Twin Star Herbal Education & Community Apothecary

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Twin Star Herbal Education & Community Apothecary

Lupo Passero ~ Clinical Herbalist, Flower Essence Practitioner and Educator
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About Twin Star

Twin Star offers community classes and workshops on herbal medicine, holistic health, and natural healing. We are located in the beautiful hills of Western Connecticut where Lupo Passero, Herbalist, Educator and Flower Essence Practitioner shares her teachings both nationally and throughout the surrounding area. Twin Star offers a myriad of classes ranging from half day workshops to 7 month long herbal intensives. Lupo covers a variety of topics including herbal medicine, flower essence therapy, energy healing and holistic health including the safe and effective uses of vitamins and supplements. If you are interested in having a herbal class or workshop held in your community please inquire within. connected with the plant world, Lupo Passero has studied botanical medicine from a variety of perspectives. A mother twice blessed, Lupo has a first hand passion for helping the family enjoy healthy and holistic experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. Her humble beginning with herbs and flower essences in her own life inspired her to learn more and go on to teach others. About Lupo

Lupo spent over a decade developing an intimate relationship to the diverse medicinal plants of the Appalachians Mountains of North Carolina, where she studied at the North Carolina School of Natural Healing. Shortly after graduation Lupo began her career in herbal education promoting traditional herbalism at several various institutions (including The Appalachian School of Holistic Herbalism and The One World Healing Institute). Lupo has been teaching private workshops in various locations along the both the North and Southeast for many years now. Her classes involve a variety of topics including folk history, modern botanical science, plant identification and making herbal remedies. Lupo has also worked closely within the Natural Products Industry for many years specializing in both education and customer care. She is considered a valuable leader in this field and combines her work by educating consumers and retailers of the proper, efficacious, and safe uses of both herb and vitamin supplements. Lupo has served as Secretary and board member of the American Herbalist Guild for, an organization pioneering professional modern Herbalism since 2007. She lives in New Milford CT and when she is not traveling she can be found in the woods with her camera or at her local yoga studio.

12/14/2025

Ready to slow down and sink into something deeper?

From March 3–10, 2026, we’re gathering in Guanacaste, Costa Rica for The Alchemy of Pleasure & Plants, a women’s healing retreat with Twin Star Herbal Education.

Picture this: mornings with plant-spirit medicine, hands-on herbal crafting, sensory rituals, and reflection practices that reconnect you to your body and the earth. Afternoons spent by the sea at Playa Avellanas + Playa Negra, moving, floating, and remembering what it feels like to be held by nature.

You’ll experience yoga, ritual bathing, and carefully guided ceremonies designed to soften, restore, and open you.

And before you leave, you’ll craft your own metalwork amulet—an object of intention, protection, and remembrance, carrying the magic of the week home with you.

All of this unfolds within a women-run eco sanctuary surrounded by tropical forest, medicinal gardens, and ocean air. Nourishing meals, beautiful bungalows, and space to exhale are woven into every day.

Spaces are filling quickly! Only a few spots left!

If this is calling to you, send a message or visit the link in our bio to learn more.

12/12/2025

A Free Gift for You: Learn Traditional Herbal Syrups!

Curious about the art of botanical mixology and how herbalism weaves into cocktails and zero-proof elixirs? Join us for a free on-demand class, How to Make Traditional Herbal Syrups, where you’ll learn the foundational methods that bring herbs to life in your beverages.

This free herbal syrup class is perfect for holiday mocktails, cozy kitchen crafting, and infusing your season with plant magic.

You’ll learn the traditional history of crafting herbal syrups and tips for creating non-alcoholic, spirited, and ritual-friendly beverages.

Perfect for the home home bartenders, professional bartenders, alcohol-free community, and herbalists. This class is for beginners or students wanting a grounded introduction to herbal drink preparations.

This class is a sneak peek into our full Botanical Bartender Course, where we dive even deeper into herbal mixology, energetics, formulation, and crafting herbal beverages that actually work. Sign-up for it through the link in our bio or by commenting below!

Holiday Sale 🎁✨

The Botanical Bartender Course is $100 off with code BAR at checkout. This class is for beginners or students wanting a grounded introduction to herbal drink preparations.

Sip smarter, craft with intention, and bring herbal magic to every celebration.

12/09/2025

The Art of Making Your Own Vanilla Extract

*PSA - do not use a cork to secure your lid while macerating. Make sure that you use a rubber, glass, or a metal top.

