A Slow & Soft January: Elderberry, Business Planning & More
I genuinely love the month of January. Climate shifts in my little corner of the world seem to have pushed winter back by a month or more. The last few years, December has been mild, wet, brown and gloomy: an extended fall that kind of bums me out.
January this year has come with snowstorms, temperatures in the minus 10s- 20s (celsius), cold and dark nights, but also those perfect brilliantly sunny and crispy cold days that make you want to walk for ages through the new snow, or on paths others have already trod. Ahri is aging and slowing down, but she still loves a wintry day.
I am working on my business and farm plan these days, mapping out the year and what it will look like, what projects I will put forth. It’s exciting, and it feels clearer and closer finally. Like I have some idea of what I’m doing, I’m not afraid of the spreadsheets, and my brain is cooperating and functioning. I can think and strategize and plan and make to-do lists and goals, and know what to do to follow through with them. It’s hard to explain how happy this makes me, after several years (pre-COVID too) of feeling like I couldn’t trust my brain. I feel competent and have some confidence and some stability, and that is a huge deal to me.
However, it’s also the sleepy season, and I am also trying to get lots of rest, eat well and enough and move my body in ways that feel good. Creating moments of spaciousness and softness in a world that is getting louder, harder, sharper: a tremendous privilege, to be sure, but one that I want for every body.
Some plant medicines I’ve been loving lately have been elderberry (Sambucus nigra) syrup mixed with hot water as a warming and sweet drink. A few weeks ago I had a nasty, lingering cold: I tested negative repeatedly for COVID, but still felt run-down and full of snuffles.
Elderberry syrup has been used for years as a traditional cold and flu remedy, and there has been some research into its use for COVID-19 patients. One randomized trial found that elderberry extracts reduced the severity and duration of common cold symptoms after air travel. (Tiralongo et al, 2016). There was concern during the early days of the pandemic that elderberry might overstimulate the immune system, leading to an over production of inflammatory cytokines, “a cytokine storm”, which can in extreme cases cause organ failure and even death (Jarczak et al, 2022) . However, follow-up systematic reviews have not found this to be the case (Wieland et al, 2021) and it is generally considered a safe (and delicious) and at least somewhat effective treatment for improving the symptoms and reducing the duration of respiratory viruses.
A Simple Elderberry Syrup Recipe
Approximately 4 cups of Elderberries (Sambucus nigra), Fresh or Frozen
Approximately 4 cups of Water
1 cup of Honey
2 Cinnamon Sticks (Cinnamomum verum)
A few chopped slices of Ginger Root (Zingiber officinale)
Other woody herbs as desired (Astragalus membranaceus might be a nice addition)
Add all ingredients except for the honey to a stove top pot. Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer covered for at least 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Add honey while the mixture is still warm. Strain and remove the plant material, squeezing to get all the liquid out from the elderberries. Freeze large batches, keep for 3 months in the fridge.
I’ve also been making bone broth using vegetable scraps (onion and garlic skins, carrot tops, celery and other vegetable ends) I save in the freezer and rotisserie chicken carcasses or beef bones. An instant pot or crock pot does this easily for you, and you can throw in some apple cider vinegar to help break down the bones even more. You can use mushrooms instead of meat if you like. Adding this bone broth to rice that I cook, or making congee (east Asian savory rice pudding) has been an easy and nourishing meal for illness and convalescence.
Additionally, many years ago, one of my herbal mentors introduced me to the concept of bed rest: as a means of convalescence, deep rest and slowing down. She wrote an excellent article on it that I still refer back to often, and I’m looking forward to scheduling my own period of bed rest over the next few weeks.
I’m hoping to apply for a few maker’s markets in the next few weeks. I am setting up a schedule of workshops and plant walks for the year and thinking of new products for markets this year, as well as determining what seedlings to grow and sell. More info coming soon!
Finally, I’m working through my clinical hours and taking practice clients, so please get in touch with me if you’d like to help me practice my clinical skills and complete my hours.
Hoping you get a chance this month for a good rest, and are able to find some softness and some courage in these times.
Sources
Jarczak, D., & Nierhaus, A. (2022). Cytokine Storm—Definition, Causes, and Implications. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(19), 11740. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911740
Tiralongo, E., Wee, S., & Lea, R. A. (2016). Elderberry supplementation reduces cold duration and symptoms in Air-Travellers: a randomized, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled clinical trial. Nutrients, 8(4), 182. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8040182
Wieland, L. S., Piechotta, V., Feinberg, T., Ludeman, E., Hutton, B., Kanji, S., Seely, D., & Garritty, C. (2021). Elderberry for prevention and treatment of viral respiratory illnesses: a systematic review. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-021-03283-5
Who and what is Singing Nettles?
Grounding and Centering: who and what is Singing Nettles?
Who am I
Hello and welcome to my corner of the internet. My name is Gabby and I’m a community herbalist and plant person based in and around Stratford, ON Canada. Stratford, and the farm where I grow herbs, is located on treaty land that was shared between the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and other Indigenous nations (more on this further on in the post). I have studied clinical therapeutic western herbalism, but am not a clinical herbalist.
