Midsummer Harvesting Guide: What’s Ready Right Now

The weeks around the summer solstice are the peak harvest window for a remarkable range of medicinal herbs, and the herbalist who is paying attention is busy. The light is long, the volatile oil content of aromatic herbs is at its highest in summer warmth, and the...

Chamomile: Growing, Harvesting, and Drying at Peak

German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) produces most of its flowers between June and August, and if you have established plants in your garden this is one of the most rewarding harvest periods of the year: a daily or every-other-day picking of the small daisy-like...

Herb Walks and Plant Identification: A Beginner’s First Steps

Plant identification is the foundation that all foraging and wild harvesting rests on, and it is something that every herbalist needs to develop regardless of how much they rely on cultivated herbs. The ability to recognize a plant with confidence, to know what family...

Late Summer Harvesting: Roots, Seeds, and Berries to Gather Now

August is when the character of the harvest changes. The flowers of high summer are giving way to seeds and berries, and beneath the ground the roots are beginning to pull their energy back down after the flowering season, concentrating their constituents in...

How to Dry Herbs: Dehydrator vs. Air Drying

The way you dry your herbs determines the quality of what you keep. Poorly dried herbs (too slow, too hot, too much light, or stored before completely dry) lose their volatile compounds, their color, and much of their medicinal value. Well-dried herbs, stored...