A nervine is a plant remedy that has a beneficial effect on the nervous system.
You’ve probably heard of some of them: chamomile, valerian, and kava kava.
There are actually hundreds of plants with nervine effects and they come in different strength and properties.
Nervines fall into three categories:
* Tonic nervines
* Relaxing nervines
* Stimulating nervines
David Hoffman lays it out.
– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org
If I were footloose and fancy free – and fit enough for ten weeks in the fields – I might consider this.
Herb Pharm runs three of these programs every year.
In addition to hands on experience (aka serious work) in the fields and in the workshops and barns there’s classroom learning time too.
Topics covered include plant identification, ethical wildcrafting, traditional western herbal energetics, ayurvedic herbology, ethnobotany, plant communications, … Read more
David Winston is the founder of Herbalist and Alchemist, an herbal medicine maker and education company he started in 1982.
He’s also a clinical herbalist with forty years of experience.
By interesting coincidence, I met David when his practice was new. He was already growing and making his own medicines way back then. How far things have come since then.
David on energetics and herbal medicine:
– Ken McCarthy… Read more
In an interview at the 1999 International Herb Symposium, Ed Smith, the founder of Herb Pharm, talks about what drew him to studying and eventually growing and processing herbs for medicine in the US.
– Ken McCarthy
PlantWisdom.org
… Read more
This is a proposed film by Louie Schwartzberg. The working title is “Fantastic Fungi: The Spirit of Good.”
It features some fantastic time lapse photography of mushroom growth.
It also includes a heart felt statement from Paul Stamets, one of the mycologists who is doing so much to expand our understanding of the natural world.
Under our feet, there is an invisible web of life that makes life for … Read more
There’s farming which can include big corporate farms, small family farms, and gardens.
Then there’s foraging which is roaming around looking for “free” food to pick and eat.
Is there something in between?
Yes there is.
In this wide ranging conversation with Tama Matsuoka Wong we talk about a middle way in which wild edible plants are encouraged to grow.
This is a “new” idea to … Read more
One of my favorite places: The New York Botanical Garden.
One of my favorite projects there: Their thirty year project to discover and study the medicinal plants of Belize in respectful conjunction with local healers.
Here’s the whole story straight from the people who lived it.
PlantWisdom.org did an in depth interview with Rosita about her life and work and you can listen to that here.
The book they’re … Read more
Ethnobotanist and herbalist Rocio Alarcon grew up in the Andean highlands of Ecuador in a family that respected and used plants, depending on them for their daily survival.
As a young adult she received an academic training and then went to the Amazon to conduct her real studies.
In this talk from the excellent YouTube channel Herb TV, she discusses the social dimensions of ayawaska use and other shamanic practices … Read more
Lots of people have the dream of farming as a living.
If you feel this in your heart, what’s stopping you?
If your image of farming is owning 20 acres in the country, maybe it’s that image that’s getting in your way.
You can grow, you can make money, and you can get started with a lot less than you think.
Farming is a business and if you go about … Read more
