During this first birthday edition of the Self Care with Herbs segment, I reflect on the many and varied nourishing conversations I’ve had with guests over the past 12 months. 

I pull out common themes, from the benefits of weaving our self care around the cycles and rhythms within ourselves and the world around us to the way our self care may change depending on the stage of life we find ourselves in. 

I reflect on the value of nature connection, and the way that growing herbs can deepen our relationship with the plants.

I share how my little herb patch has grown as a direct result of the conversations had during the podcast.

I examine the way that existing in our world and the pressures placed on us by our society can be a huge barrier to prioritising ourselves and how even the common definition of self care (as spa treatment or expensive getaway) can make it difficult for many of us.

I rejoice in reviewing the many deliciously nourishing self care recipes and rituals shared by guests and share stories of the connections that have been made as a result of the podcast.

I hope you enjoy reflecting on the past 12 months of conversations as much as I have. My heartfelt thanks to all of my beautiful guests who have shared this journey with me. 

You can revisit any of the episodes from the Self Care with Herbs segment by visiting the links below…

8. Connection to our Cycles and the Natural World: Artist Dalee Ella 

12. A life changing accident inspires a passion for herbal medicine: Jen Campbell 

16. Foraging, kitchen medicine and herbal tea- bringing the herbs into our everyday: Caroline Parker

20. Continuing the legacy of Dorothy Hall- Bringing the plants and the people together: Sally Kingsford Smith

24. Motherhood meets small business- the importance of getting back to basics: Norfolk Naturopath Zoe King

28. Mothercare, prioritising the basics and avoiding overwhelm: Emma Jacques

32. Nourishing skin care rituals, finding balance and forming a deeper relationship with herbs: Sue Daly

36. Listening to the whispers of our heart and being held by the herbs during times of transformation: Kristin Zanotti

40. Flowers, essential oils and knowing ourselves constitutionally: Tara Luca

44. Applying permaculture principles to Self Care: Hanna Navara

48. Self care as a dynamic, seasonal, everyday practice: Cat Green

During this episode, I refer to Dalee Ella’s stunning new ‘Art to Wear’ collection which you can access here.

I also refer to Caroline Parker’s new book baby ‘The Medicinal Garden: An Intro to Medicinal Herbs and How to Grow them and Use them in the Kitchen’ which will be out in Winter 2024. Stay tuned here.

You can connect with me, Jess Bosscha, host of the Self Care with Herbs segment of the Elder Tree podcast by following along on Instagram and Facebook, by signing up to my newsletter here , visiting my online store here or making an appointment for a consultation here.

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.

It's been a year of amazing conversations with insightful humans, meandering through the forest of plant relationships and numinous experiences. In this episode I explore: Why does 'sacred' matter to us as herbalists anyway? What is sacred herbalism? And how can we begin to cultivate this in our own lives?

I highlight some snippets of conversations with Jacqui Bushell (episode 11), Jimi Wollumbin (episode 15), John Seed (episode 27), and Skye Cielita Flor (episode 41). A big shout out to all my other fabulous podcast guests: Tatiana Dawn, Lis Conlon, Katelyn Jones, Benjamin Haynes, Lily of the Herbs, Jessyca Bosscha and the anonymous therapist. You were all incredible - weaving each of these conversations into one was quite simply beyond me.

To find out more about The Elder Tree, head to TheElderTree.org
You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram.
The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.

Happy 1st bEarthday to The Elder Tree Podcast with an entire sun cycle into Spring Equinox! We have successfully published an episode every moon phase, which has been forty-eight inspiring interviews covering our favourite topics of herbal educators, permaculture herbalism, sacred herbalism and self-care with herbs!

In this celebratory episode, I start with an Ostara blessing and delve deeper into the two worlds of permaculture and herbalism and how they merge to support human and earth healing. I speak to what is happening in my tropical garden and offer ways to celebrate this season within the wheel of the year and honour this equinox and all that it means in our external and internal landscapes.

