Orchard People

[00:00:00] Introduction and Disclaimer
The following program does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Reality Radio 101, its advertisers and sponsors, or its listening audience. Listener discretion is advised.
[00:00:30] Welcome to the Urban Forestry Radio Show
Welcome to the Urban Forestry Radio Show here on Reality Radio 101. In this radio show and podcast, we learn about fruit trees, permaculture, aboriculture, and so much more. So if you love trees, and especially fruit trees, or if you're interested in living a more sustainable life, then this is the place for you.
I'm your host, Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care training website, orchardpeople. com. Thanks for tuning in. And enjoy the show.
Welcome to the Urban Forestry Radio Show with your host, Susan Poizner. To contact Susan live right now, send her an email instudio101@gmail. com.
And now right to your host of the Urban Forestry Radio Show, Susan Poizner. Hi, everyone.
[00:01:36] Importance of Biodiversity in Fruit Tree Gardens
If you're growing fruit trees, it is really important to consider biodiversity in your garden or in your orchard. That's why many fruit tree growers plant pollinator gardens near their trees. if fruit trees are the only thing that blossoms in your garden, then, the beneficial insects may not actually find your fruit trees in time to pollinate your trees.
No pollination, no fruit, right? So when we design and install pollinator gardens, the goal is to offer the pollinators and other beneficial insects a reason to stay in your garden longer term, both for the fruit trees and for the flowers. So you ensure that there are plants blossoming throughout the growing season to offer them nutrition.
You're making your garden a really nice place for them to spend their time.
[00:02:28] Benefits of Herbs in Your Orchard
Now, herbs! are also a great thing to have in your orchard or in your pollinator garden. Different types of herbs offer different benefits. for instance, chive blossoms are really attractive to pollinators. But in addition, the oniony smell of chives is a real turn off to some insect pests.
they may also avoid your nearby fruit trees. Fennel, dill, mint, and basil attract parasitic wasps. These wasps are actually fantastic to have in your garden, and that's because they feast on the fruit tree pests like aphids, sawflies, and thrips. So in general, it's really helpful to have herbs in your orchard.
But, what do you do with all those herbs? Other than using them as the occasional garnish.
[00:03:21] Interview with Herbalist Brittany Wood Nickerson
To find out, I invited author and herbalist Brittany Wood Nickerson on the show today to talk about how those and other herbs can be used to help keep you and your family healthy just by integrating them into your daily cooking routine.
Brittany teaches herbal medicine in Western Massachusetts, and she's the author of the beautiful book, Recipes from the Herbalist's Kitchen. before we dig into today's topic, I would love to hear from you. If you're listening during the live show, just email me, whether it's with your questions, or comments, or even just to say hi, and you could Brittany's book.
Our email in the studio is InStudio101 at gmail. com. That's InStudio101 at gmail. com. So Brittany, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here. I'm glad to have you.
[00:04:22] Brittany's Journey into Herbal Medicine
Tell me, how did you start your journey as a herbalist? Like, where did you first encounter herbs?
it's a good question, but it's often the first question I get. I was lucky enough to be exposed to herbal medicine in my childhood. I had some really great elder mentors. one was a family friend who lived in my small town community, and the other was my step grandmother, who, was really environmentally ill.
She had lived in New York City in a bottom floor apartment, and their landlord was storing chemicals in the basement, and from breeding those chemicals for, gosh, I think she lived there 20 years. She became really environmentally ill and, she was told multiple times she was going to die and slowly nursed herself back to health with natural remedies.
and so she was always, throughout my whole childhood, talking about herbs and supplements. She had a slightly different approach than I do now. She used a lot of supplements. but still, I just learned so much from her about the body and herbs. It really, began my interest in, natural health. It's so interesting that you talk about that because, you tell that story, and I imagine all these fancy herbs, maybe Chinese herbs, fancy remedies, but you've come to specialize in the kind of remedies that you can grow in your own backyard.
what kind of things can really help us with our health? Yeah, and I think that's partly my personality. I like things to be simple, and I really, I think what, sparked my, sparks my interest in herbs is just this deep, innate trust in the earth and what it provides. and I love the simplicity of it, and so for me, I want to be as close as possible to the herb in its natural form.
so I love to be able to go out in the garden and taste the herb and smell the herb and make the medicine from the herb, and I think that makes it stronger. And that's really different than just going to the store and purchasing an herb. And I don't want to belittle that either, because I know that's what a lot of people have access to, and that works better for other personality types.
but we have access to regardless. We have access to that direct medicine, where we're making it ourselves, and then for those who are interested, we have access to purchasing those herbs. Absolutely, and it's interesting because if we're even, I'm involved in a community orchard, and that's how my fruit tree experience began, and we have a big, beautiful pollinator garden and herbs were one of the top things that we wanted to integrate, so even for people who don't have a garden of their own, there are ways to get these things into your community so you can have access to them.
