Tara Ruth:
You are listening to Herb Mentor Radio by LearningHerbs.com. I'm Tara Ruth. I have a very exciting announcement today. Today marks the very first episode I'm recording with my new co-host, Kimberly Gallagher, here. Kimberly is the co-founder and CEO of LearningHerbs. And since the beginning, she has been central to all of the magic that LearningHerbs has created. She wrote Herb Fairies, our Herbal Children's book series and learning system, and she created Wildcraft, our cooperative herbal board game. She's also the author of Aphrodisiac, an incredible book about herbal aphrodisiacs, and she's my lovely co-host for the bi-weekly live classes we teach on HerbMentor, which I'll talk more about later. Kimberly and I have had a blast teaching together on HerbMentor, and as we continue Herb Mentor Radio in honor of John's legacy, it felt like such a natural choice to continue the podcast with her voice. So we're going to dive more into Kimberly's background, but before we do that, let's just go ahead and welcome her on. Hello and welcome, Kimberly.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Oh, thank you, Tara. It's so good to be on with you.
Tara Ruth:
Yes, I know. It feels so great. We're going to host a meetup on HerbMentor, actually, tomorrow. So we were just talking about how we're hosting so many different things together this week. It feels great.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Change is happening.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah. Yeah, and I've been thinking about we're in this time of change seasonally too. Fall is coming, oh my gosh, somehow already. And I'm curious what herbs have been calling to you lately, and how are you working with them? I find that herbs can be particularly helpful for us in these seasonal transitions, so I'd love to hear more about that.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Oh my gosh. Yeah, so much. I think I just was thinking this morning about starting to make my herbal chai, which ends up being out in a pressed pot on my counter for the whole fall and winter. So just bringing in those warming herbs like cinnamon and ginger, and just that deep nourishment of those herbs. And this time of year, I can add in some echinacea for a little immune system boost along the way. So that's really a great piece that starts to come in the fall for me. But lately I've been really gravitating towards this Tulsi-Rose tea. It's a blend that I was drinking a lot after my mom passed away, and with John's passing, I've just been like, oh yeah, I want that again. That's kind of this hug from the plants for me. Tulsi is this beautiful adaptogen that just really helps me to deal with stress and change and just integrate it.
The rose is just this little burst of beauty and pleasure, so it just gives me this gentle, calming hug. Yeah, so I've been really loving that tea on a regular basis, and then also marshmallow root tea has felt really soothing. It's just so soft and beautiful. So I've been reaching for marshmallow root tea, and that one I just take the dried roots and do a cold infusion because that helps bring out the slippery demulcent quality of marshmallow, which just feels like it's soothing all of my insides as I move through this time of grief and change. Skullcap is one that's just continuously in my repertoire for nervous system calming. So that's been a regular lately. And then as we're going into the fall and winter, I've been making elderberry syrup again so that I can just have that continual immune system boosting and nourishing for my whole system as I go through the changes.
And then I just wanted to mention, whenever anyone asks me, what herbs are you reaching for right now? It's like I have herbs that are ongoing in my life. I do these herbal infusions with oat straw, oat tops, nettles, all these nourishing herbs, the red raspberry, and the red clover. And so those are just a daily thing for me. I steep an ounce of herb in a quart of water for at least four hours. I usually put them on at breakfast time and then drink them at dinner time. And it just gives me all of this herbal vitamin and mineral nourishment that my body so needs. So that's like this baseline thing that's just runs through my life always, so I have to bring those in too. And then also I have an adaptogen shake that I do pretty regularly with ashwagandha and maca and fermented beetroot powder, dandelion root, and some cacao powder, just for the deliciousness of cacao.
Tara Ruth:
I mean, yes. It's so delicious.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Right?
Tara Ruth:
Oh, these all sound great. I loved what you were saying about the nourishing infusions, too, how you start them in the morning, and then we'll drink them often in the evening. They just become this ritual that you get to have, and you're like, okay, in the morning I do this, in the evening I drink this, and can really add some nice regularity to our days during a seasonal change, too, or a great upheaval in our lives, whatever it may be. Having these herbal anchors can be so helpful.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah, I think those kinds of rhythms in our lives are really important, especially for women. But I think for all of us, just to have that sense of rhythm and things that happen regularly over and over again. I've been doing those herbal infusions since I was pregnant with Rowan. That was 26 plus years ago. So they've been such a foundational constant in my life and such a source of comfort and nourishment. So it's really nice to have developed that over time and to just lean on them in these times of change.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah. Super beautiful. And it's great with herbs too, the ones you mentioned and the nourishing infusion, they're really gentle and really nutritive, so we can take them over this long period of time and they're great year round regardless of what the seasons are doing or what's going on in our lives having these, it's like having a friend who's just a rock in your life.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Exactly.
