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I’ve recently been spending some time brushing up on my knowledge of the female cycle. It’s an area of herbalism that I’m particularly drawn to, as a woman, but also because it’s one of nature’s great orchestrations, like the movements of a concerto, each with its own nuances, yet flowing together, woven into a cohesive, exquisite whole. As with a concerto, one group of musicians will deliver the notes and the rhythms slightly differently from another, placing stronger stresses on this or that passage, drawing out those bars a little longer. And it’s a miracle! Our bodies go through this amazing cycle each month, all so we can conceive and bring life into the world. It’s mundane, yes, and some find the topic embarrassing… I find it stunning.
And somewhat hilarious. A friend of mine recently commented to me that we spend so much of our lives trying not to get pregnant, but once we decide we want to, it’s suddenly so… complicated.
And that’s the thing. Most OB-Gyns just say if you want to get pregnant, count from the first day of your period, and have sex on day 14 and every other day for the next week. The flaw with this rule is that it is a rule—no two women are alike, and so no two women’s cycles are alike. The most empowering thing for a woman or a couple trying to conceive is to learn and celebrate the nuances of her individual cycle, the dominant themes and recurring melodies.
So I’ve been reading articles on foods to eat, substances to avoid (sugar, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, *ahem*), ways to maximize fertility. And my friend Pamela sent me a link to FertilityFriend.com—brilliant! The site offers a free online course on understanding and charting your own cycle (which is really interesting even if you aren’t trying to conceive), support communities, amazingly comprehensive FAQs, story sharing, and cycle calendars (and yes, there’s an app for that) that allow you to graph or predict different dates in your cycle, enter all kinds of data, overlay graphs for multiple cycle to view trends, the list goes on and on. And yes, I tend to geek out on this sort of thing. I find it exciting and empowering, at age 31, to be getting to know my body and my cycle so well.
Gilbert Chesterton said, “A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.” I have a hunch he may have meant this to be a less-than-generous statement, and yet I take it as a compliment. I’m 31 and just figuring it out—it’s generally been a taboo topic, I guess, or at least not one commonly discussed among my female friends and family—and I’m finding it a joyful experience! Wendell Berry spoke of not having a TV or computer because he found all those voices, all that noise, interfered with his ability to hear his own voice, and it can get pretty noisy in this world of ours.
A great gift we can give ourselves: to pay attention, take note, listen, and learn from what our body, our one-of-a-kind, magical, perfectly imperfect body, has been wanting to tell us all along.
(As an aside, please forgive my exuberance: it’s spring. LAAAAAA!!!)
I love tincturing. I thoroughly enjoy blending teas. But by far my favorite way to take (and make) my herbal medicines is in the form of food. If you’ve ever visited my other blog, The Purple House, you know that my better half and I are more than slightly food-obsessed—we both love to cook, we love to cook together (the fact that I happily share kitchen space with this man speaks volumes), we love discovering new foods, and we love knowing where our food comes from, having a relationship with our local farmers and raising a lot of our food here at home.
This morning I was turned on to a wonderful upcoming online course on Culinary Herbalism from LearningHerbs.com, and I am so excited to participate! I am constantly looking for more new ways to eat my medicinals. They’ve got one video already online, about 18 minutes long, and if it is any indicator, this online course is going to be great! If you’re interested, visit the Culinary Herbs site and sign up to receive e-mail notifications about the course and other learning opportunities. Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to view the first video, featuring an herbal meal prepared by K.P. Khalsa, President of the American Herbalists Guild. Damon and I prepared the greens recipe from this video tonight—we had a TON of collards, kale, spinach, and mustard from our garden and our co-op.
LearningHerbs.com also has several free publications, videos, and online courses. I haven’t checked these out yet, but I plan on doing so very soon.
Do you have any favorite Web sites or blogs for free and affordable herbal education? Please feel free to share them in the comments… And have a beautiful day!