[00:07:06] Empowering Personal Health with Herbs
Brittany, you were talking about your philosophy a little bit, and In the book, you talk about how, in our society on the whole, we rely on doctors to heal us when we're sick, and how is your perspective different? Yeah, I think that doctors and health professionals are really valuable resources. and we should seek their, expertise and their counsel.
I think, unfortunately, there's an emphasis on, health experts in our culture. And when we, go to an expert, Burden or we seek the counsel of a doctor or some other kind of health professional. We often overlook our own agency in the process of our health and our healthcare. and I think that, the, reintroducing that agency as part of what helps people heal and get well, And I know as a practitioner myself, and this is getting into my philosophy, when I work with people around herbs, I really want the empowerment to rest in their hands. I want them to feel that they're active, participants in their own health care, and that they're really empowered around it. Because I've just found that over and over again, that's what really sticks, is that belief that they can have agency in taking care of themselves.
And that the little things they do every day matter in their health care. I actually think it's part of a larger, look at how we can foster preventative wellness. because when we do things because we want to or because we know they help us, it's different than just doing things that we're told.
And so I'm interested in switching that perspective a little. To being really the stewards of our own health and implementing and gathering information from other folks, rather than really, just relying on the information from the outside. I absolutely agree with you. In a previous episode, I talk about how I have, battled with Lyme disease and in the end, I have to be my own doctor, right?
So you, you talk about, I have to be my own doctor in the sense of speaking to the experts and deciding what is right for my body and you talk in your beautiful book about, how we look at doctors like they're these heroes that they know all the answers, right? And I've come to believe that the answers are definitely from within.
so that's quite beautiful. yeah. Historically, have herbs, like the herbs we're going to be talking about, and in the show, we'll talk about specific herbs and how they can help us, but historically, what have the role, what's the role been for the kind of herbs that we can just grow in our gardens?
[00:10:01] Cooking with Medicinal Herbs
Yeah, I think, that historically people have used herbs, and in, I would say from the very beginning, it's part of a tradition of, What I would call kitchen medicine and home herbalism. still practice today I consider myself a home as well as professional herbalist. And so the integration of herbs would come into the home pharmacy as well as into daily cooking.
and the line, it was blurry. And so that's something I talk about a lot in recipes from the herbalist kitchen. Is that there's a real benefit medicinally to blurring the lines between cooking with food, With herbs, excuse me, and using herbs medicinally, and that, that kind of seeing the medicinal benefits of herbs both in cooking and in the home pharmacy, we start to integrate them more and receive more and more of the benefits.
Now, of course, different traditions around the world have always used herbs differently, and we can look around the world at many different systems of how they have been used. you've mentioned Chinese medicine and acupuncture, different traditions, but every tradition, traditional healing system in the world, and according to the World Health Organization, the majority of people today in, on the planet still use natural, or herbal medicine.
And use it not only in the home pharmacy or in the professional setting, as is the case with acupuncture or Ayurveda, but also in their cooking. and I think that one of the things I try to do in recipes from the Herbalist's Kitchen is really reveal all the ways that we're cooking medicinally that we maybe aren't quite aware of.
But that we're, actually engaging in medicinal practices in the kitchen all the time. that leads really well into this email that I have just now. The email's from Janice from California.
[00:11:53] Bone Broth and Adaptogenic Herbs
So she writes, We make a lot of bone broth. My husband is an athlete and swears by it for performance. What herbs would you recommend and at what point would you add it, or add those herbs to get the maximum benefits?
We usually have our broth simmering for 24 hours. So I like that. That's an interesting question because it's about cooking, but it's also about, healing and athletic performance, strength. It's perfect. And I love bone broth. I talk about it in the book. it's incredible for the digestion and every system of the body.
so I use bone broth. You can think of bone broth as being like a really, it's a tea, it's bone tea. In some cultures they actually call it that, bone tea. and so with the addition of herbs, we can actually think of it from two different perspectives. Herbs that do well when they're long, slow cooked, or simmered, the same way the bones thrive, will be a great addition.
