Half Moon Herbals

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Canada
Waterloo, ON
Half Moon Herbals

Nikola Barsoum is a certified Community Herbalist, Permaculture Designer and Ecological Farmer

The practice of herbal medicine is one of relationship building with the plants and the lands where one lives, and is a practice that is woven within all peoples histories. In gratitude and in joy, we plant, tend, harvest, prepare, drink-in and teach about healing herbs - as well as the process of reciprocity and giving back. Half Moon Herbals builds herb gardens using permaculture principals. Through observation, creative design and polyculture plantings we grow in a way that encourages respectful engagement and restoration of the surrounding ecosystem.

03/03/2026

Processing Ashwagandha (Withania somnífera) seeds today. The little red/orange berries in their paper-thin dried lanterns are so promising and beautiful. The seeds are delicate, smooth oval disks.

I start my Ashwagandha seedlings on a heat mat to help improve germination. These seeds about a few years old, so I’ll germ test first. I told myself I wouldn’t do any of my own veggie seedlings this year (thank you for growing some trays for me!) so I could make room for more medicinals (and a few perrenial veggies) in my little indoor seed starting rack.

This all feels so timely, as we’re currently in the fourth week of the online Medicine Garden Planning Circle, which has us finalizing the large pattern permaculture designs for our gardens and starting to focus on herb selection - so exiting!! So grateful to be doing this work alongside each of you.

01/26/2026

Amidst the aggressive forces at play in the world, the heartbreak of genocide, ecocide, dominance, and exploitation, I find refuge in my garden. I find solace in the sun and the cycles. I find a safe haven to grieve, and to remember what being held in connection feels like.

The process of growing and tending my food and medicine has been a personal salvage. I also see it as a kind of martial arts side step. A sway. Not resistance, per se. But a drop in a river flowing another way. 🙂

It is a process of weaving myself back into the web of relationship with the living world. Back into connection with those upon whom my very life depends. And somehow, I can still forget…. Without the practice, the awe of sprouting seeds, the wonder of working with wild species and healing spaces, the continual observation that guides discernment about how to interact, and the resulting upswell of my will to act on behalf of life…the amnesia returns.

The forces driving disconnection are strong, and also subtle. I am a child of late stage capitalism, and so easily entrained back into consumer, transactional mentalities. My garden, however meagre, however small, is my path back home again, to who I am meant to be.

I am grateful that I took a chance in my young 20s and followed my heart towards an agrarian life. I am grateful for those around the world who sing to the plants and the water, who treat seeds with deep reverence. Oof, it brings tears to my eyes.

And I thank you, who are reading this, for your own practices of connection and practical acts of love, to land and life.

I humbly invite those seeking support in this direction to join our garden planning circle this winter. More info in the comments (just follow the link). Cost is no barrier. DM me directly with questions.

This practice is about collective liberation, and about facing that direction together, to the best of our ability. ❤️

01/15/2026

Collecting community feedback!! If you joined Heather and me at a Learning Circle this past year, we’d like to hear from you. There’s a very short survey linked in the comments below, and we’d be so grateful if you took a moment to fill it out. ❤️

Because our offerings are rooted in community-based herbalism, a central part of our role is to listen: to the plants,
to the land,
and to our human community.

This is your chance to share. Tell us your herbal questions, needs, and desires for future learning spaces. Your feedback helps shape our community of practice, which we are deeply honoured to facilitate.

If you attended a circle with us, any and all feedback is welcome. Thank you so much for being part of this work!

01/12/2026

This winter I'm hosting an 8-week ONLINE learning circle focused on medicinal herb garden planning. If you're interested in deepening into the practice of growing your own medicine, this might be for you.

I've been mentoring other herb farmers and home gardeners for years now, and I'm excited to bring this work into a learning circle format which emphasizes 'horizontal learning' and community witnessing. We will be meeting live and online (which is rare for me) to support connect across a broader community. This is ideal for growers in zones 4-6.

Come learn how grow medicinals, increase your yields and potency, and connect further with the relational aspects of land-care.

