Citrus Benefits with Emily Han

►►► Get started making herbal medicines with our Rooted Medicine Circle Mini Course happening January 17th-25th. Register for free here: www.herbalminicourse.com

Citrus may be more commonly thought of as a food than as an herb, but from peel to pulp to seeds, citrus bursts with powerful gifts. Whether you’re looking for a tasty way to enhance digestion, soothe a sore throat, or just enjoy a delicious drink, we’ve got you covered in this episode with Emily Han. (And those are just a few of the ways Emily shares to work with citrus!)

You’ll also receive access to Emily’s wonderful Citrus Honey Tea recipe. This easy-to-make recipe stays fresh for up to a year in the refrigerator. It’s a wonderful way to enjoy the gifts of citrus months after prime citrus season is past…or any time you’re in the mood for a yummy hot or cold drink.

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

► Are there any safety concerns when selecting your citrus?

► Does it matter what citrus species you work with?

► How can citrus help with digestion?

► How can you grow your own citrus if you live in a cold climate?

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with her, Emily Han is a naturalist, herbalist, and educator helping people cultivate their connection with the earth. Based in Tongva/Kizh land, Altadena, California, her work focuses on intersections of ecology, culture, food, and plant medicine. She is the author of Wild Drinks and Cocktails, Wild Remedies, and the forthcoming Mushroom Hunting.

I’m so happy to share our conversation with you today!

-- TIMESTAMPS --

• 01:16 - Introduction to Emily Han
• 02:30 - How Emily got started on an herbal path
• 05:03 - Rosalee and Emily’s first hike together
• 07:16 - How Emily and Rosalee met
• 13:32 - Why Emily chose citrus as a focus for this conversation
• 17:54 - Working with citrus peel and flowers
• 21:23 - Emily’s Citrus Honey Tea recipe
• 26:19 - Closing thoughts about citrus
• 27:28 - Emily’s current projects
• 34:23 - Emily’s advice for getting started with herbs

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• Emily’s website | EmilyHan.com
• Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/emily.y.han/

Transcript of the Citrus Benefits with Emily Han 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 at the bottom of this page. Okay, grab your cup of tea and let's dive in.

I'm thrilled to finally have Emily Han, who's my good friend and fellow collaborator, on the show. Many of you already know that she and I wrote our book, Wild Remedies, together, and that we also co-teach a 10-month online course, Rooted Medicine Circle. For those of you who don't know, Emily Han is a naturalist, herbalist, and educator helping people cultivate their connection with the Earth. She’s based in Tongva/Kizh Land, Altadena, California. Her work focuses on intersections of ecology, culture, food, and plant medicine. She's the author of Wild Drinks and Cocktails, Wild Remedies, and the forthcoming Mushroom Hunting.

Welcome to the show, Emily.

Emily Han:

Thank you for having me.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. It's kind of just funny to have you here, too, because you and I work together so closely. Of course, we have on our book, we worked very closely on Wild Remedies together, and then we continue to work closely on Rooted Medicine Circle together, which we'll talk about later. But first I'd love to start with hearing about all that brought you to this plant path that brings us together today.

Emily Han:

Oh, my goodness. Well, I definitely grew up with a lot of plants and herbs in my life from my parents and grandmother, family members. My parents practiced Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, and so we pretty much used herbal remedies for most things, whether it was Chinese medicine or also western herbs that my mom had learned about and things. So if we had a sore throat or a rash or something like that, herbal medicine was just part of my family. So I think there was always a foundation there, but it wasn't necessarily something that I thought about consciously or actively.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Right, it was normal.

Emily Han:

Yeah, right. And it wasn't just medicinal, either. It was that concept of food is medicine and herbs being integrated into our food just growing up. But I think coming to herbal medicine in a more conscious way or something… it came much later when I had moved to Southern California in my early twenties. And my husband, Gregory, who grew up here, he had grown up spending a lot of time outdoors and hiking and spending a lot of time outside. And so his way of, when I moved to California, introducing me to my new home and his home was that we would go hiking all the time. And so as I did that and really getting to know the plants around me and the animals and the ecologies and things. Just as I learned more and more and more and as a food writer, I started integrating a lot of the local plants into my food and recipes. And then one thing led to another and started integrating those as herbal medicine, too.