So the first things that come to mind for me are immune strengthening mushrooms and adaptogenic herbs. And these are herbs, adaptogenic herbs, actually the immune strengthening mushrooms fall into the category of adaptogenic. And what that means is that they help the body to adapt to stressors over time.
So you can't take them once and expect the body to adapt to stress. But if you take them over time, they help the body adapt to stress. And these are stresses that range from everything from like daily stress, getting out the door for work in the morning to long term stress, athletic performance.
and interestingly, the research that, that was originally done on adaptogens was done in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. And the research was based on the goal of trying to find herbs that would help to improve the performance of the light personnel, including military, athletes, chess players, etc.
So the adaptogens are great. Yeah, so what kind of adaptogens would work in a broth and when would you put them in? Yeah, so I would put the adaptogens in at the very beginning. They don't need any, if you were to just purchase them dry, they wouldn't need any extra preparation. You just put them in with the bones at the very beginning.
I really like astragalus. That's a really wonderful herb from the Chinese tradition. I use astragalus that has been processed, which means that it has been steamed and pressed. And the astragalus root, it's the root, and it looks like a, it's a slice, it looks like a tongue depressor. Almost, like from the doctor's office.
And you can put in, three or four of those. and then I really like to use the medicinal mushrooms. those would be, things like reishi mushroom, maitake mushroom, shiitake mushroom. Those are some of my personal favorites, but you can also use other edible and medicinal mushrooms. and then I also really like to put in what I would consider to be blood builders.
So things that really help to increase nutrition, and build the blood. I love hawthorn berries. which are a western herb from the dried berry from the hawthorn tree. I'm sure you're familiar. and then there's, goji berries, also from the eastern tradition. And, sometimes put nettle leaf in.
another, it's actually a weed, from the Western tradition, but, it's a really wonderful, incredible, nutrient dense plant. And all of those actually thrive in that long, slow simmering process that bone broth requires. so out of those, I'm looking and thinking, nettle leaf, you, stinging nettles, I think a lot of us have.
So we can just take, one of those horrible stinging nettles and throw it in your broth, your bone broth. You can. Just make sure you wear gloves or else you'll get stung. Amazing. Yeah. So you can actually, for tea I recommend that the herb be dry, but if you're going to simmer it for a long time you can use fresh or dried.
And the same thing with hawthorn berries. Is there any caution if you want to harvest them in the wild that you should know for sure they're hawthorn berries? I think you should always know for sure they're hawthorn berries. and, you'd want to do, I think always when you're harvesting, you want to make sure you have a positive identification.
And I think that goes for whether you're in a wild setting or in someone's garden. I think it's really important to, just make sure, always make sure you have a positive identification. I don't personally know a lot of hawthorn lookalikes here where I live. but I don't want to in any way say that means they don't exist.
Because there's lots of trees with red berries. but the hawthorn And there's several different varieties of hawthorn trees, but they do, in my experience, have larger thorns, and beautiful, small, green. leaves with lots of lobes. but again, there's, I see so many different varieties.
So I would just recommend that folks do their research and make sure they have positive identification on that.
[00:17:06] Safety and Efficacy of Herbal Remedies
Is it possible, Brittany, to actually OD? we're using these things as, a drug in a way. can you overdo it and hurt yourself with too many of these herbs, whether it's in your soup or in your salad?
Yeah. I think it's an important question to address because it feels, some of this territory feels unknown to us. And so we want to make sure that we're safe when we do it. But the, good news is that a lot of the, Including the herbs I talked about in the broth, but especially the culinary herbs that I talk about in the book, they're included in food recipes for a reason, because for the most part they're considered to be really safe.
that said, there's always the opportunity for idiosyncrasies. and I do have a sidebar in the book where I talk about, herb safety, and I think remembering that each individual body and constitution is unique and that there's always the possibility for adverse reactions, even in an herb that's considered 100 percent safe.
so if anyone ever feels that way. an herb makes them uncomfortable, they should follow that instinct. And just a great example I can give from my own life is, ginger root, considered a very safe herb. but for me, it actually aggravates some constitutional patterns that I have, can make me feel lightheaded, and can aggravate headaches.
So that would be a great example of an idiosyncratic reaction. where, for many people it's fine, it's certainly not going to hurt me, but it might make me uncomfortable. That is such a good lesson. We've got an interesting question here from Mike. I'm not sure where Mike is from, but Mike writes, Hi Susan, absolutely love your show.
