dreaming into spring

نرم نرمک میرسد اینک بهار

the softness of spring emerges

wow friends, sending y’all such deep spring blessings and well wishes for a healthy, joyous, fertile, and abundant spring season ahead! to be real, spring is such a bittersweet time for me as an herbalist and grower. while i’m so dang excited for the longer days and promise of warmer weather ahead, it also feels like a contradictory moment of aries chaos… if that makes any sense? what i’ve learned over the seasons is that winter never feels long enough, that its definitely okay to rest in the spring even if it feels like everything is awake and active around me, and that we can just meet ourselves and our needs where there at, no matter the never ending to do lists or feelings around needing to be productive.

right now, i’m spending time with precious seed medicine (both of the literal and metaphorical kind.) i’m in the process of preparing the ground to cast out seed that will provide color, heartfelt joy, and blooms to enjoy in the summer to come. i’m soaking pea seeds that will be planted in the next day or so. i’m cold stratifying esphand (syrian rue) seeds to be planted in the weeks to come as a sacred ancestral plant medicine, and having all types of revelations and learning moments that come with the practice of seed keeping. what seeds are you tending? what seeds are you whispering prayers into? what seeds are you planting? what seeds are you curious about?

i’m also taking daily walks to check in on my beloved tree friends, checking out their buds and their new growth, giving them some love, caresses, and thanks for the medicine, food, heat, and material they provide me and my family. i’m feeding my fruit trees and shrubs nourishing teas in thanks for their endless generosity and to help them in their meristem growth. this spring i’ll be harvesting cottonwood buds for oil, salve, and tincture, willow shoots for basketry, birch and cherry bark for medicinal syrups, peach flowers and leaf for tea, and of course leaving room for the unexpected adventure, harvests, and lessons. this time of year is a wonderful time to get to know the trees of your bioregion and begin to develop your own relationships with their cycles and rhythms. here is a link to a tree medicine handout i wrote many years ago that is full of wonderful tips for budding tree enthusiasts. also been thinking about weaving together a tree medicine and lore knowledge share this spring, so holler if that something you’re desiring to give me motivation to make it happen lolll! keep reading below for some bow down to spring notes!

with lilac dreams, mandana

left over tea magic

my favorite cups of tea are the ones i make at the end of winter and beginning of spring. they are the kind of tea blends where i’m scraping the bottom of the jar for the last whispers of the summer past, making room for the growing season ahead. each year my dried tea stash is different. though i grow perennial plants like monarda, anise hyssop, sage, lemon balm, and more every season, their taste changes depending on the weather, the moon phase at harvest, and so many other factors. so a cup of rose and white pine tea from last fall will absolutely be different than the roses to come this june. i love this ephemeral brilliance of plants so much. and i’m even more in love with the end of the jar stems, seeds, and leaves for their reminder of renewal, new beginnings, and the unfurling of spring. whats in your left over tea blends?

salaam bipoc community garden 2022

last year with the support of our beautiful community here in the mahicantuck (hudson) valley and beyond, we’re able to organize, fundraise, and build an epically beautiful bipoc community garden on our dear friends at Whistle Down Farm land, just outside of hudson, ny. it was an incredible first year for the garden, and we’re so stoked to be going into another year! while many folks are coming back for a second year, there are bound to be a few spots open. if you’re bipoc, live around hudson, ny, and looking for space to grow food and medicine, feel free to apply for a plot here.

tick care reminder

with the joys of spring also come the not so fun realities of warmer weather. the ticks are out. it's with care and love in mind that i dreadfully psa you: don't sleep on your tick checks. don't sleep on your care. don't sleep on your prevention. don't sleep on speaking your incantations for protection. let them ticks know that you see them and appreciate their hustle and place in the web of life, but that you’re good with attachment and closeness. and not to be trying to sell you some shit while we deal with the realties of year 3 of the pandemic and possible www 3 on the horizon but i self-published a booklet in 2018 called tick magic, that offers a lot of preventive strategies, protocols for after bite care, a healthy dose of energetic enchantments, and resources to get thru tick life. i know from community testimonials that tick magic has been an invaluable resource and first aid tool kit for folks out here in tick city, so if you’re looking to up your tick game, you can find a copy here. anddd i offer free pdfs of the zine for bipoc folks so definitely holler for yours <3