Tara Ruth:
That's what these herbs are.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Exactly. They're like the rock solid ones that are always there [inaudible 00:06:54] always there just holding us every step we take those herbs. Yeah, just yeah, you're best friends.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, it's so true.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah, and definitely just to say to those of you listening, I wouldn't do this with any herb, like steep it for that long. So really looking at these nourishers, like the oats and the nettle are really good for these long steepings, but some of the herbs that have more medicinal qualities, if you're steeping it that long, you'll get a too high of a dose. So yeah, just really looking at which herbs you want to use if you're going to do those kinds of infusions, looking for the vitamin and mineral-rich ones.
Tara Ruth:
That's such a good point. Yeah, these ones, like you're saying, they're vitamin and mineral-rich. They're often not very aromatic, too, so they don't have a high content of volatile oils that herbs that do have more volatile oils, once you steep them for a long time, those can actually be hard on your kidneys. So choosing these ones that are more gentle and nutrient-dense are great. Some of the ones, like you were saying, there's oat straw, there's raspberry leaf, there's nettle, linden is another one that comes to mind, alfalfa. So those are some great allies to reach for.
Kimberly Gallagher:
And in the fall, I'll add some roots to the infusion, like a burdock root and dandelion root. Those can also be in that nourishing herb quality, and with those, I'll make a decoction of them because it's more effective for extracting the vitamins and minerals, to actually boil them in the water rather than just steeping them in hot water.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, let's get it all. Let's get those roots for fall. So good. Oh my gosh.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Put them all in there.
Tara Ruth:
Kimberly, when I hear you talk about this and whenever we talk about herbs, it just feels so natural. I can't imagine a time in which you weren't a plant person or you weren't drinking a regular nourishing infusion. So I'd love to know how did you get into the world of herbs and what really drew you in the beginning?
Kimberly Gallagher:
That's such a great question because I haven't always been a plant person necessarily. In some ways, I guess I was, because my grandparents on my mom's side were farmers. So I come from a line of farmers in Indiana, middle of a country, and my mom, having grown up with these farming parents, she would always have gardens. And so when I got to high school, she started herb gardening, so she started planting basil and sage, and all these plants, and then bringing them into our diet. So I think that was my first introduction to herbs. And I was kind of like, what is this? This is all new. And when you were in high school, all you want is Coca-Cola and French fries, but I had plenty of that in high school, actually. I haven't always been a super healthy eater. But what really drew me into the world of herbs was when I met John, and we started dating, and he was really instrumental in bringing this school called Wilderness Awareness School out from the East Coast to the West Coast.
And he was really into the plant track of that school, learning about the plants that grew around us and how we could use them as medicine and to nourish ourselves. And so you know how when you start dating somebody, you start to get interested in the things they're interested in. So he got me into this world of the plants, and as we were starting our family, he was doing these herbal apprenticeships. So he was apprenticing at a place called Ravencroft Garden, and we didn't have a lot of money in those days, so he was doing a work trade to learn what he wanted to learn. So I would go with him to Ravencroft to do the work trade. So then I was getting steeped in that plant knowledge as well. And then, as the kids were little, we were bringing in herbs to help nourish them and heal them when they got little scrapes or whatever happens to young kids. And as we went along, I started to get interested in learning more about the plants. So then I did the Ravencroft apprenticeship as well. So that was the journey in for me.
Tara Ruth:
That's so cool to hear the origin story. Thank you for sharing. And I think it's great too, you sharing that I wasn't into this from day one. I was drinking Coca-Cola, eating French fries in high school. Wasn't from day one thinking I'm going to use calendula, I'm going to use all these herbs, and it can be really intimidating getting into the herbal world. So it's great to hear that someone like you who's been doing this for over 26 years now, it hasn't been doing it their entire life either. That was one of my favorite things when I went to herbalism school was the age range of folks who I was in school with and the different career backgrounds that people had.
There are several folks who were retired who they're like, "Wow, now I get to pursue this passion I've had or this curiosity I've had." And there are folks who just graduated from high school, too. So it was really cool to have this range of ages and then also, like I was saying, career backgrounds. I had a pharmacist in one of my classes, I had nurses, I had folks who were in finance, and just seeing how all these different people came together through this curiosity that turned into a big excitement and passion for all of us about the plants. The plants have this way of charming so many people on all sorts of different life paths.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah. You think about their root system under the earth and how connective it is, the mycelium, and they have a way of weaving us together, and the plants have always been the people's medicine. They're just right there growing around us for us to be in relationship with.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, it's so true. And for a lot of us, too, a lot of folks will come to the plants through a crisis, whether it's health crisis, mental health, whatever it may be, and they can be this really soft landing place for us as we find our way back to balance. So very grateful for these rock steady friends.