So it was kind of a way of just continuing to deepen my relationship with the plants around me, with the Earth, and just another way, I guess, to participate in those relationships between animals and plants and microbes and rocks. And getting to be an herbalist was just another way to participate in those cycles and those relationships.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I love, of course, that you're mentioning all the microbes and insects and beings, because you don't mind me sharing this story about the first time you and I went on a hike. So normally, when I go on a hike with people, I'm like, "Okay, I'm a plant person, so I'm more interested in going slow and checking things out." And I just have to warn people about that. Going on a hike with you, for the first time in my entire life, I found somebody who was more detail-oriented and slow on the hike than I was. I've never seen that in my life. Which, there's that joke, maybe you even told me this joke. How do you find a naturalist?

Emily Han:

Oh, right, yeah.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Five feet from their car. Yeah, there's probably more to that. How to find a naturalist on a hike? Feet from their car. So you really taught me that. And I also really want to just credit how much you have brought insects and other beings into my life because I really did have eyes for the plants before you. Of course, I saw insects and stuff, but I never became as fascinated and interested in learning about all of the beings that I could see out there. So I really credit you with that because it's been a pretty, I don't know, life-enriching experience, just to open my eyes a little bit wider there.

Emily Han:

Well, I'm so glad and glad that… because I definitely drive people crazy on hikes – or more like five-foot walks – because I can just get so engrossed in the wonder of just all the intricacies of the life around us. To me, it's like knowing plants… It's not just the plants, like you said, it's… Getting to know plants is also getting to know insects and getting to know other animals and weather patterns and geology and all these other things that I think is just so much... One of the things that's just so fun about spending time with plants is that there's so many wonders around us.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, I would say that first hike with you was just fascinating to me because I just never found a creature quite like you, and you're also one of my very favorite people to hike with because of that. I think before we go on, I think it would be fun maybe to share about how we met.

Emily Han:

Yeah, that's right.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

We have been working together and friends now for a decade, I realized.

Emily Han:

Wow, has it really been that long? That's incredible.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, 2023 marks the decade mark.

Emily Han:

Wow, that's really cool.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

So how I remember it is that you basically cold-called me. You were doing online work and you reached out to me and said, "Hey, we have this mutual friend and I do this type of work and I'm just wondering if you know of anybody who might need that." And I was like, "Oh, actually I do." And so we started working together. Oh, but no, that's not it though, is it? That's not quite the beginning.

Emily Han:

That was sort of step two, I guess.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That was step two. I jumped ahead. Maybe you could share step one?

Emily Han:

Yeah, well step one. Yeah. I started following you on Facebook, I guess because of our mutual friend. So I don't know if we really interacted very much on Facebook or not, but I'd been following you and your work and then you had posted that you were looking for help with a graphic. So I don't know if you want to talk more about...

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, it… So it was the Taste of Herbs wheel. I had basically sketched out this pencil drawing. I don't know, it was a very rudimentary sketch and I needed it into a digital graphic. So I just posted that, "Who can do this?" Because it was fairly complex. We didn't have Canva back then, but you couldn't even do it in Canva today; it was fairly complex. I just posted and you answered. [Crosstalk]

Emily Han:

Yeah, I was like, "Oh sure, I can help with that." So yeah, so that was really fun to be there at the beginnings of you developing that Taste of Herbs wheel. But so we did that together and then I reached out again-

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, you did.

Emily Han:

It was like, "Well, if you need anything else or anybody who does…" and kind of went from there.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah. It's kind of funny just to think back into all that came from that. But yeah, from the beginning there. So we worked together on those projects and then we worked together at Learning Herbs for a while. And then there was that summer, I had just published Alchemy of Herbs and I swore I would never write a book again. And then I met with Tori Amos. This is a very important part of the story. And I met with Tori Amos; she inspired me to write another book, which had just hit me. I remember I was in my kitchen and it just hit me, just like this. It was like, ‘This is the book you'll write,’ and then two seconds later, ‘And you'll write it with Emily.’ And it was just bam, bam like that. And because… it wasn't out of the blue, we'd had so many conversations and stuff.

