Behind the Scenes; Transformation and Growth on The Herbalist’s Path

🌿Big changes are happening at The Herbalist’s Path, and I’m so excited to share them with you! This episode is all about the growth and transformation we’re experiencing—starting with our brand-new website, the creation of Naturally Healed: Kid Safe Herbal Remedies, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce the upcoming Community Herbalist Certification Program starting in January! (want in? Send a dm!)

Join me as I take you behind the scenes and explain why these changes are happening and how they’re designed to support you on your herbal journey. 

I also answered some great questions from our listeners about natural remedies for their families—from baking with herbs, to supporting young women and their menstrual cycle. 
Whether you’re a seasoned herbalist or just starting to explore natural remedies for your family, this episode is pac

If you've been trying to figure out the best remedies to have stocked in your natural medicine cabinet, you are in luck! I've got a free guide for you where I'm sharing the best remedies to have for all the things from colds and flu, to tummy aches, sleeplessness, and daily well-being. You can get it right here!

Do you or your kids find it hard to focus, and you just wish you could get them to stay on task?  If you've ever been there, WishGarden Herbs' Attention Ally may be the perfect thing for your kids, or you too. It's the perfect blend of herbs to calm the nerves and improve focus! You can grab yours right here.

If you're done struggling to keep your kids healthy as cold and flu season comes about, then you are going to LOVE Oregon's Wild Harvest and their Kids Echinacea with Raspberry flavoring. I know my daughter LOVES it, in fact she asks me for it all of the time, even if she's not sick!
Be sure to get yours w/ 15% off here!

Chapters

• 1:44 Herbalist Path Podcast Updates
• 16:32 Community Herbalist Certification Program Announcement
• 26:24 Healing Programs and Herbal Baking
• 35:08 Herbalist Path Podcast Disclaimer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:45

Hello and welcome to the Herbalist Path, a podcast where you'll discover how to make your own herbal remedies at home so that you can take better care of yourself, better care of your family and better care of our planet. I'm Mel. I'm a clinical herbalist, environmental educator and mountain-l living mama with this crazy passion for teaching more mamas and their little loves how to use plants as medicine in a safe, effective and tasty way, so that there can be an herbalist in every home. Again, it's an absolute honor to have you on the journey down the herbalist path with me so that together we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers. Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode on the herbalist path. I am so grateful that you are here, so happy that you are here and listening to this episode. We have so much to talk about.

Speaker 1: 2:53

There are all kinds of big, big, exciting shifts and changes and growth happening at the Herbalist Path, on the podcast show and the website and all over the place and the website and all over the place. So I'm just kind of coming back from a whirlwind of busy, busy, busy, busy that led right into my birthday. So last weekend I was so lucky it was absolutely beautiful and sunny and fall-like here in Oregon and I got to go to the pumpkin patch on Friday with my family and another family of close friends and we just had a blast checking out all the great pumpkins, this beautiful organic pumpkin farm in Sauvies Island outside of Portland Oregon. We went through the corn maze and we did all the pumpkin patchy things which I just love. And it happened to be that the husband of my friend, who is the family that we went to the pumpkin patch with, it was his birthday on Friday and mine on Tuesday, so it was kind of like a dual pumpkin patch celebration of birthdays. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 4:06

And then after that my family and one of my daughter's friends, we went camping. So we went up just basically in my backyard to Trillium Lake around Mount Hood, oregon. Let me know if you've ever been there, just shoot me a DM and let me know. It's such a beautiful lake. It's just this tiny little lake and then there's massive Mount Hood as the backdrop of the lake and I will say these days it's extremely populated.

Speaker 1: 4:38

But we got really lucky and found a nice and quiet primitive campground on the backside campground on the backside and the kids were great and my daughter, who is 11 now, was like mom, we really need to go camping more. And I was so happy to hear my 11 year old say we need to go camping more. Uh was pretty much everything I've ever dreamed of. I don't know if you know this, but I used to be a backpacking guide and wilderness therapist and I grew up camping and I loved it. She's grown up camping and loved it, but to hear her actually be like, yeah, this is what we want to do Because she's usually pretty resistant to doing the things right, she's like no, I don't want to. No, I don't want to. I'm like, really, but all these things are so much fun. So, anyways, that was really really cool and a nice way to relax after doing so much work behind the scenes here. I was definitely going too hard for a while, but now my 11 year old is planning her July birthday and we're doing a three day camp out at another lake around Mount Hood. So how exciting, like I love that my kiddo wants to do that for her birthday. One year we got to go rafting for her birthday her eighth birthday and I don't know, she's a lucky kid. She gets to have really awesome birthdays and I feel like a really lucky mom that she wants to have a camp out for a birthday. So that's just a little bit of what's happening in like my personal life and then in my herbalist path life.

