by the Chaos Factor

​There are many times in the year when one might plan to get a fresh start, set new intentions, or call in new energy. The new year is traditionally one of those times, but from the perspective of nature, that doesn’t really make much sense. When one (Western/Gregorian) year ends and the next begins, at least in New England, it’s still the dead of winter. In fact, the new year is celebrated only a week and a half after the winter solstice, which is the longest night of the year. At this time, most flora and fauna are hibernating in the cold. Everything has turned inward to rest until the light returns to initiate rebirth. To manifest a physical or mental emergence at this time is difficult, as we are fighting against nature.
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The spring/vernal equinox marks the time of the year when the warmth and the light return. Creatures wake up, the browns turn to greens, and plant life begins to emerge from the ground in search of the sun. This is the time when our biological and emotional systems also want to emerge from winter’s rest. This seasonal shift is the kickstart we need to re-energize and start anew. It is the perfect time to clean house — inside and out!

In very early spring, before the full regalia of renewal is revealed, seeds begin to metabolically activate deep beneath the ground, hidden from casual observation. Plants like hellebore and crocus are some of the first bloomers that break through the last crust of winter’s snow cover and dot the shifting landscape with color. During this time our human bodies awaken as well. The stagnancy of winter no longer resonates, and we crave movement. As our exposure to solar light increases, we feel invigorated; we get out and exercise, spend time in nature, and re-connect to our social circles after the inevitable winter hibernation here in the northern hemisphere. It is a pretty obvious correlation: more light equals more energy.  

A similar “awakening” occurs on a cellular level. As our metabolism speeds up with increased solar energy and movement, our bodies begin to shift internally.  We intrinsically crave lighter foods and beverages that cleanse the system, and make us feel more energized. For example, we tend to be less interested in heavy soups and stews, and more interested in fresh seasonal salads.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and energy work, the spring season is associated with the element of wood. Wood draws water up through its roots and, in its young form, is pliable and mutable. Spring enables us to bend around obstacles as we increase our internal and external levels of energy and begin to expand outward again after many months of working through internal matters, resting, and digesting. 
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Speaking of digesting, what better time to detoxify and give the old metabolism a little extra boost? In TCM, the two body meridians associated with spring are the liver and gallbladder. These organs work to cleanse and detoxify the digestive system and the entire body. Bitter and sour herbs are very beneficial during this time to move stagnation out of the digestive system. There are many useful herbal concoctions and remedies used by our ancestors that we can explore. Our plant allies can aid our awakening and ready our bodies for the upcoming seasonal shift.

Tonics are an easy way to incorporate beneficial herbs into your daily routine to maintain your overall health naturally. The herbal blend in our Spring Rejuvenation Tonic is appropriately balanced to support your mind, body, and soul during this time of rebirth (and it tastes great, too). We prefer a hot water infusion, but also like to make a large batch in advance and store it in the refrigerator for a cool refreshing morning beverage. We recommend drinking this daily!
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Our Spring Rejuvenation Tonic contains four herbs that are chock full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that are highly cleansing, purifying, and stimulating. Nettle and Dandelion are thought to be invasive weeds, and are sometimes pulled or otherwise destroyed, but we like to refer to them as “opportunistic” and are happy to be able to find them locally abundant. Tulsi and Mint are in the same hearty family (Lamiaceae) and are typically planted and grown in a garden. Now, let’s break down this magickal and healthy concoction in more detail.
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• Nettle (Urtica dioica): In herbalism, Nettle is the mother of all early spring herbs and has been traditionally used for thousands of years. High in vitamin A, C, and iron, this nutritive plant is a diuretic and antioxidant. It has a lovely green, earthy flavor that is symbolic of its health benefits and the general vibe of the spring season.
  
  

• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale): Another classic “food as medicine” spring herb, the root is more commonly used for the liver, but the leaves are a potent diuretic great for internal cleansing and purifying. Like Nettle, Dandelion leaves are highly nutritive with many similar vitamins and minerals. These two herbs balance each other out very well for daily use, and are both highly abundant for wild harvesting in our region.
  
  

• Spearmint (Mentha spicata): There are many varieties of mint, but Spearmint (or common mint/garden mint) is beautifully fragrant with a delightful taste, so we love to add this to our herbal blends to add brightness and flavor. It is a rejuvenating and stimulating herb commonly used for digestion. Mint has been cultivated and traded since ancient Greek times, where it was likely used in ancient funerary rites to mask the smell of the dead. It is also regarded as a sacred plant of Hades. 
  
