From HerbMentor.com, this is Herb Mentor Radio.
Herb Mentor Radio. Today, we are with EagleSong at RavenCroft Garden in Monroe, Washington. EagleSong's name is synonymous with herbalism in the Seattle area where she has been connecting people with plants for over about thirty years, would you say? Mhmm.
Her name comes up whenever someone in the area asks someone, where do you learn about herbs? She's founder of RavenCroft Garden, an herbal school and garden that that has been around since nineteen ninety one. She has also been an educator and chief gardener at the world famous Herb Farm restaurant in Woodinville, Washington, where she is featured in Master Gardener magazine.
EagleSong is currently the head gardener. Would that be your title?
I'm the environmental horticulturist.
You mean environmental horticulturist at Willow's Lodge, which is ranked number twelve in the top one hundred hotels in the United States and number eighty in the world. Is that correct? That's what I saw in her website. Right. I think.
But most importantly, however, she, was and remains a mentor of mine. So when you hear me speak, you're hearing EagleSong and her beautiful way of sharing herbs and health.
So, here we are and, as I'm returning to RavenCroft here to learn a little more of EagleSong. So with that, welcome.
Thank you, John. I really appreciate your invitation to be on your radio show and look forward to sharing herbs, especially the black cottonwood, a a real dear friend of mine.
Oh, wonderful.
Thank you.
So, you know, you once told me a metaphor that stuck with me to this day, and it was so powerful that it really is the foundation of how I approach health care as an educator as well as an acupuncturist.
You said, that one should approach their bodies, like gardening. That is if you see a plant that has aphids or it's weak or yellowing, then you could do one of two things. You can spray it even with an organic soap to get rid of the aphids, or you can tend to that plant lovingly and build a healthy soil. Compost, fertilize, give it attention.
If you spray the plant, you'll have a plant without aphids, but it will still be unhealthy and cover a spray or you can choose the second route where you have a strong, vibrant plant, one that is healthy and one that can survive on its own.
I'm wondering if you could expand on that a bit, especially about nourishment, health, herbs.
Right. Yeah. Three sentences.
As many as you can, you just talk as long as you want.
The foundation of health really the more I garden, the more I realized the foundation of health is in the earth, our foundation of well-being. It almost reminds me of the king Arthur story when the, when the king didn't was not connected to the land, then the the kingdom failed. Mhmm. And it's the same in our health.
If we aren't connected to the earth, then everything that we build around us, is sort of floating in air. And so we create all kinds of stories to go with why things are why we're ill or why things aren't the way they should be. But, really, once we get back into the rhythm of the natural cycles and processes in our world and take nature as our guide, then we begin to understand the interconnectedness of of all things and how it is that we we begin to cultivate health and cultivate life. I guess that's what I would say first.
We would cultivate life to create health.
And so rather than fast remedies, quick fixes, or exotic anythings to treat something, really looking at the ground, really looking at the ground, being the person's body, their belief systems, their way of being in the world.
And then it's in that place that we can make the most profound changes so that the organism itself becomes stronger, more vital, and able to adapt and flex with the changing environment. And then there's also that little place, and this is really a gardener's, motto is right plant, right place. We do have natures as people and putting us into environments that are really, complementary to our nature can help us to be all that we can be.
So the shady plants put in the full sun will always fail.
The plant that really needs a lot of light and a lot of, sometimes plants need wind and a lot of vigor to really be healthy. If you put them in a shade under a tree, they will never look good because they aren't in the place that they're meant to be in. And so people's natures are much like, the nature of plants, the nature of animals.
Wild animals find those places in the environment that they fit into. And so really watching nature, taking our lead from nature and then working in in as much accordance with those rhythms and patterns is, I guess, what I strive to do as an herbalist.
So someone, this is interesting because then if someone comes to you and says, I have, migraines. Mhmm. Whatever you might think. Now with what we were just saying, we know we can nourish the body, but how then do you take into some of the account the other stuff? Like, you're talking about the the the shady plant and the sun. It seems you see them in a layer here that I I haven't heard before, which I'm really procrastinated about.
