From HerbMentor.com, this is Herb Mentor Radio.
You're listening to Herb Mentor Radio on HerbMentor.com. I'm John Gallagher. My guest today is Lesley Tierra. Lesley is an acupuncturist and herbalist.
She is a founding professional member of the American Herbalist Guild and author of many books including the Herbs of Life, Healing and Health and Healing Using Western and Chinese Techniques, and my personal favorite, a kid's herb book for children of all ages. She and her husband Michael run the East West School of Planetary Herbology and have been training professional herbalists since nineteen eighty. And you can check out their excellent and inspiring website at planet herbs dot com. Welcome, Lesley.
Welcome. Thank you, John, for having me.
Oh, you know, I was so excited when you emailed wanting to check out the WildCraft game. I couldn't wait to get you on here, so thanks.
Oh, I love your game. It's so fun.
Oh, thank you. I I appreciate that.
I was playing it with a seven year old the other day, and he just got right into it very quickly and and really loved it.
Oh, yeah. That that's, you know, that's the best part about it, I think, is that the, you know, it's how the kids how the kids react to it, and it's always it's always positive and and, just imprinting kids on on on the plants instead of, candy land is not allowed to pay.
Exactly. Exactly. And the cooperativeness and What herbs you use for healing what wound or whatever. Mhmm.
That's the, it's the perfect complement to your kids' herb book, which is It is.
You know, I always recommend that to folks. I want I want to talk about that in a bit, but, you know, what I wanted to start chatting about here, since we have you and it's your specialty, and I'm sure you have many specialties, but something that, well, I guess I was introduced to you as was a friend recommended the Herbs of Life book, to learn a little bit about herbal energetics, energetics of plants. And and, you know, it's been a journey for me because I've since become a licensed acupuncturist as well myself.
And it Wonderful. And and it took a while to to, you know, to start to get what all of this is about. And and and I guess it was easier for me when I was in class and had someone telling me even though the your book is excellent when then you don't have, like, someone there to answer some of the questions, you know, like, they come up like, You know, because it's such a different way of thinking that, so I wanna get I wanna get in get into this, and, I I guess we'll meander around.
But it's about this.
How can the home medicine maker use this information simply, some examples to kinda get it. I know you teach this all the time. So I'm sure you have the perfect metaphors and analogies for us Dallas.
Oh, boy. What a setup.
So can can I just kinda let you loose on that?
And and then and then I'll just kinda ask questions as we go along? Because because I'm not sure exactly where to start. I know you know where to start.
Sure. I know. Herbal energetics is you know, it really has made it much more into western herbalism now, the the, understanding and usage, at least, of the term. Mhmm.
And, it it's so broad, actually, that people using western herbs are already using herbal energetics. I mean, if you think about the taste of an herb and each taste is five basic taste in in, Chinese medicine at least, six in Ayurvedic. And, each taste has a particular energy and effect on the body. So I guess you could say an energy is loosely its effect.
It's, generally, it's either, you have the taste, you have the directions of the herbs. So is the the herb moving toward the outside of the body or moving upward in the body, moving downward in the body, or moving inward, sinking inward in the body. So that's an energy as well.
As well as how the herbs affect particular organs, organ systems and meridians, as we know as acupunctures in the body. But then so those are things that that Western Herbalists are already knowing about and working with in general with herbs typically.
Then there's the the actual, energy in terms of heating or cooling energy.
And, this is getting into a little bit more foreign terrain.
As you said, it's sort of a foreign way of thinking in our country. But in most all cultures, traditional cultures, including Native American cultures in this country, herbs were looked at energetically, heating and cooling. Oh.
So, you know, an herb that has a heating energy is going to actually increase the the metabolism in the body, the metabolic fires. And, oh, oh, there are a couple good examples. Let's say ginger. Dried ginger is very warming.
And all all somebody has to do is, take some fresh ginger, let it dry for a little while for, you know, a week maybe, and when it gets real hard and gnarly. And then taste the difference between that dried ginger and the fresh ginger. Or even take powdered ginger, which is gonna be dried, and and taste the difference. And it's it's you're gonna start sweating pretty quickly.
Mhmm.
Something that's warm will actually activate digestion, stimulate metabolism, circulation, can cause sweating.
Warm the body up. In general, cinnamon also Mhmm. Is has a heating energy and does this. So on the other side of the spectrum, you have herbs that are cooling, that actually cool and slow the metabolism, that eliminate heat.
A lot of times we use them for fevers or for inflammation.
And there's a lot of herbs that are cooling. Chamomile's a cooling herb.
It is, can help take away headaches, you know, the heat and headaches that are along the forehead.
Mhmm.
Let's see. When you get into clearing heat, that's, there's several categories for that. So that's I was just kinda getting myself tongue tied because I got myself into that terrain. But, you know, there's there's many ways of if somebody's hyperactive, you wanna cool and slow them down. A lot of times that happens with kids. Mhmm. And so, you know, can a meal is another grader for cooling that hyperactivity and slowing things down.
And then, of course, you have the energy. Again, westerners are familiar with of of, herbs that, you know, some herbs are moistening, some herbs are drying, some are building and strengthening, others eliminate, in terms of causing sweat or or or a laxative, diuretic effect. So these are also part of the energy of an herb.
