Abi Huff: So I do have children and they are my mini mes. It's really amazing. They're all boys, but I have one son who is really into making yummy smelling things. So we'll make a lot of sprays together. He'll make calming sprays for his class.
Tara Ruth: Oh my gosh. That's so sweet.
Abi Huff: It's really cool. And one of my kids knows mushrooms really well. The other one is all about flowers and making different concoctions with the lemon balm and peppermint in the garden. It's so cute. So it's really beautiful for me to see that reflected in my kids, that it's just folding in the plants into our lives...
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: Is seamless now.
John Gallagher: You are listening HerbMentor Radio by LearningHerbs.
John Gallagher: I'm John Gallagher.
Tara Ruth: And I'm Tara Ruth.
Tara Ruth: Today, we're chatting with herbalist, Abi Huff.
Tara Ruth: I first met Abi a few years ago when I was studying at the California School of Herbal Studies. She was one of my teachers and I learned so much from her transformative classes and I just am so excited to dive into our conversation with Abi. But before I do so, I want to share a little bit about who Abi is. So Abi Huff is an ever evolving community and clinical herbalist, educator, medicine maker, intuitive life strategist, healing justice organizer, and overall plant nerd. Her passion lies in connecting people to their inner wisdom and responsibility to the planet and each other through gratitude for and relationship with the plant kingdom. You can find Abi on Instagram @_thestingingnettle_.
John Gallagher: Hello, Abi, and welcome.
Tara Ruth: Welcome.
Abi Huff: Hi. Thank you.
John Gallagher: Abi, I always love to start with a question of what inspired you to become an herbalist. Did you have an aha moment that led you down this path? Did you always sort of have an inkling that this is what you wanted to do?
Abi Huff: I think my love of plants release started as a child. My mom was from the Philippines and brought a lot over to the States in terms of her gardening skills and we just had a really huge thriving garden. She would grow sugar cane and taro root and ginger. We had so many fruit trees and vegetables and so many things. And I think I took advantage of it a little bit as a child, because as an adult, there's that term food forest where people are turning urban spaces and their urban gardens into food forests, literally. I was like, "Wow, my mom was already doing it." And part of it was survival and poverty for sure, but it was such a huge gift for me to be able to be by my mom and tend our garden and the fruit trees and climb the apricot tree in the summertime and just stay up there, eating apricots.
Abi Huff: And so my father, who is from Georgia, and he also grew up on a farm and we're descendants of enslaved folks. My father's black, but my grandparents, my great grandparents, all farmers. And my father, I don't think he realized it, but had a green thumb as well. Because he is the person that sprays down every leaf of his plants and wipes them down. And so I think it's just in my blood and bones, the plant work, and being connected to the plant world. It almost feels like I just ended up here. There was no other place for me to be except immersed deeply into the world of plants.
John Gallagher: Well, it sounds like that you had this childhood where you got to run free in nature. And were a lot of those experiences connected, do you think?
Abi Huff: Yeah. Our yard was good sized. We had a large yard and I was always outside. And so it was very normal and natural for me to just, I knew where food came from. And also, my mom was out there making from her sugar cane that she would grow, she was making sugar cane vinegars and doing a lot of things like that I, like I had said earlier, just really took advantage of as a child, but were really, really profound and left big marks on my soul.
John Gallagher: Sugar cane vinegar. I can't even can't imagine that. What's that taste like?
Abi Huff: Vinegar. It ends up being white, a cloudy white vinegar.
Tara Ruth: Wow. Delicious.
Abi Huff: Yeah.
Tara Ruth: And all of that running around in this amazing food forest that your mom created, it sounded like sugar cane and apricot were some of these plant allies that you connected with. Were there any others that really stand out to you in your plant journey of, "Wow, these were some of my first deep relationships that I built with a plant."
Abi Huff: Yeah. When I talk to people, flowers are one of the biggest things that bring us back to our childhood. And for me, my mom also grew a lot of roses. And when I was a kid, roses actually were very perfumed. They were this really strong medicine in terms of smell. So roses for sure. And she had a rose that was this beautiful lavender, and it was my favorite rose in the whole garden.