And they usually be like, well, you know, when we have migraines and nourish your body with infusions and eat well exercise and It's like compost.
The the infusions in the, the tradition of herbalism that we practice in where we really focus a lot on nourishment, the infusions are the equivalent of compost in the garden.
Mhmm.
It's the, the grand ameliorator.
They bring into the body a lot of minerals, and minerals are one of the things most lacking in modern food.
And so, I guess the way I was instructed was that you enter wherever there's an opening.
So if the person has migraines, you can use that as, you know, the conversation, but I don't wanna treat migraines. I love to be with people. I like to treat people. Right. And I like to treat people well.
So if we get sidetracked onto migraines, then I might miss an opportunity to treat someone well. So it's always safe to say, well, you know, there's these infusions, old straw nettle, red clover, comfrey that you can use, and they're a really good place to start because it opens a doorway into the the being.
The herbs go in and they start to do this change. And and people really use the, the infusions a quart a day on a regular basis, they can vary which ones they use, then they will start to see profound changes, which is why why we use those herbs in the apprenticeship program.
And, we don't just talk about them. We send them home with people and they use them in the month that that's the herb we're working on. You drink that herb every day for a month, and then you come back with a report. How did that affect you? So at the end of the nine month program, you've gone through nine different herbs. Nothing's really treating anything, but they're all deeply nourishing the the organism. Then at the end of the nine months, you look at how are you different?
Mhmm.
You know? Are your migraines changed? Is your life different? How do how has the simplest thing changed? And then so we start on that level, that deep level of doing something that's pretty harmless, yet could have profound effect. And I've seen over and over in the thirty years that I've been teaching and practicing ailments are, they start to subside.
Have you found that let's say I was that person with migraines and then I started doing nourishing herbal bruise. Is some of that stuff like you were saying about, you know, other environmental factors, like, you know, with the plant and shade or sauna or whatever Mhmm.
That that person, because they're doing something and you said something about a doorway opening, do you notice that that person suddenly makes better choices in their life about other things on their own, which is Usually, it's not sudden.
Occasionally, it's suddenly.
Yeah. Right.
But oftentimes and and oftentimes, it is suddenly. And things that happen suddenly often don't take hold.
Right.
Things that happen slowly over time, just like the bad habits we get into that really, diminish our health and our vitality, those things, if we do, if we change those with other kinds of habits, then we can see changes happening. Long term change will be more profound than, rapid.
Rapid change is hard for people to assimilate.
They are forced into assimilation, which creates a whole another set of of difficulties that can happen for them. So I don't like to see people do I like tree and rock time.
Mhmm.
I like stone time.
Really looking at the Earth as my mentor and looking at how things change. Although even in the world outside us today, we see tremendously rapid changes happening that have never been seen on the planet before at the speed that they're happening now. Yeah. So there's a certain adaptation that's, that's required of humanity now that's never been required before.
So we're in a new phase of evolution.
We if we're gonna survive as a species, the adaptation has to be rapid.
And that's Do you see herbs spinning in that somewhere?
Absolutely. I do because because even though it's a slow process, it's like eating. And if you make the two choices in your life that you're gonna eat real food, food that you can see what it is Right.
That has no ingredients except what it is, then add herbs to that. If you did those two changes, your life would be profoundly different.
And that doesn't mean and I also know that people are really pushed for time. So as best as we can, as best as we can, we we move towards what makes sense to us. If you put gasoline in a diesel engine Mhmm. You're gonna burn every seal out, you know, and it's not gonna work.
And, essentially, that's what happened. What is happening to people today, the people who have the least vigor really are the people who eat the the least like foodstuffs that, are available. And so choosing real food, choosing to use the herbs as allies, make friends with them, use them for a long time, set up your life to incorporate the plants in on a regular ongoing basis. Even though it's stone time and tree time, those are slow changing effects that will be profound, not only to you who eat that food, but to the whole planet because all of a sudden there are people saying we would like this.
