The Community Medicine Cabinet

12/22/2025

This year I spent summer solstice in the Atlanta botanical gardens with friends old and new. I felt lucky to be there with such beautiful humans and plants. And for us to be there with the explicit purpose of coming together to talk about health equity.

One of the more maddening parts of this job is witnessing our medical system fail people repeatedly and predictably. But one of the most enlivening is watching the ways herbs can offer profound support, and enthusiastically show up.

It’s an honor to do this work here and with .bus. It’s an honor to hear your stories and make medicine. My hope for this return of the light is for exactly that- hope. May we hold onto it in trying times. Let’s keep going together.

Happy Solstice 🌚 🌞 🎭

12/18/2025

Ok- well almost a wrap! One walk to go on the 28th!!

Thank you to everyone who showed up. We look worried to continuing to walk together. Thank you for your curiosity, enthusiasm, and all the good questions, observations and shares. This has been such a fun offering and we’re excited to continue to greet plants in place with respect.

Next year we hope to return to many of the same spots at different times of year to see the plants in other part of their life cycles. After introducing everyone to pedicularis during its dormant season, im especially looking forward to the reintroduction we’ll be making in February.

I’m especially grateful to Violet for being a steadfast partner in this walk series and always making it more fun, more educational, and bringing structure that kept us improving our work all year.

If you’ve been wanting to join us, please sign up for our last walk of the year! We’d love to have you.

11/29/2025

These guys were fungus in fungus when we lead our walk last Sunday, but when we mapped our walk a few weeks before they were👌🏼✨🍄‍🟫

11/19/2025

A few goodies for folks who attend our walk at Hobb mountain this Sunday. For those not in the know, Hobb Mountain is in between Santa Rosa and Sonoma. It burned in the 2020 glass fire and it’s pretty beautiful to see how it’s making moves to come back.

11/17/2025

Without the indigenous agricultural technologies of Abya Yala (A South American indigenous name for all the American continents), our global food system would taste very different!

It’s been only 532 years since conquest began. In this time the ripples of colonization have spread seed,taken cuttings, introduced plants to new soil, selected for different characteristics, and plants have been adapted to different cultures and bio regions worldwide wide. We’re also seeing the destruction of many of these plants via genetic modification, overconsumption/ commodification, and inappropriate use.

May we all remember that there would be no Japanese sweet potato, or Irish potato for that matter without the rich potato cultures of the Andes. Without the traditional ecological knowledge of Anya Yala, there would be no Cassava in African cuisine, or peanut for that matter. And speaking of cassava, aka yuca, aka tapioca, bye bye Boba. No Chocolate. Let that really sink in next time you’re premenstrual.

Corn would be just a grass with little ear to speak of. Italians would not have tomatoes. Both sweet and spicy peppers would be absent from sauces. Hungarian paprika, bye bye.

So thank you to the seed keepers, the plant listeners, the farmers, the yerbateras, the land tenders of past, present, and future. May we all know and honor where our food comes from.

11/01/2025

We’re back at it! Come walk at Sonoma Valley Regional Park. Madalyn of and Violet of soon.

📸We know this is a beloved park and we’d love to see your photos from the park across the seasons. Share them by tagging us. And

About the Walks: Get to know medicinal plants and botany in an ecological context. We see brining people into the parks as growing into our relationship with and belonging to land- through devotional practices of observation, listening and tending with humility and respect for original peoples. And yes, we’ll have yummy snacks.

About Us: Violet (she/they)and Madalyn (she/they/ella/elle) are alumnae, plant lovers, and friends. We’re both practicing clinical herbalists who share a commitment to guiding herbal practice towards an ethical, ancestrally enriching herbal medicine tradition for the benefit of our ecological and human communities.

More info (including access info) on the registration page in the. We’re asking everyone to preregister. As usual, the walks are notaflof ( no one turned away for lack of funds). If you want to bring a cash donation or show up at no cost, just let either of us know.

09/23/2025

Shout out to for running such a beautiful herb farm! You can be a member and the garden is your zone for the year, you get to harvest, Aubrie offer some classes. It’s a special spot.

09/05/2025

Hi Herb Familia, I’ve partnered with to support a family in Gaza. Sara is a nurse in Gaza, and she has a baby and two young boys. They need our support. Specifically, they are requesting funds for milk and food for the children, medicine and skin treatment for heat rashes, and basic living support so she can continue to work and care for her children.

I’m sending anyone who donates $30 or more a gift. Fill out the form in my bio to get yours.

During these times when America and the wider Western world are complicit in supporting the starvation and genocide in Gaza, it feels important to show up in ways we can for the Palestinian people. You can do this too! Check out Creators for Gaza to find out more.

08/19/2025

07/27/2025

We’re back at it! Come walk Rock City Wind Caves on Mt Diablo with Madalyn of and Violet of a week from today.

August 3 at 11am.
As usual we’ll have tea and trail snacks waiting for you.

About the Walks: Get to know medicinal plants and botany in an ecological context. We see brining people into the parks as growing into our relationship with and belonging to land- through devotional practices of observation, listening and tending with humility and respect for original peoples. And yes, we’ll have yummy snacks.

About Us: Violet (she/they)and Madalyn (she/they/ella/elle) are alumnae, plant lovers, and friends. We’re both practicing clinical herbalists who share a commitment to guiding herbal practice towards an ethical, ancestrally enriching herbal medicine tradition for the benefit of our ecological and human communities.

More info (including access info) on the registration page in the. We’re asking everyone preregister this time. As usual, the walks are notaflof ( no one turned away for lack of funds). If you want to bring a cash donation or show up at no cost, just let either of us know.

07/25/2025

Hi Plant People, Here’s a few photos of life lately. I’m moving slower in my practice because I’ve been under the weather which has been mixing which my chronic health story to keep me slow this summer. Thanks to all my clients for being understanding!! So here I am resting. I picked plums from the tree we planted a few years ago and gave them to my mom to preserve. The artichokes are taking my breathe away. I’m reading The Parable of the Sower with
book club (and you could join us). When I don’t want to fully rest, my hands are remembering what my Nonna taught me about crochet, in this house when I was a kid before it burned. And I am saving energy to take a second defense class twice a week- which thus far has required a few hours of lying down to save spoons beforehand, but all the laughter has been worth it.

Anyway, I have some exciting announcements and clases coming up, herb walks are live on the site and one is in Oakland on the 3d with .

I also have been noticing the theme of traumatic experiences in doctors offices a lot in my practice of late. Which is not a new thing, but I really want a better medical system for us. And I want us to have the support and advocacy we need to get the care we deserve.

And that’s easy to imagine, but implementation feels like a tall wall to climb in this moment. I think I’ll start sharing more about health equity and health care systems as I see them here.

And as plant medicine providers we have a responsibility to both plants and people, which means our work is directly connected to social and land justice movements at all times whether we acknowledge it or not. I’m just out here trying my best to do this work with reciprocity and respect and want to keep that conversation rolling. Otherwise herbal care happens at the expense of the plants, of land back, and replicates the same systems that make our clients sick to begin with.

What do you want to hear about?

P.S. if you read my newsletter you know I have been on an empanada roll, and I still am. If you want a recipe you can find on the newsletter page.