Archive for the 'Wild Crafting' Category

Meet Pennywort

tammy June 26th, 2010

I just returned from a relaxing vacation on the beaches of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and met some sweet new plant friends.  Although I saw many herbs that were new to me, a couple really caught my attention and inspired me to get to know them better. I wanted to share my research with you.

Large-leaf Pennywort (Hydrocotyle bonariensis)

Large-leaf Pennywort (Hydrocotyle bonariensis)
Prolific is the first word that comes to mind when I think of this plant.  Several sources classify this plant as invasive, and I can see why. It was everywhere along the coast, on and near the dunes.

I was attracted to the succulent, brilliant green, and round foliage, with a small, whitish dot in the center. It exudes archetypal wholeness, a sacred naval of the world, appearing to contain a full universe within each perfect leaf. Very plump and moist and healthy, even though it was growing out of dry, hot, sand.

I only know the name of this plant because of a book I picked up at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge we visited while at the beach.  The book is titled “A Guide to Ocean Dune Plants common to North Carolina” by E. Jean Wilson Kraus. None of the other herbal reference books on my shelves (and I have a lot) mention Hydrocotyle at all.

In my internet research, I found very little specific and reliable information on the possible medicinal properties of this plant. The few references I did find, indicated it may have possibly been used as an alterative for various skin and kidney disorders, as well as arthritis.

Not knowing a single thing about this lovely little plant when I discovered it, except that I found it beautiful, I didn’t do very much hands-on experimenting on our first meeting. As I sat with it, I imagined it could bring moisture and coolness to dry, inflamed tissues. Perhaps it could deliver some kind of cosmic energy to a tired spirit, renewing life force in the cells of the body. Its personality seemed to me to be very similar to Chickweed. Roundness, balance, greenness, longevity… these are the words that came to mind.  Since many sources indicated that H. bonariensis is edible, raw and cooked, I will feel safe to experiment a bit more next time I am on the coast.

Other common names I came across for this particular species: Water Pennywort, Beach Pennywort, Marsh Pennywort, Salt Pennywort, Coast Pennywort, Dollarweed, Sombrerillo, Waternaval. I will certainly be looking for more ethno-botanical information under any and all of these names. If you have any tidbits to share, I would love to hear them.

In my next post I want to talk about Fire-wheel, Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), another coastal plant that captured my heart and imagination while I was in the Outer Banks. 

My first Mullien!

tammy June 14th, 2009

I finally have Mullien that I can harvest! I have admired them from afar for several years now, but never had any I could get to easily for medicine making. Here she is just beginning to flower. I see Mullien flower oil, and dried Mullien leaf for infusion, and Mullien leaf syrup, and Mullien root tincture in my future!

Want to know more about the medicinal properties of Mullien? Read this excellent article written by Michigan herbalist, Jim McDonald: http://www.herbcraft.org/mullein.html

The violet is prolific here also this year… off to gather some to dry for nourishing infusions!

A Sweet Little Herbal You May Not Have Seen Before

tammy December 28th, 2008

When I read this herbal by Linda Ours Rago I felt like I was reading about my own little piece of the world.  The achingly beautiful descriptions of the land and the plants she examines make me feel homesick and anxious to step outside my door, where I know I will find the very same plant communities, the very same smells, the very same colors.

In Blackberry Cove Herbal: Healing with Common Herbs in the Appalachian Wise Woman Tradition, Rago details the seasons and plants common to the region around the Blue Ridge Mountains, specifically at her Blackberry Cove Appalachian mountain farm in West Virginia.

The herbal is organized by season and gives lots of specific information about which plants are available for wild crafting in this region during every month of the year, and also lots of ideas for what to do with them.  She includes many recipes for time honored herbal remedies of the Appalachian wise woman tradition, and also weaves in the lore and magick of the culture as they relate to the plants.

I live on the other side of the Blue Ridge, in Virginia, so my ecosystem is pretty similar to hers.  I have found all the plants she covers growing at pretty much the same times she describes.  This herbal would make a wonderful beginners guide for a year long study of common local plants if you happen to live in this bio-region.

And even if you don’t live around here, many of the plants described are quite common in a variety of regions and much useful information can be gleaned.  The book is also beautifully written and beautifully illustrated, and is an enjoyable read, regardless.

Here is an excerpt from “December”:

…[O]ne hearty cup of pink sassafras root tea every spring will charge up your metabolism and thin your winter-sluggish blood.