Thank you. And thank you, Mike. a question for your guest. Do you think that a lot of diseases have cures with natural herbs, but Big Pharma doesn't want us to know? Thank you for your answer. What a good question. What do you think? It is such a good question. I guess I can't speak for Big Pharma. but I can say that there, that yes, there's a huge plethora of natural And alternative and herbal remedies that can offer a lot of relief.
for different health concerns. and there's a lot of politics in medicine. I'm here in the United States where there's just so much politics around health care and drugs. And there's so much money in lobbying. And it's really sad. so while I can't speak to what's going on. in the motivation of those companies, I can say that, that I feel that the money that's involved in the healthcare system and the drug industry is actually counter to the goal of helping people get well.
that it feels often that the motivation to, for, the monetary motivation is higher than thinking about individual quality of life. the other thing That I want to say in relationship to that question is that, the way that a lot of natural remedies and natural traditional health systems work is that we actually support people and not diseases.
and that model of care is so different than the traditional, allopathic model. And it's funny to call it traditional, I should say the current allopathic model. Because these other systems are often more traditional. that, that work with diseases rather than people. And so because of that shift, it's such a big paradigm shift.
I think that sometimes it is hard to say, this herb works for this disease, or the cure for this disease. And I think it's one of the things that undermines the efficacy and the, effectiveness. Herbal and alternative medicine is that the worldview through which they're used is so different.
So all of a sudden you take the herb and you put it into the allopathic model and it doesn't work as a quote unquote cure. but that's because. as it would be applied by a traditional herbalist or traditional acupuncturist, traditional practitioner of Ayurveda, etc. would be so different just in terms of how it looked at the whole person.
so does that make sense? It does. And what I like about it, it's also not about waiting until you get sick, right? this conversation is not for people who are already sick. This is a conversation, I mean it can be as well, but it's like how do you bring balance to your own body? So for instance, if you're the kind of person that has a lot of red in your eyes, always your eyes are always red.
Bloodshot, but there's no health problems, but that may be an indication about, your body's too hot or there's too much stress or whatever. So it's all a big balancing act, and these herbs can help us gently balance before we get sick so we don't have to get sick. Does that make kind of sense? Is that?
I think that's wonderful. Yeah. I totally agree.
[00:22:12] Integrating Native Perennials in Orchards
So here's an interesting question from Julie Anne. So Julie Anne lives near Wireton, Ontario. She says, I'm starting an orchard and integrating various herbs and flowers throughout. I'm so pleased that she's integrating them. I'm trying to focus on using native perennials as much as possible.
The site is Sandy Loam, South Facing, and Zone 5. Considering this, do you know of a handful of native perennials that can be used for herbs? I don't know what zone you're in, Brittany. Do you know what zone you're in? I'm in five. Oh great, so you're also in five. are any of the herbs that you talk about in your book or that you use, are any of them, native to Zone 5?
So most of the herbs that I talk to, talk about in the book, I talk to them too, but that I talk about in the book, are, From the Mediterranean tradition. So most of them are coming from Europe. and most of them are grown as garden plants rather than wild herbs. so I would, say that in terms of, and for folks that don't know, the book mostly focuses on culinary herbs.
So things like, lavender, rosemary, sage. so it does talk about mint, and I think that mint is a potential. and certainly there's many native varieties of mint. that would be one to consider. The herbs that came to mind for me right away as I was thinking about this particular question, one is mullein.
and there are different varieties of mullein, but we do have, one that's certainly naturalized here in this region. Mullein is a biannual plant, so in the first year it's a rosette of leaves on the ground, and the second year it sends up its, flower stalk, and it has, many beautiful yellow flowers, that can, and the flower and leaves can be used medicinally, and they attract, really nice pollinators.
That sounds like a nice potential one, yep. Yeah, it is, it's really wonderful. and it will, it's funny, my husband and I, we just cut back all of our mullein because we love it, but it produces like billions of seeds. so to avoid like mullein, we let it flower and then we let it just start to go to seed and then we cut it back.
so that's a trick if you don't want it to totally take over. that's a good suggestion. Yeah. And then the other herb I thought of is Echinacea. and Echinacea is more native to open grasslands of the, central United States, but grows great in this climate. and there is a wonderful, beautiful, wildflower.
And if you had some open grassland in and around your orchard, that would do really well. We grow Echinacea. We call it coneflower or Echinacea. Yeah, and it's beautiful in a pollinator garden. It looks great as well. but is it really usable, the Echinacea? What would you do with it if you wanted to use it?