So, if, you know, when you're talking about herbal energetics, you're talking about all of these properties.
And, bringing in the heating and cooling and then the neutral, which is that an herb is a particular herb may be neither heating or cooling, but have a neutral effect. And a lot of times, seeds are that way. Uh-huh.
And, they're they they're they're milder. They're a lot milder, and they don't warm the body up particularly or cool it down. And so they're considered neutral.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, so is the first thing to do when choosing an herb for a situation is to then first, I imagine, check-in with how you're feeling. Like for example, I get up this morning and I'm and I'm feeling a little chilled.
So Mhmm. When you're choosing herbs, but I could also interpret that as, I ironically, I feel like I have a cold coming on. Right? I guess there's a reason why they call it a cold.
But, but, I guess what I'm saying is when you're when you're, is it a good idea before choosing an herb to get in touch first of a certain temperature that you're feeling? Like, is do I feeling like I'm heated or I'm cool or you know? You know what I mean? Like, before choosing?
Yeah. Great question. So you can absolutely start with temperature because that can be a a clue for sure. So if somebody is feeling chilled, and they may even if they get a cold, they may even, have a fever, but it's a low fever and it's stronger chills. And they're wanting to be covered up, not to take off coverage. In fact, sometimes you can't get enough on and you're still cold.
You might be more pale.
You're not thirsty.
Mhmm.
More body aches, lower fever as I said. These are all signs of coldness. So, in that case, yes, you wanna use an herb that's warming. And that also will bring on a sweat. A lot of times people with coldness, whether or not they have a cold, but they're cold inside, they'll get in a sauna or in a hot tub, and it can take them ten or fifteen minutes to even get to a place where they'll sweat.
Whereas somebody who has a lot of heat and they walk into a sauna and they start sweating right away because they already have a lot of heat.
Okay.
So, absolutely, when you're treating a condition, the reason for knowing the energy of the earth is, first, you want to assess is the condition one of heat or coldness, and then you know automatically which of those herbs to apply. So if you have a condition of heat, you wanna use cooling herbs.
So that would be an example of that would be a well, fever. No?
So if you have a condition of heat and you have a cold or flu, you're gonna have a higher fever.
Okay.
You're gonna have a high fever, very little chills.
Somebody's gonna tend to sweat very easily, be very thirsty, even look redder. They're kicking off the bedclothes. They're kicking off their, covers and clothes. They, very restless.
It's you know, if you consider boiling a pot of water on a stove Mhmm. And how that gets the water rolling and then boiling and then the the water's actually begins to evaporate at some point. That's heat. And the same thing happens in the body. It gets things moving, activating, circulating.
And then if it's too much, then Mhmm. We start sweating. We're restless. The leg is constantly wagging in the air. The the person's, moving around all the time, can't sit still. The mind can't relax.
So, yes, heat and red skin eruptions, red inflammations, or swelling with redness, it's all with heat as well.
Okay.
Alright. So then we have a hot condition like that and let's say it's a hot skin condition and we've identified. So, woah. This is hot. You know, this feels really and then you're then and then, like, because what I'm getting at is a lot of people will look in a book for, like, a certain herb, and they'll be like, oh, for skin conditions or this or that and not take into account the temperature or the energetics.
So and what would someone look for then when choosing a plant, you know, if it was a skin condition there that was hot?
Well, absolutely. You want a nerve that's going to to cool that hot skin condition. And if you don't have a book on hand, then you go by how it feels.
You know, most skin herbs are actually cooling, actually. So that's probably a safe one.
Yeah. Good. Perfect.
But it's true.
Right?
And most herbs that you're gonna pick in the wild and use on the skin, again, are are cooling. So or neutral, and that helps a lot.
So you can you can taste something, and either you can tell on the tongue if it's heating or cooling because of how it affects you, Or knowing the energy of a taste can help you as well. So salty is cool. Mhmm.
Spicy is tends to be warm. Bitter tends to be cool.
Sweet tends to be warm.
Really? Sweet's warm. Okay.
Sweet tends to be warm. Yes. And, what have I left out? Sour. Mhmm. Sour tends to be, cool.
Cool. Okay.
Yeah. Cool and dry. And, bitter tends to be cool and very dry.
Right.
Pungent's more warm to even hot.
So a lot of the spices we use in the kitchen tend to be more warming. Black pepper, garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, fennel.
You know, a lot of these things are warming in energy.
And and a lot of these also seem to have a certain affinity for the digest well, obviously, they're using our cooking. So in our our digestive system and helping things like indigestion and gas and things like that.
Absolutely.
So do is are warming herbs usually indicated for the that those conditions then?
Oh, I wish I could say that.
But it's not not cut and dry, is it?
It's not that cut and dry. No. No. It it really depends on the person, and that's the beauty of the system because we're not treating people allopathically.
Mhmm. You know? Everybody has a cold, so everybody takes this. In fact, that's how I first learned about the energy of herbs because I had the flu, and I was told garlic was good for the flu.
And I took it, and it made me worse. It didn't make me better. And I wondered, well, what's this about herbs? It's it's not working.
And that happens to a lot of people, and they think herbs are ineffective because of that. Oh. And, you know, I had this flu with a high fever and the sweating, like I was talking about before, all those signs, very thirsty, strong sore throat, all of that. So I needed an herb to cool me down.