Emily Han:

We had a lot of conversation.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

So I remember I called you in my over-the-top, excited way and I was like, "And this is going to be the book and it's going to be about foraging, but really about nature connection." And I was just, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. You were like, "Oh that sounds great."

Emily Han:

That's really good.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That's really good. "Because I want to write it with you." And you were like…

Emily Han:

I didn't see that one coming.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

...”Let me think about that.”

Emily Han:

I had written my first book, Wild Drinks and Cocktails, and after that, I was like, "I'm never writing another book again." That was so intense. So I had not planned to do it again until you…

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, I did kind of hit you on the side there, just, “And this and this and this and then we're going to do it together.” But I knew, I knew we were going to do it together.

Emily Han:

Yeah, I mean I was like, "Okay, I need to think about it." But there wasn't really much to think about.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah. It didn't take you long.

Emily Han:

I'll do it.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

And then writing that book together was just a dream. I feel like my first book, Alchemy, I was so inexperienced. I'm so proud of the book and the way it turned out. But it was hard. Wild Remedies was not hard. It just flowed.

Emily Han:

We were just, like finishing each other’s sentences and thoughts. Yeah, it was… Anytime I thought of something, you had been thinking about the same thing that morning. Yeah, we were just so in sync with that, it was pretty cool.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Over and over and over again. It was kind of unreal. Yeah.

And we rented this place, it was out on the coast of Washington and we had studied with Victoria Lebalme on, I don't even know how to explain her work, but it was kind of like on presentation and organizing stuff. And we filled out almost 1,000 flat index cards of organizing the whole book. And anyway, we don’t have to go into all the particulars there, but it was a very wonderful experience to write Wild Remedies with you. And then after that was out into the world, which came out in this tumultuous time, spring of 2020. This is definitely our, I'll just speak for you. This is our life's work. We're so proud of it. And so we said, “What next?” And so we surveyed people who loved the book and found out that people really wanted to explore nature connection and medicine making more. And so we created Rooted Medicine Circle together.

Emily Han:

That was neat because like you said, we didn't necessarily know what the next step was, but that kind of grew out of what people were asking for. So yeah, it was really neat to be able to then put that together to answer some of the needs of what people were looking for. And then also integrating things that were so important to both of us.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

And then we basically wrote this whole other book for that course. But that is another story. Well, I am so excited that you wanted to talk about citrus because I eat citrus very seasonally. And so it's… this time of year, it's mandarins I love. So I'm eating mandarins, especially right now. July doesn't really… [Crosstalk]

Emily Han:

Smack in the middle of citrus season.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, this is the middle of citrus season. So yeah, I'm so excited to hear what you have to share about citrus, especially also because people think of this as a food, which obviously it is, but there's so many gifts beyond food. So excited to hear what you have to share, Emily.

Emily Han:

Yeah. I think it is neat because when people think of herbs, oftentimes, I don't think citrus is really the first plant that comes to mind. But like you said, it does have so many gifts and I'm just so in love with citrus from so many different angles. And I love that it's a plant that… It brings together my own roots, as well as where I live now. And so I had mentioned growing up with food as medicine and my parents using herbs and healing foods. And some of my earliest memories are my Dad drying citrus peels, mandarin orange peels he would use in Chinese medicine and cooking. So we would eat the mandarins and then he'd save the peels and have them laid out just to air-dry. We lived in Texas, so it tended to be warm in the winter and things could dry pretty quickly.

So yeah, we would have citrus peel drying for him to use. We would have jars of salt-preserved limes to make a Vietnamese nước chanh. It's like… it's the salt-preserved limes or lemons and then you mix that with some sugar and some water or soda water, make a limeade-type drink. It's like salty and refreshing. So we always had that; we would have… My grandmother's altar for the ancestors would always have piles of citrus fruits on it, mandarins, oranges. Lunar New Year was always really important, being Chinese and Vietnamese. And so citrus was always an important part of that. There'd become kumquat trees or big pomelos, they're similar to a grapefruit, the biggest citrus fruit, all these citrus to bring good fortune. So I grew up surrounded by a lot of citrus.

