From HerbMentor.com, this is Herb Mentor Radio.
You are listening to Herb Mentor Radio on HerbMentor.com. I'm John Gallagher. My guest today is Henriette Kress. Henriette is an herbalist from Helsinki, Finland. She is author of two herbal books, Practical Herbs one and Practical Herbs two. Henriette has been publishing herbal content since the early days of the Internet and now runs an amazing web site called Henriette's Herbal homepage and has wide respect across the herbal community online. She also frequents the HerbMentor.com forums, which we are most thankful for, and you can pick up Henriette's books and check out her awesome herbal resource, at her website, Henrietteherbal.com.
Henriette, a big welcome to Herb Mentor Radio.
Oh, thank you, and thank you for having me.
It's finally. You know? Like, you've been on this you've been on the forum helping out and and answering questions, and you've been such a great presence there. And and it's just been it's a long time coming, so I'm glad we finally had a moment to, speak here. And some of that's the time difference. Like, it's about a well, nearly eleven for me at PM, and you're of, eight eight I mean, nearly eight between eight thirty and nine in the morning. So it's like it's, so good morning to you.
Good morning. It's really good.
It's my first interview to Finland, you know.
So so, are you actually from Finland?
I'm from Germany.
You're from Germany. Okay. So, you say your first experience with herbs, began with your grandmother showing you red color you get when you crush Saint John's wort flowers between your fingers. Can you can you, was your grandmother an herbalist? Can you talk about her?
I think she was an herbalist, but she, I'm I'm not sure if she helped, very, very many others except for her, close family. She knew she knew a lot of herbs and made, oils and vinegars and tinctures and teas all the time.
And when we visited her in summer, she told me to go get this herb from that meadow Mhmm.
When when she didn't have the time and and things like that.
Sounds a lot like the our wild craft board game. Grandmother sends you out into the, meadow to pick herbs for you.
So that really did so you you knew how to make herbal remedies since you were a child then?
Yes.
And she showed you that?
Yes. And showed me the herbs and how to pick them.
Do you think that was common amongst, the families of, you know, in Germany when you were growing up? Like, did other kids have grandmothers who did this? So you think this was something specific of that she did and was interested in or something that kind of everybody might have done?
It it wasn't really weird, but it wasn't common either.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
So I think between common and and and really, really uncommon.
Right. Okay. Okay. So exactly.
So, do you, do you remember any specific, remedies, like your first one that you made that she showed you or other experiences that you had at that time?
Well, we went, in spring for a walk to the woods and meadows, and there was one meadow that just was was overflowing over flowering with primo loverses, primroses.
And she said, yes. Now we pick these, and we picked a lot.
It's it's good for cuffs.
Oh, what what did you what did she make with the primrose?
Well, she dried it for later use.
Okay.
But we we picked a lot.
And, she had a garden, of course, who which herbalist who can have one doesn't, and, she had lavenders and, all all kinds of things there. And we picked lavenders as well to try for for these small lavender bags packages.
Uh-huh.
Bags, then they help you sleep.
Alright.
Like little satchels or, like, little yeah.
Yes. And you pick or you put one of them under your underneath your pillow, and then you sleep better.
Oh, fantastic.
And it and it smells nice. And if you get tired of the smell in the middle of the night, you just grab that that bag and and throw it across the room.
Throw it at the cat.
Yeah. Yeah. We did that, pretty much every time, I visited. And also when she visited us, we went for long, long walks, and she showed me, showed all of her grandkids, all all kinds of trees and flowers and what they are good for.
And did any of your, siblings, get or cousins interested in herbs as well? Do they use them now, or are you kind of the lone herbalist of your family?
One of my cousins is interested, but she is not half as interested as I. Mhmm. I think she buys her books, but, I am not sure if she does anything much beyond what usual Germans do, which is pick to pick, some wild, and garden herbs for teas.
Mhmm.
Now, let's fast forward a bit, and you're you've, you've become a grown up.
And, and and and I believe you have a a degree in economics.
Right?
Yes. Yes.
And so I what's the story here? You were a child interested in nature and herbs. You went into economics, and somehow that childhood came back at you again. Like, how did it all how did how did what's the story here? I'm really interested.
Well, I was sixteen, and, there wasn't I couldn't speak Finnish. Swedish is the second language in Finland. Mhmm.
Official language. So there weren't any, remotely herbal type schools in Finland, which I could choose when I was sixteen. Mhmm. And there was biology and there was botany, but they were in Finnish.
So I took the easy way out. I went for economics.
There is a saying here that it's for the, less the the the less good kids of better families.
They go into economics, And it was boring as anything.
I imagine.
It's it's so boring.
Well well, having started having started on that, I continued into a master's degree.
And then I went to logistics, and that's quite nice. You get to swear at truck drivers and, harbor workers, when they're not doing doing what you want them to on time to get this, the containers onto the ships or off the ships. Mhmm. That's quite that's quite interesting. It's colorful people, and it's a colorful job. But then they, asked me to take over the finance manager position because I had the the, teach the school for that. I could do it.
And that is so, so, so boring.
Bookkeeping and then then, ah, book closing and oh, no.
But the pay was good, so I saved them. Then I went to Michael Moore School in Arizona.
Oh, so you came to America to learn?
Oh, yes.
I could have I think I could have, from my knowledge, taken on clients at that point, but I didn't have the courage to.
Mhmm.
So then I went to the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, and then, I got the courage to see clients. And then I came back to Finland, and I've seen clients.
