Wellness in Plain Sight: Everyday Kitchen Staples for Holistic Support with Jess Bergeron

Welcome to the Virtual Herbalism Conference. I'm your host, Lindsey Feldpausch. In this session, we are welcoming Jess Bergeron, a mother, folk herbalist, educator, and ethnobotanist. Jess has spent years crafting herbal preparations in her kitchen and documenting her processes to help others discover practical, meaningful ways to bring herbs into their daily lives. Through her educational offerings, mentorship, and inspiring work on social media, Jess supports individuals to create effective, simple herbal preparations right from their own home, bridging that gap between herbal theory and everyday practice.

In our conversation, Wellness in Plain Sight: Everyday Kitchen Staples for Holistic Support, we'll explore how to build a home kitchen apothecary, choosing herbs for common family needs, and infusing our days with the beautiful connections that plants offer. Jess, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I absolutely love Herbal Academy, so I'm grateful to be here. We have done so many beautiful collaborations together with you, Jess, and you are always an inspiration to us. I would love to start off for the audience hearing a little bit more about your story, Jess, and why you think it is important to start in the kitchen for wellness.

Food is medicine, and it's absolutely important to focus on what is going on on your kitchen counter and what you're consuming every single day. In our fast-paced life, it's really easy to forget that the highest impact can be found in, the highest health impact can be found in our kitchen. I really, really love to inspire mothers, both grandmothers and women who have yet to be mothers and mothers of little ones, to really integrate herbs into their daily wellness practice and into their kitchen. So much as women and as caregivers, we create so much food in our kitchen that sometimes we lose inspiration. And herbs help to bring vibrancy. They help us to reclaim our intuition and our relationship with the environment around us. And they can really make a huge impact with boosting our immune system, uplifting our health, and making our food and drinks taste really amazing.

Let's talk about your pantry. If we were to open up your door and take a peek, what herbal staples would we find and how can you use the herbs that are in there for everyday support for our health?

Well, the first one that I think about, and all of my students know, hibiscus is in my kitchen, in my pantry, and on my counter, and pre-made into syrups and also into pre-made herbal infusions in the refrigerator. So hands down, that is one of my absolute favorites. And the reason why I push and gently nudge all of my students to utilize hibiscus is that it can be grown sustainably. It's inexpensive. You can get a one-pound bag for about $20, and you can make the most beautiful herbal infusions in your kitchen. The simple act of brewing hibiscus and the color, the red color, although it's completely beautiful to look at, and it helps replace artificial colors in our kitchen, the color itself is medicine. It's loaded with antioxidants and flavonoids, and it really supports our overall health. It helps for women, I'm 42, so for women of my age and even younger, it helps to move fluid through your body. And for young ones, it helps replace synthetic and artificially colored drinks at the store, because the last thing you want to do is try to take things away and not swap with something that is uplifting and exciting. And so, I always, always say that hibiscus is one of my top herbs for people starting out with kitchen herbalism because it really gets your whole family excited about drinking herbal infusions. We are biologically, evolutionarily wired to look for brightly-colored foods. And so when we take our family, or us, even when we go into the grocery store, it's like those artificial colors hijack our biology, they hijack our evolution and our evolutionary wiring, and they trick us to want to grab it because our body, our eyes, and our filter that red, beautiful color, and we see it as healthy. We see it as hydrating and antioxidant-rich food. And so, when we can bring something as simple and as vibrant and as beautiful and as just delicious as hibiscus into our kitchen, it can really revolutionize and start people on the path, and it's perfect for your entire family. Then the classic elderberries and ginger and turmeric, garlic, and onions. Let's see. I always have thyme, both fresh and dried, in my kitchen. Then, of course, yarrow in all forms because yarrow is this, I was just talking to my students the other day, and I was saying that if I could only pick one herb, it's hard because I love hibiscus so much, but if I could only pick one herb, if I was trapped on a desert or deserted island, I would bring yarrow. Hopefully, all of the aerial parts, both the flowers and the leaves, because as a mother, and I'm always focused on kitchen herbalism for moms because I am one of four, it offers fever support, and it offers antimicrobial support for topical wounds. Then, if you have rambunctious children like I do, it also offers the styptic action, which can be such a gift for caregivers, meaning that yarrow, applied either fresh or dried, can help to stop bleeding quickly. As we all know, when there are home injuries that happen, it can be a very stressful time for both the injured and also the person who loves the injured. Yarrow has consistently over the past—how old is my oldest one? Almost 14. 14 years have supported me over and over again as my children injure themselves, and I can just put yarrow on their cut, and we can all take a deep breath. Those are the staples in my pantry and on my kitchen counter.

