2021 in Review & Some Goals for 2022

This year in community herbalism….

2021 was an awesome year in terms of my community herbalism practice. I am so grateful for all the opportunities I found to share herbal resources with folks and support the building of community health networks. Here are a couple things I managed to do last year towards this effort:

• Taught 4 community workshops open to the public!
• Hosted 5 Open Hours sessions!
• Did 4 herbal pop-ups with the herb collective I’m part of, Santa Cruz Herbal Mutual Aid, and Food Not Bombs, distributing a total of ~160 cups of herbal tea and approximately ~100 free remedies (salves, infused vinegars, elderberry syrups and fire ciders)
• Taught SCHMA members how to use Canva to make labels for dropper bottles
• Taught friends and acquaintances how to make tinctures and other herbal remedies through Time Bank Santa Cruz
• Provided free/low-cost herbal aid to a number of folks in my community
• Attended 1 Amah Mutsun Land Trust workday at Pie Ranch

I also did a few projects on my Patreon, the Autonomous Herbalism Learning Community, that I felt really excited about:

• I was able to offer free herbal mentorship or self-care consultations to all my patrons in June or July – it was so lovely to meet individually with all of you who signed up!
• In October I released the zine Through the Portal: A Cookbook for Herbal Community Care for patrons supporting my work at $10/month and up

Finally, in 2021 I grew my herbal practice in many unexpected and exciting ways. From beginning to work with my own clinical herbalist, to moving my house and my garden and beginning to harvest some of my herbs from my yard, to waxing poetic about the powers of rose with Samwise Raridon on Herb at the End of the World, this year was pretty action-packed and full of lots of adventures and projects. I am grateful for the fact that herbalism provides me with a way to share with my community and build the world I want to create, a livelihood, and a deep source of personal healing. Thanks to everyone who made 2021 possible, especially my wonderful and generous patrons! And now, some goals for 2022…

In 2022, I am planning to:

• Teach 4 community workshops open to the public! The first one for this year, Building Your Home Apothecary: Getting Stocked for Common Complaints, will take place Saturday 2/26 at 1pm PST. Join my mailing list to receive the signup info!
• Keep hosting monthly Open Hours Sessions!
• Keep doing monthly herbal aid pop-ups with SCHMA and Food Not Bombs
• Attend Amah Mutsun Land Trust workdays at Pie Ranch
• Get re-certified for First Aid
• Complete another level of herbal education with the Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism
• Continue providing free/low-cost herbal aid and education to folks in my community

I’m looking forward to another powerful year. I love when folks share their goals and trajectories like this and this post in particular was inspired by Nicole Rose of Solidarity Apothecary. If you’d like to support what I do, please consider joining us on Patreon in the Autonomous Herbalism Learning Community, where I’m now offering annual memberships at a 13% discount, or gifting me a book from my Apothecary Wishlist.

My deepest gratitude to my wonderful patrons who supported me in every step this year:

Want to stay in touch this year? Email is the best way!