I've I've been herbalist full time since nineteen ninety eight.
Okay. So in Finland, your herbalist are now in Finland, are there licensed herbalists, or are you seeing, like, clients as a consultant, like, more like it is in the US? How does that work?
In Finland, we are we are not licensed. We are consultants. Yes.
Currently, there is a very nice, legislation in Finland. It allows for alternative practitioners to just do their thing. Mhmm. But, it's they're working on making that more strict. We'll see where that ends up.
Yeah. Because as the the laws the stricter laws around herbs have that effect in Europe? Has that affected, your work in Finland being able to access herbs?
We have always had some restricted herbs.
We have this law that says that, that that herb can only be used for internal medicinal use if you are a pharma pharmaceutical company, which has the, license from the medical authorities.
So we have always had restricted herbs, but I think this is much better than the German setup because in Germany you have a list where of, allowed herbs, and anything not on the list is restricted.
Really?
Yes.
Wow. That's Yes. So how many how how many do they have on that list of allowed ones?
It's the commission e monographs. It's three three hundred, I think.
Gosh.
Yes. That's that's too little. Mhmm. Absolutely.
So then you just have some ones that you can't so, so what's a day like?
How many clients will you see on a regular basis there in your practice?
It's a few a week.
A few a week. Okay. And is, are there a lot of people looking for herbalists? Is it is what is herbalism like overall in Finland? Are there a lot of people, wanting to learn? Is there a resurgence of people wanting to learn an interest, or is it always just kind of been there? Like, what's the culture of of herbalism there?
When I started, people told me that herbs were just humbug. Yeah. Just that.
Nothing nothing nothing real. Mhmm. Mhmm. But nowadays days people, tell me, oh, yes. My grandma used to do that. Mhmm.
And, I teach a lot. I teach really a lot.
And, because if you are a herbalist, with not too many herbalists around, teaching is a very good way to get clients.
Oh, right. Right.
You get perhaps one client per one hundred people you teach.
Oh, okay. Yes.
Well then So you have to teach teach a lot.
Well, that that's a good tip for anyone listening even here, I imagine. The more you teach, the more you probably will find people that connect with you and become clients. Now do you Yes.
And and and the clients who come to me, they know what kind of person I am Absolutely.
Because they have been to my lectures.
Do you make the remedies that you, do you provide remedies that you make for your clients, or do you have them, purchase, herbs from the shops?
I make almost everything. They get, the tea blend right right before, during the consultation. I just opened a big cupboard with herbs, and they they say, oh, ah, wow.
I want that.
Some yeah.
I think I have some four hundred herbs in there. And then, I have an alcohol license, so I can give give them tinctures.
But if it's one of the restricted herbs that is generally available in Finland, I tell them to go buy it from the shop.
Okay. Now when you're though those herbs in your cupboard, are you wild crafting a good bit of them?
Or Oh, yes.
Yes. Yes.
Absolutely. Wow.
It's one of the benefits of being an herbalist to go and pick herbs because, of course, ladies have this, need to go and gather.
Mhmm. You know? We get a kick out of just going and filling a basket with something. And, in in cities, this often shows as a shopping urge. But in the countryside, it's, wildcrafting and berry picking and mushroom hunting and things like that and wild greens, of course. In Finland, we never forgot about wild greens and wild berries and wild mushrooms.
And there's a big interest in that, in the city.
Yeah. Yes. Yes. Everybody does it practically, except for those who's who live in cities, who who don't have the connection.
Well, how how far you mean, you you're you're pretty close to the city or in the city or Helsinki. So is that, are you outside of it where you're able to go out and harvest things pretty easily?
Or Oh, yes.
I can I can go out the door and, a hundred meters that way is my favorite nettle stand, and two hundred meters that way is my favorite ground ivy? And I have a garden, of course, and there's, there's all sorts of plants growing. And we have this every month's every month's right in Finland. So I I am actually allowed to go pick herbs without asking anybody.
Wow. Information. Really?
Yes. That's that's amazing.
And we can also pick berries and fangmy mushrooms without asking anybody about it.
Now I mean oh, so backing up again, I mean, so are you, like, is is it an urban environment you're in, or are you more, like, right outside of the city?
I am in a suburb, and this is the yeah. A suburb. And it's a garden suburb.
So that means that, all the houses here have gardens.
And that means that they have fences with weeds outside.
Right. Lots of dandelions.
Yes. Yes. Yes. And there's also, parks close by, very, very many parks and a a small woodland.
You just must be busy when things are happening because you I I'm guessing you have a pretty short growing season way up there.
Oh, yes. Oh, you are you are so right.
It's like It's like quick.
The plants are out.
Pick them up. Yes. Yes. And then, oh, no. It's that season is over. How did I miss it?
This this spring was, very, very fast. It was like a week. This this we had a very cold, long, late winter, and then all the plants were just waiting.
And we got a warm spell with little rain, a little rain, and then, woof, everything was in flower. And because it was so late the spring was so late this year, we had, early summer flowers at the same time that we had early spring flowers.
It was weird.
Oh, goodness. I can't imagine the franticness you must be go through at that time.
Yes. It's like I have to go go out, picky pick. Mhmm. Yeah. But it's it's lovely.
That's why you write you must then, you know, write these books during the long winters.
Yes. I'll yes. But it's it's part of the teaching. I, I I wrote my first book in Finnish in two thousand, and, that has been out of print for, I don't know, ten years.
Mhmm. And the the next book, they because it's sold so well they asked me to write another one and that was out in two thousand and one Mhmm. And that those those two books in Finnish, they have been, they are, they have attained a cult status. They are utterly unobtainable.