Getting ready to post a lovely bit on kudzu, but in the meantime, Dancing in a Field of Tansy shared this lovely post this past week on making and organizing an herbal first aid kit. Well thought out and with lots of helpful tips and pictures, this is one of those herbal projects I keep meaning to do, but never quite get around to. I think I’ll be taking it on in the near future, thanks to this inspiration, and a few others, listed below.
- From Dancing in a Field of Tansy
- From The Herb Companion
- From The Essential Herbal
- From ReWild Eugene
What would you put in your herbal first aid kit?
Just posted this recipe for homemade toothwash over at the Purple House blog, and thought I ought to share it with the herbies. Check it out, and let me know if you have any tips or personal favorite recipes for tooth care…
This is the line I kept repeating in my head Thursday afternoon.
I like to start my tinctures on the new moon—that’s how I was taught—and since the new moon was Friday, Thursday found me at the ABC store running cost analysis on the cheapest bottom shelf brandy and vodka—lowest cost, highest proof, which bottles I can reuse, you know. I show up at the register with four or five huge bottles of booze, and not the kind anyone would proudly display in their liquor cabinet. The lady at the cash register looks at the selection, looks at me, and then shakes her head, pursing her lips. I’m serious. And I know that face. It’s the same face my mom used to make when she saw what I planned on wearing for an evening out *grin*
And I start trying to explain that it’s for tincturing herbs, get as far as, “Oh, it’s not for drinking, well, not really…” and then I notice that everyone in the store is either staring or pointedly not looking at me. Then, never one to miss a thrifty opportunity, I asked if they had a case discount. Ummm, no. At which point I grabbed my [very heavy and sloshy] bags and swervily made my exit.
And then couldn’t stop laughing. Herbs are fun. 
Oh, and for those interested, the new batch is now happily steeping away: passionflower, eleuthero, damiana, ginger, nettle, and milk thistle.
I love oats (gluten free oats, of course). It is probably my number one comfort food. Even if I’m sick with low appetite, I can eat oats, but they’re also my breakfast of choice—they just soothe the soul, you know? I love them cooked, especially on weekends when time isn’t as much of an issue, but I also love to eat them uncooked, just mixed with some yogurt or water, a pinch of sea salt, some fresh fruit or agave syrup, a dash or two of cinnamon, let it sit overnight or for an hour and enjoy at room temperature. Oats are unique in that they can be eaten raw, with no special preparation necessary for our bodies to be able to digest them. You get the picture: I am awfully fond of oats.
Meanwhile, there’s this lovely set of herbs called adaptogens of which I’m a big fan. Adaptogens are wonderful because they are tonic to the adrenals (which is to say that they help our bodies to cope with stress), they can be taken daily and indefinitely, and they have no undesired, harmful effects. They are simply, deeply nourishing, and I don’t know about you, but my adrenals are very grateful for the help some days.
Usually in the past I’ve eaten my adaptogens in paste form, which is lovely, but recently I made a fabulous discovery. Astragalus, probably my favorite herb in this group, is not only “not bad” or “tolerable,” it’s downright delicious! I ran out of paste last week and didn’t have time to whip up another bowl before heading off to work, so I mixed half a tablespoon of powdered astragalus into my bowl of oats (soaked overnight) along with the cinnamon and agave nectar. I figured I could stomach the result in the interest of getting my herbal goodness in. I didn’t expect to never want to eat oats any other way! Astragalus gives a nutty, almost buttery or creamy flavor… you just have to try it.
I’ve also heard a few people say that they like to put larger chunks of dried astragalus in soup for herbal benefit and additional flavor. I haven’t tried this yet, but oh, I will be trying it very soon…
I recently was impressed by some posts I stumbled across—a series of posts from Methow Valley Herbs blog on anatomy and physiology topics—specifically the immune system, lymphatic system, urinary tract, respiratory system, and digestion. There are of course a number of books on A&P from the herbalist perspective, but a search did not yield much online. I did find this post from Rowan Remedies on the musculoskeletal system, as well.
