About Me and This Blog
Spirals are fascinating and appear throughout nature. The quote at the top of this blog is the way I think knowledge is gathered and the direction in which we grow. Being an herbalist for - wow, has it really been 25 years? - I've noticed that some of the most interesting plants and animals are in spirals, and decided that if I ever managed to figure out how to have an herbal medicine business, I'd name it The Spiral Way.
So in the meantime, I teach classes about useful herbs, educate people about healthy and dangerous products in their homes, try to keep up with recent medical and herbal breakthroughs and write far too much. Some day, some of the things you'll find on my blog will end up in one comprehensive book. For now, if you have a question, I might have a matching answer - or I might be able to point you in a direction to research - or I might just get interested enough (and since I absolutely love research, that's pretty much a given) to do some research of my own and write about it here.
As a quick explanation, the posts on this blog will be portions of what will eventually become a book. The main character of the book is the many-times great grand-daughter of Angelika Schraeder, a Renaissance midwife who, as an only child of a German, rather absent-minded professor (who taught her Latin) and an opinionated Irish midwife (who taught her the skills she writes about). She finds Angelika's writings hidden away in an attic, and decides to translate and update the information there.
Angelika is actually a character that I have played at Renaissance reenactments, and I've discovered that people remember herbal uses through stories better than a simple recitation of boring facts. A child coming to a faire with a cast on can be a wonderful time to exclaim about barber surgeons and their barbarity, but also a great time to explain about birch bark and how it can form into casts, which must be where they get their ideas from.
I do try for historical accuracy, as well as scientific accuracy in what I write. For Angelika's granddaughter, I follow the rules of not mentioning a use for an herb that isn't confirmed by three reliable sources. I'll likely write about what a reliable source consists of at another time. It's amazing what people consider reliable. :)
So in the meantime, I teach classes about useful herbs, educate people about healthy and dangerous products in their homes, try to keep up with recent medical and herbal breakthroughs and write far too much. Some day, some of the things you'll find on my blog will end up in one comprehensive book. For now, if you have a question, I might have a matching answer - or I might be able to point you in a direction to research - or I might just get interested enough (and since I absolutely love research, that's pretty much a given) to do some research of my own and write about it here.
As a quick explanation, the posts on this blog will be portions of what will eventually become a book. The main character of the book is the many-times great grand-daughter of Angelika Schraeder, a Renaissance midwife who, as an only child of a German, rather absent-minded professor (who taught her Latin) and an opinionated Irish midwife (who taught her the skills she writes about). She finds Angelika's writings hidden away in an attic, and decides to translate and update the information there.
Angelika is actually a character that I have played at Renaissance reenactments, and I've discovered that people remember herbal uses through stories better than a simple recitation of boring facts. A child coming to a faire with a cast on can be a wonderful time to exclaim about barber surgeons and their barbarity, but also a great time to explain about birch bark and how it can form into casts, which must be where they get their ideas from.
I do try for historical accuracy, as well as scientific accuracy in what I write. For Angelika's granddaughter, I follow the rules of not mentioning a use for an herb that isn't confirmed by three reliable sources. I'll likely write about what a reliable source consists of at another time. It's amazing what people consider reliable. :)