Tara Ruth: Wow.
Abi Huff: But it just smelled so beautiful. And then also I might get it wrong, but are they called Jupiter's rings or?
Tara Ruth: Ooh, I don't know.
Abi Huff: Saturn's ring? It's this really beautiful magenta flower that grows on umbels, but that's another flower whenever I see it, it just brings me back to being a kid. And then the last, well, the last two, one is collared greens, because we always had collared greens. My mom took on a lot of my father's Southern roots as a kid. So we always had just big, beautiful collared greens in the garden and a huge pomegranate tree. And to this day, nothing compares to those pomegranates in that tree.
Tara Ruth: Oh, yeah. Wow.
Abi Huff: To this day, I've never had one that's taken me back to that time of my life.
Tara Ruth: It just sounds like there was so much love poured into all of those plants and that space and that relationship with the land. I can see why there wouldn't be another that would compare yet. Oh my gosh.
John Gallagher: I wonder, Abi, when we were talking, sugar cane, pomegranate, apricot, and you mentioned ginger, since you have been an herbalist, a medicinal herbal practitioner, have you looked into more of medicinal qualities of these plants or just as food or the food is medicine? Have you explored more of those plants of your youth?
Abi Huff: Absolutely. And I think one thing is I feel like everything is connected so food is medicine. We think about our culinary herbs and things like that, but so many of our culinary herbs are medicinal. And at a certain point in time, I know that, especially in my Southern root, when I go back, a lot of the spices like rosemary and the sages and different things like that were also put into the cooking pot not just for flavor, but for its medicinal properties, for killing off whatever might be in the meat, just for making sure that everything was good. So it wasn't just, "Oh, we're putting the sage in the pot because it tastes good," but it's also part of the medicine and making sure everybody's healthy and refrigeration standards were different.
John Gallagher: Right.
Abi Huff: Clearly.
John Gallagher: Right.
Abi Huff: So a lot of it was preservation as well.
Tara Ruth: Yeah.
Abi Huff: So it's hard for me to separate out food and medicine and all of that stuff, but I definitely have explored a lot of the foods in my garden as a child. And I'm very big into ancestral foods and all those foods that make us feel like home.
Tara Ruth: Yeah. You talking about ancestral foods makes me think about how you mentioned one of your areas of focus is ancestral healing. And can you talk a little bit about what ancestral healing is and how this is connected to herbalism?
Abi Huff: Absolutely. So just who I am as an herbalist, I feel like so many of our gifts as human beings aren't just gifts that we hold because we're us, but they're also gifts that kind of pop up through our ancestral lives. So I truly believe, and I also know that for myself, if I were to follow my lineages back, there are definitely healers in my lines. There are herbalists in my lines. There are farmers in my lines. There are all of that. And so that gift and that affinity to me pops up through the generational thread. Absolutely.
Abi Huff: With some of my students we would do ancestral projects where we would have folks kind of do a research project on their ancestry and see what they could find. And one of my past students is basically a hibiscus farmer and just grows hibiscus. That's one of the main crops that they love to grow. And following their lineage backwards, they found photos of their great, great, great grandfather or great, great grandfather growing and tending a field of hibiscus in Argentina.
Tara Ruth: Wow.
Abi Huff: And I just thought that was really so special. So I think that when we kind of merge the world of plants and honoring all of those who've come before us and also finding all the beautiful legacies and gifts that are shared amongst people that we may know and may not have been able to meet is such a powerful and profound way of affirming who we are.
John Gallagher: Abi, what comes up for me sometimes we talk about ancestral healing, for me personally, and I don't know if with your students, if you've come across this too, but when I was studying herbs and I was trying to look back, I do have this Italian grandfather who they would talk about, "Oh, he'd gather dandelion greens in the park in Philadelphia," my great grandfather, maybe back in the early 20th century. But mostly, I just sense a lot of grief because, I don't know, it's all these Irish potato farmers, people. I know they were using herbs and plants, obviously, they were eating and whatnot, but I feel like there's just so much that has been, the lineage is destroyed. Because my grandmother after World War II so adopted suburbia and my mom sprayed chemical lawn care to keep the lawn green. And I just feel like it's been a lot of rebuilding. And I was just wondering when you tap into that with students, ancestral healing and all, what does that bring up for people? It sounds like it can be beautiful, but also painful?