With the energy of spring and fertility, we, too, are growing with fresh sound in our 'intro and outro' and the exciting launch of The Elder Tree Trove ~ Patreon Community! Yes, we now have more ways to engage with Herbalists, Healers and Permaculturalists to access their exclusive content, special offers, ongoing wisdom, and conversations to harvest ~ all from our Trove.

This was also a wonderful opportunity to reflect upon my segment and all of the insightful people I interviewed, acknowledging the magic of diverse topics that emerged in these conversations with some updates and generous gifts for our Patreon community. As promised, see the show notes below for direct links to each of this season's permaculture herbalism segments!

SHOW NOTES:

TROVE ~ PATREON COMMUNITY GIFTS: Join here! https://www.patreon.com/TheElderTree

To learn more about The Elder Tree, visit the website at ⁠www.theeldertree.org⁠ and donate to the crowdfunding campaign ⁠here⁠. You can also follow The Elder Tree on ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠sign up to the newsletter⁠. Find out more about this podcast and the presenters ⁠here⁠. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at: ⁠[email protected]⁠ The intro and outro song is "⁠Sing for the Earth⁠" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music ⁠here⁠ and ⁠here⁠.

Sharn Harper is a traditional herbalist with over two decades in the field of natural health and herbal medicine. Armed with a Bachelor of Health Science, and Diploma of Herbal Medicine, Sharn's journey as a herbalist has taken her through various roles and experiences.

She worked for over 8 years at Mullumbimby Herbals, and over 8 years and Koda Phytorium as a practitioner and herbal manufacturing educator and managed Koda Phytorium for 5 years.

Sharn's commitment to education has played an important role in nurturing some of the next generation of herbalists and naturopaths.Over the past two decades, she has actively produced herbal medicines and mastered the art of herbal percolation, contributing significantly to the field's practical knowledge.

Sharn founded Byron Botanicals 20 years ago and less than 2 months ago sold this beautiful business. She has now established The Urban Apothecary in Port Noarlunga South, South Australia, where she continues to provide the community with natural remedies and herbal solutions and invites students of herbal medicine to learn from her. She also currently works for Switched on Health, marking students assignments.

In Sharn's current herbal dispensary, she makes around 99% of her own tinctures and other medicines that she dispenses, and this is one of the stand out things in what she offers.

In this interview Sharn shares her journey from romance starting at a compost heap to meeting Paul Stamets.  We talk about the importance of staying away from competitive mindset and industry mindset, instead fostering an inter-connected community of mutually supportive herbalists.We talk about ways that herbal medicine can be re-integrated back into the hospitals and doctors clinics.

Sharn shares her dreams for more affordable and hands on education opportunities in Australia. Her dreams for herbal education being less corporate and and more heart-based. I love her unending passion, dedication, humility and inclusive nature. I hope that you all enjoy this chat as much as I did.

Shownotes:

The Urban Apothecary FB:https://www.facebook.com/Sharnsherbaldispensary

Sharn's new book "Preparing Herbal Extracts using Cold Percolation":https://byronbotanicals.com.au/product/preparing-herbal-extracts-using-cold-percolation-by-sharn-harper

Byron Botanicals:https://byronbotanicals.com.au/

Koda Phytorium:https://www.webstore.kodaphytorium.com.au/

Mullum Herbals:https://mullumherbals.com.au/

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.

During this episode, I chat with Cat Green from Everyday Empowered. Cat’s a folk herbalist and grassroots community herbal organiser and educator. She's passionate about making it easy -and normal - for people to make simple, effective herbal remedies at home. Through Everyday Empowered, she offers a wide range of practical ways for people to learn about herbs.

Cat’s journey down the plant path began during recovery from an extended illness. After seeking the guidance of a naturopath, she began to delve deeper, reading all the books and going down rabbit holes. Which left her wondering…why are there 20 herbs recommended for this one condition, how do I know which one to choose? 