And so then somebody's gonna rush into our great commercial, world. And also with the urge, if we say we want oats straw and meadows, well, they have to come from some place, so we plant more oats and meadows on the planet. And those are not gonna be so damaging in the greater scheme of things.
So it's a it's a slow, change, and at the same time, it can make a rapid and profound difference in the in the the individual and in the planet.
So those those, nourishing infusions then in a way becomes tonics because there's a rhythm to it and they're just strengthening because of the rhythm. So it doesn't necessarily mean as an adaptogen, we need to use these quote, unquote adaptogens like ginseng, for example.
Mhmm. Right.
But we can use helpful nourishing herbs that aren't stimulating our body Mhmm.
But nourishing on on a time kind of thing, which kind of it's like The the what's tonifying is the practice.
Right.
What's nourishing are the herbs.
Right. So it's like, better to exercise, you know, to if you're gonna do, let's say, some Tai Chi, it's better to do that, you know, a couple of times a week. And if you do that a couple of times a week, do it a couple of times a week every week versus a class one month and you don't do it for a couple months and a few more times. I know that it's gonna hurt you, but it's not gonna be that helpful.
The the effect will be more profound given the dosage, the frequency that you do it, the length of time that you do it, and the regularity.
All those things affect us.
If it's a habit that diminishes our health Mhmm. It will affect us. If it's a habit that encourages life. It will affect us, but that's the tonifying quality is, a pulse. Right? And a lot of people use ginseng in the orient.
I've gone to the Chinese herb shops in Seattle a lot and, you know, sometimes they will pull out a root of ginseng under the counter and they'd say, you know, this would be a a good thing for you. And I'd say, well, how often would I take it?
And I have always loved it when they, well, you've made a soup out of it on New Year's, and that's the dose for the year.
Oh.
Not this, like, five times a day before breakfast. You know, it's like ginseng was seen as this really profoundly tonifying herb that you didn't take it all the time. Once a year was enough.
Wow.
And so I really loved and appreciated that sharing because they helped me to see that pulses can be, you know if you look at a lifetime that's maybe eighty years, if the pulse is once a year over eighty years, there's gonna be something that happens.
Speaking of pulses, there is something also in the rhythms and pulses to health. Like like you're saying, we're so rushing all over that if we simply look at our lives and everyone's like diet, exercise, this, that.
But very rarely do we look at the rhythms of our life, and that also ties in with your work and passion for things like slow foods and things where Yeah.
Right? I love slow gardening, slow food, slow company.
You know, I actually, have just been reading about, space.
And always even in music, it's the rest that creates the rhythm and the music. Yes. You know? It's the spaces in our lives, And so I've just been, kind of investigating this new idea that rather than doing guided meditations where you're supposed to be looking at something, you know, go to the most beautiful place that you've ever been or would like to be and think about that, is actually about sort of meditating or giving moments of thought, or mindfulness or attention to spaces, like the space between your eyes.
You know, think about the space between your ears.
Mhmm.
What, if you were to think about it, is the volume of your arm and wrist and hand.
And then kind of teaching the mind to, move into space to slow it down.
And rhythms, like, our whole body's electrical energy.
Mhmm.
And we are working at this really high fast pace at this moment in time. A lot of the western world moves at a well, at least in America, very high fast pace. Why people love to go to, I think, third world countries is because people work at a different pace.
Right.
And, the rhythm of life is different.
And for some reason, it feels nourishing, and that's why we wanna create that.
So, yeah, that idea, I'm having this little really fun time with this idea of space rather than, objects but a space.
And I think I like that idea about music.
It's the rests. It's the cadence that create different feelings.
So even with the plants and our working with plants, whether it be gardening or harvesting or making our nourishing bruise or not only to look at the activity, but to look at the space in between the activity.