Thank you for the peek into your pantry, Jess. I am wondering, what are your favorite herbal habits that you utilize in the kitchen with your family that help set the tone of the day?

Personally, when I wake up in the morning, I make a matcha, and that sets the tone for my day. I have found that matcha supports my overall energy levels and my day far better than coffee ever could. So that really sets my tone. And the slow and simple action of that beautiful, vibrant green matcha, and to mix it in the strainer so the powder is consistent, and to pour the hot water on, and to foam my milk and add reishi or any other adaptogenic powders or collagen or whatever else I would like. Vanilla is a big favorite. And then I normally take some time to myself to stretch and exercise in the morning before the whole family wakes up. Then all the children, all the kiddos, have an adaptogenic hot chocolate in the morning, and we just spend some quiet time nourishing ourselves. And then that is how we integrate herbs into our daily practice in our mornings. And how I make those adaptogenic hot chocolates is any mushroom powders that I have on hand, I add a little bit into their warm cocoa, and I sweeten it with maple syrup and add vanilla. And there's so many wonderful flavors and calming and restorative feelings as they drink that cocoa. Then we do just hydrate throughout the day with lovely herbal infusions. Just like I talked about hibiscus, or we make lovely lemon balm lemonade in the afternoon. As we move throughout the day, I do lean on herbs quite a bit as the kids may, as they navigate their day. If somebody feels overwhelmed or if someone's having a hard day, which we all do and children do, too, I do utilize gentle, calming, nervine, relaxing, lovely herbs, and create beautiful drinks for them throughout the day. Those herbs are chamomile and lemon balm and hibiscus. So, I just mentioned a lemon balm lemonade, or I'll make a cold chamomile infusion. At nighttime, we always end the night with a chamomile tea. So, we just hydrate, and I watch the kiddos. We also do lots of herbal popsicles as well throughout the day. If I know that they're going to be having a stressful week, like if they're having a day camp or whatever it may be, and I know they're going to be coming home at 2:00 or 3:00, and their nervous system is going to be taxed and frazzled and overrun, then I will make popsicles that focus on that and allow them, because they're herbal and they're sweetened with either maple syrup or raw honey, when you make herbal popsicles, you can allow them to have one or two or even three. And I love saying yes, because as a mom, as all moms know, there are so many nos that we have to say. And so, I love creating things where they can enjoy them. I know that they're restorative and supportive for their little nervous systems, and also restorative for my nervous system as well. So, I will join them with an herbal popsicle.

I love that practice, and I think it sounds like your children do, too.

They do.

All right, Jess. So, what are your favorite culinary spices that are staples in your home? And can you walk us through how you view them through that digestive lens and the importance that they play?

