Dear City Dweller: Here’s Why You Should Grow Your Own Medicine Cabinet. Sincerely, An Herbalist and Farmer

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This article is an updated/revised version of a guest blog post originally published in now-defunct DIY urban gardening website, City Plantz, in February of 2018. Enjoy!

I didn’t stumble upon the health properties of plants—and growing them yourself— in the most obvious way you would think.

At first, my interest in growing plants was all about food: our crumbling food system, our need for more farmers and food growers, and—ultimately—our need to protect our food, health, nutrition, and autonomy by growing food ourselves to ensure that it’s healthy (yes, even in the city). All of this started in college in rural Minnesota, and led me down the path of organic agriculture that I still tread today: in my daily life, in my career, and everything I do on my farm of three years now, Jupiter Ridge LLC. It’s all culminated into a both rigorous and healing lifestyle.

It definitely isn’t news these days that the healthiest food comes in the form of fresh homegrown fruits and vegetables—and specifically vegetables you can grow yourself.

Dill Bouquet | Jupiter Ridge Farm

But as it turns out, there’s a lot more to ensuring your health from the plant world than just growing your own food, especially when growing herbs comes into the picture.

This article is going to be a combination of informative and updating, so let me get the updates out of the way.

For those who have followed my writings and this blog (new and old), you can probably see I haven’t written much over the years about anything, let alone herbalism (To you newcomers: welcome).

This mostly coincides with getting my farm Jupiter Ridge up and running here in Driftless Iowa (Northeast Iowa), an endeavor that has demanded an immense amount of time, money, labor, blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice, pain, healing, beauty, and transformation – so naturally, herbalist projects and everything else have been placed on the back burner.

On that note, too, I felt like I needed a separation period from the world of herbalism: its major figures, celebrities, and influencers; the culture around it and the narrow definitions of what herbalism is in these circles; the increasing patriarchal/cultural appropriation problems in herbalist scenes; and even other herbalists in general.

I won’t get into it too much (and in fact I’ve been mostly silent on the subject), but I stepped into the (for lack of a better word) “cult” following of herbalism and its little extended network in America in 2012, expecting to find “my” people only to find a network that had very little to do with healing and helping others. Instead I found a lot of ego, power, competition, and people claiming they could heal others when they seemed to be in desperate need of healing themselves.

The lesson I learned from this: I think healers in general, not just herbalists, are meant to walk solitary paths to do their work. Identity and purpose get lost in these echo chambers.

So I closed the door on herbalism and instead got my hands dirty with farming, and growing nutritious, diverse vegetables, mushrooms, and herbs for people for the past few years. A different sort of herbalism and work as an herbalist, all the while badly wishing I could redefine these words (herbalism, herbalist) that I feel sort of stuck with, but love the possibilities of what they could mean nonetheless, so I’ll continue using them.

Just some of the culinary herbs we grow at Jupiter Ridge Farm – basil, thyme, oregano, sage, Thai basil. | Photo: Will Lorentzen

Now that the farm is up, running, and established (selling healthy, sustainably grown, and nutritious vegetables, mushrooms, and culinary herbs to hundreds of people in the Dubuque area every Saturday – plus delivering diverse CSA shares with these same contents every Tuesday to members in Cedar Rapids and to a dozen eastern and northeastern Iowa restaurants, too!), life has been doing that funny thing of poking and prodding at me to get me back in touch with my roots and the true, foundational reasons I decided to do this whole thing in the first place.

Owing to a combination of both circumstance and some intention, what we are making off of the land and what we grow for eastern and northeastern Iowa is steadily representing a larger and larger (and more reliable) portion of our income, as other sources of income/side hustles loom less large.

Upon reading this article again, too, I’ve taken it upon myself that the best I can do is redefine what it means to be an herbalist with my current work – and this article puts it real nicely.

So as for the updates: I’m still an herbalist. I still write. I still use plants to help people as a farmer. I may come back around to using those wilder and more esoteric plants (like echinacea, goldenrod, or sumac) again as part of my daily work (and it does seem like life is pushing me in that direction again – and this may spring up in the form of truly awesome, effective, and unique herbal products!), but we shall see.