These questions continue to inform her relationship with herbs today…during her recovery, Cat came to realise that she was responsible for her own health and the only one living in her own body every day. That having a toolkit of herbs and other supportive practices is wonderful, but it’s tuning in to what our body’s need every day that helps shape how we care for ourselves.

I love Cat’s seasonal approach and how her herbal practice, shifts and changes as she listens in to what her body needs as the world around her changes. We chat about moving from immune supportive herbs like Astralgalus through winter, to more nutritive and liver supportive herbs like Nettle, Red Clover and bitter salad greens as we move into Spring…

During our chat, we talk about building habits (even boring ones like flossing our teeth) and how starting small and celebrating the tiniest wins can be really helpful at strengthening our neural pathways.

One of Cat’s passion is home herbalism and we chat a lot about how getting to know ourselves and our own health issues and becoming familiar with the herbs is a way of reclaiming some of the power that has been lost. By relearning some of these lost skills we can regain confidence in home healthcare traditions.

Cat shares how in her early days of delving into herbalism, she often found the sheer volume of information available overwhelming, when all she really wanted was the best remedy for nappy rash! This experience underlies her passion of making home herbalism as accessible as possible for everybody.

So grab a cup of your favourite herbal cuppa, find a comfy nook in the sun and settle in to this inspiring and nourishing episode…

*SHOW NOTES*

You can learn more about Cat, her upcoming offerings, check out her blog posts and buy her herbal starter kits here.

Or follow Cat on Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with all of her offerings.

Cat refers to her training with Non Violent Communication Certified Trainer Kate Raffin, you can connect with Kate and learn more about Non Violent Communication here.

I mention Sally Kingsford Smith’s beautiful course The Art and Heart of Herbal Medicine which you can learn more about here. 

During our chat we refer to a previous episode of the Elder Tree, where Cat was interviewed by Twiggy Dawn, founder of the Elder Tree. You can listen in to that episode here: 

Episode 33: Building a Culture of Collaboration in the Herbal Community- Cat Green on Herbal Education

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.

Katelyn speaks to Stephanie Hazel about the potency of wildflower essences as a way to reconnect us into the land we live on. She shares her journey of maturing into stewardship of the land, and her personal belief that nature is a mirror of our own true selves. Katelyn Jones lives in Koa, FNQ. She makes flower essences and delightful natural skincare products infused with local wild botanicals. She also teaches others how to make flower essences for their own healing.

Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quint_._essence/

You can find her products here: https://quintessencewellness.com.au/shop

And her upcoming flower essence workshop: https://quintessencewellness.com.au/shop/p/flower-essence-workshop

Andrew has been a community development worker, mechanic, small business owner, and now co-founder of Eco Villages Australia - an organisation that helps people live collaboratively. Co-founder and resident of the Maleny Eco Village, he strives to live a life of economic, cultural, social and ecological regeneration. 

"Social disconnection has hit epidemic proportions. Now is the time to find a way to connect with self, each other and the earth."

In this episode, Andrew speaks to the importance of valuing native plants and medicines and the wisdom of first nations people to learn about relationships and reciprocal living. From sacred economics to his perspective of the eight forms of capital/wealth, Andrew shares how he financially co-seeded an eco-village with 0% interest to remodel housing loans and trust. He gives some insight into life in the village and how they consider individual capacity, the gift economy and how 'working together' is their superpower.

Andrew now travels to offer free forums to anyone interested in learning how to start or be part of a small-scale village that cares for the earth, people and economic equality in the face of the current housing crisis. He calls himself 'a busker of ideas' and discusses his unique perspective of 'social healing' as a form of medicine and advocates for confronting trauma collectively within the support of a village, rather than in isolation."

Claire (also co-founder) from Maleny Eco-village offers free Intentional Healing Therapy and invites bookings via text to 0439 532 299.

CONNECT:

Website: https://www.ecovillages.au/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecovillagesaustralia

Youtube: @ecovillagesaustralia8549

SHOW NOTES:

To learn more about The Elder Tree, visit the website at ⁠www.theeldertree.org⁠ and donate to the crowdfunding campaign ⁠here⁠.

