Herbmentor Radio

When most people think of catnip (Nepeta cataria), they think of it as that plant that makes our feline friends get very hyper. But here’s the thing,: catnip isn’t just for cats! Catnip tea and tincture too offers many healing gifts to us humans as well — perhaps the most surprising of all is that catnip calms and relaxes humans.Yes, that’s right. The leaves and flowering tops of this plant that hypes up cats has a calming effect on our human nervous systems. Follow along with herbalist Tara Ruth to learn about 3 surprising benefits of catnip.To learn more about catnip, Download a FREE deck of our top 12 Herb Notes. You’ll learn all about catnip, plus 11 other common herbs like cinnamon, aloe, echinacea, and more. Check out our FREE Herb Notes cards here: herbnotes.cards

Shereel Washington graduated from the California School of Herbal Studies Community Herbalist Program in Clinical Herbalism, and she has completed over 1200 hours of herbal craft making training. She is an instructor in Scarlet Sage's Community Herbalist Program & in the Land of Verse Apprentice Herbal Certification Program, as well as in herbal classes and intensives at the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium in Mendocino. Shereel also teaches dance and qi gong at the Deep Root Center for Spiritual Studies MOVE: Spirit & Rhythm Dance Program in Oakland, CA.Early in this episode Shereel invites us to unpack the term "Western Herbalism" and to honor the immense influence that Black, Indigenous, and People Color have had on herbalism on this continent. She then goes on to share her research and experience with Black North American Herbalism while diving into traditional herbalism recipes and stories. Shereel also shares with HerbMentor Radio listeners...Traditional uses and stories of asafoetid

Yarrow’s leaf and flower are most typically used by Western herbalists, but there is also traditional usage of the roots. In this article, I’ll focus on the medicinal uses of yarrow leaf and flower.Yarrow’s leaf and flower are most typically used by Western herbalists, but there is also traditional usage of the roots. In this podcast, I’ll focus on the medicinal uses of yarrow leaf and flower.Want to learn more about the medicinal uses of yarrow?Now that we’ve just scratched the surface of the many benefits of yarrow, you might be wondering how you can learn more about this powerful plant.Well, here’s the easy way to learn more about yarrow: download a FREE deck of our top 12 Herb Notes here. You’ll learn all about yarrow, plus 11 other common herbs like cinnamon, aloe, and more.I hope you enjoy Herb Notes, our new "3 healing herbal uses in 3 minutes" addition to the HerbMentor Radio podcast.

Nada Beydoun is a registered herbalist with a BSc. in Microbiology and Immunology and Masters in Applied Human Nutrition. Her interests include SWANA region herbal medicines, and she has a community work background in refugee settlement and empowerment. And Fatima Matar is a passionate gardener supporting the work of growing and bringing awareness to milkweed and Monarchs since 2019. Outside of driving around with a backseat filled with milkweed plants, you can find her doing photography as a freelance photographer. And Nada and Fatima just so happen to be cousins! Several years ago, after learning about the dire situation of declining monarch populations and milkweed habitat loss, these two plant enthusiasts embarked on a journey to start stewarding milkweed for monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies rely on milkweed to lay their eggs and feed their larvae. By growing milkweed, we can support endangered monarch butterflies and other vital pollinators.Together, in this episode of HerbMentor Radio, Nada and

Christa Sinadinos is the author of The Essential Guide to Western Botanical Medicine, and is the founder and director of the Northwest School for Botanical Studies in Fieldbrook, California, where she has trained hundreds of students. She has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician, teacher, gardener, and medicine maker.In this episode, we have one of those aha moments with Christa. We were chatting about herbal garnishes like parsley, and Christa said...When we think about any of the herbs that people use to decorate the plate, they often are good for digestion.Then we started to rack our brains thinking about all of the the herbal garnishes we've ever seen: mint, lemon, parsley — all herbs that promote healthy digestion! These herbal garnishes have been passed down for generations as a simple kitchen herbalism remedy for digestive health, but we never thought about garnishes this way until chatting with Christa.In addition to totally blowing our minds about garnishes, Christa sha