This article marks the beginning of the confluence of farming and herbalism in my life. The future looks interesting.

Don’t Just Grow Your Own Food: Grow Your Own Medicine

Homegrown foods have a higher likelihood of being more nutritious than any other type of food in the long run (I wrote a piece about this for Rodale’s Organic Life, which has since shut down. If you’d like to read the article I’d be happy to send you a copy, which outlines the science of why this is true, too). These vegetables and plants are at the very foundation of our health; when you think about it, they really are our best source of preventive medicine, in a way.

I learned all about this over a decade ago, which spurred me to become a farmer and establish a farm. Then I learned about growing herbs—for both culinary use and for healing—in addition to vegetables, and I felt like I blew a whole new story wide open.

Amid my post-college travels learning how to farm, I made the strange and unlikely jump: from farmer to herbalist. Today, I’ve managed to fashion myself into both.

Even now, I’m experiencing a renaissance of realization and coming back full-circle to my herbalist roots after throwing my all into the farming path head-on for the past three years. The most important realization of all: that by growing healthy vegetables, culinary herbs, and even medicinal mushrooms (like shiitake and lion’s mane), I haven’t strayed all that far from being an herbalist at all. Instead, I’m seeing the multitude of connections that can take place in the world of plant-based health in a whole new light.

Harvested Homegrown Ginger | Jupiter Ridge Farm

The ability to grow your own plants for both healthy food and medicine—or both food and medicine in one, if you really think about it—is empowering.

It saves money, doctor’s visits, and could even shape the way we view healthcare in the future. I’ve used certain herbs to successfully combat strep throat without any help from mainstream antibiotics. I’ve suggested herbs to others that have eliminated their lifelong acne issues, and I even use herbs today to holistically support my anxiety disorder and PTSD. Sure, these are anecdotal. But they’ve literally worked and I see them work even now on an almost daily basis (and for you more science-herbalist nerds, there’s a very scientific explanation for how all of these herbs work for these separate issues).

But most importantly: just because you live in a house or small apartment with very little money doesn’t mean this is something out of reach to you.

The truth is: it is in reach, more than you know.

If you can grow food in your domicile, you can certainly grow herbs. Together, these form the most preventive health medicine cabinet you could possibly have at your disposal.

Seeing the Connection: Plants as Healers, Whether Vegetables or Herbs

Why should you grow your own medicinal or culinary—or both medicinal and culinary—herbs in the first place?

Isn’t this something reserved for New Age hippies, lifestyle bloggers, witchy mamas, or your grandma?

My answer is best put as a story. I was in Ecuador during my organic agricultural internship when I was first struck by the world of herbalism.

I had an injured and infected foot. It was hard for me to walk.

 I was also in a foreign tropical country where a non-native’s susceptibility to infections was astronomically dangerous. To continue growing the healthy, nutritious food I was so hell-bent on learning about, I was told by locals I must rely on a completely different kind of plant.

They pointed just a few steps away from where I helped cultivate rows of healthy vegetables like kale to a tall, uncultivated plant with broad leaves—a plant called matico.

Kale Row | Iowa Herbalist
Rows of kale at Jupiter Ridge Farm.

Vegetables and Medicinal Herbs: Different Plants, Similar Purposes

Two very different plants, kale and matico.

But they both have a couple things in common: they can strengthen health and, as I would learn soon, matico could save your life (and kale too, though how it might do that for you deserves its very own article in and of itself).

I was instructed to use a medicinal preparation of matico’s leaves by the locals to fight this infection and still be able to walk between planted rows to get work done and continue my education—maybe even to keep my foot altogether..

The nearest hospital wasn’t for miles. There was no local pharmacy, no local clinic, no antibiotics: only plants and the native knowledge of the locals at my disposal.

Years later, I still have my foot—and all because of (well, mostly because of) a plant (a trip to the Ecuadorian beaches swimming and soaking in the salty ocean helped, too). I also found out later, to my shock, that matico isn’t as exotic as I thought. In fact, it’s very closely related to both black pepper (a culinary seasoning I wrote about in depth for Primal Herb here) and kava kava (a widely popular sedative herb from the Pacific), domesticated cultivated relatives that are—you guessed it—grown and produced by farmers.