  
• Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum): Tulsi (also known as Holy Basil or Elixir of Life) is a sacred plant from India used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for more than 5,000 years and is infused with restorative power. There are three different varietals (krishna, rama, and vana), and we like to use a blend of all three for perfectly balanced health benefits and an amazing flavor. Tulsi is primarily considered an adaptogen, which helps the body adapt to environmental stressors and restore balance — a classic ally for getting your body and mind through the seasonal shift.

So. Spring is on its way. With time you will feel yourself waking up from your long and restful slumber. We hope that this tasty herbal tonic gives you a much-needed boost for the upcoming season! Spring is truly a wonderful time to meditate on the concept of emergence. What has shifted during the quiet of winter? What can be released in order to cultivate new growth in the mind, body, and spirit? A few good questions to ponder while expanding into the season.
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The wheel of the year keeps turning, and as the new seeds of life burst through the soil and emerge into the glory of the sun, expansion occurs all around us. Soon, the birds and pollinators will be flitting and buzzing around the fragrant blooms burgeoning forth on the trees and from the earth below. The sweet hay-scent of mown grass sprinkled with violets and plantain (two additional plant allies we recommend exploring in late spring) wafts around as the earth continues to warm and awaken. 
As above, so below. As within, so without. In light and shadow. Seek the balance and trust that mother earth will always have your back.

by Jade Alicandro Mace

The first Nettles (Urtica dioica) harvest is easily one of my most eagerly anticipated harvests of spring. To me, spring hasn’t truly sprung until the Nettles are here. When it comes to harvesting Nettles, one of the first things folks always ask is, “But don’t they sting?” They do.

​The next question is, “Do you wear gloves?” My answer? Nope. You’d be hard-pressed to find an herbalist who doesn’t choose to harvest Nettles bare-handed at least once a season on purpose. Why? Because the sting, just like almost every other part of the plant, is medicinal! ​

Jade brings a love of the bioregionally abundant herbs to her work as a community and clinical herbalist. When she’s not teaching bioregional herbalism, you can find her roaming the hedges with her harvest basket or at home in the kitchen brewing-up some potent food as medicine. She’s a mother to her 10 and 6 year-old daughters, partner, tender of chickens and cats and new puppy, blogger and writer, online educator, and half-gardener to her mostly wild gardens. She co-founded the Greenfield Community Herbal Clinic, dedicated to affordable herbal care and also maintains a long-distance clinical practice. She lives in the rolling hills of western Massachusetts in unceded Nipmuk territory. Learn more about her work at www.milkandhoneyherbs.com or follow her on facebook or instagram (@milkandhoneyherbs).

Rachel Delphine Berndt is a Bioregional Clinical Herbalist in Des Moines, Iowa. She is the owner of The Potager, an herbalism practice that offers hands-on workshops and intensive herbalism courses, educational wellness consultations and high-quality bioregional remedies. Rachel is sincerely passionate about teaching herbalism to others and has had the great honor of presenting at the Good Medicine Confluence and the Midwest Women's Herbal Conference. She also loves to write and you can find her herbal musings featured in publications such as Plant Healer Magazine.  ​

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.

Here in New England I think we are all feeling the excitement and freshness of spring. Watching our beloved plants come back from their winter hibernation brings a sense of hope and renewal among other feelings of joy and wonderment. Usually towards the end of winter my brain starts excitedly brewing up ideas of herbal concoctions and wild harvesting that I want to accomplish during this time of year. With this feeling still in full force I am most certain that as a fellow plant lover you too have your own special plant friends that you are drawn to. Below are the green beings and recipes that I am especially in love with right now and I hope I can pass along something that sparks inspiration and brews something delightful in your life. ​
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Sweet Birch (Betula lenta): Also known as black birch, this aromatic tree has an almost identical composition to wintergreen oil, with its distinct and uplifting aroma. In the 19th century it came close to annihilation in the Appalachian Mountains when the locals learned that oil made from the bark and twigs could be sold for cash. Oh humans... Rest assured there is abundance of this lovely tree here in our open woods. To identify I like to use a little scratch and sniff approach on a twig. If it smells like wintergreen then you know you have found sweet birch. I usually harvest one large branch, cut with very sharp tree pruning shears above where the branch meets the trunk. The inner bark is anti-inflammatory, anti-rheumatic, analgesic, cooling, and moisturizing. With those properties in mind sweet birch makes an incredible infused oil for massaging into sore muscles, achy joints and very dry, irritated skin. This may be used as is or you can add essential oils of cardamom, lavender and chamomile to make a really nice final scent. ​

Spring holds within it the essence of new growth, unlimited possibilities, and a carefree wild spirit. My hope is for us all to embrace this child-like wonderment and frolic through the forest and fields, basket in hand, gleefully and lovingly playing with our plant friends. 

by Melanie Brown

I adore plants that we have so fondly deemed “weeds”.  Abundant, common, incredibly medicinal, and reaching out to pull us in whenever we walk by them. Stellaria media, or common chickweed, is one such weed that offers a generous amount of healing and nutritional uses.