Well, that's the beauty of kitchen herbalism and really remembering and reclaiming your kitchen as a place of healing and as a place of remembrance. And there's so many herbs that have stayed with us over time and that have slipped into our kitchen or stayed wholeheartedly in our kitchen, even as the community at large maybe moved away from traditional or folk herbalism. Our spice drawer is loaded with traditional medicine. That is the essence and the backbone of my teachings and kitchen herbalism in general, is that you don't need to order fancy herbs and create a whole apothecary of herbs, and even learn new herbal names. You have the medicine in your kitchen right now. Things like, really, truly, cinnamon that is both warming and moistening. Everybody has cinnamon in their kitchen, and it also has antispasmodic action. It's this beautiful herb that we think of as a baking herb, but it has so many health benefits. It's warming, it's soothing. If you have a child who is sneezing like crazy, or if you have that very classic nighttime cough that starts as soon as you put your little one down, then you can give them what I call a honey cinnamon spoon, which is just putting raw honey and some cinnamon on, and it can truly, truly help to soothe the throat, the raw honey. And then the antispasmodic action of cinnamon can really give everybody some relief at nighttime. So cinnamon sits in our kitchen, and we just have forgotten the array of health benefits. Or ginger, whether it's ginger powder, fresh ginger, or beautiful little ginger rhizome pieces that you have. Ginger can warm the digestion. It's fantastically anti-nausea, and it helps to prime and just warm your whole digestive tract, which when you sprinkle it on top of your meal, it helps to prime your digestion and support it. And so, as we integrate more herbs into our diets and into our daily lives, we support our digestion. And having a healthy digestion really allows you to metabolize and integrate the food into your system, which will just make you feel better and vibrant. Fennel is another one that sits in our kitchen cabinet, and it's so incredible for bloating, and it soothes colicky babies. There's so many. I mean, add turmeric powder or fresh turmeric. It's incredibly anti-inflammatory. Traditionally, these plants have traveled with us over time and sit in our kitchen and find their way into our recipes, not because of the flavor, but because of the historical context of how they've truly supported us over time. Or just garlic and onions. Garlic, although we all just think of garlic as, I don't know, a vegetable, or as a powder, like garlic powder, it has phenomenal, phenomenal implications for cold and flu season. And a quick story about garlic. And I talk to my students about this all the time, the reframe of garlic breath. And so, we talk a lot in our communities, oh, garlic breath, it may be stinky. But really, garlic breath is this amazing, amazing dance between our body and that potent, potent garlic. So, when we eat garlic and we digest it, our body excretes the sulfur compounds into our lungs and then with the intention of respirating them out. And so the miracle of eating garlic and having it find its way organically by our own biology into our lungs and then excreting it out with our respiratory, breathing it out, thus garlic breath, it means that those sulfur compounds, those antimicrobial compounds, are inside our lungs, working and touching all the different tissues, and hopefully finding and scavenging any viral infection that might be there, any cold and viral particulates. They're antimicrobial, these sulfur compounds. As we breathe it out, it is true kitchen medicine in action.

Yes, the magic of garlic. Oh, my gosh, I love that reframing.

Yeah, the idea of breaking up congestion as well. We've got the antiviral aspects of garlic breath, but also that decongestant action, too, because if we have congestion in our lungs, we want the substances to be reaching deep within to support.

Jess, you've named a number of beautiful kitchen spice herbs. I am curious if you have any favorite blends that you incorporate into your meals with your family and if you'd like to share them.

I call this general blending that we do, kitchen apothecary salts. Just getting high-quality mineral salt and then adding different herbs inside, I always include the kids when we make these salts so they can pick and choose the herbs we integrate in. We could put garlic powder, turmeric. Sometimes we put rose petals, and sometimes we put butterfly pea petals. We'll crush them up and put them in. You can put thyme, oregano, any herbs mixed into salt blends, and then we keep them on the table, and they can apply them within reason. I watch my three-year-old with the salt shaker. But they can apply with reason to their meals, and they can really feel their relationship with their herbal practice as they create them and then decorate and season their food. Then seasonally, I really love in the fall and winter to make a fire cider herb blend. And so instead of making the fire cider, which I do every year, I love to mix those powdered herbs together. So, garlic and turmeric, making it pungent and spicy. And so that could be put on popcorn or protein or your rice, or anything. And any time you really support those pungent and those warming action in the body, you just get more and more of those immune benefits and boost and warm your system. So, garlic powder and onion powder, anything you would classically think that you could or would want to put into a fire cider blend, you put into powdered and dried, you can put into your spice blend. So that's a really fun and seasonal one, and that's a great gift as well.

That is a really brilliant way to incorporate these herbs into your family's diet, Jess. I am so impressed already with the food that it sounds like you are getting your children to eat. I wonder about bitters and if you're able to incorporate these into your kitchen with your children and get that pre-meal digestive nudge into them.

