The Thymekeeper

09/06/2026

yet another of my favorite w**ds growing in abundance this year of the worst drought I've ever seen in Colorado, Mallow. Like purslane, mallow is everywhere and it's also chock full of omega 3 essential fatty acids along with its own list of nutrients and remedies.
Mallow is our version of marshmallow root and has the same herbal properties. It is considered a demulcent, making it soothing and cooling to mucous membranes. Some of my favorite uses are for dry mouth, scratchy dry sore throat, heartburn, stomach ulcers and irritated gut to name a few.
The round seed heads that we call cheese wheels are loaded with omega 3's helping to put the damper on inflammation of all sorts. As I mentioned with purslane, the omega 3's keep your mind sharp and your joints juicy.
All parts of the plant are edible and useful. Chew the leaves to moisten your palate and throat. Chew a leaf and swallow the juice or juice it in the blender to relieve heartburn. The leaves and cheese wheels would be a welcome addition to any salad.
Interesting fact: The hollyhock you may have growing in your garden is related to the wild mallow and the entire plant is edible as well. I popped a flower petal in my mouth this morning and it is definitely the slimiest thing I have ever tasted The leaves although slightly hairy, create a wet sponge-like feeling as it moistens your membranes on contact. It's worth pointing out that in the driest year ever, Nature has provided an abundance of moistening plants so get out there and eat a w**d!

For more edible and medicinal plant information join us Saturday September 19th for a Harvest Center/Thymekeeper presentation at the Woodland Park Library at 1:00

09/03/2026

Edible/not edible. The plant on the right is spotted spurge, the one on the left is purslane. One obvious way to tell the difference is purslane stems and leaves are plump and spurge is flat in comparison. Purslane is loaded with omega 3 essential fatty acids to help keep your mind sharp, your skin nice and your joints juicy. Purslane also provides vitamins and minerals which you would get the most benefit of if you eat it raw or juice it in your smoothie. It can also be prepared just like spinach, steam or saute. Don't eat that flat one right next to it as the milky sap can cause pretty bad skin irritation and would be considered toxic if ingested due to the fact that you are skin on the inside too! As you can see, they grow right next to each other so pay attention! Purslane is EVERYWHERE this year! Get out there and eat a w**d, but only in the places not potentially sprayed by man or beast.
For more edible and medicinal plant information join us Saturday September 19th for a Harvest Center/Thymekeeper presentation at the Woodland Park Library at 1:00

09/02/2026

09/02/2026

related to marshmallow root

That gel doesn't just swell — it becomes something alive in water. The long sugar chains inside hollyhock's slippery compound behave like tiny sponges, each one pulling liquid into itself, expanding, linking with neighboring chains until the whole solution thickens into something that moves and clings and coats with a persistence that no synthetic lozenge has ever fully replicated.

This isn't a modern discovery dressed up in botanical clothing. Apothecaries across medieval Europe kept hollyhock relatives in their dispensaries alongside marshmallow root, recognizing without microscopes or chemistry labs that something in these plants did what nothing else quite could. They made cold infusions — not hot tea, cold water — because heat actually breaks the sugar chains apart and weakens the gel. Eight hours of cold water does what boiling cannot. The patience of the process was part of the medicine.

Marshmallow root, hollyhock's closest cousin in the same plant family, can pack so much of this gel into its dried fibers that it accounts for roughly a quarter of the total weight. A quarter. Pull that number apart for a moment. One in every four grams of dried plant material is essentially a compressed, waiting cushion that only needs water to wake up. When it does, it doesn't dissolve. It suspends, hovers, clings — laying a film over dry and irritated tissue that stays put through swallowing, through breathing, through the ordinary mechanical friction of being alive.

The biology behind this gel was never about human throats. Plants build mucilage to hold water in dry soil, to protect seeds during germination, to slow down insects that might chew through stem tissue. It's a structural and survival material that happens to behave — with almost suspicious precision — like something designed for a wound. The slipperiness that keeps a seed hydrated in cracked summer dirt is the same slipperiness that coats raw tissue in winter.

Hollyhock towers along garden fences in colors that look purely decorative. Big, papery blooms that seem to exist for the pleasure of looking. But inside every petal, inside the soft tissue of every stalk and calyx, the gel sits waiting, coiled in its sugar chains, patient and purposeful in a way the flower's beauty completely conceals.

The most useful things rarely announce themselves. [C7OQE]

07/30/2026

Happening this Sunday! No sign up required… see you there!

Join local Colorado herbalist Mari, The ThymeKeeper for an Herb Walk as we explore the abundance of plants at Flying Pig Farm in Manitou Springs. Together we will learn about medicinal properties of w**ds & garden cultivations. Get ready to use your senses to explore the wonders that the natural world has to offer as we learn how to apply plant wisdom to our daily lives.


When - Sunday, August 2nd from 8:30 am to 10 am (Before Volunteer Day @ 10)
Where - Flying Pig Farm, 102 Crystal Park Rd, Manitou Springs, CO 80829 
$5 - $20 suggested donation appreciated, no sign-up required!


Mari Marques-Worden is a Colorado herbalist, educator and artist. She graduated from the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies in Boulder, CO and has been a practicing herbalist for over 25 years. She is owner of The Thymekeeper, which was once a local herb store in Manitou Springs. She currently resides in the mountains of Florissant where she maintains a small herb shop, greenhouse and classroom. Her passion is teaching common folk medicine to common folk using everyday kitchen ingredients, plants in your backyard and the wild lands around you.

07/24/2026

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07/16/2026

Buy local. Your stomach will thank you!👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