Herbs with Rosalee

Willow tree bark is a fantastic herb for natural pain relief! Backaches, muscular soreness, headaches, arthritis…these are just some of the complaints willow can help you with. But, as with any herb, you need to know how to work with it safely and effectively. Join me in this episode to find out how you can work with willow tree bark when inflammatory and musculoskeletal pain is bringing you (or a loved one) down. I’m sharing a recipe for willow bark tea so you can easily have your own willow bark medicine right at your fingertips. (Don’t miss downloading your free, printable recipe card with all the details!) I’ll also show you a great way to apply this powerful tea topically… it’s wonderful for cooling and soothing itchy rashes like poison ivy, poison oak, and eczema! After listening in, you’ll know:► Why willow is safer than aspirin► How to choose the willow you make medicine with► Who should avoid taking willow barkShow snippet: “Willow is one of our most generous plants, offering us pain relief, digestive and skin support, baskets, and even a bit of shade to rest under.”----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

Herbal medicine from the beautiful and fragrant linden tree (Tilia cordata) is a powerful way to soothe your nervous system, heal your gut, and support your heart. That’s a lot, but linden has even more to offer. Join me in this episode for a deep dive into linden tree medicine. I also share my favorite recipe so you can enjoy the medicinal benefits of delicious linden tea. My handsome French husband and I drink this tea all summer long and I know you’re going to love it!After listening in, you’ll know:► What kind of person most benefits from linden tree medicine as a digestive aid► The juxtaposition of qualities that makes linden such a unique ally for irritated, inflamed mucus membranes► An herb that makes a wonderful, synergistic partner for linden to support cardiovascular health► What species of linden has especially aromatic and sweet flowersShow snippet: “Linden’s cooling, relaxing, and moistening qualities are a soothing relief for a variety of symptoms associated with heat, excess stimulation, and dryness. Linden’s gifts are often appreciated by those who are feeling overly stressed, tense, and hot.”----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

A compact, easy-to-travel-with herbal first aid kit is a wonderful way to be prepared for everyday health concerns when you’re away from home.With that in mind, my question for guests in Season 9 of the podcast is, “What would you include in your herbal first aid kit?” I’m getting the ball rolling by giving you a peek into my travel kit. I hope it will serve as a useful springboard for creating your own. After listening in, you’ll know:► Principles to rely on when creating an herbal first aid kit for travel► Seven herbalist-tested and -recommended products to support the big three systems in your body that are often impacted by travel► What to look out for when you’re reading labels and choosing productsShow snippet: “I like to have something that’s really readily convenient that I know is going to work for me because if I have anything off… I don’t want to have to go spend time looking for something. I just want to have it with me.”----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

Arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) is a stunning flower, a nutritious food, and a potent herbal medicine that grows all over western North America. Here’s just a smattering of arrowleaf balsamroot’s medicinal gifts to tempt you…Arrowleaf balsamroot:► Relieves the misery of sinus or lung congestion from a cold or flu► Soothes cold, sore muscles ► Disinfects wounds► and more…Between its cheerful blooms, its hillside-stabilizing and medicinal roots, and its pleasantly resinous-tasting spring shoots, who wouldn’t fall in love?That said, when you harvest roots for medicine, you’re injuring or perhaps even killing the plant. And arrowleaf balsamroot plants take a long time to reach their full stature. That’s why with this episode, you’ll also receive FREE access to a downloadable wildcrafting checklist, so you’ll have the know-how to harvest sustainably, ensuring a plentiful yield for years to come. After listening in, you’ll know:► The easiest way to prepare balsamroot seeds for food► How to work with arrowleaf balsamroot tincture for a sore throat► The best digging tool for harvesting roots (surprisingly low-tech!)► What herbs to work with if arrowleaf balsamroot isn’t a locally abundant plant for you Show snippet: “Arrowleaf balsamroot has many offerings as food and medicine but the first gifts they offer are the joy they bring with their bright sunny blooms.”----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

