I've always loved looking to plants for nutrition, medicine, beauty, and the host of other benefits they offer. It's incredibly empowering to be able to create your own medicines, personal care supplies, and household items using plants.
There are a vast amount of herbal resources that are out there. I'm so grateful for that. It's a labor of love - a sometimes risky one, even - to teach about herbs.
Herb and Plant Communities
There are several large plant identification groups on Facebook that have helped me tremendously. I will list 3. Each is a bit different as far as what you can post and talk about within the group, so be sure to read the rules for each one before posting.
Gwen's Nest also has a very helpful and supportive herb group for women. This group is more for discussing the uses of herbal remedies rather than the identification of plants.
Books and Online Courses
I collect books and plants like they're made of gold.
The Herbal Academy was a particularly helpful resource. They offer a number of ways to learn more about herbalism:
- The Herbarium, a sort of virtual herbal library with tons of resources
- Online courses in both introductory and intermediate levels
- Their Academy Blog, which has a ton of free articles that are both helpful and inspiring
Herbs and Accessories
Mountain Rose Herbs is another beloved resource, not only for herbs I'm unable to wildcraft or grow myself, but for their educational articles and supplies.
Tamed Wild offers a beautiful and knowledge-rich herbal deck, the Wild Medicine Deck, featuring 33 of the most common and helpful medicinal herbs used for healing.
Finally, there's no way to replace the learning that comes from practicing with a more experienced herbalist.
Photo by Heather Barnes on Unsplash
What herbal resources, books, and teachers help you grow as an herbalist?
Kylie Worthington
These sound like wonderful resources, thanks for sharing, Kate!