Foraging Wisdom and Herbal Healing with Amelia South

Embark on a journey through the lush landscapes of New England with Amelia South, an herbalist and foraging instructor from Black Sun Farm. She is also a Heart of Herbs Herbal School graduate. Our enlightening chat uncovers the holistic power of plants that Amelia nurtures within the rich biodiversity of Eastern Connecticut. She opens up about her upcoming online class that promises to unveil nature's role in alleviating depression, using diet and locally sourced herbs. We also meander through the rows of Amelia's farm shop, a treasure trove of natural wonders, as she stresses the value of education in the craft of intuitive herbalism.

Today's episode celebrates the simple yet profound joy of engaging with nature's pantry. Shelling nuts isn't just a chore—it's an act of mindfulness that anchors us to the origins of our nourishment. Amelia and I trade entertaining tales from farm life, highlighting how a little wildness in the vegetable patch can lead to unexpected delights and a thriving ecosystem. Plus, we discuss the therapeutic benefits of manual labor in our food rituals and how it fosters a connection with the earth that store-bought goods seldom provide.

As we close our conversation, Amelia addresses the practical and ethical facets of foraging, whether it be in urban jungles or tranquil forest trails. She demystifies common foraging misconceptions and the relatable challenges herbalists face when it comes to self-worth and pricing their healing offerings. For those looking to deepen their understanding or get their hands dirty with herbal foraging, Amelia leaves us with her contact details and a heartening message: value the healing you bring into the world.
Check out Amelia's Websites at
https://blacksunfarmct.com/
https://blacksunfarmct.aweb.page/zerotoforaginghero

https://www.herbalremediesbyamelia.com/

Heart of Herbs Herbal School 
The Heart of Herbs Podcast with Demetria Clark! 🌿 Tune in for herbal wisdom & wellness tips!

Welcome to the Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast, www.heartofherbs.com where we explore the world of herbal remedies and natural health solutions. Before we dive into today's episode, If you want to enroll, use code PODCAST to save 20%.

The content provided in this podcast is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition. It is always recommended to consult with a qualified healthcare professional

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:38

There it is there we go All.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Right, there we go All right.

Speaker 2: 0:43

So hi, this is Demetria Clark with the Heart of Herbal School podcast, and today we're talking to Amelia. South and Amelia is going to tell us all about all the wonderful things that she does, and I really want you to take an opportunity to get your pens and your pencils and start taking notes, because we're going to have so much great information for you, and also, if you're in New England and you want to take classes about foraging and wildcrafting, this is your go-to source. So Amelia let everyone know how wonderful you are, yay.

Speaker 1: 1:21

So hi, I'm Amelia South. I am a professional foraging instructor and herbalist. My farm is Black Sun Farm in Eastern Connecticut which doesn't mean a lot.

Speaker 2: 1:32

Where do we?

Speaker 1: 1:32

find that online If you go to blacksunfarmctcom. That's my main website. I have several websites, so one's for my farm and that's got links for everything, like all of my podcast interviews and all that stuff. But also I teach classes. I teach classes online too, because the stuff that grows in New England basically grows all over the entire Northeastern United States. So there's like millions of people that live in this general huge area where all the stuff that I teach is totally relatable and viable for your area. So that website is herbalremediesbyameliacom. That's all my online classes and things. It's not just foraging. I teach all kinds of cool stuff because I basically made a bunch of online classes teaching you everything I know about everything.

Speaker 1: 2:18

And so that's there. I'm still making um other other classes. I've got one coming up, that with a friend of mine, uh, about healing depression through food. Uh, food and diet and herbs and things like that. It's it's mostly through food, um, so that's going to be coming up soon. And I also do, uh, I I sell some products. Um, it's not a huge list, but but uh, a few products. I'm I'm getting all my licensing together to make larger batches of things more productively.

Speaker 1: 2:47

But that's at BlackSunFarmShopcom. So BlackSunFarmCTcom is the main website. You can find everything there. That's me. I'm on TikTok, I'm at the original MailChimp on TikTok and that's where a lot of people know me from. On Facebook, black Sun Farm CT. On Instagram, black Sun Farm. I'm also thinking, I think, black Sun Farm on YouTube. But yeah, all the links are on my website. And I teach food as medicine, I teach about gut health, I teach foraging for wild food and wild medicinals. I do teach some herbal medicine making classes. So, and I do reference this because I went to Heart of Herbs herbal school. So I tell people people are like, oh, where did you go to school? I'm like I went here. Yeah, I've taken other classes with some other, with some other schools and stuff. But, like my, my main course that I did was was through you guys here. So yeah, I definitely tell everybody about that.

Speaker 2: 3:41

Well, thanks, yeah, I love. I love the other stuff you do too, and I think it's important that you mentioned that. You know you've got to get your education from more than one source. Like people will be like well, I don't want to cause I've already done this and it's like what I say is like a million percent different than someone else.

Speaker 1: 4:00

The way it's delivered.

Speaker 2: 4:07

I'm really boring and practical. You know, like some people are really sexy and exciting.

Speaker 1: 4:09

That's not me. I'll tell you how to get to the grit of it all. Well, there's some people that that get into so much complicated stuff, and it's like I know. I know phytochemistry is not my strong suit.

Speaker 1: 4:18

I know what phytochemistry is, but I I am well aware that I should be taking a phytochemistry class um at some point because most of the time I feel like I'm more of an intuitive herbalist where, um, I've been doing it so long, you know, when you're working with this stuff so long with your own two hands and you're working with the plants and everything you find, you just get a feel um that and you've you've, um, you know, used all this medicine on yourself or on your family and you've you've done this for so long you start going like, well, all right, I know I need this herb, I know I need this herb, I know how to mix them together, I know what ratios I want and I I judge a lot of that Um plus based on whatever I can find, because I'll be on. I do TikTok live frequently. I skipped today because I just burnt out, but I do that frequently and people ask me a lot like what do you think about soursop leaves? And I'm a bioregional herbalist. Like 99.9% of everything that I work with is stuff I either grow myself or I go out in the woods and I forage myself. So if you can't find it here in New England, it's probably not something that I'm really familiar with or that I work with on anything like a regular basis.

