Herbs For Healing The Gut & Saving The World with Megan Brockelbank

I'm thrilled to share an inspiring episode with you. Today, I had an incredible conversation with Megan, the creative force behind Mother Hen's Homestead. Megan's personal journey from health challenges to herbalist and sustainability advocate is truly remarkable. Her homestead in Royalton, Massachusetts, is a haven for regenerative practices, where herbs and the environment coexist in perfect harmony.

Megan's passion for education shines brightly through her workshops and community initiatives. Her dedication to holistic wellness aligns beautifully with her desire to empower others on their natural healing journey. Throughout our talk, Megan spotlights Yarrow, a versatile herb with diverse applications – from first aid to cold and flu remedies. She also emphasizes the impact of our daily choices on the environment and the importance of conscious consumerism.

Join me in this epis

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Transcript

Mel  00:02

Hello and welcome to the herbalist path, a podcast where you'll discover how to make your own herbal remedies at home so that you can take better care of yourself, better care of your family and better care of our planet. I'm Mel, I'm a clinical herbalist environmental educator and mountain living mama with this crazy passion for teaching more mamas and their little loves how to use plants as medicine in a safe, effective and tasty way so that there can be an herbalist in every home. Again, it's an absolute honor to have you on the journey down the herbalist path with me so that together, we can make herbalism #SpreadLikeWildFlowers. Everybody, welcome back to another episode of the herbalist path. I'm really excited because I think this episode is going to introduce me to a whole new friend on a whole nother coast for me. This is Megan Brocklebank, I'm having an interview and she is a fellow herbalist and environmental and sustainability...I'm gonna say nerd, I hope you can resonate with nerd, but she cares so much about the planet and the plants and how we are taking care of ourselves holistically. So, Megan, thank you. Welcome to the show and sorry to cut you off. How do you feel about the term nerd when it comes to sustainability and environmental things?

Megan  01:39

I will embrace that term of sustainability and environmental nerd. I'm a plant geek and that's okay. I'm definitely okay with that.

Mel  01:48

Yeah, I'm down with it, too. I'm always like, Yeah, I'm a total herb nerd. And I don't care. Yeah, actually, I do care. I love it and I'm proud of it. So awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to hang out with me on the show. I'm really excited because I think you have so much valuable insight to share with my listeners and ways for them to connect. And I would love to hear just a little bit about how you got into the world of herbalism. It's always so much fun to hear the story from somebody and what inspired it. So if you don't mind, I'd love to hear.

Megan  02:32

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's so it was kind of, you know, a lifelong journey. My family growing up was always into gardening. My grandfathers on both sides, they were both really into gardening, my grandmother had this huge garden and greenhouse and I would just spend summers there and in the garden and in the greenhouse and working with herbs. She made these lovely herbal wreaths, and taught me how to make them at a young age. And so that way I worked with herbs as a kid and like in the garden with plants. As a teenager, one of my first jobs was actually for this local nonprofit called seeds of solidarity. They did a lot of work trying to get community gardens everywhere to grow food everywhere. I was one of their first programs doing teenage mentorship there so I worked for them one summer, helping them on their farm and doing farmer's markets. I think that's kind of where that love for doing farmer's markets kind of began for me. But as a teenager, I went to a trade school and was a hairstylist for about 20 years, so I stopped doing hair professionally around when I had my first child when I was like 30. It was kind of to do with the fact that I'm so short, I'm like wicked short, and cutting hair just killed my shoulders and my wrists. But I also developed chemical sensitivity to all the chemicals that are in the products. So it was just that I needed to do something else. In those last years of my 20s I started going back to school because I knew I needed to find another career path. So I went to school at UMass for sustainable food and farming. I got my bachelor's degree there. While I was getting my bachelor's degree there I studied from a lot of local herbalists. I think probably one of my favorite and most influential was Brittany Wood Nickerson of Time Herbal. She taught this wild food and medicine class and really dove into the food and the medicine out there, available to us and I think that kind of grew my interest more into herbs in that sense, because it was incorporating these wild foods into my food realm. I had found out I had celiac disease, my early 20s, I think I was like 21, when I found out. So I had to start reading every little label on everything, every product. And I was just like, What the heck is in all of this stuff. So that's kind of when I decided to go back to school as well, to learn about food systems, how our food is made, how it's produced, how we can produce it in a more sustainable manner, for us and the planet, and yeah, I think that's kind of where my love for herbs went. Incorporating into my food, and then, like medicinally as well. I ended up getting pretty sick, I had appendicitis. I had like walking appendicitis because I was sick for months and months before I had to get emergency surgery. But that is when I really started diving into taking herbs more medicinally as opposed to just, you know, in my food and incorporating it in that aspect. And they definitely helped me dramatically, and I wanted to be able to help folks as well, not only from a food perspective, because yes, I think food is absolutely medicine. But I think herbs can also help to push that healing to the next level. You know?