Kimberly Gallagher:
It seems like almost all the herbalists that I talked to got into herbalism, or very many of them, because of some kind of health a question that they had that Western medicine was not actually able to address fully. And so they were like, "What other alternatives are there out there?" And then they find the plants and they're like, "Oh, wow, this is a whole world of medicine available right outside my door."
Tara Ruth:
It really is, and it's so cool too. It's something I really appreciated in my studies, too, is when I'd have classmates who were nurses or that pharmacist I mentioned was to see how they would weave the plants together with their existing knowledge, too, and to see how well these different modalities can really complement each other. It's like, oh, I wasn't aware of just how well they can work together, and that's so exciting, too. It can seem like these are totally disparate worlds, and they're not going to meet each other in the middle. Actually, there can be so much overlap, and possibility for collaboration is just great.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Definitely. Definitely. It's not like a dismissal of Western medicine or a dismissal of any of the different styles. It's like, how do we weave them together into something that's going to be supportive for us in the moment?
Tara Ruth:
That's such a good way of putting it. I was just describing something that's surprised me about my herbal path, and I'd love to hear what has been surprising for you as you've been walking the plant path over the years.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah. I think the thing that surprised me the most is just how deeply I've come into relationship with the plants and how much I love them as little individual beings. Oh my gosh. I walk through the forest, and I just sometimes feel so overflowing with gratitude and love for these beings. They just support me and my family in so many ways, and so to actually feel like, wow, I don't know who I would be without those nourishing herbal infusions that I drink every day. I would be a different person. I remember when I was taking Haley around to visit different colleges, she was looking for her plant allies on the campuses. She was like, "Okay, plantain is here. There's dandelion. Okay, I think I can go to this school. I've got my friends around me."
So there's that sense of just feeling like they're important beings in our lives. And we started this LearningHerbs business, so they've been supportive to us in actually being able to make it in the world and be able to, for John and I, to be able to raise our children and send them to college and all the things. It's like the plants are the foundation of all of that for us.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah. You said earlier you mentioned the root system underneath, and I think about how having these relationships with plants can help us feel so rooted in place, too. Haley's describing, "Oh, there's dandelion here, there's plantain. I can be here, I can live here." And I relate to that. Wherever I've moved over the years, I'm always looking out for my friends. Okay. There is an elder tree. I can live here. And I feel like we're in such an interesting moment in human history where it's not news that we're now more connected than ever, theoretically, through all these digital mediums, but we're also more disconnected than ever, and so many people feel really lonely and not rooted in community.
And some of us can also feel out of practice socially after the peak pandemic times, and being in a lot of isolation. So I found that plants can also be this great gateway into connection again. Connection with the plants, but then connection with other humans too. We get to be excited about the plants together with other plant nerds, or maybe we take a nervine that helps us calm ourselves a little bit if we have some social anxiety, so they can be this great support network for us as we seek more connection in this world.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah. I love that. I love, yeah, just thinking about that, the weave. The weave. The weave.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah. I'm thinking about how you've co-woven LearningHerbs over the years from the very beginning, and I'd love to know what it's been like to watch this community grow and evolve over the decades now.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah. I was thinking about the history of LearningHerbs. I've been doing a lot of thinking about LearningHerbs lately, as I'm stepping up more into being a voice of LearningHerbs out here in the world, and just thinking back to the early days. And John and I are both creative people and just love making things. And I'm a teacher, and I love sharing with other people. And John had this history in video production and distance learning programs, and we didn't have a business plan or any of those things that you're supposed to have when you're starting a business. It was more like John was going to acupuncture school, and it was taking forever, and we needed money to raise these kids. And we were like, okay, what about making an Herbal Remedy Kit so that we could teach people some of what we have learned and what's been supporting our family? And we made the Herbal Remedy Kit, and we put it out there, and then it started selling, and it was like, "Oh my gosh, this is working."
So it felt like we just caught this wave and we were just riding it over these years, and it's just been such a joy to feel like here we are creating this herbal community that's based on helping people connect with the natural world, which was so important to both of us to really care for this earth and bring more people into relationship with it so that they will also care for it and nourish it. And this work that we were doing was also helping people to be healthier and more empowered in their lives. And it was supporting our family at the same time. So it was just like, "Oh my gosh, this is such a good wave. Let's just ride this along." And our HerbMentor membership community is the biggest it's ever been at this moment in time. It started out very small with just a few people coming on, and you're so excited when you get your first hundred and then a thousand people, and then 8,000 people are on and coming together, all with this desire to connect with the plants and to learn about the plants.
