Posted May 10th, 2013 by
Ann Armbrecht 
Cascade Anderson Geller
I’ve taken a hiatus from this blog recently as I work on my own writing – which I’m not able to do while also trying to stay current here. I wanted to break my silence by honoring, Cascade Anderson Geller, the beloved American herbalist, educator and environmental activist who died on HerbDay, May 4, at age 59. I didn’t know Cascade well. But I interviewed her once, many years ago at the Green Nations Gathering and below I’ve included some of what, to me, are the highlights. Read more...
Posted February 19th, 2013 by
Ann Armbrecht
Sienna Craig is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. Her work focuses on understanding the ways ‘traditional’ medical systems interact with biomedicine.
Sienna Craig is the author of what to me is one of the most interesting recent books in medical anthropology, Healing Elements: Efficacy and the Social Ecologies of Tibetan Medicine. There are fascinating parallels between the challenges that herbal medicine is facing in the United States and the transformations Tibetan medicine is undergoing in Tibet and Nepal. Our conversation below just touches on the depth and complexity she explores in her book. Read more...
Posted January 20th, 2013 by
admin-ann 
Guido Masé RH(AHG) is a clinical herbalist, herbal educator, and garden steward.
I recently spoke with Guido Masé , co-director of the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, as part of a larger book project on spirit and the production of herbal medicine. As always, Guido’s comments were insightful and wise, demonstrating a remarkable agility in both the realms of biomedicine and science and of plants, spirit and energetics. The scope of our conversation was far beyond what I can include in this post, but I’ve tried to include some of the highlights. For more on Gudio’s thoughts and reflections on whole plant medicine, see his blog A Radicle. His first book The Wild Medicine Solution will be released this April by Inner Traditions. Read more...
Posted January 6th, 2013 by
Ann Armbrecht 
Jeff Carpenter is a farmer, consultant, educator and researcher focusing on the cultivation and propagation of medicinal herbs.
I first met Jeff and Melanie Carpenter, founders of Zack Woods Herb Farm, years ago when I was an apprentice at Sage Mountain and came to know them much better when we visited their farm to get footage for Numen (that’s their root washing machine and Jeff is the one at the end of the film harvesting Echinacea). I love their farm, their vision, and especially love their dried herbs! I’m thrilled to include Jeff’s comments here from a talk he recently gave in Montpelier, VT organized by Transition Town Montpelier. Read more...
Posted December 6th, 2012 by
Ann Armbrecht Deb Soule, herbalist, gardener, and founder of Avena Botanicals in Rockport, Maine, was the first herbalist I met. I had recently returned from living in rural Nepal while conducting research for a doctorate in anthropology and I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to be back in the U.S. Deb introduced me to the world of traditional herbal medicine, a world which, I came to see, was based on many of the principles I most valued about what I had learned in rural Nepal: a sense of the sacredness of the earth; an understanding of the limits, not the extent, of our control; and a sense of respect and constraint in our actions on the earth. In introducing me to herbal medicine, Deb helped me find a way home and for that I am forever grateful. Read more...
Posted November 27th, 2012 by
admin-ann When I was a child, on the way home from the barn in Davis Creek, WVa where we kept our Shetland pony, my mother would pull our white Chevy Van to the side of the road by a small stream. We tumbled out, jumped the stream, and followed her up the steep hill, ducking beneath bare branches, too early yet for leaves, to a spot to see the spring beauties, the trout lilies and the first wet dog trillium of spring. Read more...
Posted November 8th, 2012 by
Ann Armbrecht 
Mélanie Pulla is an herbalist, mother, writer and founder of the popular blog, HerbGeek.
Mélanie studied herbal medicine at the California School of Herbal Medicine and the Southwest School of Herbal Medicine. She then earned a BSc in Wellness and Alternative Medicine from Johnson State College. Mel opened her first business in 2009: a bulk health food store, apothecary, and herbal juice bar. After running her own retail venture for almost three years, she sold her business so that she could become a full-time mom. Mélanie is the founder and editor of Herb Geek, which is how I found her work. Its a great blog – check it out! Read more...
Posted November 1st, 2012 by
Ann Armbrecht 
God’s Hotel is Dr. Victoria Sweet’s fascinating account of her twenty year stay at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital, the last almshouse in the country, a descendant of the Hôtel-Dieu (God’s Hotel) that cared for the sick in the Middle Ages. Sweet weaves her experiences working as a doctor in the almshouse together with her studies of the medicine of Hildegard of Bingen, the twelfth-century Benedictine nun to whom many herbalists turn for inspiration and guidance. Among other things, Sweet writes about the practice of a kind of “slow medicine” that has almost vanished from the medical world but that is alive and well in the practice of herbal medicine. Read more...
Posted October 15th, 2012 by
Ann Armbrecht I’m reposting this thoughtful interview with William Siff. The weather this summer makes it even more important that we all educate ourselves as much as we can about how to care for ourselves with the plants that grow in our communities… If you like this interview, please let us know and share it with your friends- Thanks so much! Read more...
Posted August 31st, 2012 by
Ann Armbrecht I first came across Renee Davis’s work via the world of social media… I was so impressed with the way she placed her discussion of herbalism within a larger context of systems thinking, ecological medicine and more, something I’m also really interested in doing but I never have time to do it! Her website: Gold Roots and Threads is a wealth of information and resources, worth spending time with when you have a big cup of tea. Below Renee talks with me about her recently completed thesis, “Does the cultural use of local plants enable coping with diabetes and generational trauma in Salish tribal communities?” written for her MA in Whole Systems Design from Antioch University Seattle. Thanks so much, Renee! Read more...
