Imagine the freedom of treating common ailments with herbs from your own garden. In this episode, we explore the transformative journey into herbalism, emphasizing the power of plant medicine. We'll dive into the diverse educational paths one can take to become a herbalist and the various roles herbalists play in our communities. With insights from renowned herbalist Penelope Beaudrow and practical advice on hands-on learning and mentorship, this segment will inspire your herbal adventures.
From the calming effects of chamomile to the nutritional powerhouse that is nettle, we unlock the secrets of medicinal herbs in your everyday life. Learn how to safely identify and harvest wild herbs, prepare potent herbal tinctures, and choose the best plants for your family's health needs. Whether you're a seasoned herbalist or just starting your herbal journey, this episode offers valuable tips and personal anecdotes to help you integrate natural remedies into your lifestyle, benefiting both you and your pets. Don't miss out on this rich blend of outdoor expertise and herbal wisdom!
Imagine the freedom of treating common ailments with herbs from your own garden. In this episode, we explore the transformative journey into herbalism, emphasizing the power of plant medicine. We'll dive into the diverse educational paths one can take to become a herbalist and the various roles herbalists play in our communities. With insights from renowned herbalist Penelope Beaudrow and practical advice on hands-on learning and mentorship, this segment will inspire your herbal adventures.
From the calming effects of chamomile to the nutritional powerhouse that is nettle, we unlock the secrets of medicinal herbs in your everyday life. Learn how to safely identify and harvest wild herbs, prepare potent herbal tinctures, and choose the best plants for your family's health needs. Whether you're a seasoned herbalist or just starting your herbal journey, this episode offers valuable tips and personal anecdotes to help you integrate natural remedies into your lifestyle, benefiting both you and your pets. Don't miss out on this rich blend of outdoor expertise and herbal wisdom!
What brings people together more than fishing and hunting?
Speaker 2:How about food?
Speaker 1:I'm Chef Antonio Muleka and I have spent years catering to the stars. Now, on Outdoor Journal Radio's Eat Wild podcast, luis Hookset and I are bringing our expertise and Rolodex to our real passion the outdoors.
Speaker 4:Each week we're bringing you inside the boat tree stand or duck blind and giving you real advice that you can use to make the most out of your fish and game.
Speaker 1:You're going to flip that duck breast over. Once you get a nice hard sear on that breast, you don't want to sear the actual meat. And it's not just us chatting here. If you can name a celebrity, we've probably worked with them and I think you might be surprised who likes to hunt and fish. When Kit Harrington asks me to prepare him sashimi with his bass, I couldn't say no. Whatever Taylor Sheridan wanted, I made sure I had it. Burgers, steak, anything off the barbecue. That's a true cowboy. All Jeremy Renner wanted to have was lemon ginger shots all day. Find Eating Wild now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 5:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal applications used by Indigenous peoples all over the globe. After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of this strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people. That will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. So join me today for another great episode, and hopefully we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy. Just before we get to our guest today, I just need to bring some updates on my skunk sprayed dog that we talked about in the previous podcast and all seems to be good now. The hydrogen peroxide, as I mentioned before, worked great. Everybody thinks it's tomato juice, but hydrogen peroxide seemed to wash out the skunk oils. But at the time, as I mentioned Gunnar, he got it sprayed right in his eye and wouldn't even open his eye or couldn't open his eye. So what we did there was we actually took some eye drops and flushed out his eye with that and it worked fine. And you can't put the hydrogen peroxide around the eyes or on the snout too close to the eyes. So there's still a bit there. But you know we have a new odor in the house. It's moonlight breeze eau de skunk that is now wafting through the house, but it's certainly diminished compared to day one when he came in with the sudden spray.
Speaker 5:And you know I was out walking today and taking Gunner for his usual morning walk bright and early and there was somebody down at the park and didn't think much about it and what they were doing and just so we headed off in where I have a lot of my what I call my living apothecary, and to get back and then usually have my usual little. We have a little fire where we burn off a lot of the burning branches, the branches that fall from. We have some older maples and pine and birch trees in the yard and I collect all those up and we have a little morning fire, my wife Diane and I, and a coffee or a coffee substitute, I'll say, and I think we got a good blend and I think it looks like it's working pretty good as a substitute, which will be chicory roasted chicory root, roasted dandelion root and chaga in the same, in the same we put them in coffee bags and it tastes just great and it seems like it might be a new winner for us. But we'll got to figure out all the bells and whistles to make it happen. And then it came to mind that you know something, we never really had skunks for a long time.
Speaker 5:It's been a couple of years and the person I saw bright and early in this morning was releasing live trapped animals into the park, which is only a street over, and probably at some point guess who brought skunks back into the area. You know it was a couple of years ago and since the gunner got sprayed, what I did was I did a little bit of something that I did a couple of years ago and whether it was coincidence or by chance I don't know, but I've spread coffee grounds, used coffee grounds around the yard again and skunk hasn't been back, and whether that's because that it knows that there's a dog there that it sprayed, or whether it's the coffee ground has any part, but he didn't get sprayed last time and it took a couple of years before we saw one again. Anyway, so I'm hoping the coffee grounds kind of, because they work as a good fertilizer. And you know the other thing that was interesting this morning because they work as a good fertilizer. And you know the other thing that was interesting this morning, while we're sitting having our chicory root, dandelion root, chaga coffees in the morning, it was interesting that we had a couple of nesting robins in the yard and the male come out first and then did a dive bomb attack after a red squirrel, and then the female come out and the two of them were just chasing the heck out of this red squirrel, which was kind of interesting to see.
Speaker 5:And before we get to our guest, I have to do my usual thanks to all those Canadian listeners and those listeners in Ghana. But hey, what's going on? We're not number one or number two now. We're still in the top five. But we really appreciate all that and certainly find it interesting that people in Ghana are listening to our program, which we very much appreciate. And, as always, if anybody has any questions, email them to us at chaga h-e-a-l-t-h-n-w-e-l-l-n-e-s-s at gmailcom. And now I want to thank our guest for coming on today. Sorry about taking so long, but welcome to the podcast, penelope.
Speaker 6:Hi there. Thank you so much for having me. What an honor. It's interesting you mentioned Ghana. I had the privilege of visiting Ghana maybe eight years ago.
Speaker 5:Oh really, yes. What would ever take you to Ghana? How come you went to Ghana? I mean, this is not something that I've ever even considered or met anybody. You're probably the first person that I've met that has gone to Ghana. Tell us about it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I have a dear friend, mama. She is actually co-owner of Richter's Herbs, every herbalist's favorite destination in Goodwood and Mama so kindly invited me as a guest to her village where she is actually Queen Mother, at Dagbom Medi. And while I was there there was a amazing festival being held and it was for several days and there was dancing and drumming and all kinds of beautiful regalia that the people were wearing. I do hope that's an appropriate term to use, but it was just lovely. Such kind people talented the drumming. It was an amazing experience.
Speaker 5:That's very interesting. I've never been to the western part of Africa. I've done missionary work in Egypt and in Kenya and did some other work there, but never had the opportunity, and since we started seeing rankings and ratings taking place in Ghana, I started looking into it. It looks like an amazing country, but do you have any idea or remember because it was eight years ago what the festival was about or for or what they were celebrating there?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was something to do with their shrine and I think that the shrine, the festival is and I apologize if I'm saying this wrong it's Apotorku Annual Festival. I think that that's the festival that it was. But people traveled, you know, on foot for miles and miles and miles to get to Dagmah Medi and all gather together and have lots of food and music and everything that goes with a big festival.
