Cooking With Medicine: The Healing Powers of the Herbs in Your Holiday Feasts

Holiday feasts are loaded with healing herbs that go far beyond just flavorful foods. In this episode of The Herbalist’s Path, I explore the incredible medicinal properties of the herbs we use during holiday celebrations. From sage’s soothing digestive powers to rosemary’s brain-boosting benefits and thyme’s respiratory support, these everyday culinary herbs hold amazing potential for your health.

Whether you’re a curious home herbalist or dreaming of becoming a community healer, this episode will open your eyes to the medicine hiding in plain sight and help you discover the healing power of the herbs in your holiday meals. 

If you’re ready to take your herbal knowledge to the next level, applications are now open for the Community Herbalist Certification Program, starting January 2025. Step into the role of a community healer—find all the details here: https://www.theherbalistspath.com/community-herbalist-certification 

03:30 Sage: A

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Chapters

• 1:50 Herbal Remedies for Thanksgiving and Beyond
• 20:03 Powerful Healing Herbs for Wellness
• 35:46 Herbalist Path Guidance & Disclaimer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:51

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, hello, and welcome back to another episode on the herbalist path.

Speaker 1: 2:49

I'm really excited to dive into this episode with you, as I'm recording this just before I'm about to journey down to my mom's house down around Eugene Oregon and hang out with my family for the coming days, for the Thanksgiving holiday, and so I thought it would be really, really nice to talk about some of the amazing medicine that we tend to use a lot in our foods during this time of year. And you know it's Thanksgiving and it's the beginning of the holiday season, and I can't help but reflect on what this time of year really means to me. Help but reflect on what this time of year really means to me. So I love Thanksgiving because I love to celebrate it as a time of gratitude and gathering with those that I love. But I also feel it's really important to acknowledge the deeper, more difficult truths about the history of this holiday. The story that we are taught doesn't fully honor the reality of colonialism the major harm done to indigenous peoples, the land taken, misused and abused. The lives forever altered, the lives taken, the lives taken also misused and abused. So for me, this season isn't about celebrating that history. For me, it's about reclaiming a space for what truly matters, for gratitude, for connection, for family, for community. It is a time to gather with our loved ones to honor the abundance of this beautiful earth and to recognize how much we truly need each other, because now more than ever, in a world that can feel so incredibly divided, we need to come together with compassion and extend gratitude for all that we do have and lean into the power of community. So, whether that's around a table, hanging out in a garden or just through shared acts of kindness, what this season does is invites us to reconnect with each other, reconnect with the land and with a sense of purpose rooted in care and compassion and love for all beings, and that's what this season is for me. I really hope this time of year also inspires every one of us to reflect on all of that, to tread gently and to nourish not just our bodies but our hearts and our communities and our families, our friends, the land, all of it. Okay, I just had to get that out because I'm really feeling deeply about this, seeing so much divide and so much fear right now and a lot of people forgetting the good. But if we forget the good then we lose the good. So we really do and cooking with during this season of gathering and feasting and gratitude.

Speaker 1: 6:39

So one of my favorite herbs during this time of year is sage, because, number one, I really love stuffing and all of the other things that it does, but this is also such a really, really cool herb. It's native to the Mediterranean and just has this very rich history as medicine and in folklore as well. The Romans actually considered it a very sacred plant and they would create rituals just around harvesting their sage. Wow, I love that. Sage was also believed to grow and thrive the most in homes that were dominated by women. It really is a beneficial herb to women for so many reasons. It's super duper cool, and the Greeks and Romans use sage for its medicinal properties as well. They also used it to preserve meats and foods. This has been done for thousands of years because sage has really potent antioxidant properties that prevent rancidity in oils and preserved meats, which is fabulous, and I know that way back in the 10th century, the Arab physicians believe that sage really improved mental quickness. They also believe that it made people immortal. So we'll see about that. And then in the 14th century, europeans really believe that sage kept them safe from witchcraft, yet later the witches would be burned.

