Amanda Crooke

Hi, Amanda here. I’m glad you’ve found Locust Light — I love making new friends and welcoming folks into the farm family.

I believe in the power of herbs and ritual to change your life. I believe in your power to change your life.

I believe that humans and plants can have a mutually supportive, loving relationship, and that’s what I’m always working toward.

Locust Light is a space for us to gather and do this powerful work. It’s a place to meet the plants as living beings, a place to be still with them and listen. It’s a place to meet others and enter into community with them. It’s a place to experience beauty, deliciousness, and acceptance.

It’s a place where you feel belonging.

My story

My love of herbalism began when I discovered that nettles could relieve my indoor allergies. I have been drinking nettle tea and studying herbalism ever since. I enjoy coaxing the plants from the earth and coaxing the healing properties from the plants.

I moved to New Hope in 2013 to lend my energies to the creation of Roots to River Farm. During my two years there, I fell in love with the vibrant culture and community of Bucks County. I decided to stay and provide herbal medicine to the community I had grown to love. Prior to working at Roots to River, I had been working as an organic vegetable farmer throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

When I’m not farming, I enjoy reading, writing, and performing poetry, acting in improv groups, sitting on the couch with a crossword puzzle, cooking for friends and family, and crafting ever-more-delicious bevs.

Things you should know about me: I seriously love bevs, I don’t like measuring, and I heartily believe in gnomes.

My Teachers

I’ve been fortunate to study with amazing teachers. I’ve chosen teachers that emphasize both the physical and spiritual aspects of healing.

David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies — Clinical Herbalism
- I have completed the Two-Year program and the Graduate Program. I currently teach the Herbal Pharmacy segment for the Two-Year program.
Twin Star Herbal Education - Community Herbalism
Quiet Heart Yoga and Healing Arts - 200-hr yoga teacher certification (Himalayan Tradition) and Usui Reiki Ryoho Level I, II, and III
Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials — Anatomy and Physiology
Christabel Foster — Shamanic Apprenticeship
Way back when, I studied Sociology, Anthropology and Spanish at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

My truest teachers, of course, have been the plants, the land, the weather, and the seasons. My first herbal teacher was plantain, and I continue to lean heavily on plantain for emotional support and encouragement. Nettle was the plant that drew me to herbalism and remains a daily friend. Lemon Basil pulled the poet of out of me, and my life is infinitely more happy for it. Sycamore helped me to set roots in New Hope, and I love her fiercely for that. Tomatoes taught me that, even if a plant doesn’t like you at first, there’s always time to build a relationship. I could go on and on.

The seasons, the Turning of the Wheel of the Year, is what grounds me in my existence and guides me in my growth. I’m in love with the seasons, and most of my teaching is built around them.

And, finally, I am on this path due to a deep love of the land. My mother’s family (dairy farmers) stewards a piece of land in Northwestern NJ, and I grew up playing with the moss and salamanders on the mountainside. That land raised me, and filled me with a fierce passion for mutually beneficial stewardship (and being out-of-doors).