I was living in Portland, Oregon when I encountered my first medicinal herb farm. Their CSA season was just about to start. Without a clue as to what I would do with all the herbs I would receive as member of this program, I leaped toward it without thinking twice.
I soon found myself plagued with intimidation each month as the farmers handed over a new bundle of fragrant herbs. I had no formal training in making herbal remedies and had never before considered myself an herbalist.
The herbs quickly became a mirror into my own conditioning, inviting me in to identify self limiting biases long-held deep in my psyche. Why hadn’t I believed I was skilled enough to work with herbs?
My studio apartment quickly became a processing center. I tied drying lines across the ceiling, built drying racks, made frequent stops to the hardware store & cluttered the cabinets with all sorts of infusions.
My body began to remember things I couldn’t intellectualize. There was herbal knowledge inside of me I wasn’t aware I already had. To have such a somatic experience unfold during the height of covid was medicinal in its own right; to consider myself intelligent & capable enough to take care of my own body was to slash up against the same territories being aggressively claimed and sanctioned by 'experts' & governing bodies.
An invigorating sense of power emerged from within, reinforcing a trust in self that the climate at that time was doing everything in its power to claw out of me. Guiding others down this path of resilience and sovereignty is the lifeblood of Matriarch Medicinals.