Eramosa Herbals

22/02/2022

I'm collaborating with a dear herbalist friend to share this online course on growing, harvesting, and making herbal medicine. Join is for an in-depth discussion of 10 easy and versatile medicinal herbs, medicine making techniques and more.

Early bird pricing ends at midnight!

Learn how to grow ten medicinal plants for your herbal apothecary!

10/12/2021

I pulled gallons of fresh plant medicines out of the gardens this summer and I'm delighted to offer them in the Winter Solstice Community Supported Herbalism share. Stock your home apothecary with tinctures, syrups and infused oils & vinegars from my small herb farm to you.

https://www.eramosaherbals.com/shop-csh/p/wintershare

Customize your share with your choice from 20+ fresh herbal remedies, including seasonal offerings like elderberry syrup, evergreen cordial, reishi elixir and conifer resin balm, plus many formulas and single-plant extracts to nourish body and spirit this winter.

24/08/2021

⚡️Elderberry season PSA: berries are for the birds first.

Late summer berries are an essential food source for migrating birds like wood thrushes, orioles, warblers and many more who feast on the fruits of elder, viburnums and cherries to prepare for their journeys. Most of the berries on this peduncle have already been claimed by autumn migrants or by overwintering birds like cedar waxwings and goldfinches.

Good foraging starts with knowing the land. Most plant books written in the last few decades cite the "10 percent rule" of ethical wildcrafting -- harvest no more than 10% of of what you find. But with increased pressure on wild plant communities from trends like wild foods and foraging plus habitat loss, that 10% can have a significantly different impact than it did twenty or even two years ago.

Observing plant stands year after year allows us to wildcraft knowledgeably and respectfully. As you build a relationship with plants and place, you'll notice that some plants have a big blooming & fruiting year; the next year, maybe not so much. I harvest a few pounds of elderberries each year, rotating through different stands of plants in different locations. I choose to harvest from stands with many healthy plants that are laden with blue-black berries. In the absence of these, I'll pick elsewhere, or even forgo elderberries in favour of other easy to cultivate plants with documented immune-supporting properties, like echinacea (E. purpurea and E. angustifolia) or spilanthes (Acmella oleracea).

Please harvest mindfully and leave plenty for the birds 🐤

30/07/2021

✨ First black cohosh blooms ✨

I was given this plant in 2018 by Julia . I wasn’t sure how it would manage outside of the rich deciduous forest habitat it prefers (along with its slow-growing, at-risk or endangered relative in the buttercup family, goldenseal).

I tucked the plant in a patch of elecampane in the old garden, hoping their height and broad leaves would help offer some cool and shade. The cohosh was so sheltered that it often took me by surprise when I came across it, still there, always a little taller and leafier each year. I screamed a little scream when I saw that it had finally sent out a tall spike of flower buds this spring. What a treat to see it flowering here for the first time.

Black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) is one of many traditional indigenous medicines whose value has been validated by western science and populations harmed by the resulting interest. It’s an honor to have it grace my garden.

27/07/2021

Oh hey!👋 I started a herb farm and it’s super cute!

What was recently a fallow field is now home to 40+ species of medicinal herbs and wildflowers, a native shrub hedge, a shelter and water catchment setup, and one scraggly little linden tree I bought for $30 at Canadian Tire 😆

No joke, taking on a project of this scale has been daunting, humbling and so deeply satisfying. I’ve been *trying* to work at a pace that reflects my intention for this space to flourish over the long haul as a not just an apothecary but a nursery, seed bank, and food forest. This looks like building the soil, observing the weather and microclimates, and planting medicines mostly in dense, diverse polycultures of plants that are mutually supportive. What a gift this work is 🌱 💚

For being in just their first year, the gardens are lush and productive in ways that are hard for my lil iPhone to capture! I’m excited to share more and give y’all a virtual or in person tour sometime soon xo

20/04/2021

🌱🌿🌼 Community Supported Herbalism shares now available It's my 8th year growing herbs + crafting medicine, and 2nd year offering seasonal CSH shares. Starting a small farm this year means living my wildest dreams of having space to grow *all the plants* and I'm really excited to be able to share them with community in this way.

Each CSH share is crafted to be seasonally relevant, deeply nourishing to body and spirit and balance of utility and beauty*. Essentially, things I myself would reach for on the regular. This year, there's also lots of room to customize your share with your choice of a wide variety of single-plant extracts I'll have available as the growing season progresses (including faves like skullcap, milky oats, passionflower, chamomile, tulsi, wood betony, yarrow and many more).

You can sign up for the whole year or purchase a single season at a time. Sliding scale is always available for low-income q***r, trans, disabled and BIPOC folks. All info, including pricing, shipping dates + details on each season's offering, is available here: https://www.eramosaherbals.com/community-shared-herbalism

This year, I'm really excited to redistribute 10% of proceeds from CSH shares to school's BIPOC scholarship fund. is a rad herb school by and for racialized folks. They are also my farm neighbours!