Mel  07:00

Absolutely. I love how you talk quickly, like there's so much to unpack. So we're gonna have a fun, juicy episode. The last statement on food is medicine and the herbs come along and how I think this is one thing that I see a lot in our society today, as more and more people are seeking herbs to help them - number one, frickin awesome, let's do it, right. But we need to recognize that the herbs are helpers, if you are going to continue to throw junk into your body that is causing inflammation, those herbs are going to have a really, really hard time helping you out as well as they can. And you know, of course, there's herbs for acute symptom management, which is fine and dandy, but in the case of discovering you have celiacs and your early 20s. Like, you need to go deeper than just acute symptom management. Right?

Megan  08:01

Yes, there's definitely healing that needs to take place and total diet shifts, right. It's a complete lifestyle change, essentially. 

Mel  08:14

Yeah, it definitely is. Can you talk a little bit about how that journey went for you? Or maybe like, even if you work with clients? Do you work with people? Or how could people today after walking through that journey. And now having all this education and knowledge and experience behind you on healing the gut and using food and plants as medicine.

Megan  08:41

Totally. So I found out I had celiac disease, just from a simple blood test through my doctor's office, right. I had gone to them complaining about stomach stuff for years and years, and done so much testing. They actually weren't going to test me for it. It was something that I had to ask for at that time. They weren’t really accepting of celiac disease as a diagnosis back then. So one of my sister's friends at the time was working out in Boston. She had celiac disease, and she's like, it sounds like you have it to my sister. We both have the same symptoms. Right? We both have celiac disease, it turns out,

Mel  09:27

Can you share some of those symptoms real quick? 

09:29

Yeah. So thank you because most people don't know this, right. So a lot of the symptoms that I would have when eating gluten are like bloating directly right after eating, like uncomfortable. You're super gassy. Like I would look like I'm three months pregnant right after eating right? IBS symptoms. So either way, I could be constipated for weeks on end. Like sometimes if I were to eat gluten, I would get really constipated for like two weeks. Or sometimes it's like excessive the other way, right? So it kind of depends. So in it depends on where you are in your stage of life, too. I feel like it was more on the constipation side as I was younger now on the opposite side, as I've shifted into older ages, so it's interesting how our bodies shift throughout. But so now if I were to go out to eat or something and have some cross contamination, I would definitely have, you know, super bloating, I'd feel nauseous. Now, it's gotten so bad that if I have a lot of cross contamination, I will get physically sick or throw up. So definitely anything you could think of with the digestive tract, it's very upset, nauseous. Neurological things too,  like brain fog is huge, memory issues. And also I struggle with just having clear thoughts. So it's just like, it's this brain fog. And I get a little irritable too, after like having gluten. So it definitely affects me, I get rashes as well. I was working at a restaurant for a while was in college, like making sandwiches and stuff every day. And I would like break out just because I've gotten so sensitive now that I've completely taken it out of my diet. But yeah, I feel 100 times better when I'm not eating gluten. It took me time to start really feeling better, though I did have to take the time to heal my gut, you know, doing the bone broths and, and you know, eating nourishing foods and herbs definitely help as well.

Mel  12:18

Yeah. So thank you for breaking down some of the symptoms that you experienced, and that a lot of people do experience, I think it's easy for people to just kind of brush it aside and be like, Oh, it was something I ate or what have you, but not to recognize that this is also your body communicating with you saying, Hey, I'm mad, this doesn't work for me. 

