Welcome to our first episode of The Herbalist’s Path where we’re on a mission to inspire a movement where there’s an herbalist in every home, again!
In today’s episode we have a chat with Missy Rohs, herbalist, activist, teacher, and Cofounder of The Arctos School of Botanical of Herbal & Botanicals Studies. We take a deep dive into her Herbalist’s Path where she first got introduced to herbalism through reading Punk Scenes. She joined the Black Cross Health Collective where she first started learning about how to administer first aid in activism situations. She found that she was surrounded by a group of ER nurses, massage therapists, herbalists, nurse practitioners and other health care practitioners, and she needed to learn more about health. She began taking some classes from some of the other Black Cross Health Collective members such as Colette Gardiner, and Krista Olson.
A bit later a new partner got her interested in gardening and took her on weekly hikes. She learned about how you can walk down a path in the forest, and get to know the plants, and how to use them. These plants quickly became her friends!
She later took the leap to learn more and went down south to learn from Michael Moore and Donna Chesner.
She talks about how you become an herbalist when You use plants for their medicinal properties. Even if it means you’re just using ginger when you’re sick, or peppermint for an upset stomach.
Lately she’s been loving listening to Julie James of Green Wisdom Herbal Studies, and her Monday morning classes that are available live on Facebook, 9 am PST. One of my teachers Lydia Barthalow, and now at her own school Arctos School of Botanical Studies, she has been able to add her own guest teachers to the list.
Her first tincture she ever made was an echinacea tincture she made in college. Garth Caul taught a class on how to make a tincture with fresh echinacea tincture, and she was lucky enough to be in the dorm where the tincture was steeping. She ended up with a ½ gallon jar of echinacea tincture in the end! Bonus! She talks about how echinacea can boost your immunity and help your white blood cells fight off illness.
If you’re a beginning herbalist, Missy recommend trying to work with one herb at a time so you can get to know and feel that plant and how it works for you personally. She talks about trying a nettles infused vinegar, a hawthorn tincture, or even a plantain poultice.
She fell in love with her Pojar & McKinnon Plant ID book, and Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Virabtan Health, or The Family Herbal, Also she loves the Rosale De La Foret’s Alchemy for Herbs.
The one herb Missy wishes everyone knew about would be dandelion because it grows almost everywhere on this continent. She loves using common weeds for medicine since they’re so abundant and can often have a great deal of medicinal properties. She recommends cooking your dandelion greens in bacon fat, vinegar, and salt. For those that don’t eat bacon, you can add an oil, salt, and an acid to help balance out the bitter of dandelion, without cancelling out the bitter properties so you can still embrace the bitter. Dandelion leaves are mineral rich, bitter, to help awaken your digestive system and allowing the digestive fluids to flow.
Like the show? Got a Q? Shoot us a Text!
Wondering how you can use your herbal skills to help people when times are tough?
Grab Medicine For The People - An Herbalist's Guide To Showing Up For Your Community In Times of Need
It's loaded with ideas and resources to help you help others!💚 Click here to ge
Support the show
Ready to deepen your herbal skills and knowledge?
Whether you're stocking your family's medicine cabinet, building your formulation skills, or stepping into the role of community herbalist, we have a program for you.
Learn more here
If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much if you left us a review and shared it with a friend. It helps more herbalists find their way here, and helps make herbalism #SpreadLikeWildFlowers 🌸
Join me on: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube
Disclaimer:
*The information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. Please consult your medical care provider before using herbs.