Spring share featuring nettle, violet, poplar & dandelion ships this week heart. Thanks for supporting this work I love.

04/04/2021

I’m pleased to share that I’m here to help you get started growing your own medicine!

🌱 Starting plants from seed, making them a home in the soil and harvesting them is some of the best, most joyful work I can think of. After 9 (!) years of trial and error growing medicine for community, I’m pleased to share my knowledge with others who want to, too.

🌿 1 hour medicine garden consultations are intended for everyone who wants to invest in food and medicine security: balcony and backyard gardeners, herbalists and other practitioners, or farmers who want to add medicinal plants to their growing plans. We’ll work together to choose plants and and design a garden to meet your needs, whether you’re growing your fave tea blend, herbal first aid kit, whatever you need, wherever you’re at.

🌸 Consults cover seeding, planting, tending and harvesting the best herbs for your needs, space, soil and climate, and tips for processing your herbs into gorgeous remedies.

Visit www.eramosaherbals.com to book. As always, sliding scale is available for low-income, q***r and bipoc plant lovers. Get in touch

09/03/2021

pleased to share the return of BIOREGIONAL FLOWER ESSENCE CLUB with a friend who’s really dear to me, Anemone canadensis.

Want to engage in a botanical experiment with me?

🌼 Flower Essence Club is an inquiry into connecting with native flora in a low-impact, non-extractive way. It is meant to be accessible, informal and fun: I make an essence of a local wildflower, you take it for a few weeks and report your observations with the option of sharing them with other participants.

🌼 Flower essences are energetic, vibrational remedies that work on our spiritual & subtle bodies, not on our physical bodies the way that teas or tinctures do. They're made by infusing a small handful of peak blooms in water on a clear sunny day, then bottling that water and preserving it with some alcohol or vinegar. The result is a subtle but powerful remedy, taken in drop doses, that exists decidedly and unapologetically in the realm of the etheric, esoteric and woo-woo. Because essences work on an energetic level, a very small amount of plant material can be used to create a whole lot of medicine, making them accessible and affordable.

🌼 How it works: You'll take the essence for several weeks and report your noticings back to the group, allowing us to gather information on specific plants and explore our relationships with them. If this mode of botanical/magical inquiry is your jam, send me a DM and/or sign up for my newsletter (link in bio). I'll pass on some botanical info about Anemone and ideas about working with essences. You'll cover the cost of materials and shipping. For local folks, that's $3; for folks elsewhere, it's $20 flat rate for the essence and shipping.

Looking forward to building relationship with this plant with you!

***rherbalism @ Eramosa River

14/12/2020

ROSE MEDICINE 🌹 I recently had the honour of creating remedies for care packages distributed to folks experiencing gender-based violence. Rose medicine, especially my beloved Rosa multiflora, featured heavily and I want to take a minute to uplift this beloved invasive species.

In the spiritual-emotional body, Rose opens and nourishes the heart and softens and cools anger, grief and other heavy or stuck emotions. Rose inspires connection to self and others. It's medicine for caretakers, and that includes caretaking our selves. Sharp thorns and soft petals remind us that tenderness and ferocity are not mutually exclusive, but complementary.

Rosa multiflora blossoms are astonishingly fragrant and prolific and collecting them along the Etobicoke creek in Brampton and in my own front yard was one of my favourite plant workings this summer. One of R. multiflora's names is "seven sisters rose" because there are often seven blossoms on a panicle (the stem-like structure that bears the flowers). Brought to turtle island as an ornamental and as a hedge plant, when untended it forms dense thickets that no doubt offer shelter to cottontails, skunks, raccoons and other small mammal friends. I tend this plant by aggressively pruning back the new growth in spring and by making sure I harvest all the tiny hips before the birds disperse them. The hips are sweeter than other rose species,

I have two gorgeous rose potions available in the apothecary:

Rose Nectar - Opens the heart and spirit to pleasure and joy. Brandy, wild rose petals (Rosa spp.), damiana (Turnera diffusa leaf and flower), cardamom and raw honey with essences of wild rose, hawthorn and rose quartz.

Heart Tender Oxymel - A love note to self-care, boundaries and open hearts. Fresh strawberry, rose petals, hawthorn blossoms in organic apple cider vinegar, with essences of red garnet, bleeding heart, hawthorn and rose quartz. Sweet, tart, and alcohol free.

28/11/2020

Winter Solstice Community Supported Herbalism shares are now available! Build your herbal knowledge and stock your home apothecary with remedies to support digestion, mood, immunity and more.

I grew an abundance of medicine this summer and would love to share some with you. Each CSH box contains a 4 oz Elderberry Elixir and Forest Cordial, plus your choice of additional remedies all crafted from the highest quality homegrown herbs. Follow the link to learn more.

10% of proceeds from Solstice CSH shares will be redistributed to .

Homegrown herbal remedies delivered to your doorstep throughout the growing season! Community Supported Herbalism shares are an opportunity to...