Speaker 5:Yeah, a lot of people around the world I mean, we're in Canada and we're privileged to be here and a lot of people around the world I mean we're in Canada and we're privileged to be here and certainly a lot of people don't understand some of the hardships you mentioned. People go miles and miles to get there and I know there was a YouTube video called On the Way to School. That was, I think it was on one of the television providers, whether it was Netflix or Prime or which one, but it was called On the Way to School and it just showed the extent that which kids around the world go to school and the ones in Africa and what it took place for them. But you know it. Just, it amazes me how people would walk miles and miles to go to a festival, but that's a norm there, where we wouldn't even consider that here. But it's good to hear what time of the year of that was that. Do you remember, penelope?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was. I do believe it was in October. It was in the fall. Yeah, it was fall here for us. But you know, on another talk you might want to have mama because you know she's doing a great work there as well with her, with a program called Hergana. So yeah, just interesting stuff.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, what's the temperature like when you were there in October.
Speaker 6:My goodness, it was hot. It was really hot, yes, and I don't know if that was unusual, but you know it's the first time I ever had to like sop sweat off my body regularly throughout the day. Yeah, I know, and it's the first time I ever had to like sop sweat off my body regularly throughout the day.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know, and it's different at different parts. I know when we were in Egypt and it was just interesting, and the temperature was like 110 Fahrenheit, but you didn't sweat at all because there's less than an inch of rainfall in Egypt all year and so there's no humidity. And what that meant was when you're standing, there was no sweat because it was evaporated immediately, which I found very interesting. Now, when I was in Sri Lanka, doing some work in there as well, that was the complete opposite, where you walked outside and your glasses fogged up, and it was the only place that I've been in the world where you know they say wear really loose clothing. That's what you had to wear, because if you wore tight knit cotton material, you just were drenched in sweat because the humidity was like 96% the entire time in Sri Lanka. But it was a very interesting country and nice people there as well. But we're here to talk about a little bit something different. So whereabouts are you located, penelope, and tell us a bit about your background and what you're involved in?
Speaker 6:Sure, so I'm actually located in rural Ontario, central Ontario, in a farming community, and I'm fortunate enough to live on a farm there, which is amazing. But if you don't mind, I'd like to take a moment just to do a bit of a land acknowledgement, to let you know that the land that I'm living on is a traditional territory land and it is the Mississaugas of Curve Lake, alderville, hiawatha, scugog Island First Nations, and the Chippewas of Beausoleil, georgina Island and Rama First Nations, and it's just always important for us to pay our respect to the elders, both past and present. So take a moment just to acknowledge that. And I'm so happy to be able to steward the land. We have 100 acres In the back. I would say 50 acres we've given back to nature, so there's probably three acres of an old growth forest which we have. An amazing amount of different birds that are there and we've let I'm not sure if it's 30 acres or 40 acres just go wild.
Speaker 6:But I've also done a restoration project of planting trees. So we now, to date, have planted, I would say, at least 8,000 trees, if not a little more. I need to check my numbers, but my goal for my life is 10,000. I think that's a really goodical sanctuary with United Plant Savers and we steward. The botanical sanctuary is actually called Kinnegego, which our indigenous community gifted me that name gifted us the name for the land, which means all things, so it's a sanctuary for all things. I'm a board member of the Association for the Advancement of Restorative Medicine. I organize past conference of restorative medicine conference and currently the Back to your Roots conference for many, many years. I led a plant lover's journey to Tuscany just a couple of weeks ago. I am a registered herbalist educator and a recognized herbal elder with the Canadian Herbal Association, so I've done lots of fun things with herbal medicine.
Speaker 5:So you're up and I believe it's Cannington Way in Ontario and you're a herbalist, a registered herbalist, yes, right. So now just one thing because you mentioned the forested part, about 50 acres Are you getting the land forest tax rebate program to have a substantial reduction in your taxes? I am not Okay. So if you listen to our podcast that was released a couple of weeks ago on forest planning, the forest planner goes into the detail, great details, and, just so you know, you can get about 75% of the taxes off the forested part of your property, whatever you're paying for that area when you go through this process and basically, from what I'm hearing, it should be applicable to all you're doing, except give you a big incentive tax-wise to have a substantial savings.
Speaker 6:Well, I'll have to listen to that podcast.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's planning a forest and I bring in a forest planner and we talk about all the options there on how to reduce the amount of taxes they pay in building a natural forest and making sure that everything's exactly what you're doing. So it's just another opportunity for you, Okay. So how did you? How did you get into herbalism or what was the inspiration to do that?
Speaker 6:Yeah, well, I think it was. When you look back, you know, you see clues, even in your childhood right, of what you were interested in and your love of plants and nature and out of doors. So I really want to encourage everyone to, you know, have their kids go play outside, just play, not structured play, just off and playing, just off and playing. But I think that it was because I was a young mom and I really wanted to know and be empowered to take care of my own family.
Speaker 6:You know, and simple things like you know, we shouldn't have to run to a doctor to tell us how to treat a common cold with our children. You know, I know how to take care of my children, or I have taken care of my children, and I just think it really empowers people if you learn that plants have been used for medicinal purposes, you know, for centuries, and that we've always been dependent on plants for medicine, for food and for healing, and it's only in our more recent history that we've kind of given up that power of our knowledge to doctors. You know modern medicine, western medicine yeah.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so it's important for us to remember that herbs are still, globally, the main source of medicine for people.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 6:Just you know, in North America we've kind of handed that totally away. So I honestly believe that I have saved our taxpayers dollars like thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars by knowing how to take care of simple things at home with my kids and myself.
Speaker 5:Yes, so it's a past history and you know it's. It's the same as as what you were saying when I, when I was a kid, it was always okay, mom, uh, we're going to the Creek to play, and you know it was the same. Be back for supper, and uh. And then uh, so you'd be gone down to the Creek for the entire day and, sure enough, uh, nature would call and you'd be looking for mullein leaves, for a cowboy toilet paper, as they call it at that time and we learn a lot about the times that we spend and, yeah, getting outside and just being part of nature is is very key for a lot of kids. So so, so you got into herbalism because of the past. But what is a herbalist? Essentially, what is a herbalist and what do they do?
Speaker 6:yeah, so it's funny it's not just one simple thing, because once you become a herbalist which is that you have a background in education in herbal medicine so you would have to take a course of some kind and some people just want to have like a practical herbalist course and other people want to become master herbalists or clinical herbalists. So it depends on what you want to do in herbal medicine. So for me, I did see patients, but that was not my love. My love is more working with the plants. You know when I actually started in the field and I've worked with plants from seedlings right on up into encapsulating herbal products. So I love the hands-on experience that I've gained throughout my career in doing the different jobs in herbal medicine.
