The Crafty Herbalist

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.

15/03/2026

Cowslips are one of those plants that look almost too delicate to carry much weight - but historically they did.

In Flemish we call them sleutelbloemen - “key flowers”. The name appears across Europe in slightly different forms, and it hints at something people long believed: that this plant held the keys to spring, or heaven, or to hidden places, and sometimes even to the fairy world. In old stories they were said to mark places where the boundary between worlds was thin. Some traditions even warned that picking too many could disturb the fair folk.

Beyond the folklore, cowslip (Primula veris) has a long place in European herbal practice. The flowers were used in teas, syrups, and even spring wines. Herbalists valued them as a gentle relaxing remedy for restlessness and headaches, and also for their expectorant action in catarrh and lingering coughs.

It’s a lovely example of how plants often carry several layers at once - beauty, story, and practical medicine.😉

A small note of care though. Some people develop skin irritation from Primula species, so it’s always wise to handle and test cautiously. And wild cowslips have declined in many places due to habitat loss, so they’re a plant to admire and harvest respectfully if you’re fortunate enough to find them growing well 💕















I know a lot of people come to herbal medicine with a real hunger for it, but also with a slightly overwhelmed feeling.T...
12/03/2026

I know a lot of people come to herbal medicine with a real hunger for it, but also with a slightly overwhelmed feeling.

There is so much out there. So many books, courses, reels, recipes and opinions. It is easy to end up with a cupboard of herbs and still feel unsure where to begin, or how to bring it all together in a way that actually makes sense.

That was one of the reasons I created The Crafty Herbalist Academy.

I wanted it to feel like a proper place to learn. A place with depth, structure, encouragement, and room to grow at your own pace. Somewhere people could study herbal medicine in a way that is practical, rich, and rooted in real understanding.

So this kind of feedback from a student means so much, because it reflects what I have tried very hard to build over the years.

The Academy doors will be reopening very soon, so if you have been thinking about joining us, keep an eye out. We will be welcoming new students shortly 🥰

www.craftyherbalistacademy.com

Today is International Women’s Day 🥰This morning I put the kettle on and made myself a mug of lemon balm tea before the ...
08/03/2026

Today is International Women’s Day 🥰

This morning I put the kettle on and made myself a mug of lemon balm tea before the house properly woke up. And it struck me again how much of herbal medicine has always lived in moments like that.

Not in institutions but around kitchen tables. A woman making chamomile for someone who can’t sleep.
Raspberry leaf shared between mothers.
A jar of something soothing appearing when a cough won’t leave.

So much plant knowledge travelled this way. Hand to hand. Kitchen to kitchen. Often without ever being written down.

I was reading recently about the tea houses that appeared across Britain in the late 1800s. Places like the A.B.C. tea rooms and later the Lyons tea houses became some of the first public spaces where women could sit together unaccompanied without raising eyebrows.

It sounds small now, but at the time it mattered so much.

Women gathered there to talk, to read, to organise. Suffrage meetings were held over teapots and cups. Conversations that shifted the course of things often started in places exactly like that.

Tea gave women a reason to gather.

And in its own way herbal medicine has always done the same.

For generations, women held much of this knowledge - midwives, mothers, healers, the ones who knew what plant to reach for when someone was ill. As medicine became more formalised, women were largely pushed out of those official spaces. But the knowledge itself never disappeared.

It stayed where it had always lived.

In gardens.
In kitchens.
In notebooks and cupboards.
In cups of tea shared between women.

Most of the women who kept that knowledge alive will never appear in history books.

But they were there.

And today feels like a good day to remember them - and the many women still carrying this work forward 💕

Oh, and shall we bring those tea houses back? I’m up for it 😏💪

03/03/2026

Coltsfoot is one of those plants that makes you stop mid-stride 😏

Bright yellow, pushing up through cold soil, hedgebanks and roadside verges when almost nothing else is brave enough to flower. And the strange thing is this - the flowers come first. No leaves. No green solar panels soaking up sunlight. Just scaled stems and golden heads.

