Submitted by Krystina Friedlander of Baraka Birth

When should you start preparing for pregnancy? In short, we should all be prepared for pregnancy if it means loving our selves as the creative beings we are, and providing the kind of care we give to what we love. Beyond basic health and self-love, 50% of pregnancies are unplanned and so there are very real benefits to including general preconception care as part of self-care. This can be as simple as ensuring that we’re eating a diet rich in vitamins and minerals, eliminating cigarettes, and cutting down or eliminating caffeine, alcohol, and processed foods from our diets (hint, preconception care looks a lot like living a healthy lifestyle).

For women or couples planning on having a child, how long should they prepare to get pregnant? It depends on your health; healthy women with regular menstrual cycles who eat a whole-foods diet may want to supplement with folic acid for three months before pregnancy. Women with irregular or very short cycles (less than 23 days), or conditions like Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome will want to spend more time with diet and exercise to prepare their bodies for optimal fertility and a healthy pregnancy. Women coming off of hormonal contraception should take time to allow their cycles to normalize, but also to work nutritionally to restore levels of folic acid and other B vitamins that are lost while taking The Pill. Herbs are fantastic and can help at each step of the way.

Diet-wise, cut down on processed sugars and flours, eliminate soda, and reduce or eliminate caffeine. Studies have shown that women who consume 300mg of caffeine daily (2-3 cups of coffee) have an average delayed conception of at least a year. Eliminate trans-fats, and ensure that your diet includes a good dose of essential fatty acids, such as those from fish oil or flax seed oil. Begin taking a folic acid supplement, especially if you are coming off of hormonal birth control. Herbally, you can incorporate into your routine uterine toning herbs like red raspberry leaf, tonifying herbs such as ashwaganda, and hormone balancing herbs like vitex, to name a few.

For women and couples who intend to have children in the near future and who would like to take some time to prepare, I suggest setting aside six months to a year. During this time you have the opportunity to begin creating spaces for children mentally and emotionally, to get finances in order, and you can work to establish healthy eating and exercise habits. If the wait is unbearable, prepare for at least three months. This includes both women and men—it takes about ten weeks for a man to create and store sperm before it’s ready to travel outside of his body.

Lastly, I like to think of the preconception period as an opportunity for women to connect with their fertile selves, or as Jeanine Parvati puts it, to “[reclaim] the fertile body, the rich, fecund messages coming forth with each turn of the cycle…” Get to know your fertility, and celebrate it! One great way to do this is to learn the cues of fertility and then chart your cycles.

In my class on Sunday morning we’ll talk about getting bodies ready for babies, cycle charting, diet, and some of the wonderful herbal allies that women can use to support them on the journey to motherhood.

Resources

Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition, Marilyn Shannon

The Garden of Fertility, Katie Singer

It’s the weekend we’ve all been waiting for!

This Saturday the doors to our Herbstalk classes and marketplace open! We’ll be holding classes from 9 am until 6:30 pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

We hope you will join us for the extraordinary weekend we’ve planned…

If you haven’t bought your ticket yet, there is still time to purchase online.

Read on for more details of what you need to know beforehand so that you can make the most of your experience at Herbstalk.



TICKET OPTIONSWhile you can buy tickets at the door, we encourage you to purchase tickets online beforehand. Choose from the following options:

★ $5 Community Ticket for one-day access to Community classes and the Herbal Marketplace

★ $20 All-Access Ticket for two-day access to Core and Community classes (price increases to $30 at the door, or $15 per day)

★ $40 Intensive Ticket for one intensive AND two-day access to all Core and Community classes

Kids 12 and under enter for FREE!

Where to ParkWe encourage you to take public transporation, bike or carpool if at all possible. The Armory is located in a busy residential area and parking is limited.

The Armory is located at 191 Highland Ave., Somerville, MA 02144. There is some parking directly behind the building and we also have access to three overflow lots a few blocks away from the Armory located at:
112 Central St.
75 Belmont St.
93 Highland Ave. (Somerville City Hall)

Click HERE for a map of all the available parking lots.

What to BringTo spend less time in line when you arrive, please bring your printed or digital ticket with you. If you forget it, however, we can look you up by your name.

You may also find it useful to have a pen and notebook for attending classes, and cash for the marketplace. (There is no ATM in the Armory – the closest is a few blocks away.)

What to Eat & DrinkOur food and drink vendors include the following local businesses. There will be options for all eaters, including meat and vegetarian dishes as well as gluten-free options.