Mel  12:42

Yeah, it's your body's own alarm system going off and, and we're just so taught to suppress that and to ignore it, or just brush it off. But when you can actually tune into that is just absolutely huge. And you started talking about some of the steps that you took to actually heal your gut by using bone broths and deep nourishing foods. And what are some of the other things that you did with your diet to work on that process of healing the gut?

Megan  13:19

So I guess when I first found out, it was just, like, gotta read every single label gotta look into like, what is all this stuff? Is this one ingredient safe for me, you know, checking to see if these food additives that have been added to certain things are gluten free or not, right? And then that kind of spawned into, like, well, what is this stuff? And do I want to be eating it anyways? Then that led me down to eating more of a whole foods diet. So, you know, shopping the outskirts of the grocery store, trying not to eat those processed foods and then it takes the guesswork out of it for me, you know, like, I know, there's no gluten and apples and produce right. So they're much more healing on the body as well. Right?

Mel  14:14

And so much more nutrient rich, and that brings me to like... so this was what? 10 plus years ago or so for you? So it wasn't so much the rage to see all these gluten free and keto and all of these pre packaged foods?

Megan  14:33

We didn't have any of that.

Mel  14:38

While it can be exciting for somebody who's just recognizing they need to make these shifts, can we just talk a little bit about what's going on in those foods and there's some that are decent but there's a lot that are absolute filler crap.

Megan  14:56

Oh, so I agree. Yeah, there's quite a few things to maybe unpack on that topic, right? So there's the junk additives that they're adding to it,  there's the issue of different gums that they're using that can mess up guts too, right? So to make your poop so sticky, yes. Things like that, that can upset an upset stomach, like somebody that has a leaky gut, that's probably maybe not a great thing for. So then there's, you know, all these things to do with so much rice flour, because so much of the gluten free stuff is white rice flour. And I'm not saying that rice is a bad thing. But from an environmental standpoint, and from a nutritional standpoint, it's not the best grain for us to be consuming, consistently and regularly. Rice is something that bioaccumulates arsenic from the soil. So that's a heavy metal that's known to cause lots of neurological stuff. And it's really not good for us. So the one good thing about white rice is that the outside hull, which is like brown rice, when you take that outside hull off, you're losing the nutrients, but you're also losing a lot of the arsenic that could have been accumulated in it. So in some ways, it's somewhat good, right. And in some ways, it's not good because you're losing all of the nutritional properties to the rice. Which rice isn't super nutrient dense anyways, as opposed to other grains that as celiac, I couldn't eat anyway, right? But rice is also really environmentally degrading. It's hard on the environment. It also causes methane to be released in the atmosphere so it's probably one of the highest greenhouse emitting products in the green realm. Actually, it's pretty up there. So if we're looking at a sustainability perspective in our diet, it's probably one of the worst ones for climate change and global warming. Methane is like, I forget the amount. It's like 20 times the amount of CO2 or I could be wrong, I'm forgetting the exact, but it's way more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is. So when we're thinking about diet, it's just not very nutritional, a lot of the time, a lot of these gluten free replacements, and they're filled with lots of gums, but also preservatives, salts, things like that sugars that don't necessarily need to be added, but are added for shelf stability and taste, because we've got so accustomed to the way things taste.

Mel  18:06

So yeah, you're right, there's so much to unpack there. I didn't know that rice was not environmentally friendly. So that's really fascinating. And, you know, it's brilliant marketers out there, they're like, hey, look, we can make a buck off of this whole demographic of humans that are recognizing that gut health really matters. And that yes, gluten can either, you know, a lot of people have sensitivities, other people are fully celiac. So a big, big, big game of marketing hullabaloo I see out there and you said it, right. Like, let's stick to whole foods like real food.

Megan  18:51

Yeah. 

Mel  18:52

So, you are a mama, and moms don't have much free time in life. We want nothing but the best for our families. What are some ideas for moms because with this show I talked to a lot of moms on here, that may be looking to feed their families, much more nourishing foods. They see that convenient stuff in the grocery stores that always have an astronomical price tag anyways. What can they do to incorporate more wholesome foods into their family considering time and financial budgets?

