Niki Morrell Herbalist

08/03/2026

Elder is one of the ancient magical trees used in medicine, food, and for protection against spells and witchcraft. There are all sorts of superstitions associated with it, including the bad luck that was said to befall anyone who took any part of the tree without showing due respect. If you recited the protection charm shown beneath the image, however, you'd be safe .

Earlier today, a generous friend invited me to take some of the elderberries from her trees. They're plump and perfect and the birds hadn't got to them yet, so I high-tailed it over there to find her up a step-ladder with secateurs and a box full of berries.

There's something very deep and ancient about the close weave of women, plants, and the quality of generosity. I've been thinking about that because today, 8 March, is International Women's Day.

I thought of all the women through the ages who have coaxed tiny, delicate things into life, be they seedlings or frail infants. I thought of all the women who shared their knowledge of growing food and medicine. And how some of those women were murdered because of that knowledge, by people who considered wildness and vitality and the natural world to be evil.

I get to speak to many new students of herbalism and the overwhelming majority—95%—are women. They're not just interested in herbs as 'green drugs'; they love the plants and want to grow them themselves. Life calls to life... and the weave of women and plants continues and strengthens.

Sacred to Hulda, the Norse goddess of love, marriage and fecundity, Elder has always been associated with women. In England, the tree's spirit was known as the Elder Mother and it was she you had to placate with the charm.

Elder is tough and resilient, and helps us to be those things too. She strengthens our immunity, helps us to breathe better, supports us in fevers. Cooling and nourishing, she helps bring us into balance... a wonderful and very appropriate herb to associate with this year's International Women's Day.

10/02/2026

What a legend. This famously fiery 17th century English herbalist knew full well about what we in the 21st century call the 'gut-brain axis'. He didn't know about the vagus nerve, hormones and gut microbes but he did know the profound effects that the gut can have on cognition, mood, stress and physical health.

It's a two-way street: the brain gives us butterflies in the stomach and the gut can give us depression and anxiety (there's science that shows higher-than-normal incidences of both in people with IBS and functional bowel problems).

Herbalists have always known about the importance of gut health. It's central to our training and our practice. So if you have issues with your gut and you're concerned, get in touch for a chat. When your gut is functioning properly, you'll find that life looks a heck of a lot rosier than it might do right now.

04/02/2026

It's hard to be at your best when you hurt.

Constant, low-level aching grinds you down. It affects sleep, appetite, exercise and mood—even worse when you can't get a diagnosis because you've had all the tests and they've come back negative. It can feel as if you're stuck in some kind of hellish nightmare that no-one else can understand.

Pain is a complex subject but the solution might be something very simple. If chronic aches and pains are caused by inflammation, as some scientists believe, then when you find the cause of the inflammation you can redress the balance. Three very simple causes of inflammation include:

🔥 a food intolerance—this can contribute greatly to chronic musculoskeletal pain, including pains or aches in the joints and/or muscles, stiffness, and weakness
🔥 trace element deficiencies—these can affect connective tissue integrity (think tendons and ligaments). Examples: silicon, copper, zinc
🔥 dehydration—if you're constantly running too dry your body has to work harder at everything, especially metabolising and excreting toxins.

The solution to chronic aches could be something as simple as drinking more water, taking a good multi-vitamin or removing dairy or gluten from your diet.

Herbs can help here too. Some, like Nettle, Raspberry Leaf and Alfalfa, are nutritional powerhouses. Some, like Ginger, Turmeric and Licorice, are potent anti-inflammatories. There are a host of others. As esteemed American herbalist Paul Bergner says, "All herbs relieve pain if they're treating the cause."

If you suffer with chronic aches and pains and you want some herbal support, get in touch. I'd love to help.

31/01/2026

Heads up if you're based in Matamata or nearby. Fiona is a very good herbalist and will provide you and your loved ones with excellent care.

Hey everyone, mark your calendars! 📆
On Wednesday, 4 February, I will be available at Health 2000 to chat with anyone who would like to know more about herbal medicine and the services I offer.

