Black Birch Benefits with Amelia South

---

---

I’ve only worked with black birch benefits a little bit, and I was really excited when Amelia South told me she was interested in discussing this beautiful tree!  Amelia had so much to share about black birch, and I left the conversation wishing I could be out in the woods smelling and tasting it right then.  I’d be surprised if you don’t leave this episode feeling super interested in black birch, too!

One of the things Amelia shared was how black birch has supported her with pain relief in so many different situations, from arthritic pain to tummy aches.  We have a beautifully illustrated recipe card for Amelia’s Tummy Ache Tea, which you can find in the section below.

By the end of this episode, you’ll know:

► How to work with black birch both topically and internally for pain relief

► How to use your nose to distinguish black birch trees from wild black cherry trees

► Six tips for harvesting birch bark (and any tree bark!) ethically and respectfully

► How talking with the plants has helped Amelia in her herbal journey

► Why it’s important to learn from plants through your senses, not just about plants through reading books

► and so much more…

For those of you who don’t know her, Amelia is a professional foraging instructor and practicing herbalist living on her small organic farm in eastern Connecticut. She helps people reconnect with nature, heal their bodies with wild food and medicinal plants, and reclaim their gut health by escaping the toxic Western diet. She teaches many lessons on her TikTok channel as well as YouTube.

I’m thrilled to share our conversation with you today!

-- TIMESTAMPS -- for Black Birch Benefits

• 01:07 - Introduction to Amelia South
• 01:52 - How Amelia found her plant path
• 05:00 - Eat the weeds!
• 07:03 - How Amelia got started working with birch
• 09:39 - Tips for identifying black birch
• 11:13 - Medicinal gifts of black birch
• 15:17 - Tummy ache tea
• 17:22 - Tips for ethically harvesting bark
• 24:08 - When to harvest birch bark
• 25:27 - Experience birch with all your senses!
• 27:53 - Amelia’s current projects
• 30:48 - What Amelia wishes she’d known when she first started working with herbs
• 35:11 - Herbal tidbit

Get Your Free Recipe!

A simple tea blend you can make to soothe stomach upset that is accompanied by griping pain, such as when you have the stomach flu.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp dried ginger chunks
• 2 Tbsp dried thyme
• 2 Tbsp lemon peel (just peel, no pith)
• 1-2 Tbsp black birch bark or twigs

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and put them into a glass jar.  Use 1 Tbsp of the blend for each cup of tea.  Allow the tea to steep in just-boiled water for at least 10 minutes, covered, to get the most benefit.

Connect with Amelia

• Websites | Black Sun Farm LLC and Herbal Remedies By Amelia
• Instagram | @blacksunfarm 
• Facebook | Black Sun Farm 
• TikTok | @theoriginalmealchan
  

Transcript of the 'Black Birch Benefits with Amelia South' Video

Rosalee de la Forêt:
Hello and welcome to the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast, a show exploring how herbs heal as
medicine, as food and through nature connection. I’m your host, Rosalee de la Forêt. I created
this Channel to share trusted herbal wisdom so that you can get the best results when
relying on herbs for your health. I love offering up practical knowledge to help you dive deeper
into the world of medicinal plants and seasonal living.

Each episode of the Herbs with Rosalee Podcast is shared on YouTube, as well as your favorite
podcast app. Also, to get my best herbal tips as well as fun bonuses, be sure to sign up for my weekly herbal newsletter below.

Okay, grab your cup of tea and let’s dive in.

If you don’t leave this conversation feeling super interested in black birch, then I’d be surprised. I especially think you’ll be interested in hearing Amelia’s stories about how various birch bark medicines have been powerful healers for her for everything from pain to tummy aches.

For those of you who don’t already know her, Amelia is a professional foraging instructor and practicing herbalist living on her small organic farm in Eastern Connecticut. She helps people reconnect with nature, heal their bodies with wild food and medicinal plants, and reclaim their gut health by escaping the toxic Western diet. She teaches many lessons on her TikTok channel, as well as YouTube.

Amelia, I’m really looking forward to getting to know you for this interview. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Amelia South:

Thank you.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Let’s just dive right in. I want to hear about how you found yourself on this plant path.