Abi Huff: Absolutely. I think you bring up a really beautiful point around the grief I feel. And I feel for myself and what I've seen with so many people is that there's a grief of living out of diaspora, meaning our society's kind of like a hodgepodge. We don't have these very clear, not all of us, some of us are still blessed to be able to carry on and hold ancestral knowledge and traditions and things like that, but the majority of us don't have that.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: And so there is a feeling of disconnect, and even with myself and my journey of ancestral healing. It's, so multi-layered. It's really complex but really simple at the same time.
John Gallagher: Right.
Abi Huff: But some of the practices that we would use working with our students would be to, if you could identify this plant, so you have dandelion greens that you knew your great grandfather harvested. So working with dandelion greens now, and part of ancestral medicine is maybe working with certain medicines that you know are in your lineage.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: And just trying to wake that up and also as an offering to our ancestors who are part of our blood and bones, so making that little offering for ourselves to them. And so that's one thing, but I think grief is a real thing. And also some of us can't trace our lineages backwards.
John Gallagher: Yes.
Abi Huff: Some of us, just depending on what our family constellation looks like, and our ancestors can be many and anything that have moved us and given us a place and home and things like that. So I work a lot with the queer trans community.
John Gallagher: Oh great.
Abi Huff: And unfortunately, in that community, a lot of families are broken.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: And youth have to go off on their own and start their own little family constellations. And what I've seen with a lot of my students, what's honored, they call them transcestors. So people who truly, deeply moved them and inspired them to really embody who they are and things like that. So we can celebrate in any way possible. I don't think there's limits on ancestral healing.
John Gallagher: Sort of a way forward is us coming together, isn't it? I love the idea of family constellations and I love that you're working with the trans community because I know that can be, with families, understanding can be challenging. My brother's gay and I remember when my parents, they had to dig deep and change the way they were thinking and really move forward. And they did, they embraced it and they really worked and it really brought the family closer together, I think. But I love family constellations, that's so wonderful.
Abi Huff: Yeah. And just thinking about that, there's this section of ecology, the plant world itself, that's called queer ecology, that just talks about the many iterations of fungus and the way different plants and animals reproduce and express themselves. And it's not a binary thing in nature. There's just a lot happening in nature. There's so much happening in nature and it's much more expansive than we can think of. And I think also just working with the queer trans community, folks have seen themselves reflected in nature and the many different expressions of all of these beautiful creatures. And so I've seen that as well. So people using the phrase plantcestors as well.
John Gallagher: Wow. So it's really embracing diversity and all of nature and all of humanity together that we can do.
Abi Huff: Absolutely.
John Gallagher: Hey, Tara.
Tara Ruth: Hi, John.
John Gallagher: So when you went to herbal school, California School of Herbal Studies, right?
Tara Ruth: That's the one.
John Gallagher: They had a curriculum on, I imagine they had a curriculum laid out for you. You signed up and they said, "This is what we're going to do through these two years." Right?
Tara Ruth: Yep, that was the deal.
John Gallagher: And being in a school that was a couple of years, you probably learned early on, now, you went to college where it's a lot of, "I'm doing a class that's going to bring me from point A to point B." How long into it did you realize that studying herbs isn't point A to B?
Tara Ruth: I feel like about one month in. Pretty soon, because I started, I'm such a nerd, me and my best friend who were in herb school together started to track our nerd stress. And we realized that we wanted to be at point B already. And we had to keep checking in with ourselves.
John Gallagher: Have you gotten to point B yet?
Tara Ruth: I think the more I learn, the more I realize that it's not about getting to point B, it's actually about building relationships.