Rosemary Gladstar is literally a star figure in the field of modern herbalism, internationally renowned for technical knowledge and stewardship in the global herbalist community. She has been learning, teaching, and writing about herbs for over 40 years and is the author of 11 books. Rosemary is the founding president of United Plant Savers and founder and past director of the International Herb Symposium.Susan Leopold is an ethnobotanist and passionate defender of biodiversity. Over the past 20 years, Susan has worked extensively with Indigenous peoples in Peru and Costa Rica. She is the Executive Director of United Plant Savers and Director of the Sacred Seeds Project. She is a proud member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia and the author of the children’s book Isabella’s Peppermint Flower, teaching about Virginia’s botanical history. Together Rosemary and Susan shared with us all about the International Herb Symposium, a gathering right outside of Boston where herbalists j

So, usually we interview a special guest on the pod, but today to bring in the new year we're chatting just the two of us all about herbs for wintertime.Winter really asks us to slow down, rest, and dream about our year to come.But many of us don’t have the time and space to actually slow down right now. Whether we’re recovering from the festivities of the holiday season, working, or caring for our families, modern life sure makes it hard to slow down.Luckily, we can still draw on herbal remedies and rituals to nourish and soothe our nervous systems so that we can feel fueled enough to dream and plan for the year ahead.In this episode Tara shares her 3 key herbal strategies for stress relief like...Drinking her favorite nourishing herbal tea blend (see below)Working with blue vervain tinctureAnd herbal body oiling (listen to find out exactly what body oiling is!)Plus, we offer you a simple framework for planning out your herbal year so you can prepare for all of the beautiful seasons to come. Get a speci

Dr. Keren Dolan is a Doctor of Clinical Nutrition, Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild, and Holistic Aromatherapist. Emphasizing integrative Functional Nutrition, her goal as a clinician is promoting wellness and resilience through advanced nutritional strategies and targeted botanical interventions. So, we didn't exactly make this conversation easy for Dr. Dolan — knowing that she had such an extensive background in clinical nutrition, herbalism, and aromatherapy, we couldn't help but ask her some pretty big questions... How can we weave nutrition and herbalism together? What does "nourishment" actually mean? And what is aromatherapy?Dr. Dolan graciously answered all of our questions and more, and we sure learned a lot along the way, including...How to weave deep nourishment into our everyday livesHow the scientific concept of hormesis can help us find the sweet spot for herbal dosagesHow probiotics work... and lots more!Get a special offer on HerbMentor at HerbMentorRadio.comBuild your h

Corinna Wood teaches earth-based herbalism in the Wise Woman Herbal Tradition and focuses on inner-growth and transformation. She was co-founder of Red Moon Herbs and her Southeast Wise Woman Herbal Conference ran for 15 years. Grab a cup of tea and your favorite blanket — it's time to get cozy and learn all about herbs for fall! Corinna draws on her years of experience as an herbalist and educator to share how we can nourish our bodies this season and beyond with herbal roots.In this episode you'll learn how to make healing remedies with prolific roots like comfrey and burdock, how to work with poke root safely, why broth is the key to autumn self-care, and so much more.Visit Corinna on this special page she set up for our listeners Get a special offer on HerbMentor at HerbMentorRadio.comBuild your herbal first aid kid with our free Herbal Preparation Cards at Herbal.cards

Mimi Prunella Hernandez has dedicated her life’s work to serving as an advocate for both traditional and herbal pathways while building cultural bridges of understanding. As an herbalist she draws upon the influence of her Granny Healers and her background in biochemistry to weave together an herbal practice that’s rooted in folk traditions and modern science.In our conversation, Mimi shows us how to think beyond capsules and tinctures and easily bring herbs into our kitchens. The phrase “food is medicine” gets casually tossed around a lot these days, but Mimi really lives by this principle. She weaves herbs into her everyday life: making vinegars, honey, wine, tea, and even frosting with the herbs that grow all around her. Mimi offers us a few of her favorite tips for bringing herbs into the kitchen that we at LearningHerbs are definitely going to start adding to our daily routine — including “Mimi’s Mystery House Tea.”In addition to kitchen herbalism, Mimi also shares…How to work with sunflowers and prickly