Megan  19:32

I hear that. That is the challenge, isn't it? It's tough because kids have grown accustomed to a lot of our bad food choices. A lot of the time they favor sweets. So with my kids, I know just having lots of fresh fruit on hand is a big thing to have. They'll always eat, you know, raspberries or black raspberries or things like that, that they can just pop in their mouths on the go. But it's hard to have it on hand all the time as well. So I like to stock up on, you know, frozen fruits as well and make smoothies. Smoothies are actually one of the ways that I get a lot of veggies in my kids because they're pretty prone to have a fight with me about something if they can see vegetables in it. So at least you're hiding the kale or spinach or greens or carrots, whatever it is, you're thrown in there, you know. And I also really love to incorporate my herbal infusions in there as well. It's a great way to hide that so kids don't like it. I'm taking my tea, when I don't really like tea, you know, that's my son, he doesn't like tea. It's a great way to hide it.

Mel  20:55

Absolutely, a really great way to hide it when I had an herbal apothecary tea and smoothie shop. And I opened it in 2016, because I wanted to bring herbs to people. But I knew that most people didn't really understand herbal medicine as a way of healing back then. It certainly exploded in astronomical ways over the past few years, which is awesome. But I also knew that I live in a fairly rural area, but it's a very touristy area. I knew people could resonate with smoothies. They'd be like, Oh, I know what a smoothie is. And I made smoothies with organic produce, and we made our own nut milks in house there and I didn't add in like ice to fill it up. It was cold because we had frozen produce in it. And it was real food. And we would bring the herbs into that. Like I knew that was a way to make herbal medicine really tasty because herbs work a lot better when you actually use them, right?

Megan  22:00

Yes, we can use all these herbs. But if you're not actually going to incorporate it into you in some way, then what's you know, that's not going to help you?

Mel  22:11

Absolutely, absolutely. So that's an awesome tip. I love that. Can we go back a little bit on gut healing and we've talked about food for that because without making those dietary shifts that gut healing is not going to happen. But once you're willing to make those lifestyle shifts and choices and you know, you've gotten to that stage of life when you're like okay, this is what I need to do, what kind of herbs have you found to be very, very helpful in that whole process?

Megan  22:47

Yeah, so for me, it was great that I found out that I had celiac disease in a very direct way. I typically suggest for folks that come and see me as clients to maybe do an elimination diet to help us to figure out what culprit it is. Just because I have some symptoms doesn't mean that they're the same symptoms as you. It  doesn't mean that you have a gluten allergy like me, you could have a dairy sensitivity or something else or egg or soy or other things so I think finding out the culprit for you and figuring out what works for your diet is key first, right you can't just throw herbs on an angry tummy and hope it gets better because it probably won't. But some great herbs that I incorporate into my routine daily are marshmallows. You can use the whole marshmallow plant so leaves, but roots typically. Most preparations are the root but I grow marshmallow so I'll use the leaves and things as well

Mel  24:02

I’ve already planned to have it on hand. I love using it in so many ways, bouquets and everything. 

Megan  24:10

So that's an amazing herb because it's mucilaginous qualities help to coat you. Say you are a fiery pita like me that has acid reflux a lot. It's great to soothe and coat that but it also helps to coat the intestinal tract. So any sort of IBS symptoms, it's great for that. It helps to keep you more regular and step back the extremes. Another herb that I love and use regularly is meadowsweet. That's another one for that. You know the heartburn. I had some issues with h pylori, so that causes peptic ulcers and things like that. So meadowsweet is great at soothing, ulcers, calming things down and relieving some of the pain that can be associated with gastrointestinal issues. So that one's a big one in my realm. I definitely do tincture and have tea daily. And then I do a lot of liver supporting herbs as well, because the liver and gut and mind and all the things are connected, but those two are probably really closely tied together. We need to have all those liver juices to help us digest our foods properly. Absolutely. So I like to focus a lot on dandelion root and tumeric and other liver supporting herbs as well.

Mel  25:47

I love that list of herbs. Have you worked with licorice for your h pylori?