And so it's just really so beautiful to see everybody in that place of curiosity and wonder, and oh, we focused on beginners because we loved that time when it was so new and just bringing people in, and yes, you can do this. Part of our magic, I think, was that we're a family that uses herbs, so we are able to help people see how simple it could be to do when we can connect them with the herbalists who know even more than we do, because there's so much to know, and none of us can know all of it. Yeah. And then there was the moment when we thought of making Wildcraft and making this board game. We had little kids, and let's put out this board game that's going to really inspire more children to learn about herbs and being able to bring the kids into the community as well. And of course, John's masterwork is the HerbMentor site and all of the video courses and different resources that are available there for people who are learning.
And what if we had a forum where people could ask questions as they were starting to make these herbal remedies and they ran into barriers, and then we could be there to help them through those blocks so that there could be this just smooth learning journey for everybody. And now we have software that allows us to do these meetups that Tara and I get on every other week and do a meetup with our members and talk to them, and we can see them in real time, which is really exciting too, because I feel so much more connected to our membership through those in-person meetups.
Tara Ruth:
They're so fun.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah, we're going to do herbs for immune support. [inaudible 00:22:10]-
Tara Ruth:
And I find that HerbMentor, as a platform, really helps the learning come alive. I remember before I officially studied herbalism, really trying to find helpful information when I was making various herbal things, and books can be so helpful. And I'd be reading a book and I'd get partway through and then hit a roadblock and be like, "Why does my tincture have white stuff in it?" Or whatever it may be. I can't just Google that question because Google isn't super helpful when it comes to herbs, often in terms of reliable information. So I wish I had known about HerbMentor at that time. It would've been so helpful for me. And I love how simple things are, too, on HerbMentor. We really give people these opportunities to start simple, but then also dive as deep as they want to. So breaking it down step by step can be so helpful.
Kimberly Gallagher:
And people can just learn at their own pace. Just go along and find the things that are inspiring to them at that moment. And like you said, you can take a deep dive or you can stay just surface and-
Tara Ruth:
Choose your own adventure.
Kimberly Gallagher:
... so many options.
Tara Ruth:
As you were speaking, Kimberly, I was really feeling you were talking about the wonder and excitement and joy, and I could just even feel that as you were talking with passion and joy when it comes to the plants. And I'd love to hear more about what sparks your inspiration when you're dreaming up different projects. You've created Herb Fairies, like you said, and Wildcraft and Aphrodisiac, which are seemingly very different products too. So I'd just love to hear more about that.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah, I think these things come from what's happening in my life at the time and what I'm passionate about in that moment. When my kids were small, I was really interested in what are they interested in because my life was revolving around them. And of course, as an herbalist, then I always bring things back around to the plants because that's this constant in my life, my relationship with the plants, and how helpful they are. And as I'm playing board games with my young kids and we're playing Candyland and Chutes and Ladders and all these different games, and when my kids were little, I think we were just on that precipice of games that really teach about something. There was a garden game that we got for them, and I was like, "Oh, look at that. They can learn a little bit about gardening, and that's fun."
And John actually had the idea for creating a board game for kids that was an herbal board game where we were teaching about the plants. And he was like, "Kimberly, do you want to do this project?" And I was like, "Yeah, I definitely want to do that project," because I grew up loving playing games. That was one of the things in my family was we would have family game night every week, and we'd sit and play games together. And so yeah, gaming was part of my world. Not computer gaming so much, but more the board games and the card games and all that. Yeah, different times, and one of the things I noticed as my kids were playing board games was that I loved playing the game with them, but then at the end, someone would always be in tears because they lost playing the game. And so the new thing that was coming out at that time, too, was cooperative board games.
And I was like, yes, I'm going to make mine a cooperative board game because I don't like it when I don't want to play board games with them anymore because I don't want that crying thing at the end. So making something that was cooperative that actually taught about the plants, just what a fun project. So that was Wildcraft, and then as Haley got a little bit older, I started reading fairy books to her. And then John's sister was also reading fairy books to her little girls. And we had this idea, what if we made a series of fairy books, which the girls all seemed to love, and have them be teaching tools for the plants. So it came out of what I was doing with the kids along the way. And then with Aphrodisiac, similarly, I had gone on this journey of sexual empowerment for myself and realize, oh my gosh, this is a huge topic to tackle and to think about how the herbs could be supportive.
Because we live in this culture where there's just so much shame and repression around our sexuality, and yet this is such a tender, dear part of ourselves and such an important part of ourselves. And it felt to me like this really was at the root of who we are as beings, our beautiful love for each other and our sexual, sensual expression in the world. And so I thought, oh my gosh, if we could heal that place in us, that would change everything. So I felt that was sort of the most important work I could be doing in the world at that time, was helping to heal this core area where there was so much repression and shame, and took on that project.