For myself, I enjoy the traditional introduction of bitters with whole bitter greens in my salad. So the reason we're served dinner salad, pre our heavy, beautiful protein-rich, hopefully, meal, is that, and hopefully there's apple cider vinegar drizzled onto your vibrant salad plate, the original history of why we were given salad's pre-meal was exactly the idea of bitters, was to prime and get our body ready to digest more complicated and heavier meals. And so, arugula and dandelion greens and all of these different, even bitter lettuces. There's so many different varieties of bitter lettuces. And we've bred that out of a lot of our store-bought lettuce these days. Personally, I really, really enjoy having a digestive bitter salad, which is really just a traditional, very vibrant and alive and green and quite strong tasting small green salad before dinner. Then to get the kiddos to familiarize themselves with bitter herbs, I have them taste them outside in the garden. We explore all sorts of different tastes in the garden, and kiddos typically are far more likely—the other day, she's six, and she's not going to see this interview, and so I can tell you. The other day, we were at the beach. At this particular beach, there is a volcanic crystal called olivine. It's this radically, radically beautiful, vibrant, green, little, teeny, tiny piece of sand. The sand is like multiple colors, as everyone's familiar with. Then within the sand, if you really look, the sun shining perfectly, there's all these little, teeny green crystals. And my daughter, who's six, found a bunch of them and put them on her hand and she said, "Mom, they look like sprinkles, and I really want to eat them." And I said, "Go ahead. If the crystals are drawing you and you really want to taste that, they're not, and I wish they were. And we should make some green sprinkles at some point." And who doesn't love sprinkles? Children are far more open to eating things in nature. Try this flower, taste this leaf, and it's just a teeny bit. Remembering that children are not just teeny adults. They're completely different physiologically. They're maturing, and their organ systems, and their brain chemistry, and even their brain wiring, and all of their whole little biology is different than ours. It's immature in the most loving way, and they're in the process of formation. Hopefully all of us are, but they truly, truly are. Just having little teeny tastes of things is all they need to inform their biology of what Earth tastes like and what plants taste like. So honestly, in order to get some of these herbs into, especially my little ones, I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old, I just ask them to taste them in the garden. And so, when we work in the garden, and we do every day and we weed, and they touch a plant and I always have them smell it, and then I repeat the name over and over again for that visceral memory of that plant, and then I'll ask them to taste it. And so typically, I have them eat a teeny little bit of yarrow because I want them to know yarrow, and I want them to build a relationship with that plant, both my boys and my girls. I want them to know it and love it and see it on the trailhead and always have it growing in their garden as well. And so, I'll have them eat sage or thyme or a little dandelion leaf or a little bit of yarrow. Honestly, they won't eat my bitter salad. They hardly eat salads a little bit, depending on the dressing and how they're feeling that day. Some of them will eat it. And most of the time, they'll eat it when I make an herbal ranch dressing. And so, I get a bunch of herbs in that way, but they're more mild lettuces. So, I have them taste their bitters in the evening right before we go in for dinner. So, when the sun cools down, we'll go out into the garden. We'll take our dogs, we'll take our cats, and we'll spend about an hour in the garden all together. And at that point, I do have them integrate complex tastes for them, like yarrow or sage or the different basils I have growing, and really just eat one leaf or just a little teeny taste.

That is a truly beautiful and consensual way to get these children to engage with plants in that sensory exploration. Thank you for sharing, Jess. This whole idea of you teaching your children and the way that they're being raised is a really beautiful story setting for this entire talk. I want to take it to folk remedies that our grandmothers taught us in that elder generation. Do you have any herbs or folk remedies that were taught to you by your grandmother, or any recipes that you feel like have been passed down from that generation that you're incorporating that have stood the test of time?