The oldest Appalachian grandmothers say we should find a spot plentiful with sassafras seedlings.  Then after a hard frost in December, near the dark of the moon, tell the whole grove that you appreciate their strength and beauty and need their good medicine.  Pull up one entire small seedling, cut off the whole top, and save the roots.  Wash them well in running water, cut in three-inch lengths, dry slowly in a warm oven, and store away until spring.

In early spring place five pieces of root in a pot with a quart of cold springwater.  Bring to a boil and simmer gently for fifteen minutes. The water will turn a rosy color.  Sweeten with sugar or honey.  Take no more than a cup a day for several days.

Save the roots, dry them again, and resuse them over and over until the decoction no longer turns pink or has that distinctive sassafras aroma.

And speaking of digging Sassafras roots, I promise that post on root medicine is coming soon!  I had forgotten how busy this week would be… no time for root diggin’ yet! Today will be nice, so I think I will get out there later this afternoon.  Sassafras is on my list of roots to gather, along with Poke, Blackberry, Mullien…

Dead Christmas Trees

tammy December 9th, 2008

Since the kids have grown up and had kids of their own, it’s very seldom we are all together at the same time for meaningful activities anymore.  But Saturday turned out to be very magical for us in that way.  We got our first real snow (which only amounted to less than an inch, but hey!) while all of my kids were at the house with their children, so we decided to put up the Christmas tree together.

We’ve been using an artificial tree the last few years, but found when we hauled it out of the shed that mice had made their home in its branches this past season and had peed all over it!  Sorry, not putting the lovely odor of mouse pee all up in my house for Christmas!

So it was snowing, all the kids and grandkids were there together… seemed like perfect timing to go out in the woods and find a live tree this year.  And that’s just what we did.  It was a very special memory we made together, all of us bundled up tromping through the woods, AND we found a beautiful, fat cedar in the perfect shape.  It’s bare on one side, but with that side against the wall you can’t really tell.

At first I had a few reservations about cutting down a perfectly healthy and living tree just to indulge our holiday hoopla, but I have since come to terms with that.  Part of being on a spiritual and sacred earth walk means understanding that all living things participate and contribute to the whole of life, sometimes in life and sometimes in death.

We take the lives of plants and animals everyday to sustain and enhance our own lives.  The hard truth of the matter is that no life can continue unless something else dies to feed it.  I also believe that in some mysterious way, when we honor and gratefully receive these gifts, each living being that gives its life does so as a willing participant.  It is good to honor these everyday sacrifices and give heartfelt thanks when we eat a meal, use a plant for medicine, or even cut down a live Christmas tree.

I believe that in the grand scheme of the Universe, this particular tree we brought home grew in that very spot, to just the right size and shape, for just that moment when it gave its life to be a part of our family’s unity and love.  We will honor and embrace that sacrifice.

When I went to put water into the tree stand after we had set it up, one of the grandchildren asked me if the tree was going to keep growing.  I told him, no, it would begin to dry out and it would die within a few weeks.  He was sad about that and thought maybe we shouldn’t have cut it down.  I had to scramble to explain to him the understanding I had come to about life and death and this humble tree, in a way that he could understand.  I also wanted to find a way that we could honor the tree’s life, one that would be meaningful to the children.

What we came up with was that after Christmas, when we take down all the decorations, we will carry our tree to our bonfire spot and have a grand smudging ceremony!  Cedar is a traditional sacred smudging herb, and this seems a fitting end for our lovely tree.  We will thank our tree for being part of our family celebrations and for making our holiday so special.  Then we will burn the tree and watch it’s spirit rise up to return to the Great Spirit, carrying our prayers with it.  The children think this is a great idea and they are excited.

I used to feel so sad when, the week after Christmas, I would drive through my city and see all the dead and discarded Christmas trees lying on the curbs up and down the streets, with stray pieces of tinsel still clinging in odd places, just waiting for the garbage trucks.  The holiday was over and now they were just thrown out like nothing special, the people moving unceremoniously on to the next thing.  I am very glad to have found a way to make the death of our Christmas tree just as meaningful and special as all the rest of our celebrations.

Bringing an evergreen tree into the house to decorate and celebrate around is but one of the many ways to mark the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, with the days growing longer and longer thereafter.  Many religious mythologies symbolize this phenomena of “light triumphing over darkness.” Whether you celebrate the return of the sun to longer days, or the coming of the Son, or something else entirely, may you all find special meaning for this holiday season.