Speaker 1: 8:20

I also love that sage is absolutely fantastic for the digestive process, so it's beautiful that it is used in so many of our meals to help break down fats and proteins, to ease gassiness and bloating and to really speed the process of digestion, particularly if we're dealing with really sluggish digestion. So super nice to really up that sage in your body as we're going through this feasting season and about it being a woman's herb, it is really really fabulous. So if you are like a breastfeeding mother and maybe you're ready for that time of your motherhood journey to end and it's time to wean your littles, sage can be a really fabulous ally to help reduce milk flow or dry up that whole milk producing process. It's also a great hemostatic, so it can be helpful when it comes to excessive menstrual flow as well as menopausal spotting. And, speaking of the menopause stuff, if you are a woman dealing with hot flashes and night sweats and you're just like sweating all over the place, sage can be really, really helpful in drying all of that up. It's also amazing for cold and flu season.

Speaker 1: 9:45

It's a strong antiviral and antibacterial, very, very specific for respiratory infections like strep, throat, laryngitis, sinusitis, things like that. It's also got antifungal properties, so it could be really nice for vaginal candida, athlete's foot ringworm. It's a great diaphoretic, so it can support the body during the process of a fever. It can be used for those that have excessively oily skin because it is a very strong astringent, so it can be really helpful if you've got a teen that is dealing with lots of acne and oily skin. It can be used for mouth and tooth care. It has been commonly used for bleeding gums and gingivitis. It's really got a lot going on medicinally and it's darn tasty. So just think about those kinds of things as you're preparing your meals.

Speaker 1: 10:47

That's just a little ditty on sage. Really there's so much more that we could talk about, but I want to talk about the other herbs that are fabulous too. So another one I love, love, love and maybe you've heard me talk about it in past podcasts, but rosemary and I use rosemary on a fairly regular basis almost every day in a tea, because it is known to improve memory and increase circulation and oxygen to the brain. In fact, ancient Greek scholars would wear rosemary around their necks during tests to help with their memory, which I think is so darn cool. And it was also known about rosemary that where rosemary flourished, the women ruled. It was used in wedding ceremonies People would create wreaths with rosemary for the bride to symbolize fidelity. They would also give out little sprigs of rosemary as wedding favors and that would just kind of be a sign of love and loyalty, which is so beautiful, and loyalty, which is so beautiful. It was also burned as incense instead of using frankincense and myrrh because those were so expensive.

Speaker 1: 12:05

But they would use it to fumigate sick rooms in hospitals to keep further infection out of that room. In Spain and Italy, they would hang sprigs of rosemary over their doors, which was said to protect them from evil witches, and they would also put it under the bed for nightmares. So maybe if you have a little that's dealing with nightmares, you might want to create a little ritual and put some rosemary under their bed and let them understand how that's going to protect them. Might be something fun to do and really create that connection with the plants and their healing power and your kiddos. And speaking of rosemary and healing power, it's another fantastic antimicrobial herb, so it's really going to work wonders to fight off viral flus and colds, viral infections, flus and colds. It is a great antibacterial too, so you could use it topically as a wash for wounds or staph infection.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Its antifungal properties can be really nice for things like ringworm. I used it recently to help break up some of the ick in my respiratory tract. I had bronchitis and pneumonia and it lasted a little over a month in my family. It was really really miserable, but it was really helpful in breaking up some of the yuck that was going on, so really really nice in that way. I think I mentioned briefly how it was really really great for memory and keeping you sharp because it does increase oxygen flow to the brain. Therefore it's improving mental clarity and concentration. I know people that have used it to help with headaches, especially when the headaches are due to poor circulation. It can be used with that ability to improve the circulation. It can be really nice for those that are dealing with weakness in the circulatory system, because it also increases the strength of the capillaries. So think about somebody dealing with spider veins or varicose veins. You might find some great benefit from rosemary.

