Urban Herbology

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Urban Herbology

Online & In-person Herbology Course - Urban Foraging - Herbs - City Nature For around 20 years, I have been working with herbs. My own mentor is Glennie Kindred.

Join me for fascinating herb walks in Amsterdam, mentoring sessions, workshops or a year long apprenticeship through online study and gatherings. I have studied herbalism (non-clinical) in the UK, also with American wise woman Susun Weed, studied Permaculture with Patrick Whitefield and gained my PDC from Permaculture Visions. I am a member of the Dutch Gilde van Wildplukkers. I strongly favour an

d recommend nourishing/tonic and perennial herbs above others and recommend that you seek expert advice before trying to treat any problem with herbs. I only harvest what I am absolutely certain of and advise anyone else trying it to do the same. Let me empower you to work deeply with the plants which grow around you.

01/08/2025

Lughnasadh Blessings! A few pics from the first Green City Witch Walk yesterday. Had such fun and met amazing people like who also share this love of urban nature. Perfect to start and end at too.

The next Witch Walk is on the 31st of August - there are some spaces left of you'd like to join. I'm leading a walk, each time slightly different, each month till October 31st, then I'll plan monthly Green City Witch Workshop through the winter, so we can be indoors-outdoors depending on the weather. I'm thinking eco-friendly grimoire making from scratch, for one. Would that interest you? I love making books and filling them with intention even before the first stroke of ink.. if so DM me or keep an eye on announcements.

May Lughnasadh energy see you to reap what you have sown and nurtured - and I hope to see you soon ✨️💚✨️

Thank you for the best of these photos :)

💚

26/07/2025

Fully Booked - July 31st Green City Witch Walk - but there are spaces for August onwards! I'm very excited to run these, a chance to introduce you to some of the enchanting plants and places in the centre of Amsterdam. Open to anyone interested in green city magic. Learn which witch-friendly plants are growing on our doorsteps in towns and cities. To book for August 31st, September 30th, or October 31st (starting and ending at Black Moon Botanica, Spiegelgracht 30) at 2pm each time, contact me directly or see links on bio. 30 euro pp.

21/07/2025

Another great gardening session at Huize Frankendael today. Didn't rain either! Took a little break from the stijltuin for five minutes after coffee time, as these weeds kept catching my eye. They are now residing on a compost wall.

18/07/2025

Just a couple of spots left on my Mediamatic workshop this Sunday afternoon. Booking is through their ticket system. Hope to see you there!

City Foraging for Mental Health

16/07/2025

Ever made mead? I recommend it as a simple and enjoyable way to connect with local plants. Today, a small group of my wonderful Urban Herbology students gathered at my volkstuin - mead making was the main task. We harvested and prepared the plants that stood out to us from my wild garden. Meadowsweet, Geranium, Mirabelle plum, and Yellow deadnettle were the main contenders. Maybe you spot others in the pot, too.

We smothered them in organic honey and will return to the glass pot in about a month for the next step. How fluid will it be? What colour and scent will have developed? Will we need to drive in more wild yeast, or will those captured by the Meadowsweet have done the business already? Maybe you'd like to join us to find out? See the link in bio for info about the course. Maybe it's something for you or a friend, now or in the future - to help integrate urban nature into your life.

So, ever made mead? Ever tasted it? I like mine mature, not too alcoholic, and I like to sip it (lasts for years that way). But most of all, I like to make it - the anticipation of what's forming is such fun!

06/07/2025

Time to dispose of some just Out Of Date stock and replace with fresh supplies. But what to do with these beauties? They are all officially too old but each one remains precious and potent. They've been stored carefully in a dark and dry place, but their time in my medical herbalist apothecary is up. I can't (and don't want to) use them in medicinal herbal teas and tinctures for my clients, but such a waste to just throw them away.

Maybe it's time to move them to my ritual herbs department? Maybe they're destined to become part of a simple incense blend? Maybe to activate the compost heap?

There are so many uses for herbs, magical, medicinal, cosmetic, practical.. That's one reason that I became a corporate member and then volunteer Trustee for Maybe joining them is something for you too (and they've got a Weleda bag of goodies for the first 100 new members in July... just saying!) They promote the or and learning of herbs from all angles - not just the herbalist angle. Because !

So, what would you do with these gorgeous silverhaired herbs?
Calamus root
Gentian root
Mistletoe leaf
Comfrey leaf
Bitter Orange peel

26/06/2025

The honeybees have been whispering to me again. So time to fill my hive with a generous gift from a friend who keeps a few hives. I've got a different sort of hive to his, so it took a bit of adapting, but I've got high hopes for this Split. It contains a couple of well built out frames, a few empty ones with guide sheets, and a frame which we hope contains some eggs or larvae that the workers will turn into a queen. In a few weeks we'll know if it worked. In the meantime these amazing creatures will be whizzing around the Linden blossom in town.

I used to be quite vocal about the need for less honey bees in Amsterdam. Very vocal in fact. Then they started to talk to me in my sleep, then also when I was awake! I couldn't ignore it, so I asked for a beekeeping course for my 50th birthday present from my De G. I adored the course, got myself a Warre hive (what I considered the most bee-friendly whilst practical option). I read and learned all I could about these incredible million-faceted organisms (especially love Thomas D. Seeley's books btw) then promptly became super-sensitive to bee stings (I blame it on Covid) so I had to pause my plan.

That was three years ago. The time is now ripe to pick it up again. I hope the bees you see here will like the Split that we just set up, so that I can move them into my Warre hive in about a month's time.

