Tag Archives: herbal medicine

Anne Stobart – designing and using the wealth of medicinal trees and shrubs

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Anne Stobart - designing and using the wealth of medicinal trees and shrubs
Loading
/

When we come across someone who is so overwhelmed by a situation’s details that they can’t see the bigger picture, we tend to quip, “they can’t see the forest for the trees.” Just the opposite is true when it comes to viewing nature. When we look over a lawn, row of shrubs or cluster of threes, most of us see globs of green. We appreciate the beauty and the setting, but lots of us don’t see much distinction among the grasses, shrubs or trees. What are they? Weeds? Junk trees? Why care?

Anne Stobart, Devon, England

It turns out most of us have a wealth of helpful plants in our own backyards! And it’s not just the basil and lemon balm that we planted near the kitchen door or on the patio. That white pine could help for your wet cough. The peppermint that comes up year after year packs more than just flavor. And some of those small shrubs? Well, they may be part of your volunteer medicinal garden.

This Deep Roots Radio interview with Anne Stobart is the first of five planned with her. Anne has a PhD from her extensive research into the history of medicine. She is registered clinical herbalist, permaculture designer, forest keeper, educator, author, and blogger. She joined me from her home and garden in Devon, England.

Her most recent book, Trees and Shrubs that Heal was released in the US January 2024. She is also the author of the Medicinal Garden Handbook, and of Household Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England.  She also posts newsletters to her blog, Medicinal Tree Woman.

Her books, and her manner, are so engaging I asked her to join Deep Roots Radio for a 5-part series. I hope you enjoy this first conversation.

 

Sylvia

 

Thorny Hawthorn, Part 3: EagleSong describes worldwide travels to visit helpful hawthorn trees

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Thorny Hawthorn, Part 3: EagleSong describes worldwide travels to visit helpful hawthorn trees
Loading
/

In this Deep Roots Radio chat, herbalist EagleSong Gardener describes the many trips she’s made to England, Europe, Mexico, and across the USA in search of hawthorn trees – a not-very-tall but very thorny tree that has helped cultures with food and natural remedies for hundreds of years. I’m so glad EagleSong visited the hawthorn thickets on my farm, Bull Brook Keep, in fall 2022. I use them for heart-healthy teas and tinctures.

Eagle Song Gardener and hawthorn fruit

This podcast is the third in a series of three with EagleSong about hawthorn. The first focused on how to identify this hedgerow plant, and the second looked into ways to use it in the kitchen and in your apothecary.

You can find out lots more about EagleSong’s work, lessons and products on her website, at herbal medicine conferences all across the US, and on her Youtube channel, @eaglesonggardener1893.

I hope you enjoy this interview.

Sylvia

Part 2: Eagle Song Gardener on using Hawthorn for delicious health

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Part 2: Eagle Song Gardener on using Hawthorn for delicious health
Loading
/

I hope you’ll enjoy this second conversation with herbalist Eagle Song Gardener about the many ways we can use the thorny Hawthorn in foods and herbal medicines.

Eagle Song has traveled the world to learn about the adaptable and ever-helpful hawthorn tree. In this Deep Roots Radio interview, we chat about the many, many ways the very thorny Hawthorn can find its way to our tables, salads, lunch boxes and remedies.

In case you missed it, please enjoy our first chat in which Eagle Song introduced us the the hawthorn, a tree with many hundreds of species.

Sylvia

EagleSong describes a helpful, if thorny, tree in your neighborhood.

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
EagleSong describes a helpful, if thorny, tree in your neighborhood.
Loading
/

Hawthorn trees grow all across our farm, Bull Brook Keep. The ubiquitous Crataegus species is found all over North America and Europe, producing fragrant blossoms in the spring and firm red fruit — haws — in late summer and fall.

Buelingos and hawthorn

I came to recognize hawthorn – which on my farm grows as a tall, scraggly shrub – as I rotated my beef herd from field to field throughout the grazing season. My Buelingo cows shaded themselves under the scruffy trees and sometimes browsed on the lower leaves.  I simply enjoyed their lovely pale pink flowers, but eventually became curious about the small red fruit – the size of a small crab apple. As it turns out, they are in the larger apple family.

