“The Queen has hairy legs” said my teacher Tommy Priester and he’s right. One clear identifying trait of Queen Anne’s Lace is the fine “hair” on the stem of the plant. ​

Wild Yarrow is always white, and its flower is quite similar to both Queen Anne’s Lace and Water Hemlock.  Upon closer inspection, Yarrow’s flower is typically more “dense” than Queen Anne’s Lace, and does not have a center spot so common to the Queen. ​

To identify Yarrow properly, however, it’s always best to look at the stem and leaves.  Yarrow stems are smooth, and its leaves are quite different, as one can see upon closer examination. ​
​Yarrow leaf:

Queen Anne’s Lace leaf: ​

For more information about water hemlock, we encourage you to visit these sites: 
https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/poisonous-plant-research/docs/water-hemlock-cicuta-douglasii/

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/cicuta_maculata.shtml

a cautionary tale: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026056.htm

Ultimately, the safest rule of thumb is that if you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it. If you are unsure of the soil conditions in the area, don’t harvest it. Take a photo and ask your herbal community to help you ID the plant. ​

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

by Patrice Green

We are just a few days away from the next Herbstalk, arguably one of my favorite weekends of the year.  If you’ve never been to this wonderful event I ask, “What are you waiting for?”  The classes are wonderful, the sense of community created by Steph, Henry and Catherine is unlike any other, and the marketplace is filled with fabulous herbal products made by some of my favorite people.  ​

In its sixth year it now feels more like a great herbal reunion, a chance to catch up with old friends and former classmates.  It’s an opportunity to learn, explore and experience herbal medicine in a fun, friendly, warm environment. 

This year I’m honored to teach about one of my dearest plant allies, the beautiful rose, in an experiential class.  There are many ways to learn about a plant. You can study it through the writings of other herbalists.  You can research its historical use.  You can learn about its constituents, and read about any clinical studies done on the plant.  All of that information is wonderful to have and certainly will give you a great body of knowledge about any plant, but my feeling is that the best way to really, truly know a plant requires that you get your hands dirty. ​

Buy some seeds or a plant from a reputable grower and plant it in your garden – even if your garden is a pot on your front steps due to space limitations.  Tend the plant, watch it grow.  Observe how it responds in sunlight, extreme temperatures, and the blooming cycle of its flowers.  Learn about how the doctrine of signatures might apply.  Take notes on it, sketch the plant.  

Choose various menstruums.  Make a glyceride, a tincture and a vinegar.  Experience the differences of each.  Experiment and take notes.  Use the essential oil of the plant in a diffuser or aromatherapy blend.  Use the flower essence. Observe how you feel when you use it, what parts of your body or spirit respond to the plant. Meditate or journey to the plant.  Ask what lessons it has for you, physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Wait for the answers.  Take notes on your meditations and journeys, then work with the plant to deepen your understanding of its myriad gifts.  

While there is a left brain component to herbalism, I prefer to learn about plants from a right brain perspective, as to me, herbalism is an experiential process. Studying a plant energetically, through meditation and journeying offers direct access to the spirit of the plant itself.  A skillful teacher, books, studies can all give you great information about a plant, but the best teacher is the plant itself, with the human teacher acting as a mediator or facilitator to the student’s relationship with the plant.  This requires the student’s willingness to go on an inward journey, to be still and wait for the lessons the plant has to offer to be revealed.   ​

I hope to see you at this year’s Herbstalk, and maybe even to have the good fortune to share class space with you!  Until then, many blessings!

by Ryn Midura

Don’t let the diagrams scare you! Don’t let the long names drive you away. Phytochemistry can be intimidating at a first look, but it does have some useful insights to offer even the most folksy of healers. The best parts of it are those that bear directly on your practical experience working with herbs.​

Let’s take an quick look at the salicylates, those famously anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving constituents found in willow (Salix alba) and other herbs, as an example.

