The Kettle with Meagan Francis

The healing power of herbs with Christine Koh
Are you even a midlife lady if you don’t suddenly drop everything and start a garden? In today’s episode, I talk with Christine Koh about our shared adult-onset passion for herbal medicine and our attempts - with varying degrees of success - at growing things. Christine shares how her adventures in gardening and herbalism - part of what she jokingly calls her #gloriouswitch transformation - were a force for healing as she came out of a stressful stage of life, and now provide her with a grounded, embodied way to connect her with the physical world, community, and tradition.
We also discuss some of the specific herbal remedies both Christine and I have experimented with, some gardening successes (and a failure or two) from last year, and what we’re hoping to do in our gardens and kitchens this spring and summer.
It’s the perfect cozy late-winter chat to get you thinking about working with your hands, growing green things, and making healing remedies for your family and friends.
NOTE: Christine and I are planning a LIVE broadcast for later this week! We’ll be sharing more about our garden plans for spring, plus doing a show-and-tell of some of our herbal medicine projects. More details coming - make sure you’re subscribed to my Substack so you don’t miss it.
Links from this episode:
Alchemy of Herbs by Rosalee de la Foret
Medicinal Herbs by Rosemary Gladstar
My Journey to Becoming a Glorious Witch - Edit Your Life
Better Homes & Gardens garden planner
Morality, Politics, and How to Find Common Ground (with Dr. Kurt Gray) - Edit Your Life
162 Things To Do Instead Of Doomscrolling - There’s Always A Story (Christine’s Substack)
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