When I first started studying herbalism on my quest to be an herbalist, I never saw how I would be able to connect it to the practice of permaculture. Permaculture wasn’t even in my mind then, nor was regenerative growing. I started studying around 2017 to learn more about the herbs I used in my body care product business. The years when I started creating tonics, salves, soaps, healing essential oil blends, and so much more. I wanted education to support my actions so I would not harm.
I wrote this book about the recipes I was using then.
But the growing aspect wasn’t quite there, as we had a tiny urban homestead.
Then, I got so busy building a rural homestead I left behind my herbalism studies and put all my effort into growing food first. That wasn’t a bad thing; it was just a season in my life. The Covid years changed what I was doing. I was so busy homeschooling the boys and growing food/plants that my herbal business slowly went to the back of my life, and I quit selling at farmer’s markets (and adding in how restrictive the rules were at the local farmers market in the pandemic years).
But this year, as I fought the dreaded 6-year homesteading year (it’s a real thing when burnout hits), I realized I missed learning. It was time to go back to my education. Take my interest in permaculture and the desire to rebuild our homestead into more of a permanent food forest where herb plants get a chance to shine.
With time on hand during the hot parts of the day this Summer, I have started retaking herbalist training, starting with the Herbal Academy’s Becoming An Herbalist Mini Course, free to take. Always start small, and get that excitement and drive back. Come this Fall, I have more classes lined up to take. I want to take that knowledge this winter and start my new permaculture-inspired growth. (I reviewed the course a while back, but taking it a second time…. opens my eyes up to things I missed the first time.)
As I opened up the mini-course in the first section, I was hit with this:
“Students of herbalism may also aspire to be plant growers, with a focus on owning or working for an herb farm on both small and large scales. This work will likely appeal to individuals who like to work outside and with their bodies and who crave direct relationships with the plants themselves. Many vegetable farmers manage to incorporate a variety of herbs into crop rotation and garden bed planning, while permaculturists and landscapers may create food forests with herbs as part of a sustainable and holistic design. Still others are interested in creating plant sanctuaries as a part of land stewardship and ecological education, focusing on integrating and protecting native plants in wild settings.”
It was like I had not read this the first time, all those years ago.
“The contemporary herbalist exists in a long line of practitioners who work at the intersection of land stewardship and health, and this intersection is only one of many that an herbalist may need to navigate.”
Another line, in Lesson 3, had me thinking.
“As the much-loved botanist, clinical herbalist, teacher of herbalists, and Herbal Academy educator 7Song notes, community-based herbalism involves a variety of aspects of herbal practice, which may include growing plants, making herbal products, seeing clients, and understanding intimately the community in which the herbalist works (7Song, n.d.)”
From Lesson 3. That is very much how I work in life. I learn for myself and then to help those around me.
This summer, my mind has been excited. I did not realize how I had subconsciously changed our growing style over the past few years until Kirk, and I, took part in a permaculture class. Someday, we might get certified, but the truth is that it isn’t cheap, and it takes at least two weeks to complete. That is a lot when one has a job and family.
In my spare time, I could study more about plants—why I should care about them, how to grow them, and, once again, how to use them. Maybe becoming certified in permaculture wasn’t my most important goal; rather, increasing my skills in growing and using plants and working with nature was.
I have my dreams for sure. If the first 6 years were us running around to conquer the mess our land was, then the next 6 can be us working with the now healed land, to get to my dreams. No, I won’t have the fantasy AI photo above, but slowly it will become something even cooler than now.
And that is why this summer and fall, my mind is running to learn even more. To build a deeper appreciation of permaculture.
~Sarah