Amelia South:

In 2009, I had my daughter, and as everybody that’s ever had a child knows you can’t give anything safe. There’s nothing safe to give to a baby. She was two weeks old, was colicky and screaming and crying. I was a new mom. I did not know what to do. Somebody had given me Aviva Romm’s book, Naturally Healthy Babies and Children, I think, and I looked in that. Of course, thank God, the internet existed, so I looked it on the internet. I made her some chamomile tea and it helped calm her down. A couple of weeks later, she was having stomach issues. I found gripe water and I was like “Oh, gripe water.” I think it’s got fennel and maybe catnip or something in there and that helped her too, so I was an instant convert to herbs.

As a kid, my stepmother had been into homeopathic medicine and stuff, but it’s a little bit different when you go straight into actual herbs. From there—I mean, I had already been dabbling in foraging, getting into the plants that are out in the wild around me. There was a plum tree outback that I was going and harvesting and decided to make plum jam and things like that. From that point on, I really started paying more attention to not just the stuff I could eat, but maybe the herbs or wild plants that I could turn into a medicinal concoction of some sorts.

I started learning. I started really studying in about 2018. I basically was losing my health insurance for a year. I ended up instead of spending—it was like $400 or $500 a month they wanted for health insurance and I couldn’t afford it at the time. Instead of doing that, I invested in some classes, some herbalism classes like one-time fee to learn herbalism. I’m like, “I’ll start taking care of myself.” That was just like history because as soon as—up until that point, I hadn’t even known that you could be an herbalist. I didn’t know that was a thing.

Once I started studying, it’s been a never ending journey. I’m sure as everybody knows, you take one class and then you’re like, “This other class looks really great!” “This other class looks really great,” and it’s just nonstop education and listening to podcasts and reading herbalism books, and been obviously doing it in person. I’ve been farming for about 10 years now too. Farming and herbalism actually go hand-in-hand because when you’re out in the field, then you get stung by a bee, you want to know where there’s plantain. I taught that to so many people and they love it. That’s like plantain is the  gateway. I don’t want to say “gateway drug.” “Gateway herb” for everybody.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Are you still farming then?

Amelia South:

Yes. Well, if you came over and look, you’d say, “Wow. This looks terrible,” because my main garden area—I have one huge garden where I put the vegetables. It’s a really small mini farm, I only got an acre. The area where I put the vegetables I tried some permaculture techniques this year and it’s probably 40% to 50% weeds right now. The thing is, at least half—almost all of those weeds that I’m leaving in there—I’m leaving in there on purpose because I eat them. The weeds are food too and that’s one of the things I’m trying to teach people with all of my online content and stuff is, “Hey, this is something you normally throw out or you’ll mow over or you throw it in your compost or whatever, but you can actually eat this. This is how and this is why,” and yada yada. I love getting people excited about finding all the food and stuff in their own backyard because so many people just have no idea. I do foraging walks. I’ll talk for 20-30 minutes within 15 feet of somebody’s backdoor and their mind is blown.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That’s fun, to have people on the walks that are so new to it that it’s a very eye-opening experience for them.

Amelia South:

Yes. Even if they’re just looking down in their lawn, I’m like, “You can eat that. You could eat that. You could eat that.” It’s exciting. Some people will—I feel bad for people that live in an HOA and they have to have their lawn a very specific way. If you’re in that situation, I am so sorry because if I had an HOA where I lived, they would be kicking me out of the neighborhood absolutely because my lawn is probably mostly weeds, but that’s okay because I’m all around the edible stuff.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I’m really excited to hear what you have to share about black birch. It’s the first time on the show, a plant I’ve worked with a little bit, but not a lot. I know people who love black birch, love black birch, so I”m excited to hear you share about it.

