August is usually one of the busiest times in an herbalist’s year. The garden is overflowing, wild plants are ready to harvest, medicine is being made, and the apothecary shelves are slowly filling for the seasons ahead. Except… that hasn’t really been my experience this year. An unusually hot, wet summer has meant harvesting far less than I expected, and it’s forced me to rethink some of the ways I measure a “successful” growing season.
In this episode, I’m taking you with me through my late-summer garden and apothecary. We’ll talk about what I’m wildcrafting right now (hello, passionflower and goldenrod), what’s happening in my garden, what medicine I’m making, and how I’m beginning to prepare for the transition into autumn.
And somewhere along the way, this episode becomes about a lot more than what’s ready to harvest in August.
We get into the complicated parts of harvesting, our relationships with the plants we tend, what it means to take from the land, and some feelings I honestly wasn’t expecting to have while recording this one.
It’s a little raw, a little rambly, and probably a pretty accurate representation of what late August actually looks like around here.
Come wander through the garden with me.
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