When we taste herbs, we’re an organoleptic approach. Which is a fancy way of saying a sensory approach to herbalism. I’ve written about taking a sensory embodied approach in another article (click here)

By understanding herbal tastes, we can actually start understanding:

• What herbal actions it might have, ie what it does in the body,
• what kind of chemical constituents it might have, and
• the best ways to prepare it as a medicine.

Note – I always say ‘might’ because whilst there are strong patterns for most of the tastes, there are always exceptions to the rule. It’s helpful to stay away from rigid black and white thinking, but instead have general patterns to guide you as you explore and deepen your relationship with plants.

The 5 major herbal tastes

Whilst I talk about the 5 major herbal tastes, in fact, various herbal traditions have different ideas about how many there are.

The 5 tastes are:

1. sour
2. sweet
3. salty
4. pungent
5. bitter

As a group, these 5 are commonly associated with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), but they also occur in all major herbal traditions.

In Ayurveda, they have these 5, plus a 6^th: astringency.

From a Western Herbalism framework, some people teach that there are 9 tastes:

• sweet
• sour
• salty
• bitter
• pungent
• astringent
• spicy
• acrid
• bland

Whilst it’s really helpful to differentiate that many tastes, in general I tend to think of the bottom 4 as sub-tastes.

Or another technical explanation for at least some discrepancy is differentiating between ‘taste’ and ‘mouth feel’.

According to Sajah Popham, astringency is technically considered a ‘mouth feel’ as there’s no taste receptors on the tongue for astringency. But, astringency has a distinct sensation and is also a herbal action in Western herbal medicine.

It’s really common for people to talk about astringency and sour interchangeably. Whilst they do often occur together, I personally think they need to be differentiated because the two tastes work slightly differently in the body. I personally think about astringency as sub-taste of sour.

Simple vs complex herbal tastes

Sounds easy so far right? Taste a herb and you’ll instantly know some of its potential herbal actions!? Well yes and no.

Most herbs have complex tastes, not just a single taste, so their medicine will be similarly complex. This is part of what contributes to the uniqueness of herbs.

For example, whilst a herb might have some bitterness, its dominant taste might be pungent. Or perhaps it’s mostly pungent but has a strong affinity for the head (like rosemary). Each of these will change the nature of how these herbs work in the body.

Let’s take an example

Rosemary: primarily pungent, with a bit of astringent

The pungent taste indicates that rosemary is a stimulating warming circulatory stimulant. Pungent aromatic plants are often carminatives (although that generalisation depends how you define pungency) and aromatic plants usually have an effect on the nervous system as well as being antimicrobial.

The astringent aspects will be drying and toning to tissues, although because this is a mild secondary taste, these actions won’t be as strong.

That’s just a quick example and we go into much more detail about the herbal tastes in my Embodied Herbalism: Herbal Tastes course (click here)

Does that tell us the whole picture? Not quite. That’s when we layer over our other knowledge, such as her affinities, traditional use and clinical studies.

But just through taste alone, it gives us a really good guide to some of rosemary’s foundational energetic effects and herbal actions.

Love herbal tastes and want to know more?

I go into heaps more detail in my Embodied Herbalism: Herbal Tastes course (click here).

The course covers:

• how to describing taste and body sensations in herbalism
• what energetics is
• the difference between taste and mouthfeel
• the 5 flavours: sour, sweet, salty, pungent, bitter and 4 sub-tastes
• taste each flavor and learn what herbal actions are associated with it
• what chemical constituents might make up each flavor
• how taste can guide you how to prepare your medicine

In this super fun group learning environment, you’ll be amazed what the group can work out about just through tasting the herbs!

I honestly think knowing herbal tastes is such a useful skillset for home herbalists – it allows us to build a deep understanding of the herbs through our direct experience of how they taste. It also helps us build a holistic understanding of herbs, building a bigger picture, rather than just relying on rote learning of herbal actions.

Feeling inspired? Go make a herbal cuppa and see what you taste! (then jump on my newsletter and come tell me bout it! 🙌)

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Or what about taking another sip from your mug, only to realise you already drank it all!?

Whilst it’s pretty common to be in our heads and on autopilot during mundane daily tasks, we have to admit this is a pretty dis-embodied way of living.