Yes. My mother and my grandmother, I don't have one of those stories where I was taught herbalism as a young child. I'm changing that with my kids, and I know my kids will carry on some herbal traditions for sure. Like so many other women, I had to find this path on my own and self-study and reclaim my kitchen and reclaim how I relate to my own health and the environment around me and my kitchen, and learn from others how to naturally care for myself and my family. But there are so many remedies and herbs that have been with us for generations. The first thing that I think about is elderflower herbal infusion and elderflower fever tea. That plant offers so many stories and a healing tradition over time. And elderflower tea has been a traditional way to support from the kitchen, fevers. And whether you're an adult or whether you have little ones, elderflower tea, especially, is served hot. So, diaphoretic herbs for them to work best. And diaphoretic herbs are herbs that help to promote sweating and help the body get rid of excess heat. And so, when we have a fever, that can also, just like with the yarrow story that we talked about. As caregivers, as mothers, the hardest thing ever in our existence is to not know what to do. If your child is throwing a huge fit and you feel helpless and you don't know what to do, or if your child is bleeding and the bleeding isn't stopping and you don't know what to do, or if your child has a fever and you don't know what to do. I tell my students over and over again that you are going to support your overall mothering experience and really alleviate a lot of anxiety if you spend a little bit of your time learning traditional folk kitchen medicine, because you can do so much. And there are so many herbs that are so potent yet gentle. And elderflowers are one of those. And so to create an elderflower fever tea, you simply make an herbal infusion with elder flowers, and it really tastes lovely. And so if you're dealing with either a teenager, a reasonable person of sorts, or an adult, you can explain, drink this tea hot, then you get those diaphoretic herbs into your fevering loved one or yourself warm, and it can really help to bring heat to the surface of the body and move it out. For little ones, you can give it to them, and it's so lovely. You could put a little bit of cinnamon, or you could put a little bit of a fresh slice of ginger. But elderflower is lovely. Or chamomile. If your kiddo is feeling hot and bothered and overstimulated by the fever, then you could add a little nervine relaxant like chamomile. You would steep the elderflowers in any other herbs you selected, and then strain it out. And for littles, you would just serve it warm, sweetened with raw honey. That is such a traditional kitchen remedy. And then also broths in general. So that old adage that chicken broth is such a perfect food for cold and flu and sick people, it's absolutely true. It's not anecdotal at all. So, what happens is if we can externalize digestion in any way, whether it be fermentation or whether it be through heat, especially when we're not feeling well, then we've externalized a lot of the digestive energy needs that our body utilizes. Because digestion is a really expensive process for our body. It requires our body a lot of energy to digest food. And when you are sick, whether you be big or little or whatever, broth can be an incredible way to bring liquids, hydration, and then herbs, and all sorts of decongesting herbs, and immune-stimulating herbs, and mineral-rich herbs, and collagen, and protein, and all of these things in a very easily digestible form. And so, we make lots of broths in my mentorship program, and we talk about how to integrate them, whether you put a little scoop of them into rice or even into your pasta for your kiddos, or you just have them sip a little bit, or you make a beautiful soup later. Broth is a traditional way that women for generations have nourished their families because it is so, so good for us and easy to digest, especially if someone is under the weather.

Beautiful. I absolutely agree. Broths are a staple in our household as well, and it's a really great way to sneak some herbs into my very picky child. So infusing astragalus in a broth, he will consume that. But if I try to give him it in another form, he may not.

Jess, do you incorporate fermentation practices in your kitchen? And if so, can you discuss the practices that you do hold and the impact on gut health? I'd love to hear if you are able to incorporate herbs into this process at all.

I am not a fermentation expert by any means. I think there are so many people that know far more about fermentation, but I have been pushed to learn at least good enough fermentation practices in my kitchen. We do lactofermentation in my kitchen. We ferment carrots and pickles, and we do lots of kimchi and all sorts of things like that. I do a simple saltwater brine, and then we do jalapenos and onions. And so, yes, I always focus on probiotic foods for our entire family. I find personally that integrating probiotics really supports my overall health and my skin health because kitchen herbalism, it's like your food is your medicine. If you are consuming beautiful, vibrant, colorful, and probiotic foods, then it really shines through in your skin and your hair and your vibrancy and your overall health. I do simple, simple fermentation practices because my kids absolutely, hands down, one of their favorite snacks are lactofermented carrots. I'll make jars just huge, as big as this with lactofermented carrots. I will put carrots inside and then pour a saltwater brine and let them sit on the counter for a couple of days, and then they're all consumed. I do that to support my pocketbook and also our overall gut and our overall health. So yeah, I love integrating. We'll pull anything from the garden, and we'll put garlic and onions and fennel and cumin and coriander. And I love doing pickled onions or pickled garlic because, again, you're externalizing some of the digestive requirements and making them taste tart and delicious. They are more and they decorate the table beautifully so I can put some fermented jalapenos and onions and garlic and things on the table. Even we'll do ginger and turmeric slices added into those. And then people can decorate their plates and explore with those flavors. My kids are not a huge fan. I don't know whose kids are. I guess my 13-year-old eats onions pretty well. But fermented onions, red onions, are a huge staple in our lunchtime and dinnertime routine. I just do a really traditional lactofermentation on lots and lots of different kinds of vegetables.

That is super cool. I feel so inspired by the ways that your children are getting herbs and vegetables into their diets. We talked a little bit about earlier tea herbs and how you're utilizing them for your children at the various times and stages throughout their day. But I wonder if you want to speak a little bit more towards specific herbs that you're utilizing for stress and mood support in your family.