Follow the link (or message me) to learn more. Thank you for your love for the plants and each other!! ❤️

12/02/2025

Yesterday marked the last of our 2025 Community Herbal Learning Circles! On a beautiful snowy day, we gathered by the fire and brewed up a big batch of cough syrup—this one especially supportive for wet coughs—to stock our winter medicine cabinets. Elecampane, thyme, and mullein were our featured herbs. ✨

Thank you to this wonderful crew for such a joyful morning together!! And thank you to every one of you who joined Heather .earth.remedies and myself throughout the year! Your involvement has helped shape an incredibly meaningful local ‘community of practice’. These circles have given us a chance to care for ourselves, deepen our relationships with the plants and the land, and move a little closer to the vision of “a herbalist in every home.”

I’m so grateful to be on this path of discovery with you all.

If you’re interested in future sessions and aren’t yet on the email list, just send me a DM and I’ll add you—this is the best way to hear about upcoming circles and other offerings. And stay tuned for details about our online winter gathering! We’ll be meeting weekly for 8–10 weeks to explore herbal medicine gardening. ❤️

11/17/2025

Thank you the for an amazing weekend!!

I feel so grateful to have been invited to speak on their Saturday panel and give a talk on Sunday to help close the conference. My talk was titled ‘Common Ground: Herbalists, Local Farms & The Living Medicine of Place’ and dove into the question of how we as herbalists can make sure to continue to root out work into relationship with the land. This is a question that is really ‘up’ for me as I start seeing clients as a Clinical Herbalist (student practitioner), which sometimes feels detached in contrast to my usual ‘boots on the ground’ work with herbal medicine.

There is SO MUCH opportunity with this work to help ourselves heal some of our deeper wounds of disconnect and displacement. To level up with the history of the lands we now reside. To open our hearts to a reciprocal approach to healing. I had the opportunity to share a little bit about my current work growing on our leased plot with the team/family (pictured here).

I had a dear friend share this concept with me today (Imagination Activism) and I think it sums up and moves forward the questions and reflections from my talk wonderfully! I love this concept. May we, the herbal community, flex and grow our muscles of imagination as we go forward from this weekend! THANK YOU, each of you, for all you do. ❤️

11/10/2025

There’s something truly special about gathering to make remedies together! I absolutely loved our snowy Sunday together yesterday, and our first ‘Maker’ Learning Circle of the season.

Thank you to everyone who joined in to taste, smell, touch, and “tickle” these delightful berries. We each went home with 500ml of elderberry syrup (with ginger and echinacea) to stock our medicine cabinets for the winter ahead. We also left with a little sparkle of joy from creating in community.

These moments never fail to remind me that health isn’t just about what I take — it’s about who I share the journey with. ❤️

If you’re curious to join future Learning Circles, let me know in the comments or send me a DM and I’ll make sure you get on our email list.

11/01/2025

The vibrant colour of Calendula officinalis! This is what it looks like when you can gather your own flowers or source from local growers with fresh supplies. I’m very grateful to have had the chance to bring some in this season. It’s such a difference from the often washed out versions I see from the larger industrial suppliers, and for such an important herb to have around the home (for its vulnerary/skin healing action) it’s thankfully also an incredibly EASY herb to grow in many zones and soil types. It is also one of the last flowers still holding their glow through the early fall frosts. Originally from the Middle East, this flower has moved around the world due to its usefulness and beauty. Thank you dear Calendula.

10/21/2025

Echinacea purpurea was our focus herb at last weekend’s Herbal Learning Circle! Heather .earth.remedies and I led a session on plant ID, harvesting, and tincture-making, with me demonstrating (and everyone being such good sports in the pouring rain!) 😂🙏

Echinacea isn’t just a beauty in the garden, she’s one of the most recognized medicinal herbs in the world. Known through history as “the great herbal diplomat,” Echinacea helped carry the practice of herbal medicine through times when it nearly disappeared. Today, it’s one of the few herbal remedies you can find in most pharmacies (and I’m noticing more herbs consistently joining her ranks, at least around here).

Her medicine is as relevant as ever. Numerous studies confirm her ability to support and strengthen the immune response, making her an incredible ally during seasonal transitions — especially when those first signs of illness appear.

On Sunday, we gathered to harvest and make tincture together in an urban garden — a beautiful moment of community and reciprocity. Working with herbs like Echinacea always reminds me that tending the land is also tending ourselves. Also, that every medicine garden, no matter how small, can become a sanctuary — for humans, pollinators, and a plethora of more-than-human beings.

