The Heart of Hawthorn
Hello dear ones, it has been quite a while since I’ve written anything. The move we made from Michigan back to Oregon was hard in so many ways, not just in the logistics of moving a family, farm, home, and business across the country. Leaving a community where I came to so deeply care for and love each individual, closing the doors on a dream come true in my first brick-and-mortar shop, the ensuing chaos of figuring out where and how to operate the business when I don’t yet have a space of my own, and the joys and sleepless nights of life as a new mom all kept me from pouring every ounce of the love I have for what I do into keeping up with regular business demands. Like newsletters and updates. And the longer I went without sitting down to write an update the harder it felt to do so. I felt anxious and had all manner of imposter syndrome thoughts tumbling around my head and heart. I’ve been moving my business production and shipping headquarters around like a wandering gypsy since moving back to Oregon, I didn’t plant a garden this year, and for many months felt I was barely keeping my head above water. The imposter syndrome hit hard when some days I was working on so little sleep, not able to bury my hands in beloved dirt, and I kept thinking, who am I to share news, plant magic, and inspiration when I’ve barely got it together?
Life doesn’t slow down or pause even when I feel like begging it to just wait a moment for me to catch up. The days keep breaking open with bright sun spilling onto the field outside my window and after some hectic hours of work, that same sun sets again right on schedule. I know I’m not alone in feeling the crush of time and change, hard things and heartbreak, but also a sense of peace that tomorrow is always waiting to dawn. Some days I feel stuck, unable to keep going because it all seems so hard. Some days I am filled with a desire to immerse myself fully and get lost in the dreaming and planning of everything I want for the future of this business and the future of my family. Right now the whole world is wrestling with what that tomorrow will look like, whether from an election, devastating natural disasters, wars and innocent lives lost, poverty, lack of food and clean water, or community division. I imagine that for some, so many tragedies are playing out at once it can’t even be categorized as to what the biggest hardship is in the day-to-day.
My son turns 1-year old this week and I want to fight for him to have a beautiful and bright life on this earth. Being his mother and holding so much of his future in my hands while learning to release the parts of his future I cannot control has brought me full circle. Back to where I started, seeking plant allies to guide, hold, and support me in my journey to live, and live well. Growing and maintaining a relationship with the plants that do so much work to keep my body and mind well, and in turn pass that gift on to you.
This week, along with planning my son’s birthday celebration, I went out to the place that brings me the most peace of all: a wild place filled with life on a thousand levels, from the sky overhead to the soil beneath my feet. I arrived at the top of a hill covered in Hawthorn trees with empty baskets, returning many hours later with those baskets full of ripe haw berries to be dried and enjoyed as medicine for both my physical and emotional heart, to be processed into plant medicine to also support your heart in whatever physical or emotional way you need right now. All summer long I walked past these Hawthorn trees, watching the berries appear and slowly ripen to deep red perfection. Each walk I took past the Hawthorns became a moment of grounding and promise, a physical place where I could stop and see the procession of time in the most minute changes as the berries came closer and closer to ripe perfection, promising an incredible and abundant harvest if only I would take the time to connect with them and receive what they offered.
Hawthorn is a wonder of a plant. In Celtic mythology it is one of the most sacred trees and symbolises love and protection. It is also known as the Fairy Tree, as fairies were believed to live under the Hawthorn as the tree’s guardians. To harm a Hawthorn tree was to anger these fairies and bring bad luck onto oneself. Whole roads were built out of the path of the Hawthorn, winding and curving so as not to disrupt the sacred tree and her fairy guardians. Farmers let Hawthorn trees remain where they grew in their fields so they wouldn’t bring bad luck to their harvests. Historically, the Hawthorn tree was known as May, named after the month when the fragrant white blossoms erupt in abundance. The blossoms were gathered to decorate halls and homes to welcome in the warmer weather, carrying with them an essence of love and protection for the places which they adorned. The Maypole was named for the Hawthorn wood with which it was made, the twirling and weaving of ribbons strung from the Hawthorn wood symbolizing love and fertility. The many ships carrying the name Mayflower, including the famed ship that set sail for America, were named after the Hawthorn, for the protection Hawthorn provided. The knowledge, in whatever lore it took shape, that Hawthorn provides both love and protection has been ever present.
The Haw, which is the fruit of the Hawthorn tree, ripens in October. These beautiful red (sometimes orange or yellow, depending on the species) berries carry within them a strong affinity for our hearts. Physically, Hawthorn berries strengthen the cardiovascular system, strengthen the heart. Hawthorn helps to restore the tissues of the entire cardiovascular system. From the capillaries all the way to the heart itself, Hawthorn builds the structural integrity of the tissues, promoting increased function of the entire system as well as equalizing any imbalances it may have. There are many other qualities of Hawthorn that support its cardiotonic property, such as lowering serum cholesterol, increasing vascular elasticity, dilating blood vessels, and improving the tone of the heart itself.
Hawthorn is food for our emotional and spiritual hearts as well. Our emotional being is not separate from our physical being. The two parts of us are entwined to create what we are as human, and supporting emotional health gives us more vibrant physical health. Hawthorn helps to move our consciousness from our heads down onto our hearts in times when we are anxious or stressed, overthinking things. Hawthorn gently calms and protects our emotional state in the same way it strengthens our physical heart, increasing our capacity to exist in a state of heart-led consciousness. The berries are like soul food at its finest, providing deep nourishment to the core of the heart. Through feeding the soul and filling the hollow places inside, Hawthorn strengthens the beauty that lies within, enabling the true essence of the soul to shine through and guide the direction of life. Hidden behind the soft white blossoms and deep red berries are the thorns of the Hawthorn. The thorns are an indication of its ability to enter the heart and repair those painful places within the emotions, helping us to let go of past trauma and wounds, acting as a salve to renew the spirit, and bringing joy and love to the guiding heart. These thorns also offer teaching of how to have clear emotional boundaries, lending their support in protecting the heart from further harm.