When you enter MXED GREENS apothecary, one of the first things you'll notice is the deep care that herbalists Tasha and Devon Greenwood have put it into every detail of this herb shop... From the cozy self care station to the herbal zine library to the handmade signs outlining their sliding scale model, MXED GREENS is a space that centers the deeply rooted wellness of its community. In this episode of HerbMentor Radio, Tasha and Devon draw on their experience as new business owners and practicing clinical herbalists to share...Their #1 piece of advice for new herbal business owners The importance of healthcare settings that celebrate queer and trans experiencesWhy the gap between herbal and allopathic medicine might be smaller than you thinkWe even go on a little herb nerd tangent to chat about one of Tasha's favorite seaweeds, Irish Moss, which has a rich history as a food, immune tonic, and skincare ingredient.You can find Tasha and Devon Greenwood at mxedgreens.comGet a special offer on HerbMentor at HerbM

When you first start studying herbs it can feel like you need to find the best herb school, the best herb books, and the best way to study herbs in order to become a "real herbalist"...But after studying and teaching herbalism for the last few decades, jim mcdonald (a Michigan herbalist who blends traditional folk influences and mixes it up with a bit of 19th century eclectic and physiomedical vitalism) can definitively say that there’s no one “right way” to learn about herbs. Rather than racing to find the right answer to every herbal question as quickly as possible, learning about herbs is actually about choosing your own herbal adventure and cultivating a growth mindset.And jim certainly fits into the “choose your own adventure” mentality we have here on HerbMentor Radio: this is our third interview with jim, and each time we’ve gotten to go on some of the most amazing herbal tangents and dive deep into exciting herbal questions.In this episode we ask questions from HerbMentor members and learn more about.

Juliet Blankespoor shares 5 easy-to-grow herbs for container gardening with medicinal benefits that range from immune support to gentle skin care to first aid essentials — with just these 5 herbs you’ll be well on your way to having a full blown home apothecary. With her B.A. in Botany and her new book The Healing Garden, it could be easy to assume that Juliet must have always had a green thumb... but Juliet reveals that she didn’t start gardening until her 20s, and her first garden was a total flop!Listen as Juliet guides us through how she went from a “flop garden” to stewarding several thriving herb gardens. Plus, Juliet shares the key to having a green thumb — it’s a lot simpler than you might think.You can find Juliet and get your copy of The Healing Garden at https://chestnutherbs.com/Get a special offer on HerbMentor at https://HerbMentorRadio.comBuild your herbal first aid kid with your Herbal Preparation Cards: https://Herbal.Cards

Some of Abi Huff’s earliest plant memories begin in her mother’s garden: delighting in the abundant beds of sugar cane and taro root, and climbing the apricot tree to feast on its delicious fruit. Abi carries these stories in her transformative work as an ever-evolving community and clinical herbalist, educator, medicine maker, intuitive life strategist, healing justice organizer, and overall plant nerd.

In this episode, we dive into Abi’s work as a politicized herbalist and how to create more inclusion within herbalism. We also discuss food as medicine and how ancestral healing is deeply intertwined with herbalism. Abi then draws connections between stress and immunity and how herbs can support the radiant wellness of our nervous and immune systems. Abi then shares a simple way that you can incorporate healing herbs into your everyday life. Abi’s passion lies in connecting people to their inner wisdom, and responsibility to the planet and each other through gratitude for, and relationship with the plant kin

Explore the healing plants of the Southeast with CoreyPine Shane, including mimosa and sweet gum trees. Also, how to discover a plant’s personality so you can become an herbal matchmaker. This is a great episode for all you wildcrafters.CoreyPine Shane is a Holistic Clinical Herbalist who founded the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in 1999. He is the author of Southeast Medicinal Plants: 106 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness and has taught at schools and conferences across the country and in Europe. CoreyPine has written extensively on herbal medicine and is a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild. CoreyPine says, “Herbal medicine is your medicine. Not that you own it but that you inherited it because your grandparents or maybe your great grandparents used plants to heal themselves. Even if they didn’t call it herbal medicine. This is just a remembering and a reconnection.”Visit CoreyPine at PinesHerbals.com and BlueRidgeSchool.org