And that's when it would have been effective.
You know, herbs that cause sweating and cool me down like elder, Chamomile would have been useful in that case.
Lemon balm, you know, the mints.
All of that would have would have been helpful for me. And, so I when I started exploring herbs, I wondered, well, why didn't garlic work? And that's when I found out, oh, herbs have energies. You have to apply them appropriately, which means that each of us is individual. So each of us has a particular energy going on in our bodies.
And when I get a stomachache, for instance, it's gonna be different than when you get a stomachache.
Exactly.
And it's gonna require a different herb than what you would need because you might have some heat going on or you might have coldness and vice versa for me.
You might have dryness. I might have dampness.
So this is why we wanna look further, and study further and think, heavens, there's books out there that help us, that we can learn what the energy of an herb is by looking it up and and finding out, well, why is that? Well, it's bitter.
It's yellow. It's it's so it's cooling. It's drying. It's gonna clear heat in this case. It's gonna dry dampness in this case versus an herb like a la camp that's warming and drying. So that's good for somebody who has coldness in the digestion and dampness in the digestion. Mhmm.
Like, this morning, I felt like, oh, you know, it's it's cold and rainy out.
Change of season right now. Felt a little chilled. So even right now, I'm drinking some, ginger, lemon honey tea that I I brewed up, to kind of get that warmth.
And I guess also garlic would have been appropriate in this case you're saying, right, because it is warming and I was more on the chilled side of things.
Yes. And you're bringing in a whole other factor that's important to pay attention to, and that's the environment.
So people who live in the northwest part of the country where it tends to be more damp Mhmm.
Then their body and cool because of the lack of sun and the, you know, constant moisture.
So then the body is going to have generally more of a tendency toward dampness and coolness. And so making daily and weekly teas is really beneficial for whatever the weather is to counteract that in your body. And one of the things that you might add in Mhmm. In people in those kind of climates is, ideally tangerine peel, but you could also use orange peel or lemon peel.
Really? And yeah. Organic, of course. Mhmm. But yeah. So the peels of these fruits are very good at eliminating dampness and getting things, circulating in the body, the energy circulating.
I had no idea.
So I have, like, some lemon juice in there, but that's different than the peel, It's different than the peel.
Yes. And in fact, they'll make that as a traditional drink in Italy after dinner, boiling the peel of the lemon for digestion.
Oh, well, that's a nice simple thing that people can do that they probably have things they already have in their kitchen. That's great.
Exactly. And the Chinese will use tangerine peel. You can just dry it and put it in a jar, use it later.
So don't throw the peels away.
Yeah. And in fact, if you're eating in cold, damp climates, you're eating fruit like oranges, you definitely wanna eat a part of the peel to counteract the cooling dampening aspect of the orange.
That's real. And then but that would necessarily be needed, where you you're in California. Right?
So I'm in California, but I'm on the coast where it's, well, I'm in the mountains near the coast. So it gets hotter and drier here, but it's it can be foggy and cool on the coast.
If you're down in the Southern California area, which I'm in the Northern, so if you're in Southern where it's hot, yes, you wanna be thinking about more cooling herbs. Drinking more mint, more chrysanthemum tea is fabulous for the summertime for cooling the digestion and cooling the body in general. But, you know, we're actually headed into fall, so we should be talking more about fall things. Yeah.
Let's talk about the fall because fall is, you know, it's it's, we're I'm treating people as a, for well, I'm still where I am, I'm still treating them for late summer, but we're we're getting more and more signs of of metal and fall here. Metal's I'm not get a shit get into that.
Stay away from that.
But but but it's coming. It's like, you know, we're we're it's happening here. And, so so what what what wisdom, about how seasons interplay into all this?
And can you share Yeah.
Seasons are so so important to pay attention to because they're part of that external environment. And the joints of the seasons, the change of the seasons are the most tricky times for the body, and particularly this one. The change from summer to fall is probably the trickiest time of year for most people.
Mhmm.
And then winter into spring would be the second. So a lot of colds and flus come on at this point because of that shift and the body having a hard time adapting.
So it's tricky particularly this time of year because of two things. First of all, when you're adapting to the next season, it's better to start before the season actually happens.
So technically, fall is what? The fall equinox, which is in a week or so, less than a week. And, but as we know energetically, the season shifts differently around the country depending on where you are.
So you actually wanna start within the month before that season to begin preparing for that season.
Fall means cool energy. It's windier. It's cooler. It's Mhmm. We get more moist in the air.
We get moisture in the air in terms of perhaps more precipitation, but it also has a drying energy at the same time.
And, the organs associated with the fall are the lungs and the colon. Mhmm. So we wanna be paying attention to mucus buildup in the lungs or extra sinuses or extra dryness in the sinuses, things like this. And, of course, it's partnered organ the, large intestine.
So what that means is you wanna start eating foods that are hardier, more root vegetables, stronger proteins, more to all cooked foods, because these foods create more warmth and building and strengthening energy in the body, which is what you want as it starts getting cooler outside. You wanna stoke the inner fires. You wanna stoke you wanna get your pilot light turned on strong more strongly. You want to, so you can cook better when it's cold.