Cancer. The very word can strike fear in the heart—and unfortunately, it touches many of us at some point in our lives, whether directly or indirectly through family and friends. But cancer… and herbs? What role can herbs possibly play in a big, scary, potentially deadly  disease like that? If you’re faced with a cancer diagnosis, what can you do to take control of your journey and feel empowered? Just as important, what steps can you take to help prevent cancer in the first place?These are just some of the issues covered in today’s episode with Chanchal Cabrera—an herbalist with 35 years of clinical practice who specializes in holistic oncology. It was so good! And Chanchal’s new book, Holistic Cancer Care, needs to be on everyone’s bookshelf. It’s an impressive and helpful book for anyone who’s ever been touched by cancer, and even those who want to prevent it.By the end of this episode, you’ll know:► What is patient-centered medicine, and why is it so vitally important when crafting a treatment plan?► Is it true that lymphatic herbs shouldn’t be used by cancer patients? Why or why not?► Why sunscreen doesn’t give you the protection you might think it does (and what you can do instead)► How can herbal medicine be included in cancer care, and what are some specific herbs that have been researched for this purpose?► Depending on the treatments selected and the cancer itself, patients may suffer with radiation burns and/or neuropathic pain. As a listener, you’ll also receive free access to not one, but two downloadable recipe cards from Chanchal for soothing herbal creams.Here is one of my favorite takeaways from our conversation: “I see the role of a herbalist as an incredible opportunity to connect people with plants in such a way that they actually care enough about the environment the plants grow in to do something active to help the environment. Really, I see herbalism as an extremely effective form of activism and I consider myself an environmental warrior, an environmental activist through my herbal medicine work.”For those who don’t already know her, Chanchal is a medical herbalist and has been in clinical practice for 35 years with a specialty in holistic oncology. She is the author of Fibromyalgia: A Journey towards Healing and her latest book, Holistic Cancer Care: An Herbal Approach to Preventing Cancer, Helping Patients Thrive during Treatment, and Minimizing the Risk of Recurrence, launched in April. She held the faculty chair in Botanical Medicine at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine in New Westminster 2004-2016. She serves on the board of advisors of Dominion Herbal College in Burnaby, on the editorial board of Medical Herbalism clinical newsletter, and she publishes widely in professional journals and lectures internationally on medical herbalism, nutrition, and health.Chanchal is also a certified Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) practitioner, a certified Master Gardener and a certified Horticulture Therapist. She lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she and her husband manage Innisfree Farm and Botanic Garden, a 7 acre internationally registered botanic garden specializing in food and medicine plants, and where they host apprenticeships in sustainable food production and herbal medicine. The farm also hosts Gardens without Borders, a federally registered not-for-profit society established to run the botanic garden and provide horticulture therapy.If you’d like to hear more from Chanchal, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get an easy link for her website and social media channels. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.I’m beyond thrilled to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

I’m excited to have our first Chinese medicine practitioner, Toby Daly, on the show. That he chose to talk about dan shen—one of my favorite herbs to grow in a garden and perhaps one of the herbs that I have been growing the longest—just added to my delight! If you don’t already know dan shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza), I’m confident you’ll love it, too, by the end of this episode.To give you a sneak peek, dan shen can help to:► Cool and calm irritability► Ease chronic pain► Support the heart and pericardium► and moreAll this while having the additional distinction of being the lead player in a whole herb formula that’s just been approved in the U.S. to go to Stage Four clinical trials. (That’s big, folks!) And, as if that wasn’t enough, dan shen is absolutely gorgeous, with brilliant, large purple flowers that are beloved by pollinators of all sorts, including bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.Any which way you look at it, there’s an abundance to enjoy and appreciate about dan shen! By the end of this episode, you’ll know:► Why Chinese medicine (and, of course, clinical herbalism) always starts with the patient, not with the herbs► What does it mean to “move the blood” and why is that important?► How does dan shen compare and contrast to hawthorn?► The role of humility and collaboration in herbalism► How to make a tincture with dan shen that supports the heart and the liver, the two major emotional systems in the body from a Chinese medicine perspective (be sure to download your recipe card!)Here is one of my favorite takeaways from our conversation: “We can never say something is good or bad. We always have to say, ‘For who? What’s the constitution? What’s going on with them right now? When? What’s the season or the climatic factors that’s going on?’ We can never answer ‘Is this a good herb or bad herb?’”For those who don’t already know Toby, he received his undergraduate degree in Food Science from the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. He began studying Chinese medicine in 1997 with Sunim Doam, a Korean monk trained in the Saam tradition. He earned his master's degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2002 upon completion of training at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco and Chengdu University in China.During his four years of training in San Francisco, he interned with the prominent acupuncturist Dr. Angela Wu and learned to apply the lofty theories he was studying in school into the pragmatic setting of a busy clinic. In 2013, he developed the Chinese Nutritional Strategies app to provide digital access to the wealth of Chinese dietary wisdom.In 2016, proving that some people never learn, he completed a PhD in Classical Chinese Medicine under the guidance of 88th generation Daoist priest Jeffery Yuen. In 2021, he developed the Chinese Medical Characters app to enable direct access to foundational Chinese medical terms and concepts.He lectures internationally and in April 2023 he published his first book, An Introduction to Chinese Medicine: A Patient's Guide to Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition & More.I didn’t know Toby prior to this episode and I really enjoyed getting to know him. I think that like me, you’ll find him to be very sweet, endearing and super knowledgeable. He didn’t even bat an eye when I interrupted him to talk about Tori Amos, so big score in my book. If you’d like to hear more from him, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get an easy link for his website. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.I’m so happy to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