Yes. And that also that place because we tend to go out here.
There's a real lot of time in the winter where there's no milk.
And I cheat because I can find a store that will sell me milk any day or night of the year. And so occasionally, I buy milk in the winter, but in a true rhythm, there would be a void of milk with the goat, keeping. But we would be able to eat cheeses that were made with them. So there's space, that could create a different kind of food that a person would consume.
And I think what we will see in the next thirty years, like we've seen organic food moving from the fringe when I was, just starting thirty years ago thinking about what I was eating and doing and how I was living, how it now is sort of center stage. Everybody everybody says organic. Like, it just rolls off of everybody's mouth tone. And so I really do believe that the the new word is local, that local food and local entertainment and local, identity are going to once again become what creates the uniqueness in our world.
Local Backyarders.
Yeah. It's like these are the things that and, actually, then you have to stop and take a deep breath. And remember, what our backyard herbs are right now in Seattle, Washington are actually total transplants.
The plants we use, very few of them are native.
Up from here.
Right?
They're they're The ones that we use a lot of.
We have them. And they're the ones also that but they are growing here like we are.
They are. They transplanted very nicely just like we have. And so now in, in some profound way, we really are the natives. They are the natives, because life has changed.
And I think it's really important to honor what has come before us and recognize the gifts of what came before us, but we also have to take, what what is now in consideration as we move into our future.
In permaculture design, the permaculture design work that I've done, they're really adamant about cities being huge repositories of plant material.
That there are all kinds of plants because horticulture brings all kinds of plants to the neighborhood, not just useful plants in the sense that we would take them as medicine or food or craft or, you know, build something with them, But because they're, they're useful in the environment for beauty, fragrance, the many other uses that plants have in our environments. And that because the climate is changing rapidly, all of a sudden, all of these plants could at some time be incredibly useful to us here now if we imagine that there wasn't a global economy. Mhmm. All of a sudden, the plants that are in the neighbor's backyard might gain a whole new, credibility that we might see all different ways of using them. And I think that's the best part of being an herbalist is that I've trained myself to look at plants that way.
I'm not trying to protect plants. I'm trying to use them.
You know? I want plants around me that are useful and really herbs and people all over the planet in every culture. There isn't a single culture I know of that is not true of.
The plants that are most used by the peoples in those cultures have cocreated, symbiosis.
They've cocreated the need for one another.
Exactly.
That's what domestication is.
Right.
So, so we as human beings just have this amazing relationship with the plant world.
And I love what, Steven Buener says that, you know, there are mothers and fathers. They came here and they got the earth ready for us.
It's not like there's some lowly creatures and we're some high they're actually the high creatures.
Right.
If we're gonna make a hierarchy of anything.
But they came, and they got the world ready for us. They provided themselves to us so that we could inhabit this place.
And it's that grace of exchange that needs to be recognized in the world today. Not so much the protection of things, but the grace of exchange.
Versus the, so, what's this plan good for?
Exactly.
I hate that. I get that every day.
Oh, it's really great that you are butterflies like to put their baby underneath it. You know, there if we actually really answered that question, what's that plan to do before, it would be an enormous litany.
Alright. I mean, it would take a lifetime.
It's a rejectionist way of thinking to say it's good for migraines. Right? No. It's not. It's good for a person with migraines maybe.
I don't know.
Personally, I don't really know anyone who has had a chronic condition and used, like, herbs like and it's worked as some kind of silver bullet thing like they're looking for. You know? I don't accept accept, you know, something very acute that comes on. And that's when it's great to know some of those for the state.
And that's the other thing about, really, treatment. I mean, I don't practice herbalism in the in the like, people come into my office and then we have an exchange.
I didn't wanna set up that. I wanted an educational Mhmm.
Exchange because I wanted that race. I wanted the grace of having the opportunity to share with people my life, and they share with me their life.
And through our mutual sharing, there's a change of each life Mhmm.