John Gallagher: And it's sort of instead of a straight line or even a curved line, it's sort of like a big scribble on a page.
Tara Ruth: Yeah. Yeah.
John Gallagher: And then you realize that there is no point B, I'm just going to be in the scribble.
Tara Ruth: Yeah, you just want to be part of the mycelial network, basically.
John Gallagher: Exactly, exactly.
John Gallagher: Well, that's exactly, when I was designing HerbMentor back 15 years ago or something, I had gone through an herbal apprenticeship about as long as yours and I realized that same thing. And a lot of times people will join and think, "Hey, this is going to be from point A to point B." You're going to have a certificate at the end or you're going to understand how this machine works, nature.
Tara Ruth: Yeah. Nature being the machine.
John Gallagher: Yeah. Right, right.
John Gallagher: So what happened was I realized that it was really about an adventure, that herbalism is a journey and it's more so an adventure because you never know where your particular passion's going to take you. You may get more into gardening than one person, but maybe another person learns more about remedy making, is really into that, or wildcrafting. There's so many places to go that we find that there's a certain proficiency you need and some skills, I think, that you get, but then after that, it's kind of, are all of your friends you graduated with all kind of doing slightly different things with herbs?
Tara Ruth: Oh, absolutely. I feel like no matter where you go in life, even if you're not a, quote, unquote, professional herbalist, you're always an herbalist because you're still building those relationships with the plants and carrying those seeds forth into all the different work you do.
John Gallagher: Yeah. So with HerbMentor, there is a place where you might say to yourself, "Where is my herbal adventure going to lead me today?" And you might go down a trail of getting help and support. You might want to learn by sharing your story or helping others with a question or maybe you have a plant to identify. Or maybe you say, "Today, I need to go look something up." So in HerbMentor, we have a great search feature. We have lots of herbal profiles or monographs, lots of references and resources when you need something quick. Or you might want to think, "Hey, it's time to learn a core skill," so maybe it's botany for herbalists or aisle crafting or making a garden. You can do that.
John Gallagher: Or you may say that I just want to explore, discover, so maybe you want to listen to a podcast course on natural stress care or culinary herbalism or herb energetics or staying healthy through the seasons. That might be what you want to do while you're cleaning the house or working out in the garden with your AirPods on. And then you might want to check in to what different mentors say. What's Rosemary Gladstar have to say? And watch a plant walk video with her or listen to an interview like this one or dozens of others we've had with amazing herbalist or full classes on Herb TV.
John Gallagher: See, there's a lot of information and it seems overwhelming, but it's not because you take it one day, one experience at a time. And instead of being about point A to point B, we help guide you through that process. So it kind of fuses in your life. And after I took my first two month herbal class, I realized that's what I needed, that's what I wanted, is some way of having community, having inspiration and ongoing learning in my life. And I sort of made a digital version of how my brain was working.
Tara Ruth: Yeah.
John Gallagher: Yeah. You can check it out for a dollar.
Tara Ruth: Check out your brain for a dollar.
John Gallagher: Check out my brain for a dollar and the brain of many amazing herbalists. So all you've got to do is you can go to herbmentorradio.com. And while you're there, you could see what cool special offer we have for HerbMentor, but you can also subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app and make sure you always catch us, right?
Tara Ruth: Yeah, absolutely.
John Gallagher: Because you never know what we're going to talk about. So yeah, that's what I wanted to share about HerbMentor.
Tara Ruth: Yeah. And I've just got to say, I started using HerbMentor right at the end of my first year of school. And I still felt like such a beginning herbalist. And now even, has it been almost two years later, I still draw on HerbMentor as a beginner, as someone who has more experience under my belt too. So I've just found it incredibly useful at all different levels in my herbal journey and I'm very grateful to have my own subscription.
John Gallagher: Why thank you. And I hope that you, listener, will join us in our community and we look forward to seeing you there. Now we should probably get back to that podcast.
Tara Ruth: Oh yeah, let's do it.