If you've been following my herbal offerings for even a short time, you know that I'm not about focusing on fear. While some alternative health practitioners rally around toxins and pollutants, I'd rather focus on joy and the things that I do have control over. But unfortunately, environmental contaminants do exist, and we can't simply ignore them away. That's why I'm especially grateful to Sarah Sorci for coming on the show. She has taken it on to research important contamination issues for gardeners and foragers, and then shares that information in a way that's based on empowerment rather than fear. (Love that!)By the end of this episode, here’s just a sprinkling of what you’ll know:► As a forager, how can you navigate effectively around contamination concerns?► How can you address it if your garden soil has contaminants?► How can you navigate conversations with neighbors about using herbicides or pesticides on their property?► What simple and practical safety tips can you implement today when using your garden hose? (Don’t forget to download your handout from Sarah!)Here is one of my favorite takeaways from our conversation: “We should all have access to being able to harvest clean and safe food and medicine, whether from our gardens or from our local communities. And I wanted to create a location  where gardeners and foragers could find some answers to these [safety] questions in one easy location.”If you’re not already familiar with Sarah, she is an herbal educator, writer, and the founder of Sweet Flag Herbs. She loves supporting folks who seek meaning, empowerment, and environmental sustainability by connecting with plants.Through her writing project, A Nourishing Harvest, Sarah explores environmental contamination issues that affect gardeners and foragers, translating scientific data into practical and approachable free articles. She also creates beautiful educational boxes that facilitate ancestral connection by way of the plant world. Sarah has offered hundreds of classes and plant walks throughout Western New York and beyond.Sarah came to herbalism by way of an Environmental Studies degree, farm work, and offering therapeutic gardening programming. She’s a 2014 graduate of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine's Holistic Herbalism program, and she’s taken clinical herbalism classes with the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine. Sarah is grateful to the unnamed elders, foragers, and tenders who have contributed to our collective herbal knowledge.Sarah lives and gardens with her partner in Chautauqua County, NY, homeland of the Seneca Nation of Indians (sni.org).If you’d like to hear more from Sarah, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get easy links for her website and social media. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.I’m delighted to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

At first blush, today’s episode with earth skills expert, Lynx Vilden, might not seem to be “about” herbs. But au contraire! At the heart of herbalism is connection with Earth and the entire web of life that dwells on her. And my guest today, Lynx Vilden, lives and breathes that interconnectivity.Like anything, living off the land while relying on primitive skills has its ups and downs. And Lynx has a knack for describing it in a way that’s completely unromanticized yet captures your  imagination.Rather than instructing, our conversation opens up an invitation for you to wonder… How many different ways are there to be a healer? What would you learn about the world and yourself, living in the wilderness for weeks at a time? And if you’re not ready for that, what might it look like to take just a step closer to connecting with Earth as our ancestors knew her?Here’s one of my favorite takeaways:“Earth sustains us, circling the sun as we cycle through life, death and rebirth. Without her, we are lost. It’s a truth we all fundamentally know, but one that recedes in the rushing madness of modern life, the prioritization of convenience and money over time, community and connection.”For those of you who don’t already know her, Lynx has been practicing and teaching primitive living skills with passion both in the US and in Europe since 1991. With her experience traveling, exploring, and researching the nature and traditional cultures of arctic, mountain, and desert regions, she started the Four Seasons Prehistoric Projects program in 2001, which was dedicated to learning and sharing the ancient skills of primitive living, and created Living Wild in 2011. Lynx’s story has been featured in The New York Times, Outside Magazine, The Guardian, and others. She currently lives on an old homestead in Norway.If you’d like to hear more from Lynx, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get easy links for her website and social media. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.It’s such a special treat for me to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

