Blog Roll Spotlight: Yuba Botanicals

Each month I highlight a blog post from one of the blogs on the Complete Herbal Blog Roll that I find particularly delightful. 


This month's Spotlight comes from a relatively new blogger. I recently found out about Holly's blog and although she only has a handful of posts I love every one of them. 


Her post on Juniper Smoked Hemlock Cheese is a shining example of modern wild food cuisine. What impresses me the most is her enthusiasm for hands on experimentation. She learns a new wild plant from a friend and then promptly begins using that plant in a creative way. 


This blog post isn't filled with "so and so says", but instead is a fresh and contemporary reflection of her personal experience using wild and local foods. I appreciate her ability to break from the mold which is something I hope to cultivate more in my own herbal meanderings. 


For the Blog Roll Spotlight I generally only highlight one post in a blog (which leaves me more posts to highlight in the future!), but you also have to see her recipe for Hair Mud as well. I am looking forward to trying that myself. 


I hope you all enjoy Yuba Botanicals as much as I do! 

Blog Roll Spotlight: Mustard Plaster at Farm at Coventry

This month's Blog Roll Spotlight focuses on a beautifully photographed and informative essay on making a mustard plaster. A mustard plaster is often recommend for lung congestion and respiratory illness, but I have never before seen such a detailed DIY explanation. 


What I loved about this blog post is that in incorporates so many wonderful aspects of herbalism. Hands on experience, learning from an elder, practical, cheap and most of all, effective. 


You can visit her beautiful blog and see the entire original article here. 

Farm at Coventry blog is written by Susan Hess, who is a therapeutic herbalist, herbal teacher and herbal medicine maker. 

Susan has many wonderful articles on her blog - brew up a cup of tea and stay awhile. 

Herbal Blogroll Spotlight: Herb Geek and the Herbalist's Path

If you are a regular reader of my blog then I apologize for saying this for the thousandth time, but WOW! I have had such a fun time putting together the "complete" herbal blogroll. I've learned about so many wonderful blogs and heard from herbalists all over the world! 


Don't know what I am talking about? Check out my attempt at putting together a complete herbal blog list. 



All this is pretty amazing considering that herbalism was all but dead in North America as little as four decades ago. Now we are able to share an incredible amount of information in so many different ways. 


One comment I've heard over and over again from those using the herbal blogroll as a resource is that there are sooo many great blogs, but how do they make time for it? One idea I've come up with is to highlight a blogpost 1-2 times a month. (Here's another blog organizing tip.)


I hope to highlight a variety of different blogs on a variety of different topics from monographs, to herbal theory to DIY herbal medicine. 


Why blogs? 
One reason I love reading blogs so much is the contemporary nature of a blog. The collection of herbal blogs today represent an interesting anthropological view of herbalism in the early 21st century. This can include not only HOW we are using herbs but also issues within herbalism. 


Herbal Blog Spotlight
In that vein I've chosen to highlight a blog post about the herbalist's path from the Herb Geek Blog. This blogpost discusses a topic I hear more and more frequently in the herbal world. Many people are answering their herbal passion and then wondering, how does this become both my passion and my way of making a living? What is the path of the herbalist? 


Herb Geek author, Mélanie Pulla offer us her thoughts on the herbalist's path in this blog post. 

Where ever you go, the path is beneath

 your feet