Speaker 6:So currently I'm at Richter's Herbs and I am their community outreach person and their product development person. But to start the job, I actually was fortunate enough to be able to go into the greenhouse and I learned because that's a whole other area for me that I had never worked in in a greenhouse and just to see what goes on, you know, in making all of these thousands of different plants for offerings, for plant enthusiasts to plant in their garden. So if someone wanted to be a clinical herbalist and see patients, they would definitely have to have some sort of a practical herbalist course, which would probably be about three years, and then they would maybe become a master herbalist, which then would be an additional year or two. And then to become a clinical herbalist they would have to do an apprenticeship program to work with another herbalist daily to see what goes into treating patients.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so basically just a certified individual is just somebody that kind of takes some course backgrounds, because you mentioned a few so I knew of certified, registered and medicinal, but there might be other ones, other levels of herbalists out there as well exactly.
Speaker 6:There's different courses depending on what herbal college you go to. So Dominion Herbal College, which is the oldest herbal college in North America it's in BC, I know they offer a chartered herbalist course and they offer a master herbalist and, I do believe, a clinical herbalist. Wild Rose Herbal College, which is a totally an online course they're out of Calgary, I do believe, or initially, and they offer a variety of courses. And then there's also Pacific Rim College in BC. But here in Ontario, where I live, there's the Living Earth School of Herbal Medicine which offers many different courses and I do believe you can also become a clinical herbalist through that course.
Speaker 6:And Albert Arneson also offers a course here in Ontario, a clinical herbalist course. And, of course, my course, the Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course, is solely for beginners. I love introducing folks to herbal medicine and just and usually it's women and empowering them to be able to use herbs at home safely for their families, because herbal medicine is extremely safe when it's used gently and it's effectively. So you just you know, you learn the basic skills and you know how to properly use these plants.
Speaker 5:Right, and I think Rosemary Gladstar is probably one of the leading herbalists in North America. I think Rosemary Gladstar would probably be one of the leading herbalists in North America, and just so you know, that course that I do, the Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course, is with Rosemary Gladstar.
Speaker 6:So Rosemary and I have known each other for probably 20 years, and so my actual book material is Rosemary's the Science and Art of Herbalism, and then the hands-on part is with me in the classroom okay, and so, yeah, there's so many.
Speaker 5:I I had antonio, who is a chef to the uh, the movie stars, and they fly them all around the world uh, for robert de niro, ben stiller, a long list of olivia newton john when she was around, bless her soul and a lot of other other ones, and I brought Antonio on to talk about cooking with potential medicinal herbs and the impacts that he really didn't realize that some of the things so you know and I think it's, if I remember correctly, it's one of Rosemary's books goes into the middle medicinal uses of, say, basil used for insomnia or anxiety or nerve, or rosemary for memory, and there's all sorts of different ones out there, that herbs out there that people use on a regular basis that, quite frankly, they don't even realize has these potential medicinal applications, which is good to hear that they have them.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah. And Pat Crocker, she's an author here in Ontario and she has several books out on cooking with herbs. Oh yeah, she's a great reference.
Speaker 5:Another one that I enjoy is Brenda Jones's I can't remember the title of it right offhand, but I think it's Medicinal Plants of Eastern Canada. I believe is the last one that I picked up, which is a very good book I find as well, and there's a lot of reference material out there that can be utilized to to determine what to use or not to use, and a lot of that is some of the things is is well, your course, for example, which is basically, I think you mentioned, is kind of an introductory course to it into herbalism. How long is your course?
Speaker 6:Well, we figure the course. The fastest it's ever been done is about four months, but that person just spent all the time doing it. So an average person would take a year. So it's comprised of 10 lessons and if you did a lesson a month you know that's a nice pace where you could still have a full-time job and do other activities. But I actually give my students two years because life happens and through my experience with my students, it takes them a bit longer. So I offer them two years and they can come to classes anytime during that two years. And the hands-on class that we do is activities that are out of the lessons, so that when they got to the question like make a herbal first aid kit, then they've already done that in class. So then they can say you know, we did this in class and just expand on it. So just to help the student along.
Speaker 5:So how can people find out about what classes are available and when they are, and how can they sign up? Or is the only way you can take your classes if you sign up for the entire year or two year program, or is there, you know, if you wanted to take a class to find out? If you're interested, is that available? I mean, I'm just exploring here to find out some of the details.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so with regards to my course, we do allow guests to come if there's room in the classroom, so I post on social media the Ginkgo tree when we're having our classes and that guests are able to come if there's room, and so that way it gives people an idea of what the classes are like and whether they would wanna proceed, but also of those courses that I mentioned earlier. There's a lot of just small courses people can do online. There's an amazing amount of information online now, but definitely hands-on with a community is really the way to learn and also to have many teachers. I think it's important in life to have many teachers and perhaps find a mentor if you can. It really helps with your learning.
Speaker 5:Well, exactly, and the more teachers that you have, the more experience they have, the more testimonials, because, as I mentioned, say, basil or rosemary for specific purposes, there may be other teachers that find out that you know that that works okay, but these ones work better for that, and it depends on the individual, because everybody's metabolism or the way they they handle materials or works in their bottom, reacts quite differently. So the more that you have, I find that, the more that you'll be able to determine what works best when you're dealing with the situations it's presented to you, at least in my experience with the materials that we work with. But yeah, so these courses are available and you can just check them out online.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and you can visit my website, theginkotreeca. Okay, and everyone has a problem spelling ginkgo. It's G-I-N-K-G-O. Yeah, so it's the ginkgotreeca.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I know that I've mentioned I call her herbalist Jane on a number of the podcasts that we had, because she was out harvesting her stinging nettle and a bunch of other stuff earlier this year. But is there a prerequisite that is required to take any of these courses, like you have? And because I think, jane, if I remember correctly, she's a nurse who worked in that field, who then took your course and now has a background and a good understanding of herbalism and then what herbs to use for which. But is there a prerequisite or is anything? Can you just as a person, like somebody's interest in this or find out about these sort of details?
Speaker 6:I love that you call her herbalist jane on the podcast. Um, yeah, jane was great, uh. So she came and was a student and and then and I love it because the students learn and then they go on and teach other people. You know that's the goal is to spread and empower other people. So for my course there is no prerequisite whatsoever. It's a beginner's course and just really want to empower people.
Speaker 6:But then lots of the courses if you look them up online, like Dominion, wild Rose or Pacific or Living Earth there'll be prerequisites. You know, like if you want to become a master herbalist, of course you first of all have to take foundational courses right and build on that. You just can't magically take one course and become it. But also there's lots of tutorials where, like, for example, richter's I know has a YouTube channel of a whole bunch of videos that they've done of teachers teaching in the greenhouse over the years. So there's lots of free things out there for folks who are interested. So I would suggest that YouTube channel as well for people who are interested in herbal medicine and want to see what it's all about.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I send quite a few people to a lot of different YouTube channels and some of the ones that are, you just want to like a lot of them and I'm sure that yourself and the Richter's ones that you're talking about are well referenced. But I have to tell you, in with the shaga that we work with, I watch on youtube and I just see, oh, this person has no idea what they're talking about. This person has no idea what they're talking about. Delete, delete. And so I just try to stress that you want to make sure that you get a verified information from good sources, that the individuals and, as you said, about, the more people you come in, the more teachers you come in contact with, the more you'll find consistent information, is more verified information as to the benefits, in this particular case being herbs, and that Exactly. So tell us some of the typical herbs.