Speaker 1: 5:29

And so when somebody says, what do you think about soursop for cancer, I'm like I don't know, because I don't grow soursop, because it grows in Jamaica. Yeah, yeah, right. So, like, if you want help with with dealing with cancer, I can tell you what I would do, but it's going to be based on what we have available in this region. Um, and and a big part of that, honestly, is because of what happened during COVID, if you remember, during COVID, every everybody, everybody wanted to learn herbalism during COVID, Everybody wanted to learn natural healing during COVID, um, everybody became an herbalist during COVID.

Speaker 1: 6:01

I started before that, thank God, but not much for like 2018 instead of 2020. So, when that whole global crisis hit and the thing is, you got to remember it could happen again. Something like that, even if it's not the same disease or whatever could happen again. And if that does happen again and shuts down the economy, or if it shuts down a lot of transportation or whatever, we're screwed. Because, if you remember, during that time, you tried to go online and and order some herbs. They were sold out at absolutely everything, absolutely everything.

Speaker 1: 6:34

So, if you did, not get canning jars right Exactly, I know I do. I invested in bar canning corporation during COVID, because it was crazy.

Speaker 2: 6:46

It was in their maiden America, so there's yeah, it's just like.

Speaker 1: 6:53

It's so critically important to know and be familiar with the plants that you have, whether that's in your own backyard or if you can go to a state park or a town park or someplace that they don't spray. Your neighbor's yard? Yeah, if you're. I mean, as long as your neighbors aren't spraying pesticides all over the place, it's. It's good, anywhere you can, you can go that you know they're not using pesticides. Absolutely, you want to get familiar with whatever you're seeing. Start outside your own backyard, if you have a backyard.

Speaker 2: 7:24

I always tell people what's in your, what's in your yard, what's in your spice rack what's in your medicine, chest? Like, yeah, what do you have in your, in your little environment? Exactly, my kids used to joke that, uh, during the zombie apocalypse cause I can deliver babies and I know how herbalism that they'll keep me around that's yeah, everybody says that too.

Speaker 1: 7:46

They say, they want me on that team run a zombie probably, but they'll protect me.

Speaker 2: 7:52

We were talking.

Speaker 1: 7:52

I just I just taught a foraging walk on saturday and I actually co-taught it with um, a friend of mine that that teaches foraging on the other side of connecticut. We got together and taught a foraging class together and I said, yeah people always say oh, I want you on my team when the apocalypse happens and when this collapses and that collapses, I want you. And I'm like, listen if I find there's not as much wild food as you think there is, like all the time.

Speaker 1: 8:17

It's like intensive too. Exactly when I find it, I'm keeping it for myself too. Exactly when I find it, I'm keeping it for myself. I'm not making you a pod. I'm not going to sit. Exactly, I'm not cracking hickory nuts for 17 hours to feed you. I'm to feed me, exactly, right. So, yeah, it's, it is labor intensive, but but things. I made a video about that not too long ago, specifically about hickory nuts, because hickory nuts are edible edible and they're freaking delicious Hickory nuts are, so they're one of the tastiest nuts you'll ever find, you'll ever eat in your life. And a lot of like hundreds of thousands of people people have no idea. They either don't know what a hickory even is, or they didn't know you could eat it, because it's not a commercially available nut. And the reason it's not a commercially available nut is because it's a huge pain in the butt to crack it.

Speaker 2: 9:04

Oh, like, they're like tight.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Well, it's so tight. Yeah, exactly Like you can crack a walnut and even though, like walnuts are a pain in the butt too, like hickories are 10 times worse. You need that little, that little curvy nut pick thing that comes in a nut picking kit. You have to have that for hickories, otherwise you're sitting there with a stick and a toothpick and you're trying to get it all out and my boyfriend watched me cracking hickory nuts, like a month or so ago, and he's going you're insane, I don't know why you would do that. And I said because they're delicious, they're awesome, they're so good. And there's the other part that you have to think of when you're doing that. So you're doing something with your hands. You don't really have to think. You can kind of let your mind wander. You can let your mind reset itself. Whatever you want to do.

Speaker 1: 9:47

You could listen to a podcast, or listen to music, or you could just Like shell and peas on the front porch.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1: 9:50

That same kind of repetitive motion with your hands. It resets your body. And then, in addition to that somebody else mentioned this on that video they said you're, you're mindful, you're thinking about your what you're eating, because it's so labor intensive to be getting the nut out of that. Um, you know, shell, you're it's, it's helping you control the amount you're eating. So, like, if you get a giant bag of nuts somewhere, you're going to end up eating handful after handful, because they're delicious, they're roasted, they're salted, all that other stuff, even if they're just raw nuts.

Speaker 1: 10:24

It's so easy to stick your hand in a bag of them and eat a whole handful With hickory nuts. You're sitting there for like an hour before you get a handful of them. So you're like you know it's not that it's not feeding you, because it's totally feeding you and it's delicious, but it's high calorie and fat and it's ridiculously good for you. There's all kinds of like omega-6 and omega-3, all good stuff and hickories, but you're controlling, like, how much you're willing and able to put into your body that, that food. Um, when you're growing the same thing, when you're growing it yourself, or when you're hunting. Yeah, you know, you know the work that's involved my husband was saying that about pistachios.

Speaker 2: 11:01

He said don't buy me unshelled ones ever again. I ate like three cups of them, he's sitting there.

Speaker 1: 11:10

It's so easy and so many people think that they're like well, why would I want to put all that work into that? I can just go to Walmart and buy a bag of them and I'm like well, because, number one, you're getting a much higher nutritional value from from this wild food, even if you get like. I have four black walnut trees in my yard and every year I pick up like well, every year that they fall because they skip a year sometimes, but anyway, I get a lot of attitude.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Exactly, yeah, black walnuts are pain but and they're horrible to shell.

Speaker 1: 11:40

I have a special cracker just for cracking my black walnuts, and it takes hours. I haven't had time. I've still got a giant box of black walnuts from last October. I have not had time to crack because all winter I was just busting my butt building my business and stuff. I'm honestly hoping that enough people um, you know, buy, buy my stuff in my classes that I can take like a month off and just crack all my walnuts, because that's how long it's going to take to crack them all, I'm still trying to schedule the month off.