So you can use the flowers or the roots. and the flowers you would use when they're in full bloom. and the roots you would use in the fall after the plant had gone dormant. after, or it doesn't have to be totally dormant, but it would be mostly dormant. It would be after the first frost.
That's always the best time to harvest roots. and, Echinacea root and flower is a wonderful lymphatic.
[00:25:58] Herbal Remedies for Common Cold
It helps move the lymph fluid, and it helps to stimulate the immune system. So it's really great, for, fever, colds, and flus. any kind of virus or bacterial infection. Oh, that's great. So Brittany, we got an email from Brian. So Brian asks, are there any herbs that you feel will help ward off the common cold? Thank you.
[00:26:22] Echinacea: Benefits and Overuse
And we were talking about echinacea. Now the only association that I have is if you go to the health food shop you can get echinacea for a cold, can't you?
You can. So, could you using your echinacea from the garden help yourself with, or are there, is there anything else that's more relevant? No, I think Echinacea is wonderful. I do think that Echinacea, has a tendency to be a little overused, for its immune stimulating qualities.
Traditionally, it's used as a mild immune stimulant, but also as a blood purifier, because it moves the lymph, and, excuse me, helps to cool and detoxify the blood, so it's also used for poisoning, infection, etc. so I, think that a lot of herbalists feel that perhaps Echinacea is one that has come into common use and is maybe sometimes overused.
but that doesn't mean it doesn't work and that it's not effective. the part that we mostly use medicinally is the root. Although, as I mentioned before the break, we also use the flower.
[00:27:29] Elder Tree: A Home Gardener's Treasure
another herb that I think is definitely worth mentioning here, especially for home gardeners who love trees that also produce food, is the elder tree.
and so the black elder, Sambucas nigra, Is, it has the elder flower and then that turns into the beautiful elder berry. and both the elder flower and the elder berry can be used edibly and medicinally. The elder flower in terms of edibility is used more like idiosyncratically, like I use that I sniff the flowers into muffins or pancakes or things like that.
and I also make, drinks like elderflower champagne and that kind of stuff. but then the berries, in food are used often in pies, jams, muffins. We put them in smoothies, you name it. so they have a lot of uses.
[00:28:23] Elderflower and Elderberry Uses
But in terms of their medicinal qualities, both are fantastic for the common cold.
And they're, remedies that I think really belong in any home herbal pharmacy for folks that are wanting to use natural remedies. I use, flowers. More for conditions of the upper respiratory system. upper respiratory, sinuses, nasal passages, throat, nose. So it would be congestion, due to a cold.
symptoms of allergies including postnasal drip. it has a real ability to thin mucus and move mucus, and soothe mucosal membranes. So it's great for that. It's also an antiviral. so if folks have, a, the common cold virus, then elder flower is really great. And when you drink the tea hot.
it actually is a diaphoretic, which means that it makes the body sweat. So it pushes heat from the core of the body out to the peripheral, causes sweating, and then that actually cools. so it's a great remedy for fever. And it's an incredibly kid friendly herb. So I have an 18 month old daughter, and I use elderflower a lot.
and I use it for things ranging from, a little bit of extra time in the sun, and she has a little heat rash on the back of her neck, which she gets sometimes, to, teething symptoms, to, waking up in the morning with a stuffy nose. So the elderflower can be made into a tea, is that it?
How would you use that? Yeah, that's what I most recommend. You can do alcohol based tincture extract, as well, but I highly recommend the tea. So what I do is I dry the flowers and then I use them, as needed throughout the year as a tea. if you researched elderflower, you'll see lots of cautions not to use the stems.
the stems can cause irritation to the stomach and vomiting. in all my years as an herbalist, I've never seen or heard that happen to anybody. and so I get many questions every year. How careful do I have to be with the elder, taking off the stems? And I tell people, be careful, but you don't need to literally pick off every single tiny stem.
Because the flowers grow in an umbel. They're quite small. and so to remove every stem would be really labor intensive. so what I do is I just pull the florets from the, stems, and I've never had any problems with that. yeah, that said, I do want to let people know that, while elderberry is the one that is the more common of the elders in my region, there is a red elderberry, and you don't want to eat the berries or flowers of the red elder.
and so on my blog, time, my blog is thymeherbal. com slash blog, and time is like the herb, t h y m e. I have a extensive post on how to identify, black elder, and differentiate it from red elder. Oh, that's so useful. so that would definitely be worth it for folks who are interested in this.
That's a great thing to check out. Yeah. Yeah. And then. Sorry, go ahead. I just want to say real quickly, the berries are also amazing antiviral great for cold and flu. I use those for lower respiratory more often when things settle in the lungs. or, someone's prone to lung issues.