And then Hay House offered this book opportunity, and John was like, "Hey, do you want to do your Aphrodisiac project as a book?" I was like, "Oh boy, okay. That's a whole nother level, but yes, I do." So I felt like someone had just handed me a microphone and said, "What do you want to say to the world?" And I was like, "This is what I want to say. I really think this is so key." So that's what brought me around to that project.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, I feel like looking at sexuality and shame, too, through the lens of the plants is such a beautiful way to welcome people in, too, who might feel intimidated by this topic. They're like, but I know about plants, or at least have curiosity about that. It's a really nice bridge for people welcoming them.
Kimberly Gallagher:
The plants are such gentle holders and healers and-
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, and it's interesting too, I think about these other projects you've created too, or products you've created, how this fairy book series and then the board game, these two things become bridges for connecting people with the plants too. Like, oh, play. I know what a board game is. I know about children's books. Yeah, it's beautiful.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah, I always love to bring people into the plants through play because I think that's how we learn the best through play and story, so that we have something that we can connect the new knowledge to that's enjoyable in our systems. So bringing people in through those kinds of methods and also through experience, so if they start reading Herb Fairies or they play a round of Wildcraft and they're like, "Oh my gosh, I know that plant. I'm going to go out and pick it." And then you've connected with the plant. So anything that can lead people to experience is really important, I think.
And when we designed the Herb Fairies learning system, we made recipes so that the kids would want to actually cook using the plants and bring them into their diets and into their bodies. So that experiential level. And then with Aphrodisiac, I also thought most people are interested in their sexuality, and this is a topic that we're all connected to in some way. And so this might be a place where people can start to get curious, what if I put some rose massage oil on myself? How does that feel sensually? And how does that awaken my body for a sensual experience, or, gosh, I'm so busy in my life trying to just make ends meet, and I don't even have time for my sexuality. What if you could take an herb that would help just slow you down and calm you down so that you could drop into intimacy, and what difference would that make in your life?
Tara Ruth:
I loved too in the book how you shared a lot of stories of folks who you were in circle with, and I thought that was such a brilliant idea as an entry point into the book, too, of connecting more with people in your community, and who had all sorts of different backgrounds, people were single, people were divorced, et cetera. And just hearing how they oriented to the herbs and their stories as well. It's really powerful.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Thank you. As I was starting to write that book and research for it, I was like, how would I research this book? Because I'm not so much... My mind is not so scientific research-oriented. I'm more experientially oriented, and I was like, I'd really like to connect with people who are using these plants and finding out how they work in their bodies. So had the book research, of course, that's an important aspect of making sure your information is valid and correct and all of those things, but also bringing in that more human and experiential level of research was a lot more fun for me but, also, I think super effective to help people see how it might relate to them in their lives.
Tara Ruth:
And also, we both know plants interact with people's bodies differently. So though you might read about valerian being really sedating and calming to the body in a book, you might actually experience it stimulating you more. Some people experience a stimulating effect from valerian, so it's great to bring in having that overarching write-up on an herb or monograph on an herb, but then bringing in these individual stories and seeing how these herbs interact with people on a one-to-one basis. Just like you're saying, it's all about relationship building with each plant, too. We're all going to have a different relationship with each plant.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah. It's so good to notice that how one herb, just this is my herb, this is what I need right now, and this is how it interacts with my body. And then someone might try that same remedy or that same concoction and be like, "Oh, I didn't feel anything." So I think there's something about it connecting with our bodies in a certain way, and then the timing, even that we're taking it sometimes, maybe Linden is not what my body's ready for right now, and I don't even like the taste of that herb. And so I always tell people, don't force that relationship if it's not tasting good to you. If it's not feeling good to put it in your body, it's probably not the time for you and that herb to be in relationship. Listen to those cues that you get from your body and from the plant, and find the ones that are like, oh my gosh, my Tulsi-Rose tea right now. Yes, I need that.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, need that warm hug. It's such a good point about not forcing it. I've had an interesting relationship with garlic on and off throughout, especially my adult life. For years, if I ate raw garlic, I'd immediately get a headache, but I was like, but garlic is really good for you. I should eat more of it. I should suffer through. And then I was actually assigned in herb school to do a project on garlic, and the person who I was paired with would also get headaches from garlic. So we both realized through working together that, oh, maybe especially raw garlic isn't our medicine and that's okay. And in recent years, I've actually been able to eat it just fine. So it really, like you're saying, it might just not be the right timing, or it could have even been that when I was eating it, maybe it was peak summer, and it's already super hot out, and my body is already a little overheated, and then I'm bringing in this warming herb. Maybe it's different when it's the wintertime and everything's a little cooler. So yeah, really listening.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Those energetic questions: do you tend to run hot or cold, and is the condition that you're trying to treat a hot or cold condition, and then which herbs are going to be most effective in that case, do you want to cool it down, or would it be good? Sometimes, a fever, it's good to have a diaphoretic that warms you up even more so that the fever breaks. Yeah, there's a lot of variables. And as you start to learn more, then you start to be able to choose the herbs that have the right energetics for you in that moment.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, it's so true. And energetics can be such a fun rabbit hole to go down, and can sometimes be confusing at first too. For folks who are confused about what we're talking about, we do have this great course on HerbMentor with Jim McDonald, where he's talking more about herbal energetics and just laying that foundational work, just so you can get, wait, what do they mean by heating or cooling or tense relax? Love that one. Kimberly, as we continue our Herb Mentor Radio together, I'd just love to know what makes you most excited about co-hosting this podcast together. I know I'm excited. I want to hear why you're excited.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Well, obviously, because I get to spend more time with you and Tara.