Speaker 2: 12:07

So if you tell me how you do, I will never ever end up scheduling a month.

Speaker 1: 12:11

I have a farm. I'm never going to be able to do that. I have ducklings and chicks. I have this chick, so right over here behind me and on the other side of the room there'slings so I have ducks and chicks too, and yeah yeah, I'm good, I should be snuggling one right now, but you know it would be be bothersome for the podcast anyway well, I don't think we should really care about what you're bothered by you either listen or you don't yeah, so, but anyway, that's the point I'm talking.

Speaker 1: 12:35

You know, the the wild food is is like I think it's something like 50 or 60% more nutritious than cultivated food. Even the regenerative agriculture is fantastic and I practiced that year on my farm. I just have a tiny farm, but the wild food and this is the way I like to explain to people that food source, that plant put itself wherever it put itself for a reason, put itself wherever it put itself for a reason, it decided to grow in that spot because that spot had exactly of soil, had exactly what that plant wanted or needed to grow, whereas, no matter even even the most regenerative, sustainable, amazing, organic garden that you can grow, you're going to be growing vegetable seeds that have been, you know, cultivated over your even heirloom varieties. They've still been cultivated by humans for eating. They're millions of years old, yeah, but they still like. You're putting that seed into this piece of soil on purpose and you need to make sure you, as the human, have to make sure that you're giving that area, that plot of soil, enough compost or vitamins or fertilizer or whatever, so that plant can grow where the wild plants are, just like you know, I'm going to stick myself here.

Speaker 1: 13:47

I'm going to stick myself there because I like, and then they go crazy. That's why, like a lot of times, my, my vegetable garden ends up looking more like an herb garden by the end of the season, because, hey, red clover put itself here and I run around and I eat red clover all summer, you know. Or or the yellow dock put itself there, I'm just going to go ahead and harvest that at the end of the year. I might as well, um, things like that. They pop up and I just let them go. So I'm a little bit of a crazy, like all the other farmers think I'm nuts, um, well, we, we, we, we are very open to volunteers too.

Speaker 1: 14:18

Yeah, yeah, the ball. I mean sometimes I will go out there and weed because certain things have to be. You know, get babied a little bit. You know you can't, you can't let the weeds get too crazy around your pepper plants if you want to have peppers.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Yeah, peppers are can be moody, yeah, yeah, and but. But at the same time I had a wild tomato type right. So solanum nigrum have you seen solanum nigrum? Yeah, a lot of people freak out because they think Solanum nigrum is black nightshade. Black nightshade isn't as common as you think. It is Like belladonna, black nightshade, it's not as common and people freak out.

Speaker 1: 14:53

So every year I find myself either talking about it or making a dozen videos about making, just like showing look, this is Solanum Nigrum, you can eat the greens and you can eat the berries, and they come in like little black Clusters of black berries, whereas Belladonna, or you know, black Nightshade Is one little berry With these really weird Long Curvy Not a calyx, maybe it is a calyx, the little tomato. They come out really wide and they're one little berry and that's black and it's freaky. And if you find that that's black nightshade, don't play with it. I don't think it's going to kill you if you touch it, but just don't eat it. But solanum nigrum looks similar and there's little clusters of blackberries.

Speaker 1: 15:31

They're delicious. Like I was, can't. I was picking those and canning them with my regular tomatoes last year, so I just threw them all in with everything. Delicious, they're super sweet. They're just really tiny, so it's there's no point in really cultivating a teeny, weeny little thing. Um, but it's a wild food and it shows up in my garden every year, whether I like it or not, and I just leave it because, hey, free food right, yeah, yeah, no, no, totally right.

Speaker 2: 15:54

I mean I figure we have a uh child who bought a house that came with a pig nice he. So he decided to keep the pig Nice and he's I guess he's like. When he got the house it was like the pig was probably about 100 pounds underweight and he's now castrated so he was never going to be food, oh no, so we really had to help boost him. And so there's really no waste from our garden anymore.

Speaker 1: 16:21

Oh, I bet.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Yeah, the pig or whatever other animal you know, and it's crazy because if you, if you have that connection, you can make those connections, you can find things to feed other things in your land.

Speaker 1: 16:41

Even when you just get a few chickens, those chickens are going to eat all the scraps from whatever you've got. If you go to a restaurant and you don't finish your restaurant food, throw it to your chickens and they turn it into eggs. I mean, I don't really go to restaurants much anymore, but the chickens get a lot of scraps and you know the ducks. They all go through the scraps and then they scratch it all up and they add their poop and then the next year you can put that in the garden and it's free fertilizer for your, your garden we have a huge compost pile that my husband moves around with the tractor.

Speaker 2: 17:10

Oh wow, he puts everything in there right, yeah and then the chickens see him go to the compost and they go bananas.

Speaker 1: 17:19

I bet, yeah, I bet, yeah, and then he lets them work for it.

Speaker 2: 17:23

It's really funny. But yeah absolutely no, it's. It's great because there are so many. When you start thinking about foraging and wild foods, you can make a lot more connections with healing the planet. The way you use things. It's fabulous, I mean. I think the thing is that people I think people unfortunately at times make these trendy activities yeah, and then they go and they just like completely deplete an area because they want to like yeah and so like how do you address responsibility with your students so?

Speaker 1: 18:04

I there. There are certain. The first thing I start teaching people about is like, if you're just getting started with foraging, um, look for plants that you're going to find in huge abundance. So usually one of the easiest thing to start with is whatever plant is invasive in your area, and if you're even if you're not around here, like where I am.

Speaker 1: 18:25

You can just go, google invasive plants and your zip code and a list of like 10 or 15, probably crazy invasive plants are going to come up. So, um, things like garlic mustard, japanese knotweed, uh, rosa multiflora, um there's. There's things I I know in the South they've got kudzu everywhere and holy crap kudzu is evil so almost a foot a day in some places.

Speaker 1: 18:50

Yeah, japanese knotweed does almost the same thing. It's super bad. So if you start off with the invasive stuff, especially in person, like you, you go to a conservation area, you go to. I would be willing to bet. If you went to a national park, you know there's always going to be signs saying please don't touch the vegetation, don't feed the bears, don't blah, blah, blah, because they want to maintain the natural park.