Learning from the plants, and working with them in this way, always feels like writing a love letter to the land. ❤️

10/11/2025

Drop Dosing: one of my favourite ways to learn about plants. I tend to be a skeptic. I can read about or be told of the medicinal qualities of a plant, but it’s not until I experience it myself that the information feels legitimate. Being injured or sick can be powerful learning opportunities. And while my work in observation clinic (creating complex formulations and seeing clients improve over time) is deeply insightful, there’s something uniquely magical about drop dosing.

There’s nothing so simple, yet so mysteriously informative, as learning about a plant in community. We take small doses of a “mystery herb” and just… notice what arises. It’s incredible what can be tracked together in this way.

Last night we sat with Red Clover in the second of a two-part drop dosing series at . Heather (.earth.remedies ) and I do our best to usher everyone into a meditative and embodied state. Here are the scribbled notes I took as we each shared after our experience. Some people even saw parts of the plant and drew them before the plant was revealed.

I’m always awed by these sessions and am deeply grateful for the community of practice that’s growing in this area. Thank you!!

We have a few more fall sessions, mostly focused on remedy making. If you’d like to join, you can register with the link in the comments.

10/08/2025

Tincture pressing!
Slowly, I’ve been stocking my dispensary in anticipation of the client work ahead as I take my final steps toward registering as a Clinical Herbalist in Ontario. I’ve come a long way with tincture-making since I first started using the “excess” from my herbal medicine farm. Those tinctures allowed the herbs to be shelf-stable and available through my (mostly trade-based) community apothecary — a very informal setup out of my home.

I cringe a little now when I think of those watery extracts, purely because I now have the tools and know-how to do better — meaning using percentages and ratios more specific to each plant, and therefore a responsibility to do so. However, it’s from those early experiences that I hold a deep appreciation for the accessibility of simple, folk-medicine-style extracts. They work. And I am grateful for the vibrant colours, smells, taste, and overall quality of what I’m pressing now… I still have a lot to learn.

The tincture shown here is sarsaparilla root (Smilax regelii), made from dried pieces, pulverized and blended to create this ruby-red tincture. This particular Smilax variety is from a tropical vine and is one of a growing handful of non-local herbs that I now work with (though I still favour a bioregional herbal approach). It sure smells like root beer — and its local cousin was a key ingredient in old-fashioned root beers! In formula, this herb can be really helpful for inflammatory conditions of the skin, connective tissue, and bowels.
A big thank you to Heather .earth.remedies for the continual help and collaboration. ❤️

Address

Mary Allen Park
Waterloo, ON

Website

http://www.halfmoonherbals.com/

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Our Story

The healthy wilderness of the Purcell and Valhalla mountains offer so much to those who inhabit them. Among the many gifts that this thriving land base provides are the medicinal plants. Roots, barks, flowers, stalks and leaves of this region all have a long history of use in traditional medicine, with modern scientific research providing ever increasing amounts of evidence and insight into their healing properties. The practice of herbal medicine is one of relationship building, between ourselves and the plants and the lands where we live. It is a practice that all people have a unified history to, and can engage with on many levels from everyday nourishment and disease prevention, to minor and major infection and disease treatment. Herbal medicine, in all it’s varied approaches from around the world, is an important part of an integrated approach to health care. So what do you do with such gifts from the land? We at Half Moon Herbals believe it is important to engage, be grateful and patient, only take what you need, and always be learning how to give back. In reciprocity, Half Moon Herbals farm and apothecary has built herb gardens using ‘wild-simulated’ techniques and permaculture principals, intended to increase the vitality of the herbs as well as the health of the local ecosystem. We gather and harvest these fresh herbs and use them to make tinctures, oils, teas and a variety of other remedies that we offer to our local community, especially through our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. To find out more about our farm & apothecary we invite you to visit our website: www.halfmoonherbals.com

In the words of David Spangler: We are on a quest, individually and collectively, to create wholeness within ourselves and within all of our life, to find it within ourselves and to release it - a process of communion and education. What is created will not be separation, conflict and diversity among peoples, but wholeness, oneness, peace, a new earth for humankind that reflects the oneness and wholeness of the earth that has always been.