Making your homemade vanilla extract is super easy. It can be used for baking and cooking, but it is also wonderful in warm seasonal cocktails and classic winter mocktails. Think, hot buttered rum, hot toddy's, or homemade Irish cream. Vanilla beans come from a very special orchid that gives us a rich balsamic, sweet vanilla flavor, and allowing it to rest for up to one year offers the deepest, most complete extraction.

Ingredients
Vanilla beans 6 to 8 per cup of alcohol
Use 100 proof alcohol for the best extraction. Vodka is the most common choice but rum bourbon or organic grain with water will also work
A clean glass bottle or jar with a tight-fitting lid

Step by step
Split the vanilla beans lengthwise to reveal their fragrant seeds.
Place the beans in a clean glass jar.
Cover completely with 100 proof alcohol, letting the liquid cradle every part of the bean.
Seal the jar tightly with a rubber, glass, or metal lid.
Store in a cool dark place and shake now and then as the aroma deepens.
Let it infuse for at least eight weeks for usable extract, three to six months for fuller character, and up to a year for the most profound expression of the orchid’s flavor.

Homemade vanilla extract grows more soulful with time and can be topped off with additional alcohol as you use it.

Want to learn more? Join us for our Botanical Bartender online class! This course is currently on sale until December 26th. Save $100 with code BAR at checkout. A great gift for those who have been wanting to learn how to create mocktails and cocktails while working with a plant's energetics. Plus, if you want a sneak peek of the program we are offering a FREE Traditional Herbal Syrups class. Comment “drinks” below and we will send it to you!

12/06/2025

Hag’s Torches, or Mullein Candles, have long been used to bring light into the darkest times of the year. As winter deepens and the season turns toward the Solstice, these simple torches were carried and burned to honor returning light, protect the home, and guide the way through the long nights. Traditionally, dried mullein stalks were coated in fat or wax and burned during ceremonies and seasonal observances. As a seasonal craft, creating them is both a practical act and a way of working with the upcoming season’s energy.

How to Make Them
1. Harvest and prepare the stalk
Choose a fully dried mullein stalk. Brush away loose debris while keeping the natural texture that helps hold wax and botanicals.
2. Melt the wax
Warm beeswax or tallow until fully liquid. A shallow pot or double boiler works well.
3. Dip the stalk
Give the mullein stalk one complete dip into the melted wax. This light coating provides enough tack for herbs while allowing the stalk to burn naturally.
4. Add botanicals
While the wax is warm, roll the stalk in your chosen herbs. For this round of torches we used rose, lavender, blue lotus, and calendula. Each plant carries its own meaning and supports the practice of working with intentional plant allies.
5. Let it set
Lay the finished torch on parchment or a cooling rack until the wax hardens.
6. Use outdoors
Once cooled, the torch is ready to burn. Its bright, steady flame echoes the traditional mullein tapers used across Europe to mark the turning of the year.

Crafting these torches for the Solstice reflects the heart of Green Witch practice: honoring the season, working with the plants that surround us, and welcoming the soon to return, light back into the world.

what to learn more? Join our newsletter! We have lots of fantastic holiday offerings and free classes on deck. Tis this season!

12/04/2025

Twin Star is looking for a heart-centered Bookkeeper & School Operations Coordinator to join our growing herbal community. This remote, part-time role blends bookkeeping with supporting the daily flow of our school. As a female-led, mission-driven herbal education center, we love hiring from within our community, people who truly resonate with our values and want to be part of something meaningful.
We’re seeking someone who brings both skill and soul: a detail-oriented bookkeeper who also enjoys supporting students, tending communication, helping classes and trips run smoothly, and contributing to our warm, collaborative and incredible Twin Star team.
If you have professional bookkeeping experience, communicate with care, stay organized, and value community, education, and herbalism, we’d love to welcome you into our circle. This is more than a job, it’s an opportunity to grow with an herbal school that deeply believes in its people and purpose.

To apply, please visit the link in our bio or go to twinstartribe.com and click "we're hiring". Please feel free to share this post if you know of the perfect person for this role. We can’t wait to hear from you.