Speaker 1: 6:11

If you haven't seen yet, I just launched a brand new website. There's still a few little tweaks and things to do, but if you haven't checked out the herbalist pathcom yet, please, please, please check it out. I've had the old website for quite some time and it's kind of been a conglomeration of all the things I've done as I've continued to grow the herbalist path and shift what I have to offer and all of the things that happen when you're learning and growing and running a business. So I'm really excited about how everything looks. I really wanted to make it more clear for you, more streamlined, so like you know where to go when you want to listen to a podcast or check it out on a blog and you can find out what programs and courses I have available if you're ready to like take that next level in your herbal learning and it just looks so much more streamlined and fresh and friendly and I hope you love it. I would love if you do go check it out Like, let me know what do you think? Because boy oh boy, it was a lot of work going on there. So, and if you're there and you notice that something you try to click to doesn't work, please let me know. There's so many little buttons and clicks and things that I had to go through, but really I just wanted to create this nice, safe space for moms who really want to feel confident using herbal remedies and know that what they're choosing is right and going to help and be safe and all of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 7:50

So one of the new things you'll see on the website is a free guide I have, and it's a guide with all the natural remedies that we keep on hand in our house, whether we're talking about things for sleep health or for gut health for kiddos right. About things for sleep health or for gut health for kiddos right, immune health, all of those kinds of things. And I just link you right to the products. Of course, I'm only using the best of the best because, there is no doubt about it, your herbal remedies are going to work better when you start with really great quality. So I'm sharing great companies like Oshala Herb Farm hands down, my favorite place to get bulk herbs from. They are phenomenal, like out of this world phenomenal. There's some things from Oregon's Wild Harvest, there's some things from Wish Garden Herbs, some things, some vitamins and supplements and fish oils and really just all the things that a mom with very, very high standards on natural remedies would recommend you have. So that's free. If you want to check it out, you are welcome to. I'm also going to be having a resources page on there with some of my favorite tips and things that I wish I knew when I first started down this herbal journey. So that will be on there soon.

Speaker 1: 9:09

And you know, if you see something that you're like, I really wish this was on your website, mel, hit me up, like, shoot me a message in Instagram or on TikTok or any of the places. Really, I'm all ears. It's like a brand new shiny toy for me. So I'm like, yay, look at this toy I get to play with and I don't know. Brand new shiny toy for me. So I'm like, yay, look at this toy I get to play with and I don't know. I just really hope that you like it and I hope it makes it easier for you to navigate things. So that's happening and then, along with that, there's a lot of shifts happening on the back end still.

Speaker 1: 9:42

So I don't know how long you've listened to my show or what you know about what I do, but I have run Apothecary Mama, which was an herbal mentorship that I started a little over two years ago online, and when I initially created Apothecary Mama, my intention was to have this nice streamlined course that was like hey mom, this is what you do when your kid can't poo, this is what you do when they got a running nose, this is what you do when you got a stuffy nose. And just like a place where you don't have to think about it, you don't have to dive down that Google rabbit hole. You know what I mean. And you could just be like oh, this is like actually safe scientific evidence. This is backed by somebody that is a clinical herbalist and has done a lot of work to heal her family and her community and well beyond her immediate community. You know those kinds of things, her immediate community, you know those kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 10:45

But as I created it and continued to build on it, I can reflect back now and see how many lessons I learned. What I kept doing was adding more and more workshops every month and we'd have these guest teachers, which are amazing. But I just put so much information in there that it became overwhelming for a mom who just wants simple answers. Not everybody wants to dive deep and as nerdy into herbalism as I do and I get that. But I just get so excited when I am sharing about herbalism and I just want to like give all the information to my students and things like that. So really I just kind of exploded.

Speaker 1: 11:29

Apothecary mama, I just made it too much. So like it came to a point where if you were a mom and you came in there and you just wanted those simple answers and you saw how many lessons and things were in there, you'd be completely overwhelmed. And then I was also seeing people that just totally dug it and they're like this is amazing, I am learning so much. And before you knew it, like there are people in their community were like, hey, what can you do for me? And they're starting to do like mini herbal consults and making remedies for people in their community. And those people were like, well, you know, I've done all this learning. Do I get some kind of certification? So we've kind of morphed things, and we're doing a community herbalist certification program also that starts in January.