Yarrow & Goldenrod: Superb Topical Analgesic

tammy November 9th, 2008

A few weeks ago, I got the side of my finger caught between the tips of a pair of pliers that I happened to be squeezing together with all my might while working on something.  It hurt terribly and made an instant ugly bruise swell up.  Ooooh, it was throbbing, skin almost cut, a dark purple bruise.  What to do?  What to do?  Ouch!

Somewhere from the depths of my brain came the thought that Yarrow is good for bruises (I hadn’t really used it for this purpose before, just had read about it somewhere).  I happened to have some oil that I made this summer from fresh flowering tops of yarrow growing in the neighbor’s field, so I pulled it out and rubbed some over the injury – very, very carefully! did I mention how bad it hurt? 

Well, within seconds, the pain was diminished, so I kept rubbing the oil in a bit deeper.  A couple more seconds and the pain was completely, completely gone! And the bruise seemed less ugly too. For the rest of the day, everytime it would begin to hurt again, I rubbed some more in.  By the next morning I could barely see the bruise, and I had no more pain, so no more need for repeat applications.

Okay, so everything I’ve read about Yarrow being a good bruise remedy and its ability to move stagnant blood was proven true first hand.  But I kept thinking about that surprising pain relief I had experienced.  As someone who must sit at a desk all day for her day job, and who tends to do hard physical work outside of the job, I can get quite stiff and sore very often.  Plus, as a massage therapist in training, I know that chronic pain is an extremely widespread problem.  Something that can bring this kind of pain relief is very exciting to me, to say the least.

It has a sort of numbing, anesthetic quality, but not in a way that completey removes all sensation.  You can still feel touch, just not the slightest bit of pain. 

Now, I use Goldenrod oil regularly for deeply sore muscles, and in addition to the way that helps heal strained muscles, it also has a similar pain relieving effect as does the Yarrow, but not nearly as strong. 

Hmmmmmm, went my little brain… maybe they could complement each other.  I decided to mix the two oils together, and wow, am I ever glad I did.

This is the muscle pain reliever that beats EVERY single thing I’ve ever used for this problem.  In my estimation, it’s at least ten times more effective than the Goldenrod alone, and about a hundred times more effective than most other remedies I’ve used. 

And the best thing is, it’s not just a pain reliever that addresses surface symptoms.  It also really helps the muscles to repair.  I hurt my shoulder lifting and carrying something that was too heavy for me a few months ago, and then dutifully sat at my desk job week in and week out, with the injured shoulder unnaturally strained forward clicking a mouse all day, every day.  Needless to say, what could have been a fairly minor injury turned into a major problem after a couple of months.  

After ignoring the very painful and spasming muscles over many weeks (the spasms would come and go at first), hoping it would go away on its own, I finally decided to see a chiropractor when it kept yelling louder and louder and was getting worse each day.  His treatments and prescribed exercises are helping me to realign my muscles and posture to prevent further injury, but what is really helping to speed the healing is my Goldenrod & Yarrow oil. 

I didn’t use it the first week I was seeing the chiropractor, and I was having a LOT of pain between appointments.  After I started rubbing out the spasms a couple times a day with the oil, I noticed that after just a few days of regular use, I needed to apply it less and less frequently.  The muscles are pain free AND they are healing quickly. 

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve also had the opportunity to use it on several massage clients needing relief from severe spasms, and have gotten similar awesome results for them as well.  It doesn’t necessarily dissolve the spasm — you still need to work it out manually in most cases (though with less effort than you might otherwise need).  But it does remove all the pain and gets the blood flowing and the healing started immediately. (Caution to therapists: Be careful not to work too deeply if using this oil, as your client won’t be able to sense pain and tell you if you are going too deep.)

Oh how blessed I feel to have discovered this combo!

Sassafras Rainbow

tammy October 22nd, 2008

We’ve had our first few light frosts this week!  This morning I went looking to see if the Sassafras roots would be ready for harvesting anytime soon. Nope. Not yet.  But I did learn something about the true colors of Sassafras. 

Some Sassafras is yellow…

Some Sassafras is orange…

Some Sassafras is red…

And some Sassafras is still green!