Amelia South:

Absolutely. My story about black birch actually starts with white birch and that was because white birch, the paper birch, is the one that most people think of. If you hear the word “birch,” you’re usually thinking of the paper birch trees because there’s a lot of art work with paper birch. My mother had a paper birch in her yard. I was a baby herbalist and I’m like, “Hey, I heard birch could be medicinal,” so I went and harvested some of the bark and I made an infused oil with it. I didn’t think I was just trying out whatever. I’m like, “This isn’t going to hurt me,” so, I made the oil and then I was straining the oil six or eight weeks later. I accidentally spilled some on the counter and I wiped it up with my hand because I said, “Why not?” I’ve had hip pain for years ever since pushing two kids out. I put some of the oil on my hand, rubbed it on my hip. I kept bottling, kept doing what I was doing and I realized after two minutes, I’m going, “Oh, my God! My hip pain is gone!” It’s totally gone! I said, “This is amazing!” So, I started making birch oil, working with that a little bit more.

I did realize if you’re not familiar with anything that’s going on in New England or on the East Coast, there’s the birch borer? It’s hard to say that articulately. It’s an insect that burrows into the white birch trees, mainly. It gets right into the heartwood and usually, what happens is it starts doing damage. It starts eating the tree from the inside and you can’t tell that the tree is damaged or dying until it’s too late. The damage doesn’t start showing up for two or three years.

People—I mean, I’m 40 now and I can remember when I was younger seeing white birch trees absolutely everywhere all over the place. They’re from Connecticut. Honestly, it’s hard coming across any of them now. I’ve seen some, but most of the white birch that I see in the wild here is either dying or dead. It’s covered in birch polypore mushrooms, which is great, but still, the tree is gone. I found that black birch was available out here and there’s a couple of—black birch, they call it “sweet birch.” It’s Betula lenta. The Betula lenta species has actually a couple of different varieties of it because the one that I see most often is a dark gray with kind of white spots up and down the bark--the color of the bark.

The other one is very much confused frequently with wild black cherry because the bark is a darker, almost reddish color with these horizontal striations up the bark. If you take a pocket knife and scratch the bark a little bit and give it a sniff, you instantly know that that’s black birch because it’s—I don’t want to say “minty” because it’s not quite the same as mint, but it’s that same aromatic, volatile oil content. It blows your nose away. It’s awesome! If you’ve ever smelled bengay, it’s very similar to that scent. 

Another thing for New Englanders, if you’ve ever tasted birch beer, birch beer is a soda that you can buy out here. Everybody loves it because it tastes amazing! Obviously, now, it’s made with sugar and chemicals and whatever, but originally, it was made from tapping birch trees and that minty kind of sap stuff—it’s absolutely delicious. Black birch became, basically, my best friend for a lot of different reasons. Do you want me to keep rambling? I’ll totally keep rambling.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I want to hear why. Why? Why did black birch become one of your best friends?

Amelia South:

Partially because of the oil I make with it because the oil that I make is seriously—not even exaggerating here—the best topical pain reliever I’ve ever experienced in my life. The best because it goes on your skin, it absorbs right away and it stops the pain. I have arthritis in my fingers and in one of my knees. I will put the oil on my skin right there and the pain is gone in 30 seconds. Not even kidding, so it’s awesome. That’s a huge thing. I love the analgesic properties. It’s amazing. The tincture works great too. It’s kind of a toss-up whether that’s my favorite or wild lettuce. I know that sounds weird like, “I’m all about the pain—“ I’m not just about pain killers. When you’re talking about something where that’s like its main, #1 kind of feature, it comes into mind.

The tincture works great. About two years ago on Christmas, I went for a hike and I fell,  slapped down on some stones and I twisted my back really bad. The next day, of course, I’m putting comfrey oil on the horrible bruise all over my leg, and then I took some birch tincture thinking I hadn’t even tried it. I just made the tincture for the first time that year and it was like boom! Pain’s gone! Awesome because I felt like really twisted and nasty.

I got another story from about a year and a half ago where I got sick. I don’t get sick that often, but my son is still in school and he brought home whatever plague they had in school in January or February, I think it was. He brought that home and I got sick. It wasn’t COVID. It was something else, not just respiratory. It was like a stomach bug kind of thing going on. I felt just terrible and I was letting it go through my system, but I remember I spent at least one whole day basically on the couch just not feeling well at all, in and out of the bathroom, that sort of thing.

