Herb Mentor Radio

Linda Runyon is an expert in wild foods and has been teaching since the 1970s. Though she has a lifelong love of nature, she really learned her stuff when she spent 13 years with her family homesteading in rural New York State, without indoor plumbing, electricity, or running water.

Linda has turned her amazing life story into many publications, namely her wild foods field guide called The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide (formerly From Crabgrass Muffins to Pine Needle Tea) and a brand new DVD called Linda Runyon’s Master Class on Wild Food Survival. She is also the creator of Wild Cards, the deck of edible plant playing cards many LearningHerbs.com folks have come to love.

For Linda’s return to HerbMentor Radio, we spend nearly 90 minutes on a virtual herb walk. We cover lamb’s quarter, and how to make flour. Also, dandelions (and dandelion french fries!), red clover, cattail, and milkweed. We even take a trip to the Southwest to visit prickly pear cactus and tumbleweed. Linda also reveals the secret to processing and eating thistle! Of course, there are many more wild food nuggets to chew on as well.

Visit Linda at http://OfTheField.com.

Emily Ruff is a community herbalist and health educator who has practiced the art and science of plant healing for over a decade. Her studies have taken her to three continents, where she has studied under indigenous healers of many traditions. She also apprenticed for many years with Rosemary Gladstar. Emily founded Orenda Herbals and is director of the Florida School of Holistic Living. Through the school, she founded the Community Herbal Clinic and the Florida Herbal Conference.

The Florida Herbal Conference is February 15-17, 2013 in Orlando. Headline herbal teachers are Matthew Wood and Phyllis Light. Workshops focus on bioregional, earth-centered herbalism, with topics including clinical herbalism, herbal crafts, herbal tradition and history, medicine making, plant identification walks, and many hands-on demonstrations. The weekend also includes a marketplace of herbal vendors and musical activities each evening. LearningHerbs.com is a proud sponsor.

Besides hearing Emily’s fascinating story, our interview focuses on many of the medicinal herbs found in Florida. Most people never consider that we have amazing botanicals growing right here on the mainland U.S. We take a virtual plant walk to discover saw palmetto, hibiscus, passionflower, tropical chickweed, St. John’s Mint, and even lemongrass and cayenne.

Visit http://floridaherbalconference.org

Visit http://emilyruff.com

Darcy Williamson is an herbalist, author, and educator from the Rocky Mountains in Idaho. She is the founder of From the Forest, an herbal products and education business whose mission is to provide education on identifying, sustainable harvesting, formulating, and using medicinal plants found throughout the Rocky Mountains. Darcy is the author of Healing Plants of the Rocky Mountains & The Rocky Mountain Wild Foods Cookbook.

In this interview, Darcy shares her unique perspective on sustainable harvesting, the key to knowing what herbs are safe to harvest, and gives us an incredibly rare look into some of her favorite Rocky Mountain healing herbs, such as willow, chokecherry, avens, lomatium, arrowleaf balsamroot, western mugwort, and Brown’s Peony. Darcy also runs an herbal apprenticeship program like no other I’ve ever heard of. It helps her offer herbal remedies that few other, if any, websites offer. My favorite part was when she shares how she knows when a tree is ready to harvest.

Sunny Savage is a wild foodie, filmmaker, and homeschooling parent traveling with the wind ... aboard a sailboat with her husband and son.

She has a Master’s degree in Nutrition Education and taught native nutrition at the White Earth Tribal & Community College. Her ancestry includes pirates, diplomats, farmers, to writers of the French constitution. Her ancestor, Thomas Savage, arrived in Jamestown on the second boat at 13.

Sunny was raised by “back to the land” parents and spent a year eating foods only grown within 250 miles of her home. She’s traveled every continent on Earth and has a television show called Hot on the Trail with Sunny Savage that followed her adventures. It airs on Dish 218, FIOS 163, and Frontier 162.

Sunny released her clothing line that is made from wild plants, and we talk about medicinal clothing in the interview.

Sunny joins John from a cafe in Panama. She’s about to begin another leg of her adventures at sea with her family. She is filming the story.

You can visit Sunny at http://SunnySavage.com

AND follow her adventures at http://TheSailingMovie.com

Lisa Fazio takes us on a journey through Italian-American folk herbalism, the healing power of food as medicine, and the medicinal properties of herbs like garlic, St. John’s wort, and olive. She shares her personal stories and ancestral wisdom, making this conversation a true gift for anyone passionate about herbal traditions.

When we first came across Lisa’s new book, Della Medicina: The Tradition of Italian-American Folk Healing, we knew we had to invite her to the show. Her book is a beautiful collection of stories and deep connections to beloved plants such as garlic, St. John’s wort, olive, and more.

We were especially excited to speak with Lisa because of our own Italian heritage and curiosity about ancestral traditions. However, the wisdom Lisa offers is relevant and deeply supportive, no matter where your roots lie. Her approach invites us all to reconnect with our ancestral medicines and understand how herbal practices have been passed down through generations.

In this episode, Lisa Fazio talks about:

• Practical traditions for honoring ancestors
• The protective qualities of garlic
• Benedicaria and the spiritual uses of herbs
• The connections between Catholic saints and herbs
• The rich herbal traditions of Italy and how they’ve evolved for Italian Americans and so much more

To learn more about Lisa Fazio and her work, visit The Root Circle.

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