...Every herbal class I have taken, they always start with the same questions. "What was your first herbal experience and what herb was your first ally?"
Hmm, my first herbal experience? Was it when me and my little sister tried to make soap back when I was in high school? We didn't want to use lye, nor did we know what it was, so we read up on how soap was made in the olden days haha. The answer that we found, ash will create the same effect as lye. Great! We had a ton of trees in the back of the house, so we used our Dad's grill to burn down some twigs. I remember him coming outside, looking at us, shaking his head and going back inside. Sad to say the tree ash did not work and our soap was just black sludge. I guess that is not really herbal though.
Maybe it was when I first became obsessed with tea in my twenties and was trying all the packaged flavors? I soon switched to loose leaf bulk tea, thanks to a vendor who attended the Denio's Market in Roseville, CA. She always had a ton of jars full of tea, and I purchased some loose leaf from her a few times. I realized that the loose leaf tea had better flavor than all the prepackaged tea I had been buying.
Or was it when I cleared up my spider bite with lemon, honey and peppermint? I hadn't started attending any herbal school yet, I was still on my tea kick at the time haha That said, I got this really bad spider bite on my leg. By day two it was swelling like crazy, and one of my co-workers at the time so kindly told me that someone had had to have their leg cut off due to bite that looked like that. Yikes! So, I said I would give it until the next morning and then go see the doctor if it was still bad. I woke up the next morning to it still being very swollen and I had the most random thought. Lemon juice, honey, peppermint crushed up in the mortal pestle. So, I did it and applied the mix directly to my bite and covered it all with a fresh mint leaf. I wrapped it and went off to work and the swelling went down. When I got to work, my co-worker asked me if I had to gone to the doctor. I told her no and explained what I had done instead. She shook her head and called me a weirdo. Little did she know I would continue to get more and more weird haha
But honestly, I know exactly when it was. My first herbal experience and my first herbal ally occurred at the same time. My Omi (grandmother) was German and had been a pharmacist. In Germany, pharmacist also have an emphasis in herbal medicine, it's just part of the culture. They work in an Apotheke (pharmacy/ apothecary) and have a mix of over the counter medications and herbal formulas.
It's funny, when I think back now, I remember my Omi always said that she hoped that one of us grandchildren would be a pharmacist. We always laughed and were like nope (my original dream was to be a fashion designer, got into FIDM and everything, and them didn't go. Guess that wasn't supposed to be my journey.) Now though, she has two grandchildren who practice herbal medicine, so I guess her wish came true.
But back to my first experience and ally - it was always Chamomile. My Omi would babysit us sometimes and she would always give us chamomile tea before bed. When I had goop crusting my eyes from a cold or a stye in my eye, she would wash my eyes with chamomile tea. Back then, it felt like there was nothing that chamomile couldn't do. So, those questions always make me think of her - my Omi - since she was the first, I think, to introduce to me to herbal medicine and my first ally, Chamomile <3
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