Welcoming in the Summer here on the Klamath River we have already experienced our first severe heat wave and most likely not the last one but thankfully the temperatures have mellowed and we have been blessed with warm summer days but not too warm and cooler nights with fresh blue skies!! I am thankful for this weather as long as it lasts and the plants are loving it as well. As we experience these incredibly long days just after Summer Solstice you will notice the riotous growth and flowering of your perennials racing to bloom and produce seed during these long long days! I go out each morning and there are new blooms every single day the colors are amazing yellow mullein flowers interspersed with the bright blue chicory flowers and Blue Vervain peeking out here and there near the Echinacea in bloom along with many others. The yard is buzzing with pollinators of every size and shape and I hope you are enjoying your herbal landscapes as much as I am!!
Echinacea pallida
There has been a lot of intense discussion in the herbal Community around endangered plants and wildcrafting for quite a while now. As the Herbal industry grows and grows, organizations which are devoted to protecting the plants such as United Plant Savers (UPS) are finding more and more herbs at risk of extinction due to over-harvesting in the wild, rampant development causing habitat destruction, and blatant disregard by some in the herbal industry to source their herbs from ethical sources. From giant essential oil companies to White Sage smudging sets being sold on Amazon, our consumer culture and it’s hunger for alternative healing and Spiritual grounding is gutting the plant world in a way that is totally unsustainable !!
Mexican Tarragon
There has never been a more important time to really look long and hard at where your Medicinal Herbs are sourced, Which of the herbs you use regularly will grow well in your local area? Do you know other local Herbalists who may need some of your extra harvest? Most important of all are the herbs being used in your teas, tinctures and salves– vibrant, grown and dried well, and if you did not grow them yourself, then who did?? Knowing your sources and making that extra effort to source quality herbs as locally as possible is a great first step.
The next evolution is filling your landscape with medicinals that you need in your daily life and being integrated with the seasonal flow of your garden in order to tap into the incredible potency of your own homegrown Herbal Medicine lovingly grown by your own hands!! The direct plant connection and deeply knowing the plants you are crafting medicine with is a huge and essential part of calling yourself an Herbalist. It is a serious achievement to know the materia medica of 50 or 100 different herbs that you use in your formulas but if those in the herbal industry do not know– and I mean really know– the plants those Herbs represent, then their Herbal education is unfortunately sorely lacking. This disconnect is at the root of what ails western culture and it saddens me greatly to see that same issue rampant in parts of the Herbal Industry today. That said I see a major change brewing as more and more Herbalists are very much seeking out and developing a direct plant connection and more and more of you are growing your own medicine each season. It warms my heart to see this happening and gives me hope that in the future there will be many small Medicinal Herb Farms and Nurseries providing high quality, Organic, locally-grown medicinal herbs of all kinds. I look forward to the time when people everywhere have basic Herbs for daily life and basic first aid growing in their yards or patios and I am grateful to be part of a growing movement of dedicated growers and Farmers spreading these Healing Plants around!!
Thanks to all of our wonderful customers supporting this effort and taking on the challenge to grow your own medicinal Herbs!!
As a gesture to encourage you all to grow more medicine, we are offering the following rare and endangered herbs at a discount:
Greek Mullein
Echinacea pallida
Mexican Tarragon
Lemon Bergamont
Holy Basil-Tulsi