Real Herbal Healthcare
Nutritive Stinging Nettle Soup Recipe
Ready for a family-friendly main course concocted from the plant thought to be the most nutritive on the planet? Get your harvesting gloves out, grab your scissors and a bag or colander, and let's get snipping. The recipe is super adaptable to whatever you have in your cupboard + nettles (or even other spring greens).
Weeds at Our Feet: What Do They Mean?
Living in the Wise Woman Way In my heart, the practice of the Wise Woman Tradition is an ancestral health-affirming belief that passes down from generation to generation even in...
The Role of Invasive Herbal Preparations: Kudzu, Mimosa, Wild Rose...Plantain? Dandelion?
Within our materia medica of common 'weedy' beneficial plants native to the Appalachian mountains where we are based, you will also find a sprinkling of so-called invasive plants which are not native...
New Site, Still Made the Wise Woman Way
With the beginning of the new year in only a few short weeks, we wanted to celebrate early with the launch of our brand new website. Here at Red Moon,...
A New Year of Nourishment: Nutritious Nourishment vs. Dirty Detox
January 1st marks Detox D-Day for many who practice the heroic or the scientific traditions of herbalism. We all know what this looks like: a holiday season full of fatty...
A Day in the Life of a Wildcrafter: Hawthorne
My hawthorne berries are growing plump and ruby at the top of this 5000 foot mountain, and I am still in the bottom lowlands, a mere 3000 feet or so...
Can Plants Predict the Future?
When my herb teacher, a fourth generation herbalist, was still a young child in the foothills of the Alabama Appalachians, she learned to use plants to predict the patterns of...
Aller-Alert: Support in Season
We all know it’s coming – some of us may already be in the thick of it. The wheezing and sneezing, the bleary eyes, the runny nose, the throbbing temples, the ugh,...
Reciprocal Wildcrafting: Unexpected Gifts of the Forest
While walking in the forest recently with the kids, we found several of Earth’s bountiful treasures: whimsical witch hazel flower and a few lucky buckeye (Aesculus spp.) pictured here. We see the remains of summer’s leftover reishi (Ganoderma spp.) and lingering dried oyster mushrooms, along with so many other green and brown gifts of the forest.
Autumn Equinox – Harvest Time!
The cooling nights reminds us it’s time to get the last of our harvest in or move those sun-loving planters inside soon. Many get so excited to plant in spring, but autumn is a great time to plant perennials, giving the plants an opportunity to get roots firmly grounded before having to express energy in the spring.
Summer Solstice Rituals and Scratching the Poison Ivy Itch
For many, the summer solstice is about celebrating the sun and everything that it so graciously beams upon us: fully ripe strawberries, darkening freckles, St. John's wort oil (which is best to make right around the summer solstice when the plant is in bud and at its peak).
Finding the Light This Winter
Staying healthy means staying in harmony with the energy of the season. The Tiajitu – the yin/yang symbol pictured to the right – is a map for this. It shows...