And then, like I mentioned, moving to California later, where citrus is widely cultivated, and so there would be citrus in people's yards. We'd always have friends bringing bags full of lemons and Meyer lemons and find ways to work with all of those. Going to the farmer's market. I was always just so completely dazzled by all the different citrus fruits. For a while, several years, we lived in a house that had a lemon, grapefruit and orange trees. I unfortunately don't have those trees in my yard anymore. But I do still grow small citrus in pots like kumquats, yuzu, Thai lime. So I'm fortunate to live somewhere where the citrus can flourish. But I know it is possible for a lot of people to grow citrus, such as a dwarf citrus in a pot, and even bring it in during the winter, live somewhere where it can thrive year round. So yeah, it's so… It's just being surrounded by citrus and then finding so many different, fun ways to bring citrus into food and medicine.

We think about the fruit, of course, there's that wonderful… But the peel being really one of my favorite parts of the citrus. Even the leaves and the seeds being used for certain things. I would use the seeds a lot to extract pectin, to make jams and jellies. And then the flowers. So the blossoms are so incredible when you are lucky enough to live near a citrus tree in that… Those citrus flowers are just so magical and intoxicating when they're in bloom. And then to see all of the birds and ants and insects also loving the citrus nectar and pollen, and that's a very exciting time. So integrated flowers into things that I did, too.

So yeah, talking about citrus, there's so many different kinds. A lot of times in herbal medicine, we talk about bitter orange because it has that bitter peel that can be used particularly for digestion or resolving phlegm and things like that. But lots of citrus have bitter peels. So you could use regular oranges, mandarins, grapefruits, pomelos, there's so many different ones that you can play with, too.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

I feel like in western herbalism, may be not as generally known unless you start studying deeper. But in Chinese medicine, the peels are a very big deal. That's one of the most popular medicines. When you're working with peels, do you like them as tea? What are some ways you like working with the peels?

Emily Han:

Yeah, probably used dried or fresh to make teas like you mentioned, and depending on the particular fruit that you use, it'll have bitterness, but oftentimes also could be very fragrant and just be a wonderful after-dinner type tea to help with digestion. Use the peels when making bitters, like an alcohol extract. So the peel will add that bitter component and citrus flavor to bitters. Grapefruit peel bitters is one of my favorites to make. So that's a fun way. What else? Drying the peels and then grinding them up into a powder is also a really great way to… You can then use that powder in your herbal remedies, mixing it with honey or making pastilles and things. But it's also just really fun to sprinkle on your food, on your oatmeal or congee something like that. You've got little sprinkles of orange peel or citrus peel powder. So those are some fun ways to use the peels.

The blossoms I love, again, just steeping those in hot water and just having a very light, fragrant tea, steeping it for a very short period. If you steep it longer, it does get more bitter, which sometimes has its benefits, too. That's nice. Also making hydrosols with the citrus flowers, an aromatic distilled water that then you can use in food and cooking and drinks as well as, it's wonderful just to spritz on your face. It's nice and refreshing. So yeah, there's so many different fun ways to work with the citrus beyond just eating the fruit.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

My only memory of ever being around fresh citrus flowers is in your backyard.

Emily Han:

Really?

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Oh, I'm glad I have that memory of the place, but they are incredibly heady, aromatic. Just to smell that fragrance is such a gift.

Emily Han:

Yeah. And yes, so I miss being, having mature citrus trees around me for that, but I have a little, it's just a little kumquat tree in a pot and I moved it to our new house and then it flowered shortly after that. And even just that little tree in a pot just had the most wonderful fragrance. So yeah, that was really special, too.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Oh, fun. Yeah, I actually have a friend who lives where I live, which is Zone Four, which is quite a ways north. And she and her husband have a lemon tree, which they do what you said, they bring it out and then they have a greenhouse attached their house and so they have it in there. So it's possible many different places. I'm excited to hear about your Citrus Honey Tea. Will you share more about that?

