02/14/2026
Herbalism is more than a hobby or an aesthetic. It is a form of resistance.
To learn the names of plants, to grow medicine in a backyard or on a windowsill, to share remedies with neighbors, these are quiet ways of reclaiming knowledge that has been pushed aside by systems that profit from our disconnection from land, from each other, and from our own bodies.
Herbalism is also work. It is study, practice, observation, and care. For many people it has always been a profession, even when it was dismissed, criminalized, or pushed into the margins. Reclaiming herbalism means recognizing the skill, labor, and dedication it takes to tend plants and to tend people.
Herbalism has always been part of mutual aid and community care. In times of crisis, when institutions fail or become inaccessible, people turn to what they can grow, gather, and share. Teas, salves, and knowledge passed hand to hand become ways communities sustain each other, quietly and collectively.
Herbal traditions carry the wisdom of ancestors, midwives, healers, and communities who cared for one another long before industrial medicine existed. Keeping that knowledge alive honors them and keeps alternatives possible.
Resistance does not always look loud. Sometimes it looks like tending a garden, brewing tea, saving seeds, or teaching someone what grows in the soil beneath their feet.
Every leaf remembered is a small act of remembering who we are.
What plants, remedies, or traditions have been part of care in your community?