Oh, wow.
Here in Philly. They're not available anywhere.
There was even a a our largest newspaper had a piece on on my two books where they tried to fulfill Christmas wishes for people. And one lady said, yes. She wants Henry de Krizz's books.
Have you, have you thought about print on demand here?
I think you could, just upload it to a Yeah.
Well, I didn't make I didn't do the layout on those books. I've I've contemplated making them available as as as PDFs, but I'm too busy for old books. I like I'd rather write new ones.
New books. Speaking of which, let's get to the about your newer books, which, you know, so they're they're they're called, practical herbs and there's and and and, or if we're talking to a European audience, so it's practical herbs. Yes. And sorry. I don't mean to, I do not mean to offend.
Oh, no. I'm just kidding. Alright. So, one and two, and, two picks up where one left off with, a lot of different remedies in the beginning and then lots of other great plants.
And so, let's why what was behind your your wanting to write this series, the Practical Europe series?
I had, the the the two older books I'd finish. They every every time I did a lecture and, as I said I do lots, people kept asking me about those books.
Are aren't they available and why why won't they do a second printing or third printing or whatever?
And I said, well, I've I've asked the publisher, and they just won't do it.
And then I got, I wrote another one in Finnish. I updated, a lot of of the information in those two books and picked some herbs, which I thought would would do well in would would suit would fit together in that in in in another volume and Mhmm.
And, just wrote the book and sent it to a lot of publishers. And, the last publisher said no, nice but no, Right at the time that my little one went to daycare.
Uh-huh.
And then I said, okay. My options are publishing myself, and I need to do a layout.
And I need to learn how to do a layout, and I need to have somebody proofread.
And, I have a lot of friends, of course, in Finnish in the Finnish, herb, scene Mhmm.
So to say, because it's small circles. So we're asked pretty much all of those who work with the words to proofread them, and they did. And they were very nice. And then, the book was really good and got rave reviews.
And then I thought, yeah, I could translate it into Swedish, which is the second official language in Finland.
And then I thought when that did quite well, I thought, yeah, I could, in fact, make it English as well.
Have you done a German version?
No. I won't I won't. My German isn't good enough anymore. Oh, okay. We moved to Finland when I was, in the in my early teens.
Oh, okay. Okay.
So my Swedish Swedish is perhaps my best language and Finnish and English and then German.
K.
And then a bit of French and Russian, of course.
Of of course. Of course. Naturally. Yeah. Doesn't everybody?
Yes. Yes. I mean, I can read her books in those languages.
It's like what they say. What do you what do you call a person who speaks one language? American.
Yeah. Yes. Yes. I expect you know a lot of Americans know Spanish as well.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well And then Yeah. Yeah.
I took classes.
Yeah.
So, what I would you know, so what what when writing practical practical herbs, like, what what is the, kind of spirit and feeling like an or other intention behind the book?
It's like it's the same intention I have in my website and in my teachings and in everything that I do. It's making herbs accessible to people because the law certainly isn't doing it.
Mhmm. Okay.
Anywhere. Anywhere. We, everywhere you look, if you if you check recent laws on alternative medicine, they are making it more difficult for for herbs and herbalists to be about. But you can never take away, the the ability to pick your own, to make your own if you have the knowledge to.
So what I do is I give the knowledge.
That is that is my entire reason reason for being an herbalist.
Wow. To help people find herbs.
Use herbs. Do herbs. And I'm against anything that restricts, herbal use to a a few professionals.
That's That's not how herbs work work.
That's thank you for saying that's amazing because that's exactly why we we do what we do. The same reason that, that's to make Earth accessible to people, to, to make it simple. And Yes.
And, Because it's not difficult at all.
No. It's very easy. Yeah.
No.
Just like your, you know, just like the image of your grandmother taking you out in the field and and and harvesting and making the simple remedies and With a kid who's five years old.
Right. If a five year old can do it, so can anybody.
How about your five year old? Does your five year old make, Oh, she's a she's a herbalist.
Or she'll she'll be one when she's we have made salves and tinctures and teas and, yes, and she knows what to what to ask for when she has a tummy ache or when she's eating too much. And and she's she's sweet.
What's her name?
It's cat Emily. It's it's, caraway. You just chew on a few caraway seeds if you have a if you have eaten too much.
And if you have a tummy ache, if you have, one of those tummy bugs going around, you you take chamomile. It's amazing how fast that works, but it's unsweetened. So if you make a chamomile tea, you just take it unsweetened.
And she's never had medicine in her life except for herbal medicine.
My, daughter is doing their for the holidays, they're doing a little, school store, and they're doing their and they're making their own things, and they're they kinda do, like, a little trading thing at the school. And so she's making lip balms and her winter tea.
Yes. That's so nice.
It's so cute.
Yes. That's that's amazing. It's it's right. It's it's just it's correct. It's it's what you should do. Yes. Wonderful.
Exactly. It's my favorite part is the kids in and that far part of it.
So in in practical herbs then, the book, I wanna get into, like, how how how do you have it organized? Because in the beginning, you have a lot of the, the you go right into the basics and identification and and, and drying and picking and preparing and and that's what's great. It's just very simple practical advice and, I love that. It just gets right to the point and pretty much just about everything, the simple stuff that what you need.
So I was wondering if we could go on a bit of a herb walk with you. I love doing that when I have people on the show and to talk about some of your favorites.