Emily Han:

Yeah, I thought I would share a recipe for Citrus Honey Tea. So my husband is Korean American and so Korean food and medicine is also very dear to my heart. And in Korean culture, there's something called yujacha or yuja tea that's made with the yuja fruit. It's also known as yuzu in Japanese. And so, if you're not familiar with it, it's kind of like a citron, it's more peel and rind than pulp inside and it has just amazing perfume to it, in addition to its bittersweet flavor. So, traditionally in Korea, they would use that peel mixed with honey and/or sugar to make a marmalade type mixture and preserve the fruit. And then you can take a spoonful or two of that sort of marmalade-y, citrus, sweet mixture and then mix that with water, hot water and make a tea, which could be used to help with sore throats, coughs, digestion, some of the things that we've already been talking about.

So my recipe is kind of inspired by that. Oh I should mention… I mean, it's used medicinally. My husband also… He just uses it to make with fizzy water and he drinks it as a soda, but yuzu fruit, yuja fruit can be harder to come by for a lot of people. So another friend of mine, he's a chef, Jason Park, he was making it with Meyer lemon. And so that was a really wonderful fruit, citrus that you can use in it. But you could really make this with, you could make it with regular lemons, with mandarin oranges. I've made it with the pomelo peel and that was really good. So whatever citrus you have accessible to you and that you are interested in playing with, you can try. Basically, it's pretty simple. Some of the herbal remedies that I make, I tend to be much more precise in measurements and ratios.

This is more of a folk method, pretty much just filling a jar with the citrus and honey. I have… Actually, I don't know if you could tell, I have one here. And so this is just a wheel of a lemon, so I just cut it in rounds and I love doing that because the wheel is just so pretty and sunny and just… In the cup, I feel like it's just so uplifting to see it. But you could also cut it into thinner slices or something and basically just put some of that in the jar, cover it with some honey, and then alternate layers of the cut citrus and the honey and then make sure it's well covered with the honey because that helps to preserve it and then put that in the refrigerator. And I give it at least a week before using it, but it can keep for months and it's great. You can taste it over time, too, and see that the flavor will develop and become stronger over time.

But then when you want to use it, you just take a spoonful or two of it, put it in a glass, a little bit of the honey, a little bit of the citrus pieces, add some hot water and you have a wonderful tea. I love drinking it… well, all times really. It's great after dinner because… to help with that kind of digestion. But I also love it just in the morning if I have a sore throat or feel kind of a little something, I like to have it. Yeah, the citrus is, it's both uplifting and refreshing, but it also just tastes really comforting and it's just a lovely… And it's kind of like, depending on the citrus you use, it can be more or less bitter and the amount you use in your cup more or less sweet. But to me, just that combination of the bitter and sweet is really nice.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

It sounds lovely. And like you said, something that can be a hot beverage or it can be something you add to fizzy water.

Emily Han:

Yeah, definitely. I usually drink it with the hot water, but my husband, he makes a cold soda, which is his preference. So it doesn't have to just be used medicinally, too. It can just be an enjoyable drink, as well.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

And because you are a BTS fan and – the way I'm a Tori Amos fan – it seems like a great idea to listen to BTS while you're making this because I know are. Well is there anything else you'd like to share about citrus?

Emily Han:

Let's see. Well, I think if you're fortunate to have a citrus tree in your life or a friend who maybe has a citrus tree, just spend some time with them. But if not, fortunately at least see during certain seasons, winter time it can be very accessible, you can find it at the market. You do want to make sure when you're using the citrus rinds to not use fruit that's been sprayed with pesticides or even… Some grocery store citrus can even have dyes or waxes and things like that on it. So just know where your citrus is coming from and how it's grown. So particularly if eating, you're using the peel, you want to be really mindful of that, think about that. And hope the people enjoy the tea and have fun with it.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah. Thank you again so much for sharing the Citrus Honey Tea with us. Well, Emily, what projects are you working on right now?