Speaker 1: 19:15

If you go to a natural you know national park, I guarantee you if you start picking garlic mustard, they're not going to complain. They're hiring people to go and pick that garlic mustard or whatever other crazy, crazy invasive thing. Like if it's full of mugwort and you go like I'm going to click, clip a little bit of mugwort, I don't think anybody's going to yell at you because it's so invasive. You know, in all of these places like they, they actually pay, they hire crews of people to go in there and rip it out. Um, I could make the argument well, what if you're not ripping it out correctly? But I don't know how you can rip a plant out incorrectly.

Speaker 2: 19:51

So well the goats do, if we don't have exactly, yeah, right.

Speaker 1: 19:56

So so if you start, if you're worried about sustainability, you can always start with with the invasive plants, and there's a lot of invasive plants in this country, right?

Speaker 1: 20:05

now because so many things I mean there were. There's things that were brought over from europe 400 years ago that are now, um, they're naturalized. So it's they're not native and but they're, they're naturalized and they've, like, become a part of the landscape, like dandelions or some of the varieties of plantain um grow absolutely everywhere and you can find them, and those are naturalized plants that even the the most of the native cultures have just accepted as, hey, you know what? This is actually a pretty cool plant. We're just gonna eat it or work with it, medicinal, whatever, because it works. It's a nice plant, um.

Speaker 2: 20:39

But there's other things like um japanese barberry is highly invasive, at least here in new england, and um it was one of those plants that they plant you know around every like strip mall right yeah, people are around outside of a fast food restaurant and then, and then, people like me go in the woods.

Speaker 1: 20:57

There's like a million of them, yeah, and you know so so that kind of thing, like they brought it over because it was pretty and now it took over. Um, so if you can find medicinal you know juices for that plant like a barberry, um, barberry roots if you're brave enough to dig up a barberry, because the thorns on it are just horrible, um, but barberry root is super high in berberine, same as golden seal. Barberry root is so similar to golden seal. Barberry root is so similar to golden seal like, and golden seal is way endangered and not sustainable. But you can go out in the woods and dig up a crap load of barberry and get the same medicinal components for free. So you know, do that if you want.

Speaker 1: 21:38

If you want that component, if you're looking for that golden seal type thing, just go get some barberry and it's pretty much the same thing. So, in a sustainable way, you might as well harvest the wild invasive plants. So that's a good way to do it. If you're just getting like you don't know what you're doing at all in any way, shape or form, number one I can help you with that. So follow me on social media or check out some of my classes or my email list or whatever. But number two just step outside your backyard, even if you live in a city, walk a block and just pay attention, notice whatever weeds are in the sidewalk, or you know how a lot of cities they'll plant a tree every like 20 feet or something like that.

Speaker 2: 22:22

So you need to make up for paving everything else over.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Exactly yeah, and look at the little circle or square that that tree is planted in and see what little weeds are popping up in there, because there's always going to be opportunistic weeds popping up in the tiniest of places, like sometimes weeds will grow in the bark of a tree even.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Oh, yeah, and a stone wall exactly. Oh, I, I took a picture of that. I found some uh, some greater celandine and garlic mustard growing in a in a vertical stone wall and like the tiniest bit of a crack greater celandine is really good at finding a place to grow.

Speaker 2: 22:55

Oh my gosh, that's really amazing yeah, it's, it's crazy up here.

Speaker 1: 23:00

so, but you're, you're almost guaranteed to find dandelions somewhere. Um, the problem is, in a city, you do have to worry about whether they're spraying them. So if they're trying to spray dandelions, or you know, you go to a city park. Um, you don't want to be foraging in a place where people are letting their dogs pee and poop all over the place. Oh, why not? Come on? Yeah, I will tell you. At least once a month, somebody online asks me I bet a dog peed on that and I'm just like you know what I? I'm done fighting with you people. Yeah, I'm sure, because I'm not smart enough to go harvest things from where a dog doesn't pee. But you know, just just use your common sense judgments.

Speaker 2: 23:41

Don't forage in a dog park, forage from places, but so nobody ever worries about, like possum pee and groundhog pee and deer pee.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Yeah Well, the funniest thing about that is like do you have any idea how many things have probably peed on the vegetables, the vegetables that are in the grocery store? So many, oh yeah. Whether humans are urinating nearby or or animals are crawling on them, or it's a certain amount of rat feces is OK to be in your food. So many things have touched vegetables.

Speaker 2: 24:17

I'm just trying to encourage people. I mean, it's true, People, people they just don't realize. It's only one thing Exactly.

Speaker 1: 24:25

Well, you picked that up and didn't wash it. Aren't you worried you're going to get sick and I'm like, no, the worst thing um that that has ever happened to like some. Uh, somebody like me, that's a forager. I will. If you're going to be a forager, if you're going to be foraging things on a regular basis and you get braver and braver and you're crazy like me and you just start going like I'm going to pick this leaf and eat it. I don't care about washing it. Whatever you might want to consider doing a natural parasite cleanse once or twice a year, and I do that myself because I guarantee somewhere along the lines I've probably eaten a slug and not known it, and slugs often carry parasites. So just that's.

Speaker 2: 25:02

That's and it's not like I'm sure you never ever walk around barefoot in places where you probably shouldn't be.

Speaker 1: 25:11

I'm barefoot right now. I'm barefoot Me too.

Speaker 2: 25:14

I have a grown up shirt on and my pajamas for bottoms. I came home from doing the repairs this morning.

Speaker 1: 25:23

That's another thing people like to pick on me for. But I hike barefoot. I hike barefoot. I'm barefoot all the time. From March through mid-November at least, I'm barefoot as much as possible. I put shoes on to go to the grocery store and stuff, because I don't want to get arrested or anything but being barefoot on the ground, other people's groaniness, the ground. That too, because other people step in dog poo and I don't want to step in dog poo. I have I've stepped in dog poo before. It's not fun.

Speaker 1: 25:53

Um yeah, I don't have dogs, but it's when I was a kid when I was a kid I had dogs and I accidentally stepped in dog poo barefoot and it was like the worst experience ever. So I am very glad that I don't. I'm I'm careful where I step. That's one thing about hiking barefoot. People are like how can you do that? How can you do that? And I'm like when you start hiking barefoot, like you start off easing into it, you're going with flip-flops or whatever, and then just finally you take the plunge, you start going barefoot and I don't go hiking, I'm not climbing mountains in New England Like there's, there's some places that are harder than others, but you, honestly, with bare feet, you get a better grip on the stones, you get a better grip on the ground.