Megan  25:53

I am one that holds weight, like water weight, so I can't really do the licorice root because it makes me retain water. And I guess I have tried that deglycerized licorice root. I have tried that because it's supposed to reduce that risk of, you know, retaining more water, but it's just I've found other herbs that work well, like slippery elm and other things that aren't gonna make me retain that water so much, you know?

Mel  26:36

Yeah and that's another thing to mention, the herbs that you are talking about are absolutely herbs I recommend when I'm working with people as well, but to also recognize that sometimes that may not be the one for you. And to really like to pay attention again, is your body telling you something and really tune in and, and listen, and it's okay, if that herb is not the one for you, because there are so many others.

Megan  27:05

Ya know that's like the thing, right? As an herbalist I'm constantly hearing, "I've heard that this herb's so great for this but it didn't work for me" and it's like, well, it's because everybody's constitutionally different. Our makeup is different. We all require different things, you know, so as for most of the time, licorice works really great for acid reflux and all of these things doesn't mean it's gonna work great on my body. Right? Right.

Mel  27:37

Absolutely. That is so true. As an herbalist, we're basically detectives for people, you know, a lot of people, I think, with social media and this explosion of herbalism today, I'm not sure if it was like 2020 hit and people were like, Oh, I suddenly have no interest in our government in the pharmaceutical industry. So other herbs, and then you just see like these memes in these videos of like, this is the one herb to do all these things. And it's like, awesome, we need more people to turn to herbal medicine, because one of the reasons I do this is for my deep love for the planet, which is why I'm so excited to talk with you. And I have this belief and maybe you do too, that the more people that turn to plant medicine, the better off our planet is for a whole host of reasons. And I want to get back to this subject. But I want to also turn it back to what we were talking about, how an herb may not be the right one for you and how they get glorified on social media today. And people do come to me as well as an herbalist saying this one herb is great for this one thing. And just like, I just want to put a huge billboard for the world that one herb is not going to fix everybody. Yeah. And you know, oftentimes there are about 10 to 15 other awesome medicinal things, you're missing out of that one herb because you glorified it for that one thing.

Megan  29:12

And I agree. Yes.

Mel  29:15

It's just that it's more complex, and people want it to be simple. Yes. Interesting.

Megan  29:23

I love it. I mean, I always love that people are knowing about herbs, because like you said, it's like it's becoming more and more popular and more and more people are turning towards it. Right. And I think definitely 2020 had a big push in that direction, right? Yeah. But there isn't just one herb that's gonna probably heal everything that's wrong with the whole population, right? Or even everything that's wrong with you, like one herb probably isn't going to solve everything that's going on in your body, necessarily, you know, they might be able to hit quite a few different tasks, right? But there's not just one simple thing to take, you know, that's gonna be like the magic bullet or silver bullet, whatever it's called. 

Mel  30:10

Absolutely. And that's exactly it right there. Like, I feel like I put myself on repeat on that regularly like, Hey, this is great, everybody should use plants as medicine. And please understand that they're, you know, a little more complex. And I think one of the reasons I want people to understand that is because once they do, they will be able to find the herbs that are right for them that really have true transformational properties for you and your unique body and your unique symptoms so that you aren't then running back to the drugstore for all the toxic nasty crap. That's not only bad for your body, but more importantly to me, I love you all, bad for our planet. Yes. And I feel like I can talk and open up this can of worms on the sustainability of plant medicine for our planet versus, you know, everything within the pharmaceutical industry. And not to say that pharmaceuticals are needed at times, they absolutely are. Yes, but it's also a completely overused, misused and abused system in so many corrupt ways. It's unbelievable. And one of the big things for me is I love this earth, and this earth is crying. This earth is shouting just like our guts do. Hey, this is not right and I'm mad. So can we, I just love to hear your thoughts on that. 

Megan  31:40

Yeah, so I have a master's in sustainability science, where I focused on sustainable agriculture but I really focused on a lot of all the things to do with sustainability, because sustainability isn't all just about environmental aspects, right? There's three tiers to sustainability and environmental aspects are just one of them. Right? And I think that's sometimes where a lot of people get pigeonholed is just in this one little environmental spot. And yes, yes, yes, that's super important. And I am an environmentalist. And so I'm in that group a lot of the time, but there's a lot of other things that we need to factor into sustainability. And it's like cultural things, right? Our environment are how we interact as a society within the environment. But also, like, the people, right? So people are big. And if putting the sustainability of the earth over people happens, that's also not good. And that's also not sustainable, right? So it's like looking at all these different lenses to figure out what is truly sustainable. So I kind of went off on a little tangent there, and I forgot where I was going with that.