Lemon balm is a huge support for us. It is bright, and it is mood elevating, and it tastes fantastic. There's no choking down lemon balm. It's just so vibrant, and delicious, and bright, and fun. And so, I make a lovely cucumber and lemon balm water, infused water, that's just really, really lovely and light, and we sip that throughout the day. I do utilize chamomile every evening for a very beautiful and traditional closing of the day. But any time that a kid or even an adult, because it happens to us too, if someone is upset about being upset, that rings chamomile for me. So, the child in me, if I get upset about something, and then it moves past that something, and now I'm upset about the upset, then that is chamomile. And that also happens with kids, as you know. They wanted a certain toy, and then at some point, their nervous system and their emotional regulation just becomes skewed, and they can't return back to baseline, that's chamomile. So, I really lean on both of those herbs. For me, too, digestion is such an incredible part. As long as I'm, as a caregiver, a mother, a woman, feeling good in my body, then I relate better to the environment around me, to the people around me, and even the emotional swings that happen throughout life, whether you have kids or not. And so, ginger is something that I have found, especially at my age of 42, to be such a lovely nighttime ally. So, I make a strong cup of ginger tea every evening. Now, this replaces my ice cream or chocolate or sweet, my sweet need at night. And I'll sweeten this, and I make it dried because fresh ginger and dry ginger are quite different in their action in the body. And so I will make a ginger infusion with dried ginger, and very strong, very spicy, and delicious, and sweeten it with raw honey to the point where it does taste quite sweet, and I will sip that at night, warm. And I can just feel it working within the trunk of my body and my digestion, and it really helps me go to sleep without any sacrifice. I feel like I've had something delicious. And all night long, my digestion is being supported by that beautiful herbal infusion, and I wake up feeling fantastic. And that sets my mood so I can help support everybody else's mood throughout the day. Oh, and I want to do, I really would love to touch on for families in general, oatstraw. And so oatstraw and oat tops. You've heard a lot about milky oats, but oatstraw or oat tops, whichever herb you have on hand, whichever dried herb you have, is a nourishing nervine. And kiddos need when you're focusing on bringing more herbs into your kitchen for your family, for your young family, you're really looking at nourishment and restorative herbs all the time. Because even with our food that we give our kids, as they form their bodies and their nervous systems and their little organs, we really want to focus on nutritive herbs and restoring herbs. And as a mother as well, sometimes with a lack of sleep or just the service that happens through motherhood, our nerves can get frayed. And that even when you're feeling like that, if you think about the way you describe yourself as, I have frayed nerves or I'm burnt out, those feelings are real. Oat can really bring a restorative balance back into your system through nourishment of the nervous system. And so that's another one that's really, really affordable to have, to find, to source, and to integrate into your herbal infusions throughout the day. Oatstraw can be put into all sorts of different herbal teas and herbal infusions. It doesn't have that strong of a flavor. Not like nettle, per se. Nettle is fantastic, but that's a hard one to hide in herbal infusions. You have to be a little bit more tricky if you're focusing on nourishing your kiddos. But oatstraw just helps to soothe everybody's nerves through nourishment. So we got to use that one, too. Milky oats or oatstraw is one of my absolute favorite nervines.

I love that you were able to share that with our audience, Jess. Let's talk about setting the tone for the day through breakfast. As I already stated, I'm super impressed with what you were getting your children to consume. What are you doing in your family at home in your kitchen for breakfast? Do you have any simple swaps for breakfast foods that we might see more commonly that could be replaced with something that is more wholesome, that studies our energy and our focus.

Protein. I just really, really focus on protein-rich foods in the morning for myself and my kiddos. And a little bit different reasons for both. For me, there is so much research out there that in order to keep muscle tone and in order to feel your best, you really need to up your protein intake as a 40-ish year-old woman. And so, I've been really, really focusing on protein for myself. And I know for so many women, especially mothers in the throes of motherhood, you feed everybody else, and then you forget about yourself. And so, kitchen herbalism allows you to nourish yourself and gives you the inspiration to help nourish yourself. So, I love nettle infusions as well, like the overnight nettle infusion, and have it ready in the morning for you so you can put it into either drink it for yourself or also put it into your lovely hibiscus or whatever other maybe rosehip, beautiful herbal infusions. And then as for my kids, I focus on protein as well. I wouldn't say our hot cocoa, our warm cocoa, is definitely on the herbal tip, but we're very classic in a lot of breakfast foods. It doesn't get too herbal. Integrating cinnamon and vanilla and stuff like that into our morning kitchen routine. But truly, it is just focused on protein. So, I love pasture-raised eggs, and sometimes we'll fry those and then put a very classic everything spice blend. And so, it's not powder, that everything combination. So, it has like, sesame seeds and a little bit of garlic and salt and onion, and then just really focusing on high protein to jumpstart our metabolism and fill our bellies. What I do really focus on throughout the day is we try to minimize snacking. When we do snack, we eat carrots and fermented foods. We talked about all those fermented carrots and cucumbers and things like that. Then we'll eat apples and fresh fruit, and then also protein-rich snacks as well.

