Jessica D. Whitley Acupuncture & TCM

10/23/2025

Cold and flu season is here! These are great tools to have on hand in your pantry or garden.

Love this from our friends at the — As we head into the flu and cold season, we are stocking up on our herbs and eating garlic with everything.

🌿🍵💛 HERBS FOR COLD + FLU 

This time of year it’s not uncommon to get an unwanted tickle in your throat and start to feel rundown, and soon, it sets in— yep, we’re talking about cold and flu season.  For many folks this means some sort of a sniffle or full blown cold.

Try as we might to ward off the germs, they eventually make their way into our homes and disrupt our lives.

Luckily, there are some tried and true herbs to turn to in times like these: 

🍃 Garlic (Allium sativum): boosts the immune system, antimicrobial, and helps to move congestion. 

🍃Thyme (Thymus vulgaris): opens the sinuses, thins and moves congestion, antimicrobial. 

🍃Ginger (Zingiber officinale): soothes an upset tummy or nausea, antiviral. 

🍃Echinacea (Echinacea spp.): stimulates the immune system and helps to shorten the duration of a cold or flu. 

🍃Astragalus (Astragalus mongholicus): rebuild the immune system and strengthen your body after fighting off germs.  

Do you add any herbs or foods to your diet as the season changes?

12/06/2024

07/18/2024

05/05/2024

🌸 Explore the world of violets with us! This delicate flower, part of the Violaceae family, is not only a charming addition to shady areas, woods, and stream banks but also a valuable herbal remedy and tasty treat.

🌿 Violet leaves are heart-shaped, while its asymmetrical flowers range from deep purple to lilac and pink. You can enjoy violet flowers sprinkled over salads, cakes, or pasta, or use them to create syrups and cordials.

💚 Rich in flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, and mucilages, violet acts as an alterative, gently cleansing and purifying the blood over time. It's also cherished for its emollient, antitussive, anti-inflammatory, and gentle laxative properties.

🍃 The soothing properties of violet make it ideal for respiratory health, especially in cases of dry cough and bronchitis. It also aids in calming inflammation in the digestive tract when consumed as a tea.

🌼 Oh, and here's a fun fact: Did you know you can use violets as a spit poultice for those pesky little scrapes and cuts you might get while outside exploring? Yup, they're like your trusty sidekick, always ready to lend a hand.

Embrace the beauty and therapeutic benefits of violet in your herbal journey!

How have you worked with violet?

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Art by: Wendy Hollender (fromForaging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook by Dina Falconi)

04/18/2024

💚🌱💚 We are entering fiddlehead season! As they emerge through the fertile, wet April soil, they grow and unfurl quickly, sometimes lasting just a few days in their furled-up stage.

Fiddleheads, often the ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) are considered a spring delicacy. Some say their flavor resembles asparagus or spinach. They must be cooked in a change of water before eating to remove bitterness and minimize gastric problems.

It’s important not to pick all of the fiddleheads from one individual plant because you will prevent the plant from unfurling and therefore experiencing a happy growing season.

*Not all fiddleheads are edible. Make sure you are 100% in your ID before consuming a wild plant.

When do the fiddleheads begin to appear in your neck of the woods?

11/27/2023

09/08/2023

🌿 Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), is a powerful medicinal herb that has been used for centuries to heal damaged tissues and broken bones. But why exactly is it called knit bone? 🤔

Well, the answer lies in the chemical constituents of comfrey. All plants contain chemicals that interact with our bodies. Comfrey contains a chemical called allantoin, which has the ability to increase cell proliferation. In other words, allantoin speeds up the healing process of damaged tissues and bones, literally knitting them back together.

This amazing property makes comfrey an excellent addition to any herbal first-aid kit. You can use it as a poultice or infuse it in oils and creams to apply on closed wounds, breaks, sprains, and strains. Its potent healing properties can help to reduce inflammation, ease pain, and speed up the healing process.

However, it is important to note that comfrey should not be applied topically on open, infected or dirty wounds because it may close the skin before the infection is eliminated.

*This post is focused on the topical benefits of Comfrey. Though it's important that we note that all species of comfrey contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can potentially damage the liver when taken internally. Neither comfrey root nor leaf should be consumed during pregnancy, breastfeeding, by small children with developing livers or those with liver conditions.

So, do you keep comfrey on hand for your herbal first aid needs? Let us know in the comments and share your experience with this amazing and powerful healing herb! 🌿💚

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Want to learn the ins and outs of plant medicines just like Comfrey? We've got 20% off all courses and programs until September 12th. Check out our website for more details.

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09/05/2023

🍄 It's Mushroom Monday! 🍄 Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), is one of the oldest and most valued of all traditional medicines in the East, having been used in China and Japan for at least 4,000 years.

From its overall anti-inflammatory action to its capacity to support and nourish the immune system long-term, to its protective and restorative effect on the liver, Reishi offers wide-reaching support that is helpful for the challenges of 21st-century living that many of us deal with day to day.

Stress and anxiety can be difficult to deal with. While this is by no means a cure-all, Reishi is one of our favourite herbs to help ground the body and support our management of stress and anxiety. Do you have any experience working with Reishi Mushroom?

PLUS, Reishi is able to enhance certain aspects of the immune system, while down-regulating excessive immune activity, making it useful and applicable in bacterial and viral infections, as well as allergic and auto-immune conditions.

Do you have any experience working with Reishi?

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Are you curious about medicinal mushrooms? In our online course, Intro to Medicinal Mushrooms, Yarrow Willard, Cl. H., will guide you on your journey to where to find medicinal mushrooms, their unique chemistry, and how to make medicine from them.

Until September 12th you can purchase this course for 20% off at $117.60 CAD (Regular $147).

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06/15/2023

Lets lift eachother up!

04/03/2023

Ever wondered why certain plants are considered w**ds and others are deemed worthy of keeping around?

Dandelions, considered a w**d by many, are a perfect Spring food: rich in calcium, they reduce inflammation, have anti-cancer properties, are incredible for liver detoxification, are anti-aging & plentiful this time of year.

Dandelion Pesto w/ Pine Nuts
Ingredients:
1 large clove of garlic
1 large bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley
2 cups of chopped dandelion greens
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup of pine nuts
3 tbsp parmesan cheese (if you’re a vegan, nutritional yeast is a good substitute!)
1/2 cup of olive oil
Sea salt

Preparation:
Fill a medium-sized sauce pan with water and bring to a boil.

Blanch the greens, by placing the dandelion greens and parsley in the pot, making sure everything is fully submerged. Only cook for 1 minute.

Strain the water from the saucepan and fill again with cold water to halt the cooking process.

Strain the greens again and transfer them into a blender or food processor.
Add the pine nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, a pinch of sea salt to the mixture and blend until you’ve reached your consistency of choice.

*Serves 6 people