Speaker 2: 26:33

I used to run barefoot in the woods. Yeah, so it was more trails through, yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:40

Well, in the woods, yeah, so it was more trails through. Yeah, well, that's what I'm doing. Yeah, I go on trails, and you're you. You do have to be careful where you put your feet. So you're looking, you're looking at the ground a little bit more often and you're careful where you place your feet, because I'll tell you, I've stepped on thorns, I've stepped on a pointy rock. It's not fun, um. So you have to, you have to be more mindful of where you're placing your feet and you get the hang of it really pretty quickly. But it also forces you to move your body a little bit more slowly. So you are a little, a little bit more deliberate about your leg movements. And I've noticed that when I started like I started the beginning of last year hiking barefoot, and I noticed that every time I take a hike I've got more of a workout than I used to, because I used to be just in sneakers and I bang, bang, boom, I'm right through.

Speaker 1: 27:21

But now I'm, I'm careful, I have to think about where I'm putting my feet and I have to move a little bit more slowly. So it moves your, it exercises your legs you know the whole leg muscle even more, and it's exercising your brain.

Speaker 2: 27:33

So you know it's, it's a great thing to do. Um, plus it, plus it. Well, you probably also have less injury. Um, because you're more mindful you know less twisting knees and stuff like that because you're more mindful about how you're stepping exactly but you know, because I totally I've stepped on a thorn and not realized and go, ah shit I'm sorry. I'm sorry, shouldn't be sorry. We're all grown-ups here.

Speaker 1: 27:55

Yeah, I totally swear when I step on a thorn. It's not good, and in my backyard I will. I stepped on a bee twice last year and it's not fun, so I will. I'm allergic to bees. Um, I'm not allergic, uh, to the point of um, complete anaphylaxis where I'm going to stop breathing and die I. But I'm allergic enough that, like it kind of makes me woozy and a little bit faint. So every time I've stepped on a bee or come close to it, I immediately go grab some stinging nettle tincture because that helps offset the uh the allergy reaction.

Speaker 1: 28:27

And while I'm limping back to the house, I grab some plantain, because I just chew that up, put it right on it and you know, plantain takes care of the pain of that bee sting within like two minutes or something like that. It's really nice so you know that's.

Speaker 2: 28:42

That's foraging right there, though there you go, you know, yeah, can I ask you some questions? Yeah, absolutely. So what is something that you would like people to know about you as a person?

Speaker 1: 28:57

oh gosh like, what is something like like.

Speaker 2: 29:00

So I'm always like I'm super practical, like there's not.

Speaker 1: 29:03

I'm like I'm pretty practical, um, but I'm also, um. When I say I'm a dirty hippie, I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that in the way that most people, the majority of people that I meet, don't go barefoot because they're afraid to go barefoot, or they don't eat wild plants because they're afraid to go to eat wild plants. Um.

Speaker 2: 29:24

I you're a fearless hippie.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Uh yeah, I, basically I I feel like I was just actually writing about this this morning. Um, I think there's a difference between being afraid of nature and respecting nature. And I respect and I've been building a relationship with the nature around me. I also I talk with trees, and some people think I'm nuts for that and some people think that's the coolest thing ever, because you can actually communicate with the plants on a certain level. It's for me and this is probably I'm like a super young at at this, for those that might know better but it's it's way easier to talk with a tree than it is to talk with, just like a garden plant. For me. Like I feel like trees are are closer to humans for whatever reason. Like you can get up and you can hug a tree, just like you're hugging you know your spouse or hugging someone you love and they do all communicate, we know that they communicate with each other, so when they're giving us advice we

Speaker 2: 30:21

can feel like you can trust it because they've got millions of people giving them hey, no, no, tell her this man.

Speaker 1: 30:29

And then you've got the plants that are. You know, even if they're in your garden or they're in the yard, there's like 10,000 different plants and some of them hate each other and there's probably a little bit more infighting. It's like, you know, the trees are, I talk with trees and I'm I'm not, I'm not exactly fearless, because I would never eat something that I didn't recognize or that I didn't think I recognized there's a difference between fearless and stupid.

Speaker 1: 30:54

Exactly, exactly, that's. That's that's what I've been trying to figure out, like what's a good way to explain that to people? Because so many people come to me and say how do you get over being afraid to try this wild plant or try eating this mushroom that you just found? People are absolutely terrified that they're going to poison themselves, and that's where taking a class or getting some kind of in-person instruction is good Getting, even if it's online, as long as there's like really detailed videos or really really detailed pictures, you can be like all right, I'm pretty sure you can also join. There's a lot of Facebook groups and things that where you can join or like I've got a membership right now. People joined so they can say, okay, this person's an expert and they're going to be giving me the go-ahead, like, yes, this is definitely this plant or this is definitely this mushroom. When you see like 10 different people say, oh yeah, that's what this plant is and they're all agreeing with each other, you're pretty sure that's what that plant is.

Speaker 1: 31:50

So it's like a group, community effort, learning all together Because I've learned that way. I've been doing this for a very long time, but I had to learn somewhere too. And thank God the internet existed, because it would have taken me longer if the internet did not exist. Um, I, I started. I started learning foraging in like 2006, but you know, the internet was not a baby but it really was in some ways it was in some ways like YouTube only came out in 2005, so I couldn't like 2006 when I started foraging.

Speaker 1: 32:23

Charlie the unicorn was a brand new thing. That dates me um I'm not even sure, okay, so somebody somebody along the lines is gonna listen to this and start laughing. I'm sure, um but, but I have no, like I'm no good with Internet memes.

Speaker 2: 32:38

Yeah, normal people's social cues and references, because I like I just I exist in such a weird bubble.

Speaker 1: 32:47

I mean I've been online since 96. Yeah, Teaching online since 98. I can reference old memes. I can reference old memes but I don't know any of the fun stuff. I reference the Simpsons all the time.