Emily Han:

Well, as you know, right this minute, right now we have our Rooted Medicine Circle mini class going on. So that's definitely really exciting to be able to share with everyone out there. We have some different components of our mini class. I don't know if you want to share more about that?

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, let's share about that. First of all, it's free. This mini class is a free thing that everybody is welcome to join. It's only happening right now, so starting from January 17th, for one week only. So if you're listening to this or watching this now, definitely you want to check it out soon. And the first thing we have available is our webinar on how to avoid common pitfalls and with the hopes, of course, that you get to avoid them, and avoid mistakes. And we put together seven pitfalls that we see herbalists make all the time and things that we have made the mistake of doing, as well. And so, with the hope of pointing these out so you don't have to fall into those, I don't want to say mistakes, of course, everything's a learning experience. So we have that webinar immediately available. And then coming up in a few days we have a live class, which I'll let you share about, Emily.

Emily Han:

All right, well, we are going to have a live class on making teas. And so you get to have both of us teaching in that class. And it seems pretty simple. Everyone knows how to make a tea, but really there are so many nuances to making teas, particularly teas that you want to really work medicinally and that also tastes good. And so yeah, we're going to be sharing some different ways that you can approach making teas in a way that's going to be really potent and effective.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah, that's really a big one because I think it's just easy for people to learn one way to make a tea and then make all their teas like that. And so it's just really big in that there's so many variations, like you said, Emily, depending on the person, the situation and the herb. And so it's good to have a lot of tools in your toolkit, especially like you said, when we want to use this as medicine and not, I won't say not just as a fun drink because I love fun drinks… But when we're thinking about medicine, we need to be more specific. So we'll be teaching the tea class live on Saturday and it'll be fun for you to join that with us live because you can ask questions. You can make tea with us if you'd like. And if you miss the live class, we'll have that recording available as part of the Rooted Medicine Circle mini class as well.

And then we have lots of other stuff going on, little things here and there. There'll be a community you can interact with. So it's always fun to get a bunch of plant people and herbal people together and share, so that'll be part of the fun, as well. So if you are curious about what it would be like to have a home filled with herbal remedies that you can trust for your everyday health needs, then you can join the Rooted Medicine Circle mini class by going to herbalminicourse.com. And again, it's just happening for a short period of time. So definitely check that out and we'd love to have you join us.

Emily Han:

Yeah, hope to see people there.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

And so that's a big thing that's going on right now, but I want to hear about other projects you have going on, Emily.

Emily Han:

Yeah, let's see. Well my husband, Gregory Han and I are working on a book, it'll be called Mushroom Hunting. So anyone who knows us, if you go hiking with us, we're looking for mushrooms and it's really about the joy of observing them and finding them and just that sense of curiosity and wonder even more than foraging them to eat or anything like that. So the book we're writing is with Chronicle Books and it'll be out later this year. So it's approaching mushroom hunting from that place of curiosity, mindful observation. One of the things that we talk about is actually not going out and looking for mushrooms, but looking for where mushrooms like to grow. So it's getting to know, whether you are in your backyard or a city park or a forest, all the mushrooms can grow in so many different environments, but learning those cues of what mushrooms, what they like, and where they're likely to grow, what other plants might look for and be in the area and really using your senses to cue in to those clues to finding mushrooms.

And the thing is, it's wonderful when you do find mushrooms, but even if you didn't, by practicing all of these things, I think you have a really fulfilling, wonderful, mindful time out in the living world, no matter what happens. So anyway, we have that book coming out, so that's been really fun to work on together and we just got to look at the first draft of the illustrations for the book so that's really exciting.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Oh, I'm so excited for this book and so much of what you're saying are things that I've learned from you, so I'm so excited that you and Gregory are putting that out in the world because it's going to be a gift on many levels. And if you're going to cheat on me and write a book with someone else, the fact that it's Gregory [chuckles]. But seriously, very excited for the book so I'll be looking for that. Yeah. 

Well Emily, you are the first person that I'm asking this question for season seven. Regular listeners know I ask the same question for each season and here you are, the first. And I chose this question because we're at the beginning of 2023, so I just thought with new things starting this would be a great question, an answer to hear from folks. So my question for you is, what advice do you have for people who are just starting out on the herbal path?

