Katja wrote this essay years and years ago, and it’s still a favorite. Today she needed to hear it again – yeah, you can do that with your own writing, it’s allowed, don’t worry – and she decided to share it with you. It’s about how so many of us think we’re the only trainwreck in any given room, and how we all have That Person in our lives (or just in our minds) who seems to really Have It All Together. Why can’t I just get it together like That Person?, you think, like everyone does. Like e...

Don’t forget, our December sale is on! Details below. It’s time we resumed our exploration of the top-selling herbs as supplements in the US! We're three-quarters of the way through the main list. (Remember we’re working with the 2023 data for the purposes of this series, but I gave some updates about the 2024 Herbal Market Report data in the last installment.) Our herbs today are valerian, pumpkin (seed [oil]), goji berry, and red yeast rice. There are some fun details about each of these, i...

It’s December, and here are some delightful things we’d like to share with you! December 2025 Sale Code: CALENDULA The code for this year’s sale is CALENDULA – use it during checkout to get 20% off everything we offer – all the courses, all the programs, anything on a payment plan, anything at all! Browse All Courses The discount code even works for gifts! Just make sure to check the box that says “this is a gift” and the extra gift information will pop up for you to complete. Herbal Activ...

A quote attributed to Hippocrates says “all disease begins in the gut.” No surprise, then, that gut-heal tea is a major part of our practice! We work with this formula – or better said, this schema for creating individualized formulae – very, very often. It’s not only a ‘digestive’ blend, it’s also a nervine formula: it operates at the nexus between the digestive and nervous systems. But we don’t prepare it the same way every time! Variation is essential to make a blend that best suits a pers...

Elderberry syrup isn’t everything an herbalist has to offer to someone suffering from a cold, the flu, COVID, RSV, or any of the other respiratory ailments to which we humans are susceptible. Despite being the first to come to many minds when asked if they’re prepared for winter illnesses, we encourage you to broaden your view both of what elder does, and what herbs can do. Elderberry is famous for inhibiting viruses by interfering with their capacity to replicate. Elderberry constituents hav...

We’ve been running a clinical herbalism mentorship program of one kind or another for more than fifteen years. We have some thoughts! Today’s episode is all about our model for an herbal mentorship, what we think it needs to include, and how it’s structured to benefit our students and clients most fully. For context, we do have prerequisites to join mentorship – you need to have your herbal know-how dialed in before you can join! Completing our Family Herbalist and Community Herbalist program...

If you haven’t made herbal cold/flu/COVID care kits for your household yet, now is the time! Herbal care kits are one of our very favorite things. Here’s the premise: when you’re sick, it’s hard to think, no matter how good an herbalist you are. So get the stuff you’re going to need ready ahead of time! It’s like taking care of your future self. Plus, it’s likely that you’re the herbalist in your household – so you’re going to need to take care of everyone else too! But life doesn’t stop just...

This week we continue our investigation into the best-selling herbal supplements in the US. First, an update: the 2024 Herbal Market Report data is here! The overall picture is very similar to the 2023 data, with most items on the lists simply changing position. The overall market had a 5.4% increase, topping out above $13.2 billion for the highest annual sales on record. Direct-to-consumer commerce – via websites like Amazon, for instance – continues to be the largest fraction of sales. In t...

When Ryn first met Katja, she was in the habit of inflating her age a bit. Why? Because as an herbalist – at that time – it was preferable to present as older, even as an ‘elder’, if possible. Times have changed, and now “influencerbalists” dominate the social media world’s public face, for herbalism as for so many things. Staying young forever looks almost plausible, when it’s shown through short-form videos on a tiny screen… It’s not, though. We’ll all age, and that will mean some things do...

Herbs #22 and 23 on the top-selling herbs list for 2023 were milk thistle and black cohosh. Today we continue our series on commercially popular herbs, and share our views as herbalists on the actions, benefits, and applications of these. Milk thistle is widely known as an excellent herb for the liver, and this is a case where the common wisdom is correct. It’s one of the safest herbs out there, and fortunately, it is also widely available and inexpensive. Hepatoprotective and even able to re...

