Photo by Sandra Lory

Here’s our vision for healthcare in the future, inspired by our conversations with herbalists and healers across the country and beyond while interviewing for Numen:

Households, urban and rural, with pots of medicinal herbs: Thyme, Sage, and Rosemary on their back porch. Echinacea and Garlic grow in their garden. Grown ups and children know where and when to gather St. John’s Wort and Stinging Nettles and more. They know what to do with each.

Through CSAs, local food coops, herb schools and more, herbalists and farmers offer classes and share medicines and resources. These become skills everyone learns to keep themselves and their family well, as important to the sustainability and viability of their communities as growing their own food and producing their own energyy, as important to the education of our children as learning to read and do math.