Thorns from 1-2″ long

As I continue my herbal studies, I’ve came to learn hawthorn flowers and fruit have been used in herbal remedies and tonics for hundreds of years. And here there were, growing all across my farm! Yippee! Since then, I’ve gathered hawthorn for making tinctures and teas that support heart health, and lots more.

 

 

 

Eagle Song

EagleSong Gardener is an herbalist who has come to know and use hawthorn deeply for decades. She’s a lovely woman I met at a Wisconsin herbalists’ conference in September 2022. EagleSong has traveled the world visiting hawthorn hedges and conversing with the many men and women who have come to appreciate this amazing woody gift on our landscape. Fortunately for me, she visited Bull Brook Keep on her way back to her home state of Washington.

 

I hope you enjoy this interview, the first in a three-part series with this knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher. You can also find EagleSong’s lessons on her website, Facebook, and many helpful videos on Youtube.

Sylvia

Nancy Graden: Herbs and food for COVID and flu season

Leave a reply

Here we are: about eight months into our worldwide struggle with COVID-19. As we brace for the coming winter season, I thought we might benefit from the Deep Roots Radio podcast with Nancy Graden, medicinal herbalist and certified organic farmer. We recorded this conversation in the spring, early in the pandemic. In it, Nancy describes how we can help ourselves stay healthy and strong.

Nancy has over 30 years experience and training in herbal medicines, and works with over 50 kinds of plants on her farm, Red Clovery Apothecary Farm in Amery, Wisconsin.  She provided us with detailed notes on how to think about and use herbs in connection with the corona virus.  Notes on the COVID-19 VIRUS from an Herbalist’s Perspective 1

I hope you enjoy this interview.

Sylvia

 

Some medicinal/healthful herbs right outside your door: descriptions & photos

Good morning!

Boy, I enjoyed this morning’s Deep Roots Radio chat with Nancy Graden, medicinal herbalist/farmer, and owner/operator of Red Clover Herbal Apothecary farm.

In addition to cultivating over 50 plants on her certified organic farm in Amery, Wisconsin, Nancy harvests 20 others for her broad line of herb-based products. Today, she introduced us to several plants we can find growing right now in our yards, farms, ditches and woodlands.

pasture herbs

I’ll post Nancy’s podcast tomorrow, but I thought you might find her 14-page resource notes and photos useful this afternoon. I’ve also resposted Nancy’s detailed perspective on herbal helps during COVID-19.

Sylvia

 

 

Medicinal herbalist Nancy Graden – boosting health and immunity in time of COVID-19

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Medicinal herbalist Nancy Graden - boosting health and immunity in time of COVID-19
Loading
/

By the time we were halfway through our first week of “shelter in place,” I knew I had to touch base with Nancy Graden, a neighbor, farmer, and very knowledgable medicinal herbalist. What could I do to brace myself for the Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

Nancy’s response is captured in this Deep Roots Radio interview, recorded March 28, 2020. I hope you find it informative and encouraging. And don’t forget to download the eight-page resource Nancy developed in light of the pandemic: Notes on the COVID-19 VIRUS from an Herbalist’s Perspective 1

pasture herbs

I’m so grateful Nancy’s helping us navigate these rough waters. And I’m so glad her farm and business, Red Clover Herbal Apothecary Farm, is just a few miles down the road in Amery, WI. She starts, nurtures and harvests 50 types of medicinal plants on her certified organic five-acre farm. She also forages an additional 20 varieties for her broad product line. Nancy consults with customers and clients locally and from the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.

Nancy began exploring the world of medicinal plants over 30 years ago while living in the Ozark Mountains. When she returned to Minnesota, she studied herbalism at the Australasian College of Health Sciences; anatomy and physiology at the University of Minnesota; and earned an associate’s degree in Western Clinical Herbalism from Minneapolis Community College.

Nancy and I will chat again in three weeks to focus on the medicinal herbs growing just outside your door.

Sylvia