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The Crafty Herbalist

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The Crafty Herbalist

Medical Herbalist, Teacher & Founder of The Crafty Herbalist Academy. Welcome to the Crafty Herbalist Academy! Join us on a journey to holistic wellbeing.

Sharing accredited herbal learning, foraging guidance & community support - online & in person - based in Chesham, UK - All welcome ☺️💕 Founded by Kristine, a university-trained medical herbalist and mother, we empower women to explore the world of herbal medicine and natural health. Discover affordable and enriching community learning, deeply rooted in ancestral wisdom. Our approach is friendly, approachable, and designed for all ages.

29/10/2025

Spring feels like a lifetime ago now we’re heading deeply into autumn, but I still remember filming this, jars on the table, herbs steeping in sunlight, and that feeling that everything was starting to grow again.

The Crafty Herbalist Academy has grown too, an online space where people learn to use herbs in real life, through the seasons, with confidence and lots of laughter ☺️

I’ll be teaching locally again in 2026, alongside the Academy, so if you’d like to hear when new classes start, make sure you’re on my mailing list - you can sign up via my website.

I’m also about to send a special email to those on the Academy waiting list, so if you’re on it, keep an eye on your inbox ☺️💕

28/10/2025

Magnolias are full of surprises. Once the showy spring blossoms fall, they form these strange pink pods that twist and swell through autumn. They’re not galls or fungi, but follicles – the magnolia’s true fruit. As they ripen, the pods split open to release bright red arils, each holding a single seed 💕☺️

It’s a glimpse of ancient plant design. Magnolias evolved before bees, so their tough flowers were once pollinated by beetles, and their vivid seeds are carried away by birds. Even now, the bark and flowers are studied for compounds like honokiol and magnolol – known for their calming, anti-inflammatory effects.

What looks bizarre is simply a glimpse of deep botanical history, unfolding right on your doorstep 🥰

27/10/2025

As the days grow colder, don’t cut out the fats - bring them back in.

Good fats nourish our nervous system, joints, skin, and hormones. They help us feel grounded when the air and energy around us become dry and restless.

Think avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, oily fish, and even a little butter.

Autumn isn’t a time for restriction – it’s a time for nourishment 🥰

26/10/2025

Ever wondered why autumn can leave you tired, dry-skinned, or a little low in mood? 😏

In humoral herbal medicine, autumn is the cold-dry season – ruled by the melancholic temperament.

It’s not just the trees that change; our bodies do too!

This is the time to bring back warmth, moisture, and balance. To swap salads for soups, reach for roots and oils, and choose herbs that comfort and ground: marshmallow, ginger, hawthorn, chamomile. To rest. To let go of what no longer serves us…

Herbal medicine was never just about plants, it’s also about patterns, and about the people we support. When we move with the season instead of against it, balance returns naturally.

Inside The Crafty Herbalist Academy, we explore these seasonal shifts in depth, learning how to tend to body, mind and spirit through the old wisdom of the elements - and a hefty dose of science and practical learning too☺️💕

👉 Join the waiting list at www.craftyherbalistacademy.com

23/10/2025

You’ve been walking on medicine your whole life, probably crushing it underfoot without realising!

Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) is one of those plants that appears wherever people go, cracks in pavements, paths, gardens, playgrounds. In old English it was called waybread, the traveller’s herb, said to follow human footsteps to heal the wounds we left behind. Soldiers once packed it into cuts and blisters. Mothers chewed the leaves and pressed them onto stings. Children rubbed them on nettle burns.

It’s easy to overlook, yet its chemistry is extraordinary: allantoin helps repair damaged tissue, aucubin fights infection, and mucilage soothes irritation in both skin and gut. Modern studies back it up, plantain reduces inflammation, speeds healing and even calms coughs and allergic reactions.

Next time you’re stung or bitten, crush a fresh leaf, add a bit of water, and hold it to the skin. Within minutes you’ll feel it pulling the sting out. Dry the leaves for teas, or make a balm to keep in your herbal first aid kit.

It’s medicine that asks nothing of you, only that you notice it.

🌿 Learn to recognise and use the wild plants growing all around you.

Join the waiting list for The Crafty Herbalist Academy: www.craftyherbalistacademy.com

19/10/2025

They once said her silver drops could turn metal into gold, but women found she could turn weakness into strength 💕

Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) is one of the powerhouses of women’s medicine. Cooling, astringent, and gently bitter, she tones and strengthens the uterus, steadies cycles, and helps ease heavy or irregular bleeding.

After childbirth or miscarriage, she supports the healing of stretched tissues and helps draw the womb back into balance. In Europe, midwives relied on her as a restorative ally, a herb that gathers what’s been scattered.

Her astringency also makes her useful for wounds, ulcers, and inflamed gums. A cooled infusion or diluted tincture can be used as a gentle wash or mouth rinse to help tighten and soothe.

Internally, she cools hot, damp conditions, for those times when the body feels loose, leaky, or depleted. The leaves are rich in tannins and flavonoids, lending her both strength and grace.

Traditionally, a tea is used: Infusion: 1 tsp dried leaf per cup, steep 15 mins, drink up to 3 times daily. Avoid during pregnancy due to uterine-toning effects.

Lady’s mantle doesn’t shout or sparkle; she restores. She gathers. She protects. The kind of alchemy we still need, the transformation of exhaustion back into strength, and of loss into renewal - I guess you could say she’s one of my favourite herbs 🥰

16/10/2025

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is so easy to overlook, yet one of the most generous healers we have. You’ll find her sprawling through the cracks of garden paths, among lettuces, or along hedgerows, always where there’s a little shade and moisture ☺️

For centuries, she’s been the go-to herb for cooling heat – both literal and emotional. Old herbals speak of her soothing the “fiery humours,” easing rashes, itchiness, inflamed eyes, and even tempers. Modern herbalists still use her in ointments and teas to calm eczema, bites, burns, and irritation.