Do you have any favorite online resources?
As an aside, yes it’s been a while. My excuses are (in no particular order) busy-ness, wedding planning (are we there yet?), and home-work. I hereby resolve to get back with the program, but it may be after the wedding (in May) before I’m back on my regular weekly posts.
In the meantime, I’m doing a lot of reading (currently reading Eliot Cowan’s Plant Spirit Medicine) and keeping a list of future topics. Any suggestions for good herbal reading material or requests for future topics?
I was fortunate enough earlier this month to meet Sharon Astyk at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello and attend her lecture “A Nation of Farmers,” an exploration of the current state of energy and food, how the two are connected, and what this means for our future. I can’t say enough good things about Astyk’s writing—that’s me on the left in the photo, valiantly trying not to stammer in my excitement—but suffice to say, if you have any interest in self-sustaining practices at home, you should look her up.
Pertinent to the subject matter of this learning blog, however, Astyk recently wrote a couple posts on her favorite herbalism books. Her second post I found particularly interesting, as it addresses the issue of scientific versus intuitive herbalism. In choosing my herbalism teacher and in continuing to study at home on my own, it was always important to me to ensure I was receiving a balance of the two.
Is there a right or wrong approach to herbalism? Well, we all have our opinions, but there are practitioners on both ends of the spectrum for whom I have immense respect. What these practitioners do is powerful largely due to the fact that they are following and using their own strengths and inclinations. So Rosemary Gladstar, Christopher Hobbs, Susun Weed, Jim Duke, etc., all sit at different points along this scientific/intuitive spectrum, and we can learn from all of them.
But for self-study and home herbal practice? We don’t need to be any of these fine people. We must find our own strengths, our own voice. Education isn’t necessarily the same as emulation. We can choose which tools to keep for our own toolbox.
And without further ado, click here to read Sharon Astyk’s thought-provoking blog on the subject.
For several years, I’ve used cleansing programs as a way of healing and detoxifying the body and for resetting or strengthening metabolism. My more recent interest in ayurveda and its emphasis on panchakarma (seasonal cleansing) has helped me to approach this on a more energetic level, meaning that your body may need different kinds of cleansing in different seasons, situations, and of course always in relation to your individual constitution.
I’ve now experimented with several types of cleansing programs. The main idea of any cleanse is to eliminate any foods that contribute to toxins in the body, so during any cleansing program, you will be removing these entirely from your diet: sugar, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, animal products (meat, cheese, butter, dairy, etc.), gluten and wheat products, and simple starches. Instead, what you do consume (depending on the cleansing program you choose) should be “pure” whole foods.
So that’s the intake part. Then there’s the other part of cleansing: the elimination of toxins from your body. Sometimes this takes care of itself, and other times you may want to help things along. First, you must drink plenty of pure water. In addition, a laxative herbal tea such as senna might be a good idea before bedtime (one cup only—this is a strong laxative), or perhaps a diuretic tea of dandelion in the morning. Also, psyllium seed husks can be mixed with water and drunk before bed to help lend “bulk” to your stool. Another option is to use a warm water enema to flush residual gunk out—it sounds scary if you’ve never tried it, but once you get over the ick factor, it just isn’t that big a deal. And you can feel the difference—I usually feel sort of “high” afterward, kind of light and energetic.
The first cleanse I ever did was a raw food cleanse, which involves eating a completely raw and vegan diet, usually for one or two weeks. The high fiber in this diet definitely helps with cleansing, and you still get to have fun preparing and chewing your food. A balance of fresh and dehydrated fruits, vegetables, and nuts, provides you with ample nutrition to sustain you through the process. I find this is my favorite when I am dealing with heat issues in my body, as this program tends to be very cooling. Since I already run hot, as a pitta, this is great for me in spring or summer when the body can easily overheat.