The next day, I was feeling better, not 100%, but better and I just said, “You know what? There’s a little path that I can go for a walk. It’s less than a mile walk. I’m going to go get some fresh air, move my body around.” So, I went for a walk and I figured because I was out and it’s February, I might as well harvest some birch while I’m out there for me for whatever. I went and I always ask permission from the trees before I harvest. I usually just harvest a couple of branches, something that I can reach. I don’t ever get it off the trunk. I ask this little sapling that I see all the time. All I could think about in my mind was how bad my stomach still hurt. My stomach hurt so bad. I’m like, “Hello. How’s it going?” Talking with the tree. “Could I take a little branch here?” and it just kept yelling at me, “Make tea! Make tea! Make tea! Make tea!” Every time I looked at another birch to say hi, “Is it okay if I grab a branch?” They’re yelling at me, “Make tea!” so I just said, “Fine, okay.”

I went home and I took some of the branches because I’m still kind of feeling crappy. I took some of the branches and put them in a tea cup and I poured water over it. I know you should really be decocting the bark. I just did not have the energy to do that, so I just straight up made some tea with it. I drank it. It tasted lovely. I didn’t expect anything to happen. I just was like, “This is going to be minty fresh,” and it’s nice. My stomach pain, actually, went completely away for five and a half or six hours. I said, “Wow! This was a really good idea!” That’s one of the reasons why I put it in that tummy ache tea recipe that I sent you because it really does a number on it, plus, the mintyness tastes nice in your belly.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I can see why you become best friends with birch, a very helpful tree for you. Let’s talk about the tummy ache tea. It’s evolved, it seems like. You have some more ingredients in there. Maybe more stories about how phenomenal it is.

Amelia South:

Definitely, that’s one that I’ve given to a few clients and they relied on—they were mad at me when I ran out. I added ginger and thyme both for—ginger, the warming properties. Ginger is really soothing to your stomach. Thyme I put in there because I love putting thyme in just about anything for when you’ve got the cold or the flu. A lot of people go for oregano and I just don’t. I like thyme better. I think thyme goes really well here. I’ll grab some thyme because I want to kill all those bad bacteria that are in my stomach causing this virus. Thyme helps with that, and then lemon peel. It could be an actual chunk of lemon or a squeeze of lemon or something like that. When I’m blending up the dried stuff, I’ll put lemon peel in it because you can’t really—if I had to mail it to somebody, I can’t give them a whole chunk of lemon. Definitely, then the birch bark. I dehydrate it, so it preserves it really quickly right away.

Birch bark is one that I would definitely want. If I was going to dry it, I would put it in a dehydrator. That’s my big herb drying rack back there. You can see in the picture. I wouldn’t want to air dry it just because I feel like it would dry. It’ll hold on to its medicinal component better if you dry it faster.

That’s what’s in that tea and it’s lovely. It tastes lovely and it definitely soothes your stomach, especially if you’ve got an upset stomach.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That’s lovely. For the listeners, you can download your beautifully illustrated copy at herbswithrosaleepodcast.com. I’m wondering, Amelia, if you’ll talk a little bit more about how to harvest this plant in a respectful way because this is something I’m guessing that most people are going to need to harvest themselves if they want to work with it. You’ve already mentioned that you don’t often harvest from the trunk. You harvest branches. Anything more you could share about that would be great. I’m also curious if you’re ever working with the leaves, or if it’s more bark and twigs, specifically.

Amelia South: 

I do work with the leaves occasionally. The leaves I’ve been experimenting with them because I have an old herb book. What is the name of it? It’s by John Lust—is the author. It explains that birch leaves are slightly analgesic, but also have vermifuge properties so they can help you deworm. I was thinking of mixing them up in a tea with some black walnut leaves, but black walnut leaves—I actually just ate one. I have tons of black walnut in my yard. Black walnut leaves do not taste very nice.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

They do not.