Botanically, it’s a clever strategy. Coltsfoot stores energy in its rhizomes the year before, then spends it early in spring to get ahead of the competition. It feeds early pollinators when nectar is scarce. Later - once flowering is done - the large, hoof-shaped leaves unfurl and start the slow work of replenishing those underground reserves.

Its Latin name, Tussilago farfara, tells you how long we’ve valued it. “Tussis” means cough. For centuries it was used for stubborn, irritating chest complaints - rich in mucilage to soothe, gently expectorant, softening to dry, tight lungs. In Victorian times the dried leaves were even smoked for asthma.

But here’s the part that matters.

Coltsfoot naturally contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These compounds can be hepatotoxic with repeated or excessive internal use. That’s why it’s restricted in many countries and why modern herbalists approach it with caution, sourcing carefully or choosing PA-free preparations where appropriate.

This is what real herbalism looks like.
Beauty and discernment.
Tradition and toxicology in the same breath.💕💕

Early spring medicine - but not casual medicine!

02/03/2026

If you care about bees, you should know this plant 🥰

The red flowering currant - Ribes sanguineum - is just beginning to open here... The first pendulous clusters are loosening, deep pink against fresh green leaves 🍀

This timing matters. In early spring, honey bee colonies are rebuilding. The queen has started laying again. Brood needs feeding. That means pollen for protein and nectar for carbohydrate. After winter, stores are low and forage options are limited. A few warm days can trigger activity long before the landscape feels abundant to us.

Flowering currant bridges that gap. It’s not native - I found out that it was introduced from western North America in the 19th century - but it has settled into our towns and gardens as one of the earliest reliable nectar sources. It flowers before most hedgerow species are properly underway. Before hawthorn. Before the main flush of blossom everyone photographs 😉

Phenology - the timing of biological events - is everything here. A shrub that opens even two weeks earlier can make a measurable difference to early-season foraging success. Early nectar flow supports brood development. Stronger brood means stronger colonies heading into late spring.

We talk a lot about planting for pollinators. This is one of the plants already doing the job beautifully 🌸💜

And yes - I also use the flowers. A simple infusion in water with lemon peel and a little sugar pulls out that delicate, green-fruity flavour and blush-pink colour. It’s subtle, fresh, slightly resinous. Very early spring. Nectar for bees. Lemonade for us. Take only a little of what you need 🙏

Have you noticed it opening near you yet?

Nine years ago, at my 20 week scan, the sonographer went very quiet.My baby’s heart was beating far too fast. A sustaine...
01/03/2026

Nine years ago, at my 20 week scan, the sonographer went very quiet.

My baby’s heart was beating far too fast. A sustained foetal tachyarrhythmia that, untreated, would not have supported her.

Within hours we were in hospital. I was prescribed digoxin.

Digoxin is derived from foxglove - Digitalis purpurea. The tall woodland plant with freckled purple bells. Beautiful. And toxic…

In the 1700s, William Withering documented its effects on the heart and laid the foundations for modern cardiac medicine. What he discovered was this - the dose that heals sits very close to the dose that harms.

That narrow therapeutic window is exactly why medical herbalists no longer use foxglove. It requires precise standardisation, monitoring, and blood tests. It is not a kitchen herb. It is not for home use.

But it is still a plant 💜

The medicine crossed the placenta. Through my bloodstream into hers. And slowly, her tiny racing heart steadied.

She was born healthy on Valentine’s Day.

Refined, measured, and used appropriately, foxglove saved my daughter’s life.💕

I never walk past those purple spires at the edge of the woods without feeling humbled, and immensely grateful 🍃

24/02/2026

The common daisy, Bellis perennis, has been walked over for centuries – and gathered just as long 😏

In European folk tradition it was linked to children, innocence and protection. The name bellis is thought to come from bellum - war - because it was used on the battlefield for wounds and bruises. It was laid into poultices for “black and blue” injuries and stitched skin. In some places it was known as bruisewort.