Tara Ruth: This makes me think about, Abi, how in a lot of our work together, you've described yourself as a politicized herbalist. And I see you as someone who weaves all these connections into herbalism and building relationships and there's all these threads that come into working with the plants. And I'm just curious, can you talk about what this means to you and why being a politicized herbalist is important?
Abi Huff: Absolutely. So I definitely, like in your introduction, I'm a healing justice organizer. Meaning, well, part of my work is really, when we think about society, there's a lot of margins and people are shoved into these margins, off on the side, off on the side. And we have particular kinds of people that are very centered in the middle. And it's my belief that part of my life's work is to bring people from the margins and into the center. And that's deeply inclusive of everyone.
Abi Huff: So as a politicized herbalist, I have a focus on disability justice and looking at ableism and how that impacts who we are as practitioners, as healers, even in educational spaces, how we bring folks with disabilities into the center, visible disabilities and invisible disabilities. When we're looking at gender, I just believe that there's space for all of us. We can all be who we want to be. And I want folks to be brought to the center. And also with my work, I work with a lot of immigrant communities and my work really does center with communities of color and making things accessible and also understanding the impacts of so many things on all of these different communities. So as a politicized herbalist, I just feel like it's important, again, to bring everyone into the center and make a lot of healing and wellness from physical wellbeing to generational traumas. I want people to have access to healing and working with those things.
John Gallagher: How can we do that? How can herbalists or herbal companies, schools, do more of this and bring more of this viewpoint into the work they're doing to create a bigger feeling of inclusiveness, safety, and welcomeness into the work they're doing? I'd have to say that before Black Lives Matter, a couple years ago, a lot of the work that folks started doing, I always consider myself a very inclusive, aware person, but after really listening to a lot of things, I found so many blind spots.
Abi Huff: Yeah.
John Gallagher: And I went, "Oh." And so, yeah. I guess all of us listening, whether you're a home herbalist or you're doing herbal walks in your local park, or maybe you have a little apothecary or dream of it, or it seems like there's something that a lot of people might be missing, I'm feeling, to create an environment of inclusiveness, I guess. You know what I'm saying? I'm just trying to get my thoughts out.
Abi Huff: Absolutely. Absolutely. No, because I've taught at a school for the past few years that centers people of color. And then when I teach at schools who don't necessarily hold that, that are primarily white, I also see my white students really craving for a more politicized education. And I see folks just really hungry for information all across the board. But what I do feel is that for a lot of schools, herbal schools, I think money can be a big thing that keeps people from being able to study.
Abi Huff: So somehow creating scholarship funds or sliding scales or spaces for people of color is really important because I don't know very many schools who have had a strong focus on creating scholarship funds for people of color or queer trans folks or just folks that are traditionally in the margins. And I say this because it's really important to have culturally competent care, especially in terms of communities of color or queer communities, folks really want to be understood on these deeper levels. And so having a beautiful and diverse spectrum of practitioners is powerful, but that starts from different institutions doing whatever they can to expand their student base. I feel like that's really important.
John Gallagher: I think on some level when you start learning about herbs, it's kind of hard not to start to feel like when you learn more and you're out there and then start seeing what everyone else have done or what they're doing or not doing, you start to feel that this can get kind of like a politicized thing. Right? Because the different beliefs people have and different.
Abi Huff: Yeah.
John Gallagher: So, yeah, because you get deeply connected to nature and the earth and you want the world to be connected to nature and the earth so we can all get along and we can all get healthy and we can all take care of this planet.
Abi Huff: Yeah. And then at the same time, there's still neighborhoods that are food deserts where there just isn't the accessibility to fresh foods. And yes, people are still lacking accessibility to healthy foods. And even the privilege of thinking outside of CVS, it is a privilege to think about herbal medicines and things like that, even though it's part of so many of our lineages. And so as a politicized herbalist, I talk a lot about colonization and the impacts of the colonial world and how that really severed a lot of indigenous peoples from traditions, languages, all kinds of things clearly. And the intergenerational impacts of that on people is real.
John Gallagher: Wow.