And hopefully for the better.
And so well, you know, whatever that means, actually.
But but then there is that exchange and then being mindful and attentive to, to cultivating life, To what is life enhancing and what is life alienating. Mhmm. What in our practice of everydayness is life enhancing to us, and what is life alienating?
Those are the it it's so much bigger than just, you know like, herbalism to me is just this incredible opportunity to engage with a huge community on this planet, plants.
Right. Which which is brings me to a question I also had, which was, when training here, when I finished the program, when my wife finished the program, and as you are, we call ourselves community centered herbalists, and it's easy to just assume that means your your neighborhood or your town. So keep going on that topic. Okay.
So exactly. What they need by community.
Exactly. We really wanted to put forth, a a much huger picture of herbalism than medical herbalists or craft herbalists or culinary herbalists were offering to the people of our, of our neighborhood.
And so we really, really looked at what is community. Mhmm. And, really, to me, the community, it when we say that, we think people. Community is about people. But, really, our community is everything around us. It's our the water supply. It's the way the nutrients cycle in our, local environment.
It's the birds and the wild creatures. It's the, you know, all the grocery stores and the farmers. It's it's everything. Everything is the community. You cannot not live in community. And I wanna say that again. You cannot not live in community.
You have to live in community.
Are always in community.
Right.
Then learning how to cultivate that community so it's really life enhancing.
And choosing things that really engender life around us is what is going to, heal us and what will heal, and heal in the sense of make whole. Make us an integrated part of this grand unfolding, drama, if if you will, that's ongoing ever since humanity got consciousness.
If you're enhancing life with your work, working with plants, you are on that road, on that path of being a quote, unquote community herbalist type of herbalist. You know? I see that. Well, anyone who wants to walk a path of learning about herbs and using herbs in their life and they're using those skills, whether it be for their family or or or they're gardening and they're they're composting and that's promoting life. You had told me once that you define medicine as that which promotes life.
Medicine is everything that happens to us.
To us. Okay.
Medicine that our walk in life is the medicine.
Right.
And so each and every event and each and everything in our life is our medicine. And so really, that's sort of a indigenous people kind of look at.
That's what Yeah.
Life isn't like is about, understanding your medicine rather than getting your medicine. It's about moving through your life in a way that that you've cultivated a way of being in life that you are grateful and acknowledge it all as medicine.
And in the west, we think of medicine as something that's separate from and is only used if you were gonna get rid of something.
So it has this very strange energetic pattern around it for me.
I like the idea much better that it's it's it's what we do in our life is our medicine. How we move in our life is the medicine. The things that cross our path are the medicine. How we engage those things are, in a sense, how we take our medicine.
And so It was like my my dad and I were calling it the kit we have, herbal medicine making kit.
My dad kept saying, is there a liability there? Is it the herbal remedy kit? And I was like and I thought about it. Mhmm. But I came up with is like, I want that word to transform.
Right.
I want that word when they buy the kit to mean western medicine and then Right. They want it because of what later, they realize it's handsome one day.
And they go, oh, I I get herbal medicine. I get with the medicine. It doesn't it goes hamming one day.
That's right. And I think the website is really a really strong support of helping people to change the paradigm of of medicine.
Right.
That that really is about connecting with each other. It's about looking at these plants in respect to where they live, where they come from, how they are part of their own environmental niche, all of that, it's really exciting.
I think it's just an amazing and exciting thing. And to say it's a medicine making thing. Well, you know, you've made a huge leap already because fine. Golly. Who's making medicine at home? You know?
It's like, you have to draw on it. You gotta get it from somebody who has a license.
Right. What is this? We can make it at home? That's a huge deal.
I'm putting some under the radar enough for people. I'd be able to, to say that.
Yeah. It's it's that, it's beautiful. It's just all beautiful.
Thank you. So speaking of medicine Mhmm. And what we were just saying about what it is, what comes at us in life here, we're here at Ravencroft. We all know that already listening.