Speaker 1: 12:17

But what I really wanted to do is go back to that foundation, to the foundation of having an easy place for moms who want to know about herbal remedies, who want to know what herbs can I turn to if my baby has colic? What herbs can I turn to if we're dealing with poison oak? What about cradle cap? What about anxiety or sleeplessness? You get what I'm saying. So I have been creating naturally healed kids, safe herbal remedies, and that is honestly what Apothecary Mama was supposed to be a couple of years ago and it is officially, officially coming out on November 1st. I'm super duper excited about it. It is beautiful, it is streamlined. We're going to be talking about herbal safety tips to make sure that you're super safe with all the herbal remedies you are using, that you know that this is safe when your child is under two or under six months. This is safe when your child is 12. This is how we handle hormonal acne for those teenagers and those kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 13:29

And, of course, each lesson it's got a video and then the intro for each body section that we're talking about. So there'll be a whole section on immune and respiratory health, where we talk about the sinus issues. We talk about coughs and sore throats and fevers and the five stages of a fever and how you can choose which herbs to use in those stages things along those lines. We talk about digestive health, so the constipation, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, colic, all of that kind of stuff. There's a whole module on the nervous system and the brain. So we're talking about anxiety, we're talking about the ability to focus, adhd, stress, sleeplessness, headaches, moodiness. Of course, skincare so cradle cap, diaper, rash, ringworm, acne, the cuts and scrapes. A whole section on first aid also, and then some of like the random stuff like teething and pink eye and nosebleeds and you know all the other things that we get to run into as a mom. So each of those lessons is going to have the video lesson.

Speaker 1: 14:40

We're going to talk about what herbs support that body system. We're going to talk about what herbs you use for each of those ailments. And, yes, you get many, many, many of my recipes from my 20 plus years of making herbal remedies and using them in my herbal apothecary, in my community, in my home and all of those things. So I really am specific about making remedies that actually taste good too. So I know the struggle of having your kids not want to take your medicine. So I'm a firm believer that this stuff can taste really, really good and really it's all about helping you get to that point where the next time your kid is sick or the next time that other emergency happens, you don't have to run to the drugstore, you don't have to go to the doctor. You just look in your nice little natural medicine cabinet and you grab exactly what you need and you do it with confidence. You do it with that inner knowing and trust in yourself that you know exactly what to do. This is so, so, so important and such a valuable thing, because I think over the years we've all learned that there's a bit of, shall we say, mistrust within our medical system. Right, so it's a very important system, it's a brilliant system, it's a life-saving system. But what if we could not overload it and overtax it with all these simple ailments that we can take care of for our children in our home, with natural remedies that are not loaded with dyes and sugars and other crap toxins, but are like loaded with plants that we could actually see. Maybe we even grew them ourselves, who knows. So yeah, that's the mission of Naturally Healed KidSafe Herbal Remedies.

Speaker 1: 19:13

At the time of recording this, it's October 17th 2024. It is on presale because it opens up November 1st and if you want to take advantage of that, there's a link in the show notes, of course. So definitely the time to get in. And then, just an FYI, we are doing away with our Kids Save Herb Club. That was kind of like an herb of the month kind of study, but what I found is each month we were talking about an herb and, diving deep, we were definitely going into other ailments that adults come across and it's just time to shift that. So it will be kind of hidden behind the scenes, but it will be an herb of the month program where you are still learning about one herb, but all those herbs will be dripped out in a nice timely fashion. So if you were in the KidSafe Herb Club, I owe you a big apology because I tried to send out an email like a month and a half ago and never did. It's because I got way too busy guys, way, way, way, way, way too busy. But anyways, that is shifting and changing. You will be getting an email from me on that. And then the really, really big, exciting thing is that this January, we are opening up our first round of our community herbalist certification program. So, so, so excited about this.

Speaker 1: 20:46

This is such a valuable skill to have. I mean, think about it. Look at all the disasters we've been seeing happening. Look at the times that the world shuts down. Look at the times we go to the drugstore shelves and they're completely empty. We need healers in every single community, of course. We need an herbalist in every single home, but what about that feeling that comes about when you do have your co-workers or your friends reaching out asking how you can help them with their hormonal issues or with their depression or whatever it may be?