I will wait until the leaves have fallen to dig the roots — some to make root beer, some to dry for teas and infusions.  I think I will also tie a matching-colored string around several plants so I can remember which were which, and see if the different varieties make different tasting brews.  Hopefully, I’ll have an update on that for you in a couple months. 

Right now, I’m sipping some Sassafras tea made from leaves I dried last spring.  Mmmmmm… 

(I was so excited to find Sassafras trees earlier this year that I got ahead of myself and dug Spring roots and made root beer with them, and dried the leaves for tea – read about that here)

What To Do With Poke Berries

tammy October 1st, 2008

For the “harvest” blog party, being hosted by Darcey at Gaia’s Gifts…

My poke bush (Phytolacca americana) is heavy with ripe fruit, so I’ve been gathering my winter supply. These pink-black berries are great for addressing body aches and rheumatism, stimulating a slugglish thyroid, stimulating the immune system, fighting off the flu, clearing swollen glands in the neck and chest area, helping with weight loss, and probably a ton of other things that I haven’t learned of yet!  The berries have similar properties as the poke root, but I think their medicine is gentler.

Poke berries are one of the best remedies I have ever used for that achy-all-over thing I get sometimes.  As I head into my mid-life metamorphisis, as Susun Weed calls it, with all its fluctuating hormones and inner transformations, my body adjusting to a new way of being, finding its equlibrium, these achy days come and go.  Muscles aches for no apparent reason, an achy joint here and there…  It is worse around the time of menses.

When I get in this state, I will sometimes swallow about three whole, dried, poke berries twice a day for a few days.  From the first day it’s bye-bye aches and pains!  Some may need less or more to get this effect. I started with just one berry a day, and worked up to three, which was a good dose for me.  They can be taken fresh or dried, but personally, I think the dried berries are more effective.

I also use poke berries for tonsilitis and flu and other upper respiratory ailments.  Again, it is one of the most effective herbal remedies I’ve ever used for these conditions, especially when they’ve gotten to a point where things are stuck and you feel like you’ll never be well again.  It gets things moving… fast!  With infections like these, I will usually work up to a bit of a bigger dose (up to 9 berries works for me) and then taper off as I start getting well.

In general, Poke is strong medicine. This is one herbal remedy I save for when things are stuck and going nowhere with some of the more gentle and nourishing approaches.  For my aches and pains most of the time, I will likely use hot Yarrow or Sage tea, or chew on some Angelica root, nice warming, aromatic, and somewhat bitter herbs, all of which can be a great comfort and make me feel brand new.  For colds and flu and sore throats, I prefer hot soups and nourishing herbs and plenty of rest.  But sometimes things get stuck and gentle approaches aren’t helping all that much.  That’s when you may just need a Poke to initiate some movement!!

To dry the berries, just pick a bunch and leave them out somewhere dry and airy in your house until they turn into these cute little scalloped and hardened discs. Then store in a glass jar.

The fresh berries can also be juiced and made into wine or jelly, and the whole berries can be tinctured.  I’ll be trying some of these this year for the first time.

Rebecca Hartman has a wonderful write-up on poke.  She classifies it as one of the alteratives, and mentions it as a traditional Appalachian herbal remedy, also used by Tommie Bass. I am anxious to get myself a copy of Mountain Medicine: The Herbal Remedies of Tommie Bass.  It’s next on my list of herbals to buy!

And here is an article on Poke from Susun Weed

Even if you don’t want to make medicine with them, I encourage you to go take a closer look at your poke berries if you have any.  They really are gorgeous.  The most vibrant shade of magenta stems and a lovely firm and scalloped base on which the plump berries rest.  Each berry has primal white markings all around its center naval, alluding to the ancient wisdom it carries in its belly.

They also make a really beautiful ink.  Many a child, myself included, has used them for body art.  And when I homeschooled my children many years ago we used them extensively in our natural art creations. What fun!

Caution: As I mentioned before in another post, the seeds of poke berry are toxic, but only if they are broken open.  The seeds are very hard, and if swallowed whole, they pass through the system intact and harmless.  Never chew poke berries!   Also, it is important when working with poke to start with very small doses and work up slowly.  Poke is strong medicine and it doesn’t take much.  I have not pushed it this far myself, but I have read that too much can cause nausea and vomitting, and way too much can cause you to feel “spacy”, a narcotic effect, and way, way too much could interfere with vital processes, and even cause death.  Poke should also not be used internally for extended periods of time, according to Susun Weed, because its alkaloids can build up in the kidneys. So be cautious and conservative and do your research if you choose to work with this plant medicinally!