Speaker 5:I mentioned a couple that well, I mentioned our dog, gunnar the skunk sprayed dog. I mentioned our dog, gunnar the skunk sprayed dog, and we actually bake our dog food for him every nine days and we put a number of herbs, being parsley and rosemary, and oregano and marajam, and garlic powder and ginger in his dog food when we bake it for him to make sure that he gets all the right nutrients, and that's just part of the formula. But what sort of herbs can people in their average house would they have, and what can they essentially be used for?
Speaker 6:I love it that you mentioned how much you gave your dog of different variety of herbs, because it's that saying, let your food be your medicine, and it's important. Our bodies need these micronutrients from all these other plants that some people never ingest. They're only eating what is offered at the grocery store. So to kind of branch out and you could go to your greenhouse Like we have probably I'm not sure 30 different mints or something crazy here and but mint, just putting mint in your garden, you know it's good for your nervous system, it's calming, it helps with any. It's called a carminative, it helps with any cramping or stomach issues, it improves your digestion and you can use it for colds and flu and fevers. So you know, you have this growing right out the door in your garden and you could make it into a tea, you could make it into a tincture if you wanted. You know there's just add it into your smoothies.
Speaker 6:I love mint in my smoothies, it's just a really wonderful herb, and so I thought that maybe the listeners would like some basic herbs.
Speaker 6:You know, like mint, for example, because often things like chamomile, it gets overlooked because it's such a gentle, flowery herb, you know, and it's like people want something more exotic or sounding, you know, more foreign almost. But chamomile is such a wonderful herb for your nervous system. It's sedative, it's a relaxant. It helps the body even control inflammation. It definitely supports your digestion by actually relaxing your stomach. It also can build your immune system, which is always handy, and it's a really lovely, restful, natural sleep aid. So to get into that habit at night, half hour before bed, to just have a chamomile tea. And the other thing I love about chamomile is that it's good for kids, and so you know you can have that. You could make a really strong tea of chamomile and add it into a baby's bath. You can make frozen popsicles for them, you could make a tea and it's great for calming children and it's also good if they're not feeling well and say they feel nauseous or carsick.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 6:Would you like me to talk about a few more plants?
Speaker 5:Yeah, sure, I know, for example, the peppermint. Well, when you mentioned mint, I have, uh, in mine I have peppermint and spearmint growing, but I see so many other mints, whether it's I think I saw chocolate mint and was there a strawberry mint and in the so many, and, and you mentioned, you know, when you mentioned the um richter's, I actually went through there before the podcast, just because I do research. Uh, when we're we're talking a podcast, I haven't walked through and I saw the number of mints that they had there or the number of sages was just overwhelming that there's not just, you know, you walk in, you expect a mint, but there's peppermint, there's spearmint, there's chocolate mint, there's so many.
Speaker 6:There was like 15 different yes, mojito mint yes.
Speaker 5:Now is there ones that have better medicinal applications than others? Or is it just for flavor reasons that they have all these different mints, or how does that work?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's for flavor. Definitely it's flavor reasons. However, all mints have square stems, so catnip and motherwort also fall into the mint family, right, Even though they don't taste like the other mints. But if I was choosing for medicine, I would choose just a normal peppermint and have that in my garden. But I definitely would have some other fun mints for in smoothies, for making for teas and also for cocktails. They're becoming so big with bars and such right to make these really yummy cocktails with different flavorings, so that's kind of super fun.
Speaker 5:Well, and then another. I think I remember correctly. Now it's called a couple of names, but All Heal, self Heal, heal, all it's a square. It's a square, stemmed one as well. That has falls into the mint family as well, does it not?
Speaker 6:Yes, that's a wonderful basic healer. We have that growing out in our field and, just as the name states, you know it's all heal, so you can use it in many different applications I wanted to touch on you mentioned Jane was harvesting nettles.
Speaker 5:Oh yes.
Speaker 6:And stinging nettle is one that so we actually have it for sale here. You just have to watch you don't get the sting when you're planting it to wear gloves. But nettles is an amazing tonic. So a tonic is something that builds and strengthens our systems and everyone can use that. So that's something you could use every single day as a tea or to add into a tea blend that you currently have, and it's also nutritive blend that you currently have and it's also nutritive. So that's really important as well. And it also increases a mother's milk, which is great. So breastfeeding mothers can definitely drink nettle tea and they're getting all kinds of nutrients. Plus, it's helping with their milk supply.
Speaker 6:It's wonderful for skin issues such as eczema. It's great with allergies and hay fever, and I use it in teas and tinctures and I also add it in my soup stocks. So when I make soup stocks, I go to my dried herbs and I just go along my wall. I have a really large wall of dried herbs and I just take out and probably add about a cup of various herbs into my soup stock for added nutrients, and nettles is definitely one of the ones I use there yeah, nettles are high in protein as well.
Speaker 5:If I remember correctly, it's about a for 100 grams of nettles. I think it's about 19 grams of protein, if I remember correctly. And in some of the, some of the other aspects were the rhizomes in nettles, which is the just so people understand kind of the underground stems, is great for usages for individuals with males with enlarged prostates, in dealing with those issues as well. But and have you ever used now I've heard it pronounced two different ways. But have you ever used now I've heard it pronounced two different ways lovage or lavage in your soup stocks?
Speaker 6:Oh my goodness, lovage I love. It's so funny. I said here at Rutgers that I should get a t-shirt made up that said you know, I love lovage. Because I always ask people you know, do you have lovage in your garden? And if they don't, it's a must, it's a staple, like rhubarb you know how. Everyone has rhubarb. Everyone should have lovage. And I don't use it medicinally myself, but I use it as food. So I put it in my salads because it tastes celery, like the leaves. I put it in my salads, I put it in my smoothies, I put it in my soup, I put it in my soup stock. But my favorite thing with lovage is that the stock is hollow and so you can cut the stock into a straw and use it in tomato juice or in Caesars and you get to have that celery flavor added and the smell and it's just makes making your guests a caesar.
Speaker 5:So much fun with this lovage straw when people ask me to describe it, I say it's a peppery tasting celery, is what I find from my and maybe that's the strain I have, but I don't know. But we've got it growing in the yard and and I'll take you know people back and I say, just try this and try this leaf, let me eat this leaf. I said yeah, it's oh, that's kind of different. Yeah, and, and I explained it. But to be honest, I don't know a lot of the medicinal applications of lovage and I'm not sure if you do or if you've had much experience with it, but it I find it very interesting and we started off with a plant that we planted last year and this year it's now probably six or seven feet tall with huge stalks. It's a perennial and maybe that would be something you can. Are most herbs perennials or annuals? Or I know, for example, mullein is a biannual. So maybe you could just kind of give some background as to are the herbs perennials, annuals?
Speaker 6:And what's the difference between a perennial and an annual? For those that don't know the difference, yeah, okay, I'll just want to digress for one moment and just mention that lovage is used as a digestive aid. It's also good for any stomach issues and it had been known for a treatment of jaundice, so there's a few applications that it's been used for in the past. But it definitely is a perennial and so that means that once I plant. So when I got my patch started, I started with three potted plants that I got at Richter's and then I man over probably only took two years and then I could divide that patch and I've now got three patches of it and have shared it with a few friends. So once you get your established patch, that perennial is going to keep coming up every year, and usually it comes up bigger and larger that eventually you can share with your friends, which is fabulous.
