niankhsekhmet

I am so tired of having people call up and ask simple questions about herbs that grow outside my door, herbs I KNOW how to use, and how not to use and I can't tell them a thing! "We are a licensed food wholesaler, and therefore I am prevented by law from discussing any diagnosis, useage or recommendation of any herb." The herbalist and healer in me screams. I hear my Grandmothers scream, I hear every nerve in my own body screaming in protest and there is nothing I can do. Thank you FDA and AMA and Insuance and pharmaceutical cartels. You have been successful in regulating people to the point that they aren't allowed to think for themselves. So many are so afraid of things that can actually help them - or unafraid of the things that cannot harm them that they don't know which way is up anymore. It makes me sad, angry and frustrated to be sure. I will be glad when I can hang up this nonsense and actually TELL PEOPLE based on my own knowledge and experience. Heh..its why Trilby and I started an herb store, its why we are going to Kansas City in two weeks to be with Susun Weed, Steven Foster, Kayla Wheeler and others - so we can help empower people again. I know that after I go to KC, I'm going to be completely not the same.

Another herbal frustration that I came across actually I had shared somewhat with Bella, Ma'ai and Neb as well as KI Ini. Some souless, unthinking....person (believe me when I say I couldn't think of anything suitibyly bad enough to call him!) called to ask if we would be interested in some Goldenseal he had for sale.

"Sure," I said,"as long as its cultivated and not wildcrafted."

"What is wrong with wildcrafted?" the guy nearly sputtered at me.

I explained that we had in the interest of preserving the plant, had gone to using our own or other cultivated goldenseal. It is difficult to cultivate, but we thought that due to the fact it had been on the United Plant Savers list for so long, that we needed to take that step.

"Well, do you know of any place that would be interested in the wildcrafted."

"No, I don't. You might try San Francisco Herb."

"Where is that?"

"San Francisco."

A chortling laugh, "I ain't goin that far to sell this stuff!"

I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle the life out of him! As many as 100 years ago, herbalists and ecclectic healers were bemoaning the dwindling populations and stands of this herb! Add to it the mistaken, yet widespread notion that goldenseal masks positive results for drug tests. That of course, is a widely held, erroneous notion that even some law enforcement officials still cling to. It has proven, especially with advances in testing for illicit drugs, that this does not work. Then there is the other wide spread over-use of antibiotics - natural or synthetics, even when there are other herbs that would work better.

If I had been thinking, which, given my being absolutely flabbergasted that someone could be so 19th Century about harvesting an herb of this importance and value to us, I would have gotten his phone number, name and address and turned him over to his state authorities for potentially having poached these plants! The sheer magnitude of years lost in growing time before these are mature enough to harvest - let alone the impact to the wild environment is staggering. I wanted to retort to this idiot before I hung up that there was absolutely NO ONE who was a reputable dealer in the natural products industry that would touch him and the herbs he was sitting on unless he could prove that he had harvested it ethically. Its been like this, thankfully for years. Unfortunately, there will always be those who see only dollar signs when dealing with this herb. Right now, dried whole root sells for nearly $300 a pound. I have a pound - I was lucky to get it from a benefit at work, we were discontinuing carrying the whole root, and a case of it was being given to employees. I never knew why we just didn't simply grind it in the grinder and sell the powder, why give it away -even to the employees. But for such a boon, I wasn't going to complain. It did seem to me that even that bit of waste, even though it was cultivated was sort of sad. As I said, it was good for me though. I know I will never have to buy it - or endanger the plant population on behalf of my own use of it - at least not for a very long time.

The last frustration, isn't really a frustration so much. The botanical garden at Frontier is being dismantled. It was planted in the summer of 1993 as a symbolic gesture after the floods of that summer - and as a direct response to the expectation that an herb company like Frontier would have its own botanical garden to respond to the many people who are interested in growing herbs for themselves. Financial troubles and resituting the farm have led us to dismantle it. Another had been started closer to the pond further in on the property. The plants at the current bontanical garden will be going to the employees first, and then to any charitable organizations interested in providing homes for them. I am going out with cornmeal and tobacco offerings and have a talk with them. I want them to come to the shrine at the farm - I think the response will be positive, but me, being me will have to ask. It never feels right (to me) unless I do. Somehow I think that they, even as plants, need to have a voice in it - a say so and an understanding between us. I come to them regularly for knowledge and for healing of myself and others. It seems only right that that relationship stays mutually respectful.