She’s rich in minerals, gentle enough for children, and refreshingly honest in her medicine - simple and effective. You can even eat her fresh: a handful of tender tops tossed into salad or blended into pesto gives a burst of green vitality. It’s also pretty amazing on tomatoes 😉

And here’s something sweet - chickweed’s tiny white star-flowers close before rain and open when the sun returns. It’s as if she feels the pulse of the weather, reminding us to stay attuned to nature’s rhythms too 😏

I guess this is a little reminder that the weeds at our feet are not our enemies - they’re our teachers.

Follow me for more folklore, medicine, and the wonderful wisdom of our wild medicinal plants 💕

13/10/2025

Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) - that striking, golden shelf fungus you sometimes spot growing on oak or beech. It’s one of the few wild mushrooms that genuinely earns its nickname, thanks to its firm, meaty texture when cooked ☺️

When young and tender, it can make a delicious seasonal food – though the flavour itself is more mild and savoury than “chickeny.” Beyond the kitchen, it’s being studied for its antimicrobial and immune-supportive compounds, reminding us how food and medicine have always overlapped in nature.

A few notes of care: always cook it thoroughly, harvest only from hardwood trees (never yew, eucalyptus or conifers), and try a small portion first – some people are sensitive to it. Older, tougher brackets are best left for the beetles 💕

Nature offers plenty to eat and learn from, but she also asks us to move slowly, pay attention, and give thanks for every lesson she serves up from the forest floor😉

12/10/2025

Lately, I’ve found myself lying awake at night, thinking about the world my children are growing up in. A world where voices aren’t always real, where even art and writing can be created by something without a heartbeat. I suppose what I feel is a fear, perhaps not so much of the technology itself, but of what might be lost in its glare…

I look at my young children and wonder: will they still know what real connection feels like? Will they know how to listen to the land, to notice the scent of rain, or the tiny curl of a fern uncurling in spring? Will they understand that wisdom doesn’t come from speed, but from paying attention?

As a herbalist, I guess I’ve built my life around the opposite of artificial. Around touch, scent, seasons, and the patience of working with plants. Perhaps that’s why all of this unsettles me so deeply, the idea that the natural rhythm of things could be replaced by something instant, polished, and so detached from reality 🙁

But when fear creeps in, I remind myself: our children don’t need a perfect world. They need an anchored one. They need parents, teachers, and elders who keep the thread of the old knowledge alive – who remind them how to listen, how to make, how to notice.

So I keep teaching mine those small things. How to crush lemon balm between their fingers and smell the sun-drenched roses in the hedgerow. How to tell nettle from deadnettle. How to feel at home in the real world, the one with muddy walks, genuine friends, laughter and bees.

Because no matter how advanced technology becomes, it will never hold a child’s hand on a forest path, or sit under a hawthorn tree with you, or heal with a pot of tea made from herbs they picked themselves 😏

That’s where I’m placing my hope – in the living, breathing world, and in the next generation learning to care for it. I hope you will join me in doing your bit to protect our children too 🥰💕

11/10/2025

Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) - a tree that quite literally breathes life into the air 🥰

Step close and you’ll catch that clean, sharp scent once used to freshen Victorian hospital wards and ward off infection.

Its power lies in 1,8-cineole, a compound that opens the lungs, clears the head, and cuts through congestion like a deep, cooling breath.

A drop or two of the essential oil in hot water makes a simple steam inhalation for adults, perfect for those heavy, chesty days - but it’s far too strong for babies and young children. Avoid using essential oil directly on skin or near little noses. Instead, crush a fallen leaf between your fingers and breathe it in.

That cool, camphor scent? It’s nature’s vapour rub, straight from the branch 💕

10/10/2025

Have you noticed it too?
Every hawthorn this year is bursting – branches heavy, hedges blazing red.

It’s what we call a mast year, when trees fruit together in great waves of abundance. Some say it’s their natural rhythm – others believe it’s a stress response to changing weather and uncertain seasons.

Whatever the cause, it’s impossible not to feel it. The air alive with birds, the land rich with medicine.

Hawthorn has always been a healer of hearts – physical, emotional, ancestral. This year, she seems to be reminding us what endurance looks like.

Address

Chesham

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 2pm
Tuesday	10am - 3pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

+447821774286

Website

http://www.thecraftyherbalist.org.uk/, http://craftyherbalistacademy.com/

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Our Story

I grew up in rural Flanders and from a young age I was taught about botany, wildflowers and traditional herbal medicine by the women in my family. Every autumn I would collect elderberries with my grandmother, and elderberry syrup was a firm favourite every winter! This heritage led me to investigate the benefits of herbal medicine at university level in the UK and I have enjoyed this return to my ancestral roots. I obtained an honours degree in Herbal Medicine from the University of Westminster in 2008 and am a fully insured member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH). Western Herbal medicine uses the therapeutic properties contained within plant seeds, berries, roots, bark, leaves and flowers for medicinal purposes. Selected herbs are used to treat a variety of ailments and disease as well as to promote vitality, healing and balance within the body. I believe it is important to treat the person as a whole rather than the symptoms, so herbal treatment plans are always highly individual. My approach draws on traditional herbal practice, informed by current scientific research and incorporating an energetic perspective. I enjoy the versatility of herbs, which enables me to approach each person individually and with a sensitivity to their particular needs.