12/03/2025

GOLDEN FIRE CIDER 🍂✨

A winter classic, deeply warming, powerfully supportive to the immune system, and grounded in the long history of plants like ginger, turmeric, horseradish, and rosemary. Our version, which is featured in Rosemary Gladstar’s Fire Cider book, is also the base of one of our signature creations: the Fire Cider Bloody Mary. This recipe is a perfect example of the bridge between herbalism and intentional mixology, which is exactly what we teach inside our new course, The Botanical Bartender.

Below is the full Golden Fire Cider recipe from the course. All parts are approximate and may be adjusted to taste. Chop ingredients finely to support maximum extraction into the vinegar.

2–3 parts onion, chopped
2 parts lemon, with peel
2 parts horseradish, peeled and chopped
1 part ginger, peeled and chopped
1 part turmeric, chopped
1 part garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 part rosemary (fresh is best)
1/8 part black peppercorn, freshly ground
1/8 part cayenne
Apple cider vinegar, raw with the mother
Raw honey, added after straining

Add all ingredients to a clean jar and pour in enough vinegar to fully cover everything. When shaking the jar, do so with intention and ensure all ingredients move freely. We call this maintaining a good slosh factor. Let steep for several weeks, then strain and sweeten with raw honey to taste.

This Fire Cider is a potent winter ally on its own, but it also becomes the foundational ingredient for our well-loved Fire Cider Bloody Mary recipe included in The Botanical Bartender.

If you want to explore how herbalism and mixology meet, learn foundational extraction techniques, and create botanical cocktails and mocktails with confidence, The Botanical Bartender is now open. The course is currently 100 dollars off with code BAR through 12/26. This is the only time it will be on sale this year.

Link in bio to enroll.

12/02/2025

Ready to trade rush for ritual?
Join us March 3–10, 2026 for The Alchemy of Pleasure & Plants, a women’s healing retreat in Guanacaste, Costa Rica with Twin Star Herbal Education.

Imagine a week of daily plant-spirit medicine work, sensory rituals, herbal preparations, guided reflection, and learning rooted in both tradition and nature. You will experience ocean excursions to the tranquil beaches of Costa Rica, including Playa Avellanas and Playa Negra, where you can swim, walk, and reconnect with the natural world. The retreat also includes yoga, ritual bathing, and carefully held ceremonies designed to help you rest and restore.

Your experience culminates with the creation of a personal amulet of healing and protection, crafted by hand through metalwork and intention setting. This final practice invites you to integrate the insights and transformation of the week into a meaningful object you will take home.

The retreat is set within a women-run, family-owned eco sanctuary surrounded by tropical forest, medicinal gardens, and the Pacific coast. Guests stay in thoughtfully designed bungalows and enjoy nourishing meals that support restoration and clarity.

Limited spaces are available. This retreat offers a rare opportunity to step into presence, community, and deep plant-centered learning.

To reserve your place, send a message or follow the link in our bio.

11/30/2025

Astro-herbalism is the art of understanding plants through the language of the cosmos ✨

In today’s video, we’re sharing a teaser from our Astro-Herbalism course on what Astro-Herbalism is.

Astro-herbalism weaves together two ancient systems to help you meet plants in a deeper, more relational way, one that honors both their earthly medicine and their celestial story.

It’s a tradition that looks at how planetary archetypes, zodiac qualities, and celestial cycles mirror the energetics we find in herbs.

If you’ve been curious about this work, now is the time to dive in. There’s only one day left to save $111 with code ASTRO2025 at checkout ⭐️

11/29/2025

The cosmos is stirring something familiar and deeply needed. 💫

In last week’s episode with our dear friend Ilana Sobo, we explore how the current astrology mirrors the energetic landscape of the late 60s and early 70s… the same celestial patterns that inspired a cultural wave of peace, beauty, rebellion, and plant-centered living.

It makes sense that we’re witnessing a resurgence of Flower Power right now.

Collective burnout, longing for connection, ecological grief, and the desire for gentler ways of being are rising to the surface once again and right alongside astrological transits that echo that era’s call for awakening.

In this episode, we dive into the deeper cycles at play, why this moment feels so charged, and how we can work with the energy rather than feel swept away by it.

New episode is live now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

11/27/2025

We are so grateful to our Tribe and wanted to send this story from one of our students with you all.

We received a message from one of our students that moved us deeply, and it speaks to the heart of what Twin Star School of Herbal and Energetic Studies is built upon: guidance, lineage, intuition, and the unmistakable signs that appear when you are walking your true path.