Garlic Field | Iowa Herbalist
A farmer (My husband and partner, Will) overlooking a garlic field. Garlic is a vegetable, a flavorful spice, and a highly medicinal herb all in one.

It was in making these types of connections between nutritious and medicinal plants—and plants of all kinds, for that matter—that I decided to be an herbalist, and not just a farmer. I also realized how deeply interlinked these roles could be.

Growing Medicinal Herbs: Why Do It? Is it Really Worth it?

So, why grow medicinal plants, you might again ask?

Of course, my story above is extreme. If you think you might lose a foot, definitely wise up and go to a hospital if you can—take advantage of the fact that you’re not in the middle of a South American rainforest. And yet, living in the city— relying only on your apartment or home— can sure feel like surviving in a jungle these days.

So here’s my short answer: you should grow medicinal plants to be smart, self-sufficient, and frugal. But also because it’s a no-brainer.

I’ll risk sounding blunt here: especially in an urban setting and with little money, you’d be dumb not to. Ultimately, growing plants saves you money and possibly your health in the long run. Sure, you can also purchase medicinal in supplement form. But these extracts and capsules can be costly also—and, in some cases, less reliable.

If you’re not worried about losing a foot perse, there’s a lot more beyond foot-saving that herbs do. Some examples are:

  • Improving digestion
  • Soothing sunburns
  • Alleviating stress (or even anxiety and depression)
  • Protecting infected cuts
  • Pain relief

A lot of them make your food taste better as a bonus, too (here’s looking at you, culinary herbs, of which the majority of you are also secretly medicinal).

By the way, if you’re already growing vegetables or even fruits in your house or apartment: congratulations!

You’ve already got your own preventive medicine cabinet. Growing herbs will just expand it even more. In the process, you might save yourself money on doctor’s visits and depending on those costly over-the-counter drugs.

You may also pick up an enjoyable hobby in the meantime that beautifies your home or apartment in the process, too. So why wouldn’t it hurt?

Echinacea at Jupiter Ridge | Iowa Herbalist
Echinacea on Jupiter Ridge.

Culinary and Medicinal Herbs: What Can I Grow? What’s Possible?

 Of course, the theory of anything becomes a lot more complicated when put into practice. Newcomers to growing herbs (or even growing in general) might ask: is growing medicinal and culinary herbs indoors difficult?

In truth, some herbs with healing potential are not any different—or more difficult— to grow than anything else indoors.

If you’re wanting to break new ground and give growing medicinal herbs a try, here are the best to get your feet wet with (and your hands dirty with) for starters.

  • Aloe Vera. May need more sun than most others on this list, but otherwise requires very little water or much else. Leaves from aloe plants can be removed and the gel used for cuts, burns, sunburns, rashes, and wounds. The juice can be consumed for digestive issues and even certain disorders (I wrote for Healthline about aloe vera juice for IBS here).

  • Ginger. Ginger root is incredibly easy to grow indoors from a living rhizome. It also doesn’t need a lot of light as a canopy plant. It’s great for cramps, stomachaches, nausea, and boosting the immune system when dealing with colds. It also tastes great (Oh yeah – I also wrote about ginger for Healthline here and how it’s great for sore throats).

  • Lemon Balm. Great for culinary and medicinal uses. It also doesn’t need a lot of sunlight or water. Harvest sprigs to flavor meals that call for mint or lemon verbena. Or, make a tea from it for stomachaches or bouts of stress, anxiety, or depression.

  • Mint. Spearmint and peppermint are easy to grow indoors with low light in containers. They’re great for bellyaches and can also calm nerves a bit. Mint’s flavors are a must-have for teas and various dishes. A fresh leaf on a cut reduces risk of infection, and the essential oil is amazing pain relief (I use it for my TMJ). (Article on how to grow this herb specifically is coming up soon).

  • Parsley. Take a bite or a sprig of this culinary herb to freshen breath or when you have a stomachache. It is also known to help with seasonal allergies. It’s easy to grow in low light and doesn’t ask much of you and is also a delicious seasoning.