You know? You wanna stoke the stove internally.
So you have the metabolic fires you need for the cooler damper temperatures to come outside.
So that also means stopping the summer foods a little earlier in terms of watermelon, cantaloupe, ice cream, a lot of salads, juices, you know, all those things that cool the body down. Right. Now, of course, here comes the second part of this tricky thing. We tend to all get an Indian summer.
And the Indian summer, as we call it here in the west, is when that time would get we have that last spark of of heat that when it gets real warm outside. And we think, oh, it's summer still. I wanna play. I wear my cut offs, my shorts, my, you know, sleeveless shirts, run around outside even though there might be cool breeze, and pretend that it's still summer and eat my last bit of watermelon because it ripens this time of year.
Right.
So what that's for actually is to clear out the last bit of heat that's built up in the body from the summer. You do wanna actually clear that out, and you can do that during the heat of the day.
So you can have your watermelon during the heat of the day. Actually, eat seeds with it because the seeds are diuretic and counteract any of the dampening properties of the watermelon.
And then that heat doesn't get trapped in the body for the rest of the year. Kinda like closing the windows and the doors against the cold building because you don't wanna trap heat indoors. You want appropriate heat, not, not a pathogenic heat. Mhmm.
So too much heat building up in the summer, you wanna release. And so you can do that with a little bit of watermelon, little bit of salad during that time. And then back in the evening, back in the mornings, go to your cooked foods. And then as soon as it cools down again, boom, you're back to your root vegetables, you know, strong protein for whatever your body's needs are.
Cooked salad, like dark leafy greens, kale, collard, bok choy, dandelion, mustard greens, all of those good greens. Cook those and make them into a salad rather than raw foods.
Exactly.
And that's what will keep somebody strong through the fall and through the winter, really building those fires.
So, you know, I just wanna ask you in the fall too when when fruits that are coming on in the fall, like apples, for example.
Mhmm.
How do those fit in? Because I'm I'm trusting the wisdom of nature to have fruits and vegetables be ripening at the times you should be eating them.
Exactly.
So how do the apples fit in energetically?
Because I would speak fit in fine energetically.
I mean, they, they help move the energy open the meridians. Mhmm. And they can be cooked and spices added to them for somebody who has more coldness or dampness.
So baked apples with walnuts and cinnamon or apple sauce, apple pie.
Ah.
Not.
Like this.
I know. We may get hungry here. And the same thing with pears. The same thing with pears. Now interestingly, pears moisten the lungs. So somebody who has too much dryness in the lungs and sinuses, pair the pears for that season. And again, they can be cooked and spices added to counteract excessive coolness of them and to help their digestibility.
Okay. Okay.
So And in fact, you know, I'm thinking about in Poland where it's very, very cold.
Mhmm. They have they have fruit regularly in their diets, but how they do it is they make a fruit compost.
So they cook the fruit and make it like a fruit soup, if you will, that you can drink and eat.
And there's spices added.
That's that's really you know, a lot of people don't often think of that.
That's really Exactly.
And people talk about, okay, well, you're killing the enzymes when you're cooking food. What you do is you include fermented food in your diet then. You have salt pickled vegetables, salt pickled cabbage, you know, these kind of things that are in most all traditional cultures. There's some kind of pickled food. Mhmm. And it's that fermented food that brings in the live enzymes for digestion.
Oh, yeah. That's all.
Yeah. So my wife does those kinds of, she does, Kimberly does. Got the that's the pickles gone and the sauerkraut gone, and she's got some, actually lacto fermenting sodas she's into now.
So she's Oh, I'd like to learn about those.
Oh, it's well, I I get on I'll get get you in on HerbMentor. I do just post today a twenty minute one on making you can use any fruit, but she has the whole process using blueberries as an example.
Oh, my favorite.
So we'll get you right on there and then you can, watch it. Thank you.
There you go.
Thank you.
So that fermented stuff and there's things like miso and sauerkraut and kimchi and pickled herring and, you know, depends on your ancestry or in the part of the country or world you live in will help you choose which is best for your body.
And, definitely, every day there should be fermented food.
And, and then if your body type is cooler and damper and you need to be eating all cooked foods, it's not a problem. You're getting what you need in terms of enzymes.
And you're gonna be able to digest the other foods, and they're not gonna throw off your body, energetically or, create illness for you.
So what I'm what I'm hearing from you is that see if I'm right.
Is that I it'd be of course, and because of the people in the communities in the world we, you know, we're in is, you know, in our communities of health and and whatnot, is you always hear this theory, that theory, and this book, and that book, but you're you're really saying here like, hey, pay attention to how you're feeling, what you're, what season we're in, what the temperature is, how the food feels when we're eating it. So it's actually, using our own senses.
Yes. Using our own senses and pay attention to your own body.
Mhmm.
You know, so many of us eat and live and choose herbs mentally.
We read. We hear this. We you know, this is what's good for everybody. This is what works for me, so forth and so on.
So we think that's what we should be doing. And it's really we have to pay attention to our own microcosm and our own macrocosm surrounding us. It's very unique for each of us. We all have individual needs, and, and that's what we should be listening to and paying attention to.