Find out how herbal medicine can help you, learn about constitutions and the cycle of healing, and experience herbal pulse testing with a range of herbal tinctures made in my home dispensary.

After this initial event, the idea is to offer consultations once or twice a month at Health 2000 (Matamata), in addition to seeing clients in my home-based herbal clinic.

I look forward to seeing you there between 9 am and 4 pm! 🌿

13/01/2026

Last summer we spotted a tiny patch of this little plant growing in one of our paddocks. I'd never seen it before. After some research, we identified it as Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea).

The name rang a bell. I knew Centaury had some kind of traditional medicinal use but had fallen out of favour in recent times. The patch wasn't big enough to do anything with, so I did a little happy dance and left it alone.

This summer, it's increased five-fold. That's not enough to ensure its survival if I were to harvest it now, but enough to make me think I could do something with it next year.

Centaury's in the Gentian family. According to the NZ Plant Conservation Network, it was brought to NZ from Europe in 1867. Like its better-known cuz Yellow Gentian (Gentiana lutea), it's very bitter, and like all herbal bitters, it's a liver tonic. Its most common use was for digestive problems and lack of appetite.

Centaury was also used to bring down fevers. It has anti-inflammatory, sedative and pain relieving properties, although the effect of the latter two is mild. While generally considered a safe herb, leave it alone if you're pregnant or have stomach or intestinal ulcers.

I think the main reason that Centaury's not really used much any more is that it's almost impossible to cultivate. Unlike the more thuggish herbs, this one is very finicky when it comes to growing conditions. It prefers to be wild so it has to be wildcrafted and that means it's not possible to guarantee supply. On our 25-hectare property, Centaury grows on a patch of just 1.5m2.

We're now in our 15th year at this place and I love how it can still surprise me. I also love that some plants just refuse to compromise. They insist on remaining wild and free and from my perspective, that makes them all the more precious.

12/01/2026

Happy New Year. So all the way back in 2025, I was attending a Zoom conference and we were asked the following question: If you had the power to take anything forward into the future, to save it from being lost, what would it be?

No prizes for guessing what my first response was but I was beaten to it by one of the elders on the call. He said, "Herbalism. I think it's going to be very interesting to see what role herbalism and plants have to play in the decades ahead."

If I could've reached through the screen and hugged him, I would've.

I've thought a lot about his response since. And I realised something. One of plants' greatest strengths is their ability to adapt. Sure, it's still within certain tolerances but they're far tougher than animals. Which is why you have plants like Dandelion and Plantain all over the freakin' planet but leopards not so much.

Sometimes I wonder, in a world that seems to be warming, what will happen to the plants? Some might die out. Others might develop spines or become so bitter nothing will want to eat them. Plants that haven't been medicinal might suddenly become so. Others might lose their healing properties.

Living beings are tricky like that.

That's why it's wise to never think that we know it all.

But back to that beginning question. On the face of it, the Christmas/New Year period was just full of more bad news. But what if there was one thing that each of us valued and had the power to take into the future? What would yours be?

Plants aren't the only masters of adaptation in this world. We could all be the custodians of something that makes the place better, even if it's just within our close circles.

I think it starts and ends with community. Forests understand this. More and more of us are realising it too.

Here's to a 2026 that we can make just a little bit better. Let's all roll up our sleeves and heal something.

22/12/2025

Happy Solstice! It feels weird that this is the longest day of the year when it's been so damn cold here 😰

I concentrated on harvesting flowers today. Normally I'd wait until the day after the solstice, so that they've had the benefit of a full day's sunlight but the weather is meant to turn nasty tonight, so tomorrow won't be great for harvesting.

Foot update: Well, there's nothing like being less mobile to encourage getting the Christmas tree sorted! The first foot image here is yesterday's, when the poor baby was at its most brilliantly technicolour. The second image was taken this morning. The swelling has greatly reduced over the last few days. After 48 hours, I'd stopped limping.

Pain-wise, it's concentrated down to the area on the top of the foot between the arch and the ankle.