Red Lentil
vegetarian entrees, salads and cupcakes

Seta’s
Mediterranean wraps, salads, dips and falafel
(vegetarian, gluten-free and meat options)

Soluna Garden Farm 
herbal baked goods and tea

Culinary Cruisers
kombucha and Union Square donuts

Cambridge Naturals
snacks including nuts, jerky, chocolate, snack bars, chips and assorted beverages

Black Magic Coffee
drip coffee & espresso-based beverages, chai and hot chocolate

There will also be local beer, wine and mead available for purchase at the Armory.

See you this weekend!

Submitted by Brittany Wood Nickerson of Thyme Herbal

Our digestive system takes in and breaks down food and experiences.  It is through the process of digestion that bits of food are transformed into vital nutrients – complex chemical processes work to extract vitamins and minerals, break down fats into lipids, and proteins into amino acids.  A well functioning digestive system has the wisdom to break down, absorb and utilize the nutrition it needs from the food we eat and let go of the parts and pieces that it does not.  When digestion is not working well, one can eat the healthiest, most pure, organic food in the world, but not absorb any of the nutrients.  In fact, improperly digested food (whether of poor or high quality) over time can lead to larger health concerns.  We spend so much time focusing on WHAT we eat in our culture, I think we often forget to look at HOW we eat and whether or not our body is able to process and assimilate nutrition from that food.

Our digestive processes are integrally connected to our nervous system.  The enteric nervous system, which has almost as many neurons as the spinal cord, runs the length of our digestive system from our mouth to our anus.  The enteric nervous system is responsible for the secretion of digestive enzymes, bile and other fluids, the movement of peristalsis and the opening and closing of sphincters that allow food to pass from one digestive organ to another.  The enteric nervous system is often called a second brain because it contains neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that are responsible for communicating and thinking.  Tissues that contain these “communicating and thinking” neurons and neurotransmitters (the same as those found in the brain) surround the primary organs of the digestive system – esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine – and are responsible for much of its functioning.  When our senses are stimulated (the smell, sight or taste of food are a few examples), the enteric nervous system is triggered to begin the digestive process.

That being said, our digestive processes are influenced by all the same factors that influence our nervous system and to all those things that relax and worry us.  When the body is stressed out, anxious, sad or angry, these emotions trigger our sympathetic nervous system, initiating the fight or flight response – when the body is in this state it goes into survival mode and digestion slows way down.  On the contrary, when we are relaxed, happy and at ease, the parasympathetic nervous system is active; this is the rest and digest state.  When we are in the rest and digest state, the enteric nervous system functions optimally and there is better digestion, absorption and elimination.

If you want to get the most out of your food, to digest properly, the body has to be in a relaxed, parasympathetic dominant state.  Otherwise, the enteric nervous system, which makes all these amazing digestive processes work, will be impaired and sluggish.  The most important first step is to make space to eat and digest.  Making space to eat might include taking a few deep breaths before meals or taking a quiet moment to shut your eyes and soften into your body.  A quiet moment of reflection such as this can help to lower the stress response.  One of the other important ways that we can make space to enjoy and appreciate the food we eat is to practice gratitude – even if we are just eating a quick snack or a meal on the go.  You can express your gratitude toward the food you are eating, those who prepared it or grew it, or to something else entirely.  Giving thanks is an act that stimulates a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state, enhancing the digestive process.  There is ancient wisdom in saying grace before meals, as practiced by many cultures around the world.

Digestion is about breaking down, absorbing, processing and letting go of far more than just the food we eat.  Supporting healthy digestion is also about acknowledging how we process experiences, emotions and energy.  The state and health of our digestion can have a direct impact on our emotional state and vice versa.  If you have an irritated, inflamed gut, you will feel irritated in your life.  If you have sluggish, slow digestion, you will feel slow, unmotivated and perhaps depressed in your life.  Supporting your digestion (including the ways we prepare and consume food) will positively influence how you feel, perceive, respond, react and initiate in your life.  Supporting digestion is a broad topic, but here are a few straightforward suggestions to get you started!

Lifestyle and Dietary Suggestions to Support Better Digestion and Absorption:

1. Don’t eat late at night.

2. Eat regular, balanced meals and don’t snack when you are not hungry.

3. Don’t go for long periods without eating, do not suppress or ignore your hunger.

4. Have a bowel movement every day.

5. Do not drink cold liquids with meals. 

6. Do not drink more than 6 – 8 oz. of liquid with meals.

7. Give thanks for the food you are eating, for those who grew it and prepared it and for anything else you want to honor.

8. Take a quiet moment before eating to relax and take a few deep breaths.

9. Chew slowly and mindfully.

10. Prepare and eat your food with love (no matter how simple or elaborate the meal).

11. Got bitter?  Bitter is the most metabolically active of all flavors, it stimulates the entire digestive process, supports absorption and elimination and is excellent for liver health.  Bitter foods include bitter lettuce, radicchio, dark leafy greens like dandelion greens and kale, and herbs like gentian, elecampane, angelica, artichoke leaf and dandelion root.