Tara Ruth:
Oh, what? Okay, next question.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yes, Tara and I have a lot of fun being on the radio together, so that is a fun part, but also meeting other herbalists. I always love to meet other people who are also plant nerds who are excited to be in their interactions with the plants. And each herbalist has their unique way of being with the plants and of bringing them into their lives. And they teach me things even after 20 plus years of working with the plants, all of the different ways that people think of to bring the plants into their lives. And so as I meet other herbalists and learn from them, then, I learn new things that I can do in my relationship with the plants. So it's like deepening my relationship with the plant world and also with the community of herbalists I've loved in the past when we've been able to go to herb conferences and we get to meet all these other herbalists, and it's, wow, they're good people.
They're just good, solid people. I really have not met an herbalist I don't like, and then of course, another thing that excites me about the podcast is that it's another way that we can bring this information out into the world for more people to be able to access it. And I think part of what LearningHerbs has always been is a bridge for people into the world of herbalism. This bridge was built out of mine, and John's passion for the plants and for the ways that they can help humanity and can help people, everyday people.
These are just these beings that grow right in our backyards that we can bring into our lives, and they can help heal us and nourish us. And I just love being a connection point for people to that world of possibility. So the podcast feels like another important aspect of bridging that place for people and allowing them to come into the huge world of herbal knowledge. I feel like there's always more questions in this world that you'd never arrive. Oh, now I know everything there is to know about the plants. So it's like this way of continuing to seek out new information.
Tara Ruth:
I feel like when I'm on the podcast, too, you mentioned this, but I feel like I get to be a student. I'm learning along with the listeners, too, from whoever's on the podcast. I'm often taking notes, oh, I want to make that recipe. Or, oh, he's talking about sunflower. I want to know more about that, whatever it may be. And I feel like so much of the work we do at LearningHerbs is really behind the scenes because so much goes into making a business run, all the different things behind the scenes. So it's really fun when you get to have more of the forward-facing parts of the job, too, where you're actually getting to connect with people, whether it's in the meetups we do or on the podcast, too. I'm like, oh, we've done all these things in the background so that we can share this with listeners, with viewers. Yeah, it feels like a really nice treat after doing all this other work, too.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yes, I agree with that too. For sure. For sure.
Tara Ruth:
I just mentioned the meetups, and we've mentioned them a few times, but I'd love to hear more your thoughts on how these classes shape the way you think about teaching herbs and connecting with people.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Yeah, this has been a new thing this year where we've been able to do these meetups on HerbMentor, and it's been really exciting to get on to the meetup live with our HerbMentor members and be able to talk about a particular topic. And some of the meetups that I've loved the most have been these herbal show and tells where we've asked our members to bring the things that they're working on and share with each other, oh, I'm making this echinacea tincture right now, or I am making pickled green beans, whatever it is that they're doing in their kitchens and with their plants.
And it's just so fun to see the creativity in the community and to be in this position of connecting herbal students with other herbal students so that they can be learning and sharing with each other. And one of the things that happens as Tara and I are on there talking about this particular topic is that people are sharing in the chat, and the chat becomes this really rich resource for people through the course of the meetup, where there's recipes posted and ideas and all these things are just being generated in the moment.
So there's just this sense of excitement around the meetup time. And when I'm doing those, I feel like it's really helping me stay connected to our membership and to what people are curious about and what they might be struggling with as they're trying to learn things. I remember one meetup where a woman just had her little camera and she took us out to her garden and she was showing us the plants, and she's this one right here, how do I pick this? We were able to help her just say, "Okay, yeah, that is that plant, and here's how you harvest it." And it was just so lovely for people to have that forum to ask us those questions, so that they're not stopped by, I don't know if this is really the plant that I think it is.
And yeah, I'm developing my relationship with our members, and that kind of helps me in general to understand people who are just beginning and what they might be curious about, what they might be struggling with. And that helps inform me about how I go about teaching as I develop new courses or as I share on this podcast, all of the ways that I'm putting myself out, then I can be informed by what's really happening in people's lives. So for me, it all comes back to this concept of relationship and building relationships with our members, with people, with the plant.