And, this was a probably the place with you that I started, I feel, to where my personal definition of medicine and the relationship with the plant started to change, shift gears. I used to I felt like I learned mostly from you. Well, of course, I love listening to all your classes and everything's great, but, you know, it was when we were shoveling in the barnyard where I would save up all my questions and you would just go off on these. Just like what what you're saying right now, this whole conversation, I would get that every day I was here working.
You're welcome.
And then you'll you never know what's gonna happen.
Exactly.
And, one of those days, when I was here, shuttling and we were it happened to be a day that right behind your property, right off the border of the property, developers started to take down a cottonwood, a balsam poplar tree, that I say balsam poplar. Some folks in the East Coast apparently don't use the Orkon because Orkon where it doesn't have, apparently, the resin. So that's why You're a different species.
Yeah. Different species. And and that was a very hard rite of passage for you and for Ravencroft because that tree was a very defining part of your landscape and your property.
I mean, the shade that that it brought, it determined who was living on your yard.
That's right. Right.
And, and also the medicine you would get every year from that tree and just celebrating the life of this, you know, this grandmother cottonwood tree on.
And, I think people in the radio, I would just like to let them know that this was an incredibly grand tree.
This tree was over eighty feet tall, and it had a circumference of over sixteen feet.
This was not just a little tree. It was an incredibly large tree.
And the unique thing about the whole, bringing the tree down, it was quite a drama, was that I actually requested the tree be brought down Mhmm.
Because of the changes that were happening in our neighborhood because of the development going in right behind my home.
A septic system was put in in the roots of that tree, and the developer wasn't going to take the tree down. And it had become unstable. We had an arborist check it and help us understand how we could take it down. We had a phone tree set up so that we could call people to come and sing the tree down. We had created an entire story around that tree that, was what we wanted to see happen because we knew she was going to leave.
Mhmm.
And it just didn't happen that way. We I was supposed to have forty eight hours notice that the treatment would be taken down, and they came, and beat on my door at, like, eight o'clock in the morning with chainsaw with two men in the tree with chainsaws running, demanding to know if I was going to pay for half of it to the for the removal because I made a request to have it taken down. And I said, no. I'm not going to.
And so then I called you, John, and, true true for that, you were you came and, essentially, we had moments to get the goats out of the goat yard and into the back of my truck to to secure their safety. And so it was quite the, quite the flip flop, if you will, that the so called environmentalist, herbalist, lover of plants, not tree hugger, was the one who was wanting the tree to get taken down and the developer was gonna not take it down. And it was like it was a total amazing, reversal of roles Mhmm. And everything.
And so, yeah, it was really intense. But the tree had meant a lot to us because it was, it was the highest tree in the whole of where I could see around me.
Mhmm.
That tree was the biggest tree. And in the native tradition of the area, the cottonwood trees are the chief tree because they're the largest deciduous tree that grows in Western Washington. So it's considered in the hierarchy of trees the chief of the deciduous trees. So there was just a lot of energy and, yes, I made a lot of medicine with that tree and she had gracefully held her arms over us for years and years. Probably the most significant thing about the day was when they actually totally cut the tree free, and that their opening cut failed and the tree didn't fall.
So the tree was standing with absolutely no connection to its root system.
Could you know?
Wow. No.
And so they wanted to push the tree over with a trackhoe, which meant they would have to drive the track hole onto Ravencroft to push it the opposite direction, and I already had made a determination about these people's character that if they drove a track along our place, they would never come to repair the damage. So I said no. And the man yelled at me, you don't know what's going on here. I said, yes, I do. I was married to a logger for twenty one years. I know that tree is totally not hooked onto the ground anymore.
Right.
And it can fall any which way it wants to, and I also know it's aimed at our home. Right.
And that was when my dozen years of living with that tree was what I was relying on.
Please don't fall on my home.
Right. Right.