Equinox Gift

tammy September 23rd, 2008

This exquisite flower was my gift from Mother on the fall equinox.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  Its flowers have the most divine scent, not quite like anything I’ve experienced before.

I was walking and enjoying a beautiful equinox day outside when I unexpectedly spotted her.  She called me down to sit a while and visit.  Literally.  I felt compelled to sink down and sit, as naturally as if I had gone to that spot for no other purpose than that.

I have no idea its name yet, but I know it is going to be an important plant for me. These photos aren’t the best for plant ID, but if you know what this is, please let me know!  I only saw the one.  I hope there are more.

Poke Leaf Salve for Psoriasis

tammy September 22nd, 2008

There is a huge Poke (Phytolacca americana) bush in our field that I have honored all summer and allowed to grow as big as it wants to be.  I’ve been focusing on this plant this year, learning all I can about it.

From my vantage point, it has a tough, stoic, decidedly male, personality, sort of dark and a little dangerous, infinitely mysterious and intriguing.  It also has many medicinal gifts stored in its starchy roots, vibrant leaves, and bright berry juice.  It vibrates life energy. It has more than enough to share and generously gives to those in need of its help.  Every part of it smells earthy, ancient and wise.  Its strength is sure.  Its root is solid and hefty and firmly embedded.  It branches are flexible and bendable but very difficult to break.  It has a touch femininity in its sweet white flowers and delicately scalloped pink base from which the berries emerge, but even these are manly in their firmness. It is a plant friend that you can go to for quick, effective help with serious problems.  But be careful. It’s power is dangerous when not respected.

I’ve used poke medicinally in a lot of different circumstances by now, and I’ve never failed to be amazed at how quickly and effectively it works.  This plant gets things done!  I’ll be writing a series of articles over the next month or two on the different ways I have used Poke.

I want to start by telling you all about my poke leaf salve.

Poke is very effective for relieving the itching and inflammation of psoriasis.  Before I knew to use Poke for psoriasis last winter, I made a salve for this condition from burdock root, comfrey leaf, red clover blossoms, and calendula.  It worked well to sooth the psoriasis, but I thought the effect wasn’t very much different from daily moisturizing. A few months after making it, I learned of Poke’s use for psoriasis, so, I reheated the salve and added a few droppers-ful of poke root tincture, as that was the only form of Poke I had in the  house at the time.

The new salve that resulted was just brimming with magic!  Wonderfully soothing, and with a little extra something that gets right to the psoriasis and promotes a deep healing.  The Poke eliminates the inflammation and itching and thins the thick skin plaque, and the other ingredients do their wonderful work to eliminate the flakes, heal the tissues, and promote soft new baby skin to grow. Poke has an effect on inflamed skin that is very similar to that of a cortisone cream.

Can Poke help to really heal a patch of psoriasis, and not just eliminate symptoms?  Maybe so…  I am very bad at being consistent about using my wonderful salve, so I haven’t really given it a good chance yet.  I tend to only apply it for a few days at a time when I have a flare-up that makes my psoriasis feel itchy and aggravating.  The salve will calm it down after the first day of using it, and after a couple more days, it will *almost* completely heal so it looks like I don’t even have psoriasis at all.  But then, since it is not bothering me, I’ll start forgetting to use the salve.  I won’t remember again until the next flare-up, and then I’ll start the whole routine all over again.  I think if I could just discipline myself to keep using it for a while longer, this one patch on my knee that I’ve had since my early twenties would be history.

My magical winter creation is nearly gone now, so I’m making a new batch right now using the leaf.  I’ve been researching a bit over at Henriettes Herbal, and the leaf salve is reported by at least one of the 19th century herbalists to be excellent for these types of skin conditions.  I hope it will be just as potent as the root tincture was!  Lard is recommended as a menstrum, but I have not been able to find any good quality lard or other animal fat I can render around here, so I’ll be using extra virgin olive oil.  (If you think lard is gross to use for a salve base, read this and this.  As soon as I can find some, I’m going to try it!)

I’m using all the same herbs again for this batch since they worked so well together before, and the same ratios — about 1 handful of each dry herb, give or take a little, and about 1/3 to 1/2 that amount of the Poke. (The Poke is fresh, so it looks like  lot, but if it were dried, it would be a lot less than a handful here).