Embodied Herbalism is the opposite of that. It’s fully being in our bodies, being present to our experience when we’re learning, and working with herbs.

And on a deeper level. It’s an approach to herbalism that sees value in this embodied process, knowing we actually gain wisdom and insights through interacting with plants using our senses and our heart.

It’s the perfect antidote to our overfocus on the mind and intellect as the only source of knowledge.

Cause yes, reading herb books, taking classes and scouring the web for knowledge is valuable BUT That head knowledge has to be paired with embodied herbalism experience to really be useful to us in our daily lives.

Cause after all, we’re not learning herbal medicine to become plant-toting factoids. We’re learning herbs so we can care for ourselves and our family naturally and connect more deeply with nature and the world around us.

(or perhaps we’re looking for a more affordable and holistic approach to health and well-being, or maybe we just enjoy the taste and creativity…. Actually there’s heaps of reasons we can be learning herbal medicine (I’m super curious, join my newsletter and tell me why you’re learning it!)

Why would we want to take an embodied herbalism approach?

Ok, so what can an embodied experience of herbs actually tell us anyway? Why would we want to use our senses when we’re working with herbs. Here’s a few ideas, broken down by senses:

Sight

Eyes are a really important sense for most humans and here’s a few ways sight is an important sense when we’re working with plants too.

• Helps us correctly identify plants and helps us work out which parts to harvest – ie vibrant green leaves vs yellowed ones.
• If we get to see where the plant’s growing, we can also take a look at what type of environment it’s growing in.
• There’s also a concept in herbal medicine called the Doctrine of Signatures, where a plant looks like the medicine its offering. This doesn’t always work, but it’s really surprising how often it does.

Think about the tongue-shaped sage (salvia officinalis) leaf and pair that with knowledge of its affinity for the mouth and throat areas.

• We also use our sight to work out whether got quality herbs or not – the more vibrant the colour, the better the quality.

Smell

We can tell whether a plant has lots of aromatic essential oils or if it an infused oil, cream or salve has gone rancid. Particularly when making and using remedies, it’s a fun, useful skill to get in the habit of sniffing things regularly. That way you know what they smell like when they’re fresh and it can be easier to tell if something has gone rancid, mouldy or spoiled in some other way.

Touch

Touching our herbs can give us insights into their general properties. When I harvest mullein and remove the leaves from the stem, I feel the cool moisture in the stem and this clues me into its soothing, cooling, moistening action on the body (and for anyone who’s harvested mullein, you’ll easily remember the stinging hairiness of silica on the leaves – definitely not a plant to wipe your bum with when you’re out bush).

Hearing

I think I use hearing as a sense more when I’m drying herbs or making remedies and food. Ie. when I’m drying herbs, I listen for the crisp crackle of the plants to know there’s no moisture left and it’s safe to store them now, or I’ll listen to the pop of spices on the stove to know how they’re toasting.

Taste

Taste can tell me HEAPS, like what herbal actions a herb might have, what chemical constituents it might have as well as what the best way to prepare medicine with this plant might be. Read this article for more info on taste (click here) – which is a super critical sense when we’re developing a relationship with and understanding of herbs. Learn more about herbal tastes in my Embodied Herbalism: Herbalism Tastes course (click here)

Feel

When I talk about feel, I’m primarily talking about your heart-perception and your body sensations. When you’re sitting, harvesting, drinking or working mindfully with this plant – how do you feel? What sensations do you notice in your body?

Do you notice body sensations such as heaviness or buzzing? Do you feel energy moving towards one part of your body, or perhaps up or down? Does it feel cold or moistening? Or perhaps you have notice emotions, images, colours or sounds coming up.

All of these sensations are communication between our body and the plant and can be an important source of knowledge and information.

For some people, this interoception (understanding the information generated within our bodies) will be easier to draw on and access than others.

You can also explore a plant more spiritually through plant spirit meditations and more.

How does embodied herbalism help home herbalists?!

I see you, nodding along with this approach, but perhaps wondering if it’s really relevant to you? I mean, you’re just wanting to use herbs to care for your dad’s arthritis or your kids sore throat.

I personally believe, that embodied herbalism is MORE important for home herbalists than clinical herbalists (although I’m certainly hoping they have this knowledge too).

You see, as home herbalists, we don’t have lab studies, or clinical trials or 4 years of study behind us.