Amelia South: 

They’re definitely like you can taste, “Oh, that’s why this is an anti-fungal.” But birch does taste very nice, so I’m debating making up a blend with that or just the straight birch. They’re a nice addition to tea just for the flavor even if you’re not talking about medicinal property. If I’m making a tincture, I usually will do the leaves and the bark together. I never harvest off the trunk of the tree unless it happens to be like a downed birch tree that I know it just fell or something. When I’m harvesting in the wild because I want the fresh, alive bark, I usually go for saplings. Anywhere that black birch grows, it’s going to be actually fairly easy to find saplings. The smaller ones that are only 5 to 20 feet tall or something like that. There’s going to be a way to get to those little, tiny branches.

Usually, the way I talk with trees is I put my hand on the trunk or on a branch or something and I introduce myself. I say hi because they don’t like it if you don’t. If you just walk up and say, “Hey, can I cut this off of you?” They’re like, “No. Why? Who are you?” so I ask permission. Trees are so, so giving all the time. They’re really friendly. I always say “Thank you” afterwards, obviously. I cut the branch—a couple of branches sometimes off of one tree and I say thank you. I have a little thing of kinnikinnick that I mixed up. It’s got cedar, mugwort, sage and a couple of other little herbs that I give it in offering. Or sometimes if I don’t have that with me, I will sing it a song or give it some of my hair or something like that just to make sure it knows I say thank you. They all talk with each other. You do that to one and by the time you walk 20, 30, 100 feet down the path, the other ones all know that you’re coming. It’s easier for me to, one, I know I’m not hurting the tree when I’m just harvesting the branches and the twigs, and then I go home.

The way that I take them apart—this is probably important for people to know—I use snippers. That’s why I keep making this snipper motion. Talking with my hands, sorry. I snip all the little tips of the branches. All that stuff that’s really teeny-weeny, tiny that maybe some people would throw it out, I don’t want to waste it. I figure—listen, if I cut them up into teeny-weeny little pieces, as long as I’m working with it right away, that’s still opening up the cell walls of the bark and I don’t want to waste it. 

The rest of it, anything that’s thicker, maybe a little bit smaller than the thickness of a pencil, then I will take my knife and I scrape the bark off. You have to make sure you get down into the cambium layer. Get deep down. Some people will say, “You don’t want the outer bark. You only want the inner bark.” I’m like, “Listen, when you’re dealing with a twig this big, you’re not going to be choosy.” You can wash the outer bark off, especially if it looks like there’s anything on there, but I’m one of those—because I’m a forager too—I’m one of those herbalists that I don’t care if there’s a little dirt on it. For me. You can eat a little lichen and not get hurt. It’s fine.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I’m curious what size of branch you’re harvesting and how do you choose that branch? Are you using any pruning techniques so that you’re contributing to the health of the tree? 

Amelia South:

Yes, absolutely. Normally—believe it or not, I find a lot of the birch trees that I harvest from right on or near a path. In many cases, if I find some right near the path—because I go hiking a lot—if it’s right next to the hiking path, I look for one of the branches that’s basically getting really long, poking out into the path. I know it’s either going to have a deep officer coming by and cutting it down anyway, or some person is going to smack into it and hurt themselves, or they’re going to break it or whatever it is. This is in danger of being gone anyway, so that’s one of the ones I would go for first. I always cut right at the—what is the way—the crotch part of the tree? The branch where the V—yes. So, I pick a spot that’s further down. I don’t usually go all the way up to the trunk unless it’s a smaller branch, but sometimes I will.

It honestly depends what I think my little pair of snippers that I keep in my backpack will go through. Usually, it’s not going to go through anything thicker than my pinky finger or maybe one of my fingers, at the most. That’s usually the size branch I’m working with, the smaller one that I can grab and go, grab and go while I’m out in the woods. Occasionally, somebody will contact me and say, “Hey, we just took this tree down. I think it’s a birch. Do you want it?” I say, “Yes, absolutely!” I go to town on that, take whatever bark I want because they’re going to destroy it anyway. But when I’m out in the forest, I usually want the fresh twigs and branches, and the small stuff that I can reach.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Are you able to harvest all year round? Are there particular times where you prefer to harvest?