This past spring I tried the master cleanse, and you can get the recipe and read about my experiences day-by-day over on my Purple House blog (read all four days for full response). Briefly, this is an entirely liquid cleanse, using a lemonade made of lemons, maple syrup and cayenne. 10 days are recommended generally, but three days is about right for me I think. This program is very warming, and I’ll probably only use it toward the end of the winter months when the body starts to get sluggish. I do not recommend this for anyone who does heavy manual labor—you will not have enough caloric energy during the cleanse. Better to schedule time off and take it easy.
The last program I’d like to share is the green smoothie cleanse, developed by nutritionist Meghan Telpner. I decided to try this out this summer and loved it. Meghan’s educational nutrition e-book on the cleansing program (as well as her other e-books) is very easy to read, creative and warm, and there is a wealth of rich information and fun recipes. Essentially, this is like the raw food cleanse, but on steroids. Or you know, the healthful, all-natural equivalent *grin*
My favorite personally is the raw food cleanse, just because I love preparing food and, well, chewing. But as I said above, it’s all about figuring out what’s right for you and in what season. And of course, I have to tell you to please always check with your doctor/nutritionist before embarking on a cleanse, be aware of what the detoxification symptoms are so you are prepared and know what’s normal and what isn’t, and as always, listen to your body. If you’re body says you’ve done enough, then listen.
What are your favorite cleansing practices? Any tips you’d like to share with the rest of us?
This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to be invited to camp out with a bunch of herbies (“herbies” is like “foodies,” but for herb enthusiasts *grin*) at Robbie Wooding’s farm. Robbie is as warm and welcoming as you could imagine, genuinely pleased to share his home with us for a couple days. He’s been practicing herbalism for a good long time, and between him and Kathleen Maier and all the other herbies in attendance, we had a wealth of information and wisdom at the table. A veritable summer solstice bounty.
The farm has been in Robbie’s family since 1790—originally a land grant from the King of England—and his family have been there ever since.
The weekend was marked by lessons both formal and informal, long walks, plant ID, shared meals, new points of view, sustainable living alternatives, fireflies blinking long into the night. As a special treat, as if all this weren’t enough, we had a big potluck Saturday night and a wonderful bluegrass band—some of the best bluegrass I’ve heard in years.
I’ll be posting a couple more items this week related to the weekend on the farm, specifically on harvesting inner bark and drying herbs. For now, here’s a tour of some of the beautiful herbs we encountered.
Echinacea, Purple coneflower. Echinacea purpurea.
Sassafras. Sassafras albidum.
Mullein. Verbascum thapsus.
Motherwort. Leonurus cardiaca.
Butterflyweed, Pleurisy-root. Asclepias tuberosa.
Red clover. Trifolium pratense.
Vitex, Chaste Tree, Chasteberry, Monk’s Pepper. Vitex agnus-castus.
Goldenseal. Hydrastis canadensis.
Poke, Pokeweed. Phytolacca americana.
Asparagus. Asparagus officinalis.
Passionflower, Maypop. Passiflora incarnata.
Milky oats. Avena sativa.
Yarrow. Achillea millefolium.
Greenbrier, Catbrier. Smilax rotundifolia.
This lizard was just chillin’, hanging out on a tree in the middle of our motley group. Anyone know what kind of lizard this is?
Blackberry. Rubus ursinus.
Black-eyed Susan. Rudbeckia hirta.
St. John’s Wort. Hypericum perforatum.
Queen Anne’s Lace, Wild carrot. Daucus carota.
Ginseng, American ginseng. Panax quinquefolius.
Robbie showing the ginseng root – look at that dancing root! What a beauty.
Lamb’s Quarters, Lamb quarters, Pigweed. Chenopodium album.
Comfrey. Symphytum officinale.
Milkweed. Asclepias syriaca.
Elecampane. Inula helenium.
And the fireworks finish? Elecampane in flower – something I’ve never seen in person before.
What a marvelous weekend. Time for sleep. Check back later this week for more posts on harvesting inner bark and drying herbs. Till then, sweet dreams.
