The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Herbs & the Holidays: Herbal Gift Ideas Dec 08, 2018

Show notes

Handmade herbal remedies and self-care items are a great solution to the conundrum of gift-giving. In this episode we’ll share three DIY herbal gift ideas that you can make at home and share with all your loved ones: herb-infused wines, coffee-pecan cocktail bitters, and an evergreen-scented sugar scrub. The gift of herbs shows you care – give something unique this year!

PLUS: Listen in to get a coupon code for 25% off ANY of our online courses, good from now until December 21st

Herbs discussed include cacao, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon, angelica, calamus, hawthorn berries, goji berries, rose hips, hibiscus, elderberry, lemon balm, coffee, pecan, wild cherry, orange, black pepper, maple, pine, spruce, & fir. (Whew!)

Mentioned in this podcast:

Herbal Medicine-Making – Our video course teaches you to make more than two dozen types of herbal remedies.

Herbalism 101 is our entry-level program in practical herbalism: detailed profiles of 87+ medicinal plants, along with up-close instructions for making your own herbal remedies. Try it for 14 days with our zero-risk return policy! Learn your herbs & make your medicines with this in-depth set of herb profiles & medicine-making instructions.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Herbs & the Holidays: Medicinal Virtues of Culinary Herbs Dec 01, 2018

Show notes

This week we continue our exploration of herbal holiday traditions with a quick chat about some of the ways herbs turn up in holiday foods. Whether it’s a nice herbed roast, a ginger-enhanced cranberry sauce, or a paleo mulling-spice cookie (yep, we’ve got a recipe for those!), herbs add more than flavor to your season – as if that weren’t enough!

PLUS: Listen in to get a coupon code for 25% off ANY of our online courses, good from now until December 21st!

Herbs discussed include sage, pine, juniper, mint, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, orange peel, allspice, nutmeg, clove, & anise.

Mentioned in this podcast:

This post about hawthorn includes Katja’s cranberry sauce recipe. It’s super simple!
These Ginger Chamomile Cookies can be modified to be Mulling Spice cookies with a simple substitution for a mulling spice blend in place of the ginger & chamomile powders. Try it!
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 24 – Taco Seasoning Herbs
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 35 – Cinnamon, Vanilla, & Cacao
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 48 – Pumpkin Spice: That’s Herbalism Too!

Herbalism 101 is our entry-level program in practical herbalism: $450 gets you 58 hours of direct video instruction – that’s just $7.75 per hour! Pay all at once or in installments – and don’t worry: your access never expires. Still not sure? Try it for 14 days with our zero-risk return policy. Learn your herbs & make your medicines with this in-depth set of herb profiles & medicine-making instructions.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Herbs & the Holidays: Emotional Support Nov 23, 2018

Show notes

Today we’re kicking off a series of podcasts on herbs and the holidays! We begin with emotional support, because no matter how you feel about the holidays, those feelings are probably pretty big. In this episode we take an energetics-based approach to sorting out emotional categories and matching supportive herbs to them. Whether you’d like to be more grounded, centered, resolved, or emotionally flexible, herbs can help you get there!

Herbs discussed include lady’s mantle, yarrow, marshmallow, violet, lemon balm, elderflower, cardamom, vanilla, motherwort, hawthorn, linden.

Mentioned in this podcast:

Check out our YouTube Herbs for Holidays series from 2017 – wow, we’ve learned a lot about video production since then! We’ll be adding a lot more video content to YouTube soon – subscribe to our channel now so you don’t miss it!
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 2 – Avoiding Adaptogen Debt & Emotionalymphatics
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 14 – Alternatives to Adaptogens for Burnout
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 16 – Emotional Support for Mothers & Teens
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast, episode 39 – Herbs for Introverts & Extraverts

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Cold & Flu Herbs (Beyond Elderberry Syrup & Thyme Steam) Nov 16, 2018

Show notes

Every time we talk about cold & flu herbs, we seem to start out with elderberry syrup and a good old thyme steam. Well, this time we’re going to talk about something different! Here are a few good friends to have on hand as we move into cold & flu season.

Herbs discussed include white pine, sage, ground ivy, boneset, elecampane, ginger, catnip–elderflower–chamomile, and lemon!

Mentioned in this podcast:

Herbstalk’s Wintergreen Market – Saturday November 24th at the Armory in Somerville. We’ll be there! Ryn’s doing a demo on electuaries (pastes made with honey + herbal powders) at 2:00pm, and we’ll have a small table with our Herbal Oracle Cards and our book, Herbal Medicine for Beginners for sale!

If you like our podcast, you might like learning from us in a more intentional way – like with our Herbalism 101 program! It’s a great way to start incorporating herbs into your daily life, to keep you and your loved ones healthy and resilient all year round!

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Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

The Apothekers Nov 10, 2018

Show notes

This week our episode is an interview with Shari & Russ Apotheker of Apotheker’s Kitchen, makers of fine honey-sweetened confections and longtime friends of ours. We visited them at their homestead in Way Up There, VT, to chat about their work and how it’s changed over the years. Along the way we talked about a lot of issues close to the herbal world as well as that of artisanal chocolatier-ing: ethical ingredient sourcing, navigating certifications, prioritizing pollinator protection, and life as intentionally-small, purposefully-scaled-down small businessowners. Give it a listen!

Herbs discussed include cacao, cashew, & vanilla.