So there's a kind of an old adage in, Chinese medicine called treat the body like a cow so the spirit can soar, which means pay attention to your own cow needs. You know? When what time of the day do you need to be milked or, you know, exercised or, fed? And what kind of you know, what's the right grass or food for you so you can really produce the very best in your life.
And, it's, again, it's very unique. It's very particular. It's not it's not even gonna be like your partner or your kids.
Right.
So, you know, and you you make the changes in the shift according to the, you know, the food you choose, how you cook it, how you spice it, and the same thing with the herbs you pick Wow. You can use.
So Yeah. So in in this fall season, you know, we always we always tell folks to, you know, keep it simple, and we we choose herbs to study every month or one a month based on, you know, what's happening in this season. Like, for example, we have elder this month, month, and next month is elecampane.
Mhmm. So what are, you know, some particular herbs that might be that you might suggest, that people might, you know, think about establishing a relationship with and and getting to know a little better?
Well, those are both great ones. Mhmm.
Elderberry is just such a great antiviral and, you know, it depends on the parts you're using on it. But most people are using the berries these days. Great for kids. Mhmm. So good for coughs and colds and and flus.
It has a cool energy, so that's something to keep in mind. Typically, kids are warmer than adults. Although, some children can have coldness if they've been drinking a lot of cold drinks or ice drinks or fed a lot of cool foods. Or a lot of times, vegetarians tend to be cooler than meat eaters. Mhmm. So that's something to pay attention to.
Elecampane, another great herb, and it has a warming energy.
Wonderful for clearing mucus out of the lungs and clearing dampness out of the digestion. So it sparks the digestion as well. Mhmm.
Ice and so, other great herbs, garlic.
Garlic's fabulous for the lungs. For for mucus in the lungs, I've seen and I've treated walking pneumonia with garlic juice.
And you can buy garlic juice in any grocery store.
Right.
You take a teaspoon three times a day or so, and it really even pneumonia clears it it really clears out the lungs.
And we talked about ginger, fresh ginger, more for the colds and flus to bring on a sweat. Dry ginger is more for coldness in the digestion. So there might be a I'm sorry?
I said okay. Disagreeing.
Yeah. Yeah.
Other great herbs for this time of year, mullein, another great herb for the lung, for cough, in the lung for that.
I make it into a tea. Mhmm. You can also use it in powdered form in a capsule if you know it's not older than six months.
You could just pick the leaves and crush them up and cook them into a tea.
You know, I'd simmer them about ten minutes, fifteen minutes and strain it. It's got a cool energy.
The Chinese use loquat a lot. Some people might have loquat trees growing around them and you just pick the leaves.
Fabulous for cough and clearing phlegm out of the lungs.
Really great for that.
So I I wanted to, back up and we were just talking about elder and and garlic because, because, for example, okay, I get up this morning and I'm feeling like alright. Feeling a little cool, like chilled. And in, what goes through people's head because, you know, just wanna accentuate something you were saying earlier, in choosing because I I can say, oh, well, there's this ginger or this garlic that has antiviral properties, but also elder is well known for colds and has antiviral properties.
And would I, you know, in addition to this ginger lemon honey tea, would also going taking a tablespoon of elderberry syrup help me? Or should I just keep it simple and stay with the warming because I'm feeling a little chill? You see what I mean? They could kinda I want to accentuate that point about, you know, just about what's in the book or what somebody says versus how you're feeling.
Experience. Yeah, and how you're feeling. So great question.
Actually, the some of the most powerful formulas and the most powerful results are when you mix herbs with cooling and heating energies. Mhmm. So you can mix them together. If you're having a good strong ginger tea, go ahead and take the elderberry syrup. It's cool, but you're having the warmth from the ginger. And that way, you can clear out any latent or residual heat that might be present.
You're gonna get the antiviral effect, but you're not gonna cool the body down too much because you're having the ginger tea.
Got it.
And if you're concerned about, you know, really feeling chilled, add in the garlic or add in, what what else would be nice and warming for you?
Elecampane.
Yeah. Are you having mucus in your lungs?
There's a little there's a little cough, and I was I was reaching for that first, actually, but I couldn't find anything.
We ran ahead of dried, and it's nearly harvest time out in the yard for our a la campaign plant.
Yep. Yep. Or maybe you have some wild cherry bark on hand.
That's true.
You know? And certainly, you've got garlic. I mean, that's warm and works for the lungs. So you can you could add that in right away.
Mhmm.
Yeah. So that's what I would do is you can actually find so many of these things, particularly for the lungs, you can find in your kitchen cabinet. It's wonderful.
And you can mix cooling things like, basil's cooling.
And, sometimes grapefruit peels are used they're cooling and used for colds.
Okay.
And so, you know, just learning some simple kitchen medicines.
You have a condition of coolness. You wanna be doing the warming things. Black pepper? You know, I've done this with my son in a restaurant when he had started having a cough.
Sprinkle black pepper in his palm. If there's a little honey around, mix it with the honey. If there's not, just lick the black pepper.
And and it it took away his cough right away.
Wow.
And, let's see. Once I had a cough and it was Mother's Day, And the guys wanted to take me out. So I said, okay. We went to an Italian restaurant.
And for an appetizer, they have chopped garlic and olive oil. Raw garlic chopped in olive oil with bread. And I knew right away, okay. Here's my remedy.
