Starting My Herbalism & Regenerative Farm Journal
Sharing what I learn as I learn it!
I've immensely appreciated reading herbal journals from practitioners around the world on Substack and personal blogs. Learning about plants and philosophies from other regions has inspired me to write about and share my experiences. Keeping an herbal journal is also super important for learning herbalism, and I'm glad to be starting now. Iterating our practices prompts additional research and analyzation of our thought processes. It converts our experiences into well-formed wisdom.
Sharing our journals accelerates all of these processes, as we learn so much from each other’s personal stories. As narrative creatures, we yearn for stories to connect the threads of our lives. Through weaving our experiences into tales, articles, comments, and photographs, our own minds as well as our peers’ are better able to traverse the fields of knowledge.
Herbalism is a fluid, ever-growing practice and collaboration between herbalists across the globe is necessary to build inclusive, respectful, and effective practices. By listening to the voices of elders and those who carry their lineages, we are able to preserve and revive precious, vital practices. As well, in this digital age dominated by consumerism and imperialism, where herbalism is being widely commodified and greenwashed, ecological wisdom is of the utmost importance to uplift.
So, for all of these reasons, today, in the spring of 2024, a year after seriously starting my herbal practice, I begin my semi-weekly journal.
To introduce myself briefly, I'm Arandena. I currently reside in Wichita land, so-called North Texas in the so-called United States.
The climate here is temperate with mild winters and searingly hot summers. Here in the Dallas area, we receive MORE annual precipitation than Portland, Oregon (41" and 36" respectively)! We just get it in intense, heavy thunderstorms. During the summer, we may get half of the season's rainfall in a few hours and then not see any rain for another 4-8 weeks. Due to this, we grow drought-tolerant plants, locally adapted heirloom and indigenous crop cultivars, and many native medicinal herbs. We also install earthworks to slow water in the landscape, increasing our flexibility and diversity of planting options.
My communalist troupe just bought trailers to live in while we help build a permaculture food forest for some friends. On this land, we’ll also be continuing to build a cooperative herbal apothecary and free community clinic. We are heavily engaged in mutual aid, resistance to capitalism, and ecological revolution through all of our practices. I hope to shed some light on these perspectives in relationship with herbalism here as well.
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April & May 2024 - Herbal Practices
Recently, my herbal practice has been quite limited due to a severe spraining of my ankle as well as intense rationing of anti- rheumatic pharmaceuticals (routine American lack of healthcare access)
I have some daily herbal protocols I've mostly kept up, an "Aran helper" tea which features kidney and adrenal tonics and gentle urinary infection fighters. I also mix in a few other personal blends as I need them, including an anxiolytic mix, an uplifting/antidepressant blend, and an anti-inflammatory tea for my rheumatoid arthritis. At least once a week, I try to fit in a demulcent cold infusion as well.
Alongside these, I’ve been drinking a sprain healing tea and working with solomon's seal and horsetail tinctures. I also warm-infused sweet almond oil with solomon's seal to massage into my ankle daily, and made an all-purpose balm w/ yarrow, st. john’s wort, calendula, malva, and horsetail which I also apply to the sprain. However, a balm I bought with arnica and st. john’s wort helped much more than any of my solutions. I believe this is because it is of a stronger potency.
*I’d like to move away from solomon’s seal because it is at risk in the wild due to overharvesting.*
I also finished and bottled an anxiolytic tincture with Lemon balm, Linden, Motherwort, Skullcap, Lavender, & Wild Lettuce. I’m still fiddling with the proportions as it is a little strong and hypnotic. I began with very small proportions of them, but I think the wild lettuce and motherwort need to be reduced even more- they are very potent! I have been working with the tincture daily at 5-10 drops with 20 drops for acute flares. It has been the most powerful treatment I’ve ever utilized for my chronic anxiety.
It also worked wonders for assisting in therapeutic processing. I take 2-4 drops before talk and art therapy sessions and feel it has a heart-opening effect. I theorize this is the motherwort primarily and I plan to start working with her on her own soon as well to test.
In moments of emotional breakdown and somatic trauma movement, I’ve also worked with this tincture extensively and found it to work incredibly well. I felt soothed and comforted in an herbal hug while I sobbed and moved in my grief. I often find myself with urges to harm my self when in emotional breakdown, and this tincture moved me through those feelings with grace and patience. I felt safe always. It was not as it is with psychiatric pharmaceuticals, where I felt dull and numb. No, my mind was sharp and focused. Just held as I walked through the fire into peace.
This week, I also collected fresh leaves from the garden to make tea with friends. Some ingredients were sweet clover, red clover, passionvine, wild lettuce, yarrow, lemon balm, oregano, sage, spearmint, jiaogulan, and bee balm.
Farming & Off-Grid Life
Our garden is in full bloom from the Native American Seed mixes we sowed last fall and in early spring. Currently blooming is firewheel, clasping coneflower, winecups, basketflower, yarrow, coreopsis, and bee balm! It’s always fun to see beetles diving headfirst into the basketflower blooms; this year we’ve identified kern’s flower scarab as the most prominent species. The firewheel and yarrow always attract a huge diversity of insect species as well.
The progress on our trailers and moving has been slow and steady. My partner and I removed all of the cushions and upholstery due to pet odor from the previous owner. I’ll be sewing, stuffing, and upholstering new cushions myself next month. The trailer was infested with fire ants, so we handled that. As well, my partner cleaned the A/C and has been airing out the camper. We’re hopeful to keep working on the odor and install a few shelves before moving in.
We'll also be replacing the toilet with a compost toilet and setting up a biogas digester once we get set up at the new site.
Herb Farm
Herbs Growing: calendula, lemon balm, jiaogulan, passionvine, wild mint
I'm very excited to move ! I've been working with permaculture, natural farming, and ecological restoration concepts for years, but kept having to move (4 times) due to poverty and abuse. This next site seems like a great home base to build, experiment, and learn on. My family gets the opportunity to practice permaculture skills and the landowners get a food forest built up for them- a true win, win!
I’m also enthused about having the space to grow many medicinal herbs and deepen my herbal practice for my community and my family’s financial stability as well. We plan to eventually join or found an intentional community, so building income-generating skills now is ideal.
This week, I've also been researching Transformative Justice a lot. And learning how to deeply rest, to find peace, and be happy
I'm learning more and more what I want to do in my life.
I want a simple life. I want to be able to sit with plants, animals, celestial bodies, and elements always. I want to cast off the pressures to work for causes I don’t support. Living that way was killing me. My body needs healing, rest, and fulfilling work or it will not go on.
This journey is one of survival, but also one of love and joy.
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