River Prairie Apothecary

11/12/2025

Roots, roots, roots, roots!

10/24/2025

🥶Beautiful frosty morning with the last of my garden friends

10/22/2025

Fungi Fair!

Schedule of Events for Fungi Fair!! 💖🍄

Fungi Fair itself is free and open to all!!

For the 2 events on the schedule where we say there are limited spots available, sign up is still free, it's just on a first-come basis. That will be at the WMS merch booth which will double as a place to ask questions about Fungi Fair.

The foray will of course not be our usual trek into the woods, but we will see what we find on the grounds, and also explore selected specimens brought in from our Muskego park foray (the day previous) for hands-on learning.

See you there!

10/19/2025

Fall isn’t just a display of color

It’s a painting of cold nights
and lingering darkness.

Sunlight casts dramatic angles
shadows stretch further.

Production is halting
the breakdown is beginning.

What’s dissolving will be reabsorbed.

The alchemy of spring
begins in the fall.

10/06/2025

Big trees are cool, but they’re also so much more.

These aren’t just big trees… they are intact ecosystems, dynamic relationships that developed over millennia. They are giant, diverse communities, each being living out a role in a story that took thousands of years to tell.

As an herbalist, I’ve learned to read a landscape like a book. I can understand something of its recent history by noticing what trees are growing, their size, and what fills the undergrowth.

In an old-growth forest, I can expect to find an array of edible and medicinal mushrooms in season. I’m less likely to see invasive plants, and I don't have to worry as much about ticks and Lyme disease.

This isn't a coincidence. Lyme disease is more prevalent where ecosystems are out of balance—with larger deer herds, fewer predators, and missing layers of the food web. It’s a reminder that our health is tied to the health of the land.

So, it’s not just about liking big trees.
And it’s also not about romanticizing “untouched” wilderness. People on this continent managed forests for millennia in a relationship that didn't alter them beyond recognition.

Looking at this photo of the old groves feels like seeing pictures of loved ones from a generation I never met. There's a sense of kinship, but also a distance that brings a touch of nostalgia, and even grief.

I visited some old-growth forests in the UP a couple of weeks ago. Standing there, I often thought of the Eau Claire area and the forests I’ve heard existed before logging. It really hasn’t been that long, in the grand scope of time, since the landscape was so dramatically changed.

Spending time in nature alters your perception of time. I stood below a cedar tree that was over 1000 years old, and it made me ponder my own life as just a blip. It shifted my perspective from seeing these trees as relics of the past to recognizing them as beings of the future.

Part of my work as an herbalist is to help people feel woven into the natural world—to encourage a sense of belonging that breaks down the illusion that humans are at the top of a hierarchy, always knowing best. We can cause a lot of damage when we collectively believe that.

It’s taken me a long time to reframe my own thinking, to truly feel like I belong to nature. Standing in a pine plantation—with its perfect rows, its silence, its lonely feeling—it’s hard to grasp that connection. These places have drastically fewer species, even in the soil itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my urban forests, too. They’re super disturbed and look nothing like the forests of 200 years ago, but I still love them. I certainly don’t demand perfection from nature in exchange for my love. They are vital respites for all sorts of life.

But in deepening my love for the natural world, I also carry grief when I understand how much has changed and how much we still undervalue these intricate communities.

These feelings are difficult to name. I used to think that learning more about the living world would only bring joy, but the connection brings complexity, too.

Anishinaabe cultural teachings have been a profound gift in helping me reframe my thinking. I'm grateful to the generous individuals who share knowledge and demonstrate how to be in relationship with this land and all its beings, despite historic and ongoing challenges.

This learning has made me reflect on my own place in this story. I’m reminded that many of us, as descendants of immigrants who changed this landscape, can feel lost in the present. We can become so afraid of people from beyond imaginary borders that our hearts harden, forgetting that we, too, are part of a story of movement and change.

When we don’t understand our past, we struggle to make good decisions for the present and future.
We need to see ourselves as part of a larger picture—connected to ecosystems, to different times, and to each other.

It’s no surprise that the historic treatment of the land is mirrored in how we treat people. When forests are seen only as capital, and entire groups of people are seen as "less than," it speaks to the same root: a painful lack of understanding of our inherent interconnectedness.

When I look at big trees, I think of the ancestors who immigrated here for a new life. For some, it was a beginning; for others, it was an end. Holding this complexity should make our hearts bigger, softer, and more welcoming. It should make us more humble.

We can’t change the past, but it shapes our present. Collectively ignoring this context is unhealthy for us and for the land.

Let the trees teach us about resilience and community.

Let the lack of old trees make us question how we treat the land and each other.

Let the trees help us learn how to live as true citizens of this place.

Let the forests teach us how to heal, and how to be better.

10/06/2025

Tootin the flutes of because obviously that’s what its good for

Thank you Kayleen Phoenix Holistic Wellness LLC for sharing with community 😘🌱 and thank you to Greta and her family for their help and for the nourishment I definitely needed to dig for a couple hours!

While Japanese Knotweed is definitely not something you want in your yard, there’s a plethora of support in the roots that will support your health…

I’ll share more later 🤓

10/02/2025

Shout out to pal who gifted me 10 lbs of chicken of the woods,

and to the new friend who let me harvest freely from her wetlands.

Thank you patient pal who happily hikes at 1 mile per hour with me

Reflecting my enthusiasm
and gratitude
hugging the Hemlocks for all the Reishi.

Thank you Lake Superior for the Horns of plenty.

Thank you kindred plants and mushrooms
for weaving me into community.

Thank you generously hearted foragers and gardeners

We are nature

Our Nature is Abundance