The Nerve Of It All  Embodied Self-Care for the Nervous System  by Asha Canalos  A 1543 woodcut by Andreas Vesalius illustrating the human nervous system Ten years ago, in a time of relative personal adversity and general emotional funk, I ran across the following quote, and it sent weird shivers of recognition down my spine. It read: “You’re a ghost driving a meat-coated skeleton made from stardust; what do you have to be scared of?”   Crude, and funny in an absurdist way, this string of words speaks to the ineffable state of being we find ourselves in, as a ne ..read more

The Orientation of Russian Olive by Jennileen Joseph   Russian Olive, Elaeagnus angustifolia This blog post is about orientation. I’m going to talk about who I am, where and who I’m from, and how that particular vantage point factors into all things I do as a plant medicine practitioner. And then I’m going to talk about Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) and dive deep into who she is and her particular orientation. But to do that I have to also recognize the orientation of all things New Mexico. My hope is that by reading this, you take away context in the deepest and m ..read more

Herbal Bathing: Maurice Messegue, Master of the Art by Donna O’Donovan   Maurice Messegue, French Herbalist (photo credit) “To know a river you have to know its source.” For Maurice Messegue that source was his father. In his autobiography: Of People & Plants, Maurice describes his father as a cherished wellspring in a land where water was scarce and dowsing for water was commonplace. Maurice describes his father as a wellspring that guided and shaped his life like a river. “He alone shaped the entire course of my life.” He had a deep love and reverence for his father w ..read more

The Tagetes Genus: Two Key Herbs in Mexican Herbal History & Tradition by Atava Garcia Swiecicki Mexican and Mexican-American communities have a rich and vibrant history of herbal medicine traditions.  Mexico has incredible biodiversity, with ecosystems that include both Pacific and Atlantic coasts, deserts, jungles, plains, valleys, and mountains.   This biodiversity provides fertile ground for plants of all kinds to grow, including thousands of medicinal herbs.  Across Mexico (including places in the so-called US Southwest which had been former territories of Mexi ..read more

Rocky Mountain Mushrooms – Hawk’s Wings (Sarcodon imbricatus) by Dr. Marija Helt   With its brown cap layered with dark, protruding scales, this large mushroom does indeed resemble a hawk’s wing. As for the botanical name, sarco is derived from Greek for “flesh”, while odon means “tooth”.  This is in reference to the tooth-like projections beneath the cap. There are only a handful of “toothed” mushrooms in the Southern Rockies, making identification of this sometimes humongous mushroom even easier.   This is a common mushroom in the Southern Rockies and it grows under spruce ..read more

Rocky Mountain Medicinal Mushrooms – A Lot About Artist’s Conk by Dr. Marija Helt   Artist’s Conk. People actually do create art on it. More on this momentarily. But first… A conk is a shelf fungus. “Shelf” because the fruiting body (aka. the reproductive bits) sticks straight out of the wood in which the fungus grows. A large Artist’s Conk can resemble a personal bench, but if you try to sit on it….not so much. Reflecting this, its Japanese name — kofuki-saru-no-koshikake — means “Powder-Covered Monkey’s Bench” (1). (The “powder” part refers to the fact that the spores often wind up on ..read more

Oaks: Acorns, Flour, Perspective by Donna O’Donovan   Acorns from Oaks  +  Making Acorn Flour  +  Oaks in Perspective The English words for flower and flour come from the old French word flor or flour. This means blossom or the finest thing. Such as a flower can be. The ground flour from wheat, rye, or acorns, etc. then became known as the finest thing. A fine flour. (Online Etymology Dictionary) Of course, boundless past and present names for acorn exist. It has been a huge contribution to human survival for aeons. And oaks are keystone species. This produ ..read more

In the author’s garden, mounds of Wormwood, Bee Balm, Sage and Lavender benefit from peripheral shade and dense plantings; the Pollinators have a buffet of nectars and pollens to choose from. On Healing: A Gardener’s Perspective by Asha Canalos A couple of years ago, I surrounded the edges of the small stone patio by our kitchen with pots of Motherwort, which do well under the partial shade of a Siberian Elm, and are at the moment sending up their pink spires of spiked flowers. I’ll tincture some soon- Leonurus cardiaca has been an invaluable ally to me. The protective quality of the plan ..read more

The Normalcy of Nature in Otherwise Odd Times by Dara Saville  Some people say they fell in love as their eyes met with their partner’s across a crowded room. They describe it as love at first sight. I know what that is like. Stopping at a roadside pullout in the eastern plains of New Mexico, my eyes feasted upon the utter delight of a high desert sunrise. I devoured endless shades of pink and orange, layered with emerging hues of blue; it was a complex visual symphony creating the bright light of a new day. I was nearly consumed by this heavenly grandeur, yet something else stood ou ..read more

Artemisia/Sage: The Ecology of Herbal Medicine The following is an excerpt from Dara Saville’s new book The Ecology of Herbal Medicine: A Guide to Plants and Living Landscapes of the American Southwest from the University of New Mexico Press (2021).   Artemisia species (sage) have been culture-influencing plants across continents, shaping the lives of people in both the Old World and the New. A widespread genus with a large number of species, Artemisia has been associated with mythological lore, supernatural activity, spiritual beliefs and practices, absinthe-inspired counterculture ..read more