I've adjusted the treatment to:
🌿 At least one Comfrey soak a day
🌿 Arnica cream twice a day
🌿 Tinctures—Turmeric (anti-inflammatory), Hawthorn (for circulation and to tone blood vessel integrity) and California Poppy for pain relief (I haven't taken any for three days but it's there if I need it)
🌿 Tea of Red Clover (lymphatic tonic to help the body with drainage and the transportation of macrophages, the white blood cells that break down debris), Chamomile (relaxer) and Nettles (mineral source; good for bones and connective tissue).

I haven't taken any pharmaceutical painkillers or anti-inflammatories, not because I'm trying to make a point but because the herbs are managing it all so well. Paracetamol and Ibuprofen are wonderful but for me they're a last resort, rather than the first thing I grab. Which basically sums up my philosophy when it comes to allopathic medicine.

Hope you're finding peace inside all of the stress and over-activation that seems to go with this time of year. If you're getting frazzled, consider standing for a few minutes in the sun—which never fails to rise and which shines on all, regardless of the day and whatever significance we attach to it 🌞

17/12/2025

So it's been a while. I had this idea of carefully curating a collection of beautiful images to give you an idea of what's been going on but then this happened, just this morning. (Please excuse ugly foot photos.)

It was my own fault. I have a very bad habit of sitting on one foot while I scroll the internet. Earlier today I did that for a while, then got up and took three steps. My left foot was completely numb. I went over on it, wrenched everything inside and ended up on my back, trying not to pass out from the pain.

Then I went into shock—freezing cold, shaking, teeth chattering, bowels opening, the lot. Icing the injury made it worse. So I gulped down some herbal tinctures, cranked up the electric blanket and went to bed for an hour. The tinctured herbs were:

🌿 Turmeric (anti-inflammatory)
🌿 Cramp bark (antispasmodic)
🌿 St John's Wort (anodyne—pain reliever—for the nerves, calming)
🌿 California Poppy (anodyne and sedative)

After getting up, I hobbled outside and gathered some leaves from the world's primo herb for bone, muscle and tissue damage: Comfrey (Symphytum official).

I soaked two leaves in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then shook them dry, wrapped them around the foot and held them in place with some old cheesecloth pinned together.

The last two photos in this series show what the foot looked like 2.5 hours later when I changed the poultice. It still hurts like hell but the swelling has definitely gone down.

Poultices are the simplest things in the world but they can have major benefits over something you take orally. The biggest advantage is that you're applying the plant directly to the injury, rather than the herb having to navigate your digestive system first.

Tonight before I go to bed, I'll make a really strong comfrey infusion and put it into a foot bath so I can soak the foot before bed. Fifteen to 30 minutes is ideal for an injury like this. Then I'll rub in some St John's Wort oil and hopefully get some sleep.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this live experiment. Guess I'll never sit on a foot until it goes numb again... doh!

19/11/2025

So it didn't take long to run out of room! Here I've got dried Raspberry leaf, Birch and Rosemary. I also took advantage of our 'no power' situation yesterday while we had an electrician working here, to go wildcrafting Hawthorn. That's the last image, yet to be dried.

The aim when drying medicinal herbs is to keep their colour and fragrance as strong and as true to the fresh version as possible. When dried herbs are well stored—somewhere dark, dry and cool—they can sometimes last well beyond their conventional use-by date.

The Raspberry Leaf will be kept for teas. It's a very nourishing herb and the minerals are best extracted in water rather than alcohol. I'll tincture the Birch. The Rosemary will be used for teas, tinctures and herb oils for sore joints and muscles in Winter. The Hawthorn will be mostly tinctured, with some left for teas.

The next few months will be insanely busy but hugely satisfying. The dispensary will be very well stocked!

17/11/2025

After three years of storing herbs and glassware in assorted boxes, an old fridge, a caravan, and a set of drawers in our spare room, I finally have somewhere to put the lot.

My husband Ewan built this for me while I was away recently. 💓💓💓

I'm still transferring stuff and there are a couple of overhead cupboards yet to be assembled but eventually I'm going to have an actual, proper dispensary. And it feels amazing.

Once everything's in its place, the next step will be to get my labelling sorted so it looks more consistent and professional.