Please stand until they figure this out, and she did. She stood there. It took them a couple hours to get another crew in here with the equipment to move it, and that tree could have wind could have come up. Anything could have happened, but she didn't fall on us. So that was really, that was to me that that irony, depth of connection. You could call it anything you want to, but in the story of my world, it was the connection the tree and I had. The tree and all the people who'd ever been to Ravencroft who sang under that tree, who danced under that tree, who sent their wishes and desires.
It was so amazing that the, that the medicine was more than the constituents or what we could put in a jar.
Yes. Yes. The medicine of the moment was everything that was happening. It was the two loggers that were cutting the tree down, who were just innocent people who had been brought in to do this thing that they do pretty well usually, but this time it just didn't work.
Right.
You know? And that they, probably would have benefited greatly from rubbing the oil of the balm of Gilead on their bodies at night after cutting trees down all day. I mean, there there was just this incredible energy in that moment, and, and I had developed before even moving here. This is a really long love affair with the the balm of Gilead, the black cotton with bud, the oil that we made from that bud, and the tincture that comes from that.
Mud. What? Mud.
And that, I have to give credit to, Juliet de Barrique Levy because she was the first herbalist that I read that kinda tuned me into the buds of these trees. And then when I started using them, I was just in in instant love with this the scent of it, the the whole quality of that, energy of that bud really speaks to me. I just really connect with this really powerfully and strongly.
And so when I use that in my medicine making that I share with people, I just have this total faith and belief that it will always be there.
It's just like that cottonwood tree. It it's the tree also that the, Lakota people use when they do the sun dance. It's the tree of life. Because if you cut it down, a hundred more will come.
And so it just has this huge storyline that threads through lots of different cultures around the world. It loves water. It stays close to rivers. It's a tumble tree.
It just kinda goes, gets uprooted in in big river incidents in the west. We have these big rivers and nothing like this over in the East Coast. Not everybody. And so the big, sat gravelly, sandy rivers that the, glaciers, you know, when they came down from the north left big moraines and gravel and everything.
And so the rivers come through those, and they knock the with the water rushing, rips out the willows and rips out the cottonwood, and they're all in the same family, the Salix. And so they those trees do really well, tumbling tumbling in that turbulent water, washing against the rocks and the, you know, everything. And then they all get washed up in a heap at some bend in the river down a mile or two, and the trees just like, lad, wasn't that a good rock? I was gonna say a great fire going down there.
And isn't this a nice beach to live on for now? And so they just root everywhere along this trunk or the the stem. So anywhere touching the earth, it just starts to root and then the plant just starts to anchor itself in and create a little bit of a niche that grabs more, dirt and different things to create another kind of ecosystem where it lands.
And so I've seen them cut down in the forest and just dropped, and then the whole tree starts to be a hundred trees because they start to all of the branches start to turn upright instead of lateral. They become vertical, and then they just start growing because the trunks and the limbs, wherever they hit the earth, they start to root. It's that willing to live. It's that powerful of a a life enhancing, vigorous, I don't care what kind of trauma you throw at me, I will endure and I will get better.
So that's the How is that trend how does that come through in how the balm, whether we use it as a tincture or a sour or whatever, how does that come through in its medicine, meaning the remedies for us?
Like, it's how does its character come through?
Well, I think it's a really excellent herb for tumultuous experiences. You've, you know, you're an athlete and you are vigorous with your muscles and you have, you know, ex extreme kind of activity, and so it makes a good massage oil for that kind of thing.
It has that just that strength of vitality, and it has warmth and depth. The oil itself, when you make it with this resin, has this really warmth and depth that penetrates, but it's not like ginger or cayenne or any of that. It's more this just really, protective warmth. It's the same kind it's the resin that actually covers the buds of the tree when it's, the resin is in place in the fall. All the buds for the next spring are already formed.
And when the, senescence happens and all the leaves fall from the tree, the the buds are there. They're all ready. Like little prayer hands waiting for the, the spring equinox because that's when the buds begin to swell.
