Interviews on Herbal Radio with Thomas Dick | Featuring Ryland Engelhart of Kiss the Ground
We first met Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace, co-founders of Kiss the Ground – a nonprofit raising awareness for regeneration through storytelling, education, and advocacy – at Natural Products Expo West in 2022. Since our initial meeting, we knew that we shared foundational values with these inspirational leaders, such as the importance of soil health and sustainable agriculture, sparking our interest to want to get to know them and the organization better.
Food as Medicine | Tea Talks Roundtable
In this “Tea Talks Roundtable,” Jiling discusses the topic of “Food as Medicine” with herbalists Christa Sinadinos, Rona Leah, Jana Kilgore, and Mary Colvin. With our collective herbal experience as two professional cooks, three book authors, two herb school founders, and five herbalists working with different populations, teaching styles, and botanical expertise– you can expect a fun and delicious conversation!
We explore:
everyday strategies to integrate Food as Medicine into your average diet and lifestyle
delicious culinary spices
common wild herbs (in different bioregions) to supplement standard kitchen herbs
easy to find foods and herbs that can be used medicinally while traveling
breakfast strategies and considerations
nutritional snacks
different preparations for common wild herbs
specific recipes like Rona’s Herb Sauce, Demulcent Waters, Christa’s Schug, and Jana’s Morning Chai!
Tulsi Moon Milk Recipe
Find the full recipe + two other moon milk variations here: https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/3-…
If you’re longing for a restful slumber, you may want to add moon milk to your list of sleepy-time beverage options. This herbal drink has a lovely flavor that is perfectly complemented by the mellow sweetness of coconut. This beverage calls upon the stress-relieving properties of holy basil, also commonly called tulsi, and hops flowers. We hope you sip slowly and dream sweetly!
Plant Stories | Featuring Michelle Guerrero Denison
This week on Plant Stories, we’re releasing our interview with Michelle Guerrero Denison. Michelle is an herbalist, formulator, educator, and the founder of The Twig & Feather. Michelle resides in Southern California and talks about how through her family’s own health challenges, she found herbalism and holistic wellness.
Refreshing, engaging, and open-minded, Michelle’s plant stories are human centric. It’s clear her passion resides in listening to and assisting others on their personal wellness paths. Michelle’s life experiences and philosophy transfer over to her approach to herbalism as well as the ways she shares her herbal knowledge. We hope you enjoy this wonderful conversation with our friend Michelle!
Inspired by the needs of her family, Michelle has been studying herbalism for the past decade or so and opened her online shop in 2019. She practices western herbalism, with a holistic focus. She has had the opportunity to study with several wonderful teachers, and readily admits that she will probably be learning for the rest of her life. Her true passions lie in personal consultations, teaching, and writing. All of these are opportunities to get personal and see how herbs can change a life.
Clearing The Cognitive Cobwebs: Tips Improved Focus And Memory
Our daily actions have the ability to drain our brain power or enhance our mental prowess and vitality. It’s important to take a deep look at the choices we make to bring the changes we wish to see in our lives.
Foggy brain and fuzzy focus affect many of us from time to time and during certain phases of our lives. While many herbs do indeed have a long history of use and modern research to support mental clarity, first it’s important to take a deep look at what’s going on in your life that’s draining your brain power to truly enhance your mental prowess and vitality.
The Enchanter’s Green: Vervain, Wood Betony, and St. John’s Wort | Featuring Kiva Rose Hardin
This podcast episode is the presentation that Kiva Rose Hardin gave for the Fall 2022 Free Herbalism Project. This was a virtual event that took place over Zoom on October 14, 2022.
Kiva states, Vervain, Wood Betony, and St. John’s Wort were some of my earliest herbal allies when I took my first steps on the plant healer’s path. These three herbs are nervines, but so much more! They have a long history as sacred and magical plants across many cultures. Medicinally, all three are often categorized as calming but also have profound tonifying effects and myriad healing actions that are not always as well-known as they should be. In the class, I will cover my personal experiences with the herbs, including specific indications, application, medicine making, dosage, folklore, and more!
Bulk Ingredients That Save Money, Reduce Waste, & Promote Resiliency
I love the peace of knowing that I have both the skills and stock on hand to thrive in most of the situations life throws my way. I can confidently rely on my resourcefulness and forethought to help me whether I can’t get to the grocery store for a bit, need to pinch some pennies, or just ran out of laundry soap. The efforts that I put into this lifestyle are also in line with my sustainability goals and significantly reduce the waste generated from my household.
I wouldn’t consider myself a “prepper” by any means, but I do think of myself as an experienced bulk buyer and a sustainability-minded person. In addition to improved resiliency, bulk purchasing also saves a ton of money and resources. Let’s use dried organic basil leaf as an example. A store-bought bottle of organic basil leaf is roughly $8.00 per ounce. A four-ounce bag of basil leaf that you can use to refill into your own upcycled bottles is $7.25 at Mountain Rose Herbs. That would be about $32.00 if you bought that much at the grocery store. I don’t know about you, but I go through more than one bottle of basil leaf a year, and with that kind of cost savings, I can even afford to share it with my friends and family if I couldn’t use it all myself.
Tips for Choosing Reputable Seed Companies & Nurseries
Spring is upon us, and many of us spent the cold and dark days of winter planning spring and summer gardens, selecting plant varieties, acquiring seeds, and getting a head start on sowing, germinating, and nurturing the young seedlings in our windowsills and greenhouses. Nowadays, we can buy everything from seeds and trees to full-grown flowers and shrubs at nurseries around the country. But not all nurseries are alike. A surprising number of the most popular suppliers of the seeds and plants we love give little regard to environmental issues. Don’t despair! There are guidelines and best practices we would like to share with the Mountain Rose Herbs community that will help you select seeds and plants that were grown using practices that support the health and vitality of our ecosystem.
Calming Kava Rose Moon Milk
We love moon milk—the wonderfully warm creamy beverages that are recommended by Ayurvedic practitioners to calm fiery dosas and balance the body before bed. If you’re longing for a restful night’s sleep, check out this blog on moon milk and choose the one (or more) that’s right for you: adaptogenic moon milk to help you put away the stressors of the day, tulsi moon milk for immune system support, or calming kava rose moon milk to close the door on the outside world and turn toward peaceful self-reflection. These delicious recipes are perfect with either milk or a milk alternative. Sweet dreams!
3 Magic Moon Milk Recipes for Restful Sleep
If drinking warm milk before bed sounds like the kind of advice you might hear from your grandma—well, it turns out grandma knows best again! Drinking heated creamy beverages before bed has been practiced for centuries and has helped people all over the world drift off into a restful sleep. It is also commonly recommended by Ayurvedic practitioners to calm fiery doshas and to help balance the body before bed. Nowadays, these magical cups of comfort are often referred to as moon milks and incorporate herbs and spices to help assist the body in relaxation.
Here are three tasty ways to try moon milk for yourself. We hope they help you have the sweetest of dreams!
