Eramosa Herbals

02/22/2022

I'm collaborating with a dear herbalist friend to share this online course on growing, harvesting, and making herbal medicine. Join is for an in-depth discussion of 10 easy and versatile medicinal herbs, medicine making techniques and more.

Early bird pricing ends at midnight!

Learn how to grow ten medicinal plants for your herbal apothecary!

12/10/2021

I pulled gallons of fresh plant medicines out of the gardens this summer and I'm delighted to offer them in the Winter Solstice Community Supported Herbalism share. Stock your home apothecary with tinctures, syrups and infused oils & vinegars from my small herb farm to you.

https://www.eramosaherbals.com/shop-csh/p/wintershare

Customize your share with your choice from 20+ fresh herbal remedies, including seasonal offerings like elderberry syrup, evergreen cordial, reishi elixir and conifer resin balm, plus many formulas and single-plant extracts to nourish body and spirit this winter.

08/24/2021

⚡️Elderberry season PSA: berries are for the birds first.

Late summer berries are an essential food source for migrating birds like wood thrushes, orioles, warblers and many more who feast on the fruits of elder, viburnums and cherries to prepare for their journeys. Most of the berries on this peduncle have already been claimed by autumn migrants or by overwintering birds like cedar waxwings and goldfinches.

Good foraging starts with knowing the land. Most plant books written in the last few decades cite the "10 percent rule" of ethical wildcrafting -- harvest no more than 10% of of what you find. But with increased pressure on wild plant communities from trends like wild foods and foraging plus habitat loss, that 10% can have a significantly different impact than it did twenty or even two years ago.

Observing plant stands year after year allows us to wildcraft knowledgeably and respectfully. As you build a relationship with plants and place, you'll notice that some plants have a big blooming & fruiting year; the next year, maybe not so much. I harvest a few pounds of elderberries each year, rotating through different stands of plants in different locations. I choose to harvest from stands with many healthy plants that are laden with blue-black berries. In the absence of these, I'll pick elsewhere, or even forgo elderberries in favour of other easy to cultivate plants with documented immune-supporting properties, like echinacea (E. purpurea and E. angustifolia) or spilanthes (Acmella oleracea).

Please harvest mindfully and leave plenty for the birds 🐤

07/30/2021

✨ First black cohosh blooms ✨

I was given this plant in 2018 by Julia . I wasn’t sure how it would manage outside of the rich deciduous forest habitat it prefers (along with its slow-growing, at-risk or endangered relative in the buttercup family, goldenseal).

I tucked the plant in a patch of elecampane in the old garden, hoping their height and broad leaves would help offer some cool and shade. The cohosh was so sheltered that it often took me by surprise when I came across it, still there, always a little taller and leafier each year. I screamed a little scream when I saw that it had finally sent out a tall spike of flower buds this spring. What a treat to see it flowering here for the first time.

Black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) is one of many traditional indigenous medicines whose value has been validated by western science and populations harmed by the resulting interest. It’s an honor to have it grace my garden.

07/27/2021

Oh hey!👋 I started a herb farm and it’s super cute!

What was recently a fallow field is now home to 40+ species of medicinal herbs and wildflowers, a native shrub hedge, a shelter and water catchment setup, and one scraggly little linden tree I bought for $30 at Canadian Tire 😆

No joke, taking on a project of this scale has been daunting, humbling and so deeply satisfying. I’ve been *trying* to work at a pace that reflects my intention for this space to flourish over the long haul as a not just an apothecary but a nursery, seed bank, and food forest. This looks like building the soil, observing the weather and microclimates, and planting medicines mostly in dense, diverse polycultures of plants that are mutually supportive. What a gift this work is 🌱 💚

For being in just their first year, the gardens are lush and productive in ways that are hard for my lil iPhone to capture! I’m excited to share more and give y’all a virtual or in person tour sometime soon xo

04/20/2021

🌱🌿🌼 Community Supported Herbalism shares now available It's my 8th year growing herbs + crafting medicine, and 2nd year offering seasonal CSH shares. Starting a small farm this year means living my wildest dreams of having space to grow *all the plants* and I'm really excited to be able to share them with community in this way.

Each CSH share is crafted to be seasonally relevant, deeply nourishing to body and spirit and balance of utility and beauty*. Essentially, things I myself would reach for on the regular. This year, there's also lots of room to customize your share with your choice of a wide variety of single-plant extracts I'll have available as the growing season progresses (including faves like skullcap, milky oats, passionflower, chamomile, tulsi, wood betony, yarrow and many more).

You can sign up for the whole year or purchase a single season at a time. Sliding scale is always available for low-income q***r, trans, disabled and BIPOC folks. All info, including pricing, shipping dates + details on each season's offering, is available here: https://www.eramosaherbals.com/community-shared-herbalism

This year, I'm really excited to redistribute 10% of proceeds from CSH shares to school's BIPOC scholarship fund. is a rad herb school by and for racialized folks. They are also my farm neighbours!

Spring share featuring nettle, violet, poplar & dandelion ships this week heart. Thanks for supporting this work I love.

04/04/2021

I’m pleased to share that I’m here to help you get started growing your own medicine!

🌱 Starting plants from seed, making them a home in the soil and harvesting them is some of the best, most joyful work I can think of. After 9 (!) years of trial and error growing medicine for community, I’m pleased to share my knowledge with others who want to, too.

🌿 1 hour medicine garden consultations are intended for everyone who wants to invest in food and medicine security: balcony and backyard gardeners, herbalists and other practitioners, or farmers who want to add medicinal plants to their growing plans. We’ll work together to choose plants and and design a garden to meet your needs, whether you’re growing your fave tea blend, herbal first aid kit, whatever you need, wherever you’re at.

🌸 Consults cover seeding, planting, tending and harvesting the best herbs for your needs, space, soil and climate, and tips for processing your herbs into gorgeous remedies.

Visit www.eramosaherbals.com to book. As always, sliding scale is available for low-income, q***r and bipoc plant lovers. Get in touch

03/09/2021

pleased to share the return of BIOREGIONAL FLOWER ESSENCE CLUB with a friend who’s really dear to me, Anemone canadensis.

Want to engage in a botanical experiment with me?

🌼 Flower Essence Club is an inquiry into connecting with native flora in a low-impact, non-extractive way. It is meant to be accessible, informal and fun: I make an essence of a local wildflower, you take it for a few weeks and report your observations with the option of sharing them with other participants.

🌼 Flower essences are energetic, vibrational remedies that work on our spiritual & subtle bodies, not on our physical bodies the way that teas or tinctures do. They're made by infusing a small handful of peak blooms in water on a clear sunny day, then bottling that water and preserving it with some alcohol or vinegar. The result is a subtle but powerful remedy, taken in drop doses, that exists decidedly and unapologetically in the realm of the etheric, esoteric and woo-woo. Because essences work on an energetic level, a very small amount of plant material can be used to create a whole lot of medicine, making them accessible and affordable.

🌼 How it works: You'll take the essence for several weeks and report your noticings back to the group, allowing us to gather information on specific plants and explore our relationships with them. If this mode of botanical/magical inquiry is your jam, send me a DM and/or sign up for my newsletter (link in bio). I'll pass on some botanical info about Anemone and ideas about working with essences. You'll cover the cost of materials and shipping. For local folks, that's $3; for folks elsewhere, it's $20 flat rate for the essence and shipping.

Looking forward to building relationship with this plant with you!

***rherbalism @ Eramosa River