She wrote to us about a moment she had arriving home, an Eastern screech owl perched just four feet from her car, watching her with an unwavering gaze. Owls have been with her since childhood, calling through her window in seasons of transition and sleeplessness, holding her through grief and change. But she had never seen one this close, never locked eyes with one in the trees.

That night, after this encounter, she came inside and placed her new Twin Star Foundations of Herbalism certificate on the counter, only to notice that the owl is the one animal gracing its design. She wrote that she “started bawling,” feeling the clarity and affirmation of the path she has chosen. The timing, the symbolism, the medicine of the moment were impossible to ignore.

At Twin Star, the owl is our school’s animal totem for a reason. Owl is the guide into mystery, intuition, shadow, and wisdom. Owl teaches us to see what is hidden, to trust the subtle, and to walk the edges between worlds, the very foundations of herbalism, energetic study, and Earth-centered healing.

Stories like this remind us why this community exists. Our students aren’t just learning information, they are stepping into relationship with the living world, reconnecting with signs, symbols, and spirit, and remembering what it means to be guided.

If you feel called into this work, into deeper study, into the kind of knowing that lives beyond the surface, we welcome you. Twin Star is a place where the plants, the teachings, and yes—sometimes even the owls—meet you right where you are.

With love and gratitude for all who walk this path with us.

11/26/2025

As we move into the heart of the holiday season, botanical drinks are having a major moment—and for good reason. When we blend herbs into both cocktails and mocktails, we’re not just making something delicious… we’re working with the plant’s energetics, medicine, and story.

Today we’re sharing a teaser lesson from our new Botanical Bartender Online Course with :
our Mulled Spice Elixir recipe, a cozy, aromatic blend you can add to mocktails, cocktails, cider, or tea. 🍂

Earlier this year we soft-launched the course to our community, and now, after months of refining, it’s officially ready for its full release.

This course is designed for all beverage lovers, whether you enjoy crafting cocktails or prefer alcohol-free botanicals. Every recipe includes thoughtful mocktail and cocktail variations.

If you’re an herbalist, a bartender, or just cocktail-curious, this makes a beautiful gift and an inspiring deep dive into the world of botanical beverages.

Taught by two clinical herbalists with 20+ years of experience, you’ll learn how to create truly intentional drinks rooted in plant wisdom, tradition and ritual herbalism.

Our first and last Sale of the year for this course is now open through December 26th, save $100 with code BAR at checkout.

11/13/2025

✨Missed our live Astro-Herbalism Immersion?

Good news, it’s not too late!

Our full program is now available as a pre-recorded, self-paced online course — yours to keep for a lifetime of learning.

💫 Dive into the magic of plants + planets
💫 Explore astro-herbal correspondences and seasonal cycles
💫 Learn how to weave astrology into your herbal practice

For the only time this year, it’s on sale
Save $111 (25% off) with code ASTRO2025 at checkout
Offer ends 12/21

Address

5 Booth House Lane
New Milford, CT
06776

Telephone

+18607172785

Website

http://www.twinstartribe.com/

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Tamara Sachs, M.D. - Functional Medicine and
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Our Story

Our classroom is located at 65 BANK STREET on the second floor above William Raveis. Learn more about our classroom below. Our new Downtown Apothecary is located at 20 BANK STREET, inside of Makery Co-working in New Milford! We have new hours, inventory and services! And...We have a second apothecary location coming soon! Twin Star North will be a full service Apothecary located at 354 Litchfield Rd, opening April 2nd.

Both locations are meant to be a service to both our students and community. We specialize in local, small batch, handcrafted, community supported herbs, teas, aromatherapy, flower essences, crystals, classes, readings, consults & more! About Twin Star Herbal Education Twin Star Herbal Education offers community classes and workshops on herbal medicine, holistic health, and natural healing. We are located in the beautiful hills of Western Connecticut where Lupo Passero, Herbalist, Educator and Flower Essence Practitioner shares her teachings both nationally and throughout the surrounding area. Twin Star is blessed to have a wonderful staff of Naturalists and skilled teachers and offers a myriad of classes ranging from evening workshops to 9 month long certificate training programs. Lupo and staff cover a variety of topics including herbal medicine, botany, flower essence therapy, plant spirit healing, goddess studies, primitive skills and much more. If you are interested in having a herbal class or workshop held in your community inquire within. Please visit our website for a full listing of classes, services and our staff.

twinstartribe.com