And well, they are actually swelling all the way from mid February to mid March. And then by mid March when the Equinox comes, there's an explosion of this, bud casings.
So early peoples, they just picked up the bud casings off the ground because there was still a lot of resin on them, and that's how they would get the medicine. But we actually go out and, harvest the limbs or limbs fall like the tree that lived here with us for so long. Her limbs would fall because they drop limbs to help stabilize themselves as they grow. They're so big and they're so filled with water. Those trees can suck up close to three hundred gallons of water in a day to, so they actually displace a tremendous amount of water.
Our property has become much wetter once the tree was gone because she was actually, just sucking up a lot of water Wow.
And, transpiring it into the environment.
So I look for that kind of a remedy wherever there's been any kind of a big trauma, a place that requires, protection because that's what the bud the resin protects the bud from the cold and wind and water they're waterproof, so the water doesn't infect or rot the buds. So they're protected that way, the casing.
And they are antibacterial, so they're actually an antifungal.
So that disease doesn't get into the the that tender new growth through the course of the winter. Because the plant is such a water, it's voluptuous with water, it has a tendency to well, it needs protection because anywhere you have that much moisture in plant material, material, you're gonna have, rotting could be a problem. So it created its own protection for rotting resin the resin.
And so And it slows through the whole plant.
It does. It does.
But, boy, what's held on the bed bud casing, that resin on the bud case and they're always think it's the the resin is always the thickest at the very top of the tree where they can never get In here. I've always wanted to have wings so I could go up and pick them off the tops.
I I well, sometimes a tree blows over and the windstorm The windstorm brings the the buzz to me.
Yeah.
Okay. So, I know that we could spend lots more time talking and, I really, really do appreciate you know what? And I and I know we'll have more conversations. We both have to come over with the shovel, and and I can somehow rig the recorder.
I think we'll go to the barn. We'll go to the barn and we can have a mic we can be shoveling and talking and I but I'd also like to remind the readers that, there is a tremendous amount of information available about the black cottonwood that you can find online or in books.
And that we're not gonna talk about that so much in our conversation because that you can get anywhere.
That's right.
But what you get from herbalists as people are their stories. The stories of how they've been with these plants over the years and what the plants said. They have come to learn about one another, and I think that's the part that I love the most.
And if you are ever in the northwest, two stops to make. One is to Willow's Lodge. You can go on during the day and see her work.
As a gardener. As a gardener. And, I also want to remind folks that you can go to Ravencroft Garden, just not floral, Ravencroft Garden dot com. And though, as of this date in early two thousand eight, the site's gonna get some upgrading and updates sometime. But, but, just real quick, do you what are your plans for two thousand made? Do you have any ideas yet?
Or should we Oh, it's so exciting. We are in such a solidly deep metamorphosis. I can't tell you anything.
That's all we need to know.
But there is one I would invite people. Go to the site, see what we've been doing, see who we are. And also on articles, you can, push articles, and you will find an article on the black cottonwood, which is a really beautiful article I wrote a long time ago, and it happens to be on the website now.
Oh, really?
So and I hope it stays there. And, but I can assure everybody that Ravencroft is alive and well.
Whatever the metamorphosis is We're not sure yet.
It's gonna be good. I just know it's gonna be good.
And you can be sure that on Earth mentor, we are gonna let you know what that is.
Indeed.
We will stay in touch.
Because we're gonna be back talking with you guys on again sometime soon. So thank you so much again.
You're welcome and bright blessings to everyone out there who love the plants. Thank you.
Herb Mentor Radio on HerbMentor.com is a production of LearningHerbs.com. Visit LearningHerbs.com for free herbal lessons including Herb mentor news, home remedy secrets, and supermarket herbalism. You'll also find the herbal medicine making kit and our board game WildCraft.
Herb Mentor Radio. Copyright LearningHerbs.com. All rights reserved.
Thanks so much for listening.
