U-BEE-WELL!

Hi! Perhaps you've seen or heard whispers of my growing attachment to witchy things..   Plants for healing, plants for fun..
I am creating this blog as a way for me to share my explorations and relationships with plants and their powers.

I first heard of mugwort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugwort)  while living in California from a naturalist that I encountered through a summer program I volunteered with.  One of the characteristics of mugwort is that it enhances dreams.  I am not one to indulge in too many drugs (recreational or for medicine), but man..  the fact that there is any substance that enhances dreams~~ what a dream!  So.. I went on a mission years ago to find mugwort.  I gave up after a round-about pursuit including an in-person visit the the horticultural society asking where i could find mugwort.  It was before the farmers markets and urban farming initiatives were completely on fire in Philadelphia.  Before the 'green movement', before Grid Magazine...  Before the 'Herbiary' opening up in the Reading Terminal..  I gave up.

Little did I know then that I would stumble upon plants a few years down the road, in a garden outside of a yurt on a farm that I was living on in New Hampshire.  In the event you do not know, I am in a band called The Spinning Leaves.  I sing with a fella named Michael.  He's my Clyde, my partner in crime.  Two summers ago we were on tour with our friends The Great Unknown up in New England.   We wound up befriending a farmer named Paul Harlow. We had one day off on our tour and wound up at the cafe at Harlow's Farm.  That day ended up being my introduction to eating my first meal made from food all from the land we were walking on, swimming in..  We were talking to the pigs, and helping to rid weeds from around the carrots.  Paul would ask if we liked tomatoes.. and would pick a few tomatoes. It turned out that Paul owns one of the largest organic farms in Vermont and ships his produce as far south as some Whole Foods stores in New Jersey.  It was hard to leave Harlow's Farm that day.  Mike and I arranged a way to come back and live at a farm, not so far from Harlow's Farm called Orchard Hill.  Orchard Hill was a little less industrious as far as mass.  There was an artisan of bread, a Waldorf inspired school and summer camp, and a CSA.  Orchard Hill, sort of an epicenter for the rural communities in the area opened up their community to us.. and HERE is where the connection of plants happened.

Mike and I helped Noah in the bakery and Ellen with harvesting.  We played shows in the local towns surrounding Orchard Hill on the weekends and special community pizza nights and Harvest Fires for the community at Orchard Hill.  Mike opened up to vigor, I opened up to plants.

This is a song that came out of that time;

The following year came and went, and Mike and I came back to Philadelphia becoming more involved with the local food movements in the Philadelphia area.  Playing farmers markets, helping to organize events with Kennet Square's Farmers Market such as the Fermentation Festival.

The following summer, my Dad was sadly diagnosed with Brain Cancer.  Stage 4 Melanoma. We were told 4-6 months.  But he fought long and hard for a solid year and a half.  The Spinning Leaves did not travel much throughout that year and a half.  Although we managed a 2 week tour of Moscow, Russia and maybe one or two trips to Kentucky..I couldn't bring myself to leave my Dad.  As I watched his body get weaker and weaker through the radiation, gama knife, chemo.... I pleaded with him to at least open up to alternative healing.  Alternative healing in any capacity.  Although, he would not even eat miso, I did not want to have regret in not being able to offer help.  Not that I could offer healing to this type of disease, but I wanted to offer ways for him to possibly heal in a more holistic way, being that the conversations never seemed to come up with the oncologists..

I started reading and reading about plants.  I started making tinctures, tea blends, syrups..


Although I am in the pursuit of music, and I do not have the ability to go back to school right now to become a practioner, I encourage my friends with ailments to tell me what is ailing them and suggest a quasi-regiment of herbs to take to help heal them.
I am no doctor, but I have good intuition.. and for now, I'm going with that intuition and have helped to heal friends with my cold syrups and suggested herbs!

On a side note, I've always had a weakness for 'products'.  My latest exploration with using plants comes into the form of chapsticks.  I have done a few series now using raw local honey, olive oil infused with roses, calendula, mint.. and adding some rose water.

I started selling my chapsticks at some local flea markets and will start selling them at my shows.  The Spring is springing now, and as the plants get more potent around us, I will be collecting them and making tinctures and tea blends.

My good friend Angela at Carpe Diem Constructions was so kind to design me a beautiful label for my products.  Because I use honey and bee products in much of what I do, I came up with the name U-BEE-WELL.  Please do keep your eyes and hearts open! Thank you for reading, and u-bee-well! Please keep posted and we will learn together!

~Barbara