Speaker 2: 33:00

I do like, I do like, I do like, I can probably pick up that a little bit. Yeah, so years without television or living in the US, so I missed a lot of stuff too by now.

Speaker 1: 33:07

Oh, yeah, well, I haven't had tv for like 12 years now. So people are like oh, did you see this commercial? And I'm like no, I don't watch commercials of anything. Like I even got rid of Netflix a few years ago. Like I'm watching DVDs of stuff I bought eight years ago. That's a swap meet.

Speaker 2: 33:24

That's pretty much it. Like I don't need to hear it now.

Speaker 1: 33:30

So, yeah, that's. That's. Hopefully that was a little bit about me, if you want to learn.

Speaker 2: 33:34

All right, so what drew you?

Speaker 1: 33:36

to herbs I started. I always tell people like the, what really started me, um, in getting at least a little bit into herbal medicine or herbalism was, um, having my first child. So I had my daughter in 2009 and, um, there's nothing you can safely give an infant, nothing you can safely give an infant. If your infant has problems, has colic or a stomach ache or any kind of issues, you cannot give anything over the counter. There's nothing you could buy at Walmart, the grocery store, anywhere online that is safe to give that child as, like, a medical thing you can't like. You know, a lot of people in their twenties are like you know, they have their first kid and they're like, well, what can I give my kid? Tylenol if they've got a headache. If that kid's under two, nope, um, so I had like a two, three week old colicky baby and I had no idea what to do and I think I had this. I had this book. I think it was Aviva Ram's book. Uh, naturally healthy babies and children.

Speaker 2: 34:35

So I had that book.

Speaker 1: 34:37

I had that book somebody had given me and so I started giving my daughter some chamomile tea and that helped and I was like this is awesome. So then I started giving her gripe water which she was having issues with her stomach.

Speaker 1: 34:49

Great water this is so cool Made with fennel. And I'm like, oh. So I started getting like my eyes opened to herbal herbalism, um, back then. And then I like I would take walks, I would push her in the stroller and I'd start seeing plants along the side of the road, or I'd start seeing plants a little bit off into the woods and be like, oh, what is that thing? That looks really cool. And I just started wanting to recognize what I was seeing every day and looking it up.

Speaker 1: 35:13

I will tell you, I found fiddleheads exactly once and I need to get my butt out into the woods because it's fiddlehead season right now. If I don't get them now, they're going to be gone. But I found the correct ostrich fern fiddleheads once and ate them Like I ate one raw and it was delicious. You're not supposed to, you're supposed to cook them, but I ate one raw and it was good. And then I thought, oh, I'm going to find all of the ferns and just go around and eat all of the ferns and that's a bad idea, because only ostrich ferns are fiddleheads. There's only, like I think, two or maybe three varieties of edible ferns out of the like hundred something fern varieties there are in this country, and I learned that the hard way, by being stupid and eating one and realizing, wow, this is horrible, this is really bitter, this tastes terrible. And then I really I'm. I'm glad I realized that after the first bite or two because, um, I would have gotten very sick if I had continued trying to eat that anyway.

Speaker 2: 36:04

Just, do it anyways.

Speaker 1: 36:06

Yeah, don't. If you take a bite of something and it tastes absolutely awful, just stop eating it because there's it's either the wrong plant or it's it's in the wrong season it's wrong for you?

Speaker 1: 36:16

Yeah, so if it tastes absolutely horrible, it's not a good thing for you. And then on the opposite spectrum, there's things like daylilies. Daylilies, hemorocallis species, those grow wild, like all over the country. They're seriously bad up here because people, people call them ditch lilies because you'll be just driving for miles and see little patches of these bright orange daylilies all over the place and those are edible. Little patches of these bright orange day lilies all over the place and those are edible. Yeah, well, everyone wanted to plant them Exactly. Well, the sprouts are edible, the flower buds are edible, the roots are edible.

Speaker 1: 36:47

I haven't experimented enough with the roots, but I've eaten enough of the sprouts and the buds to know that they are so delicious that, um, I've I have to stop myself from eating. Like I don't even harvest them that much anymore, because every time I harvest them and cook a whole pan of them, I eat the entire flipping pan and then I end up in the bathroom with diarrhea. Because daylilies, if you eat too many will give you diarrhea, and I'm warning anybody, they're absolutely delicious. Just watch out, because you should only eat a little bit at a time. You know like maybe after they're cooked, like fill the palm of your hand. That, that much.

Speaker 2: 37:25

And that's like eat the serving size.

Speaker 1: 37:27

Eat the serving size. Don't eat the entire frying pan because they're you know, your kids don't want to eat it and you're like, well, they're so good and they're natural, so they must be good for me. Yeah, they're going to be good for you for the next four hours in the bathroom too.

Speaker 2: 37:42

There you go, so just be careful. So tell us what is your um, what are your herbal goals. Like are you thinking about wanting to? How do you want to expand your, your herbal foraging business?

Speaker 1: 37:59

I would like to do more talks in person, um, because I do a lot of presentation type stuff online and um, I know that people like watching me and people like interacting with me and when I do this in, like, I teach in-person classes during the summertime and and I get a lot of really great feedback from that. So I know I'm really good at that and I want to do more of that. I would like to be able to get up and, you know, speak in front of a room of people or something and talk about this kind of stuff to people a room of people or something, and talk about this kind of stuff to people. I'd like to also be teaching more classes, if I can, or you know, build a few.

Speaker 1: 38:41

I know I need time to build more classes, but my real the thing that makes me relax and happy is gardening and farming and being out there in the woods and doing it myself. So, like if somebody wanted to, they're like, oh, teach a class, okay, just follow me, follow me through the woods and doing it myself. So, like if somebody wanted to, they're like oh, teach a class, okay, just follow me, follow me through the woods and don't ask me a million questions and just watch what I do, go for it Sounds like a perfect day to me.

Speaker 2: 39:04

Exactly, it's fantastic right.

Speaker 1: 39:06

I am trying to expand my business a little bit. Right now I'm having a shed. I know it's just a little eight by 10 shed built behind my garage next week and that's going to be my production space for my, my herbal oils, because it's great.