I'll use that.
[00:31:51] Herbal Storage and Usage Tips
So I can just imagine in your kitchen or somewhere in your pantry, you've got these jars of dried all sorts of dried herbs that you collect throughout the growing season. Is that right? Is that what it looks like there? Yeah, that's exactly right. And then you use them, yeah. Yeah, I have a, an overgrown spice shelf, herb shelf in my house, which is actually an old CD case.
And it's the perfect size for a pint sized two cup jar. So that's where I keep all of them in my house. And then I have a studio building where I do my work, where I see clients and teach classes. And I have, large gallon sized, or half gallon sized jars. similar to the bulk section in your health food store, where I keep the larger amounts of the herbs that I'm using on a regular basis.
Wow, that sounds amazing. we have a question from Harry. Again, I don't know where Harry is from. Guys, if you're sending emails, do tell me where you're from. I'm always very curious.
[00:32:47] Natural Antibiotics: An Overview
Are there, this is a good question, are there any herbs that are natural antibiotics? I love that question because like antibiotics are always in the news and they're supposed to protect us from all sorts of stuff but they're overused but can a herb be an antibiotic?
Yeah, it's such an amazing question. And it's such an amazing answer. I, want to direct folks to, towards a resource if they're interested in this topic. Stephen Buehner, who's an amazing American herbalist, has written two books, always written many books, but he has, Herbal Antibiotics and Herbal Antivirals.
And they're amazing books, and One of the things that he, profiles herbs that can be used. The answer to the question is yes, there are herbal antibiotics and herbal antivirals. But what's amazing about them is that because these plants are living organisms, they are adapting alongside their environment.
And literally alongside these bacteria. so whereas an antibiotic is a stagnant thing created in a lab, Where a bacteria can actually develop to overcome that antibiotic, and we have a lot of talk about this with antibiotic resistant, bacterias, that are now causing a lot of, issues in folks, particularly in hospitals.
but the ability of the bacteria to do that is because the antibiotic is stagnant. so it's not alive and mutating and changing, whereas the bacteria is. And so what Stephen Buhner talks about in this book and what the research shows is that herbs, because they're living beings, are actually adapting alongside these bacteria, and that you want to use your herbal antibiotics fresh, each year, every couple years, because the constituents in the plant are actually changing and adapting alongside these bacteria.
it's just mind blowing in terms of the intelligence of plants. and how the system works, That is amazing. Yeah, it's amazing that nature is evolving and can help us. That is incredible. Yeah. It totally makes sense. bacteria are alive and the plants are alive as well. Susan, before we move on, I, during the break, I thought of two things that I would like to share.
Do you mind if I comment now? Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:35:07] Safety and Interactions of Herbs
so the first one was in terms of the safety question that was asked earlier, I did forget to mention that it's always important, not necessarily with cooking with culinary herbs, but with any other herbs, it's always important to, double check the herbs, any indications that herb might have.
with a medication. So if folks are taking pharmaceutical medications, and they're interested in using herbs medicinally, it is important to reference those, particular herbs against medications. Because we don't want to take herbs that speed up the metabolism of medications.
And we also don't want to take herbs that do the same thing or the opposite thing as the medication we're taking. Because that's a direct interference. so if folks are on, particularly more than one pharmaceutical medication, I recommend they consult with a health professional before starting to take large amounts of herbs.
Now, that's not cooking with herbs. That would just be like, medicinal doses of herbs. that's good advice. That's very good advice. And the other thing I wanted to mention in relationship to the pollinator question in the garden was, the question was specific to native plants, so I wanted to honor that.
[00:36:17] Pollinators and Garden Herbs
But I did want to mention that the plant that attracts a huge amount of pollinators in my garden is lavender. and that is a featured herb in the book. so if, the person who asked that question is interested in branching, there is English lavender, the Lavandula, that will grow in zone 5 and perennial in zone 5.
So it's another great one for the bees. Yes, and also, and I I love her, she really wanted to integrate native plants into her garden. I think that's awesome. maybe I'm just not a purist, but in our garden, we, The pollinators come first, the beneficials come first, because we want those beneficial insects and the pollinators to work with our fruit trees.
we're flexible. We try to integrate, native plants, but we also have the beautiful lavender, thyme, the sage. Because we also want it to be useful for the community, so they can come and harvest and enjoy. I think those are both really good points. Yeah, and there's no reason why they can't exist side by side either.
exactly. we have another question. I'm loving all the questions today. Such interesting questions. we've got one from Claudette, and Claudette says, I resonate with this, inflammation, Deadly. Anything to help with it? yeah, is there, are there anti inflammatory herbs?