And I thought we would maybe focus on the new book a little bit, Practical Herbs two, which just came out recently.
And and so I wanna start by asking you about, this is a selfish reasons, because I'm if it was daylight, I'd be looking at the tree outside my house right here. I could see it. But, it's quite odd out in the Pacific Northwest for someone to have a horse chestnut tree outside, in their yard.
And so, I there's one on the in the neighborhood I can see way down. I've got a black walnut right near me here, but I've got there I've seen those. So, so can you tell me a little bit about horse chestnut?
Oh, it's lovely. It's so pretty, isn't it?
Mhmm.
In flower, it's one of the most gorgeous trees there is.
So, horse chestnuts are great for varicosities and hemorrhoids, and every year, I make them I make either the fallen fresh fruit or the leaf into oil and salve and, sell it to people who have either hemorrhoids or And I have, clients who come for, the same jar or two every year and apply it every every day or thrice a day to their varicosities and they get smaller and disappear little by little because it's so good for the veins externally.
You can tincture it internally, but then you'd have to be careful with the dose because too much will give you give you a violent purging, ex explosive diarrhea both ways.
So you really have to be careful with the dosing. But other than that, it's, well, externally, it's no problem at all. And then, of course, because it helps with, sagging tissues, it also helps with bags under the eyes. Oh.
So yeah. So but bags under the eyes are, of course, a whole different, thing. Help your kidneys, help your liver, and sleep enough. But, anyway, the when I sell these sows, I usually mention that, yes, it helps with bags under the ice as well, but you have to take another jar then than the one you take for your hemorrhoids.
Right. Good point. Yes. It's a good way to sell two jars to people.
Well, yeah, of course, they only ever take one because they take it for either they're very costly. So they hemorrhoids. But it's a fun way to to, yeah, to sell things. And then, peep pregnant ladies, I sell, three times a year at, a local small very small market. So when I see a pregnant lady walk by, I I shout out, I have her hemorrhoids across the room.
And those those ladies who are on the second kid or or more than that, they say, oh, really? Yes. Nice.
And the one who are expecting their first, they just walk by nose in the ear nose in the air because they don't know what's, what's going on.
Coming up.
Yeah. I know. Yeah. But that's, it's very nice. And the the leaf works as well as the, chopped up, seeds, if not better. And usually, I put, calendula in there. I quite like calendula in almost all my sauce and then, some yarrow helps make it even more effective.
Oh.
But it's it's really really great for varicosities and for hemorrhoids. So another another set of people who love, this horse chestnut salve is, hairdressers because they stand all day, so they get very cosytes.
Wow.
Yeah. Interesting.
So, any anything else you like using horse chestnut for, or is that pretty much the main that's that's that's I did not know that about horse chestnuts. They're very cool.
You didn't? No. Really?
No. Never used it. I just, just always admire the tree, but I've never actually had some people.
They are so pretty. My little one collects them, of course, when they're falling in and very pretty in in fall. They are so gorgeous. And then it's two or three days and all that, those different shades of brown that are glowing through the the horse chest horse chestnut.
The the fruit, they just fade into a a single dull brown. It's like, why did this have to happen?
But but they're they're really it's it's a really great remedy for that, and I haven't used it much for anything else.
So let's, move on to juniper.
Oh, yeah. That's a nice one. Do you want me to start Oh, I talking about Juniper?
I would love that. We're very informal here on our mentor radio.
Yeah.
Just go for it, Henriette.
So you use the the berries or the really finely powdered wood or you you use the the needles, the the leaf. Mhmm.
The berries are a prime example of showing how different, herbal medicine is if you prepare it differently. If you chew the berries, the bitters come through, and then it's a digestive remedy, Helps with your gallbladder, helps you helps with your digestion from the beginning to the end. It's make it makes everything juicier.
And it's actually quite sweet, so it's a great one to give to people who don't have a gall gallbladder anymore.
If they chew on a, juniper berry or two before twenty minutes before each meal, they they can eat practically anything because their gallbladder is now primed or their liver is now primed to release, gall in in, about twenty minutes.
This is the single best holiday tip, everyone, you're going to hear on this show. Choose some juniper berries, and you can eat anything.
Yeah. Yes. Of course. Of course. Of course. But then you get the the what's what's called in Finland, we eat, ham for Christmas. It's a tradition.
So we get this, overeating of ham, and one one local herb guy said that, then you should do caraway for the ham poisoning when you just eat too much.
Juniper is great before, but to caraway after.
Caraway after.
Yeah.
So, that's that's one. It helps the digestion if you chew it. If you make it into a tea, the essential oils come to the front, and then it's great for a cough if you have a cough. If your lungs get more blood than usual, then the essential oils will also go into the lungs and, help clobber any viruses that might live there, and, it helps with your cough. And if you don't have a cough, then it helps with your cystitis.
And then if you make a tincture, you get the resins, and the resins help with, well, they they kick the kidneys a bit and then they help with your cystitis.
So it it depending on how you how you prepare it, you get, different actions from the same plant and the same plant part.
Do you have leaf yeah.
No. Since do you have advice for that for people in learning? Because there's when you have a plant like this that has so many uses in different parts, do you just recommend just taking your time and exploring different parts of it, like like learning one planet at a time fully or, you know, like that?
I have distance students and, in in Finnish, and I require them to, for each part of the, of the course, they have to really get into three different herbs.
So they have about, two or three months to do three herbs.