12. Support your digestive fire with carminative spices.  Carminatives increase metabolism and the absorption of nutrients.  They also help to relieve gas and bloating.  All culinary herbs are carminative, so start cooking with herbs and spices!

13. Eat fermented foods.  Fermented foods are full of probiotic bacteria that help support the health of our colon.  They support absorption of B vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins and folic acid and play a large role in immunity.  Healthy probiotic flora have also been linked to mental and emotional health.  Fermented foods include: sauerkraut, kim chi, kombucha, plain yogurt, kefir, sour cream, crème fraiche, buttermilk, lacto fermented pickles, miso, and raw apple cider vinegar.

Jessyloo Rodrigues author at Herbaloo, Earth Apprentice.

As a young lady I explored several paths of herbal healing which spoke to me.  Then I came across the most colorful way to communicate, via Plant Spirit Medicine.  There are many herbalists abound who have also found their niche with Plant Spirits.  That’s not to say that other herbalists don’t practice this. In fact, every Herbalist and Green Thumber have probably dabbled with a Plant Spirit whether they were conscious of it or not.  Maybe even YOU have had your own experience!

My mother has raised me to appreciate any living creature, and to care deeply for those Green creatures we invite into our home – most commonly referred to as house plants.  I would notice plants craving attention when they needed water.  At first it was as simple as, “Wow! That plant needs some water.  It is so droopy! It literally won’t survive if I don’t water it right now.”

Can you relate?

I became more in tune with my house plants by noticing which needed water more often, which acted as if they hated water and those which simply seemed happier just having me near them.  Yes! That’s right!  The plants were happier just knowing that I would continue to stand near them and water them while they were in my home.  And that’s really where it all began…

It was like a wave of attention would come over me while near certain plants.  Something in the room would beckon me and when I looked at these plants they would pump out more waves.  Luring me over to them with subtle hints of rainbow energy .  Well!  How could I resist?  I started experimenting.  What happens to the plants when I enter a room?  What happens when I try to spot out a plant that needs water in the room?  What happens when I ask the plant if it needs water……..?

It answers.

Now at this point, I was not hearing plants have full on conversations with me about water, the temperature or the nutrients they were in need of.  It was more of a brighter perkier plant if they wanted what I asked, or a low energy stand-off-ish plant if they didn’t want what I offered.

How cool!  It was making house plant care a lot easier.  I was in High School at this point and all I wanted to do in college was study Botany.  Plants had become a most interesting species which I believed had more potential than was commonly thought.

Read the full story here … herbaloo.org/about/

Submitted by Nancy Anderson of Canis Major Herbals

I love researching canine conditions and formulating remedies as much as the next herbalist, but I have found that in so many cases, we start with the foundation of diet, and the condition resolves.  Recurring ear infections?  Hot spots?  Loose stool?  Urinary tract infections?  The root cause is usually a diet not appropriate for that dog.  I have seen so many dogs whose humans don’t even know that the dog is not in a state of vital health.  “Oh, that scratching?  She’s always done that.”  “The recurring ear infections?  Isn’t that common with dogs?”  “All that gas?  The vet said it’s normal for a dog his age.”  “The red toes?  Yeah, she always bites them.  Why, is that not good?”  “Don’t all dogs get fleas?”

Well, no, actually-  it’s not a sign of optimal health.  Let’s take a closer look at diet.  Of course, your veterinarian should always be apprised of your dog’s condition and I’m not suggesting that you self-diagnose and/or self-treat medical conditions, but some of the most common reasons for taking a dog to the vet are actually diet-related and easily resolved if you know what you’re looking at.

Sure, you can get antibiotics for icky ears or steroids for itchy skin, but drugs prescribed to correct a symptom will often suppress the symptom by driving the imbalance deeper into the body to manifest later in a different or more advanced condition.  Say your dog has recurring urinary tract infections. Yes, antibiotics will take care of it… each time. An overly-medicated or overly-vaccinated dog will often have a weakened immune system, thus continuing the cycle.  Why is your dog having recurring urinary tract infections, in the first place? Wouldn’t you rather get to the underlying cause so that the condition can be resolved once and for all, and your dog can be back in a state of balanced health?

Food sensitivity is one issue that we’re seeing a lot more of, these days.  There are different theories on the reasons for this, but it does seem that the best practice to avoid it is to rotate foods.  Part of the nutritional requirements for dogs is an array of amino acid profiles – those found in animal meats.  Although dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, their nutritional needs in this regard have remained the same as any wild canid who preys upon different animals.  So, by rotating meats, you are providing that wider nutritional profile, thus perhaps reducing your dog’s likelihood of developing a food sensitivity.