  • Thyme. This squat little mint-like plant doesn’t demand much space, or even too much light or water for that matter. It makes for an adorable ornament on a kitchen window. Thyme is also an excellent herb for immunity and the symptoms of colds and flu.
Aloe Vera | Adrian White, Iowa Herbalist
Aloe Vera.

Keep in mind that the cultivation and use of herbs for health shouldn’t replace common-sense mainstream health care or prescription medications. Talk to your doctor about using herbs, or if using herbs for health would be right for you.

If you’re truly intrigued by growing herbs, don’t feel like you need to stop at this list.

There’s plenty of others you can grow indoors, and which may also be enjoyably tackled by the more advanced or expert indoor grower.

Happy growing—and, ultimately happy, affordable health.

Slow Food, Herbs, and Medicine: Connecting Herbalism with the Food Movement

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Potted Rosemary | Iowa Herbalist

Guido Mase, in his book The Wild Medicine Solution, touches on this subject much better than I can and will do.   The importance of eating local, organic, sustainable, and ethical foods is becoming an urgent issue with time.  As it grows, the burden of this urgency is placed more and more heavily on the backs of organic farmers, and those of us who garden for ourselves to ensure we are eating healthy food, for the most part.

It can be argued, then, that as we fight these days for healthy food, we fight for our rights to our medicine– the medicine we grow in our backyard, and in the wild, all around us.  In fact, fighting for organic food and ethical growing methods is in itself defending our rights to our own personal medicines.  “Organic food can be medicine?” you might ask.  Well, yes it can, and is.  The connection between herbalism and the food movement comes together here, as it is not such a hard one to make: the herbal medicines we take need to be grown, eaten, and protected, too.

Many of us grow vegetables and herbs together, without a second thought– tomatoes with basil, sage with brassicas.  We eat vegetables like spinach, asparagus, and carrots to be healthy, but we eat lots of herbs, too, even though most herbs added to food these days are just for taste.  A lot of us forget that culinary herbs were originally added to food because of their medicinal effects on the body– taste was certainly a plus, but back in our more ancient days when we didn’t add preservatives to food, we used herbs.  Herbs also helped to mask certain tastes, to digest, and to assimilate as much nutrition from our foods as possible.  Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) is commonly a meat-spice not just because it pairs up with savory on the palate, but its anti-oxidant effects are so strong that they actually help preserve meat.  Mints, like Peppermint or Spearmint (Mentha spp.), were added to foods to aid with digestion post-meals, thus the “after dinner” mint given to you at certain restaurants.  The candied Fennel seeds you see at Indian or Mediterranean restaurants?  Same thing: Fennel (Foenicularum vulgare) aids with the assimilation of difficult-to-digest foods.  Herbs like Basil (Ocimum spp.) and Cinnamon (Cinnamonum spp.) have been used as appetite stimulants by herbalists for hundreds of years, added to foods to make them more edible when food was generally scarce.

As you can see, herbalism already has its influence in our cuisine.  Herbalism is not just about tinctures, teas, and supplements.  Herbalism, really, is about food– the most effective herbalists will tell you that.  An herb can be “prescribed” but if a person is not eating right to better an ailment, no progress will be made.  This can be confusing to both herbalists, their clients, and everyone else for that matter.  Nowadays we have a dichotomy of herbs and food: we associate herbs with medicine and “spices,” and food with– well, food.

Red Onions | Iowa Herbalist
Photo Credit William Lorentzen

Truly, food, herbs, and medicine run fluidly together.  When you pour over the details, examining our foods and herbs and exactly what they do, the defining lines begin to blur.  Let’s just say that if we were building a wall that represented our most powerful natural medicines, organic food would be the bricks, and herbs would be the mortar.  As many of you reading this take for granted, eating organic fruits, vegetables, and even organic/ethical eggs and meats are healthier for you.  Spinach, for example, is good to eat because it is high in vitamins and minerals.  Carrots are full of Vitamin A, Cucumbers are high in Vitamin E, strawberries are high in Vitamin C, and so forth.  But organic foods being good for you goes way beyond that.