Speaker 1: 39:24

That's 80 square feet, yeah. So I and I make my like. I make comfrey oil and birch oil and people absolutely go nuts for both of those. There's a few other infused oils and salves that I make and like people go crazy for that. So, having that little production space, once I have that built, I'll be able to sell those things like in a store instead of just from you know my own customers, kind of thing so I can't.

Speaker 2: 39:51

So that's my expansion. So you have to let us know when you do that, so we can let everyone know that.

Speaker 1: 39:56

Yeah Well if you follow me on social media. I'm sure I'll announce it. I'm going to like, once the guy's here starting to build the shed, I'm going to go out there and record him for a minute. Nice, nice, yeah, you got it right?

Speaker 1: 40:08

Yeah, exactly. So I'm trying to expand that. I'm thinking about putting a little greenhouse up and I'm always. I'm sitting here I'm struggling between do I want to sell my farm and move somewhere else that's warmer or whatever, or do I want to continue farming and building this place up. And whether I'm going to move or not is God knows when that'll happen or up in the air. It's probably likely someday I will end up moving. But I keep buying more plants. This year I just bought new trees. I bought spice bush. I just bought another peach tree. I'm buying. You know, when you buy a tree, you know you're going to be somewhere for a while.

Speaker 2: 40:46

Yeah, this is from someone who's moved a lot and bought a lot of trees. Yeah, it's like a bummer leaving them behind, like we had planted a whole orchard in Florida. Oh, gosh, and then we decided to move back up North to be closer to our children and you know it sucks, yeah, cause you build a relationship with those trees and the plants. I don't know what the other people are doing to them.

Speaker 1: 41:07

Exactly. I will tell you right now I absolutely staunchly refuse. I will only sell this when I eventually want to move. I will tell you right now I absolutely staunchly refuse I will only sell this when I eventually want to move. I will only sell this place to somebody that's going to keep it up as a farm in some way, because I'll be like look, I just spent the last 20 years building this. You know, instead of you having to go out and build from scratch, you're going to have this totally working homestead.

Speaker 1: 41:27

So you can just build your you can sell it as a business. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean I have a Hawthorne bush growing it's it's still only like three feet tall, but I I bought that Hawthorne. I should tell you my Hawthorne bush story. I accidentally bought a Hawthorne bush from Portugal. I did not mean to buy a Hawthorne from Portugal. I went online looking for Crutagus monogina um because I wanted the official, like you know, the medicinal Hawthorne. And the only place that I could find that was selling any was this one website and I was like, all right, sweet, I'm going to get this little bush. And it was like 16 bucks. The shipping was a little much, but I was like, all right, it's fine, I'm getting exactly what I want. Two or three weeks went by and I realized I hadn't heard anything from it. It hadn't shown up yet. So I checked on my order and the company was in Portugal. So I realized I bought a shrub from over. I'm like I didn't even know that was legal.

Speaker 2: 42:19

Um.

Speaker 1: 42:20

I imported it, so I um. The funny thing is I'm, I'm part Portuguese, so I was like well, this is cool.

Speaker 1: 42:28

So it's coming from the homeland, right? So I opened. I was thinking there's no way in hell this thing is going to survive. There's no way, Cause it was like four or five weeks before it even arrived and I opened this tiny little tube and I'm thinking I'm going to find a dead stick and like as soon as I reached my hand in there to pull it up, to pull it out of the tube, I just felt this overwhelming oh, my God, I love you. Thank you so much. This is so beautiful. I felt like love and excitement that it was still alive and it wasn't just me. This plant was like thank you, yeah, I love you. This is great. So I have a special relationship with that little Hawthorne and she's she's doing okay, she doesn't love it here, but she's not dying or anything.

Speaker 2: 43:05

She's doing okay, I thought you didn't tell me there'd be so much stuff, come on.

Speaker 1: 43:09

Yeah, I can't smell the ocean and rain and yeah, well, I mean I'm not, I'm not, I'm like an hour from the ocean. It's terrible.

Speaker 2: 43:18

That's not too bad.

Speaker 1: 43:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:21

So what is your favorite part of being a?

Speaker 1: 43:25

herbalist Helping people, I think, is that. I mean, I'm pretty sure most people will say something like that, like when I help somebody with something and they come back to me, you know, a week or a month or two months later and say, oh my gosh, thank you so much, you helped me or you healed me, you're the reason I'm not sick anymore, or whatever, that feels awesome. Being able to make that kind of whether whether it was herbs or diet or whatever it is that I did for that person, it feels really good. Even if it was just some little product that I made. They're like oh my God, this thing is awesome. This changed my life. I'm better now. So me being in that person's life changed their life for the better somehow, and that feels awesome. That's like the whole butterfly effect. I know that if I didn't exist, all these people would still have all these problems and, um, I'm, I'm making a difference. So that feels. That feels good.

Speaker 2: 44:22

Um, I like that I like that.

Speaker 1: 44:24

I do also like being um paid for for doing what I absolutely love, so that is fantastic and let's remind our listeners.

Speaker 2: 44:30

So that is fantastic. That is fantastic and let's remind our listeners, right? Herbalist healers, aromatherapists, massage therapists, all these other people that work in the healing industry, they do still have bills to pay.

Speaker 1: 44:46

Yes, and deserve to be paid.

Speaker 2: 44:49

Frickin whining and just you know we don't go in and try to wheedle down the price when we need a new transmission and come on man, can't you do me a solid like yeah, I'm cool too, or I basically know everything you're gonna tell me anyway, so can you give me a discount? Well, the one thing I want to tell you, I tell you, go get your tranny someplace else.

Speaker 1: 45:15

The thing I want to impart to people because a lot of the people that are listening to this are other herbalists or people that are learning herbalism, aspiring herbalists you need to accept the fact that once you start practicing and you're comfortable enough and you're never going to be 100% comfortable I have imposter syndrome all the time. I think everybody does. But once you start helping people and you're never going to be a hundred percent comfortable Even I, I have imposter syndrome all the time. I think everybody does. But once you start helping people and you know that you're helping, you're actually helping people.

Speaker 1: 45:41

Don't underestimate yourself, don't discount yourself. Don't sit there and say, well, this person, you know they say they don't have any money and I really feel bad and I want to help them. Don't care more about another person than they care about themselves. You can't allow yourself to do that. That's a mental health tip. You cannot care more about them than they care about themselves. Because if there's another person that says that they want to heal but then they won't actually do any of the work or take any of the supplements or change their diet or any of that kind of stuff, they don't actually care and you're caring more than they are and you're, and that's going to be responsible for other people's finances too Like.