Mel  33:06

We're just talking about, like, you know, sustainability and yes, we need to heal our own unique individual bodies, and also the planet. And one of the things, one of the reasons I got into herbalism is because it's the one little way that I feel I can do my part to save this planet. And you were starting to talk about how sustainability is so much more than just the environmental factors. And I was bringing up some of the pharmaceutical industries. Yes. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Megan  33:43

So I think that there's a great shift, because whether we know it or realize it or not, the pharmaceutical company derives a lot of their medicines from plants. So either they get them from strange, faraway places, or they just basically isolate certain aspects of a plant to make a medicine out of that one certain teeny part of a plant that doesn't fully encompass all the aspects of the plant, right? To get medicine that does XYZ. So realistically, in this world, even if we're thinking about conventional medicine, sustainability is important because even conventional medicine relies on plants to help save our lives, right? So it's really detrimental to save a lot of these like old growth forests and  try to be as sustainable as possible because if we're going to destroy rainforests, there's potentially life saving medicine that they're destroying there. In addition to, you know, all of the negative health impacts that losing rainforests have on our planet. But yeah, I think we're also seeing a shift, just environmentally a shift because we're losing a lot of our rainforest and plant life around the globe. I took a whole college course, in getting my masters about how these environmental atrocities basically, essentially are causing more viruses to become rampant. And more things like the Coronavirus could eventually happen because of this deforestation, because we're essentially driving wildlife out of their habitat, and they have nowhere to go. Right. So plant or not plant, but animal, human, you know, diseases are going to become more prevalent, they're gonna be jumping from one species to the next is what they're predicting to happen with climate change, and the last of all these, the loss of all these forests and things. So we really need to like, think about sustainability, not only saving forests, but when we're buying our things every day, you know, we have choices that we can make, you know, obviously, we can't necessarily individually stop deforestation from happening. But the choices that we make in our products every day can make impacts to lessen that effect. Simply buying something that doesn't have palm oil in it, or sodium lauryl sulfate or stuff that's derived from palm oil, that's causing a lot of this deforestation to happen in the first place is key. But also, I love this shift of people being more into herbs, because then they're gonna want to grow things more, and people will have more gardens and be more self-sufficient, like we once were, and not have to rely on this global system. 

Mel  37:13

Yeah. And hopefully, as they grow these things, and see these, they get that deeper connection to nature, and a stronger desire to do their part to protect it and make a wise decision.

Mel  37:33

Yeah, that's my hope. I see the shifts happening and, you know, all we can do is start with ourselves.

Megan  37:48

100%. I mean, I love to try to think that I can change everybody's minds. But the older I get, I realize that I can plant a seed, maybe you'll think about it, maybe you'll think I'm crazy. If at least I planted that seed, whether you nurture it and fertilize it and bloom and watch it grow. It's up to you, you know, but I can at least plant the seed of you know, this is what's happening. And here's some things that you can do to make a change if you feel like making that change, you know, because that's what it is, personal will essentially.

Mel  38:27

Absolutely it is. And I also like to think that I can change the world with my voice, but it doesn't happen that way. So, again, it's like I do my one little part that I know well to make a difference. And as long as I know, in my heart, that I've made an impact on one person who maybe has spread that to another person and another person, then I'm doing my part as best as I can. It's challenging, though. And I want to talk quickly about planting that seed because you run mother hands homestead. We've talked so much about, you know, gut health and healing the gut, and food and plants as medicine, and the sustainability of our planet. Like I could talk to you for decades on all of this stuff. But I want to hear about you and what you do and your homestead and how that came about and how you help people.