Yesterday, I harvested the tender young leaves from branches that had berries just beginning to ripen.  (I also harvested a bunch of ripe berries — more on those soon). I let the leaves wilt over night, and just started my oil infusing this morning.  I poured olive oil over all the herbs, and stirred and poked to get out air, then covered with a little more oil.  I’m using a hot infusion method, letting them steep in the crock pot on low heat for a day or two. After I strain it, I’ll add some beeswax and turn it into salve.

As soon as I’ve had a chance to use it, I’ll post an update here.  More soon!

The Utterly Amazing Butterfly Weed

tammy August 31st, 2008

I’ve been sick for the past three weeks.  A cold that passed quickly down into my throat, giving me a croupy laryngitis, and then finally settled in my chest… to stay, it seemed.  It hung on and on and on.  The incessant, mostly dry coughing, the headaches and muscle strains from coughing, the tight, painful chest, the hoarse voice.  I was beginning to despair I’d never be well again.

I’d been pushing the fluids and mucilaginous infusions, eating homemade chicken soup, and also using ripe Poke berries* (Phytolacca americana) to stimulate my immune system and Chickweed (Stellaria media) tincture to thin the mucous.  I swallowed a few whole Poke berries each day and took a couple doses of the Chickweed (a dropperful each time).

These would always start to move things along soon after taking, but never really pushed me past that threshold where my body could take over and really heal.  Immediately after a dose of medicine, or a bowl of chicken soup, or a cup or two of infusion, I would get some expectoration and more productive coughing, and the Poke really did wonders for my chronic body aches and pains, but then my chest would just tighten back up again.  The nights and mornings were the worst.  What I was doing obviously wasn’t exactly doing the trick.

I was settled that if it didn’t clear up this weekend I would go and get some Mucinex.  But turns out I didn’t have to do that.  I saw some Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), otherwise known as pleurisy root, growing nearby yesterday, so off I went to dig some.

Two cups of root tea last evening, one after dinner and one before bed, seems to have cleared this thing right up!  After drinking a cup, I coughed up some nasty stuff!  And then my chest felt so open and relaxed and I slept so well last night.   I’m almost completely well this morning, with just the tiniest hint of a cough every now and then and almost no chest congestion at all.  I feel a thousand times better than I did yesterday.  I think I’ll drink another cup or two today to finish kicking this thing to the curb!

In researching the Butterfly Weed before I used it, I was interested to learn that in addition to its famed reputation for clearing and dispersing stuck fluids in the chest that it also works to move fluids in the joints and bursa.  This was interesting to me because I’ve also had some tennis elbow and a painful shoulder for the last few months, as well as some pain in the carpals of my right wrist (overuse from mouse clicking all day at my day job!!).  I’d been using Solomon’s Seal and getting some relief, but not really healing.

I’m thinking that maybe the reason I had such trouble getting rid of this chest cold was due to a constitutional problem with dryness as evidenced by the joint problems, among other symptoms.   So, I may continue to work with the Butterfly Weed for a while longer yet to help address the body-wide symptoms of this underlying imbalance of dryness.

Matthew Wood (The Book of Herbal Wisdom) mentions that the flowers of this plant illustrate the way its medicine opens up and disperses fluids in the lungs.  I also noticed that the plant itself is overall very dry.  You can crush its leaves, break open its stem, cut up its roots, and get almost no moisture from them.  The flowers are have the most moisture of the entire plant. To me this is an illustration of its ability to work from an overall dry condition to produce its beautiful orange star burst of dispersed fluids.

This whole experience has really taught me a lot about how to use herbs to treat problems from a constitutional perspective.  Looking at all the seemingly unrelated symptoms as an overall pattern, the dots really begin to connect.  I’ve read and read about how other herbalists do this, but getting this direct body experience is priceless in my learning process.

*The seeds of Poke berries are toxic, but only if they are broken open.  If you swallow the berries whole, the seeds will pass through your body intact and harmless.  They are very hard and it is unlikely you would be able to break them open anyway, but just in case, never chew Poke berries!  The entire Poke plant has a lot of wonderful uses, but it is a very powerful plant overall and can be toxic if not used properly.  It is always taken in very small doses. Be sure to do your research and consult experienced herbalists if you choose to work with this plant.

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