Submitted by Liam Madden of Life Force Beverages.

My girlfriend’s study of herbalism has blessed my life in many ways. From her holding the burning embers of mugwort bundles over the un-knotting muscle near my sacrum, to the elaborate tincture protocols that have reduced my average cold to a short and mild two day affair, herbs have certainly benefitted me. But none have influenced me as deeply as nourishing herbal infusions and decoctions.

An infusion or decoction, as opposed to a tea, is way of extracting a massive amount of nutrients and beneficial constituents from herbs. Herbal teas, like what is offered in any grocery store aisle, are not nourishment. They might be medicinal, and they might be lovely, but you can’t expect to draw out a meaningful amount of nutrition from a plant unless you use a substantial amount of it and steep it for a long time.

That is the beauty of decoctions and infusions: they are simmered or steeped long enough to be nutritionally potent. Infusions don’t work like drugs, and shouldn’t be used the way many herbalists prescribe herbs, that is, as a foreign chemical that affects a specific set of chemicals in your body. Because infusions are food (i.e., herbs that are safe at almost any dosage) they create change gradually. That is why when I began to incorporate infusions regularly I noticed a deeper sense of nourishment in my life. Now the practice of heating up a big pot of water and soaking or decocting the herbs overnight has become as routine as showering.



How do I choose the herbs to use? I have a close circle of herbal allies that must meet two simple criteria:1) It must be edible and 2) it must be very common. Dandelion, for example, is one of my dearest herbal allies. Any book on herbalism will give you a laundry list of beautiful attributes and effects of using dandelion, including foremost among them, the incredible effect on bile production and liver function.

Books and research are a great way to absorb human experience (to learn, in other words) but to know dandelion decoction it must be directly experienced, and regularly. After time, it became as routine to me as coffee is to many. It grounds and nourishes me beyond my need for nutrition. I feel like dandelion links me to a tradition of honoring what grows abundantly around us. I can virtually hear these plants calling to humanity, “We are here to help you. Can’t you see how closely we live to you and how diligently we seek your attention?”

In an ideal world, we’d all have enough time to build intimate relationships with the beings that nourish us, and to make infusing our bodies with nourishment as ritual as brushing our teeth. Because time and energy are often narrowly budgeted, the ideal can often only be achieved if we accept help from others. That is what the essence of a business is – to serve others and to meet a need they might not be able to on their own. That is the goal of Life Force Juice, and that is why our line of nourishing infusions are such an integral element in our nourishment strategies.

Yours in nourishment,
Liam Madden

Submitted by Jennie Oceane Edgar, Wildflower Revolution



In light of Herbstalk’s original purpose, to spread awareness about the use of herbs in everyday life, I am inspired to write about the use of herbs as a way of life. In my experience, many people come to herbalism because of discontentment with the conventional health care system. However, people often begin and end their herbal tenure with a product that offers them relief only for their isolated ailment. Other times, people continue a life-long relationship with “medicinal” plants but only use herbs when they are sick, or during their pregnancy, or as they recover from an emotional trauma.

In short, many people use herbs at the onset of an illness and discontinue when symptoms subside.

While it is great to know the herbs that will lessen the severity of an illness, I want to bring to light the wonderful power of herbs that appear to do absolutely nothing. The absence of an immediate effect is uncommon in Western medicine, which does not normally value preventative medicine. It is easy to be skeptical of “medicinal plants” that don’t immediately induce change. But that is one of the wonderful characteristics of herbalism: often, the effects are invisible because the benefits are preventative.

Of course, just as there are countless testimonies of herbs “curing” or “alleviating” something, there are also many people who have attested that herbs did not benefit them in any way at all. This is not a narrative dissimilar from conventional medicine, except when we begin to think about medicine as nourishment.

In an age of processed foods, newfound gluten sensitivities, and skepticism over the safety of GMOs, from where shall we receive our nourishment?

Perhaps there is little that is neither more wholesome nor more abundant than the nourishing herbs – the weeds – that grow all around us. Of course, not all herbs are gently transformative – there are powerful and potent plants that will purge your “toxins” and “cleanse” your body, but is that true nourishment? Instead, we might ask: what are the conditions of a society that leads us to see ourselves as broken and dirty, needing to be magically fixed? How can we fortify ourselves, individually and collectively, against this dominant cultural narrative so that we can be sweet and kind to our sacred bodies?

Using the nourishing herbs as support is a start. These herbs can be purchased from local sources that ethically wildcraft or organically grow the plants. Or, better yet, you can learn to harvest them yourself – gather Nettle leaves in the spring, pop the flower buds off the Red Clover in the summer, pull the Dandelion roots from your backyard in the fall – and make a nourishing tea that is so packed full of vitamins and minerals, it is akin to food. Yes, food is “medicine” because food should always be nourishing.

Nettles, Urtica dioica


When we begin to think about medicine and healing as nourishment, we completely change our relationship to illness and dis-ease, as well as to our contemporary standards of health care in America. Nourishment isn’t monumental or climactic, because it is slow and subtle; but in the 21st century, nourishing ourselves can indeed be revolutionary.

In this way, anyone who uses herbs is practicing herbalism. As you learn about plants and their nourishing properties and spiritual potencies, herbalism becomes more than an occasional past time, more than a passion or a business. Once one begins to consider nourishment as an everyday commitment, a joyful task that is counter to the dominant narrative of “health” and “medicine” and “food” in general, herbalism becomes something more than the use of herbs…

Herbalism becomes a state of mind, a way of life.

So yes, it’s certainly ok to only think of using herbs when you’re coming down with a cold, because we’re busy and there’s only so much time in the day. But please remember that herbalism is simple because nourishment is simple. We find it all around us: food is medicine, love is medicine, and medicine is the vital green energy growing between cracks in the pavement or in forgotten corners of the field…

When we integrate herbs into our everyday life, we can be assured we’re doing more good for ourselves, our families, and our communities than we may know.

In our everyday lives, nourishment abounds.