinal purposes. A New Zealand example
is clinical herbalist Sandra Clair’s Artemis brand. This is a range of carefully blended high quality dried herbal tisanes.
Herbal infusions
Herbal infusions (e.g. as taught by US herbalist by Susun Weed) are for regular consumption, for nutritional support.
The one I’ve used most often is nettle infusion.
Here’s the method: Place half a cup of dried nettle leaves in a 1 litre jar. Fill the jar with boiling water. Cover and leave for a few hours before drinking.
Nettle infusion is high in minerals and other nutrients.
The taste is “interesting”. Not conventionally appealing to the taste buds, but not particularly medicinal. It tastes green! You get used to it.
Flower essences
Flower essences are at the intersection between herbal remedies and energy medicine. Magic, too.
They’ve also been called “plant spirit medicine”.
Welsh doctor Edward Bach is credited with inventing flower essences in the early 20th century. But I’m pretty sure they must have been known before that.
Bach’s Rescue Remedy blend is deservedly famous and should be in every emergency kit.
But the wider field of flower essences is as beautiful and charismatic as flowers themselves.
DIY flower essences
Flower essences can be easily made at home. Although home-made essences won’t have the longevity (and possibly not the potency) of specialist products.
Making a flower essence can be as simple as placing a flower in a bowl of water, and leaving it overnight, outside, under the moon.
It’s best to make a ritual of it, since a flower essence is a magical-spiritual thing.
Use the best water you can source. From a local spring, or fresh rainwater.
Jenny McGruther of Nourished Kitchen has pretty good instructions for how to make flower essences.
Aromatics and oils
There are two very different kinds of oils commonly used in herbalism. These are: Essential oils; and herbal infused oils.
Herbal infused oils
Herbal infused oils are not as well known in the mainstream as essential oils. But they’re useful and powerful in their own right.
Infused oils are made by placing plant material in a food-grade oil, and leaving to infuse. Either dry or fresh plants are used, depending on the herb. How long the process takes also depends on the herb.
Infused oils are used directly on the skin, e.g. in massage. They can be included in healing salves and moisturisers and balms.
Some infused oils make food ingredients, e.g. rosemary oil.
The method may seem simple, but there are skills and principles to this herbal art form. If you’re drawn to this, I suggest taking a course.
Kami McBride is a well-known teacher of the techniques of making herbal infused oils.
She says herbal oils are a direct way to revive the hands-on home healing arts. “Herbal oils require us to tend to ourselves and others with touch.”
Herbal infused oils also work on the principle that we absorb the beneficial properties of herbs through our skin.
Some commonly used herbal infused oils aren’t particularly aromatic, e.g. St John’s Wort infused oil. (But it is such a beautiful red colour!)
Essential oils
Essential oils are a very different plant-based entity from infused oils.
They are powerful, usually highly aromatic. Essential oils belong mostly in the healing fields of aromatics, aromatherapy and aroma gnosis.
Aromatics are used in herbalism to support the psyche, the emotional body, and to build empathy towards the body. They work on the principle that the olfactory sense (smell) bypasses rational analysis.
Essential oils are not gentle in their impact on human bodies.
Also, there are ethical and sustainability issues to consider with essential oils. Producing essential oils uses a huge amount of plant material.
Traditionally and sustainably produced essential oils are expensive and powerful.
The cheaper, mass-produced essential oils are made using chemical manufacturing processes. Also, they’re not an environmentally sustainable and respectful use of the plants.
Erika Galentin is a US-based clinical herbalist with a particular interest in essential oils.
I highly recommend Erika’s book on essential oils, The Family Guide to Aromatherapy: A Safe Approach to Essential Oils for the Holistic Home. It has been described by other clinical herbalists as “the essential book on essential oils”.
Erika also facilitates distilling workshops using a beautiful copper still.
She Is particularly interested in the ways herbs connect us up with archetypal energies.
Erika says essential oils carry the sacred archetypal energies of the plant.
Here’s where you can find out how to source traditionally and sustainably produced essential oils.
Elder trees only flower for a few weeks in early summer. Photo by Sarah Hargreaves
Fun and fizzy beverages
The really fun part of the herbalism spectrum, for me, is home-brewed beverages. This combines herbalism and fermentation with micro-organisms – two topics close to my heart!
One of my all-time favourite herbalist books is Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
I prefer beverages that are made quickly. A few days or a few weeks, rather than months. This means they are on the soft drinks end of the spectrum.
But there are plenty of herbal recipes that involve alcohol, if you’re motivated that way.
Here are some of my favourite herbal brews (and I’ve linked to some of my recipes)
Ginger beers
Lemonade
Apple cider vinegar beverages – honeygar and switchels
This is how plants take over at my place. The hops vine grows over my bicycle when I don't ride for a couple of weeks.
Gratitude to the herbalists and the plants
Here are some of the herbalists who have rocked my world, who have opened my eyes and my brain and heart to the possibilities of plants.
Elisabeth Brooke, Isla Burgess, Erika Galentin, Stephen Harrod Buhner, Rosalee de la Foret, Kiva Rose Hardin, Leila Lees. And fermentation enthusiast Sandor Ellix Katz. Special thanks to Suzanne Woods and Anna McVey, for getting me started.
And gratitude to the plants, especially nettle and rosemary.
More reading…
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