River Prairie Apothecary

08/31/2026

Please excuse me for the derpy video at the end, honestly very, very blissed out and slow speaking after being in the heat and picking all the hops for a while 🧘

Some friends let me harvest from their hops, and so I picked them on the hottest day- this last day of August.

(Cant wait to go to dip in the creek to cool down!)

I’ll be making some cold brew in the fridge, flavor is best after two or three days. Bitter, floral, relaxing…

I will also make an alcohol extract for an upcoming class on teaching on Halloween at Olbrich Gardens - it’s all about extracts and I’m mostly going to be focusing on bitters.

maybe drying some…

What else could I make? What have you tried and enjoyed making with fresh hops (other than beer 😘😘)

08/20/2026

Did you know there’s an herb festival less than two hours from Eau Claire?

Check out this one day Herb gathering through the St. Croix Valley Herb Guild in late September featuring some spectacular Herbalists, including my friend Lisa The Creekside Crone

I’ll put the deets below 😘

08/13/2026

Thank you for having me!! This was a wonderful event, and it was such a pleasure to meet people and share my workshops with everyone.

Meet Kerri Kiernan, Clinical Herbalist and Founder of River Prairie Apothecary!

Kerri helps people build meaningful connections with plants and explore the role nature can play in supporting wellness. At this year's symposium, Kerri will share the connection between medicinal plants, mindfulness, and healing through two interactive sessions.

Make sure to join us on Wednesday, August 12th, to learn from Kerri and our other featured speakers! Register today: https://loom.ly/ZEwi--k

08/09/2026

Just wrapped up our annual family time together up north 💕

(Filling my cup before a big week teaching in Madison!)

Oh my goodness, where do I even start… this lake was surprisingly so clean and healthy, considering how low the water levels are and how warm the surface temp got… (even though we were there on vacation I was also rooting for rain because dang they need it.)

Such a special place, full of an insane amount of loons, eagles, beavers, otters, fish, giant snapping turtle, and so many other creatures that definitely saw us, but we didn’t necessarily see them… headwaters of the Chippewa flowage.

Usually, this is an epic chanterelle foraging trip for my Hubz and I, but because it was so dry we just found a couple lobster mushrooms.

I did see some of my favorite plant friends of the north… And the wetlands… Including Tamarack, bugleweed, eyebright, Labrador tea, sweet fern and whatever that gorgeous cologne-like woodsy smell is that comes out of the wetland in the bog… We still can’t figure it out, but dang it smells so good!

Quality time with my family, enjoying nature, fishing, eat, good food, playing, cribbage, swimming, and kayaking…

And for whatever reason, this year, my dog decided in her ninth year she’s finally ready to get in the kayak with me! We worked on it every day... and went through quite a bit of freeze dried liver.

Every sunset my hubz and I would park our kayaks in the lily pads and wait silently for the wildlife to show itself… they never disappointed. Breathtakingly beautiful.

There was this baby Beaver that was not very scared of us and would spend time just chomping on the lily pads hanging out by us.

And those Lily paths, who knew!?

We actually witnessed a giant snapping turtle digging the lily pad roots with its back feet, and then going down in the water to eat… and then the beavers roll up the lily pad leaves like burritos and eat them! The bottoms of the lily pads also have the most beautiful color and pattern. Really incredible plants… They have been traditionally used in by local people for their astringent medicinal properties due to the tannin content.

Thank you, Northwoods! Gosh, it’s just so special, we’re so lucky to live not too far from here- and I’m super grateful we all get to be together to enjoy it 💕

08/08/2026

My teacher Gigi Stafne 🌱💕🌱

In herbalism you will be called always to be earth
guardians, knowing that if the Great Mother is injured or degraded, then energy shifts and all humans will feel sudden imbalances within their own bodies, communities, and this precious planet.
Disconnection and fragmentation will occur, physical, social, cultural, ecological ills appear. So, defend nature wholeheartedly.
Know there is no hierarchy. We are all parts of the whole ecosystem, this precious cosmos. States of denial and disconnection can no longer be, for they are signs of spiritual sickness. Sharpen your spiritual, emotional, and ecological skills.

—Author Gigi Stafne, excerpt from her earlier published articles, The Art of Herbwifery, 1995-2000.

Photo Art by Paul Azevedo

08/02/2026

Had my coffee with a cluster of monarch visitors this morning 😍 I counted five at one point!

It’s so wild because I’ve been growing this pink swamp milkweed for a few years and it’s been flowering for at least a month already… but I haven’t really noticed the monarchs eating from it at all yet this season….Until this morning!

It’s so interesting how dynamic the relationships are between all the plants and creatures … and those relationships shift in subtle ways through the season… they remind me how much I really don’t know about the Wild Green world.

I’m gonna take a wild guess and assume that the monarchs are very intentional about eating from these plants right now… That there’s something about these plants exactly as they are right now that’s perfectly beneficial to them. (Something that is apparently different from a month ago?)

Nature is wildly resilient, it’s also incredibly dependent on systems that have evolved over a very, very long time to be exactly as they are.

We all know that our seasons are a bit more manic in the Midwest these days… And when you become more connected to nature, you become aware of this, and it’s sort of in the background noise of your life and you can’t necessarily turn it off. Yes it can feel a little stressful if you’re a sensitive creature tuning in to your natural surroundings regularly...

Connecting more deeply with nature will give you more of an awareness about what’s happening around you… And you’ll be rooting for rain, even when you have outdoor plans… Because you care deeply for good health and survival of all the living beings around you.

My Herbal garden is a tiny slice of all the wild things going about their lives in mysterious ways, and I love being able to witness all the happenings right in my yard.

I hope I get to live a long time and I can’t wait to be that even crazier old plant lady who knows all the niche things about the local plants and their partnerships with the creatures!

I love being an herbalist, even if I’m not making anything - I no longer think that it’s only about “ what can this plant do for me?”

I think the practice of herbalism is actually a much deeper desire, an existential longing, to weave oneself back into community beyond the narrow scope of the material human world.

07/20/2026

I'll be in Madison again next month to share the skill of herbal oil infusions and salve making!

Join me August 15th at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens to turn common medicinal plants into infused oils and salves. Learn to make remedies from scratch, leave with a handmade salve, a jar of herbs + oil (to infuse at home!) and build the skills to create beautiful herbal remedies to use and share.

I'd love to meet some more fellow plant lovers there! 🌿