Abi Huff: And so that's always folded in and that's what I mean by when we talk about intergenerational trauma or the impacts of racism or even immigration, what it feels like to be an immigrant in our country and how part of you needs to close down, be small, and feels like it needs to hide to be safe. And the impacts of just those things on a person's overall wellbeing is huge.
Tara Ruth: It makes me think about how you've talked about another area of your focus is this connection between stress and immunity and the deep stress of systemic oppression and how that is connected to immunity and health and wellness. And I'm wondering, can you talk a little bit about that connection between stress and immunity for our listeners?
Abi Huff: Absolutely. There is so much evidence out there through different studies that focused on black communities or indigenous communities, on the impacts of oppression on people. And so it is a very, very real thing. And so when I am working with my students, a big part of this is talking about the realities of what people move through and the differences between how people are living. So it's just very, very, very real. And I look at my own family, again, my father is black and my mother's from the Philippines, but on one hand, I'm the descendant of people who survived the Middle Passage, and then looking at my father and the impacts of living in an insanely racist South.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: On him as an elder who's in his '80s now. I still see it. I still see the impacts. I still see the safety mechanisms that he'd imparted onto me and my siblings around that. And my mother as well. It's such a big thing. And I don't know why this is coming up now, but I wanted to circle back to something John asked about what we can do.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: But I was thinking about, even in my own journey as an herbalist, it took my own studies to know how plants got here. I didn't learn in herb school that hibiscus has roots in Africa. Tamarind has roots in Africa. Certain rices, roots in Africa. It was more kind of taught to me from a Western herbal framework. And it really started getting me to think about the travel of people, even displacement of people, and how they brought seeds with them. So I know that folks who made the Middle Passage actually braided seeds into their hair.
John Gallagher: Wow.
Abi Huff: And brought them over. And that's how things like okra got here and hibiscus.
John Gallagher: Wow.
Abi Huff: And tamarind seeds. And even though it wasn't just North America, but those seeds were brought to places in South America as well. And even cotton root, I have studied midwifery and I didn't know the roots of cotton root until I did my own research. And so I feel like there's a real big disconnect and lack of offering acknowledgement where it's due through my own herbal education, and it's not intentional, but it is intentional. And that's part of the erasure of indigenous peoples and people of color all across the world that especially communities and cultures who, yes, were displaced through whatever mechanism, but also whose cultures didn't write, they were storytellers or their stories and knowledge was put into dances or songs. So it's just a disconnect between those things, so yeah.
John Gallagher: Abi, with what you're saying, on the internet, being online and having LearningHerbs and people who find us online, they find us, and yes, there's things for free people can do, but like you were alluding to earlier, saying earlier, not everyone has access to that or knows what to look for or even to look for that. And that's always this big thing that always seems to me too big to think about, kind of like we know we have to do something about climate change, but I think people get stuck because it seems so huge to tackle and think about.
Abi Huff: Yeah.
John Gallagher: That's a huge thing. I don't know what my question is, but I just feel that, are you working on ways or are there people working on ways to connect people that may be in those food deserts to their ancestry and the fact that this is from their lineage and these are things that could bring them health? Because not everyone's going to, whether it's LearningHerbs or one of the many amazing herbalists online sharing things, including yourself, it's often like, well, how is this done? Have you thought about that or?
Abi Huff: I have and there's something called just transition, which really refers to, I guess just to simplify it, bringing things down small and regionally. And I know for myself, if I think too far out, and if I think about every problem on the planet, it's too much for me.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: So I bring it down to what can I do here where I am?
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: And there's so much happening. Where I live in Northern California, there is amazing farms like Urban Tilth which is run by people of color and all that food goes out to people who need it most in the Richmond area. There are community gardens and just so many things that are blossoming, which is absolutely beautiful.
Abi Huff: And then my contribution is, like I said, to focus on working with communities of color. I've worked with youth of color around plant medicine and just planting the seed that this is part of our ancestral legacy. Just because you're from the city and you're a kid of color and you're experiencing all these things doesn't mean that you're not a child of the earth. And the narratives that you may have been told about yourself are all false because you also come from a long line of healers and farmers and people who are connected and could hear and created mathematics and all these beautiful things.