[00:37:52] Anti-Inflammatory Herbs: Turmeric
Yeah, there are, there's anti inflammatory herbs, and, The one that has received the most attention, recently, or I should say in the last five or ten years, is turmeric, and turmeric is a member of the curcumin family, and it's native to tropical warm regions, and it's used a lot in, traditional medicine and Ayurveda in particular, and, in India as both a food and as a medicine.
In fact, I read this awesome article the other day about that the average person in India is consuming like, a certain number of grams of turmeric every day that is considered such a high medicinal dose and their rates of inflammation are so much lower than ours. Wow. so that's a really awesome example and, even just including it into your diet in large amounts, would do the trick.
You could also, of course take capsules or other supplements, of which there's many on the market. become very popular. And the interesting thing about turmeric is that it works on different levels of inflammation. I do think it's important to think about how and why inflammation happens in the body.
inflammation can be a response to an acute injury, or it can be something that becomes long and, long term and chronic. and sets foot and is throughout the body. and there's, it's important, of course, to think about what the factors might be. sometimes there's an aggravant that's consistent.
oftentimes it's something that's coming in through the diet or the environment. and that input into the body, whether it be a food or the breathing of a mold or what have you, a pollen even, is, aggravating the immune system and therefore causing an overimmune response and therefore inflammation.
And then sometimes, of course, it could be from, a condition such as arthritis or some other kind of muscular skeletal thing. And then we can also have inflammation that's caused by stress. and I actually just had a student in my third year class who did a project on the kind of anti inflammatory lifestyle.
And one of the things she talked about, was the impact of stress on chronic inflammation and how stress can cause chronic inflammation. And she referenced a really interesting book called The Body Keeps the Score. so I know there's a lot, and there's a lot of other resources out there in relationship to that topic.
But I always think about with my clients when they have inflammation. where do I start? What's the biggest aggravant? Might there be something in the diet? if there's inflammation in the digestive system, there'll be inflammation in the rest of the body. So do I need to soothe the gut and heal the mucosal lining of the gut?
Is there stress? Should we use herbs for stress? those kinds of questions I think are really important. But turmeric, interestingly, works on multiple pathways of inflammation, so it actually reduces inflammation. At the cellular level, and it also supports liver function, and, the liver is involved in the inflammatory pathway and cycles, et cetera, because The liver filters so many toxins from the body.
and when, it's backed up or overworked or not able to do its job, that puts extra stress on the system and can increase inflammatory responses. because turmeric is such an amazing liver herb, it also supports reducing inflammation systemically by supporting liver function. So I love that about, just a great example of some of the themes that have been coming up.
Today, anyways, which is that, it's like the herbs work on multiple levels, they work holistically, and they work directly, so turmeric is a direct anti inflammatory, and it's working holistically to help the body reduce the need for inflammation. Amazing.
Mason, writes, hello, new listener here from Toronto. Does your guest have a website? Thanks. So could you tell us again what your website is? Yeah, thank you for that question. I appreciate it. my website is, my business is Thyme Herbal and Thyme is like the culinary herb, T H Y M E. And my website is thymeherbal.
com, T H Y M E H E R B A L. com. and you can link there to the shop on my website, which has recipes from the Herbalist Kitchen and I have my other books and educational posters on there as well. You can link to the blog, and my philosophy and more about me.
I have so many recipes on my blog, too, for those who are interested, including a turmeric recipe. Wonderful. Brittany, we have time for maybe one or two more questions. I feel like you and I, we could chat for like hours, and there's so many topics, and I want, about the recipes in your books, and, but we have an urgent email here from John.
John is from Toronto. This is very urgent.
[00:42:52] Weight Loss and Herbal Bitters
And he says, Weight Loss Herb, help! So we have to answer John. Yeah, it's such a good question, gosh. again, like we said at the very beginning of the show, the culture wants herbs for conditions and usually herbs, the paradigm we use herbs through is more for people, so I've never worked with people the same way twice on that.