Speaker 6:But an annual is a plant that you need to plant every year, and it's funny, I know some people don't. You know, buying plants can be expensive and that's true. However, for me I still want my annuals, even though you know, like basil is not going to come back for me, but I have to have basil in my garden. You know I can't not buy at least five or six basils. So those are plants that are not typically going to come back for you, unless somehow you get them in some neat little microclimate on your property that they're just going to thrive. But annuals definitely. You're either going to have to reseed each year or buy the plants to plant. But you know, as an avid gardener you can't be without some of these annuals.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and so you mentioned basil and I know that for my mother. I just picked her up a large pot that probably has, oh, maybe, 15 or 20 different plants growing in it and I set it out on her deck and she just takes leaves in because she loves the flavor and the taste. And she just takes leaves in because she loves the flavor and the taste. But that was something else I saw in the house in Richter's when we were there. There was so many different basils in there as well. It was just quite surprising the number of various strains that there was as well, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 6:Yeah, there's so many. And basil is just such an amazing herb because you know, we love it for food and in pasta, of course, and to make pesto. But then I just love basil so much that that's another one of the ones that I'll add in my smoothies. I love the taste of it, but then medicinally, of course, it's used for stomach spasms. It can be used for gas, it can be used for people that are having a hard time eating. They've got this loss of appetite. For example, some people use it for head colds when they don't have anything else at hand.
Speaker 6:To get a good book and to learn to research and see what herbs are good for. And I really recommend that about having some good books, because I've had some students who will say to me well, my sister's brother's cousin said this and it's something that I've never heard of in my life, and it's like you have to make sure you get a reliable source and you want to have heard something you know more than once. You want to hear it and reset by teachers, not by your cousin's brother's friend, you know. So we need these reliable sources so that we know that the information we are seeking is correct. So good books is important.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I send a lot of people that listen to the podcast to.
Speaker 5:There's a number of sites where they do peer reviews, whether it's PubMed or Science Direct, where they publish a lot of research studies that give some of the background and some of the details about a lot of the different plants that we talk about whether it's the stinging nettle or whether sumac or some of the turkey tails and some of the other plants and mushrooms that we've spoken about, and I try to give people a reliable source of information.
Speaker 5:But, yeah, it's important to get the books and, as I said before when I was Minister of Natural Resources, one of the first things you learn is, before we even read articles or materials, we look at the reference material utilized to write those to determine the validity of it, and there's a lot of stuff that we bring out that's very well researched and a lot of those research ones are all published on PubMed and Science Direct. Now I have to be honest, I don't know enough of the herbal backgrounds, because you know I certainly read a lot of Matthew Wood's books and Rosemary Gladstar's and Brenda Jones and quite a few others that we have. But is there a place that you can recommend that people can look, that they've seen scientific or research studies that can verify a lot of the details that we hear, rather than hear the second cousin's, mom's, aunt's sister.
Speaker 6:Exactly. Well, I think where you were referencing. Pubmed is definitely an amazing source, but I have some favorite books that I could share, that I've just always loved. So A Modern Herbal by Maude Greaves and, of course, rosemary Gladstar any of her books by Maude Greaves and of course, rosemary Gladstar any of her books. And I have a great children's one, the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing Children, by Dr Mary Bove. So Mary Bove is a naturopath and a herbalist. She's amazing and I think that's a really good one for moms to have. And then David Hoffman, of course I do believe you just mentioned him to have. And then David Hoffman, of course I do believe you just mentioned him, but a really good field guide.
Speaker 6:So I know lots of folks have apps on their phones and I don't fully. So I have an app as well, but I don't trust my app. I like it to kind of verify what I think something is. So if I already am looking at a plant and I think it's something, and then I have my Peterson field guide by Stephen Foster and James Duke you know where I can narrow it down to what I think it is then I use my app as a secondary or third source of reference so that I can see if I'm correct. And if it was something dangerous, like a danger, I would never try it. I would have to phone one of my friends or get another herbalist when they're in the area to come and verify with me because you just would not take a chance.
Speaker 6:And again, herbs are safe but that's if you know what you're doing and you clearly can identify. That's why folks using identifying dandelion for the first time and using that as one of their first herbs that they kind of wildcraft because it's so easy to identify. You know they can pick the leaf and just use that and it's going to build energy in your body over time it's going to restore proper function and increase health and vitality. So, learning to just wildcraft easy to recognize, like dandelion nettles, you're not going to miss what a nettle is if you touch it and it stings you. You're so going to know that that's a nettle?
Speaker 5:Yeah, the formic acid, yeah, that's in them. But you mentioned something there, you know, and I was out this morning. As I mentioned, I take Gunner for his morning run and we do a kind of a forest walkthrough and through there I'm looking at hawthorn and may apple and bloodroot and well, the all heel is not up yet At least I haven't noticed any yet but bone set and goldenrod and a bunch of others. And is there a good app that you can be able to tell you know, for first-time beginners, the difference between burdock and milk thistle as some of the medicinal plants that are out there? Do you know of a phone app that would help assist?
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know what I use. I use Picture this Picture this Okay. Yeah, and so far when I have been checking plants, so I will use my phone app on plants that I know extremely well, because I want to catch it if it's ever wrong, because I wasn't sure how much I could trust it at first and so far it has never identified something incorrectly. For me. So you know, I feel good about that, but I also wouldn't rely on it solely.
Speaker 5:Right and that's something else that we stress is that one that, in my case, I'm not a doctor, can't give medical advice and then make sure you verify all the information that you get when you're taking something, that it is the correct one and that you're extremely sure, or that you get individuals who have some professional advice as to what you're harvesting to make and that you're extremely sure, or that you get individuals who have some professional advice as to what you're harvesting to make sure that you know what you're getting and that you take it in the right amounts, which is something else that herbalists that essentially teach people. You know the difference between, if I remember correctly, acute and chronic diseases require different applications. So chronic would be smaller amounts over a long period of time, where acute is larger amounts in a short period of time. But you want to make sure you've got the right materials for the right amount of time.
Speaker 6:Jerry, if I might interject here, I'm really glad that you brought all this up, because wildcrafting is you know, going for herb walks brought all this up because wildcrafting is you know, going for herb walks is something that a lot of herbalists will give as an educational part of their teaching. So for my students we do a herb walk every fall and every spring. And I know I had a student one time say to me she wasn't going to come to the spring herb walk because she already did the fall one. But I was like but the plants look totally different in the spring and in the fall and it's really important if you're wanting to learn to wildcraft and to use medicine that's out your back door that you go on these herb walks and you become more familiar with the herbs in your area.
Speaker 6:And I know there's a herbalist in Prince Edward County, tamara. She is of Hawthorne Herbals. She gives some amazing herb walks. She's super fun and I've had her. So even though I do herb walks with my students, I have had Tamara come and do a herb walk too, because, again, I like to introduce my students to other teachers for them then to learn from as well, and herb walks lots of times are offered at herbal conferences. So, as I was mentioning the Back to your Roots herbal conference that I do every other year, and this year there's one herbal conference that Aubrey Arneson is putting on in Ottawa, so that's the only herbal conference in Ontario this coming up season. And when is that one? That is in August, I do believe.
Speaker 5:Okay, just checking Now. While we were talking, I was looking at my phone. There's two Picture this apps. Oh, and I'm not sure which one.
Speaker 6:Well, the image on my app has four little brackets on the four corners and then it has like a flower in the middle, Almost like a tulip. Yes.