Speaker 1: 46:20

Oh.

Speaker 2: 46:20

I just bought a new car. I can't pay my payment plan this month.

Speaker 1: 46:24

I'm like well, wait, I don't know why that's my problem.

Speaker 2: 46:28

Enjoy the car, but you owe me money.

Speaker 1: 46:30

You know, so it's like people will come to me and be like I'm on disability, I don't make this much money. I only you know I only can do this, I can. Can you just please help me? And I'm like no, I'm sorry, I have a mortgage to pay. I also have bills I need to pay. I'm not asking outrage. I'm not telling you you need to pay me $2,000 for you know to talk to me for 15 minutes. That I'm not outrageous by any means. But you absolutely deserve to be paid for the services that you're rendering. And if you're making good quality herbal products, think about that. You deserve to be paid for those products. Don't undercut yourself. Don't say well, I'll sell you this thing for five bucks, because that that's like saying you don't believe your product's going to work.

Speaker 2: 47:10

Oh well, I mean, we know if you go. You know I always tell students like look, go to like an ulta or sephora. There are people spending 90 on a lipstick. Yeah, look, exactly. You can sell your sab or your teacher for what it's worth, exactly because people will choose it's a choice.

Speaker 1: 47:29

It's a choice, everyone's running around with a thousand dollar phone or you know, I mean I.

Speaker 2: 47:35

I mean I used to complain about having to pay 11 bucks a month just to have a landline just in there on long distance fees. I think it's probably cheaper than what we pay now.

Speaker 1: 47:45

But you know, the reality is it is a choice, people are making choices and yep cool they choose what they're going to spend their money on and if they want, if they want to change their health and you know with, without a doubt, you can help them and you're telling them I can help you they're going to pay you what you're asking. You know absolutely. You know you could do it with integrity and honesty and and fairness, but you're saying you can be fair to yourself and other people.

Speaker 2: 48:11

Be fair, exactly be fair to yourself and other people.

Speaker 1: 48:12

Be fair, exactly. Be fair to yourself, not just fair to the other. Don't undercut yourself. A lot of times somebody put it like this because somebody was telling me some of my classes, they're like your prices of your classes are way too low. I did actually raise my prices on some of my classes recently, so I'll still do a sale once in a while. But I raised the prices because this person was like look, if you see an herbalism class and it's 20 bucks, do you think that is a good deal, that's a great class? Or do you look at the one that's 200 bucks and say, oh, you know what? I bet I'm going to learn a lot more in that class that's 200 bucks than the $20 one. Don't undercut yourself. Get to the point where you're teaching people. They'd be like well, okay, I took this thing for 20 bucks and I learned everything there is to know about all kinds of herbalism. Because this person didn't believe in their self enough to charge a fair price. That kind of screws both of you.

Speaker 2: 49:04

Yeah, right, right for sure. So will you let everyone know before we close up where they can find you again?

Speaker 1: 49:12

I am at blacksunfarmctcom. That is my main website. That has links to everything. There's a thing that's for social media on there. My YouTube link is on there. I'm on TikTok. I'm at the original Meal Chan on TikTok, which is a weird name. I know everything. I'm Black Sun Farm. Everywhere else, if you look for Black Sun Farm, I'm it. But I started TikTok like two and a half years ago for fun, like I just was like whatever, I'm going to throw a name up there and then all of a sudden I got all these followers and by the time you end up with a ton of followers, you can't change your name because then nobody will know who you are anymore.

Speaker 2: 49:49

I've got a different name. You've got to mix it up a little bit. Keep people guessing.

Speaker 1: 49:52

Basically, yeah, and the funny thing is I have two Instagram profiles. One is Black Sun Farm and the other one is at the original MailChimp, because that was like my nickname, but that was just. It's personal, nothing whatever. It is BS that I feel like posting that day, whereas the Black Sun Farm one is like I'm actually going to teach you something, this is something about this plant or this remedy, and yada yada, teaching about different foraging skills and things like that and herbalism.

Speaker 2: 50:23

So yeah, I'm there, I'm going to give you a follow. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1: 50:24

And YouTube and Instagram and Facebook. If you Google Black Sun Farm, the only other Black Sun Farm in the country is someplace in Delaware and I think they've got like 20 likes and I've got like 80,000 followers on Facebook. So look for the one with a lot of people looking at it.

Speaker 2: 50:43

Look at the one that everybody likes.

Speaker 1: 50:45

I'm almost at a hundred thousand followers on TikTok now, so that feels pretty good. That's pretty close, yeah, and YouTube's getting better and I have a mailing list. So there's a there's on my blackstonefarmctcom website. There's a link you can click which gives you my free foraging guide and I can give you the link for that if you want to put that in the show yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 51:03

So send that to me and we'll put. When we put the information about the podcast people can click to all your social links.

Speaker 1: 51:14

Cause I email people a lot too. I email my list you know my mailing list probably at least once or twice a week and you're learning stuff from me. Plus, you're getting to know like, hey, amelia likes this really cool thing. Maybe I should look at it, you know.

Speaker 2: 51:23

Awesome, that's great. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you and make sure you send me all of your links, cause I want to make sure that when we put this up, everyone can find you.

Speaker 2: 51:36

I think that's really important and so just thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I know this is kind of a new little endeavor we're doing. This is actually me getting out of my comfort zone. I actually don't like doing stuff like this, so I'm learning don't like doing stuff like this, so I'm learning.

Speaker 1: 51:59

That's good. You know, I can talk people's ear off for a couple of hours, so I'm good.

Speaker 2: 52:01

Well, we should definitely book you again. So keep in touch, let me know new things that are coming, and I appreciate your time, thank you, thank you, all right, I'm going to end this, so I think it'll end everything at the same time, so that's fine.

Speaker 1: 52:14

Thank you so much for listening everyone.

Speaker 2: 52:16

This is Demetria Clark from Heart of Herbs Herbal School and our little podcast saying good day, Bye-bye.

Speaker 1: 52:22

Bye-bye.