Scooped that raw garlic with olive oil on my bread, and by the time the the the main entree was coming, my cough was relieved.
That's great. You know?
It's it's really great. You can find these things around you. You don't even have to be home necessarily.
That's what I I love, you know, teaching people about too. It's just like, you know, just when you're traveling or even at home, I mean, most things are what you need for your first day, it's all in the supermarket.
Yes. Yes. Food choices and spices right there can treat so many things.
Exactly. So even if you don't have the luxury of a groovy herb shop down the street like I don't.
Exactly. So, again, I tell you the good old remedy of chicken soup. You know? Very warm, easy to digest, builds your energy.
You know, put scallions in there. Scallions are warming and help, have a diaphoretic effect, help warm up and eliminate coolness. So ginger and scallion soup a lot of times is used.
Or That's our, fall through winter add to our breakfast. Just chicken broth and heat it up on the stove and stir in a little miso and Yep.
And, keep some of them.
Put in some scallions for the digestibility or a little bit of, you know, shavings of ginger.
Oh, good. Okay. I never thought that.
Just right in there in the Yeah.
Yeah. Just right in there. Oh, nice.
I will do I will do that.
That's that's that's excellent. I like that.
Yeah.
So, this is the so this, this is great stuff.
I I think this all should, kind of, you know, give people a good basic, you know, idea and introduction about the, you know, the simplicity of this. It doesn't have to be extremely difficult or anything. You know, you don't have to go to acupuncture school. You can just trust your senses. And, and I suggest, and we're gonna I wanna talk about the kids' herb book in a second, but the herbs of life now, Have you written more on all of this since the herbs of of life? I know you've have more more books, but just for your is is this the, you know, the the your general layperson's, book?
Great question because I actually revised and updated the Earths of Life.
Alright. I want a copy. What is it called?
Yeah. It's called Healing with the Earths of Life.
Oh, well, that's great.
So what I did was, I added a hundred and twenty page chapter of treating specific conditions.
And of those each of those conditions included, I divided them according to their patterns. Their heating, cooling energies, their, you know, all the energies plus more that we were talking about, and they're they're divided out according to the signs and symptoms. So you can just look down the columns and pick yourself out with what you're experiencing.
Excellent. And then at the bottom, it gives you formulas and herbs to use.
I'm I'm I'm going on Amazon right after we're done here and and ordering it.
Alright. Yeah.
But better yet, I'm gonna go to, I should I should say I'm gonna go to planet herbs dot com and order it because you do sell it there too. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm actually happy to send you a copy.
But Well, but I'm I'm also wanna let folks know because not not everyone it's interesting with with with herbalists and and whether they be tech savvy or not tech savvy or they have somebody tech savvy working with them, the different people that I interview, you know, whether they choose to do things on the web. And and so when they do, I wanna let it be known so so that you can, so everyone knows, find your books on planet earths dot com. And then you get to support the author as well, and that's really awesome.
Great point. Thank you.
You get a lot more of both. It's true. People should know. They don't realize that, you know, when a book comes out, if if you get it through a bookstore, the author gets a very small amount next to if you buy it retail from them directly, like at a workshop. And since you have a website, awesome.
Awesome. Go to the website because at the website, we also have, ta da, an herbal correspondence course.
Yes. You know, I was gonna ask you about that later, but let's talk about it now before we we brought it up. I know.
So let's let's, let's, let please tell me tell me about them.
Okay. It has thirty six lessons. It's really an, we have two courses, actually. We have a family herbalist course and a professional herbalist course. Mhmm. And then, so the family herbalist course is twelve lessons with some books included, Michael's Way of Herbs and, then my Healing with the Herbs of Life and a few others.
Rosemary Glassard's book, actually a family herbalist book.
Oh, yeah.
And And we love that. I do too. And then, so that's the family herbalist course. And then we have a professional herbalist course, which is the full thirty six lessons.
And that's the first twelve of the family herbalist course, which is a lot of the foundation theory we're talking about, plus preparation for remedies and, lots of other basic information for knowing how to choose in users. And then, the next two sections are, well, the next section plus a little bit more is a complete materia medical with herbs from around the world, mainly Western, Chinese, some Ayurvedic, some from other cultures and countries.
And then the last section is, more advanced about how to use them in terms of assessing conditions and applying herbs to that. And then over and above that, we offer a credential program, which is completing this full thirty six lesson course plus three of our week long seminars that we do plus several mentoring hours.
And we award a certified herbalist degree with our east west course. And people are then, pretty much in line and ready to apply for professional member status with the American Herbalist Guild.
I wanna do this whole program.
That sounds great.
You might just see me signing up section by section.
That sounds awesome.
Well, it'll be pretty easy for you with your acupuncture background.
We we try to design HerbMentor.
A person can, you know, do this this website.
They can pick an herb of the month, make a home remedy or two, start to get herbs in their life, and then, you know, learn it it kinda provides a bit of a framework, for for something and a and a community.
But, many people and it's also encouraged to follow your your, your passion, and a lot of people will be do other herbal courses, live And which is Wonderful. Which is great because and let's say somebody on who is in your program, let's say they were on HerbMentor, a great way to learn is to teach. So they have this great community forum that we have where people can share their knowledge, and it helps it stick more.
