Episode 157: Reishi with Yarrow Willard

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Would you prefer watching or reading this episode? If so, click here for the 'Benefits of Reishi Mushroom' video and transcript.

Episode Summary

It was such a pleasure to have Yarrow on the show!  Yarrow is a dynamic speaker who is super passionate about building relationships with herbs and their ecosystems.  As you’ll hear in this conversation, Yarrow sees herbalism as a bridge to help people tune back in to the natural world, and he weaves in nature connection with everything he does.

Yarrow spoke extensively about reishi mushrooms - not just how they can benefit us physically, but also how they can improve our mental and emotional health, and how they can help us to better understand and learn from the other beings in the forests they are found in.  He also shared many ways reishi can be worked with medicinally, including his incredibly detailed recipe for a Reishi Dual Extraction.  You’ll find a link to a beautifully illustrated recipe card in the resource section below.

Here are just a few ways reishi can be worked with to benefit your health:

► As a grounding influence, to help you connect with the nature around you

► As a tonic to strengthen your immune system

► To improve insulin sensitivity and support blood sugar regulation

For more, be sure to check out the entire episode!

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

► How reishi can help with your brain health and vision

►Tips for finding and harvesting reishi mushrooms 

► Why it’s so important to make connections with the places where you gather plants, even (or especially!) when the plants are out of season

► Six different medicinal preparations for reishi

►Why dual extractions of mushrooms are considered more potent than simple dried mushroom powders

► and so much more…

For those of you who don’t know him, Yarrow Willard is a second-generation Clinical Herbalist, living in the unceded territory of the Comox First Nations on Vancouver Island. 

He is the co-creator of Harmonic Arts, the Wild Rose College of Herbal Medicine and the Canadian Herb Conference. As an online personality and YouTube educator he is known as the Herbal Jedi.  His mission is to help empower the modern age with tools and teachings for reclaiming health through deepened connection to the natural world. 

Yarrow’s approach to plant medicine is one of curiosity, connection, and contemplation. His teachings often are infused with old world energetics, modern measurables, and direct plant communications, in a playful and digestible way.

I am so excited to share our conversation with you today!

What You'll Learn from This Episode

• [1:09] Introduction to Yarrow Willard
• [2:48] How Yarrow found his plant path
• [13:38] Ecological and medicinal benefits of reishi
• [19:09] Why tasting herbs is so important!
• [22:43] Reishi harvesting tips
• [25:33] Reishi as a bridge to nature connection
• [31:47] Ways to work with reishi, and why dual extractions are so helpful with mushroom medicine
• [36:18] More benefits of reishi
• [39:56] Dual-extraction tincture of reishi
• [47:52] The magic of reishi around the world
• [51:35] Cooking and formulating with reishi
• [53:07] Yarrow’s current projects
• [55:28] How herbs give Yarrow hope
• [1:01:05] Herbal tidbit

Get Your Free Recipe!

Connect with Yarrow:

• Website | YarrowWillard.com
• Youtube | HerbalJedi
• Instagram | @herbal_jedi
• Facebook | HerbalJedi

You can also find Yarrow’s work here, here, and here

Connect with Rosalee

• On Instagram | @rosaleedelaforet

• On Facebook | Herbs With Rosalee
• On YouTube | Herbs With Rosalee

• Website | herbswithrosalee.com


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