The Herbalist’s January: What This Season Asks

If you asked most people what a herbalist does in January, they might look at you blankly. Nothing is growing. The fields are bare. The visible relationship between the herbalist and the plant world seems to be in abeyance. But the experienced herbalist knows...

Hawthorn: The Herb of the Heart

Hawthorn is a hedgerow tree, one of the most common in the British and European landscape, thorny and dense and ancient-looking even when young. In late spring it covers itself in white blossom. In autumn the branches are heavy with deep red berries (haws). Most...

Dream Herbs: A History of Plants and the Sleeping Mind

Humans have always been interested in their dreams, not just in interpreting them after the fact but in cultivating them, in finding ways to make the dream space more accessible, more vivid, more legible. And across cultures that developed this interest, certain...

The Spring Herb Walk: What to Look for Right Now

The first days of March bring a particular excitement for anyone who pays attention to plants. The light is changing. Something shifts in the hedgerows. The very first green appears, tentative and tender but making its declaration. Spring’s first herbs are among...

Nettles: The Herb That Bites Back and Nourishes Deeply

Most people have an involuntary relationship with nettles: a brush against one that left a memorable stinging impression. The plant responsible for that sting is, from the herbalist’s perspective, one of the most nutritionally complete and medicinally...