Speaker 1: 21:19

There are so many ways, as a community herbalist, that you can offer help and healing to the people around you. So in this program, we're going to be studying one system each month. It's a year long program and it is something that, once you're in, you have access to for life, and there's Q&As and guest teachers, because one of the most important things that I feel I've had in my herbal learning journey is the ability to learn from many, many different herbalists, and that's something that I feel is incredibly important for me to pass on to my students. So in this program, we're going to dive into the anatomy and physiology of each body, system and structure so that you have a solid understanding of what might be going on, so that you can then be significantly more strategic in choosing the right not only herbs, but lifestyle decisions. Lifestyle is so much a piece of herbalism, so that's going to be amazing and at the end of the 12 months, if you've gone through all the things and you've done the quizzes and such that are on the back end, you will get your community herbalist certification and you can feel really confident about saying, yeah, I can help people in my community, whether that's you want to start doing one-on-one consultations.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Maybe you're the stay-at-home mom that wants to bring in a little extra money, but feel good about what you're doing with that. Maybe you want an apothecary. You want to be that medicine maker in your community and have your own shop. These kinds of lessons are going to give you the knowledge and wisdom that it takes to do that with confidence. Of course, you're going to have to have the experience as well, which happens when you start making these medicines and when you start working with people one on one. So we'll talk about some assessment skills.

Speaker 1: 23:21

We'll talk about, of course, the herbs for each body system, the lifestyle shifts for each body system, and, yeah, it's basically what I saw Apothecary Mama becoming and what so many of those students that were like really into this herbal learning and wanted to dive deeper, need Only it's going to be much more streamlined and linear. So if you want to get in on that first round of this program, reach out to me in my DMs or by email and I would love to tell you more about it. There is an application for the community herbalist certification program. Don't worry, it's not hard, it's nothing major. I just want to make sure that it's the right fit for you. But yeah, I'm super jazzed about what's coming inside of that program and watching more and more people not only be able to heal themselves and their family, but being able to heal people in their extended community and doing it with confidence and surety. So it's so exciting. I'm really, really, really, really thrilled.

Speaker 1: 24:35

If you could not tell it's been such a journey on this herbalist path, honestly, it's funny when I reflect on how I've named my business the Herbalist Path and I actually started my herbal learning journey when I was literally walking down a path as a backpacking guide and I was like these people are carrying all this toxic, nasty stuff in their backpacks and camping gear and first aid kits and like we're walking by these plants that can heal them and that, just like, would I have known 20 plus years ago that I would be where I am today and teaching people about these plants and these remedies and how to work with the human body and how to work with the plants and how they dance together? I would have never known, because my path has taken so many different twists and turns since then, from handwriting all of my little remedies and making them and passing them out in my community to running a really beautiful and successful herbal product line that sold in natural health food stores and in REI and in naturopathic physicians offices and teaching classes at the naturopathic college and all around my community. Like, I've been teaching herbalism now since 2011. I want to say it might've been my first like official, official class, um, and it's so much fun. The fun and the excitement and the passion never die, like they don't die and anyways, this is just part of my path. Um, I ran an herbal apothecary on that path. I worked with clients one-on-one on that path. I have been teaching for a long time on this path and I want to support you on your herbalist path as well.

Speaker 1: 26:25

So again, reach out to me if you have any questions on the new programs that I am creating for you. Definitely grab the Mom's Ultimate Guide to the Natural Medicine Cabinet, because there are some gems inside of that guide and it's totally free for you. Yeah, I'm so excited. Oh yeah, and reach out to me. Let me know what you think of the new website. Do you like it? Is there something that I missed? Is there something that you want? Is it great? Is there something that you like a lot more than others? Like? Just let me know. I would love, love, love, love, love to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 27:07

And speaking of hearing from you, I have a few people that have reached out with some questions on the podcast, so if you want to get a question answered or anything along those lines, you can click in the show notes. There's a thing that says hey, you got a question. Text us, um, hit that up. That's what these questions that I'm about to answer are coming from, and then you know you could reach out in the DMS too, and I'll try and give a little spotlight on the podcast episode. But this first question was from Palm beach, florida, and it says my daughter is 12 and has her period and I was wondering if you would do an episode on herbs that help regulate their menstrual cycle, to help with cramps and things like that. So while I'm not doing a whole episode on it right now, I can definitely talk about some of the herbs that I love to share with children at that age One. It's really, really important that they are getting optimal nutrition at this time to support their bodies. So I highly recommend making sure that nettles and red raspberry leaf are on board. Both of them are incredibly nourishing, but the red raspberry leaf is also going to be very strengthening, supporting and toning for the uterus and just is a really, really valuable ally for people with a menstrual cycle. And then, when it comes to those cramps, I would consider using something along the lines of blackhaw bark or cramp bark. If you want, I could link to a few products that are really fabulous through WishGuard, nerves and a couple other companies that I work with that are great, great, great, great, great. But yeah, first and foremost, support her nutritionally, make sure that the whole body is able to function well. No-transcript. And then the other great question from Minneapolis, minnesota.