Mentioned in this podcast:

Apothekers Kitchen – go here to order directly from Shari & Russ!
Apothekers Kitchen on Instagram
Herbstalk’s Wintergreen Market – Saturday November 24th at the Armory in Somerville. The Apothekers will be there with their chocolates, marshmallows, & other confections. We’ll be there too – Ryn’s doing a demo on electuaries at 2:00pm, and we’ll have a small table with our Herbal Oracle Cards and our book, Herbal Medicine for Beginners for sale!

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If you like our podcast, you might like learning from us in a more intentional way – like with our Herbalism 101 program! It’s a great way to start incorporating herbs into your daily life, to keep you and your loved ones healthy and resilient all year round!

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Intentional Inconvenience, Rhodiola Rhapsody, Stimulants for Midwives, & "Poisonous Mints" Nov 02, 2018

Show notes

This is our one-year anniversary episode! This week we cover a lot of ground. Katja talks about ways adding a little inconvenience to your home environment helps encourage you to move more. She also talks about how she came around to appreciating rhodiola as an herb on our honeymoon to Iceland, and offers some non-caffeine-containing stimulant herbs for midwives (and anyone who may have long nights ahead). Then, Ryn shares some of his discoveries on looking for exceptions to the herbalist’s adage that “nothing in the mint family is poisonous”.

Herbs discussed include rhodiola, angelica, eleuthero, tulsi, betony, calamus, yarrow, ground ivy, & pennyroyal.

Mentioned in this podcast:

Roseroot – Herb of the North, Anna Rósa
8 Poisonous Plant Families, Marc Williams
Botany In A Day & Shanleya’s Quest, Tom Elpel
Toxic Plants of North America, Second Edition, Burrows & Tyrl

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Exam Time! Oct 27, 2018

Show notes

Every year, our Advanced Studies Program ends with a weekend-long exam. There’s a written portion with short answers, essays, and case analysis, and an in-person oral & practical exam as well. This week, we wanted to share with you some of our favorite questions from the exam, mainly to focus on the reasonswe ask these questions in this way and how they help us change our ingrained patterns of thinking. We’re also sharing some particularly great answers from this year’s group!

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

West Virginia Herbal Medics Oct 20, 2018

Show notes

This week we’re out in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, helping out at a free herbal clinic for folks in this area who’ve been affected by mountaintop removal mining. We interviewed three members of the local Herbal Medics team – Maureen, Hannah, and Lauren share their connections to the area, connecting with locals (and reconnecting them to their traditions) through plant medicine, and their experiences in the free clincs we’ve been running here together for the past three years.

We also have new intro music, provided by our dear friend (and Herbal Medics WV team member), Jen-Osha!

Herbs discussed include calendula, plantain, wild lettuce, & cayenne; plus formulas including joint liniment and sprain & strain salve.

Mentioned in this podcast:

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

A Few Herbs On Our Shelf Oct 12, 2018

Show notes

This week we do a lightning round of “minigraphs” on some of our favorite herbs. We started by taking a look at what we’ve got on our herb shelf (okay . . . *shelves*) in the kitchen right now, and selecting a few semi-randomly until our 45 minute timer went off.

We covered reishi, catnip, mugwort, heather, st john’s wort, and za’atar (which is a spice blend, but totally still counts – right?). So give it a listen and meet some of our best friends!

Mentioned in this podcast:

Our Wedding Tattoo Herbs – including elder, betony, tulsi, bladderwrack (seaweed), pine, yarrow, sage, and marshmallow.
Quintessential Arts – purveyor of fantastic plant ally jewelry
Behave, by Robert Sapolsky – Katja’s current book / research fascination
Canaan Palestine – our favorite source for za’atar (when we’re not mixing our own)

And here’s everything else in the way of loose dry herbs on our shelf right now:

ashwagandha
angelica
elecampane
tulsi
ginger
linden
chamomile
calamus
orange peel
plantain
schizandra
mate
hawthorn
motherwort
self-heal
uva ursi
betony
jiaogulan
goldenrod
cedar
calendula
ground ivy
thyme & monarda
astragalus
… plus, cooking spices – most importantly: cumin, garlic, caraway, berbere, cayenne, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, fresh-ground black pepper, vanilla, and fresh basil

We’ll talk about them in a future podcast, so make sure to subscribe!

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Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

Pumpkin Spice - That's Herbalism Too! Oct 07, 2018

Show notes

It's not just for lattes anymore: the ubiquitous pumpkin spice blend is in fact an herbal formula! The standard pumpkin [pie] spice mix is cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice, nutmeg. From an herbalists point of view, this is a mix of aromatic, pungent, carminative spices, very antioxidant-rich, and most of which are also antimicrobial. In this podcast we'll break it down and give you the details on each individual herb, as well as the formula as a whole. Spice it up!
Mentioned in this podcast:

Pumpkin spice as an aphrodisiac, study in the American Academy of Neurology and Orthopaedic Surgeons
Cinnamon for blood sugar management, study
Katja's recipe for paleo pumpkin spice muffins!

This episode originally aired on the HerbRally Podcast - they have tons of great content over there, check it out!
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If you like our podcast, you might like learning from us in a more intentional way - like with our Herbalism 101 program! It's a great way to start incorporating herbs into your daily life, to keep you and your loved ones healthy and resilient all year round!
Our theme music is "Wings" by Nicolai Heidlas.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

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