Speaker 1: 14:31

And another really nice thing is that it just is wonderful to boost the mood, and I think this day and age right now, I certainly could use a lot of things to help me boost my mood. You know nature is my number one thing to turn to when I'm feeling down is stepping outside, but sometimes in the shorter days of the year it's hard for me to find the time to get outside, which really breaks my heart. But herbs are there to help too. And then, of course, rosemary is fabulous for digestion, so it's got a lot of bitter properties to it and it really helps to stimulate the flow of our digestive secretions, which in turn helps your body to break down fats and proteins and just improves the overall digestive process. So fabulous, fabulous herb for so many other reasons.

Speaker 1: 18:02

I use it in hair rances, rances, rances, excuse me. I use it in hair rinses just to improve luster and shine and increase growth. I use it in skincare as well. Like there's just so much going on with rosemary, it's hard to not gush over what a powerful and beautiful plant it is and thankfully it grows really well. And then you know another one used commonly that I really love because I feel it's drastically underrated for its medicinal properties.

Speaker 1: 18:37

But thyme, like T-H-Y-M-E thyme, the herb, the common garden herb, thymus vulgaris, is absolutely magnificent. It was said by the Greeks. The ancient Greeks would say to smell of thyme was a compliment. They used it as a symbol of bravery and energy. And I love you, anira Rose.

Speaker 1: 19:08

You might have to edit that piece out, but my little sweetie pie just came to give me good morning kisses and I love her so much. And if that doesn't get edited out, guys, I have a wonderful daughter, she's 11. She's so sweet and sometimes she just sneaks in when she hears me talking in the office and just comes and gives me the most gentle, loving little kisses, and I think that's one of the sweetest joys of motherhood. I am so grateful Speaking of gratitude, maybe I shouldn't edit this out but I am just so grateful that I am raising one of the most kind and caring and compassionate human beings I have ever met. Okay, she's upstairs now and I'm tearing up as I think about her and how wonderful she is. But I also want to teach you about time and how wonderful it is right. So, about it being a symbol of bravery.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Women would embroider scarves with a bee hovering over a sprig of thyme and then they would present it to their knights as a sign of honor. It was also burned in sick rooms as a way to fumigate the air. It was used in funerals, particularly in Wales. They would toss a sprig of thyme on the graves or plant a thyme plant on top of the grave. It's really really another fantastic herb, and one of the reasons I love it so much is two of its main constituents are thymol and carvacrol, and these two constituents are very commonly used in over-the-counter cold and flu decongestants and cough remedies and things like that. They are also used in hospitals in disinfectants and all kinds of things, but yet they come from this beautiful little, super easy to grow plant that again has great antimicrobial properties to fight off the viral infections, stomach flu, colds.

Speaker 1: 21:09

It's antifungal. It's very, very specific for respiratory tract infections, stomach flu, colds. It's antifungal. It's very, very specific for respiratory tract infections, things like strep, throat and laryngitis and all of the ick-icks that come around during this time of year. It's also got some antitussive properties. So if you have that really dry hacking kind of cough or you're dealing with emphysema or mild cases of asthma, you can turn to thyme. It will help ease the coughing reflex. It also helps as an expectorant. So if you've got that stuck mucus that just is not getting out, it can do a really, really good job of helping to break that up and get it, get the ick ick out right.

Speaker 1: 21:57

It's so important to do and you know, as I said, I had pneumonia and bronchitis. That kind of spread through my family. I've never had my family be sick for so long as I did in October and early November and we use time quite a bit. I couldn't get the other two to do the steams as they used to but for some reason they didn't want to. But I sure as heck did and found immediate relief when I had thyme in my herbal steam and would just break up the ick. For me. It was really, really nice. And another cool thing is like thyme is really rich in nutrients, so it's got a lot of calcium and chromium and iron, a lot of magnesium in there so many of us are deficient in magnesium and iron. You can also get pretty good amounts of vitamin A, niacin, zinc, phosphorus so a really really great herb to add to your meals. It's got so much going on. It can also really improve circulation.