Amelia South:

The best time to harvest birch bark just like every bark is winter. Usually, February and March, I’m out there all the time getting as much as I possibly can because it’s at its strongest then. I tell people when the maple syrup is running, when people are harvesting maple sap for maple syrup, that’s when you want to be going out and harvesting birch bark or cherry bark or any of the other stuff. However, I will, if I run out, because sometimes that happens, I will harvest it basically after mid July, usually. From middle of July on, it’s still okay to harvest it. Don’t ever, ever harvest any in early spring when it’s putting all of its energy into those new buds and the new leaves that are just coming out. That’s the only time all year you really don’t want to be harvesting birch or pretty much any bark, as far as I’m concerned, because you want to let that tree put all of its energy into putting those leaves out and growing and living life again.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That’s a great tip. Thanks, Amelia.

Amelia South:

You’re welcome.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Is there anything else that you’d like to share about black birch that we haven’t hit upon yet?

Amelia South:

I do have. You definitely want to look up some pictures or I have a few videos on my social media stuff if you want to watch those. Again, just remember that there are a couple of different varieties, a few different varieties of the black birch, so that sniff test is actually really important. Keeping a knife in your pocket when you go out in the woods, just do a little, teeny-weeny scratch and you can smell it and you will know. You will absolutely know right away as far as that’s concerned.

One of my favorite things to do when I’m teaching a foraging walk with people is if we go out on a trail, especially if there are kids, I will grab a birch branch and cut it up into little pieces, and I hand one to everybody and I have them chew on it. Again, here in New England, I can say, “What does that taste like?” and if I’m lucky, some of them will say, “This tastes just like birch beer.” I say, “Alright, now, let the wheels turn. Why does this taste like birch beer?” They’re like, “Oh, that’s where it comes from,” and I’m like, “Yeah, it comes from the birch!” I love watching people make that connection. I think there’s a story people used to brush their teeth with birch twigs around here, anyway, because they smell nice and they’re minty. You can break it apart and use it. I chew on them. They’re fun. They’re delicious.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Thanks for that. Is there anything else about black birch before we move on?

Amelia South:

Not specifically. Not really that I can think of. If you see it, absolutely smell it, taste it, touch it, hug it, love it. I will say black birch tends to be a host for turkey tail and birch polypore mushrooms frequently. I only found chaga once ever and it was on a yellow birch, not a black birch. That doesn’t mean—I think it goes on black birch as well. I just figured I’d mention that.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Cool. Thanks. Thank you for sharing so much about black birch. I wish that I was smelling it right now. I also wish that I had some birch beer in my lifetime, but maybe that will happen now that it’s put out there.

Amelia South:

Absolutely. It’s delicious. You should try it.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I’m all about it. Let’s make a trip to the East Coast. I would love to hear what projects you’re working on right now, Amelia.

Amelia South:

Currently, I’ve got a couple of things going on. I’ve started writing a book. I don’t intend for it to be a big, fat, 300-pager or anything like that. It’s basically all kinds of quick herbal remedies. I’ve got a few clients and people that follow me on Facebook and whatnot that have said, “I want to know what you would do with this situation.” It’s basically, “If I had this problem, this is what I would do,” over and over and over again for a bunch of different problems. I’m working on that.

I’m also trying to develop a program, an educational type program that will end in an in–person retreat. I want to have 10 to 12 people, physically take them with me to learn how to—I will take them out foraging. We will do some foraging and forage for some of our meal or some components of what we’re going to cook. I also want to teach them herbal medicine making techniques and how to take care of themselves naturally.

Also, a big, big component of that is in person when you’re—I want to be able to teach people how to eat healthy with whole foods, mainly, because so many people will say that they want to, but they don’t know how. They don’t know how to cook it. They don’t know what foods to eat, that sort of thing. I’ve heard people say, “I went to this retreat and it was catered. This food was great. I felt fantastic and then I went home and I went back to eating whatever.” I’m like, “No. I want to have a retreat where we’re eating healthy, but you’re going to help me cook it. We’re all going to cook it together and learn how to eat this way, so that you can realize, 1. How simple it can be and how sustainable it can be for you to keep doing that further on.” Plus, incorporating wild foods into our meals, and that’s obviously going to depend on what month of the year I’m holding the retreat. The first one I’m trying to do probably right after Halloween, so we’ll see. We’ll see. I’m sure we can get some dandelion and burdock root, at least, but we’ll have to see what else is available at that point in time. It’s not that cold in early November around here. It’s actually pretty nice. There are no mosquitoes in the woods at that time.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That’s nice.

