Mountain Herbalism

https://meetthegreen.thinkific.com/courses/herbal-support-for-pre-and-post-surgery

We just posted the dates for the 2026 botany program!

This 3-month field trip series consists of weekly all-day field classes where we will travel to the different Rocky Mountain ecosystems within driving distance of Denver. The material learned in the field will be supported by online evening classes via zoom, where we can cover herbal topics more suited to a lecture & discussion environment.

Graduates of our program will have the skills to identify, locate, harvest and process medicinal and edible plants of the Rocky Mountains.

We keep classes small and use a collaborative teaching model, and will have 2 teachers on every field trip. No previous experience in herbalism or botany is required.

If you think you may be interested in joining us, the first step is to check out the website and fill out the application: link in bio!

I got to see my first clear bear sign during a camping trip near Rabbit Ears Pass! Note the claw marks clearly and recently etched into the thin aspen bark.

We’re celebrating Hanukah tonight, and I wanted to take the opportunity to uplift some Palestine fundraisers that I’ve heard good things about (I’m also donating).

I’ll be assisting with this (free!) street medic training this weekend! Please come learn basic first aid skills for upcoming activist events!

Mountain Herbalism Spring Botany Program Starting Soon! -

Mountain Herbalism Spring Botany Program Starting Soon! There are still spaces in our Spring Botany and Summer Harvesting Classes! This program is designed to give students an immersive, practical education into herbal medicine of the Rocky Mountain Region. Classes include plant identification, local ecology, sustainable harvesting techniques, medicine m...

Did you know that Palestinians are criminalized for wildcrafting their traditional indigenous foods? The foraging of wild herbs such as za’atar (Majorana syriaca) has been banned by Israel since 1977, as well as akkoub (Gundelia tournerfortii) since 2005.

Slide 1. Akkoub harvesting, Matti Milstein, Adalah Justice Project.
Slides 2-4. Stills from the film Foragers, Jumana Manna, 2022.

Super excited to dive into the *just published* book by Lebanese ethnobotanist Layla Feghali, and want to encourage like minded folks to order a copy!

In September I did my first harvest of Valeriana officinalis from my garden! Originally got this baby Valerian from

Here we are processing Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa) with the botany students August 2023. Applications are now open for the 2024 botany program! If you’re interested, please fill out an online application at mountain herbalism dot com (link in bio).

Some of you may know that I have a deep love of our low-dose herbs, like poke root here which is a drop dosage lymph mover and immune stimulant.  Low-dose simply means that more skill is required to utilize the herb as a medicine without getting poisonous side effects.  As with so many of our low-dose herbs, common effects of taking too much include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea to remove the offending plant before too much is absorbed.  As always, I want to advocate for skilled and intentional use of our low-dose plants so that the knowledge stays in practice and gets passed on - so much herbal knowledge has already been lost or suppressed.  I saw this poke root (Phytolacca americana) during a visit to Massachusetts this fall.  Lisa Ganora says that the beautiful purple/fuchsia color a group of chemicals called betalean alkaloids (also found in beets!), which is a relatively uncommon pigment in the plant world - most reds are anthocyanins (think tomatoes or cranberries.)