Because, I think that you can't be a herbalist if you don't know herbs and if you don't use herbs. Right. So they have to make teas and tinctures and sir syrups and oils and whatever you can from various herbs and use them and see what effect they have and what how what they taste like. And I get these, plant reports from them, and, some of them are right. This tasted bad.
This had me run to the loo all the time.
And this I shall give away.
They are they are great. They're really fun.
Yeah. So I think that, yes, you should you should concentrate on a few herbs at a time and learn them well. So, if we continue with the juniper, you can use the leaf, the the greens to make any lean beef taste like mousse.
And this is a tried and true because, of course, we get German, visitors.
And if there's no moose left in the freezer, then lean beef will do with a bit of juniper.
And so they think they're eating mousse?
Yes. Yes. Yes. It gives a venison taste to to to beef.
I can try this.
Yes. And then then there's this, salmon on, on juniper branches. It's it's fantastic.
Wow. Just your usual, oven baked salmon, but put it on top of, juniper branches. And if you do, you have to put tuck all all all parts of the twigs underneath the salmon because if you if you bake it in two hundred degrees cent centigrade, which is some four or five hundred. I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit. But, anyway, if you if you have it in a hot oven and the the needles, are dry, then the minute you open the oven door, it will burst into flame.
Of course, you time your, salmon to be done by the time the guests arrive. Right?
Right. Right. Right. Right.
So you open the oven door, and then you have a fire on your hands. And you then you shout, open the back door, and then you run through the house with your burning salmon. Yes. That's very, very interesting.
But only do it once. Yes.
That's hilarious.
Then, yes, you have to tuck everything underneath, but it's so tasty. It's it's amazing.
I have to try that.
We have a lot of salmon up where I live in this area. So we can get salmon at our farmers market every Saturday. Just fresh salmon.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah. Oh. In Pacific Northwest. And two hundred centigrade is around four hundred Fahrenheit, in case you're wondering, out there in radio land, Internet land.
Yeah. And it's ten minutes per, well, it's ten minutes per centimeter of fish thickness.
So that's, twenty five minutes per inch of fish fish thickness Okay.
At two hundred degrees. So and skin side skin side down, but cover it if you have only half a fish.
When you do when you do classes, where you're where you are, do you, do, like, weekend type of things or, like, teaching teaching, certain topics, or do you have, like, any longer term apprenticeships that you do?
I I have these distance students, and that's a two year thing. Mhmm. So they yeah.
Do they ever come and hang out with you in person?
Or Yeah.
Once once a month, they have a possibility to do so, but they don't have to.
Have to.
Because they are, Finland is, well, don't know really how how big is, a country.
Big country and also kind of probably hard to get around in the winter times and times, Well, winter is no problem here.
Oh, okay. You guys you're all used to it. Right? So it's not Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You got a little bit of snow where I live and the whole place shuts down.
So No.
No. No problem. But if if somebody is is is five hundred miles away, they're not coming down for for for for our thingy.
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. But I'm, I have about I have a handful of students up north, so I go there once or twice a year. Oh. That's a thousand miles away.
Oh, wow. Wow.
I think.
I think.
Perhaps seven hundred. I'm not quite sure on the miles.
On the miles. Yeah.
Alright. So, what about, another another herb here, ground ivy, and that stood out for me. So ground ivy.
That's so lovely. It's, well, some people don't don't like the taste at all, and some people just love it. I'm I'm among those who just love it. You, you can test if you like it or not. If you see one, it's all also called gill over the ground. Mhmm.
So if you see one of those leaves, you you pick it and you taste it, and it's aromatic. It's it's great.
And it's one of the drying, anti anti inflammatories in the mint family.
So it's great for facial mucosa if they are damp and bugged and and congested and that's what makes it great for tinnitus, for sound in your ear. Wow. And it's it's equally good for sore throats and for, bugged noses and things like that but because it's so good for the tinnitus, I mainly use it for that.
It's it's very easy to go and pick it in quantity. I mean, last time I went, to my ground ivy patch, I took a pillowcase. And here's a great tip for picking things. If you want to pick more than a basketful, take a pillowcase because that then compresses quite nicely And, you can fill, one dehyd one large dehydrator with the contents of one pillowcase.
It might it it's just from from top to bottom, it's it's so full nothing more fits. And then you have it, run for a while and when it's bone dry, you take another clean pillowcase and then, just crush everything in there.
That's a great way to garble the herbs. Great.
In the Oh, yes.
Oh, yes. Yes. But you have to, of course, you have to take out, garbage, from the Yeah. From the fresh herb before you put it in the dehydrator.
And in in, ground ivy, there's leaves, there's, there's, these, conifer needles, there's old branches. There can be anything.
Right.
But it's a really great way to get a lot of herb fast. You just grab the ground ivy and take it and make a big ball and put that and then the next and the next. And If you go there a week later, you can't even see that you've been there picking.
Wow. It just covers right back up again.
Oh, yes. It's amazing.
It's a great it's a great herb.
I miss that herb. It was very, common on the East Coast where I grew up. And, in the Pacific Northwest, you just don't don't really see it.
Okay. I miss it.
My if it is, it's invasive. But, you know Yeah.
It's it's invasive here too. Yeah. I planted in my in my garden in a, and the Helsinki Park people looked at me like I was crazy and said, no. No.
No. Not that one. You'll never get rid of it. I said, yes. I know.
I don't want to.
I don't want to get rid of it. It's it's in my lawn. It's in my it's in my herb garden. It's great. It's great. It's and it flowers so prettily in spring.
But you pick it when the leaves are fully grown grown in in July or something.