I have always loved plants, but have struggled to find a way to work with them that is financially sustainable and personally fulfilling. I have worked as an environmental/sustainability organizer, as a landscape gardener in gorgeous and world famous gardens, as a supplements/health and beauty consultant in a health food store, briefly as a labourer in a cannabis factory, and making herbal and natural skincare products, which is my current day job. Come see me at Apt. 6 Apothecary in Stratford ON.
Many herbalists you talk to will have what I call an “origin story” of illness and struggle that eventually led them to the plants, and through working with the plants, eventually to a place of stability and better health. This experience compels many of us to share the plants with others. I have a similar origin story.
My origin story is one of extreme ups and extreme downs, and is deeply personal. When I went away to university, I went through two years of what I can now recognize as a manic episode, punctuated by extreme depressive episodes. After two years of little sleep, a non-stop work/school/activism/social schedule, my immune system effectively collapsed. For several years, I dealt with frequent allergy attacks of hay fever-like symptoms. Every little thing irritated my immune system, and I was almost always sick. On top of this, the depression, with periods of hypomania, continued and intensified.
One of the first herbs I developed a relationship with during this time was stinging nettles (Urtica dioica). A friend and mentor prescribed me a daily nourishing infusion (basically a really strong tea) of nettles and oatstraw. Nettles provided me with many vitamins and minerals (iron, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and more) to help build my system back up, as well as treating my allergies and helping calm my immune system. I still take a daily nourishing infusion of nettles and usually oatstraw, and then add other herbs depending on the day. My allergies are largely under control and have been for years now.
Stinging nettles were one of my first herbal allies, and remain one of my most trusted plant friends to this day. It’s the main reason I decided to name my business Singing Nettles (don’t ask where the “singing” came from, not all creative decisions need to make complete and logical sense).
The only other part of my origin story I’ll share is that I was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and I take a cocktail of daily psychiatric medication, along with my daily nourishing infusions, to keep me (mostly) stable. My mental illness is not the only thing that defines me, of course, but it impacts every single area of my life, and like any other chronic illness, I will probably be dealing with it forever. Nettles have been a steadying and healing presence in my life, an anchor and part of a routine that frankly, has helped keep me alive.
What am I trying to offer
So many other plants have been great allies and friends throughout my life, and I do want to share their magic with other people who need the plants. We as a society and as individuals, are sick and disconnected, from the land and from each other, and we need to find our way back to the plants.
There is a hunger for it. People want to learn about the plants, they want to work with them, they want to heal themselves and their communities. Herbal medicine, in the West anyway, is undergoing something of a renaissance. Herbalists are everywhere! This is a good thing. We need more herbalists, clinical professionals, growers and medicine makers, and people using herbalism to help their families and communities. We need more plant people, we need more people working with the plants in responsible ways.
In North America, we live in a colonial, capitalist system that has intentionally severed many people’s connections with their traditional plant medicine systems and with their land connections. Our society, our economy, our lives are built on continuous consumption and profit, regardless of the environmental and social costs.
One of my biggest fears is herbalism becoming another extractive industry, where we thoughtlessly take and take from the plants, as we do in many other industries, as we have already done with many of the traditional and Indigenous medicinal plants of these lands, overharvesting and endangering them (ginseng and goldenseal come to mind).
We need the plants, but many different Indigenous teachers have taught me that the plants need us too. They need us to plant them, to tend them, and to show them respect and reverence: the plants want us to be in community with them.
We need many herbalists, but we also need many small-scale, localized herb farmers growing and working with the plants in their regions. This is what I am trying to do with Singing Nettles Herbs. I want to use small-scale and sustainable agricultural practices to grow high quality medicinal herbs and sell them to my local community, as well as offer environmentally conscious plant education.
Situating Myself and the Land
I come from tremendous privilege. My background is Western European (England, Scotland, France), and I am tremendously lucky to be able to farm on a plot of land that has been in my mother’s family for over 100 years at this point. This piece of land was purchased by my great , great, great grandfather from a man named Alexander Robertson. Roberston purchased it from the Canada Company, a private land development company created to colonize parts of what was then called Upper Canada. Farming is in my bones, but so is colonialism. I have a historical connection with where I am farming, but it is just over 100 years at this point. The peoples who lived on these lands since time immemorial, the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and others, are largely shut out from land ownership in this area. Without my family connection, I would not be able to farm here myself. There are difficult and important conversations about reconciliation and land back that need to happen, but the bare minimum is situating myself and the land where I am farming.
If You Made it this Far
Thank you for reading this origin story/blog. I hope to add more content to this page on a regular basis, but spring is almost here, and seeds and garden things are calling (at this point, they are screaming). I hope to set up a proper shop soon, and have more info about where you can buy herbs from me, but for now, please check out the events page to see upcoming workshops and events, and follow me on Instagram @snherbs
Who am I
Hello and welcome to my corner of the internet. My name is Gabby and I’m a community herbalist and plant person based in and around Stratford, ON Canada. Stratford, and the farm where I grow herbs, is located on treaty land that was shared between the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and other Indigenous nations (more on this further on in the post). I have studied clinical therapeutic western herbalism, but am not a clinical herbalist.
