the medicine around you
Plantain leaf (Plantago major) basking in the sun
After leaving college, I arranged my whole life around growing plants. I was a veggie farmer, then an herb farmer, and, for a few years amid that, a professional gardener. I made a lot of sacrifices so that I could spend most of my waking hours outside, working with plants.
At the end of 2022, my lease at the farm that was hosting Locust Light ended, and I no longer had a garden. This coincided with the arrival of my daughter. I now had no garden, and a baby.
Turns out, two years away from growing plants is pretty tough for someone whose biggest life priority had been growing plants.
But this year, I have a garden again*. I'm planting herbs and native plants, growing medicine and creating habitat for birds and insects. An abundance of Dandelion, Plantain, Chickweed, Lambs Quarter, and Cleavers is growing around my house.
I've been overcome with enthusiasm for Dandelion. We're eating the greens with most meals, and I made an infused vinegar that I take a few times a day. I made a huge batch of Chickweed tincture, and I dried Plantain to use in oils.
I had not made medicine from these plants in years.
In the world of herbalism, it's easy to get excited about herbs from all over the world. They're all so amazing, so powerful, and I want to know them and take them and learn about them. But this spring I've been tuning into the medicine that's growing right around my home, freely and abundantly. It's so simple, yet so potent.
It feels great. It feels like relationship, and listening, and the connection I'd been missing.
If you're feeling disconnected right now, or overwhelmed, I encourage you to do the simple-yet-hard thing and look to the plants growing right around you. Who's there? How can you relate to them? What might you learn from them?
The plants are always around us. We just need to remember to look.
*just a personal garden. When I have a garden that I can invite you to, you will know. Trust me -- I'll be shouting it from the rooftops of the internet and you won't be able to escape my excitement.