Tara Ruth:
It feels so good being on the meetups and just getting to see people's faces and watch everyone cheer each other on. It's not just our faces that are on there, like you're saying people are coming on sharing what they've been making or the questions they have, and it feels so collaborative, which I really appreciate.
Kimberly Gallagher:
So, definitely more of a meetup than a class, it's like we're meeting up as fellow herb lovers and students of herbalism.
Tara Ruth:
And for folks who do want to check out HerbMentor, if they haven't gone on yet, you can go to Herbmentorradio.com for a little discount if you're interested. So just want to put that out there. But we're going to wrap up soon, but I just wanted to ask you as well, Kimberly, as we look ahead, what dreams or hopes do you have for the herbal community and the future of LearningHerbs? We're in this really big moment right now where we've been thinking about where we are right now as a company and how we're going to move forward. So I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on that.
Kimberly Gallagher:
Thank you. It's such a big question. And of course, something I've really been grappling with over the last few months. How are we going to take this company forward? And it hasn't been a question for me of if I'm going to take this company forward, it feels important to me to continue and to continue the legacy that John and I started together, and to really continue his legacy. And John was such a driving force behind LearningHerbs. I was taking care of the kids and homeschooling them and doing these creative projects in the background, like making Wildcraft and Herb Fairies and Aphrodisiac, and he was out in the limelight and really thinking, how do we move this company forward? And doing a lot of the more background thinking of what this company is, what it stands for, who we are in the herbal world. And so as I look forward, I want to continue John's legacy of learning about herbs simple, making it affordable and accessible, and providing really quality information.
Over the years, we've always made sure that the information that we're putting out from LearningHerbs is solid, it's well researched, it's coming to you from knowledgeable people, so that you can trust it because there's so much information out on the internet, and you don't know where this information is coming from. When you Google something and AI gives you an answer, you're like, can I really trust this information? So LearningHerbs, we've always wanted it to be a place where people feel like, yes, this is information I can trust. And also the part of his legacy I think is whole plant medicine, looking at the plants as whole beings, not just taking extracted constituents in capsule form. Sometimes that's appropriate when you need a very large dose of something that would be hard to eat enough of. Think of turmeric. I can't get enough turmeric in my diet to really make the difference I want it to make.
But in general, we find that if you're interacting with the plant as a whole being, that's a much easier way for your body to assimilate it. We've been in relationship with the plants over centuries as human beings and co-evolved in this way that when we call on the plants in their whole form, that's the way that they most easily work with our bodies. Continuing to look ahead for HerbMentor, I'm hoping that it can become even more of a hub for herbal students all over the world. Anyone who's curious about learning about herbs, can we provide this kind of central place for students to connect with other students? If you're going to school with Jim McDonald or you're going to school with Rosemary Gladstar or any of these herbal teachers, that maybe HerbMentor can be a place where we all come together and we can interact with each other as herbal students.
And I'm thinking that this hub is going to be really a beautiful way to connect to people even more and to bring on some of these other herbalists to do some of the meetups, so that you can ask questions of a different herbal teacher because each herbal teacher does things a little bit differently. So how can we connect herbal students with a variety of teachers during the time that they're in herb school and beyond? So that's one of my big dreams is to have HerbMentor to become this really vibrant hub it's already, we have this vibrant forum where people are asking questions, and I just want to expand that even more so that all of the different students can access it, and also so that different herbal teachers can access it because this is a place that has been coming into being over 20 years. So we have this wealth of information from all different sources on there.
And I think if I was an herbal teacher and I went on to HerbMentor, I would be like, oh my gosh, here's this plant that I want to teach my students about, but it doesn't grow right here in our neighborhood, so I can't just take them on a plant walk, but here's a plant walk by one of these other herbalists. I can just have them watch this plant walk that Rosemary Gladstar did. And so that could be part of my curriculum as an herbal teacher. So, really weaving this cooperative spirit that has been part of LearningHerbs from the beginning into HerbMentor even more. I think when we first started LearningHerbs, we were the only herbalists online. They're just herbalists wanted to be out with the plants and out in the markets and interacting with people. And John has such a gift for computers and for all of the pieces of bringing herbal education onto computers.
And so we were able to do these courses, these video courses or audio courses with a herbalist, and then put them in this digital format and reach people all over the world with these courses. And so we were able to bring in this chunk of money. Here we go, Rosemary Gladstar has done this course, and then we had a big chunk of money that we could pay this herbalist for their work, and so it was such a win-win. It's always been a place of connection and cooperation. So, really bringing that in on new levels. Now, since COVID, all the herbalists have had to come online. They had to, because that was the only way they could get their message out for those COVID years. And so now we're all online and there's a sense like, okay, maybe we have to compete with each other now. We've got to compete for the online space of my voice, my voice, and I'm just so curious about how we can keep weaving that mycelial web and just keep lifting each other up, which has been such a gift with the blog.
