Our grief is a portal, an opening, a passageway into honoring that which we love. Anyone who’s ever been grief-stricken can tell you that grief is an expression of love - the two are inseparable. Grief itself isn’t something to be cured or healed, it’s something to be in relationship with. And, still, sometimes it’s too much. The weight of it can bear down and become immobilizing, expressed as a state of deep nervous system activation, exhaustion, and chronic stress.

Barberry (Berberis spp) is a medicine I truly feel all of us should know. This ubiquitous shrub is abundant, pervasive, and rich in a very special alkaloid extensively studied to have a whole host of antimicrobial properties, Berberine. This alkaloid gives Barberry its distinctive yellow roots and inner bark and is the same alkaloid that makes the famous Goldenseal so antimicrobial and gives it its golden-yellow color as well.

Ferments are already medicinally active foods unto themselves and the additional medicinal herbs elevates them even further. I personally enjoy enhancing fermented vegetables with herbs and spices- kimchi, sauerkraut, and root vegetables in particular- choosing the blend based on what’s really in its prime and available in my garden, local farms, and woodlands and meadows.

We’re having an amazing mushroom year, especially with Maitake/Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa) and when I have an abundance this is one of my favorite ways to put up the harvest! This is a traditional Italian way of preserving mushrooms- the way mushrooms on an antipasto plate are commonly preserved.

Whether we like it or not, fall is upon us. While the crisp and beautiful technicolor hues of fall are undeniable, it is also a time of huge transition, a time of mourning and of loss.