Abi Huff: So I know that just from my own heart, I trust that we are collectively contributing to shifting the dynamics. I know I'm not the only herbalist that works with youth of color around plants. There's a few of us. And so that's why I feel like that accessibility piece is really important so that we can keep expanding that pot and we can continue to make our little offerings where we are to our communities. And that's what we've got. We can shift things community by community, region by region.
Tara Ruth: Yeah. Makes me just think about planting seeds. One little seed and how big that can grow over time if we keep tending to it.
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: Seed bombs.
Tara Ruth: Absolutely. Yes.
John Gallagher: It reminds me of when I used to think about going to all the perfect lawns and do guerrilla herbalism in the middle of the night and spread dandelion seeds everywhere. I never actually did that but I thought about it.
Tara Ruth: Sure, John.
Abi Huff: Yes.
Tara Ruth: On the record, you didn't do it. Got it.
Abi Huff: That reminds me of the work of these folks called Solidarity Apothecary who operate out of the UK but their focus has been on imprisoned folks and they have a whole herbal manual about herbs that you may find in the prison yard.
John Gallagher: Wow.
Abi Huff: That are specifically for people who are incarcerated. And dandelion is one of those that's in that book. I don't know, when I think of all the little bits and pieces of information and points of focus that people commit to, we're making way. It's so cool. It's so beautiful to me.
John Gallagher: I was thinking you were talking about bringing it down to where I am and Tara was talking about stress and immunity, and I was wondering if you wanted to mention one or two or a few of your favorite nervous system herbs or immune system herbs that you share with people.
Abi Huff: Yes. Well, for myself, motherwort has been such a powerful ally. And so the way I see stress and anxiety is it expresses itself in kind of different areas with people. Some people get stress belly, or some people feel it in their chest, or some people get those circular thoughts. And so for all of the different ways that I've seen stress express itself, I have my favorites, but motherwort is, just for myself personally, it's been my anecdote for so many things. And I have a big old motherwort in my garden right now. And just when I feel that little heaviness on my chest or that little bit of anxiety, I'll just go out there and I'll eat a leaf off of the plant and it's been very helpful.
Abi Huff: But in terms of stress and immunity, I think two of my tops are reishi and astragalus. They're just really powerful. Reishi in itself is called the mushroom of imortality for so many reasons. And I was blessed to work with some California natives who were talking about reishi and their tradition as heart medicine and how that bitterness is actually part of that medicine. So not just physiologically for the heart, but things will work in different layers. So if we're looking at reishi as heart medicine for the heart itself, which it's very powerful for the heart, it's working on energetic levels as well. And their understanding of reishi was that the bitterness helps us be able to pallet bitter things on an emotional level. And I thought that was really beautiful.
Tara Ruth: Wow.
Abi Huff: And then astragalus is just one of my all time favorites for just kind of sustaining the strength of the immune system.
John Gallagher: Right.
Abi Huff: And I kind of run parallels between our bodies and what's happening with the planet. So when I look at the soils, the soils never get a chance to rest. They're always being worked and they're a little depleted, even if we're working with organic plants or eating organic foods, just the soils are a little depleted. So we're kind of running that way a lot. And for myself and working with other people, I've seen astragalus really kind of bring that strength from the core, from the center of the bones, just on outwards, just really strengthen people and help balance out their immune responses. And actually, it's been powerful, especially over these last couple of years.
John Gallagher: Wow.
Tara Ruth: Abi, as you're talking about these herbs, I'm thinking about the stories you were telling of your childhood and bringing these plants into your foods. And then also you wrote a great article for us on making elderflower popsicles for your kids.
John Gallagher: Yes, it was so good. It's on our blog, the LearningHerbs blog, you must see it.
Tara Ruth: Yes, it's delicious. And you just have this way of making these medicines taste so good and more accessible and are inviting. And I think a lot of herbalists can get so caught up in just focusing on tinctures that they forget about all these other ways we can work with herbs. And I'm just curious, how do you welcome herbs into your daily life and into your family?