First, aspirin: it’s acetylsalicylic acid, a synthetic derivative. Both natural salicylates and aspirin are pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, and fever-reducing; however, as it turns out, it is the acetyl group there which provides the blood-thinning actions. So, the natural salicylates found in willow and friends do not thin the blood. (Though admittedly, you may occasionally read otherwise! This seems to be one instance, among many, of back-forming conclusions about the activity of an herb based on assumptions about the activity of its constituents. Be wary!)

Second, we have the natural salicylates which we find in our herbs. There are many different forms. Two of the most common:

Methyl salicylate is volatile – that is, it evaporates and travels through the air – and lends the distinctive aromatic scent to the wintergreen plant (Gaultheria procumbens), as well as birch (Betula lenta) and meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). It is rapidly and readily absorbed by the skin.

Salicin is slowly metabolized into salicylic acid after you consume it. This conversion isn’t completed until the constituents pass through the intestines and liver – which, on the one hand, means that willow usually isn’t as fast-acting a painkiller as aspirin can be.
​
On the other hand, this delayed conversion is a good thing for your GI tract! It is the exposure to free salicylic acid, released during the relatively rapid metabolism of aspirin, which leads to its notorious gut-irritating and ulcer-forming effects. For this reason, willow bark and meadowsweet are much safer: they don’t cause potentially serious damage the way aspirin can.

Plants generally contain a blend of salicylates; wintergreen has lots of methyl salicylate, and willow has lots of salicin. That means, if you’re looking to manage topical pain, wintergreen might be a better choice due to the benefits of rapid absorption. As part of a formula to mitigate an arthritic condition over the long term, however, willow might be a better option.

Constituents work more effectively in their naturally occurring mixtures than they do when isolated or synthesized – synergy is a key factor in herbal medicine. So, of course we don’t reduce all the actions of a plant down to one constituent! However, it is handy to know a little phytochemistry to help you sort through claims made about herbs, and also make better choices about which plant to apply.

If you’d like to learn more, join me for my Practical Phytochemistry class at Herbstalk!

by Katja Swift

​This year at Herbstalk, I'll be talking about Herbs for Psychological and Emotional First Aid. Here, I want to share a somewhat different formula: herbs for people ASSISTING people who need psychological and emotional first aid! Whether you're responding to a local disaster or supporting a friend experiencing trauma or distress in their life, you need support too, especially if you're in it for the long haul. Here's a formula I love for just this type of work:

Aid Worker’s Elixir ("keep going and keep it together")

Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosis)
Eleuthero is an adaptogen, which means that it helps the body manage stress in a fairly generalized way. Recently, adaptogens are starting to be defined as herbs that have explicit action on the HPA axis or on the stress-response functions of the endocrine system as a whole. In other words - adaptogens can help you keep going. Eleuthero is stimulating, but it has a somewhat different quality than caffeine. You definitely get the uplifiting action, but it's not quite as much of a spike as caffeine can be, and it doesn't have the tendency to cause "jitters" or upset digestion. Eleuthero is fantastic when you need to keep working even in extreme conditions without enough resources - and in fact, that's how a lot of the studies on this plant were done! ​

Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
Angelica is a plant of extremes - it lives most happily up near the Arctic Circle, where it's either all day or all night. Even in the summer, though the sun is out 20+ hours a day, it's never really warm. Angelica is a tall plant with a large, heavy flower head, and yet it's stem is a strong spine that can support that weight even in forceful winds. Angelica can give you energy to last through extremes without losing your balance, and to support others even when you're feeling tossed about. ​

Rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea)
Rhodiola is another Arctic Circle plant. It thrives on extreme rocky outcroppings and can hold things together. Often this plant is touted as an "anti-depressant", but traditionally it was thought of more as an endurance plant. Imagine Vikings rowing in open boats across cold seas - physically, that's a tremendous feat. When you can't see the shore (and might not for a few days), everything is grey and damp and cold, and you just have to keep moving without losing your internal compass: that's Rhodiola!