We've always wanted to lift up a variety of herbal voices or doing courses with a variety of herbalists. And so I want to continue that cooperative weave within the herbal community and continue to lift people up while we are also supported so that we could keep Wildcraft on the shelves and all of those things. And the last thing I want to say is that, as John can't bring his voice anymore, he's here in the background. I don't know if you've noticed his picture back here, but he is here. I feel him continuing to hold us, but now it's my voice that's going to be the voice that's coming forward for LearningHerbs. Mine and Tara's will be woven in there, and so as I step forward, I've had to really think what is it that I bring to this weave of the herbal community?
And I have a friend who's also an herbalist, and she said, "Kimberly, I think we should teach this course together, and I want to call it A Feminine Way Into Herbalism." And I was like, "Whoa, yes. I am so down with that idea." And so we've started developing that course. So it's going to be probably called Rhythms and Relationships: A Feminine Way Into Herbalism, and we're hoping to be able to launch that course sometime next spring.
And so I just want to bring my voice as a mom, as a woman, into this herbal conversation and really help people to understand that we can dream with the plants, we can be in relationship with the plants, we can have them be part of our families, and that that's maybe my unique voice that I can bring into the herbal world. And so I'm going to put myself out there a little bit more, and I think that this is also part of continuing the legacy that John began because he's always wanted to lift up all of the voices. So now we get this opportunity to lift up my voice and Tara's voice and continue to lift as many herbalists up as we can with this platform that's a foundation that's 20 years old now.
Tara Ruth:
Yeah, 20 years. Wow. Kimberly, thank you for sharing. Hearing you talk about collaboration and cooperation makes me think about you talking about Wildcraft a little bit ago. These tenets have always been at the core of LearningHerbs from the beginning, and working together in community, and how we're stronger when we work together. When I was in herb school, I used HerbMentor a lot as a library, and it was such a helpful resource to have in my back pocket as I was on my learning journey. And I still use it. And now, when I teach classes too in person, I'm referencing HerbMentor as, okay, let me look at these monographs or whatever it may be. So it can be so helpful, and I know that our library is stronger when we bring in more voices, too, and bring in more people. So it's so great to get to have HerbMentor as this incredible resource that we all get to have access to, and thank you for all the work and creativity and dreaming that you've poured into it over these years.
Kimberly Gallagher:
It's been such a pleasure. It's been such a pleasure.
Tara Ruth:
Kimberly, usually I ask where people can find your work, but with you, it's actually very easy. They can find both of us at Learningherbs.com, and just thank you so much for being here today and for co-hosting the podcast with me. I'm really excited to get to do this with you.
Kimberly Gallagher:
I'm super excited too. Yeah. Thank you for this time together.
Tara Ruth:
Yes. And for folks who are listening or watching at home, remember you can stick around for an herb note. Welcome to Herb Notes. I'm Tara Ruth. Roses offer a bounty of healing gifts through their fragrant flowers and nutrient-dense fruits. Rose hips are chock full of vitamin C, making them an incredibly supportive herbal ally. Let's dive into three benefits of rose hips. One rose hips for arthritis. With their bioflavonoid-rich fruits, rose hips can help modulate inflammation. Studies show that regularly ingesting rose hips can help ease the pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Rose hips gifts shine in a tart decoction that can be enjoyed on its own or with a spoonful of honey. Two, rose hips for immune support. Did you know that freshly harvested rose hips have more vitamin C per weight than an orange? The fresher the rose hips, the stronger their vitamin C content is.
Working with fresh rose hips can allow you to support your immune system with their rich vitamin C content. Three, rose hip seed oil for skin care, the seeds of rose hips are commercially processed to create rose hip seed oil, which is an excellent facial serum. The oil contains vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E, which work together to promote tissue repair and collagen formation. Rose hip seed oil can also help reduce the of scars and blemishes, and here are just a few notes of caution when working with rose hips. First of all, avoid working with rose hips that have been sprayed with pesticide. Almost all florist roses have been sprayed. It's also important to properly process your rose hips. Rose hips contain seeds and hairs that can really irritate the digestive tract. Take care to remove all the seeds and hairs before ingesting your rose hip remedies.
Want to learn more about the benefits of other common herbs? Visit Herbnotes.cards to grab a free deck of our top 12 herb notes. You'll learn all about herbs like elderberry, chamomile, and more. This has been Herb Notes with me, Tara Ruth. Catch you next time. Herb Mentor Radio is a 100% sustainably wildcrafted podcast written, performed, and produced by me, Tara Ruth, with sound engineering by Rowan Gallagher. Visit Herbmentorradio.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and find out how you can be a part of HerbMentor, which is a website and community that you got to see to believe. Herb Mentor Radio is a production of Learningherbs.com LLC. Thank you so much for listening.
