The year I started studying herbs, I couldn’t take my eyes off goldenrod (Solidago spp.). Everywhere I went, the yellow blossoms waved me down, shouting, “Here! Look over here!” It’s not like I’d never seen goldenrod before. In the area of the Midwest where I’m from, they’re a landscape fixture come September — common as violets in spring or dandelions in summer — but that particular year, their golden hue had me completely mesmerized.
Then on a field walk with my herbal mentor, I learned about all the amazing ways goldenrod benefits our health. It’s a valuable remedy for the kidneys, it will bring down a fever, and contrary to what most people think, it can help clear up a stuffy nose. From that point on, I knew I couldn’t ignore the special relationship we humans have with plants.
If opening this magazine is your first dive into herbal medicine, beware: Your life will never be the same. Pretty soon, a walk around your farm will take 10 times as long because you’ll stop to identify each plant growing along your trails. You’ll be insisting that your friends eat the weeds in their backyards. And at the first sign of a cold, you’ll be searching the indexes of all your herb books — the ones that you’re sure to start collecting once you put this magazine down — looking for the best remedy hidden among the herb stores kept in your guestroom closet. People are surely going to look at you funny, but that’s OK. The life of an herbalist is all about reclaiming that historical connection to the natural world around us.