Speaker 1: 22:56

Again, this is another herb that I could just talk about forever, but really what I want to do with this episode is just get you thinking like oh yeah, that's right, these things are amazing medicine, far beyond just being super flavorful. You know, I think this is an important thing to touch on, especially as more and more of us are getting curious about herbal remedies and oftentimes people think that we need to go to all the like super powered herbs, when really we have things readily accessible. And I'm a firm believer there needs to be an herbalist in every single home, but not only that. We need community healers that can take a step above just being the home herbalist and, as that community healer, oftentimes our job is to meet our clients where they're at, to understand, like what is within their budget, what is feasible, and when we can turn to just kitchen medicine. It can really open up a whole new world for those clients in their healing process and just the awareness of how amazing these herbs are to help us heal. So I think it's really, really important to not discredit the power of these kitchen herbs and let's talk about some more of them.

Speaker 1: 24:16

I love garlic. I love garlic for so many reasons. Pliny the Elder actually used to use it as the antidote to snake bites. I don't know the efficacy to that, but I love the history and the lore behind it. People would also do garlic enemas to treat pinworms. So it does have the ability to fight off various parasites and things like that. It is definitely used commonly as a cough suppressant and for the respiratory tract in general. It is loaded with this constituent called allicin. That is very, very potent medicine and in fact has been shown to be more effective against eight out of nine antibiotic resistant bacteria out there, which I think is incredibly powerful. It's also amazing for heart and cardiovascular health. It can help reduce arterial plaque formation. It decreases the risk of heart attack or stroke. It is amazing. It's amazing it can lower the LDL cholesterol and increase the good cholesterol, or HDL cholesterol. It can be wonderful for high blood pressure. I mean, there's really a lot going on with garlic. I will say that more often than not, you do want to use garlic in the raw form, so I love to eat pickled garlic or fermented garlic. I love garlic and honey. There are great ways to make sure that you're getting the allicin, which is the key component from garlic, into your body to create such great medicine. And it is great medicine.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Again, as an antimicrobial. It is fabulous in fighting off rhinovirus and the flu. I have used it for group B streptococcus while I was pregnant. It can be great for salmonella poisoning and supporting the body during that. We use it on the regular for my partner's athlete's foot when it comes back in the wintertime, because he's a ski bum and lives in winter boots all of the time, or ski boots. Using it for ear infections can be really, really popular or popular, potent and popular as well. So it's just it's another one of those herbs that I could talk about for decades because there is so much going on with it and I really just feel that, again, people need to recognize the medicine we have right in front of us. This is so affordable and approachable. Most people can find garlic in the grocery store and we can really learn how to use it in its best of ways. Again, so much incredible medicine with this plant and it's delicious.

Speaker 1: 27:17

I am a huge fan of using as much garlic as we possibly can. I am definitely that person. You'll see in the memes like oh look, they call for two bulbs of garlic and I'm like sweet, two equals 10, right. Bulbs of garlic and I'm like sweet, two equals 10, right. It's just so darn good. So we've talked a lot about the savory medicines out there, but I did want to talk about some of the sweet stuff, because this time of year we are filling our bodies with so many sugary sweet treats. But we can shift those sugary sweet treats to be much more healthy and wholesome if we're just maybe substituting some of the sugar with maple syrup or with honey and we're adding in amazing herbs like cinnamon or peppermint, especially during this cold season when people might have cold hands and feet, can really be fantastic for bringing circulation to the periphery your hands, your fingers, your toes and it also warms the digestive system and our reproductive organs, so it can be really helpful during this time of year.

Speaker 1: 28:30

Internally, as a delicious flavoring. I sprinkle cinnamon on my coffee every single day. You can do that too. Right, it's really wonderful. It's also a hemostatic, so if you are somebody dealing with heavy menstrual flow or you're hemorrhaging, maybe you've got uterine fibroids there are various ways you can use cinnamon as medicine and I'm not going to go too deep into that, but be aware of that and maybe talk with your healthcare practitioner or whoever you work with. I also love cinnamon and it's ironic because it's used in all these super sweet sugary treats during this time of year. But it does a great job of helping to reduce sugar cravings.

