According to family legend, my great-great grandmother (on my mom's side) was a Native American "medicine woman." The details are foggy (and her "off grid" lifestyle probably doesn't lend itself well to digging through public records, although honestly, I haven't tried), but according to my grandfather, his grandmother was Apache. I've always wondered how this could be, since we live so near
Cherokee, but he was adamant. In any event, she never married, but had lots and lots of children (a fact that causes my very proper grandmother to cringe, even to this day). Essentially, she wandered through the hills gathering wild plants and herbs and "doctoring" people. She was also a midwife (or at least, she was competent at delivering babies, I'm not sure the term midwife would have been used). Her name was Aletha Talitha and regardless (or perhaps because) of the murky details surrounding her life, I've always been fascinated by her.
Perhaps it's an overly romantic notion to want to attribute it to genetics, but my fascination with herbs and herbal medicine continues to grow, especially since I've become a mother. For years, I've kept little pots of herbs on the porch, but this is the first year I've had an actual herb garden. It has been a daily source of pride and enjoyment, for both myself and Kate. For the most part, the herbs in my herb garden are primarily culinary, but next year I'm planning to have a separate bed devoted to medicinal herbs.
As we strive for a more self-sufficient life, I'm finding myself drawn more and more to alternative medicine, specifically to acquiring the knowledge and skills that enable one to self-heal with herbal and homeopathic medicine. A few books I've been reading lately on the subject:
According to family legend, my great-great grandmother (on my mom's side) was a Native American "medicine woman." The details are foggy (and her "off grid" lifestyle probably doesn't lend itself well to digging through public records, although honestly, I haven't tried), but according to my grandfather, his grandmother was Apache. I've always wondered how this could be, since we live so near Cherokee, but he was adamant. In any event, she never married, but had lots and lots of children (a fact that causes my very proper grandmother to cringe, even to this day). Essentially, she wandered through the hills gathering wild plants and herbs and "doctoring" people. She was also a midwife (or at least, she was competent at delivering babies, I'm not sure the term midwife would have been used). Her name was Aletha Talitha and regardless (or perhaps because) of the murky details surrounding her life, I've always been fascinated by her.
Perhaps it's an overly romantic notion to want to attribute it to genetics, but my fascination with herbs and herbal medicine continues to grow, especially since I've become a mother. For years, I've kept little pots of herbs on the porch, but this is the first year I've had an actual herb garden. It has been a daily source of pride and enjoyment, for both myself and Kate. For the most part, the herbs in my herb garden are primarily culinary, but next year I'm planning to have a separate bed devoted to medicinal herbs.
As we strive for a more self-sufficient life, I'm finding myself drawn more and more to alternative medicine, specifically to acquiring the knowledge and skills that enable one to self-heal with herbal and homeopathic medicine. A few books I've been reading lately on the subject:
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