But what we do have, is our direct experience, that we build up over time.

And as we can see from the list above, our senses can actually tell us quite a lot about our plants. This can help us make quicker, better decisions about which herbs are right for different situations. (ie remembering to choose moistening herbs for dry coughs and drying herbs for moistening coughs).

It can also help us in getting to know new plants we might be working with and have a simple, clear framework that we can slot new info into place. This is particularly relevant when it comes to herbal tastes as tastes just give us SO much information about how a herb might act medicinally in our bodies (see this article for more info, and this course if you want to learn this firsthand yourself).

From a purely practical perspective as well, I find it easier to remember knowledge that I’ve had a direct experience of in my body, rather than having to rely on rote learning facts from books. Ie, thinking of my mullein experience – because of my first hand experience, that knowledge sits within my body now and I can’t ‘unknow’ that.

My top tips to take an embodied approach to herbalism.

1. Start small (but I tend to say this about everything, gotta keep it achievable)
2. Get in the habit of paying attention. It might be a bit of extra work in the beginning, but pretty soon this embodied approach becomes second nature and your body actually kinda takes over the noticing, without you noticing… (or maybe that’s just me).
3. You could start a practice of mindfulness with your next herbal cuppa, tincture or just sit with a plant in your garden for 5 – 10 minutes/ day. Using the list above, go through your senses, asking what you notice.
4. Taste, taste, taste. I guide you through a taste reflection in my Embodied Herbalism: Herbal Tastes course if you want to do that with me – it’s heaps of fun and very insightful to do as a group.
5. Stay curious

The post What is embodied herbalism? appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

Whether you’ve got recipes, herbal research, harvest records or info on specific health issues… all this info can feel a little – or lot – unwieldy! Especially if you’ve got it stored in scraps here and there – old-fashioned literal scraps of paper, or digital clutter with phone notes, saved Instagram posts or blog links…

Let’s ditch the confusion and make a plan to create calm and simplicity, so you can find what you need – first time every time!

First up, you need to decide how you want to store your notes: digital or hard copy?

• If digital: will it be Word documents and folders or some kind of app, like a trello board?
• If hard-copy: will you use a specific notebook, pages in a concertina folder or ring binder or perhaps you’ll make A5 notecards… or something else?

You might find that you take a mixed approach, as you’ll probably end up collecting info from a variety of hard-copy and digital sources.

When it comes to keeping track of herbal info, there’s a few categories I personally like to use.

1. recipes
2. herb-specific knowledge (herbalists call this a herbal monograph)
3. garden records
4. organ systems or specific health concerns.
5. your family health records

What’s does this look like in practice?

1. Recipe book

You’ll probably come across a LOT of recipes, so how do you decide how to organise all this herbal info?

You might use your recipe book for:

1. bulk storage of all the recipes you come across
2. to save only your favs so it’s quick to find them when you want to make them. All the rest you jmight store in the relevant monographs (see next point).
3. Your recipe book might be organised by preparation type (ie teas, tinctures, oils), herb, health issue or organ system

2. Herb-specific knowledge (herbal monograph)

One of our core goals in herbalism is to know our plants well. Part of this is having one place to store all relevant info for each herb and we call this a herbal monograph.

All together, our collection of in-depth plant profiles is called a Materia Media.  

What I love about this, is that your Materia Medica will be unique and personal to you. It’s a beautiful expression of your home herbal journey, the place you live and your medicine.

It can often help to alphabetise the monographs (if using folders on a computer, this might happen automatically). You’ll need to decide whether to organise your herbal info by common name or botanical name

Monographs always contain basic info about each herb:

• botanical name
• plant family
• energetics
• taste
• list of herbal actions
• plant parts used (ie leaves, roots)
• common preparations (ie tea, tincture)
• how to use it – clinical indications, scientific research, traditional use
• safety and contraindications
• suggested dosage
• harvesting and growing information

After that, it’s up you to you what else you add. You might also like to include:

• picture or botanical illustration
• recipes and formulas
• more research you’ve done
• notes from your own use of the plant, including what’s worked, not worked etc.
• notes from any plant spirit communication, meditation or drum journeys
• garden and growing notes
• list of sources you’ve accessed to compile this monograph

Your monograph can be as pretty or utilitarian as you like!

