Midwest Medicinal Plants

Preface: Growing an Herbalist I first turned to the plants for guidance at the age of 30. Although I’d always been a plant person, I’d been working against nature’s cycles and against my own. I was worn out, tired from the cultural stress that I was carrying from running an NGO, being a mom to two small kids, and being a good wife. A gardener, I was even too tired to plant seeds in the springtime or clear away the winter’s debris. “Maybe you shouldn’t clear away the debris or plant anything this year,” a wise farmer friend told me. “Maybe you should just listen to the plants and see what they have to say.” This was the beginning of my practice as an herbalist. I sat down and began to listen to the plants. I let my garden go fallow and watched the land take over in the way that it knows how to do. My interests in gardening slowly transformed into working nearly entirely with wild plants. I noticed the weeds growing between the cultivated plants and between the cracks in the sidewalk. I wondered about their resilience and their potential healing powers. I learned their names and how they tasted, smelled, and felt in my fingers. Burdock called to me from the ditches of my friend’s farm. Burdock would become the first plant I’d work with as an herbal medicine. And my apothecary grew, as did a need for my teachings in my community. I was called to be a teacher in 2010 by my own teacher, Jim McDonald. “Lisa Rose, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck,” said Jim. “You work with wild plants. You make plant medicines. You share them with others. You, in fact, are an herbalist.” From that point forward, I opened my gardens and apothecary to my community. Jim and others sent clients my way for my practice. I was scared that I didn’t know enough. But instead of being stuck in that rut, I stepped forward to teach what I knew. Since that time, I’ve never really looked back. And with an insatiable curiosity, I’ve never stopped being a student of the plants. You will find that this book is filled with nuggets of learning that I’ve acquired across a delicious and healing journey with the plants. It’s what I know. Ten years from now, I hope to know more, layered upon this foundation. In your herbal journey, I encourage you to start with what you know. Go outside and listen to the plants. Touch, taste, smell, and repeat. Get to know the plants on an intimate level. And share this love with everyone you know. You are an herbalist, and the earth needs you.