Megan  39:28

Sure. Thanks. So yeah, I own a little small farm and apothecary that I call Mother Hen's Homestead. It started out just like a little farm. I wanted to try to become more sustainable, live off the land, maybe eventually earn an income off of it as well which is the goal right? Able to thrive and live off of my little plot of land. So we try to use all sustainable and regenerative practices. So I don't till the land. I don't use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, anything like that. So it started out as me just growing veggies and culinary herbs and flowers. And then I eventually noticed all of these medicinal herbs that are just growing here naturally, right? I've got an abundance of violets, goldenrod, and yarrow that are here and they're like us, me, what are you doing? You know?

Mel  40:37

Yeah, totally.

Megan  40:38

So I started to use them more and incorporate them more and more. And I was turning to a lot of the people, the herbalist that I studied with at my undergrad, and then I eventually went to the Herbal Academy to get my advanced clinical certificates through them. But I'm totally going off track again, and forgetting where I'm going with this.

Mel  41:12

We're just talking about the awesome things you do with your hands.

Megan  41:16

Yeah, so I've incorporated more and more herbs in you know, focusing more and more on herbal health. I work with clients as an herbal practitioner. So I help you figure out what is going on in your body to create that equilibrium. But I think a big part of what I love to do most is educate my community. I'm a big educator, I love teaching herbs on sustainability, gardening and all those things that we've been talking about.

Mel  41:57

It's so much fun. Yeah.

Megan  41:59

I was teaching a course at UMass while getting my master's called Understanding Food and Climate. So you know, how food and sustainability and climate change are all connected. So I just, I love to talk about all of these things. So education is really important for me. I do lots of workshops on the homestead and different local businesses.

Mel  42:28

What state are you in? Are you in Massachusetts?

Megan  42:31

Yeah, I've got a little farm out in Royalton, Massachusetts. So I like to work with a lot of local holistic health practitioners. I frequently offer workshops at a local yoga studio and sell my products that I make there as well. So yeah, I also make herbal products, body, home and wellness products, and botanical crafts, because, you know, I love to utilize all the plants in all ways.

Mel  43:04

There's so many fun ways to get creative and make so many beneficial things for people. It's unbelievable. I love what you're doing, because it resonates with everything that I've done as well, so loudly, it's amazing. I had a question. Oh, yeah. Well, one, do you have a website for people to find you?

Megan  43:30

Yeah, so my web websites are pretty easy:  motherhenshomestead.com. So pretty simple there. You can pretty much sign up for workshops, you can get a consultation through there, you can buy my products, you can learn a little bit more about what I'm doing, where I'm at, and stuff like that over on social media, like what workshops I'm offering. I also host some wellness based events, too. Some of them are free and open to the public. Some of them are more like retreats where it's like a daytime retreat and you're learning and you're healing and you're eating nourishing foods, those types of things. So yeah, I kind of encompass it all do pop ups here and there. I don't have a shop yet. That was something that I was going to do this past year but with the economy I was like yeah, I'm gonna maybe hold off on that one for a minute.

Mel  44:32

And yeah, easy to want to do all of the things and just be that, like, multifaceted facet, multifaceted herbalist, business person and all of that, like you really do have to incorporate it all. If you're going to make a living to support your family. It becomes challenging to do. But so rewarding to me. I want to ask you so sometimes that question of like, where do we find you is something I'll do at the very end, but not today, kids. So we've talked a bit about herbs, right? There's The Herbalists Path, we love herbs. If you could recommend one herb that everybody should know, or maybe your favorite herb?

Mel  44:32

I love all herbs. But I think that one, I guess I'll say one of my favorite herbs because I have to pick one. The one I think I would suggest most to folks is Yarrow.

Mel  45:48

I was just out with Yarrow yesterday. I have it in my garden. But I love it so much in the wild. It just smells so much better in the wild versus what's in my garden. But carry on.

Megan  46:01

Is not as pungent, right? Yes. Yeah, Yarrow. I think I would recommend that to everybody just because I know in my bio region anyways, it's abundant, right, everybody should have some accessibility to it. It grows pretty well everywhere. But it's such a useful herb and can be used in so many ways. I think before when we were chatting but weren't recording, we were talking about your first aid kit and I also made an herbal first aid kit. And that's one of the herbs that is highlighted in that because, you know, it stops bleeding instantly pretty much. It's a great first aid herb. It's an amazing skin herb, helps to clean and heal wounds and, and also helps to create those healthy boundaries that we need in our lives. Right.