I will say that a lot of times, weight issues are related to stress, even if there's not current stress in the past. and the stress pattern gets set up and the body holds on to the weight. and it can be particularly from high cortisol levels. and that oftentimes when folks gain weight around the middle, that's particular to high cortisol levels.
and then a lot of it can also be related to, irregular eating patterns and blood sugar imbalances. I definitely recommend getting an eating schedule of three square meals a day. And, doing, making sure that if you have snacks, there's complete snacks, so there's fat and protein at every snack, and meal, of course.
so it's not just, carbohydrates or fruits or those kinds of things. I think that's really important. there's also, herbal bitters are becoming more and more popular. You can often find them now at a natural health food store and they're alcohol based extracts, which we colloquially call tinctures.
and they're of, bitter herbs. And they're actually like similar to cocktail bitters. Although cocktail bitters often have a sweetener to them as well. and the bitter taste stimulates the whole digestive process and also flushes and cleanses the liver. so having bitters, you take them about 15 to 20 minutes before a meal.
anywhere from 10 to 30 drops in a sip of warm water. Helps to stimulate the digestive system and helps to balance out food cravings. which can sometimes be related to people's weight relationship as well. so that's a, potential tool. The other thing I'll mention is that, there's an organization called, LifeSpa.
And The herbalist who's behind that is John Douillard, and he's a doctor also trained in Ayurveda. And he has some supplements and herbs that he sells for weight loss and reducing sugar cravings and these kinds of things. so I would point folks to that resource as well. In terms of just one cure all herb, I don't know it.
So I'm sorry that I don't know the answer to that question. I want to bring it full circle because, in your book, you talk about lavender. And we can't, we've got to wrap up quickly, but you talk about lavender for anti anxiety and you give a beautiful recipe of making a lavender product that you can eat and it's a little sweet and it'll calm you down.
It seems so many problems these days revolve around stress and slowing down our lifestyle. And you've got these digestive recipes that have thyme in it and ways of making teas. So I can highly suggest that people have a look at your book, whether it's in the library or elsewhere, because there's just, it's such a rich resource.
and there is so much with these ordinary herbs that we can do. And that's what I think impressed me about the book. It's very empowering. I really enjoyed it in that way. Yeah, and I think, the question with any of this stuff is what do we need to heal and what do, how do we want to have our lives look and feel like?
And I think one of the projects and recipes from the Herbalist Kitchen is that just cooking with herbs regardless of whether you grow them or not. By them whether they're dried or fresh and just getting into the kitchen and doing that is a really healing experience There's a lot that it offers Absolutely.
Oh my goodness since talking to you for the first time. I'm really trying to you know I've got a garden filled with herbs and I often just let them be there and I don't use them and I'm really trying to just throw them in more dishes and just you know that they will really enhance not just the flavor of the dish but also my life, which is great.
Good for you. Okay, Brittany,
[00:47:29] Conclusion and Resources
again, I feel like we could have talked on and on, but I so appreciate the time that you spent with us. thank you. thank you so much for having me, and thank you everyone for all your questions. Okay, take care. We'll talk again. Bye bye. Bye bye. that's it for the Urban Forestry Radio show today.
I'm Susan Poizner from OrchardPeople. com and this show went so quickly, I can't believe it. If you want to learn more about fruit trees and pollinator gardens and all the sorts of things that we want to plant around the fruit trees, check out my website, OrchardPeople. com. I have a blog and I talk about, I have lots of blogs about different topics relating to Not only fruit trees, but the stuff that you plant around and with them.
I also have an online training course where I really stress, polyculture, orchards and gardens, where you have lots of different things integrated into your growing space, not just fruit trees. So hopefully you'll check that out. And if you missed part of this show, or if you want to listen to previous episodes, Again, go to orchardpeople.
com slash podcast and you'll see the other amazing guests I've had on the show in the past and I so appreciate everybody who comes and spends time with all of us. So that's it for today. We'll be back again next month with a really, another really interesting interview. Prepare your questions and thank you so much for tuning in.
I love having you guys as listeners. See you next time.
You've been listening to the Urban Forestry Radio Show on Reality Radio 101. To learn more about the show and to download the podcast where I cover lots more great topics, you can visit orchardpeople. com slash podcast. The show is broadcast live on the last Tuesday of every month. And each time I have great new guests talking to me about fruit trees, food forests, and arboriculture.
If you're interested in learning more about growing your own fruit trees, or just about living a more sustainable life, go to OrchardPeople. com and sign up for my information packed monthly newsletter. If you like this show, please do like our Orchard People Facebook page.
Thank you so much for tuning in. It's been wonderful to have you as a listener. And I hope to see you again next time.
Thank you for listening to the Urban Forestry Radio Show with your host Susan Poizner right here on Reality Radio 101.