I'm so glad and grateful that Ewan supports what I'm doing—even if he had more than a few choice words to describe the assembly process!

08/11/2025

Wow. Just wow. Radio New Zealand reports that a study just published in the New Zealand Medical Journal has found that 10 of the most commonly prescribed drugs here couldn't be manufactured locally if global supply chains broke down.

The RNZ piece names the drugs and what they're used to treat. Conditions include:
🔥 Gastritis and gastric ulcers (omeprazole)
🔥 Severe bacterial pneumonia (amoxicillin)
🔥 Pain (paracetamol and ibuprofen)
🔥 Strokes and heart attacks (aspirin)
🔥 High blood pressure (metropolol)
🔥 Asthma (salbutamol)
🔥 Severe allergic reactions (prednisone)
🔥 Angina (cetirizine)
🔥 General allergy symptoms (amlodipine)

For the record, herbs can safely and effectively do the job of five of these drugs and at least help with the pain side of things. The three others treat acute, life-threatening conditions that definitely need pharmaceutical intervention (I've included asthma in this category, although severity varies and, depending on the cause, herbs and lifestyle changes can sometimes help).

But here's the bit that gave me my WTF?! moment this morning:

"Another of the study authors, Dr Matt Boyd, said New Zealand could also consider producing natural alternatives to some medicines, for instance by using salicylic acid from the bark of willow trees as an alternative to aspirin, or by using hormones derived from livestock to produce insulin.

"However, the more sensible approach would be for the New Zealand and Australian governments to come up with a joint plan to produce and trade key pharmaceuticals."

This doesn’t seem “more sensible” to me. It seems naive. The study has already established that NZ can’t produce its most oft-prescribed drugs so what pharmaceuticals is it going to manufacture and trade that Australia would even want?

Governments in the Western world are notoriously short-sighted when it comes to unpopular ‘what if’ scenarios. So who’s going to propose expensive local drug manufacture ‘just in case’ when there’s plenty of the stuff already out there and global supply chains are currently working fine?

Sure, you can stockpile in advance. But you’ll eventually run out.

Or are they magically going to swing into action after everything’s gone to hell in a handbasket (the story lists "nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere, or a pandemic or regional conflict that stopped trade" as examples)?

This does my head in. Even in a disaster scenario there's this massive assumption that laboratories would still be able to function and the infrastructure would still be there for their products to be distributed.

Surely a little local resilience wouldn't go amiss? I mean willow bark, for God’s sake… when willow’s one of our biggest environmental headaches. Medicine and environmental benefits from harvesting it = win-win. Or am I just not "sensible" enough to see that farming out responsibility for a national population's health needs in times of crisis really is the best way to go?

The study found that of the 10 most extensively prescribed pharmaceuticals, none could be manufactured locally.

03/11/2025

So I was away for nine days. Four were spent with eight other fabulous herbalistas, talking and eating and sharing knowledge and experience and generally doing fabulous herbalista-type stuff.

Five days were spent catching up with my wonderful brothers and my brilliant mentor, herbalist Richard Whelan.

And I came home to a totally different property. BT (Before Travel): bare branches. Ground-level grass. Nothing in the vege beds. Still Winter. AT (After Travel): every tree covered in leaves. Grass almost up to my thighs. Vege beds full of self-seeded Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata). Summer-like temperatures.

When you live at altitude, it's so extreme. It's either Winter or Summer, with very little in-between. Right now, everything's lush and and screaming out to be harvested and made into potent medicine.

Hence the list in the image. I've made a start—the four herbs crossed out—but just because there's a line through their names, it doesn't mean they're finished. I'll keep harvesting them all through Summer along with most of the others (Cleavers is definitely a 'right now' kind of plant).

Over the last couple of years, I've tried to get into a routine where I harvest and dry herbs over Spring and Summer, and tincture them all in Autumn and Winter. Can't say I've nailed it yet. Nature isn't that tidy. I suspect in a month's time, I'll just throw up my hands like I've done in the past and try to do all of it whenever I can.

It was good to go away but it's great to be home. 😁