Amelia South:

Exactly.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That sounds lovely. As you’re talking, it made me think of my first forays into the plant world was just that. I was working with an ethnobotanist. We would forage together as a class and we’d make food together as a class. It was just so lovely to do that in community too.

Amelia South:

It stays in your head when you do that, right?

Rosalee de la Forêt:

It actually does.

Amelia South:

It’s so much more than just having someone feed you at a restaurant.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Before we go, I’d love to ask you one last question and that’s one of my favorite last questions that we do here on the show and that question is: What do you wish you had known when you first started working with herbs?

Amelia South:

What do I wish I had known? I guess, 1. I wish that I had known initially that I actually could do this for a living because I didn’t think that was possible, 2. I wish I had known how addicting it is because once you get into it, it doesn’t leave your head. I used to be the kind of person where I would read a book and I have to read all 20 or 30 copies or versions of that. I’d get into a TV show. I have to watch everything obsessively, and now, I get into a plant. I have to find it. I have to go look at it. I have to touch it, taste it, work with it, know everything about that and it’s like I’m nerding out on the plants. I think that only really happens when the plants affect you. If you’re just sitting there reading about it, yes, it’s cool, but it doesn’t really register until something either saves you or helps you in such a profound way that you can’t possibly forget it. It’s surprising that aspect of it, and yes, the whole plant communication thing because I never would have thought in my younger days that that was real, but it’s absolutely real.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I love how this last question filters back to everything you shared. Just thinking about your experiences of having a young child and using chamomile and gripe water and getting those results and using the birch oil on your hip and just having that experience and I can just see that it really did. Plants jumped out and said, “Here we are!” Now, they sucked you into their paradigm.

Amelia South:

That’s right. You get sucked into the world then you can’t leave. You never escape.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Amelia, it’s been wonderful to get to know you. I love your high energy and enthusiasm for the plants. Thank you so much for being here and thanks for sharing all of this with us.

Amelia South:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Thanks for being here. Don’t forget to get your beautifully illustrated recipe card above this transcript. And sign up for my weekly newsletter below, as it is the best way to stay in touch with me.

You can find more from Amelia at blacksunfarmct.com. If you’d like more herbal episodes to come your way, then one of the best ways to support this podcast is by subscribing on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

I deeply believe that this world needs more herbalists and plant-centered folks and I’m so glad that you’re here as part of this herbal community. Also, a big round of thanks to the people all over the world who make this podcast happen week to week:

Nicole Paull is the Project Manager who oversees the whole operation from guest outreach, to writing show notes, to actually uploading each episode and so many other things I don’t even know. She really holds this whole thing together.

Francesca is our fabulous video and audio editor. She not only makes listening more pleasant. She also adds beauty to the YouTube videos with plant images and video overlays. Tatiana Rusakova is the botanical illustrator who creates gorgeous plant and recipe illustrations for us. I love them. I know that you do too. Kristy edits the recipe cards and then Jenny creates them as well as the thumbnail images for YouTube. Alex is our tech support and Social Media Manager, and Karin and Emilie are our Student Services Coordinators and Community Support. For those of you who like to read along, Jennifer is who creates the transcripts for us each week. Xavier, my handsome French husband, is the cameraman and website IT guy. It takes an herbal village to make it all happen including you.

One of my favorite things about this podcast is hearing from you. I read every comment that comes in and I’m excited to hear your herbal thoughts on black birch.

Okay. You’ve done it! You’ve lasted to the very end of the show which means you get your very own gold star and this herbal tidbit:

For several years, my friend, Tracy, sent me black birch tincture, which I used when I had occasional headaches. I remember it working quite well, but it’s something I lost the habit of and now, I’m interested in trying it again.

As always, I’d love to hear your stories of black birch. Please share.