21/06/2025

Midsummer Blessings one and all! May the Sun's power charge you fully, and encourage all that's good. Store it up - like a battery - let it sustain you through the months ahead. Drink it up until the golden light of peak summer radiates from each pore in your skin, illuminating what surrounds you, showing what's truly there - what's truly just and good. Let's it shine bright on what's not also so that we can take steps to change and improve.

A few photos from today and yesterday. Visited a gorgeous park in Amstelveen yesterday. I'm brewing plans to leaf a small group Biophilia & Shape-shifting adventure there soon. If that appeals watch out for details or let me know.

Some St John's Wort was growing there - pristine! But even more special to my eyes, this morning found a plant growing next to a city road as I cycled to my garden.

Last photo - Nettle beer update. I'll bottle it tomorrow but had a little taster this morning, and it's quite a pleasure on the tongue! Nettle, Ground ivy, Cleavers, and a few other Midsummer beauties in that blend. I'll bottle it tomorrow morning..

15/06/2025

Come for a Lavender biscuit, stay for the Bindweed..

We’re back in the garden tomorrow - at the Stijltuin, just behind Restaurant Merkelbach / Huize Frankendael in Amsterdam Oost.

I’ve made a batch of biscuits for the tea break – spelt flour, brown sugar, coconut oil, and a good handful of fresh lavender flowers (about 12 flowerheads), ground up and stirred into the dough. Rolled out and cut into big flower shapes, thanks to a Christmas cracker gift from years ago. They turned out well.

If you would like to get involved, it’s a good time to stop by. Drop in when you can, anytime between 9 30 and 13.30. No experience needed – just a bit of curiosity and a willingness to pull weeds. I saw someone today, walking through the garden with his granddaughter, quietly pulling bindweed from the borders. Clearly, someone who knows plants. I wish I’d said something – made me think I should carry a few business cards to hand out to people like that.

What do you think?
Would a simple card or flyer help get more people involved?

14/06/2025

From the earliest records we have - on worn parchment, crumbling bark, or stone - healing has rarely walked alone. It came wrapped in words, in symbols, in prayers. In spells. In charms whispered over leaves, or smoke curling from bundled roots. Our ancestors, whether in medieval Europe or the Mayan highlands, didn’t separate magic from medicine. Herbalism and witchcraft walked hand in hand.

And for many of us, they still do.

Open an old leech book or a grimoire - what do you find? Recipes for healing that are part herb lore, part incantation. The work of the body and the work of the spirit, were once inseparable. But in the West, somewhere along the way, a split was forced between these once-united practices. And now, those of us who bring them back together often walk a strange, uneasy line.

To read the rest of this post - including a page about the magic and medicine of Hollyhock, from The Green City Witch book, please visit my Substack. It's free! Just don't click to pay or donate if prompted :) Link in bio or try lynnshore.substack.com

09/06/2025

Chicken of the (Urban) Woods - This is a very rare - but tasty - find for me in Amsterdam. An especially rare to find this mushroom, in good shape, within my reaching distance, and in a quiet side street, and at a quiet time, and where I could get close enough to the tree without upsetting ground plants, and with no one looking out of a window. But last night, coming home from an awesome and intimate concert (bansuri maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia no less), the stars were clearly aligned. So I took a chance and carefully snapped a couple of pieces off, ending up with Chicken of the Woods mushroom on my plate today. I did a classic not listening my intuition because I was over excited by the find - I went back for more - and of course was then spotted in the act by a couple of tourists. They just looked mildly amused (and inebriated).

If you scroll through the photos - although I just want to watch the video - what a colour it turns too - you might notice that this heavenly mushroom is growing on a living Willow here; Quite an old one, but a good-looking, walloping sort of a Willow. This isn't the preferred host of Chicken of the Woods, but it is a known host.

Anyway, happy times and happy bellies - a highlight of the urban foraging calendar, for me at least.

I would love to know what gets you excited when you find it growing in the streets...
tree mushrooms

04/06/2025

Stijltuin Gardening has begun! This Monday, three fabulous gardeners joined .mamamagick and I to get the gardens into shape. The weather turned out great, and we certainly made an impact. The gardens are big, and the plants don't stop growing, so join us any Monday to help. Next week is a Bank Holiday, so the session will be shorter (9.30 till 12.00). Usually we'll be there 9.30 till 13.30. Find us behind Huize Frankendael. DM if you'd like more info.

Stijltuin Gardening is begonnen! Afgelopen maandag hebben drie fantastische tuiniers .mamamagick en mij geholpen om de tuinen op orde te krijgen. Het weer was fantastisch en we hebben zeker een verschil gemaakt. De tuinen zijn groot en de planten groeien onophoudelijk, dus kom gerust op maandag langs om te helpen. Volgende week is het een vrije dag, dus de sessie is korter (9.30 tot 12.00 uur). Normaal gesproken zijn we er van 9.30 tot 13.30 uur. Je vindt ons achter Huize Frankendael. Stuur een DM voor meer informatie.

Address

Watergraafsmeer

1098

Telephone

+31627596930

Website

http://www.urban-herbology.org/

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Our Story

Join me for fascinating herb walks in Amsterdam and my apprenticeship course through online study and gatherings. For around 20 years, I have been working with herbs. I have studied herbalism (non-clinical) in the UK, also with American wise woman Susun W**d, studied Permaculture with Patrick Whitefield and gained my PDC from Permaculture Visions. My own mentor is Glennie Kindred. I strongly favour and recommend nourishing/tonic and perennial herbs above others and recommend that you seek expert advice before trying to treat any problem with herbs. I only harvest what I am absolutely certain of and advise anyone else trying it to do the same. Let me empower you to work deeply with the plants which grow around you.