When you’re using your herbal skills to help others – whether you’re doing that as a Clinical Herbalist in private practice, volunteering in your community, or even just caring for your own family – it becomes obvious pretty fast that your herbal knowledge is only part of the skillset you need. You also need to creatively adapt what you know, so that it will actually work in that person’s life. Since every body is different, different strategies work for different people. Holistic herbalists ...

On the top-selling herbs list for 2023 (the most recent data), the herbs in places #19-21 were Tribulus terrestris, Pycnogenol (an extract of Pinus pinaster), and garlic. Today we continue our series on commercially popular herbs, and share our views as herbalists on the actions, benefits, and applications of these ones. The pine extract is an interesting item, given that it’s not an entry for the herb itself but rather for a specific proprietary extract from one species. It’s true that this ...

Mutual aid projects are a natural place for herbalists to gravitate, and setting one up in your community is easier than you think! Our mutual aid startup guide is a free resource we offer you to help with this. You can download it right here: Mutual Aid Startup Guide In today’s episode we want to emphasize two key things about this: First, it doesn’t have to be an enormous undertaking. You can start with a small circle of friends, and build from there. The keys are consistency and continuity...

Our semi-annual 20% off Sale is active now! For the entire month of July, use code hawthorn at checkout to take 20% off all our online courses! Sussing out herb-drug interactions is complicated! In this episode we take the example of Celexa + skullcap, and demonstrate the process of investigation we’d use to sort out whether a proposed risk is real. We start with the Botanical Safety Handbook, because it has certain features which make it significantly better than other manuals or databases. ...

Our semi-annual 20% off Sale is active now! For the entire month of July, use code hawthorn at checkout to take 20% off all our online courses! On the top-selling herbs list for 2023 (the most recent data), the herbs in places #16-18 were saw palmetto, cinnamon, and echinacea. In today’s installment of our best-sellers series, we share our views as herbalists on the actions, benefits, and applications of these herbs. All three are long-term residents on the market report’s top 40 chart, and...

Bandaids are undeniably handy, and there are plenty of situations where they do the job that needs doing. But there are also lots of times when a wound is too big, too irregular, or too sensitive for a bandaid to be the best choice. That’s where bespoke bandaging comes into play! You can learn bandaging basics really quickly – yes, even through podcast audio – and that’s what today’s episode is all about. Bandages are extremely versatile and customizable – even without getting a dozen differe...

When putting together a bug-out bag in case of emergencies, don’t forget your herbs! Just like a first aid kit, a go bag is best when you construct it according to your specific needs, and the needs of people you’ll be with. This isn’t a “one size fits all” situation! The same goes for circumstances when you need to shelter in place. A ‘stay-in stash’ is just a go-bag without the go. It’s an orderly, intentional accumulation of all the things you’ll need if the power goes out for a week, or y...

Just like checking your stock of remedies in the apothecary, herbal first aid kit maintenance is one of those things you need to carve out time for – at least once a year! It’s June, which is the kick-off to summer adventure and here on the east coast, also hurricane season. In other regions, wildfire season is already started, and even without a disaster, summer means more bumps & bruises – so it’s the perfect time for us to be focusing on first aid and updating your kit. Your kit might ...

This is the second half of the Disaster-Proofing your Herbal Business theme. Economic uncertainty is part of business – but there’s so much you can do to make sure your business stays strong throughout the ups and downs. In the previous episode, we covered the first three steps in the work of diversifying your revenue streams and your product/service offerings to make sure that your herbal business keeps growing! In this episode, we’re talking about expanding both your offerings and your targ...

Economic uncertainty is part of business – but there’s so much you can do to disaster-proof your herbal business and make sure it stays strong throughout the ups and downs. This episode is the first three steps in the work of diversifying your revenue streams and also your product/service offerings to make sure that your herbal business keeps growing! We’re focusing here on how to shift your marketing so that your products/services remain essential as people tighten their budgets, as well as ...