Mel  47:00

Yeah, and it's also a great one to have around for cold and flu season because it's a great diaphoretic. 

Megan  48:02

I'm always in my daughter's tea whenever she gets sick. She always asks me for her tea, I usually make her yarrow, catnip and chamomile tea when she's sick. 

Mel  48:13

That's awesome. That is amazing. Well if you had some words of wisdom for a mom out there who's just starting on this natural, holistic lifestyle journey right now, what words of wisdom would you give them?

Megan  48:32

I think for me when I was first diving into it, it's so overwhelming, right? It's really easy to get super overwhelmed and just be like oh my god I give up there's too much to know about all these things and they feel very overwhelming. Just take one thing at a time. Say you're wanting to learn more about natural healing herbs, you know start dabbling into some herbal blogs or you know watch somebody that you like on YouTube or something you know, I have some free little things over on YouTube that you can go watch too. So it's just like taking it piece by piece. For me I just went and dove in headfirst and got so overwhelmed and was like, oh my god, what am I going to use that myself and my babies and oh my god, you know what I mean? It's so overwhelming. So just start with one thing at a time. 

Mel  49:36

Yeah, I think that's brilliant.

Megan  49:40

You know, if it's like you're, you're worried about what you're putting on your baby, start there. And then you know, branch out once you've gotten that straightened out, you know what I mean? So, if you're looking for products for diaper rash or whatever it may be, you know, like, searching for the best product can be overwhelming or like, trying to figure out like what you're using is safe on your baby can also be overwhelming, right? So, yeah, there's lots of great blogs, I found like when I was first sort of diving into these things that are free and attainable to most folks. So those, I think those are probably where I'd start. But yeah, super easy to get overwhelmed.

Mel  50:26

It is easy to get overwhelmed. And you're right, just taking it one thing at a time and don't fall into the shame trap, but you can start learning it and then feel guilty that you're not able to be perfect with it all, all the time, like life happens. Just jump back on.

Megan  50:48

And I studied sustainable food and you know, I'll beat myself up for making a misgiving on some food choice or whatever. You know what I mean? It's not worth it to shame yourself or to be feeling guilty because you didn't know better before too. There's this whole guilt, shame spiral sometimes that can come along with it. Right? So just, you know, we're all learning. We're all growing. It's one thing at a time.

Mel  51:18

Yeah, absolutely. Beautiful. I love that. That's great words of wisdom to end this show on so I want to make sure that everybody can find you at motherhenshomestead.com. And are you Mother Hen's Homestead on all the other social channels too?

Megan  51:36

I am yeah, on Instagram I'm @motherhenshomesteadapothecary. Okay. And Facebook I ended up getting hacked a few months ago, this past winter. So there is a new Facebook page. So if you go to that one, that one's more revelant. It's got a green background, but it's Mother Hen's homestead. You'll be able to spot me.

Mel  51:59

Awesome. And of course, we will link to all of that in the show notes as well. So thank you so much, Megan. I would hang out and chat more. Like I said, I could talk about this stuff for decades with you. I have a podcast on it. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day and sharing your wisdom and your insight with everybody that's listening right now. And if you're listening, thank you for listening and go check out what Megan's doing.

Megan  52:31

Well, thank you so much. It was great chatting with you and I could also talk about it for a decade. 

Mel  52:35

Awesome. Have a beautiful day. 

Megan  52:38

You too. Bye. Bye.

Mel  52:46

Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the herbalist path. Being on this journey with you is absolutely incredible. If you dig this episode, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast player and share it with your friends so that together we can make herbalism #SpreadLikeWildflowers. On another note, I must mention that while I know you're getting some good info here, it's important to remember that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. While the information in this podcast is absolutely relevant. Herbs were different for each person and each condition. That's why I recommend you work with a qualified practitioner, whether that be another herbalist and naturopath or your doctor. So thank you again. I am truly honored that you're tuning into these episodes and on the path with me to make sure that there's an herbalist in every home again, don't forget to share this episode with your friends so that we can make herbalism hashtag spread like wild flower