Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is one of those common herbs that is too easily overlooked. But chamomile deserves our praise and appreciation. Although it’s gentle, this herb gives us powerful medicine for babies, the elderly, and everyone in between. It can be a soothing, yet highly effective ally for sleepless nights, digestive upsets, skin issues, conjunctivitis…and the list goes on! 

In this episode, I’m talking about the many gifts of chamomile with my fellow herbalist and longtime friend, Leslie Lekos. Leslie shares a wealth of information with us about this gentle, yet powerful herb, along with her wonderful herbal bitters recipe for supporting healthy digestion, Chamomile Cardamom Bitters. (Be sure to get the link for your free copy of her downloadable recipe card at HerbsWithRosaleePodcast.com.)

By the end of this episode, you’ll know:

►Why dosage matters for seeing the results you hope for

►How long to let chamomile tea steep

► Why chamomile is a great herb to work with long-term

Here is one of my favorite takeaways from our conversation about chamomile’s gifts: 

“I feel like the medicine that our larger culture needs is this gentle medicine. We have so many driving forces, everybody's so amped up and moving so fast, something to slow us down and get in our bodies and just feel our way through, feel embodied.”

For those of you who don't know her, Leslie is the founder and director of Wildroot Botanicals, a bio-regionally based herbal school located on the unceded territories of the coast Salish peoples.

The mission for the school is to foster a learning environment where people develop personal connections with plants through wildcrafting, tending to the land, and working towards right relations.

She also has an herbal product line and is known in her region for distilling hydrosols and for her re-wilding project, a monthly offering of wildcrafted and farm grown herbs to support mental wellness, nutrition, and connection with the land.  

In addition to herbal work, she is a doula, childbirth educator, and prenatal yoga instructor for the past 20 years. She is co-author of the book Yoga for Pregnancy, and is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher and the mother of two sons.

Her favorite part about teaching is when she is able to witness students feel a familiar spark within them when they engage with plants, a reuniting with the basic human skill that was a necessity for all our ancestors somewhere down the line in all of our lineages.

Leslie is one of the most heart-centered, generous, and deeply devoted herbalists I know. I’m so happy to bring you this conversation with one of my favorite people about one of my favorite herbs!

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Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.com

For more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!

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On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.

Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.

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Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.