Brassicaceae or Cruciferae plants, such as radishes, cabbages, turnips and the like, are in the limelight of study for their health-boosting effects, and demonstrating wonderful results.  Broccoli and Kale have received the most hype, being high in calcium, vitamins, minerals, and protective antioxidants.  Some studies and experience claim that eating them daily works as excellent cancer or other long-term illness recovery.  Black Spanish radishes, kale’s distant cousin, has been used traditionally as supplementary food in fighting diseases of the bowel and thyroid.  Daikon radishes are being favored currently for detoxifying purposes, a favorite addition to juicer blends.  Beets are on similar footing and are being eaten for liver benefits.  Sounds like medicine, doesn’t it?

Then there are herbs, your rosemary, sage, and thyme.  Were you aware that these three essential herbs can be combined to make an upper respiratory remedy that any herbalist would recommend you?  Or that Basil is not just a tasty addition to pesto, but it has been a trusted traditional heart medicine in Africa?  Or that is has been useful against menopausal cramps in traditional Hispanic medicine?  Oregano is a great Italian spice, but also serves as one of the first go-to herbs for fungal infection and menopause care.  Cinnamon regulates blood sugar, on top of pairing well with Pumpkin.  Not many realize that ground Cayenne pepper can help ease the symptoms of a heart attack, in a pinch!  (Of course, if you or a loved one are experiencing a heart attack– please, make the hospital your first choice, not the Cayenne; although the pepper can be used to ease symptoms in the meantime).  The list doesn’t end there.  Some of the best remedies accessible for the most basic ailments you can find right there in your kitchen cabinet or spice rack, perhaps in your refrigerator; and to think that some people lack access to healthcare altogether!  But, best of all, you can grow a lot of it right in your backyard, along with the fruits and vegetables you look up to for keeping you healthy.  Those you can’t grow, or have difficulty attaining you can find a the local Farmer’s Market, supporting yor farmer.  Then when it comes to a bit more acute ailments, you can reach out to your local or community herbalist, or join an herbalist gathering and learn the trade yourself.

We can also extend this to the less-culinary sounding herbs that are so good for us and are catching hold in the popular conscious: such as Echinacea, Black Cohosh, St. John’s Wort, Chamomile.  Some popular medicinal herbs, such as Burdock root, are also eaten very commonly as vegetables.  We can extend this to plants that benefit us, but which are endangered in the wild and seek protection; they may not fly off the table at a Farmer’s Market, but if we all learn to grow them and use them in our own homes like we use Onions or Zucchini, maybe they will catch on.  Finally– although this is a step into a different frontier– we can learn to make room in our gardens for actually useful plants we normally consider weeds: Dandelion, Chickweed, Docks, Violets and the like.  A lot of folks may not realize that the Stinging Nettle they voraciously yank out of their gardens each year may be more nutritious than any of the vegetables they grow!  While some of these herbs are medicinal, they also make for nutritious dishes.

Potted Lemon Verbena | Iowa Herbalist

With realizing that medicine is truly in our own hands, it is empowering to know we can grow it and eat it ourselves; or, if you are able, to have the option to support your local herbalist or organic farmer.  But the “quick-fix” American perspective on what a medicine truly is differs from this idea, unfortunately.  The mainstream takes many measures that lose us access to natural food and medicine, by spreading misinformation and making it harder for people to buy, grow, or be educated about natural foods and medicines themselves.  On top of that, companies like Monsanto manipulate our food’s already perfect genetics, to serve their needs– making plants less and less healthy, but more high-profit.  The very source of seed for our favored foods is tampered with in a threatening way.  On the other side of this fight, both organic farmers and herbalists jump through ridiculous hoops to make their product or produce even available– having been both a farmer and an herbalist, I have had to take similar, overly-cautious approaches to each profession.  It is so difficult to “certify” such foods, herbs and products for a market, while they must also be highly priced for a profit to be made.  At that, the market is such that it drives up the prices of organic produce, herbal tinctures and other natural medicines, making them inaccessible to the poor.  Poor and wealthy alike– we both have rights to good health!