The idea is that your herbal monograph is a living document. As you come across new info, or record notes on your experiences, you can add this info to your monograph. It becomes a beautiful, personal record of your knowledge and relationship with each herb.

It’s also a quick reference guide for you when you want to quickly check something.

3. Garden records

If you grow or forage your own medicine, you might like to keep track of this info in one handy place. This could be just be on one page, in a garden book, or perhaps just stored on each herbal monograph.

This info might help you know when to sow seeds and tips for each seed, when to plant, ideal harvest time – what to look for in the plant’s growth as well as records for when this was in previous years. You might record info on drying and processing, pests and diseases, conditions the plant seems to like etc.

You also don’t need to collect any of this.

Remember, your records are simply here to support you and if this knowledge helps you plan, or know your plants, then record it.

4. Organ system or specific health concerns

I’ve included these together, but you might also keep track of them separately, depending how and why you’re using herbs in your home.

Herbalism isn’t just about knowing diagnoses or herbs, but it’s about understanding the body and learning how to support it.  A common way to learn about both the body, health issues and groups of herbs are through organ systems, such as the digestive system, respiratory tract etc.

At home, you might also start by grouping together your research on a specific health concern. Ie. if your family’s prone to coughs, you might use that as motivation to learn all you can about coughs. So you’ll create a folder/ file / section of your notebook for coughs, or perhaps you’ll store your research by the organ system: the respiratory tract.

Obviously, there’s lots of cross-over as we’re interconnected holistic beings, but these categories give us a starting place to organise our herbal info

Use what makes sense to you in your home and feel free to adapt it as you travel the plant path.

5. Family health record

You might also like to keep a little record of your family’s health, health issues and reflections on what’s worked, not worked or things you’ve tried. This can be as simple as one page, or perhaps you create a treasured legacy by recording special recipes for each family member in your recipe book.

I hope this article has given you lots of ideas and inspiration for how to organise your herbal info and simplify your home herbalism. Having an easy system to ‘tame the beast’ of endless info and notes makes it easy to slot new things you’re learning into place!

Enjoy finding what works for you!

The post How to organise your herbal info appeared first on Everyday Empowered.

1. Are the herbs good quality?

Are your herbs vibrantly coloured and smell good (or what they’re supposed to smell like, which sometimes isn’t “good” 😂). When you taste them, do they have flavour (whether that’s pungent, sour, bitter etc)? Are there signs of spoiling?

If you’re storing herbs at home, I recommend keeping them in an airtight glass container and keep in mind, dry herbs are usually only really fresh for a year (or as short as 6 months and up to 2 years). They’re best kept in a dark cupboard that’s relatively temperature stable (but do your best and use your common sense, you also want them accessible to use, not locked up in a dungeon).

It sucks to have to throw herbs out (and by that I mean compost them), but if your herbs aren’t good quality, neither are your remedies and they won’t work as effectively.

2. Are you using the right dosage?

Higher doses aren’t necessarily better, but if your herbal remedies aren’t working, this might be a factor. With tinctures, it can be relatively straightforward to increase the dose by a few drops, to mls until you reach the higher suggested dosage range. But there are two other elements to consider:

The first is using enough herb material. Oftentimes you’re just not getting enough herb to make effective remedies, and this can be with a variety of preparations, such as teas, infused oils, vinegars or tinctures.

The second thing to think about is steep time. Chamomile can make a delightful beverage tea with a 5 minute steep, but if you really want its strong antispasmodic effects to help with period pain, you might need a 20 minute steep with up to ¼ cup of herb material.

Always check with a trusted herbal reference to see the safe, suggested dosage range for each herb. Keep in mind, some herbs are only to be used in low doses (although you’ll generally know that because these will often be given from a practitioner).

3. Are you taking the herbs regularly enough?

Often (*not always*- really depends what you’re using them for) small doses of herbs taken regularly is more effective that large doses less often. For example, at the very first sign of a cold (ie within first 24 hours), I use elderberry syrup every hour before tapering off to 3-4 times day (learn more about how to use elderberry syrup effectively)

Most remedies don’t need to be taken hourly, but this is really the art of home herbalism, and you’ll find your rhythm over time.

Sometimes it’s not about regularly through the day, but regularly over time. For example, many adaptogenic and immunomodulating herbs, such as astragalus or withania, have cumulative effects, meaning you need to take them regularly over time for them to be effective.