In Latin Stellaria means “little star”; media means “in the midst of.” So here we are in the presence of a plant that has naturalized itself all over the world. It helps soil retain nitrogen and is easily cultivated by spreading the seeds on disturbed earth. To identify look for many small, starry white flowers with 5 deeply divided petals; growing in low, dense, green mats with a single line of hairs on one side of the smooth stalks, then a second line of hair on the opposite side when it reaches the leaf node. When I first encountered chickweed on a hot summer day, with the sun shining high in the sky I was amazed at how cool and moist it felt, as if the patch had just been gently rained upon. 

Chickweed is sweet, moist, nutritive and cool; it can be harvested throughout its growing period while in flower or not. Regularly harvesting chickweed will inspire it to branch and produce thick regrowth. Using scissors simply snip off the top aerial portion. It contains mucilage, saponins, silica, minerals, vitamins A, B, C and fatty acids. It is also astringent, anti-rheumatic, and vulnerary. When eaten raw in your wild salads it has a bright, clean taste without any bitterness and a touch of saltiness.

This demure, sweet plant has been shown to nourish the glandular and lymphatic systems. A tincture made with the fresh plant has the ability to dissolve cysts when taken regularly over a long period of time. Chickweed truly shines when we are encountering fevers, respiratory infections, allergies, bladder or kidney issues, liver stagnation, or digestive distress. Chickweed, used as a fresh poultice, draws out infection while also protecting and healing wounds. A decoction soaked compress or fresh plant poultice is refreshing and healing on dry, irritated eyes with or without an infection. A salve can also be made with fresh chickweed infused oil. Because it has such high water content I recommend infusing it using the “hot infusion method” such as in a crockpot or with a water circulator to prevent the growth of mold. A cream made with chickweed oil applied to eczema relieves itching and redness. Dried chickweed may also be drunk as a nourishing infusion weighing out one ounce to a quart of boiling water, covered and steeped 4 hours or overnight. 

Herbalists, such as Deb Soule from Avena Botanicals, love chickweed and see it as a most valuable plant to offer those in need of better nutrient absorption. “It is a safe and nourishing herb for a person of any age to take over several months when weak, chronically tired from overwork and stress, traumatized, anemic or recovering from a long-term illness or surgery.” Another respected herbalist, Jim Mcdonald,  reports that chickweed, along with plantain (Plantago spp.), is a staple in his all-purpose salve for bug bites, stings, angry red wounds, scrapes, boils, and dry skin.   

Both Matthew Wood and Susun Weed remark on chickweed’s ability to reduce fat and aid weight loss. Weed points to the high saponin content as the mechanism, while Wood looks to its effects on metabolism and endocrine function. Wood elaborates in his book, The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants, “Chickweed not only subdues heat and lubricates dry conditions, but also regulates water levels and drives off excess dampness and fats. These actions show that it stimulates both sides of the metabolism, building and breaking down, not only through the liver but also through the endocrine system. Thus, it is used to lose weight, not just short-term water weight, but long-term deposits of fats.”

As you can tell Stellaria media lends itself to a wide range of healing benefits and food uses. This spring you may find me close to the ground, lying on my stomach in a bed of chickweed, eating, tincturing, juicing, infusing and simply admiring this shining star. ​

Melanie Brown is a native New Englander who always had an early connection to nature and the outdoors. Together with her four year old son she gathers the ingredients to make small batch plant based body care products which you can find at her herbal apothecary, FIR&ELM. She is a graduate of Boston School of Herbal Studies and currently attending The Gaia School of Healing and Earth Education in Vermont. Her passion is to share and spread the message of community herbalism that lies right outside in our own backyards.

Tommy and Madelon also told us that the plants which we saw daily or which lived in our yards were usually there because we needed them most, and that it would be a good idea to work closely with whichever of them called to us.  I went on a tear  - or maybe a mission - to make flower essences, oils, tinctures and teas with every plant willing to work with me on the property.  The result is that I have a lot of flower essences, and have learned so much from those plants, for which I am deeply humbled and grateful. I have forged bonds that go deeper than the root systems of the very plants themselves. 