In spring, they're just tiny tiny little things.
Mhmm. Well, at least where you live. Yes.
Well, the the they are. They start growing big leaves in, in in high summer. Yeah.
Wow.
That's very cool.
And and, what okay. So, then how let's go into, let's see here. Going through them. Just trying to think of the ones that pop out at me. How about Ella campaign?
Oh, wow. That's so great.
I actually have a piece of root here because I like it so much.
So such a great taste. So it's aromatic at first. And when I first tasted the fresh root, I thought, wow. This tastes great.
Wonder why it isn't used more. And half a minute later, the bitterness hits.
Alright. Now I know. Uh-uh. A minute later, all sense of taste disappears for an, for half an hour.
It's great. It makes for tingly mouth.
It's lovely.
And I've used it for cuffs. And there was this lady who, had, she had chronic sinusitis and very slimy cough and had had it for two or three years and went to hospital with lung inflammation, inflamed lungs, once a month for a week and had her sinuses punctured every now and then because they were just so congested.
And I tried all sorts of, cough and lung herbs on her and but, nothing really worked until I hit the Pelican pain.
Mhmm.
And that worked because it had to do her cough had to do with digestion.
Mhmm.
It's, of course, a drying cough herb. It's very aromatic and drying, so that's why it but, so is chyme, so is sage, so is hyssop. There's a lot of drying cough herbs, but, Elegant Pain is also very bitter so that helps if the cough is due to digestive problems.
Mhmm.
Very nice And, that ties in, of course, to, the lungs being coupled to grief.
So if you have grief and start to cough from that, then you should take elecampane.
Elecampane is great for grief. And then and then, it's, Christopher Headley who is one of my mentors. He's a UK herbalist.
He's he's so great.
He said that it's used for elf shot.
For what?
And that elf shot, it's, an English, ailment, an English, disease where the elves shoot you and all your energy runs out of the holes their arrows make.
So you get burnout. You get listless. You get can't do anything.
And, It's because the elves shoot you?
Yes. Because all your energy runs out. And interesting enough, it's been used for a lot of very interesting bacteria and viruses, which are, long term and, sapping.
They just take away your strength and Elegant Paint helps with that. But in addition, it also helps you stop to dance to the music.
You know, the the current, dancing to the music is, today's, working life. Mhmm. You just have to go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, and work and shop and work and shop and work and shop and work and shop. And then you can't stop, but if you take elecampane, you suddenly can.
This is, this is something I never heard about from about elecampane before. I usually just had use it for coughs and but, for for what you're saying there, that that's that's so when you do that, how how? You're just chewing on some root like you're just doing or maybe a tincture?
Or Well, syrup is, of course, the tastiest.
Yeah. Yeah. It's so bitter if you take a tincture.
It's Like like a honey, just putting it in honey.
Oh, yeah. That's a great one. Yes. That works.
Or you can chew on a piece of root, which is why I have have some pizza pieces of root. I like the taste.
Right. Right.
But a lot of people can't take bitter taste.
That you're you're odd that way.
No. I'm a novelist. I'm a novelist. It's it comes with the territory.
It does, doesn't it? Yes. Absolutely.
Liking videos. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Willow.
That's a nice one. Of course, willow bark is a traditional one, and that's, great for all kinds of aches and pains, but I think only externally because it's so rough on the mucous membranes.
So if you do Willow tea or tincture, you're likely to upset your stomach. Mhmm. Your stomach lining, you can even get an ulcer if you take it long term. So externally, it's very good for aches and pains. But, of course, in Finland, we have Meadowsweet, which is much, much easier to pick in quantity and which is gentle on your mucous membranes. So I use Meadowsweet for people who have ulcers, and I don't use, willows.
Willows make them worse, and, Meadowsweet helps because meadowsweet includes mucilage and and sugars and things.
And then, one of my students asked me, well, yes, willow bark, but springtime is over and it's a bitch too. I'm sorry. It's very hard to take barks off branches And, what should I do? I said, well, take some leaves. Leaves. There's lots of leaves in the willows. You can make a full body bath with them.
And she was really amazed at the, how effective it was to help with a full body ache after a really hard work.
Just a full body ache and a full body willow leaf bath. It's it's really good. And then, because I have all these classical texts on my website, King's American Dispensatory, they mentioned willow catechins for excessive hormones.
I'm a well known herbalist in Finland, well, as well known as any herbalist, I think, in Finland. So I get various phone phone calls and, once a year or every two years or so, some unhappy.
A person calls me to ask what they should do for their, really overdrive, sex drive.
My partner is leaving me because they can't take it anymore, and I love him or her. What should I do? And the answer is willow catkins.
And, you shouldn't really go pick those willow catkins when they're small and pretty silvery things, but wait until they're, an inch, one and a half inch long because then you can just milk the branches, and you have a basket full in no time at all. And then you make a tincture and fresh willow catkin tincture is great for all sorts of hormone, sex sexual hormone overdrive. It's great for teens. It's great for, otherwise, oversex people, I expect it would have been great for monks a few few centuries ago because they weren't allowed to. So, of course, they went over over the top. And then it's great for menopause, both male and female menopause when, there's just too much, when they when they can't stop. Mhmm.
And it helps, teens get a get a grip on their hormones instead of the hormones getting a grip on the teens, which is fine.
I am so I'm writing this one down because I have a I have a son just in that just entering his teenage years.
And you know I just start spiking his drinks with it.
Yeah. Well, no. You should you should tell him it helps with it helps with teenage acne. Oh.
