Black Cat Botanics

10/13/2025

HEAR YE! Black Cat Botanics will be having a blast at Moth Market in Springfield this upcoming Saturday, the 18th of October. Ready for something a bit spookier? Come for a visit!

10/11/2025

Hey Mountain Home, I Got What You Need! What exactly is that? Good thing you asked!🫵👇💜

☝️Newly restocked Joint + Muscle Balms + Herbal Lotion Bars!
☝️Fresh and fierce new essential oil blends!
☝️BRAND NEW ELDERBERRY TINCTURE: dual-extracted magic, shelf-stable low-dose full-spectrum immune tonic! Get it before flu season sets in!
☝️Newly restocked BOTTLE O' BLISS! Come Find out why this painkiller/sedative is our top seller! We have both small and large bottles available 😍

10/11/2025

Happy World Mental Health Day! Let's talk about it.

I feel like there's a LOT of stigma surrounding this subject here in the herb-o-sphere. We’ve built this weird idea that natural treatments and lifestyle choices can cure us all — that if you need outside help, you're doing something wrong.

But that's bu****it. Mental illness doesn't care how clean your diet is or how spiritual your morning routine looks. We can and do develop symptoms, even if we meditate 14 hours a day and snort fat lines of ashwagandha every night.

And it has to be okay to admit that.

Focusing on natural remedies is great for a lot of people, a lot of the time. Plants can truly help us heal, and lifestyle choices like diet and exercise are absolutely vital to our emotional equilibrium.

But that DOESN'T mean that plant medicine is the end-all, be-all of treatments. The truth is, sometimes we need both. Tinctures and talk therapy. Plants and prescription medication. Science and soul.

If you have to do it all alone — no meds, no doctors, no help beyond the plants and your own daily habits? That’s not balance. That’s isolation wrapped in aesthetics.

Being a human in this messy world is hard. Let's not make it harder by imposing barriers to necessary treatments. Let's recognize when we're sinking and reach for every tool available, no matter what. That's not weakness. It's wisdom.

So if your nervous system is fried, your thoughts are racing, or the dark’s been a little too heavy lately — tell somebody. Take your tincture, but make that appointment. And encourage your friends to do the same, cause you never know who else is struggling along with you.

I encourage you guys to engage with me on this. Do you agree, disagree, think I'm a blasphemer? 👇 Drop your favorite mental-health helpers below — whether it’s a tincture, a trail, or a prescription that saved your damn life.

Let’s talk about what actually keeps us grounded. 💚

10/10/2025

🌿✨ LAST CALL, Y'ALL! ✨🌿

This is my final week at the Mountain Home Farmers Market for the year — so if you’ve been saying “I’ll swing by next week”... welp, this is next week 😏

💸 Got a gift card? Now’s your moment to spend it before I disappear into the smoking ether until Craft Fest in November.

Come snag your favorite tinctures, balms, essential oil scents & witchy goodies, and wander the market for the season’s last round of tomatoes, peppers, and all that late-harvest glory 🍅🌶️

See you Saturday!🖤🐾

10/08/2025

👹Attention freaks + geeks! Y'all do NOT want to miss this horrifically terrific event by Market going on at the Springfield E-PLEX on October 18th.

There will be FUN. There will be MUSIC. There will be laughs, screams, and living of dreams (and nightmares) with more wonderful weirdos you could possibly dream up.

Stop by my booth for free stickers, free smells, and a whole new realm of herbal possibilities. See you there!

10/07/2025

⚠️ Controversial topics ahead. We’re talking ghost pipe. 👻

Monotropa uniflora is a plant I usually avoid discussing. I've had my own experiences, but I’ve stayed quiet so far because anecdotal evidence does not equal fact.

However, new research out of Penn State finally gave me enough solid ground to wade in. 🧪

This post covers the ongoing drama that keeps ghost pipe trending and sheds some light on what we actually know vs what we certainly do not. It also discusses how to use this plant, should you decide to.

I’m here to talk. So tell me what you think: Have you used ghost pipe? Heard stories? Got questions? 👇 Drop comments below — let’s make this a real convo, not another plant fight.

