Wort Journal RESOURCES
doin’ the herbwork
herbwork: a definition
/ɜrb-wɜrk/ or /hɜrb-wɜrk / noun
- Working with herbs: herbal cultivation, herbal medicine making, herbal apothecary, herbal clinics, etc.
- Sharing herbs with others.
- Another name for “homework” when studying herbal medicine.
We believe one of the best ways to become a good community herbalist is by doing the herbwork. This page was created to accompany our piece in the Wort Journal (Issue #3). The Wort Journal is published twice a year and explores the world of grassroots herbalism through articles, artwork, poetry and more. Here you will find resources and herbwork suggestions that we hope can help you build the herbal infrastructure in your community.
Guiding Lights
Who are some of the folks or groups, past and present, that you can look to for inspiration? You can check out some of our guiding lights on our Herbal Links Page. In particular, check out these two sections:
Create a Community Care Directory
As you build your own community care directory, here are a few examples from the work we have done in Atlanta and Dublin:
the medicine is where you are
Herbalism is where people and plants meet. The more we work together in the streets, fields, and kitchens, the better off we will be. Here are some ways to develop your skills, build your resources, and just as importantly – ways to gather your herbal comrades.
- Hold a Plant Ramble. Nervous to lead a plant walk? Let it be a skill-share, where everyone offers what they know.
- New to plant ID? What are your local plant field guides? See our Foraging Resources webpage for suggestions.
- Gather your friends and make a batch of Fire Cider together. Here’s a worksheet to get you started: Fire Cider Solidarity Medicine Making Worksheet.
- Already caught the Fire Cider bug? Start a Fire Cider Brigade.
- Check out our Solidarity Medicine Making worksheets for other ideas of medicines you can make together and share.
Kitchen medicine
What’s in your kitchen cabinets? Grab an herb friend and play this game to see for yourself how much you can do with kitchen medicine.
If you’re stuck, check out some of these Kitchen Medicine resources to help you learn more about the apothecary in your kitchen.
Working only with kitchen items, create a mini-protocol for each complaint below:
- Anxiety
- Slightly infected cut on hand
- Stye
- Beginnings of a sore throat
- High Blood Pressure
- Insomnia
- Osteo-Arthritic knees
- Vaginal Yeast Infection
- Menstrual Cramps
mindmapping
Let’s use mind-mapping to explore your current herbwork or the herbwork that you would like to do.
Here are a couple early mindmap examples from our own explorations:
Create a HerbCare Station
After all of your earlier herbwork, weaving relationships and becoming more attuned to the needs of your community, you probably have a few places in mind that could really do with a HerbCare Station.
HerbCare Stations can literally go anywhere that people might congregate. We have installed HerbCare Stations (aka self-care stations) at community centers, co-housing facilities, occupations, shelters, refugee camps, and offices. We’ve pushed them around on carts and also set-up pop-up HerbCare stations in city parks or at health fairs, festivals and gatherings.
They don’t have to be complex, in fact, the simpler the better. For resources and examples, please check out our HerbCare Station Project Page.
HERBALISTA FREE SCHOOL
Looking for a deeper dive into community herbalism? Check out our Free School offerings, including our newest course, Community & Clinical Care.