Speaker 1: 29:15

It can help improve the digestive process with dairy, because dairy can be really challenging to digest. It is fabulous as a carminative, so easing gassiness and bloating and all the ick that can come when we maybe overuse and abuse our food. It's also really nice if you're feeling nauseous. It can be a great demulcent specific for the digestive tract. So if you are dealing with inflammation in the digestive tract, cinnamon can be a great, great friend. Tract Cinnamon can be a great, great friend. It's got antifungal properties. It can be used for bacterial infections in the mouth. It is also not only a demulcent for the digestive tract but also acts as an astringent. So it can be really fantastic for toning and tightening up excessive secretions, as in cases of diarrhea and things like that.

Speaker 1: 30:16

And again, it's yummy. That's why it's in so many fabulous treats and kiddos love it, right? This is a really easy warming herb to get into our kiddos. Add it to the top of hot cocoa, like make a hot cocoa with some homemade coconut milk and raw cacao powder and maple syrup and then add some cinnamon into that. Like what a fabulous treat. That's something I love so much. It's really really nutrient, dense. It's super duper, tasty and loaded with antioxidants and all kinds of amazing benefits.

Speaker 1: 30:53

Okay, I have talked so much about these culinary herbs and I don't want to go on and on and on forever, but again I did want to raise awareness for you and remember that it's so important to meet people where they are at, and if being a healer in your community is something that sounds enticing to you, you know, maybe you want to do it for your family and your friends and your co workers, or maybe you just want to be that go to person who feels confident and secure in the herbal remedies you're able to offer people in your community. You know how to meet them where they're at. You can suggest culinary herbs. You can also suggest some other herbs out there that aren't maybe so commonly known. I want to let you know that our community herbalism certification program is beginning in January 2025. And right now we are taking applications for those that are dreaming of being the healer in the community. I'm not one to do I'm not doing a Black Friday sale or anything like that. This year I will be sharing some of my favorite products and other companies that are doing a Black Friday sale, but what I want to say here is our community herbalist program is currently on like an early bird sale, and the price will be going up shortly after the holiday this first holiday.

Speaker 1: 32:23

So if that's you and you're like I, want to know how to heal people in my community. I want to make amazing medicine for them. I want to know how to formulate remedies specific for each individual. I want to feel extremely confident and almost to the point of intuitively knowing exactly what herbs to use to help somebody. I want to understand what's going in the body and going on with herbs in the body instead of, like this, surface level herbalism. And you're ready to dive deeper? I would love to invite you to apply for the community herbalist program.

Speaker 1: 32:59

It's a super easy application and I'm doing it that way because I want to make sure that it's a good fit for you and it's a good fit for us and the community inside of the program and that I'm really the teacher for you, right? I don't want to just be like, yeah, come join the program and I don't care about you. It's a beautiful community that we are building inside of this community herbalist program People who have loads of compassion and care for people and the planet and that really want to make a strong, powerful impact in other people's lives. So you can fill out the application, you'll have an option to hop on a call with me. We can do it on zoom or a phone call and I can answer your questions or tell you more about how the program is going to work. So it is a year long program.

Speaker 1: 33:52

You do get access to all of the core content forever, because really this is forever learning and you're going to have times in your healers journey where you're going to need to refer back to a lot of the lessons and you're going to need more support, and that's exactly what this program is all about is helping you support those in your community too. So I'll drop a link to the Community Herbalist application inside of the show notes here. And again, it's getting started in January of 2025. It is an ongoing program, but sometimes it's nice to just start with a whole cohort. But either way, I'm very, very excited. We've already got quite a few people in there excited for the program to begin, and if you are dreaming of being the healer in your community, I would love, love, love to have you in there as well. So, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1: 34:51

I really truly hope that you have an amazing, beautiful, safe holiday season. If this is a stressful time of year for you, I hope that you get the nervines and herbal love on board that might be able to support you through this season and, um, you know if it's the best season ever for you. I hope that you continue to spread love and joy to everyone that you see. So thank you so much again for tuning into this podcast episode, and I hope that when you're creating feasts with your people, you really start to think about the power of the medicine you're cooking with. All right, thanks so much. Have a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful holiday. I love you.

Speaker 1: 35:46

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.