I have always loved plants, but have struggled to find a way to work with them that is financially sustainable and personally fulfilling. I have worked as an environmental/sustainability organizer, as a landscape gardener in gorgeous and world famous gardens, as a supplements/health and beauty consultant in a health food store, briefly as a labourer in a cannabis factory, and making herbal and natural skincare products, which is my current day job. Come see me at Apt. 6 Apothecary in Stratford ON.
Many herbalists you talk to will have what I call an “origin story” of illness and struggle that eventually led them to the plants, and through working with the plants, eventually to a place of stability and better health. This experience compels many of us to share the plants with others. I have a similar origin story.
My origin story is one of extreme ups and extreme downs, and is deeply personal. When I went away to university, I went through two years of what I can now recognize as a manic episode, punctuated by extreme depressive episodes. After two years of little sleep, a non-stop work/school/activism/social schedule, my immune system effectively collapsed. For several years, I dealt with frequent allergy attacks of hay fever-like symptoms. Every little thing irritated my immune system, and I was almost always sick. On top of this, the depression, with periods of hypomania, continued and intensified.
One of the first herbs I developed a relationship with during this time was stinging nettles (Urtica dioica). A friend and mentor prescribed me a daily nourishing infusion (basically a really strong tea) of nettles and oatstraw. Nettles provided me with many vitamins and minerals (iron, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and more) to help build my system back up, as well as treating my allergies and helping calm my immune system. I still take a daily nourishing infusion of nettles and usually oatstraw, and then add other herbs depending on the day. My allergies are largely under control and have been for years now.
Stinging nettles were one of my first herbal allies, and remain one of my most trusted plant friends to this day. It’s the main reason I decided to name my business Singing Nettles (don’t ask where the “singing” came from, not all creative decisions need to make complete and logical sense).
The only other part of my origin story I’ll share is that I was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and I take a cocktail of daily psychiatric medication, along with my daily nourishing infusions, to keep me (mostly) stable. My mental illness is not the only thing that defines me, of course, but it impacts every single area of my life, and like any other chronic illness, I will probably be dealing with it forever. Nettles have been a steadying and healing presence in my life, an anchor and part of a routine that frankly, has helped keep me alive.
What I hope to offer
So many other plants have been great allies and friends throughout my life, and I do want to share their magic with other people who need the plants. We as a society and as individuals, are sick and disconnected, from the land and from each other, and we need to find our way back to the plants.
There is a hunger for it. People want to learn about the plants, they want to work with them, they want to heal themselves and their communities. Herbal medicine, in the West anyway, is undergoing something of a renaissance. Herbalists are everywhere! This is a good thing. We need more herbalists, clinical professionals, growers and medicine makers, and people using herbalism to help their families and communities. We need more plant people, we need more people working with the plants in responsible ways.
In North America, we live in a colonial, capitalist system that has intentionally severed many people’s connections with their traditional plant medicine systems and with their land connections. Our society, our economy, our lives are built on continuous consumption and profit, regardless of the environmental and social costs.
One of my biggest fears is herbalism becoming another extractive industry, where we thoughtlessly take and take from the plants, as we do in many other industries, as we have already done with many of the traditional and Indigenous medicinal plants of these lands, overharvesting and endangering them (ginseng and goldenseal come to mind).
We need the plants, but many different Indigenous teachers have taught me that the plants need us too. They need us to plant them, to tend them, and to show them respect and reverence: the plants want us to be in community with them.
We need many herbalists, but we also need many small-scale, localized herb farmers growing and working with the plants in their regions. This is what I am trying to do with Singing Nettles Herbs. I want to use small-scale and sustainable agricultural practices to grow high quality medicinal herbs and sell them to my local community, as well as offer environmentally conscious plant education.
Situating Myself and the Land where I Farm
I come from tremendous privilege. My background is Western European (England, Scotland, France), and I am tremendously lucky to be able to farm on a plot of land that has been in my mother’s family for over 100 years at this point. This piece of land was purchased by my great , great, great grandfather from a man named Alexander Robertson. Roberston purchased it from the Canada Company, a private land development company created to colonize parts of what was then called Upper Canada. Farming is in my bones, but so is colonialism. I have a historical connection with where I am farming, but it is just over 100 years at this point. The peoples who lived on these lands since time immemorial, the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and others, are largely shut out from land ownership in this area. Without my family connection, I would not be able to farm here myself. There are difficult and important conversations about reconciliation and land back that need to happen, but the bare minimum is situating myself and the land where I am farming.
If You Made it this Far
Thank you for reading this origin story/blog. I hope to add more content to this page on a regular basis, but spring is almost here, and seeds and garden things are calling (at this point, they are screaming). I hope to set up a proper shop soon, and have more info about where you can buy herbs from me, but for now, please check out the events page to see upcoming workshops and events, and follow me on Instagram @snherbs