So while many of us are embroiled in the Local or Slow food movements, we have a different angle to this fight: Slow Medicine, or Food as Medicine.  We have to open our eyes and see that there has been no other obvious point in history where the rights to our medicines haven’t been more threatened.  Most think that medicines are pills we pop that make things go away as fast as possible; not plants grown by a CSA or in our backyard.  Ironically, pills and pharmaceuticals are unnatural, plagued with ridiculous-sounding adverse side effects (e.g. may increase chances of death).  Doesn’t sound like medicine to most of us, I’m sure.  These medicines, when you think about it hard enough, are made to heal illnesses created by our lack of nutrition from foods at the start.   The evidence of that is pretty much everywhere you look.  Most of us don’t know or value where our food comes from, what quality it is, and who may be screwed over in the process of getting it– most of us, sadly, do not see food as medicine.  It’s scary to see a tradition of eating wholesome plants, which could fix the root of the problem, become more and more endangered.

Herbs, food, and medicine are one and the same.  The more we see this connection, and spread that idea, I do think the more motivated we may become to protect it.   When you grow your own food, or your own herbs, support your farmer, or look to an herbalist, you are fighting for your rights to medicine.  Herbs are our food, our food is our herbs, and both are rightfully ours– it’s a path we should come to know that will keep us healthy, and we can all fight to protect it.

Herbs, Vegetables, and the Healing They Do

-Asparagus: Disease of bowels (Unani medicine)
-Aloe: stabilizes blood sugar, laxative
-Anise: relieves flatulence and hiccups
-Artichoke: digestive stimulant, helps liver function
-Basil: mildly sedative digestive tonic
-Beets: helps cleanse/detoxify liver
-Broccoli: anti-oxidant, high in vitamins/minerals
-Burdock: liver cleanser, helps with acne
-Caraway: digestive tonic, helped nursing mothers
-Cardamom: Safely lowers blood pressure over time
-Cayenne: Stimulates the heart, increases blood flow
-Celery: helps with gout, helps detoxify liver
-Cinnamon: gentle fever medicine for children
-Cloves: Anti-fungal and anti-histamine
-Collard Greens: Anticancer/Antioxidant
-Cucumbers: stabilizes blood sugars (diabetes)
-Dill: Good digestive aid for kids
-Eggplant: lowers cholesterol
-Fennel: Calming cough/sore throat remedy
-Fenugreek: helps with gout and coughs
-Garlic: very antimicrobial, coughs/colds/flus
-Ginger: stimulates digestion, eases nausea
-Horseradish: antihistamine, helps with asthma
-Legumes: high in vitamins, prevent chronic disease
-Kale: very nutritious, anti-cancer
-Mint: Steadies nerves, promotes digestion
-Mustard: ground seeds for cough relief
-Onions: coughs, colds, flus
-Oregano/Marjoram: menopause support, anti-fungal
-Parsley: Allergies and menstraution
-Radishes: some breeds help with thyroid function
-Rhubarb: effective laxative
-Rosemary: improves memory, antioxidant
-Sage: calming fever reducer and cough medicine
-Squash: regulates blood sugars (summer or winter)
-Tarragon: good for your teeth
-Thyme: anti-nausea, and cough remedy
-Turmeric: stimulates digestion, anti-depressant
-Turnips: very nutritious; coughs and colds

References: Wild Medicine Solution by Guido Mase.  Chemical constituents of Asparagus, J. S. NegiP. SinghG. P. JoshiM. S. Rawat, and V. K. Bisht1.  Effect of Eggplant on Plasma Lipid Levels, Lipidic Peroxidation and Reversion of Endothelial Dysfunction in Experimental Hypercholesterolemia; Arq. Bras. Cardiol. vol.70 n.2 São Paulo Feb. 1998.  Onion As Medicine?!  Herbal Roots Zine/7Song.   Squash may have anti-diabetic properties UPI Health News.  Healing Food Pyramid: Legumes University of Michigan Health System.  Charles Garcia, California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism.  Stephany Hoffelt, Iowa City Herbalist.  Personal Experience, Observation, Notes.