Now I have left them.  Their care is no longer in my hands.  I do not know if the new owners will look at the profusion of violets and celandine as weeds or the powerful plant allies they are.  I fear that they will poison the "invasives" so that they will have a beautiful lawn.  Will they rip out the solomon seal? What about the yarrow, queen anne's lace and the st. john's wort?  I worry about my plant friends that I've left behind.  I cannot even begin to think about my beloved double mock orange shrub without crying.  That's the deepest wrench of all.  

Here's what I'm trying to say, kids: when you open yourself up to the plant spirits, you can't go through the world the way you did before.  In the way that becoming a parent suddenly makes every news story about children more personal, because it could be your child, so too does the bond you are forging with the plants connect you to something else. When you become an herbalist, you are connected to something older, deeper, and wiser than that which we think we understand about life and how things work. Your definition of friends and family changes and expands.  You are far more in tune with the true interconnection of life.  Plants give us so very much - their blossoms, leaves, stems, their very roots - and ask for so little in return.  They give us the oxygen we breathe and we in turn give them the carbon dioxide they need to survive as well.  We are inextricably interconnected in a way the average person doesn't think about, but to an herbalist, that connection is profound. 

Leaving these plants behind, which had given me so much, is a deeply painful loss which took me by surprise.  The night before the closing, I went to all the plants that were visible to say a private goodbye and to thank them for their love, lessons and support.  When I got to the dogwood in our backyard, I couldn't help myself. I threw my arms around it and wept. Together we had fought hard to keep that tree from dying and it was thriving beautifully. I hope the new owners will use the phone number of the lovely man who helped save our tree so that it can continue to blossom and thrive.

My new home has two apple trees and a beautiful willow tree.  I am eagerly awaiting this growing season to see who else lives here.  This is the part about renewal and new beginnings: there will be new relationships to forge and when I leave here, I'm sure there will be another painful parting.  I hope I will be better prepared for it this time.  Herbalism is not for the faint of heart, kids. You've been warned.

by Jenny Hauf

I am lucky enough to have the pleasure of collaborating with my dear friend Steph Zabel, the founder of Herbstalk. This past weekend we got together to teach a class called “Waking Up to Spring with Herbs,” in which we discussed how to use, grow, and forage the herbs that support and nurture us as we transition from the black and white months of winter into the dawning deliciousness of spring. ​

Because we always like to have fresh herbs to pass around to our students I headed out to hunt for one of my favorite plant allies, stinging nettle, which we would be discussing in our class. In a trusty nook of Jamaica Plain I walking on a raised path amongst cattails in the lightly flurrying morning, traveling with my eyes to the earth. The shed raiment of autumn was everywhere, crisp and ashy, ready for green growth to cover it and spring rains to hasten its return to mud. 

As I searched for the tiny first leaves of Urtica dioica—deep green, laced with acid, and tinged purple-red—I discovered other things. There were the crocuses, closed from the cold, but still stalwart and sweet. Long pearls of snowdrop buds dangled in delicate drifts. I also found a single squill blossom, ragged but deeply blue and alive.  

Bramble leapt over and sidled the path, catching on my skirt and grabbing at my bare knees. Beyond the bramble rose cattails, some still fuzzy with the seed heads they had grown months before, swaying around me. Beyond the marsh were witch hazels, their spidery flowers egg yolk yellow, and a tremendous grandmother of a silver maple with branches tipped in a burgundy haze. 
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Snowflakes occasionally laced through the branches, stalks, and stems as I continued searching, and eventually I stumbled upon my prize: a tiny patch of nettles in miniature, their infant leaves unfanning and little stingers shimmering. Gratefully I snipped a few and laid them in a paper bag. Overhead and throughout the marsh the red-winged blackbirds sang, and I headed home with a handful of brand new life in my arms.

by Jade Alicandro Mace

Cleansing in the spring is a familiar and popular subject. But what about the concept of harmonizing with the spring? Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and especially Chinese 5-Element Theory, provides us with a beautiful framework for understanding the spring and its energetics.  When we’re attuned with the natural influences of this season, we can more easily tap into the rich gifts it has to offer.

First, a little background.

In TCM each season corresponds with an Element and an Organ System.  The spring is associated with the Wood Element and the Chinese Liver-Gallbladder organ system (different from our anatomical liver and gallbladder!) and meridians. Understanding this organ/element pair and its associations is a great place to start when it comes to harmonizing with the spring.  

Keywords and phrases for the Liver-Gallbladder/Wood Element/Spring: 

Upwards moving energy, yang, growth, clear vision and purpose, decisiveness and decision-making, ambition, hopefulness, starting new projects, productivity

Sounds just about right, doesn’t it?