Medicine of the Hawthorn is ever needed in life, to feed and protect our heart for the physical work it does moving lifeblood through our veins and when we encounter tumultuous seasons during the journey we make from birth to death. Hawthorn has the profound capacity to draw its strength from deep within the soil, gathering the grounding and nutritive substance of love from our mother Earth within its flowers and fruits. The Hawthorn carries the steady, constant heartbeat of the earth and aligns our own hearts with this rhythm of unwavering, undying love from the source of creation itself.
This week I earned some scrapes on my hands as I spent time with the beautiful Hawthorn trees around the farm, whispering thanks to her for allowing me to harvest her fruits for strength, protection, and love in the seasons ahead. I dove back into formulating new things, a place I feel always fulfilled. I came out the other side with some lovely new products that I’m madly in love with. I can’t control what our nation looks like in a month, or stop the violence overseas, or even bring warm, safe homes back to those who lost theirs in tropical storms. But I can wake up, vote, raise my voice in protest for wrongs of the world, send what I can to aid those who need it, and gather some wild hawthorn berries. And I can sit down to write a newsletter that maybe, just maybe, resonates with someone who feels stuck too.
Love and herbal tea,
Jenn
Herbs for Autumn Wellness
You might be expecting to find a list of anti-viral herbs or immune boosting herbs in this list. I’ll include those too, but wellness goes much deeper than the immune system and fending off illness. Wellness is emotional health, having stamina and clarity, finding ways to include movement, and nourishing your body. Wellness is managing inflammation and pain, and feeding your gut flora. And right now, perhaps always, wellness means managing the anxiety and stress of events in our personal lives and around the globe.
TULSI (HOLY BASIL)
Holy Basil is a relaxant nervine which means it has the ability to soothe anxiety and mental tension. Holy Basil is an adaptogen with an affinity for the nervous system, aiding the nervous system in being more resilient when stress factors arise, allowing our body to respond to stress in a less intense or severe way.
ASHWAGANDHA
Ashwagandha is a revitalizing and nourishing adaptogen, increasing the body’s natural resistance to stressors. Ashwagandha can help reset a healthy circadian rhythm and support better and more sound sleep and also acts as an inflammation modulator, helping to modulate a healthy inflammatory response in the body to stress.
MIMOSA
Mimosa is a heart-based medicine, nourishing the physical, emotional, and spiritual heart. Mimosa has been traditionally used to calm the spirit and relieve emotional distress associated with bad temper, bad mood, sadness, and general irritability. It is useful for anyone experiencing profound heart-breaking loss. On the physical level, Mimosa is thought to enhance all aspects of mood-balancing neurotransmitter secretion and regulation in the brain, while having no interactions with mood stabilizing or antidepressant pharmaceuticals, unlike St. John’s Wort. The flowers tend to have a more uplifting effect, whereas the bark is more grounding to the spirit.
YARROW
I call on yarrow year-round but I find myself reaching for it even more often when the days begin to shorten and darkness settles in for longer hours. Yarrow is a wonderful ally in times of illness and fever, helping the body to sweat it out. Yarrow has a harmonizing and balancing effect on the body, centering and protecting our energy and spirit, strengthening our boundaries emotionally and physically. Yarrow is a healer of wounds, in the mind and spirit and the bone and flesh that keep us together.
ROSE
Rose is a gentle heart tonic and relaxant nervine which has a supportive effect on both the physical and emotional heart. It is a cooling herb and relieves heat and inflammation in the cardiovascular system and soothes the heat of grief and the stagnation of depression.
ELDER
Elder bears medicine in both the flowers and the berries. Elder Flower helps to relieve congestion in the upper respiratory tract, helping to drain and expectorate excess mucous. It can be helpful in the case of some fevers, encouraging perspiration and the release of heat through its relaxant diaphoretic action. Elderberry is widely known for its anti-viral properties. Elderberry has a direct effect on viruses by inhibiting their reproduction in the body. Studies have shown that in vitro and in vivo elderberry directly kills viruses in addition to preventing replication. Elderberry is also a nourishing tonic plant, encouraging deep restoration and strengthening of the core immune system.
DANDELION
This spring plant has a special place in aiding our bodies as we glide into the colder, darker months of the year. Dandelion root assists in digestion and nutrient assimilation, and supports liver function in both its secreting and excreting functions. Dandelion root can help with indigestion, constipation, and low energy due to poor nutrient assimilation. It needs to be taken in fairly large quantities for it to do its work well, so a few daily cups of dandelion root tea are a great addition to heavier cold-weather diets and less movement through the day.
CARDAMOM
Cardamom is not only a delicious spice found in autumn chai recipes, but it is a premier digestive aid and mucous reducer. Cardamom is one of the best carminative herbs, which are herbs that help reduce gas and bloating and aid digestion through a warming effect. Cardamom seed pods contain a high level of essential oils which are the component responsible for the majority of this herb’s medicinal properties. These warming and aromatic essential oils clear mucus and calm acid indigestion while strengthening the digestive system as a whole. The essential oils stimulate the production of digestive enzymes which help to promote efficient digestive processes and act as an effective anti-spasmodic, providing relief from intestinal tension and spasms.