It was such a pleasure to sit down with herbalist and teacher, Nicole Telkes, to discuss juniper (Juniperus spp.)! In some bioregions, this plant is hated as a pest in the landscape and a source of misery to seasonal-allergy sufferers. But juniper is full of medicinal gifts! For instance, juniper:► Supports the kidneys and urinary tract► Warms cold, cramping muscles and can soothe the pain of osteoarthritis► Can help to clear fungal infections► and moreJuniper also gives us aromatic, beautifully-colored and -grained wood and provides habitat and food for a multitude of animals.There’s a lot to enjoy and appreciate about juniper! By the end of this episode, you’ll know:► Why it’s important to question and observe the role of plants in their environment… and to critically evaluate what you’re going to do with plants before you harvest a single leaf► Two types of infections it’s really smart to talk with your doctor about before self-treating► Who needs to be cautious about working with juniper (and why)► The surprising role of passivity in herbalism► How to make a juniper infused herbal oil you can massage into sore muscles or cold joints…or just enjoy as an after-bath oil that will leave you smelling delicious (be sure to download your recipe card!)Here are two of my favorite takeaways from our conversation: “In permaculture, we always talk about turning problem areas into solutions, or things that are looked at as a problem into a solution. I look at invasive and weedy plants and how can we turn them into solutions.”“It’s like a grocery store. You can’t just walk into the grocery store and take whatever you want. Even in a grocery store, you still have to exchange something. In nature, we might not be exchanging money, but we need to exchange something back.”For those who don’t already know Nicole, she is an award winning practicing herbalist and RH(AHG). She has a background in botanical studies, plant conservation work, community activism, and herbal first-aid clinics. She wrote the books Medicinal Plants of Texas and Herbcraft: The Complete Guide to 21st Century Holistic Western Herbalism. She lives between Seattle and Austin, supervising over 250 medicinal plants and themed gardens at Bastyr University and is the founder and lead instructor at the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine. She is best known for her work freeing fire cider.If you’d like to hear more from Nicole, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get easy links for her website and social media. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.I’m so happy to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here. 

Oak trees (Quercus spp.) probably aren’t the first plants that come to your mind when you think of herbal medicine. But as today’s guest, Greg Monzel, shares, oak trees are more than bountiful with their gifts!“Plant x for problem y” is how many people start out thinking about herbal medicine… and oak is not without this type of benefit.  To give one example, oak is a powerful astringent that’s helpful as a wound wash and as an ingredient in tooth powder that can help to tighten up your gums.But oak doesn’t stop there. It gives you an invitation to go deeper. As a hub in the web of life, oak teaches you about connection… to the land and to the other creatures we share it with. If you have roots in the Northern hemisphere, acorns even give you a way to connect with your ancestors as you fuel your body. And the quiet, stately beauty of oak is a medicine in itself, a pleasure to spend time with.To quote Greg, “For me, the most important medicine from oak is that giving, nourishing quality. It not only does that for the little bugs but turkey, squirrel, humans… everybody eats [acorns] and benefits.”By the end of this episode, you’ll know:► How to process acorns into flour (and why you’d want to)► How to make a nutrient-dense treat from acorns (be sure to download your recipe card for acorn crackers!)► When to work with red oak vs. white oak (and why)At one point during this interview, I forgot I was doing a podcast. Instead I was caught up in all that Greg was sharing and simply there for the conversation. Here’s one of my favorite takeaways:“We’re disconnected… We don’t feel connected to those same biscuits that you make from wheat flour or from the $.99 a pound bag of wheat compared to those dense acorn muffins that you can make where you know what tree you were under when you gathered those. You can smell the air again. You can see the squirrels scurrying around. You just feel connected to your land and to the place that you’re in.”For those of you who don’t already know him, Greg Monzel is a student of nature with a gift for nourishing deep connections between people and plants. He first experienced the medicinal power of plants as a teenager when he successfully treated his chronic strep-throat with raw pineapple. He has been a practicing herbal educator, medicine maker, and grower since 2008. Greg and his wife Colleen co-founded Persimmon Herb School in 2015 to hold plant centered space and build a healing community.If you’d like to hear more from Greg, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get easy links for his website and social media. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.I’m so happy to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.