Speaker 1: 29:57

I was wondering if you have any experience making medicinal baked goods with herbs and if there is any advice using baked goods as a way to get herbs into your body. Is it best to use infused oils, tinctures, tea? Love, love, love that you want to use the food as medicine here, because that's so important. I'm a huge fan of adding a lot of herbs to my smoothies on a regular basis, and you can absolutely bake with medicinal herbs. This is something I mean. Think about it. You probably put garlic in some things, if you ever bake a savory bread or something along those lines. Along those lines, though, when we do heat garlic, it depletes a lot of the allicin, which is one of the main medicinal components to garlic, especially for immune function and respiratory health.

Speaker 1: 30:51

But I think about things like nettles. You can definitely add nettles into a bread to add some more nourishment. You could add elderberries and make elderberry muffins Maybe. Add some blueberries in there too, and you're getting all those anthocyanins for the body, and the blueberries are going to sweeten it up a little bit. With the elderberries, you do have to be a bit wary because the seeds inside of there, so I would Cook those elderberries first, maybe even make it as a syrup or something. I don't know. I'm not thinking that one through thoroughly, so sorry about that. I know you can make like dandelion fritters. Absolutely, Cook with your food, get really, really creative on it.

Speaker 1: 31:37

And then is it best to use infused oils, tinctures, tea. Of course. That's all many, many different variables, depending on how those oils, tinctures and or tea are made. Really. What matters the most, though, is compliance. How are you going to get those people to take the remedy? Are they willing to take a tincture? Because if they're not, that's not a good remedy for them. Are they willing to drink a tea? Because if they're not, that's not a good remedy for them. Are they willing to drink a tea? Because, if they're not, that's not a good remedy for them. They're not going to take it. The herbs are just going to sit on the shelf and just collect a lot of dust. So we definitely dive a lot deeper in how to make all of those and make sure like your infused oils are working well. Make sure your tinctures have strong enough ratios to be really solid medicine. That's basically what we do inside of Medicine Making.

Speaker 1: 32:25

Mama, my one program, that's not going anywhere. It is staying as it is at this point in time and it is also a piece of the community herbalist program as well. So I kind of rambled on that one. But my point being is to definitely make food with your medicine. Let your food be your medicine and get creative. Have fun. Throw some rosemary and garlic into a nice loaf of sourdough bread. Yum, so, so, so good. And when you do that, reach out to me and let me know what you've created. If you do bake something, that's just amazing. Please, please, please, please, please, tell me. Wouldn't it be fun to like make an elderberry jelly scone or something like that, like play with it. Have a good time, I think it'll be great. Okay, that is it, you guys, for today.

Speaker 1: 33:16

I just really wanted to give you that update. I feel like I've been like in this rabbit hole of busy, busy, busy on the back end. I can't even express to you how much work has gone into the shifting of the website and the program and I'm really excited to finally get the program up and out and available for you so that you can become that confident healer in your home. I'm really excited to welcome the first round of people in January to the Community Herbalist Program. That is on a very early bird discount right now as well. So if you are thinking that this is a path you'd like to take in your world, now's the time to reach out to me and we can open up a discussion on it and make sure it's the right kind of program for you.

Speaker 1: 34:04

So thank you again for tuning into this episode, for listening to me share these updates with you. Again, if you have a question, hit the show notes where it says hey, got a cue and pop it in. I really, really love to hear from you and I think this is something I want to bring to the podcast. If you have suggestions on other things to bring to the podcast, please let me know. I do have some amazing guests on the show in future episodes that I think you'll really, really appreciate. And, yeah, thank you so much again for being here, for being a part of this podcast, for sharing it with your friends, for sharing your feedback with me, for going and leaving a five-star review and letting others know how this podcast helps you. It's really, really beautiful and an absolute honor. So thanks again and have yourself a most magnificent day.

Speaker 1: 35:08

Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Herbalist Path. Being on this journey with you is absolutely incredible. If you dig this episode, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast player and share it with your friends so that together, we can make herbalism hashtag spread like wildflowers. On another note, I must mention that, while I know you're getting some good info here, it's important to remember that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. While the information in this podcast is absolutely relevant, herbs work differently for each person and each condition. That's why I recommend you work with a qualified practitioner, whether that be another herbalist, a naturopath or your doctor. So thank you again. I am truly honored that you're tuning into these episodes and on the path with me to make sure that there's an herbalist in every home. Again, don't forget to share this episode with your friends so that we can make herbalism Hashtag spread like wildflowers.