Emily Han:

Well, I think when you're starting out, it can be so overwhelming. There's so much to learn, so many different herbs out there, hundreds, thousands of different plants and different ways to prepare them and things like that. And I think it's really important to spend time getting to know plants themselves. There are wonderful herbal remedies that you can buy and that other people make, whether it's a small herbalist or a commercial level or any of those things. But to be an herbalist yourself, so to practice that also, I think it's so important to really spend time with plants and it can be the plants that you are working with to make the medicine, that's wonderful when it can be plants that you are tending and harvesting and making your medicine, but it also doesn't have to be that, either.

It can be the plant that's outside your door, it can be the plant you pass on your way to work. It's just, I think slowing down to spend the time just being with plants and there's so much that you can learn that can then inform your herbal medicine making and your herbal practice, as well. It's just having spent that time. And one of the things that we do in our Rooted Medicine Circle class is really developing that into a practice, because we can say that, but then life gets busy and we do this and that, and it's not necessarily a priority to spend that time with plants. And so we integrate something called a sit spot practice, and that's having a place that you return to again and again. It can be once a day, once a week, but something regular, regularly part of your life, and then just going there again and again so that you can really sink deeper into that place.

Also, observe over time, so what you see one day, it'll be very different from what you notice the next day. Really honing in and on your senses in that place. And I think that developing that connection and those relationships, it is such an important part of then practicing your herbalism. So the experiences you have there will then also enrich your medicine making and using of the herbal medicine.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

That's so true and such a special gift of herbalism, too. Because in western medicine, you don't really curl up with the bottle of pills, you know what I mean? I'm not saying that western medicine is bad, that we shouldn't take pharmaceuticals, but it's just very different in that we get to directly interact with these living beings and have that relationship with them. And something that I treasure more and more, I think with each passing year and having a relationship with a plant is not the same as having a relationship with a person or a relationship with your cat, but it's similar in that it's actually a true relationship. There's a reciprocity there, there's a recognition there, and it really does, I don't know, unfold into this really beautiful relationship. And yeah, there's… It’s priceless to walk out your door and say hi to the elder tree that you rely on for medicine or to just take out your botanical loupe and spend time with the dandelion and watch the bumblebees.

Emily Han:

Yeah, yeah. Earlier we were talking about that world around the plants, too, and the insects and where the plants grow and you become part of that, too; so that it's not distance between you and maybe the medicine that was over here, but you're really all part of this dance together. And I think that, like you said, that is what really makes herbalism so very special.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Mm-hmm. And just so much fun. And that's exactly what we do in Rooted Medicine Circle. It's about making powerful herbal remedies while also deepening this connection to the living world. And I know that you can attest to this, Emily. We actually just finished reading all of our certificate reviews, and so we've just been immersed in reading about our students' experience, and I cannot count the number of times somebody said, "I began this course to make powerful herbal remedies. I love making powerful herbal remedies. It's the connection to the living world that has transformed my life."

Emily Han:

Right. Yeah. Oh, I'm getting goosebumps. I have been reading all these student reviews, so that is really powerful.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Yeah. Well, I'm so excited that you are finally here. I've had the request to have you on the Herbs with Rosalee podcast many times and I'm finally just really glad that you finally made it here. So thank you so much.

Emily Han:

Thank you so much for having me.

Rosalee de la Forêt:

Thanks for watching. You can find Emily on Instagram and through her website emilyhan.com. And for those of you interested in being an herbalist who makes powerful herbal remedies, check out our Rooted Medicine Circle mini course, which is going on now for the next week only. Visit herbalminicourse.com to get free access. Again, that's herbalminicourse.com to save your seat. If you enjoyed this interview, then before you go, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter below so you'll be the first to get my new videos, including interviews like this. I'd also love to hear your comments about this interview and this lovely plant. I deeply believe that this world needs more herbalists and plant-centered folks. I'm so glad you are here as a part of this herbal community. Have a beautiful day.

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Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Healand co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and has taught thousands of students through her online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.