You're so right. Teaching is a great way to learn. And how wonderful you've got this vehicle for people to do that.
Yeah. Well, it's, you know, it's, it's kind of a personal mission here.
But the more people that connect to the plants, the better.
Well, it's all of our mission.
It's your personal mission too.
But, you know but it's kinda something, that, try always try to find the best way to fulfill that, you know, that that Exactly. Goal and and Exactly.
So then then just to finish, answering that question, you already mentioned that my kids' earth book, kids' earth book is great not only for children, but it's great from very beginning herbalists.
You know, it's great. I love it. I just so this and this is the book them when people say ask me what's the what should I if because you must get that to all of people. What's the okay.
I just wanna get one book. What's the one you know, and you're like, oh, like, there's so many and there's, you know, like, rarity. You know, there's so many ways of looking at plants and learning. Some people wanna come in from the angle of learning it from plants, others from making remedies.
And, kids' herb book and Rosemary's Family Herbal are always the top two that I'll I'll make a match.
Too. Oh, yeah. It's it's amazing.
That's a Yeah.
And it says on the title, kids for all ages there somewhere.
So Well, do you know what I like about it, Leslie, is is, you know, is that, you know and I don't wanna discredit because, like, say, Rosemary's book or something, but even in that case, because I'm working with many folks who are are starting out.
And Mhmm. It's really confusing when you're looking at books with with remedies with more than two ingredients.
Yes.
And when I open this, I see remedies with one ingredient, meaning like one herb and other things. And and maybe there's combinations in here too, but, you know you know. And and so it's so not intimidating, and it's like, and then you also get to learn about that particular herb and how it affects your body because you're using one or two herbs, and you're not using combination.
So best way to learn herbs actually is to start with a handful, and just learn each herb very well. Mhmm.
And then and then you just build slowly on that.
Exactly.
So that's that's that's a that's one.
Got all the projects. You know? You can make all the basic, preparations are in there. Tinctures and salves and teas and syrups and, you know, all these good things.
And songs.
And songs.
Michael goes out. The lemon balm song. It's great. I love it.
And and and being that I play guitar, I've actually Oh, good.
I'll tell him.
I've actually played the chords with them and tried to figure them Hey. I've got two little ones.
This is fun.
I mean Yeah.
So I use it I use it not just for my my own my own learning, but, know, and and keeps it simple for me, but also for, with its great a connection with kids.
And and I can see that how how many kids do you have?
Or well, I have, five step kids Five step kids.
Four step kids and one, I guess, blood child, you might call. Call.
So you you have a lot of of of you've had a lot of children in your life, and and and and and for was this book written for them or was it written, you know, from your experience with them for other children because maybe they got older.
Both. Both.
K.
Both. Yeah. And, let's see. Let me see. The other, the other kids, they were in their teens when my son was born. So it was still very applicable in terms of the, you know, simple kid aspect.
And, but also wrote it for my son too, who's now in his twenties. So it's been a while.
Wow. They do grow.
Grow fast. Yep.
I know. I know.
But he still, you know, he still uses. I still I mean, he's growing on his experience, but it's just so amazing when he calls and says, oh, I used echinacea for this, and it's amazing how this sore went away and my foot doesn't hurt anymore.
You know, things like that.
So I I love it when one of my kids will will get a scrape or a sting or something, and then without saying anything, the other one runs for the plantain.
Yes. Yes.
If you know you do.
Too. Yeah. With his friends. Definitely.
Then you know you're doing your job right now.
So just to let you know and parents know, sometimes it kinda falls by the wayside in the teen years.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
But they remember and bring it back in, and other kids will keep with it.
Yeah. I can see I can see my son it falling on the wayside.
Yeah. They've got to express and flex their own wings. So, but it it comes back.
So from this, from from your book here, from from, you know, real quick from this because this one, somebody had a question here for you and related to kids and and herbs. And, they they emailed in that they have, let's see. Appreciate information about three to, to help three to five year olds settle and sleep soundly. She has a grandchild who fights, who fights it for all she's worth and continually wakes up or seems to, sits up, looks around usually, not always going back to sleep, and wakes up at five AM. What would you recommend for her?
Oh, boy. Boy, parent. Uh-huh. Yeah. I I recommend two herbs, Flammebolme and Chamomile.
And, actually, there's, there's a planetary formula I'd recommend for that child that would be perfect that includes both of those herbs and a few others in there.
And, it's called Calm Child, c a l m, Child. And it comes even in, a liquid extract, a glycerin liquid extract. So it tastes really good.
And it's very calming. It, it has a little calcium in there as well.
I can't remember all the herbs in it, but I know chamomile and lemon balm are two main herbs. They're cooling. They help clear that restless heat and settle the system. And lemon balm's really good for sort of emotional restlessness as well.
Oh. And so a lot of kids, they're too excited about life. They don't wanna go to bed. Right.
Or they're too restless to fall asleep well or stay asleep well. And this particular formula or those two herbs work really, really well for that.
That's that's great. And, and, she also had thoughts on handling allergies and asthma for three to thirteen year olds. That that gets a little trickier, doesn't it?
Definitely tricky.
You want to know, again, is is there heating, issues going on, cooling issues? Asthma, a lot of times, develops over time from, well, from a couple different sources. It's more complex.