Because, of course yes. Because, of course, because it, teenage acne is hormonal. Right. So it helps that.
But, of course, in addition, he should help his liver and, cut out junk food and things like that and take zinc. Zinc is very important for teenage acne.
K. That's good to know.
Very, very yes. Yes. Give him a lot of seeds to chew on. Sesame seed and the almonds and sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
And, it all helps. Every little bit helps.
So with the, catkins on the willow, any specific, type or just, you know, any kind of willow? Any salutes?
You know you know, King specified black willow, and that's, I asked the dendrologic society in Finland, well, do we have any black willow? Mhmm. They one of the head gardeners of a botanical garden said, well, yeah, he tried to plant it a few years ago, and it was so ugly that he ripped it out. So no.
Okay.
But there are some hybrids. And, of course, willows hybridize readily anyway. So Mhmm. I've just picked any old willow because how can you even tell which type it is when they're in the catkin stage?
Right. Right.
Right. Unless you're really into your willows.
Right. Right. Right. Right. Oh, thank you. That's that's great information there. Let's do it one more play, and I have some questions about your website and stuff.
How about let's do something a little more, traditional people use a lot. How about thyme?
Oh, that's so great.
That's You say that about all the plants here, Henry Adams. I love them.
Oh, that's so great.
It's like Rosemary Gladstar every time she's talked about a planet with Rosemary. She'll she'll start it out with, oh, that's my favorite. That's my favorite.
Time is great. It's so it's so tasty.
It's it's a it's a a pungent, hot, really aromatic and drying mint family anti inflammatory. And because it's so tasty, I I add it to the herb tea blends of clients who who are in need of an anti inflammatory.
Because it helps with the inflammation, and it's tasty.
I mean, quite a lot of plants aren't that tasty to normal people.
Right. Yeah. I like them all, but some people don't. Yeah. Well, except for so palmito, that's ghastly.
And then there's Valerian, which I can't stand, but, the rest are quite nice.
The taste of well, the yes. Yeah. But time, it's it's very, very good for for cuffs, for sore throats, for congested noses, for tummy aches. It's, you can make a a a compress for, for for menstrual pains. But, of course, menstrual pains are, almost always, magnesium deficiency, and you need to do magnesium and vitamin b if you just curl up in a corner and wish to die every month.
It's not it's not oh, I mean, a lot of ladies have told me that the magnesium and b was a lifesaver for them. They they they were surprised that, menses can be like, oh, wait. I'm bleeding.
Instead of being in misery for a week before.
So it's really that simple. It's magnesium and beat. But time for coughs and cough syrup, of course, is one of the best ways to take it, and then you can make a hot time tea because when you have a cough, you are in need of warm drinks anyway. So, make a strong thyme tea and add some, add some honey, and then you drink it, in sips until it's, until it's all gone, and then you make the next cup.
And in, in, France where it's where real time is wild, we only have one other, creeping ones in the wild over here. Mhmm. Where, where in in in France where it's wild, they say that you should drink so much that you smell of time, then it's enough. Of course, if you do that much every time you have a cough, you start to like time a a little less.
Right.
Right. But it but it's such a great such a great herb. It's it's lovely.
And then you can make a thyme honey, and one of my one of my students did that and gave it to me. They crushed up thyme, into a powder, and then they mixed it into honey, and it's a deep, deep green, and you take a teaspoon when you feel you're in need of some time. It's lovely.
So everyone, listening here and when when when you go through Henriette's books, so I said the part in the beginning, we'll go over some basic remedies and really great tips, for making them and and some of her wisdom. So she shares a lot of her wisdom about things that can go wrong and things to, you know, how to how to how to do things more correctly in case you get some problems with some of your your remedies. But, when Jesus is the part with the plants, there's there's there's a lot of, recipes and on all, like, in the text with where the plant's described.
So that's what's really beautiful about it. It is really practical because you go through, and also different. And you also, blend in or or or kind of put in there, different common ailments as well. So which is really great as well.
So it's it's it's incredible. Both of these books are just absolutely awesome and incredible, and and they're all herbs that anyone in North America would definitely be using they're common herbs. I mean, the first book has, well, well, the ones I said we we just went over were were from the second book, but there's a lot of other herbs in there too. But, but you'll definitely recognize all of them and probably ones that you've used.
So you definitely wanna check that out at henry at herbal dot com. Now, what I wanna ask you about next, is about your website because you've been compiling information online since, like, the earliest days of the Internet. Right?
Oh, yes. Nineteen ninety four, nineteen ninety five.
I was online in nineteen ninety two, but not under my own name.
My then boyfriend said, he was, at the University of Helsinki in computer sciences, so he had access to the Internet, which nobody else had. And then he he tried. He was he kept trying to get me on there. I said, boring.
And he said, well, there's herbs. What? Herbs? Yes. Where?
And that was Usenet, and then there was a herb mailing list. It was lovely.
Wow. So I was I was online since nineteen ninety two. And in nineteen ninety four, I got my own, email account. And then in nineteen ninety five, I, Sunset University of North Carolina asked if I wanted to make a herbal website. I said, well, yes.
And then I put on two hundred photos which was really rare back then, nobody had photos online and herb facts and things like that and we had a a competition going with Michael Moore back then because he had his website then too.
So anytime he added something a little more substantial to his, I was, well, what should I add to mine?
Right.
So I don't think he would have, done so much on his website or I on mine if we hadn't had that A little friendly competition there.
Oh, yeah. That was I mean, of course, we're best of friends, or we were best of friends. It's it's lovely. Yeah.