You can also follow The Elder Tree on ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠sign up to the newsletter⁠.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters ⁠here⁠. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  ⁠[email protected]⁠

The intro and outro song is "⁠Sing for the Earth⁠" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music ⁠here⁠ and ⁠here⁠.

Join us on this deep journey with Rosie Cooper, a grassroots herbalist, herbal facilitator and teacher from Dja Dja Warrung country in Victoria. Rosie is passionate about assisting people to foster deeper relationships with plants, letting the plants themselves guide the process. Rosie runs wilderness rites of passage, nature quests, plant connection courses, herbal first aid workshops and medicine making workshops. She makes and sells her beautiful seasonal medicines and works a lot with wild medicines in her bio region.

Hear about Rosie's meandering experience into herbal medicine, beginning with being in USA and being inspired by their grassroots herbal medicine movement, then returning home to Australia and feeling isolated and lonely without having any accessible face to face herbal medicine teachers. Often these experiences can drive people to action, as has been the case with Rosie. She loves to move with the plants in a slow way, facilitating embodies spaces which invoke deeper listening in a non academic way.

In this episode we explore the importance of rites of passage for our youth coming into adulthood. About discovering what memory remains in our bones from our ancestors, combined with what is emerging in the here and now. Rosie shares her dreams for the future about herbalism coming back into common sense and seeing more people growing herbs, celebrating diversity and creating more accessibility for herbal medicine. She shares her dreams as an "introduced" person to this land, finding a deep relationship with the "introduced" plants in this land- the plants of her ancestry.

Sit back with a nice cup of herbal tea and enjoy this beautiful conversation.

Rosie's website:kinbotanica.com.au

Instagramwww.instagram.com/kin.botanica/

Join Rosie's mailing list : https://tinyletter.com/kin_botanica

Shownotes:

Jim McDonald:https://www.herbcraft.org/index.htm

John Gallagher/Herb Mentorhttps://learningherbs.com/herbmentor/

Kiva Rose:https://enchantersgreen.com/

Kiva Rose's online magazine 'Plant Healer'https://planthealer.org/

Join us on this :https://planthealer.org/

Rebecca Altman:https://wonderbotanica.com/

Claire Dunn:https://www.naturesapprentice.com.au/

Tyson Yunkaporta's book 'Sand Talk':https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/sand-talk

Listen as an audiobook (recommended as Tyson is the narrator):https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Sand-Talk-Audiobook/B09DQ4F7PW

Donna Raymond's book 'Maiden':https://www.booktopia.com.au/maiden--donna-raymond/book/9780645096811.html

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can join our Patreon here and gain a deeper connection to our podcast. Pay a small amount per month to have access to these resources- thanks so much for your support!

You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.

In this episode, I chat with Hanna Navara, regenerative Hemp farmer, activist and permaculture enthusiast.

Hanna, with her partner Leon, runs Hemp Threads, a licensed industrial hemp company offering natural hemp based food products regeneratively farmed using sustainable principals in Kyogle, NSW.

It was a Permaculture course held at Mullumbimby community gardens alongside a Diploma in Organic Farming that really sparked Hanna’s interest in the plant world in a deeper way. 

Hanna had been heavily involved in environmental activism and had a passion for growing food and plants and found she really wanted to positively contribute to the solution of a healthy future for the people and our planet.

This passion to contribute, led her and her partner Leon towards an interest in growing hemp, which was inspired by the MardiGrass Festival in Nimbin, NSW. It was here,that she first got her hands on a jar of hemp seeds…

In 2018, Hanna and her partner Leon, with their jar of hemp seeds, engaged in a share farming journey in Broadwater on the Richmond river. The land was sandy flat swampland- and with neither her or partner hailing from a farming background, there were lots of lessons learnt.