Allergies.
You have to look at the environment, see what allergens are there. Is it food allergies? Is it environmental allergies?
You wanna strengthen immunity for sure.
Sometimes well, I'm trying to think of what would be an an easy kind of allergy remedy, especially for kids.
You know, it's easier to think for adults.
Let me think for a second on that. Mhmm.
That would be sort of generic.
Sometimes You know, a lot of time, maybe it's it's almost like someone would need to to meet a person.
You know, like Yeah. You need to see a health care I mean, like, is there a herbalist or acupuncturist that they could in their area, they could actually see, you know, because might be necessary for more chronic conditions.
Yeah. Exactly. Let me let me. Okay. So the asthma, if there's white phlegm, definitely, there's coldness.
So that's a whole other approach. And if it's yellow, it's another thing. But a lot of times, asthma has what's called wind involved, which is the wheezing aspect.
So cold foot can be helpful somewhat for the wind, wheezing, the the spasmodic aspect. A little lobelia is good for that. But, of course, as you know, you wanna make sure you get this down for your people listening. The lobelia you only use, especially for a kid, a drop because it has an emetic aspect.
Taking too much, it will make people throw up.
And then you wanna get rid of the dampness. So if there's white, slim, you've got, you know, garlic, ginger, a la campaign, wild cherry bark, that kind of thing. And if it's if it's cool, you can be using elder, mullein, licorice, the cold foot, and and clearing the phlegm with that. Mhmm. Diet is so key, especially when you're talking about kids Mhmm. With allergies and asthma. You wanna make sure sugar is out of the diet because it lowers immunity by fifty percent.
Cold raw foods, a lot of juices, iced drinks, milk out of the refrigerator.
Sometimes all I have to do is change a child's diet, and a lot of those symptoms go away.
Yeah. It's it's amazing, though, the work that you and Michael have done and and done in bringing this way of, you know, the from your work learning eastern Eastern healing practices and then and and then translating it to the West as with Western or with the herbs that grow around us. And because, you know, personally, one of my things about that's okay. What about learning, Chinese herbs? I I haven't done that because I I it just hasn't felt right learning those plants when I when I I have more of an attraction to learn Western herbs, and now you have this great way to to use this ancient, you know, and and and well proven and founded and solid way of, diagnosis and, with the plants to grow in our natural environment.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Well, Michael's the one who started all that.
I learned from him and carried it forth, so I really wanna give him that credit that, you know, and it and it's a real it's been a real gift to me, and and it is a gift to be able to look at Earth this way. And it's not just useful for us, but like we were talking about earlier, you can travel anywhere. Mhmm. And by knowing the energy of an herb or by figuring it out, you can be in another country and figure what herbs would be appropriate for you.
So that could be very helpful.
And, I wanna mention too on on planet herbs, you have planetary formulas as well. Gosh. There's so much you you do. You you Michael too. How do you people sometimes look at Kimberly now. They go, how do you guys do it all? And I look at you and I'm like, oh my gosh.
Well, that's how they look at you and say the same thing.
Look at this mess. That's a lot of work.
Well, it was fun and play and you just, you know, you do it through the years.
That's right.
Years now. You're always adding to it. You know?
Oh, yeah. Exactly. It's impressive. And and so I I recommend everyone, as soon as they finish listening to this, go right to your web browsers and type in planetherbs dot com and poke around. It's important.
Yeah. Yeah. Please do it. It's a brand new website as of the first of September.
And Yeah.
I noticed it's different this time when I went to it. I'd seen it before. Yeah.
We've been working on it for a year, and we finally got it up.
So That must feel good.
It does.
It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
Thank you. And this is so much easier to work with and move around in. And, I think most of the bugs are out, but, you know, how these things go.
I I actually I actually do know how those things go.
I'm sure you do.
And let me tell you, it's not always fun. You know, and it often often distracting me from actually going out and learning about plants.
So I've been trying to figure out how to take a bug away from it.
How to balance the two. Well, just to kind of further what you were saying, on that website, we have a consultation form.
So people can actually download that form and fill it out and mail it in, and we can do written or phone consultations to get Woah.
That is an excellent resource because once again, people on the forum are always, you know, we can only do so much, you know, once people email, how can I help this or that? And we say, well, you can try this and you can try that, but really, you know, you you might need to see, you know, see someone. But, being that with your expertise, you can do it through a consultation form. That's great.
Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, by asking questions and filling the form out and so forth, we can figure out what the energetics are. And you send a picture in of the tongue and, you know, things like that that are very helpful for the whole assessment aspect.
That's wonderful.
You know, I I, we we're gonna have to have you back here sometime because may maybe we can, check-in. May oh, you know, we should have you back between winter and spring.
Oh, that's a great idea.
Getting for the other end of the Yeah.
That would be that would be great. And then and then I can ask us a bunch of the other questions that that I that we didn't have time for. Okay.
Sounds fine with me. I'd love to do it.
I'll file these away for another time.
Alright. Well, once again, you can, learn more about Lesley and Michael's work at planetherbs.com. So, Lesley Tierra, thank you so much for taking the time and chatting with us today on Herb Mentor Radio.
You're more than welcome. Thanks for having me, John.
Bye.
Bye.
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