Yeah.
And and you get that sense too, like, for those who haven't been on Michael Moore's site, it's just an amazing resource of photos and and and and drawings and classic texts and Yeah.
And and and just so much to explore here. It it's it's it's very you know, you'd never when you just land on the home page, you'd you'd never guess the the depth and insanity that you put into the separate years.
Yeah. Well, it's it's it's been online since nineteen ninety five, my side. Michael's was, was leaving us files on SunSite before that, and then he moved it to his own website, I think, too in nineteen ninety five. Mhmm.
So, it's eighteen years. And, I've taken out a few things, like the rants. I had I had rants, about emails I kept receiving.
But then I I I came to the conclusion that, no, they're just negative energy.
I take them out.
Okay.
These as people ask me, yes. Tell me about all the herbs there are, and then I would answer something sarcastic in a, in the style of, well, yes, there are about, two hundred thousand or five hundred thousand plants depending on who you ask and about, from ten to ninety percent of them are medicinal. So I I think that you should tell me about all the herbs and let me know when you're done. It's like things like that, but it it really was just negative energy.
The only well, yes. A a lot of people told me, wow. They're wonderful, but those were the same people who got the same kind of email and didn't have, sarcastic answers to them. So they just laughed loud at, at what I thought up about them.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
But I took that. But other than that, I have just added to it all the time. Now recently, I've added some English old works, John Hill and the other one.
I don't remember.
Another John, I think. And then there's Simon on there, from seventeen ten, an English old book. Very nice. But it's, one of the books which have f is then instead of s. So it's really, really hard to OCR it properly.
What what what value, do you find in the those really old texts?
I mean, I understand that, you know, it's it's we there's, you know, only say because of the culture and everything was so different and then the language and the measurements and everything. When you go through these these old texts, I mean, it's one thing to preserve history. That's amazing valuable thing. But as an herbalist, what value would, like, I have or somebody else listening in exploring some of the old really old texts?
Like Psalm one from seventeen ten?
Yes.
It's a printed book, so it's not handwritten, so it's actually readable.
And it has, pictures, drawn drawings throughout it. Mhmm. It he tells, for example, that ground ivy is is great for ear noises, which we still use today. And he was, he he used humeral, humeral, theory. So he had, hot and damp and and, warm and cold, which we use today if you if we use Hubble Energetics.
Western energetics. And you don't find Western energetics all that often. And, one guy who helps me with the proofreading says that he actually likes to proofread for himself, not just for my website because of all the insights that Salomon had about a lot of herbs, which he can use in his own practice. He's a medical herbalist in England.
Wow.
So so it's still valid today. And he Salma was, of course, one of the great in Europe.
Right. Right. Just looking looking on your site here, Salma in seventeen ten. Yeah. Or it's, the English herbal herbal.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And he's huge. It's enormous. It's some two thousand pages. I only I only have three hundred pages online and, about, of those, one hundred and eighty eight currently are proofread.
I haven't gotten all that far in putting the proofread pages online like they should, but I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it.
Winter's here.
Yes. Of course. And and I don't have any book projects, currently. I'm taking a year off next year.
Oh, nice.
Yes. I'm I'm doing the website things and, I'm doing distance students things next year. The year after, I'm planning either a wild food book or in Finnish or one about having fun with plants like an angelica bluegums and, dandelion dandelion, flower roots.
That is needed. There is not one that oh, yeah. Absolutely. That'd be fine.
There's lots so much fun to do and because I've done a lot of, outdoor, lectures, people have have shown me all of these. Oh, you don't know that? Well, this is how you do it.
Oh, we must promote we must add that to the or, promote it with the herb fairies, curriculum because I think the kids would love that. You know?
Yep. But that's, in two thousand and fifteen. That's not not next year. That's the year after.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Yeah. I'm I'm planning already. I've I've I need but I need somebody to take pictures because I can't take pictures when both hands are busy. Mhmm.
That's true. Well, you set up a video camera and you just roll it and just do it in front of the video camera. Then you take the video and then you can get images, still images from the video.
Ah, that's a good idea.
Yeah. Yeah. See, I do this stuff.
I have to do that. It's a good idea. Or, of course, I can ask my husband to help me.
Right.
There's only In summer when everything is nice and doable.
So your books, Practical Herbs one and two, we can go to henry henry at syrbal dot com and to get to get those. And, of course, they're in English. And if you're listening and speak Finnish or Swedish, we got those two.
Now looking on here as well, you do, print copies of these. Right?
Yes. Yes. Okay.
Of course. Yes. Choose a print copy, which is really nice as well. Totally worth it.
So Yes.
Right there on the site.
Yes.
And what else? Oh, and you just might see, henry at by the herb mentor dot com forums from time to time. And thank you so much for doing that. It's always such a treat to have you by there and and and, sharing because I don't think a lot of people realize that, you know, what an amazing amazing teacher at Herbalist they have just kinda popping on there and sharing.
So thank you for doing that.
Oh, it's my pleasure. That's great. It's it's what I do.
That's good. Thank you. I mean, we we definitely are honored.
Again, and you you all wanna go to henry at herbal dot com right after you're finished here listening to this right now, henry at herbal dot com.
Henriette Kress, thank you so much for joining us on Herb Mentor Radio today. It's been awesome.
Thank you. It's been fun. Yes. Lovely to lovely that you wanted to have me.
Oh, it's awesome. And, well, we'll have you back some time to go over some more of these great plants. So thank you so much.
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