Solum farm in the Clarence valley, a working Organic medicinal herb farm run by Cheryl and Mike Smith provided the next opportunity for Hanna and Leon. 

Here they spent, nearly 3 years, learning alongside Cheryl and Mike and planting out 3 hemp crops on about an acre of land. Hanna speaks of the many lessons learnt during this time, from inviting herbal allies like Calendula, Tulsi and Mugwort into her days, to the importance of having robust systems in place for harvesting, drying and packaging plant material.

Hanna and Leon now share farm in Kyogle, near the Border ranges where they have a little more space for their hemp and have this year planted out a 5 acre hemp crop. 

During our chat, Hanna brings an interesting perspective to the concept of self care. Rather than focussing on the individual practices that nourish her, Hanna zooms out and looks at self care from a very broad level. She talks about bringing in the systems thinking from her permaculture training to help her mind map out all the areas of her life and the balance she’d like to achieve- a mix of practical, spiritual and body care. 

Hanna was in the late stages of pregnancy when we chatted and was really enjoying leaning into herbal allies to support her- she speaks of her connection with blood building and nutritive Nettle, creating herbal elixirs and nourishing molasses based herbal syrups.  

We also explore all of the wonderful ways Hemp can be used for self care, both nutritionally and topically- from delicious salad dressings to bliss balls and nourishing herbal balms and oils.

 I think you’ll really enjoy hearing Hanna’s unique approach to self care, I certainly learnt a lot!

You can connect with Hanna via her website Hemp Threads, or on Instagram.

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.

Stephanie Hazel interviews Folk Herbalist, Deep Ecologist and traditionally trained Shipibo Curandera Skye Cielita Flor. In this episode, we explore questions such as: What does it mean to take a plant out of context? What do we leave behind when we extract a single active chemical from a medicinal plant? What do we lose when we take a single aspect of Shipibo culture, like ayahuasca ceremonies, but leave all of the cultural nest of animistic relationships with plants and land behind? Skye is a South African woman currently living in Warrandyte in Melbourne, and is one of the few people I know who has completed a 4 year immersive apprenticeship in the Peruvian Amazon, where she studied with Shipibo curanderos to become a healer, an apprenticeship that involved extensive training in ritual and healing use of ayahuasca, and deep dietas with other powerful medicinal plants. Four years of full time training in the amazon! This actually makes her the most qualified person I know to comment on the rising wave of ayahuasca use in the west. She also completed 3 years of full time Chinese Medicine apprenticeship, and worked as a wilderness guide in South Africa. When she came to Australia, she was confronted with the deep grief of having lost the beautiful animism of Shipibo culture and of finding herself bereft of the plants who had become her friends. Beyond this, she felt afresh the aching wounds of Western disconnection from the living world around us. She had found herself entirely out of context! Her pathway to grounding into the place she is now was deep ecology., which she believes is the missing framework that any animistic or psychedelic experience needs to be nestled into for any western person to actually receive the healing they need. Her work now primarily consists of facilitating experiential deep ecology workshops and retreats, under the guidance of John Seed, who was previously interviewed on this podcast. You can check out an upcoming webinar with Skye and John in September if you are inspired to learn from this heart-felt, intellectually sophisticated and wildly experienced woman and plant collaborator.

Show Notes:

Skye's upcoming webinar with John Seed - Honouring Our Pain For The World

https://workthatreconnects.org/event/honoring-our-pain-for-the-world-a-webinar-with-john-seed-and-skye-mandozay/?fbclid=IwAR1otXUV2Wp6y55eks-GjXODBDrIQ-8FYS4S9Vw-3yK5uXotcN5DAVjZdrw

Follow Skye on Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/Cicadia.DepthPerception

https://www.instagram.com/deep.earth.dreaming/

Get your own taste of relationships with plants in my upcoming 6-week course: Finding Your Plant Allies. Use the code ElderTreeListens for 10% off :-)

www.stephaniehazel.com.au/courses/find-your-plant-allies/

To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here.

You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter.

Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected]

The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.