27/11/2020

🌚 HERBS FOR REST ✨ Everyone out there resisting, surviving, building and tending a vision of a just and livable world, I see you and value you. We were made for this work. And our bodies are meant to rest. Plants can help.

One of the ways that herbs support our nervous system is by shifting our nervous system response from fight or flight to rest & restore. Here are some my faves that I grow.

🌿 scullcap & her vibrant, delicate flowers; mounds of plant material from the gardens. This is my favourite nervous system tonic for bringing the mind-body back into balance. Gently relaxing in low doses, moderately sedating in higher doses and deeply restorative to the nervous system as a whole, this is by far the herb I dispense the most for chronic anxiety, mild pain management, and sleep support.

🌼 this summer I picked German chamomile by the basketful a couple times a week. An often underrated powerhouse plant, chamomile is easy to grow in abundance and indicated where anxiety and tension occur alongside digestive upset. I use this in digestive bitters, for menstrual cramps and so much more

🧡 California poppy (root and leaf pictured): more potently sedative + analgesic (pain relieving) than the above. I use the flower, leaf and root for a full-spectrum preparation that holds properties of the entire plant.

Not pictured are valerian, passionflower, betony, rose, lavender... if any of these plants sound supportive to you, I have an abundance of tincture and dried herb to share at sliding scale and at-cost/no-cost to low income folks. Get in touch ✨

24/07/2020

Every July, it seems I'm treated to a new (to me) species of impressive pollinator visiting the bee balm (Monarda fistulosa). Last year, it was an eastern swallowtail butterfly. This year: the beautiful clearwing hummingbird moth.

12/05/2020

I'm VERY EXCITED to be offering Community Supported Herbalism shares this growing season! Growing herbs is the heart of what I do, and CSH shares are an opportunity to partake in fresh, high-quality, seasonal medicine crafted with with the knowledge and skill of my 8 years of growing and making herbal medicines. Sign up to receive a share of homegrown herbal remedies every 6 weeks from June - September 2020.

You can join me for the whole season, or opt in
One share (June 21st) - $75
Two shares (June 21st and August 2nd) - $150
Three shares (June 21st, August 2nd and September 21st) - $225

What you get:
Value: Each share contains 4-5 generous portions of seasonally relevant herbal medicine. Shares are carefully curated to provide remedies you will reach for on a regular basis, will include teas, tinctures, salves, and other preparations
A labour of love: each remedy is crafted from premium quality herbs ecologically grown in healthy soil and harvested for peak potency
Knowledge sharing: each share includes a beautiful e-book with detailed info about each remedy, plus plant monographs, recipes and more
An investment in your wellness: support your health and stock your home medicine cabinet with local, small-batch herbal medicine from the earth

You can purchase your share through the shop link below, OR, if you’re local to the Guelph, Cambridge and Kitchener-Waterloo area, you can sign up by sending a message and receive free delivery

01/04/2020

If you're one of the many folks leaning into kitchen medicines and plant allies in uncertain times, I've got your back. Here is your spring menu of small batch medicines made with homegrown and ethically-sourced botanicals. Stay tuned for medicinal herb and native plant seedlings available later in the month!

IMMUNE SUPPORT

Elderberry & Astragalus Oxymel (alcohol free): elderberries, elderflowers, astragalus root, rosehips, fresh ginger and cinnamon, apple cider vinegar and honey. 4oz $15-20; 8oz $20-30.

Elderberry Elixir: elderberries, elderflowers, rosehips and spices in brandy and honey. 4 oz $15-25.

Fire Cider: organic apple cider vinegar, fresh ginger juice, garlic, horseradish, cayenne pepper, yarrow. With or without honey. 4oz $10-15; 8oz $15-25.

FORMULAS
Easy drifting: Scullcap, lemon balm, california poppy, grain alcohol. 2oz $15-30.

Chamomile Citrus Bitters: dandelion and burdock root, chamomile, orange peel, ginger and honey in grain alcohol. 2 oz $15-25.

Spring Tonic Oxymel (alcohol-free): stinging nettle, dandelion root and burdock roots, pine needle, apple cider vinegar, local honey. 4oz $10-20; 8oz $18-25.

TINCTURES
Homegrown fresh herbs tinctured in grain alcohol. 1oz $15-25.
Valerian root
Rose petal
Motherwort
Damiana
Tulsi (Holy Basil)

TEA HERBS
Oatstraw, nettle, mullein leaf, elderflower, St. John's wort, marshmallow leaf and root, dandelion root, burdock root, chamomile, hyssop, rose petal and yarrow. Get in touch for a custom blend.

Delivery or pick-up in Guelph; contact me for shipping to other locations. If cost is an issue, or if you have any questions about supporting your wellness with herbs, please get in touch!

19/08/2019

We met staghorn sumac on yesterday's Learn the Land walk. What better way to learn more about sumac than this video, from the Onkwanónhkwa (Our Medicines) series with hosts Ranikonhriio Lazare & Katsenhaiénton Lazare? Check out and share their amazing work