10/06/2025

🌿 BREAKING NEWS: Ghost Pipe Finally Gets Studied! 👻

For the first time in over a century, researchers have actually taken ghost pipe (Monotropa uniflora) into the lab — and the results are wild.

Penn State scientists found promising analgesic (pain-relieving) activity in animal models, and they’re now mapping its chemical makeup with advanced mass spectrometry.

💀 Spoiler: still no confirmed grayanotoxins, but plenty of mystery molecules.

Translation? Ghost pipe might not just be forest folklore after all — but it’s still delicate, rare, and wildly under-researched.

👇 Read the abstract in the comments and don't forget to get BIG MAD that the full shebang is behind a paywall.

10/05/2025

Hey Mountain Home - the Food Bank needs you!

Want to increase your karma points with some good ol' fashioned volunteer work? Perhaps the court has ORDERED you to increase your karma points with some good ol' fashioned volunteer work! Perhaps you just want to hang out and have fun with a bunch of awesome people!

No matter your reason, you too, can be the bearer of a radiant smile like I have here - by getting down and dirty with some veggies!

As the season winds down, work in the garden keeps on going. We need help watering, fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting the last of the vegetables. We also just need more amazing, cool, and fun people to spend the morning amongst the cabbages.

The food bank accepts volunteers in the garden, especially Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. So, what are you waiting for? We ride at dawn! Or later, if you prefer!

10/04/2025

Black Cat Botanics will be set up at the Mountain Home Farmers Market tomorrow from 7 AM to noon!

We've got all your faves back in stock (I'm thinking of you, lotion bar ladies) plus some sweet new stuff we can't wait to show off.

Visit me for tinctures, teas, aromatherapy, perfumes, hair and beard care, to talk about the weather, or to show me pictures of your pets.

If you have a gift card from my store, come and spend it! You have tomorrow and next Saturday to shop my full collection, and then I'll be hitting the road to travel to some fun winter markets out of town. So act now!

09/30/2025

This is going to be AWESOME! Y'all come out :)

By haunted hymn and hag’s refrain,
By ghostly lore and southern pain,
The cards arise, both dark and sweet—
Where shadow and magnolia meet. 🌙

Hags, Haunts and Hair-Raising Tales. Sunday, Nov 16 @ 1PM
Plus, join Stacey for a Gallery Reading on Saturday, Nov 15 @ 2PM!

Come hear how a west Tennessee witch took tales of Ozark and Appalachian lore and spun them into oracle decks that have captured the world’s imagination. Descended from Ozark practitioners, farmers, and cowgirls, Stacey has always been fascinated by the Southern Gothic genre. Most of all, as an artist, she has wondered at how story-telling and song have served the very important purpose of healing from unspeakable violence and trauma.

In this presentation Stacey will share her own journey of creating some hair-raising oracle cards inspired by Southern culture and folklore. Her cards, some of which get very dark with monsters and sinister preachers, co-exist alongside dreamy images of magnolias and sassafras tea. Her greatest observation since making these decks might just be how relatable the legends of the American South have been to people outside the diaspora. It seems people everywhere need models for how to transmute pain into joy, through stories and song.

Stacey will show some of her favorite painted scenes from over 250 cards, and share the lore behind them. Attendees will be invited to consider how the cards can serve as ancestral messages from beyond the veil, or as learning material, or just as amusing novelties. These cards make the esoteric personal, and come to life in the hands of their owners.

✨ This workshop and the Gallery reading are FREE with Enchanted! admission—your invitation to a weekend of mystical learning, shopping, and community connection.

🎟️ Learn more and claim your spot at conway.enchantedmysticmarket.com

La Panthère Studio

09/28/2025

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Hallowmoon Market.

We need more fun, weird events like this here in Mountain Home because I need more excuses to don roadkill-centric head gear and bring Theodore The Happy Skeleton out to play. He gets depressed if left too long in the basement.

So much love was found on Saturday and I am beyond grateful to my community.

09/27/2025

There is no sight more beautiful than a bunch of your BEAUTIFUL faces stopped by to explore my booth.
Thanks, yall. It was truly a magical time in Mountain Home 🥰