But why stop at meats?  Rotate grains, vegetables, fruits, and herbs! If you feed a good quality dry food, rotate formulas and even brands on a regular basis.  Different companies have different recipes and ingredients, so offering that diversity is your dog’s immune system’s best aid.  Depending on your dog’s constitution and tolerance, add meats and vegetables and fruits in season.  If you feed raw, start rotating ingredients (if you don’t already).



And, of course, add herbs.  I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to even get to herbs!  (I do ramble when it comes to food.)  Keep a rotating supply in the pantry or cabinet, and add according to the season or your dog’s condition(s).  Make an infusion the same way that you would make it for yourself, using less for smaller dogs.  Once cooled, dump all contents (herbs and all) into the bowl of food.  Another method I use is to throw the vegetables, roots, and herbs all together in a pot and simmer for a bit.  With a big enough pot, I then have plenty for the next few days.

So, which herbs?  Which vegetables?  Which roots?  Which fruits?  One system that I like is the Chinese 5-Element System because it correlates the seasons with food and organ systems.  So, if we start in the Spring, we’re looking at the Liver/Gall Bladder, and the foods and herbs that support that organ system, such as chicken, rabbit, eggs, millet, brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, beets, radishes, asparagus, kale, collard greens, leeks, carrots, peaches, plums, raspberries, Barberry, Burdock, Dandelion root, Greater Celandine, Horseradish, Milk Thistle, Sassafras, Scullcap, Yellow Dock.  Moving into Summer, we’re going to rotate into the foods and herbs appropriate for that season/system/element, and so forth.  All organ systems rely on the others and so, through the seasons, we’re supporting and cleansing each organ systems as we go through the body in order to keep the whole functioning well.  Talk about preventive care!

Throw in a good dose of happy exercise and a little positive training or working, and your dog will flourish!  Isn’t that what we’re after?

Submitted by Mischa Schuler of Wild Carrot Herbs.

It is early morning.  You have risen with the birds on this glorious spring day, and feel invigorated with the rays of sunshine peering through the leafy green.  Your eyes take note of cobwebs between blades of grass and branches still awash with glistening water droplets.  The earth smells fresh beneath your feet.  You feel more alive, connected, and observant.

You are building relationship with the stretch of land on which you wander.  Each plant that you set your eyes upon today, tomorrow you will sense its almost imperceptible change from yesterday.  You will recognize the minutia of transformation, the build up to great change.

These small hellos: to the newly leafing Trillium, protecting its one flower bud within its still-folded triad of leaves, or to the courageous Coltsfoot bursting yellow before its leaves appear; matter.  They will not be seen the same way again tomorrow.  These small moments of noticing hold strong significance.  It is this appreciation of color, form and scent that advise the herbalist that this moment is the time for harvest.

An herbalist seeks vitality.  She searches for the form of the plant in its fullest abundance.  The succulent root in spring, just before the leaf and flower emerge, or in autumn, when the leaves have died back and returned their nutrients back to the root stock.  The ripest fruit in summer, plump and firm, and not yet fermented.  The boldest flower in spring, expressing its joyful self to the face of the sun, just after opening and just after the dew has parted.  The softest new leaves, tender and bright.

We humans know these moments of giving attention with delight.  The acknowledgement of these moments is inherent within our nature.  With our patient, happy observation of what we Love, we say with some part of our hearts that we are here, present, building relationship with the green world.

And so, the art of herbalism is the transforming of this observation of Love and delight for the Plants into medicine for the People.  It is this deep relationship that brings the healing into the processed form of the plant – perhaps dried as tea, perhaps ground to powder and encapsulated, perhaps tinctured in brandy and tucked into a bottle.  Yet the vitality in the plant at the moment of harvest: snipping, picking, digging is dependent on our heart’s awareness of the strength and fullness of the plant.

Such care and respect, such as gardeners have for their vegetables and mother’s for their babes, is the core of the healing power available through the plants.  Before a harvest, the herbalist tells the plant why he needs its medicine (for someone who might have an irritable, dry cough this coming winter, for example.)  He asks if he may harvest the necessary part to support this medicinal action and waits for a response (a gentle breeze? a buzzing bee? the knocking of a woodpecker in assent? in any case, there is an internal knowing of yes or no.) He offers the gift of a prayer, a song, a poem, tobacco, in thanks.  And then solemnly and with great joy and appreciation, harvests only what he needs.

When we take time to be still, to rest our eyes on a leaf, a flower, someone we Love, and we behold what and who we are seeing, a sweet space for transformation opens.  This is the art and medicine available to us through observation with delight.