Speaker 5:Okay, I just pressed load, Okay, okay.
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Speaker 5:And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga Health and Wellness. Hi, it's Jerry from Chaga Health and Wellness. We're here in Lindsay with Tula, who is actually from Finland and uses Chega. Tula, you've had some good experiences with Chega. Can you just tell us what that experience is?
Speaker 7:Yes, I got sick with fibro, and one weekend my husband came here alone. I was home and he brought your leaflet.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 7:And I read it and I said next weekend when we go to a market we're gonna buy some. And so we started putting it in our morning smoothie.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 7:And among a few other things that I was doing. Because of that, the chaga has been the steady one. I would not want to live without it. Oh good, yeah, so it's been working for me Very good. Lots of ways.
Speaker 5:And you had some good luck with blood pressure as well.
Speaker 7:Oh right, yeah, Thanks for remembering that. That's yeah, I had a little bit of high elevated blood pressure and within the two weeks of starting that every day, every morning, it went to normal.
Speaker 5:And you think the chaga was the reason why.
Speaker 7:Well, I didn't do anything else in that time frame Very good.
Speaker 5:And so how much chaga did you have and how did you have it?
Speaker 7:Well, we just put that powder in a smoothie.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and it's about tablespoon, yeah, no, it's less than tablespoon, teaspoon, yeah, so you don't need that much.
Speaker 5:Right, but a teaspoon, yeah, yeah, very good. Well, thanks very much for sharing that. We really appreciate that and wish you all the best with the Chaga. Oh, you're from Finland as well, and Chaga is pretty popular in Finland, is it not?
Speaker 7:I think it probably is, because there's some professors in a university that start teaching it and talking about it. And of course it's big in Russia, right, because that's where you know the northern woods that comes from, yeah, yeah, and of course Finland has lots of birch trees.
Speaker 5:Right yeah, and it's the only mushroom that you can't forage in Finland. You have to forage everything else but not the chagrin.
Speaker 5:Oh, very good. Well, thanks very much for sharing that. Okay, have a great day. You too much for sharing that. Okay, have a great day. We interrupt this program to bring you a special offer from Chaga Health and Wellness. If you've listened this far and you're still wondering about this strange mushroom that I keep talking about and whether you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of interest to you. To thank you for listening to the show, I'm going to make trying Chaga that much easier by giving you a dollar off all our Chaga products at checkout. All you have to do is head over to our website, chagahealthandwellnesscom, place a few items in the cart and check out with the code CANOPY C-A-N-O-P-Y. If you're new to Chaga, I'd highly recommend the regular Chaga tea. This comes with 15 tea bags per package and each bag gives you around five or six cups of tea. Hey, thanks for listening.
Speaker 5:Back to the episode. You mentioned a couple of them. We talked about some of the herbs that people use in their day-to-day routine, which is very good, but there's a lot of things that you would teach to instruct somebody on the volume to take and how often you take it as part of your instructions, I believe. So you know. Like we talked about basil, how much basil would you take in order to see a benefit from it, and how often would you take it?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so if I was taking herbs, so if it was in a tincture form, you would take 15 drops, 15 to 30 drops, three times a day and you would add that into your water or a bit of juice or put it directly under your tongue. I prefer to just put it directly under my tongue, but people also can make a cup of tea with that. So you would pick your basil also can make a cup of tea with that. So you would pick your basil, you would put it in a cup and you would pour hot water over it and you would let it steep for five to 10 minutes. Now some herbalists really love infusions and that's where they put the herbs in a jar, pour hot water on it and let it steep overnight and then they drink it all the next day. I personally prefer a little the gentler way of taking medicine and just having it steep for 10 minutes or so.
Speaker 5:So now maybe you can just well. There's a couple of things Before we. You mentioned tincture, and a lot of people wouldn't know what a tincture. Are you making your own tinctures and are you using just the vodka as the extracting body, or are you using straight alcohol? Or, and how long do you set your tinctures when you're making your own tincture?
Speaker 6:Yes. So tinctures can be made with alcohol or vinegar and we still call them a tincture. And a tincture is when you put, let's say you have a jar, you would fill it three quarters full with the plant material, and then the simpler method is you can just fill the jar the rest of the way up and so that the herb is covered by gin or vodka, and then put a lid on it and you're going to store it in a dark, cool place for four to six weeks. Right now, a friend of mine, uh, dr kevin spellman, he's a phd.
Speaker 6:He did a um interesting study on echinacea and so we've always said you, you steep them six to eight weeks, or sorry, for you can start to take it four weeks, but the longer you steep, you know, kind of the better. But he did this experiment and he said most of the plant's constituents were out in something like you know it was well under a week, it was like within days. So once you've started to make something, if you needed your medicine right away we call it just taking a little bit off the top you could let it still be steeping but you could still start to use it. So I thought that was a fascinating study that showed, because it kind of blew my mind because all my teaching until he told me he did that experiment, you know, has been that standard amount of time and in anyone that I speak to regarding making tinctures, I, first of all, I give them an example of vanilla extract.
Speaker 5:is the one that that most people would know. Well, they they see a vanilla extract and I give them an example about okay, this is what they do and this is how they do it, and that's why some of these ones you look at, because there's alcohol content in a lot of them, and at least when they do the vanilla. So I explained that. But I've always said that usually a minimum of two months is the phrasing that I use, and preferably three. Do you find that if you go longer, it's better or stronger? I completely counter to what you just expressed to us that even after a week or two, you can get the benefits out of it.
Speaker 6:So that was the scientific research that Dr Spellman did, which was amazing to me. However, I've worked for 28 years at Faunus Herbs and we are a contractor of herbal medicine for practitioners and many other companies that sell to practitioners. So when we make tinctures, depending on the plant material, we would use 40% alcohol, so we would get in 99.9% outgrain alcohol and then you dilute the alcohol and make your tinctures that way. But we always have the tincture sit six to eight weeks and if a doctor really needed one and we were out after six weeks and we would shake it daily a couple of times a day, we would give them some at that time if they really needed some. But we usually leave the plant material in the tincture until we need it and then we squeeze it out so it could be sitting in there for four months, five months, you know, just like your mother's preserves downstairs, you know how you just they'd all be sitting there ready for use.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I met and I used to deal with one naturopath doctor that used to do make his own tinctures as well. But, if I remember correctly, cause I haven't spoken to Paul in a while but he was using in ordering, especially from the, the here in Ontario with the LCBO, the liquor store I think it was ethanol that he was usually using that you could order, um, if I remember correctly, for and he would make his owns with a special blend of that and utilize that. Have you ever heard of that or not?
Speaker 6:no, is that paul saunders?
Speaker 5:um, let me just check paul's last name. I don't remember Paul's last name. He's retired now.
Speaker 6:Yeah, um. No, I don't know what he would. He would be using Um we would get, see it's hard. So, um, where we would purchase our alcohol? The average person cannot purchase alcohol there, so you know, you can get it from the liquor store has a certain um, and I can't remember what the name of that alcohol is that they can get, and I think it's like 90 proof or something. Um, it's called something special. Yes, thank you. Yeah, that's it. I've never purchased it myself because I always, you know, was at work and could make tinctures there. But now that I just make tinctures at home or when I teach my students, it's just called the simplers method. It's just simple and easy to use gin and vodka. It's more of an art, I would say, than a science. You know how working with herbs can be an art and a science, right, and so it kind of brings both together. So I feel like what I'm teaching, sure it's based on science, there's science behind it, but it's also an art, an art of medicine making.