4. Is this the right preparation for this herb?

We have a wide variety of ways to work with herbs – in water, alcohol, vinegar, glycerine, honey, whole powdered herbs, in oil etc. Whilst some of these are just personal preference and what’s available, often it’s because certain chemical constituents extract better in different preparations.

If your herbal remedies aren’t working, then it’s really important to consider if you’re making the right preparation.

Even when working with the same herb, you might work with it in different ways to extract different constituents. For example – you might have heard nettle is an amazing source of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and zinc, but these minerals don’t extract well into alcohol. So if you’re using a nettle tincture you won’t get these benefits (but you’ll still get the anti-histamine actions for example). If you want the nourishing components, these extract better into vinegar or water.

So then you decide to make a nettle tea. Going back to the second point however, quantity of herb and steep time are both really important here.

Steeping a teaspoon of nettle for 5 minutes won’t give you the nutrient-dense punch you’re looking for, compared with a traditional nourishing infusion, which uses 30g of herb (per litre) with an 8 – 12 hour steep time.

5. Is this the right herb for this condition or person?

We are all different and herbs are all different. Respecting this, it doesn’t make sense that there’s JUST ONE HERB that will suit every person and every condition.

This nuance can be challenging when we’re used to the modern medicine take-this-pill-for-this-disease mentality. But it means we can get much more specific, personalised and effective support from our herbal remedies.

If your herbal remedies aren’t working, it’s important to consider the person’s constitution, the season, and herbal energetics of the both the tissue state and herb.

Simply put, energetics refer to whether a herb and tissue state is dry or moist, hot or cold. In general, our goal in herbal medicine is to create balance. For example – for a wet hacking cough, we’d use drying herbs, but those same drying herbs might not help, and might even aggravate, an already dry, unproductive cough.

Depending what’s going on, choosing the right herb for the right person might also refer to the psychological indications for particular herbs, or the overall symptoms pattern.

If you’re new to herbs and this seems confusing, take heart! You don’t need to know it all, or do it alone. You’ll pick things up over time, and can always work with skilled practitioners or take courses to learn.  

This is really why I emphasise learning the basic pillars of herbalism so you’ve got a good baseline understanding of what to think about. It’s also why I suggest learning fewer herbs more in depth. You’ll be more likely to understand this nuance related to the particular herb and you’ve got a higher chance of using it effectively and confidently at home! (Like the sound of this? This is what our courses are all about – join us, we’d love to support you!)

6. Are you addressing the root cause?

Depending on the issue, this might be something you work with a skilled practitioner to work out, then you can continue to care for at home. Oftentime we can get caught up treating the symptoms but not the root cause. Sometimes there’s even layers to root causes. If you’re not seeing results with your home remedies, or even with practitioner-prescribed remedies, keep searching till you find what works for you!

Keep in mind as well, that different modalities and herbal traditions describe root causes differently.

7. Herbs aren’t magic bullets and work best in tandem with core lifestyle pillars

Herbs are incredible but they’re not magic bullets and they really do work best with a solid life-nourishing lifestyle, such as movement, laughter, enough sunlight and fresh air.

Sometimes the herbs are effective, but they simply need more time to work, or give our bodies more time to rest.

A simple example of this and the previous point about root causes is we might get caught in that recurrent cold spiral. We might find ourselves regularly reaching for our cough syrup or elderberry syrup. But in this case, you might actually need deeper immune system support, or have a vitamin/mineral deficiency you need to address. You might need a week to just sleep or perhaps you’re too socially isolated and need to make time to build stronger relationships. Health if multi-layered, and herbs work most effectively in tandem with core lifestyle pillars and addressing the root cause.

To make it easy for you, here’s your quick checklist in condensed form. If you’ve got a little herb nook in your home, feel free to write these down, so you can return to it if you need it,

7 reasons your herbal remedies aren’t working:

1. Are the herbs good quality?
2. Are you using the right dosage?
3. Are you taking the herbs regularly enough?
4. Is this the right preparation for this herb?
5. Is this the right herb for this condition or person?
6. Are you addressing the root cause?
7. Herbs aren’t magic bullets and work best in tandem with core lifestyle pillars

Keen to make your own herbal remedies but want a bit of extra support? It’s really simple with our DIY Remedy Kits.

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