Motherwort- My Herb Teacher

The Motherwort has been my teacher this year. Actually, I had a dream a few years ago and motherwort was represented as a leather jacket wearing tough chick. Ever since that, I have had a special affinity for the plants.
I have been reading Mathew Wood's book The Book of Herbal Wisdom, and the other night before bed I read about meeting herbs in the dreamworld... and I had another dream about it (and St John's wort). I don't remember enough to put anything together, but I would say she is calling to me. I can see the plant from inside my house pretty well, and I have been sitting by the one in my backyard and getting to know her. I was about to prune her back but I have been reluctant. I decided to let her go to seed and collect the seeds for starting more plants for next year. I started some of the seeds I had collected from the farm at her feet this spring, and she was a great nurse- helping them to become seedlings. Just the other day I finally transferred them into gallon containers that I will transfer out to the farm to grow this fall.  I put some Comfrey fertilizer on all the seedlings and they popped into gear and grew a really well after that!

I formulated the Holy Mama tincture with this plant as well as Wood Betony, Holy Rama Tulsi and Blue Vervain. As I read and re-read info about the plants I am learning to use the formula for more than just a stress relief - for instance, wood betony helps with short term memory loss as well as strengthening the solar plexus (gut reactions) and aids digestion... so much to learn from these plants!

Sister Sage at NW Herbal Fair in Mt Vernon

Please come out to the NW Herbal Fair this weekend and choose from over 100 workshops and lectures and visit the 50 or so vendors (I will be one of them). There will be great teachers and activities for the whole family, and something for everyone to take home to remind them of the festival.

The festival is Friday- Sunday with an option to stay on Monday ($50 extra) for some intensive classes. If you are an herbalist/student and need continuing educational credits, some of the classes will be for class credit.

The early bird specials are all gone, but there are still tickets on sale at the door. $90 for the weekend -$25 each day, and camping is free!

Check it out at www.nwherbalfair.com/ and I hope to see you there!

Great Herbal Podcast: Plant language & song

I was listening to my favorite herbal podcast (Herbal Highways, with host Karyn Sanders) today, and  she was interviewing David Winston about plant language (communication). His Cherokee uncle trained him, then he went on to study Chinese medicine as well as Western (European) medicine.
He talked about thinking about one of his client's problems, and what to give her, and he saw the nettles shaking. He noticed there was no breeze. He dismissed it a bit and went on doing his work, then noticed it shaking some more & realized he should try to use the seeds for the situation.  It worked for the particular person's issue, and he has used it many times since then. He knew it was the plant that was giving the info to him. They both talked about having the plants growing in your garden, then you really don't need to harvest them because you hang out with them -like good neighbors.
He talked about plants having a song that they will reveal to certain people after they really get to know each other. And, he said usually people won't tell their apprentices because it is the plant that decides to give up the song. They have to find out on their own. He once met a Maury healer and they both knew the same song & spontaneously sang it together. That is so cool! Since my partner Marc is a musician, and musicians often talk about music notes in terms of colors which is represented visually in vibrations, I often explain plant flower essences as capturing the vibration of the plant as well.  Now, to think of the vibrations of the plants as a song is even cooler because it is like all of the constituents have their own voice (more like chords) in the song. Herbs never cease to amaze me!

Goddess Festival Saturday in Seattle

x
come join us in wallngford for The Goddess Festival on Saturday, Aug 13th from 11 am to midnight  (for the full mOOn ) celebration and fundraiser for 13 great nonprofits!
I will have tinctures, Balms & lotions for sale and sample. I hope to see you there.
Next weekend i will be at the NW Herbal Faire near Mt Vernon. I will be presenting a class on landscaping with herbs & a hands on herbal salve making class.

Learn about herb growing with Sister Sage

This is new to me, but I am working on a video series on YouTube, and this is my first one.
I will show you how to make comfrey compost tea for use as a fertilizer on your plants. I realize that it is not the best videography, but I will work on it... You can use the compost tea to water your plants and keep them growing through the summer. It is great for watering your new seedlings since comfrey is so great at cell regeneration. The very best time to use this is in the spring since you are supposed to wait until the second cutting of the herb due to the possibility of PA's (basically liver damage if used too much) I will demo in another video when I make the comfrey salve.

Herb Flowers in Bloom

These are the photos of the herbs in the field this Spring/Summer thus far. We have harvested most of these herbs a few times. 

Comfrey in flower

Comfrey is great to use in a skin healing salve or lotion. I made a burdock root and comfrey leaf salve and used it to heal a cut finger this winter, and it made my fingernail super hard!  I have been giving samples to my friends and relatives with psoriasis or eczema to see if it works to heal the itchy dry skin on elbows and knees.  The burdock will cleanse the kidney and clear up the skin, and while I was using it every day I was getting complements on my complexion.

Baby Motherwort

 

The Motherwort has become one of my favorites, and is in my Holy Mama Tincture formula. The plants at my house ares so tall and graceful and I let them go to seed. I place the tops with seeds at the bottom of the plant n the spring and they grow when the time is right. The trick is to notice them in time to propagate them. I transferred them to 4" pots for a few weeks, but when my intern showed up with the plants she propagated for me at her house, I transferred them all to 1 gallon pots with organic fertilizer to help them grow.

The Clovers in this picture are pretty amazing. of all the years I have been casually picking my clover for my own consumption during the year I have come to love finding the double buds on the plant. I kind of have a thing for twins, so I think that is why they appeal to me. This time I was harvesting and found two different plants with four flower buds on them! That was just so amazing to me I had to take a picture of them.