Abi Huff: Oh my gosh. So I do have children and they are my mini mes. It's really amazing. They're all boys, but I have one son who is really into making yummy smelling things. So we'll make a lot of sprays together. He'll make calming sprays for his class.
Tara Ruth: Oh my gosh. That's so sweet.
Abi Huff: It's really cool. One of my kids knows mushrooms really well. The other one is all about flowers and making different concoctions with the lemon balm and peppermint in the garden. It's so cute. So it's really beautiful for me to see that reflected in my kids, that it's just folding in the plants into our lives...
John Gallagher: Yeah.
Abi Huff: Is seamless now. It's just part of our lives. And I think one part of that is just, like I had said earlier, thinking about culinary herbs, they're culinary, but they're medicinal, oregano and rosemary, just have so many beautiful offerings for us and our wellbeing. And I guess what I'm just trying to say is in my home, there's not a separation between medicine and kind of daily life. Our whole every day is kind of infused with foods as medicine and those plants folded in and going out into the garden and being able to, just my kids know now they can go and get lemon balm from the garden and make some tea when they want to sleep better.
John Gallagher: How old are they?
Abi Huff: Seven, nine and 11.
John Gallagher: I'd like to talk in 10 years after they've gone through their teenage years and let's see how it sticks.
Abi Huff: Oh my gosh. I hope it sticks. I really hope it sticks.
John Gallagher: I hope it sticks too. I really do, Abi.
Tara Ruth: Oh my God, I love the idea of one of them bringing flower essences for their high school class, just before a big test or something.
John Gallagher: That's great.
Tara Ruth: Oh my gosh.
Abi Huff: I'm going to keep my fingers crossed on that.
Tara Ruth: Yes.
Abi Huff: I really hope that, but I look at myself and without thinking about it, I brought so much from my childhood into my adulthood, so I'm hoping the same for them.
John Gallagher: Yeah. I like to think that my children will come back around again when they're parents themselves and look, "Oh yeah, I remember this."
Abi Huff: Yeah.
John Gallagher: "Mom and dad, you were smart. It's not just fantasy?"
Abi Huff: I made it back there. I made it back to that point. And even thinking about my own mom, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I've become my mom." Those certain things all happens without us even noticing.
John Gallagher: I know, I know. The circle continues.
John Gallagher: And Abi, I just so appreciate you sharing your wisdom and your stories and how you went to the roots of the herbal stories in your family. And all the compost and grew beautiful fruit and flowers and healing herbs to spread to all of us. And it just means so much to me that you spent your time and went deep with us. And I'd like to explore more with you in future episodes. But I'm wondering right now, if people want to learn from you, follow you online, how they can do that.
Abi Huff: Okay, so again, my Instagram is _thestingingnettle_. And right now, that's going to be the primary way that folks can follow my work. At this time, I'm actually in the process of building out a politicized and embodied herbal course that I'm hoping will be available and up and running by the fall.
John Gallagher: Oh, well, we want to know about that so we can help spread the word to our networks and places.
Abi Huff: Thank you. Yeah. I know there's so much about me that I didn't get to share today, but for now, I'll be offering some one off courses and classes and hopefully also building out an in person apprenticeship, but clearly you'd have to be in Northern California. So yeah, I do have some things brewing and if you just follow me on Instagram, I'm not the best as social media, but I do post when it's necessary. I'm trying to get better at it, but you can definitely follow what I'm up to there.
Tara Ruth: Amazing. Well, Abi, thank you so much for joining us on HerbMentor Radio. It was really a pleasure chatting with you.
John Gallagher: Yeah, absolutely. It was an honor.
Abi Huff: Thank you.
John Gallagher: HerbMentor Radio is written and produced by John Gallagher and Tara Ruth. Visit herbmentorradio.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and for information on how to be part of our HerbMentor online learning community. HerbMentor Radio is a production of learningherbs.com LLC, all rights reserved. Thank you so much for listening.