Speaker 5:So and I'm not sure you know this because I haven't dealt enough in the shaga shaga, shaga shaga that I deal with regularly, and it's just.
Speaker 5:It depends if I'm talking to German individuals how they pronounce it or if I'm speaking to French individuals. It's different again. But anyways, with the, I explained that the research shows that the tincture extracts a fat-soluble antioxidant out of the chaga, whereas when you do just your teas, you're doing a water-soluble antioxidant and you're extracting different materials out of the product that is utilized for different purposes. Is it the same with herbs or, do you know, are you extracting different materials that gets into your, your systems, in your body? I mean, the thing with the jaga is that it's, it's, the materials are there, it's just how do we extract the benefits so we can get it into our systems? And is that the same with herbs that you, like you mentioned about going into the tinctures or putting it in in smoothies or drinks and things like that? You know, to make a mint tea sort of thing? Are you getting the same benefits or is it giving you different benefits when you do different type of extractions?
Speaker 6:I really think it's definitely giving you different types of benefits and I think that that's why it's really important to also let your medicine be your food and that we're eating these foods, because that's how our ancestors would have definitely done it and also water soluble, like making teas and stews and soups and broths.
Speaker 6:I think that that's a really good and gentle way of feeding our systems and taking care of ourselves. And then I find like having tinctures or you know, because to get things out, like you mentioned, with chaga or certain seeds and barks you know things that are tough the alcohol seems to be able to extract really well different components, so I would also take a combination of herbs that are extracted in different ways. So if you were seeing a patient, you would always make patients or a client I should call them clients you would always make them a tea, definitely a nice gentle blend for them to have at home, but you also would give them tinctures or capsules something you know or ointments, something else, to address what their issues are. So you'd be kind of going at that issue from many different ways.
Speaker 5:Right, yeah, and I know that there's a lot more research being done on a lot of well, in a lot of what I deal with mushrooms, you know, with lion's mane or turkey tail, and yokey cordyceps Well, cordyceps I'm not sure if you're familiar with the last of us even a TV show or mutations of cordyceps attack humans but a lot of. There are a lot more benefits that are being realized out there. For example I'm not sure if you are you familiar?
Speaker 6:do you know Metamucil at all, for example? I'm not real familiar with Metamucil. I personally have never used it or suggested it to anyone.
Speaker 5:So the number one component in Metamucil is the husks from plantain seeds.
Speaker 5:Amazing, yes, the husks from plantain seeds Amazing, yes, and so there's a lot more that is taking place out there that that corporations are now looking at, that is finding it's it's very beneficial and that's for digestive issues, for people who are having difficulties.
Speaker 5:And I was quite surprised when I started to find out some of the details and what they're using, that they're using components out of the plantain plant, which has a lot of medicinal applications, and it's basically a herbal plant that's out there. So what now? I know I had a question from Lisa, who's the incoming chair for the Board of Governors for Durham College, because she was finding interested and I mentioned Rosemary Gladstar's book and Brenda Jones book and she said she picked them up and she said you know, well, I was mentioning I had you coming on the program and she said, well, how do you get started? Like, where do you get started and how do you start with your that whole process down and rather than just jump into it, you know lock, stock and barrel just to kind of gradually get into building your own background and using a bunch of different ones. How do you get started with your own herbal garden?
Speaker 6:that's a really great question. Um, so when I first started my herbal garden, believe it or not, the historical society gifted me comfrey, a comfrey plant. So really that was my initial first, like you know, going out on a mission trying to get herb plants. But then, because I don't live far from Richter's, I have this, you know, amazing resource at my fingertips of herbal medicines that you know you can ask the staff and they'll help you choose what plants you want for your garden. But having a teacher also helps because you know to know what a family's needs are.
Speaker 6:So if your family you know you have active children, well, comfrey is amazing because you can make an ointment for bruises and strains and sprains and it heals amazingly superficial wounds, and so I use that plant so often with my kids and even with my dog. My dog had these hot spots. Oh my goodness, it was so soothing for the dog. I would put boil the comfrey up and just lay it right on the wound. He loved it. But so you know learning what what the needs are of your family.
Speaker 6:And then what do you want to to grow? So one plant that definitely is amazing to grow is mullein, for example, because if you have anyone in your family that had respiratory issues, which of course in the winter, you know, so many of us ends up with a cold and have respiratory issues. So mullein is a great one for that. It could be in a tea or a tincture, but it's also really good for asthma and then, amazingly, for children, mullein oil for earaches If you've ever seen a child with really bad earaches and a mullein and garlic ear oil is like amazing. So you know, I would look at what the issues are in the household, but then we can also just recommend, you know, a general. Are they looking for a culinary garden? Are they looking for a medicinal garden? So there'll be different things that they'll be looking for, like that. Lovage is a great one Again, you know, if someone's wanting to eat the food and to have basil and to have all your basics for cooking, of course, would also be wonderful.
Speaker 5:And so, roughly, how much kind of space would you need to start in order? And to me it's usually some of the easy ones I find, well, peppermint. But you got to watch, because when peppermints or the mints start they spread hugely everywhere, and so you know. So how do you go about? Is it the raised gardens are the best, or is it you know? Do you need a raised garden to do these things or to control the spread of some, or will certain ones take over the entire area, such as I mentioned about the mints having that?
Speaker 6:Yes. So definitely you want to have, like terracotta pots of some kind, or some larger urns to put your, or a raised bed to contain definitely your mints. And also you have to remember certain plants you plant, like horseradish or comfrey. Where you plant it, no matter how deep you dig to get rid of it, it's going to still be there and wherever else you transplant it to. So just to even get these tips, which you'll get from a good greenhouse right, they'll know, and I love this year being able to talk to retail customers here. I was able to help some. I would ask them what is it that you're looking to do, you know, in your garden? Or if they only have raised beds, I could help them choose certain plants you know for their raised beds. So love that one-on-one with customers that we're able to do here in the retail store.
Speaker 5:Right, so, but now just to go back a bit. You mentioned about the um mullein oil and the garlic for that. But are you just using, like, like I use, just the flowers from the mullein in order to create your, your drops for the ear oil?
Speaker 6:for the ear drops, yeah, okay, just the beautiful yellow flowers, yeah yeah, I'm yeah, and, and the other thing is I.
Speaker 5:I took some, some horseradish root over to my father-in-law, bless his soul, when he was around, and anyways, he wanted to get rid of it and I essentially laughed and laughed You're not, I'll get rid of it. He dug it out and then he took a landscaping tile it was about a what was it about? Probably a two by two or 30 by 30 inch stone and placed it over there and left it there for two years and the horseradish was gone. But it took two years. But he had to prove to me he was going to get rid of it.