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Yarrow is a battlefield plant - traditionally it was an ally to wounded soldiers. And of course, with its strong ability to staunch bleeding, it's easy to see why. But the protective qualities of Yarrow were so strong that in naming the plant, botanists reference Achilles, who was protected (or "armored"!) against all harm except for the place on his heel where his mother held him to dip him into the magic river. Physiologically, we work with Yarrow for bleeding, and emotionally that can be true too - to prevent your own resources from bleeding out of you while you're supporting others. But the mythology behind Yarrow - though we haven't invented the microscope that can explain it yet - also plays a part: Yarrow is like "emotional armor". When you need to be strong in difficult situations, when you need to put on your armor and head out to the emotional battlefield, Yarrow has an amazing shielding quality. 

Blend a strong decoction or make a tincture of these plants in equal parts. I like to add something sweet – maple syrup would be my first choice, or molasses, because of the mineral content and nourishing aspect, though honey is also a good choice. Just like chocolate helps you recover from the emotional onslaught of the Dementors in the Harry Potter stories, there's something particularly magic about the ability of sweet things to feel soothing in difficult times!  

Consume freely as needed. And of course, once you and your community are safe, let yourself sleep for a week!

This formula is fantastic whether you're working in a first aid tent after a natural disaster, supporting a loved one through hospice care, or even "just" supporting your teenager as they navigate the pits and falls of high school!

Katja has been teaching herbalism and practicing as a clinical herbalist since 1996. For ten years she owned and worked a 150-acre certified organic farm in central Vermont. During this time she taught monthly at the local coop, and as a guest lecturer at Dartmouth Medical School and the UVM Medical School. In 2011, she and her husband Ryn Midura founded the CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism, a vitalist school with a three-year clinical training program. In addition to this program, they offer a one-year community herbalist program and community classes and workshops. Katja serves as adjunct faculty at MCPHS University and Northeastern University, teaching vitalism and Traditional Western Herbalism to 100 PharmD students each year. Katja is also trained as a street medic and Wilderness First Responder, and has run in the streets or coordinated dispatch for actions in Boston, New York, and Ferguson. Katja writes regularly for Plant Healer Magazine and the Journal of the Northeast Herbal Association, among others. She has presented at the Traditions in Western Herbalism conferences, the American Herbalists Guild symposium, IM4US, and Herbstalk. ​

Jennifer Hauf, grower and owner of Muddy River Herbals, is a farmer and writer living in Boston. As part of our Herbstalk garden team, she also ensures that pockets of herbs thrive around the city. A transplant from the rustbelt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she grew up in love with the life around her, especially as seen in her father’s and grandparents’ gardens. She began using herbal medicine a decade ago, and has been tending to herbs on farms and gardens since 2006. When not elbow-deep in the dirt she writes about urban ecology at her blog, Spokes and Petals, spins wool and bicycle tires, and occasionally hammers out a tune on her banjo. She is available for gardening consultations, workshops, and freelance work.

contributed by Brendan Kelly

Today's post includes two videos created by one of our wonderful teachers, Brendan Kelly. He is the author of "The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis", and in these short video clips he talks about the important connection between personal and ecological health.

You can learn more about his book here, and see the details of his class here, Global Warming & Internal Inflammation, which will be offered at Herbstalk on June 3rd.

Brendan Kelly has a master’s degree in acupuncture and teaches about Chinese medicine at schools, colleges, universities and conferences around the country. He is a faculty member at Johnson State College in VT and the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture in FL. He has 20 years experience in western herbs, with 12 years in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. He practices acupuncture and Chinese and western herbal medicine full time at the clinic he co-founded, Jade Mountain Wellness, in Burlington, VT. In 2015 he published his first book "The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis" which presents the deeper, root causes of our warming planet and its connection to our personal and collective health.