And that old use isn’t just romantic folklore 💕

Modern analysis shows Bellis perennis contains saponins, tannins and flavonoids. These constituents contribute to its mild anti-inflammatory, astringent and tissue-toning actions. Traditionally it has been used externally for bruising, sprains, muscular soreness and deeper soft tissue trauma - and I feel much prefer it to arnica (not local and toxic).

Energetically, I find it slightly cooling and gently drying. It helps where blood has pooled and tissue feels heavy and tender after impact.

Tiny flower. Strong medicine. Still growing in the grass here 🥰💕

24/02/2026

Helleborus orientalis blooms in early spring, a flower of beauty and mystery. In folk tradition, it was planted at thresholds for protection and used cautiously by ancient herbalists to ‘purge’ melancholy. Its chemistry is potent - cardiac glycosides make all parts toxic, so admire but never ingest, it is highly poisonous. A plant of stories, not snacks, as I would say to my children 😏💕

21/02/2026

POISONOUS - NOT FOR HOME USE! ☠️

Snowdrops are so easy to overlook. Delicate, small, gone before you’ve really noticed them. But stop for a moment and look properly 🥰

Galanthus nivalis. She contains galantamine, an alkaloid that crosses the blood-brain barrier and is now used in conventional medicine for Alzheimer’s disease 💜

That’s not a small thing. That’s a tiny February flower sitting at the edge of a woodland path, holding something remarkable…

This is why I keep saying: learn the plants in your landscape. Not just their names. Their chemistry, their folklore, their timing, the fact that they appear exactly when the nervous system is most depleted from a long winter and the liver is ready to start moving again 😏

Plants don’t show up randomly. There’s always a conversation happening, if you know how to listen. Go find your snowdrops this week - but remember, not for home use as they are poisonous! The galantamine used in medicine is extracted and purified, not something we can replicate at home. Beautiful to look at, best left where she is! 💕

Also - Galantamine was first isolated from snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis). However, because snowdrops are small and relatively scarce, commercial extraction of galantamine for pharmaceutical use shifted to daffodil species (particularly Narcissus) and is now largely synthetic. So snowdrop gets the credit for the discovery, daffodil does more of the heavy lifting for production 😏💕

14/02/2026

Saffron comes from a crocus, but not the ones you see in parks in late winter.
It comes from the Crocus sativus, which flowers in autumn 💜

Each flower produces just three fine red stigmas. Those are carefully picked by hand, then dried. It takes thousands of flowers to produce a small amount of saffron, which is why it’s so precious and quite expensive.

What I find fascinating is the scale of it - something so tiny, so easily missed, ending up with such a long history of use for mood, vitality and wellbeing. Herbal medicine is full of that kind of interesting disproportion. Small plant parts, carefully gathered, with effects far bigger than you’d ever expect 🥰💕










13/02/2026

Hazel doesn’t wait for spring. While everything still looks bare and half asleep, hazel is already hard at work 😉

Those long, pale catkins are the male flowers - generous with pollen, moving with the wind, impossible to miss.

But the real magic is easy to overlook.
The female flower is so tiny. Just a few deep red threads peeping from a bud on a bare twig. You’d easily miss it unless you slow down and look out for it 💕

Hazel teaches us something about timing. About reproduction, resilience, and doing what needs doing long before anyone is knows what’s going on. Some people harvest them for tea, I just love observing them on my walks 🥰










12/02/2026

We had so much fun at Amersham Museum last night - discussing the rather strange history of Valentine’s Day and herbal remedies for heart health 💕

A big thank you to all attendees and to Amersham Museum for hosting me - did you know that the museum regularly host events AND they have the most amazing medicinal garden 😍🍀

I also shared some information about the fantastic work done by The Herb Society - do consider joining them for only £40 a year - the perfect Valentine gift perhaps! 😏💕

Make sure you are on my mailing list to be informed of future herbal events ☺️

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Chesham

Opening Hours

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

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+447821774286

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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.