I first became interested in diversifying my apothecary with vinegar and honey-based preparations when, after a certain point, it started to feel like I was just dumping vodka on everything! And the more I began working with bioregionally abundant herbs, the more I wanted to start exploring bioregionally abundant menstruums (herbal vocab word for whatever you’re extracting into).

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.

When it comes to the bitter flavor Americans are WAY off their game compared to so many other parts of the world where bitter herbal liquors after meals are the norm. Other than our coffee, which is the main source of bitter in our diets and is actually a perfect example of too much of a good thing (read on to understand this more), our diets are more or less devoid of the bitter flavor.

It’s root season all! And in my humble opinion we need their grounding presence now more than ever. Prepping freshly harvested roots for processing, whether for medicine-making or drying, is time-consuming and hard work but totally worth it! As a teacher I’ve learned that knowing the best method for this can be a stumbling block for lots of beginner herbalists and can hold them back from harvesting so I wanted to share some of what I’ve learned over the years.

Winter is a time for nourishment and replenishment and the holidays, fun though the revelry can be, can also sometimes leave us feeling tired and depleted during a season when rest should be paramount. Enter adaptogens!

I was inspired to share this recipe after sharing it with a client this morning. This is my favorite way to take Ashwagandha and great for folks who are weary of taking tinctures, tablets and capsules. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a such a wonderful herb.

If you have a garden in New England, you probably have Evening Primrose (Oneothera biennsis) volunteering itself as a weed! Since this plant loves recently disturbed soils, gardens are one of their primary habitats, although Evening Primrose is a plant I would say I "cultivate" only in the very loosest sense of the word!