Jocelyn Boreta is the cofounder of the Botanical Bus, the granddaughter of a farmworker, and a community organizer committed to cultivating health equity through the empowerment of indigenous knowledge and self-healing communities. Long before the Botanical Bus became a bilingual mobile herb clinic serving Latinx and Indigenous farmworkers in Sonoma County, the seeds of this project were sprouting as Jocelyn Boreta and other local herbalists met weekly at a community garden to share their herbal knowledge. And when the devastating 2017 North Bay fires hit, they knew it was time to address health inequities in their community and launch the Botanical Bus.In this episode, Jocelyn shares the origin story of the Botanical Bus, why herbalism is activism, her go-to herbs for stress relief, how food is medicine, and the importance of culturally relevant care.You can learn more about Jocelyn and the Botanical Bus at TheBotanicalBus.org and follow them on Instagram @botanical.bus and Facebook @bilingualmobileherbclini

7Song is an herbalist, naturalist, and director of the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine in Ithaca, NY.He is known throughout the herbal community as someone passionate about meeting new plants, someone who loves to help people whereever he travels, and as the “herbal first aid guy.” He has run the first aid tent at the Rainbow Gatherings for years.7Song is an herbal practitioner and Director of Holistic Medicine at the Ithaca Free Clinic. He also teaches nationwide at herbal conferences and gatherings, as well as the California School of Herbal Studies.In this interview we discuss herbal first aid, go over a case study, and chat a bit about learning plants.You can visit his site at http://www.7song.com

I am truly honored to share with you a mentor that…well, let’s put it this way. There would be no HerbMentor.com without her. Also, I doubt I would be an acupuncturist as well if I had never met EagleSong.EagleSong is not only an extraordinary herbalist and gardener, but also one of the most grounded teachers and mentors you’ll ever meet. She has an eloquent way of sharing her views of health, herbs, sustainable living, gardening, and so much more. EagleSong was the first to teach me how to step back and look at the bigger picture when it comes to health. She has a way of “bringing it all together” and making sense of what can be an overwhelming course of study.Sure I had lots of influential mentors, but when it comes to herbs and health, EagleSong’s guidance became a foundation for me. It is the bedrock that LearningHerbs.com is built on.It is my hope and dream that YOU continue this lineage and one day teach others in your communities about herbs and health.In this Interview, some of what we cover includes…

James Jungwirth and his family run Naturespirit Herbs, located in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon. They are harvesters of edible and medicinal wild seaweed, herbs and mushrooms. They are also clinical herbalists and producers of high quality herbal medicines.I met James at the Northwest Herbfest in Oregon last summer. I was immediately drawn to his table, which was filled with the most beautifully harvested sea vegetables I have ever seen. If you have ever ordered kelp or other seaweed from Mountain Rose Herbs, there is a good chance you have purchased their handy work.I FINALLY caught up with James to ask him some questions about sea vegetables. We cover medicinal and edible uses, as well tips on harvesting. There is PLENTY of useful information even if you do not live near an ocean with cleaner waters for harvesting. I made sure our conversation was mostly geared towards folks who would not be harvesting their own.Visit http://naturespiritherbs.com

Kiva Rose is an herbalist in the Anima Medicine Woman Tradition. She teaches and practices down to earth herbalism, nutrition and healing based on the same principles our ancestors followed within an adaptive and contemporary context.Kiva is the author of The Medicine Woman’s Herbal, an in depth guide to common nourishing herbs, traditional and wild foods, and healing the Medicine Woman way. She makes her home in the Mogollon Mountains of the Gila bioregion of New Mexico, where she and her partners, Wolf and Loba, live in a small off the grid cabin at the Anima Botanical and Women’s Sanctuary.Visit http://bearmedicineherbals.com