Speaker 6:Oh, good for him. I have not heard of anyone get rid of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he did. It was just, you know, the path tiles that you use. It was about a 30 by 31 and I dug it out and he put that right over it and I think it took about two years before he removed it and he said, see, it's all gone now. Wow, but yeah, that's a good tip.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and there's a lot of things you know that we learn, you know, from historically. I mean, in their garden they had a large garden, probably it was quite large in their, at their properties at the time. But, as I mentioned, when I had Master Gardener Bev on, we talked about how they would take the leaves every year that fall off the trees and they had mostly maples in the backyard, although they had birch as well that they would take the leaves, pile them up and then take the lawnmower over and run them right into a deep mulch and then blow them onto a tarp and then take them out to the garden garden and then mix them into the garden and it worked perfect as just some of the fertilizer and mulch that eventually turned to good fertilizer for the gardens and kept a very strong garden. So there's a lot of different things out there that we hear about. So what are the kind of medicinal plants that people would have in their cupboards that they wouldn't even realize? Oh, maybe we should talk about?
Speaker 5:You mentioned about kids and pets. Now are there ways to use application for kids? You mentioned with kids and earaches. What kind of herbs would be acceptable for kids and pets and what kind of volumes would they be utilized? Are they substantially reduced, or is it just when you you're cooking, you have some of these things in it, or just take them in a tincture form, or how?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so, with regards to pets, you have to be careful because, teaching-wise, I do have a little pet workshop that I teach. However, I know that, um, the Veterinarian Association really doesn't like herbalists to get into that area, so we have to be careful. In Ontario, what, what we do, um? But there's an amazing book, there's a few books by Juliette Deleve Barclay. Have you heard of her?
Speaker 6:No, no and it's for stable and horse and dog and cat. They are fabulous, fabulous books on herbal medicine for cats and dogs. So I definitely would recommend anyone who's wanting to use natural products on their pets to look into that. Now I have used, I can tell you some of my experience that we've done. We had a little puppy who was too young for to be fixed yet, but it had a growth on its leg that the vet wanted to operate on and remove, and then they were going to fix them at the same time, but it was a bit early. So, um, though, the woman, a friend of ours, uh, she put um four thieves on that.
Speaker 6:Okay, and that's an ancient, that's an old formula, you can look it up. It's based on fortes. Uh, they used it during the black plague. Um, and the, the, the growth went away, it like a miracle. So here the puppy didn't have to get operated on and it could wait for it to be fixed until it was of the proper age. So that was one instance where herbal medicine was like, hey, this is amazing, and it was, you know, just something we could use externally. Um, and then the hot spots which I mentioned about my dog, just boiling up that comfrey and you're you're aware of hot spots, right there's.
Speaker 5:Their fur goes away and, yeah, it's just the sore, sore spot yeah, it almost looks like an open boil when they come up, sort of thing. It's's. Yeah, and I had my previous chocolate lab. For some reason every time it went swimming in water it would develop these hotspots and you know we tried numerous things.
Speaker 5:But the other thing is one of the people I had on Fenella was a, a chiropractor that works for animals and she does does dogs, cats and horses, horses and ferrets and a bunch of other things like that, and that's where her specialty was. And it took quite a while for them to make sure that the vet community was content, because when she originally started out doing chiropractic for work for animals, there was a lot of opposition. But I happened to come across a naturopathic vet out of the Ajax Pickering area who had been trying to get on to talk about that sort of applications for animals but haven't had success in having them return calls and things like that. But they just could be busy and maybe they weren't interested, I'm not sure. But anyways, so there is some expansion in those areas that we're starting to see for pets that are having a benefit, and this is good that. As you mentioned, that you know there's some of the things that are beneficial to animals, that people need to watch out how it's used and some of the benefits, like you mentioned.
Speaker 6:Yeah, need to watch out how it's used and and some of the benefits, like you mentioned. Yeah, and so, for for kids, I think that it's also wonderful. You know you, we can use um fennel seeds that we have at home for coughs is nice for children. Catnip I mentioned catnip already. That's a great one for helping to calm a fever and even for just general restlessness. You know, if there's a bit of anxiety there, we already touched on chamomile, of course, for tummy aches and for irritability.
Speaker 6:Cinnamon Cinnamon is another great one that we have right in our medicine cabinet and it's good as well for, uh, you know, upset stomach, uh, for gas or diarrhea. Elderflowers maybe you've seen them, they're out right now, I do believe. Um, yeah, they're, they're out right now, elderflowers, and they're great combined with one of your mints, your peppermint or spearmint, for a fever. So that's a great one. And, of course, every garden. When we were talking about what should we plant in our garden if you have kids? Definitely lemon balm, because it's as well. It's very flavorful, it's just a nice little tea that you could make or make a popsicle, and it's for fevers or fussiness or restlessness. Yeah, oh, sorry.
Speaker 5:That's okay. You certainly mentioned a lot of the ones that I have growing at my place, including the lavage, the peppermint, the spearmint, the mullein, the sage, the basil, rosemary, all heel plantain garlic, as well as the lemon balm. But you mentioned the cinnamon. Now I've been doing a bit of research on cinnamon and I'm not sure Are you familiar with the difference between the Ceylon cinnamon and the regular cinnamon? I am not know if you knew and I'm trying to find out more information.
Speaker 5:I'm one of those a little obsessive compulsives when I find out something. I tried to do research and found out all this stuff in England and different things, so I thought I'd just ask that question because a lot of people use cinnamon, for I had a person on Saturday last was taking cinnamon capsules. He informed me and dropped his sugar counts from 12.4 to 8.2, I believe it was and he believed just from taking the cinnamon capsules for that particular diabetes that that individual was dealing with. But we hear so many different applications and, as we said earlier, you want to make sure that you're getting verified information and checking to make sure that it's reliable information as well. Information and checking to make sure that it's reliable information as well.
Speaker 6:Yeah and Jerry, I think that the important thing for people to realize too, like the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. So for me, even though I've been in this industry for like 30 years, there's so much stuff I don't know. You know it's not possible. So I'm personally like I love to learn as well, Like I love going to conferences, I love hearing from other teachers and even this podcast, you know, like you're, you're going to learn things from one another and it's wonderful yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, penelope, I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the podcast. I think it was very informative. I think we answered some questions. I think we gave some people some insight on a lot of the herbs and what's out there and the potential uses for a lot of it and how to source out information. I know I've got a new app that I'm going to try, probably later today, to check out a number of different plants, but how can people find out more about your course and and where you can pick up various herbs to to try and to test or to see if it's enjoyable? And kind of give us some outreach of where and how people can get in touch with you?
Speaker 6:yeah, so um, love you to reach out. So the ginkgo tree dot ca is my website. There's a contact me form there. So if you want to contact us, but also I'm just here at richter's, if you come into the retail store, I'd be happy to come over and help uh, you know, pick out plants and get you started. But also for people who don't live around us, richter's herbs ships all over the world, like globally. So so you know, if you want to buy different plants, look through the website, at the catalog, and we're more than happy to ship wherever it is you're living. And I think it's important for people to remember too, especially here in Canada, we have spring planting and we have fall planting, and sometimes people forget that they can be planting perennials in the fall and kind of get a headstart for the spring. So I want to encourage that to you know, to plant at all the different times you can plant during the season.
Speaker 5:Yes, I completely agree and I think we've only we haven't even really got into a lot of depth on the details about herbs and the impact and the potential usages that people have and what they can be utilized for. But one of the things is I think that a lot of people have gained some more information and some more learning knowledge about aspects of herbs and herbalism and how they can make a big difference when you're out and walking about, and just something a little bit different that people are learning about stuff under the canopy out there. Thanks for being with us, Penelope. Thanks so much for having me.
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