Clinical herbal consultant, historian, writer, gardener, community organizer, and scavenger of shiny things. She.her.hers
I grew up on an eighty-acre farm in the Driftless bioregion. My parents grew vegetables, raised cattle, pigs, and rabbits for the market. They heated our home with one small wood stove and preserved food we stored in our root cellar for the winter. My siblings and I were raised on homegrown food and home remedies, as has traditionally been the practice amongst the rural poor.
When I talk about things passed down in my family, I sometimes forget to mention that both my maternal great-grandmothers were born in the 1800’s. My Grandma Sadie was born between 1862 and 1867 and my Grandma Ralston was born in 1887. Grandma Sadie dabbled in community care as a way of supporting her thirteen children after she lost her husband to the flu pandemic in 1919 and Grandma Ralston was a midwife in her community.
So, that is my direct line to how domestic medicine was practiced in the 19th century. My grandmother was twelve years old and helped her mother care for her siblings and father during the 1918-19 pandemic. If I sometimes seem old-fashioned, I came by it honestly.
I attended Goddard College in Plainfield Vermont graduating in 2014. My HAS focus was herbal therapeutics, and my academic focus was history/anthropology. My cultural studies focus was Gaelic medicine in honor of my family.
I have a reasonable reputation as an herbal consultant. I am an associate academy educator with The Herbal Academy, and I have presented at conferences around the country including The AHG Symposium. I have written for many herbal publications, including being the staff historian for Natural Herbal Living magazine for several years, I wrote history articles for the Herbal Academy’s Herbarium.
I pursue my interest in history by writing and volunteering with various transcription projects including the Szathmary Manuscript Collection, the Meitheal Dúchas digitization project and most recently the Early modern recipe books on From the Page which is a collaboration between the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Wellcome Library. 2022 was my second Transcribathon.
Experience
Associate Academy Educator – Herbal Academy
(2016 – present)
Contributed several units to their Advanced Herbal Program including the Advanced Formulation unit and the Herbarium.
Herbal Consultant & Educator – Naturally Simple Living
(2004 – 2022)
In addition to teaching herbal therapeutics locally, I offer personalized consultations. I have trained and run with a group of street medics through our local mutual aid collective. I believe healthcare includes access to integrative medicine and should be free.
Staff Writer – Natural Herbal Living Magazine
(2014-2020)
Primarily served as the history staff writer who occasionally wrote monographs.
Event Manager & Teacher – Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference
(2011-2017)
Presented at the conference in addition to helping organizers manage the event and work-trade volunteers. If you walked through the registration line during those years or visited the vending hall, I have undoubtedly chatted with you.
Domestic Medicine 