I know that for you working with young moms or, of course, other people interested in herbalism, the question is always brought up about safety and really understanding if there are contraindications. One of the best parts about kitchen herbalism is that these culinary herbs are edible and safe for general use. I would love to hear you speak a little bit about kitchen herbs and their safety, and if there are any contraindications for common herbs or food staples that you would like to touch on to share with the audience.

I really focus on food kitchen staples. I think that it's really important to follow your intuition and see where your kitchen practice takes you. And this is what I tell my students all the time, that especially because there's always concerns about pregnancy as well. And I really talk about heroic dosing. And so, you could possibly run into safety. Herbs are powerful, and they can change your biology. They can change the viscosity and thickness of your blood, even as much as eating a lot of turmeric. You can go into the grocery store, and there are herbs that if you were going to go into surgery in two days, you probably shouldn't eat three heads of garlic before then. That's the truth. It would not be a good plan because even garlic can affect your biology to such an extreme that your blood may thin. Each herb, when used in excess, it's that old adage to stay in balance. And anything in excess can be too much. And so that's why I really love to generally talk about heroic dosing. Now, if you are on medications, as you need to research your medication, your health concern. Think about your week and your month and figure out what would work best for you. That is about kitchen herbalism, is personal health responsibility and navigating that for yourself. But generally, everything that I use in the kitchen, I recommend that other mothers and women utilize all of these herbs. You'll find that's why it's really, really, it's really beneficial to take some courses or to read some books about herbal actions and herbal energetics and familiarize yourself with your own constitution and your own biology and really think about how herbs can interact and help to support your overall health. An herb as simple as nettle, if consumed regularly and in high doses, can absolutely support iron levels and mineral and vitamin levels, but it can dry your system out slightly. And so, learning the energetics of the herbs you bring into your life, learning how to navigate even designing a nourishing herbal infusion, like adding licorice or marshmallow to it, can really up-level your kitchen herbal practice and up-level your vibrancy and life. And so generally, I utilize herbs in my classes and in my home that I personally consider completely safe. But it's really, really important that before you bring herbs into your life in high amounts, you reflect on your own biology and your own health. Another example, most people would think that cinnamon, and cinnamon is, it's completely safe. You eat it in cookies and you eat it in lattes, drink it in lattes, consume it without even thinking about it. But high amounts of cinnamon taken regularly over a period of time can have a radical effect on your blood sugar, which is awesome for the people who are using it medicinally, but that would then require that you might alter your medication and even talk to your functional medicine doctor or GP or whoever you are working with. Again, I always fall back on heroic dosing, meaning if you're going to be drinking a half gallon or even a strong pint of cinnamon infusion for 30 days, expect some shifts in your biology and be ready for that. If you're on medication or have health concerns, then always ask for help and guidance. But truthfully, I feel like kitchen herbalism, it's a very traditional practice and it is completely and totally safe.

I love that you brought up dosage. I feel like that is really the crux of it, right? Anything in excess can be dangerous. We're thinking water even, right?

Right. So, while we can consume culinary herbs and culinary amounts, I love the advice that you offered our audience for going beyond that. I also wanted to hear you speak towards how our bodies inform us through our senses, such as flavor, in regards to what we might need today.

If you're craving sweet, your body might want nourishment. It might not necessarily mean that you need to eat something sugary. But sweet herbs like marshmallow or licorice can bring a nourishment to your biology that it might be wanting. Or if you're craving something sour, if you're somebody who loves sour candy, let me bring up hibiscus again. Get yourself some hibiscus, hibiscus or probiotic-rich food. If you're somebody who loves sour candy, then you might be craving vitamin C, or you might be craving vitamin C. You might also be craving probiotics. Your gut might be trying to communicate to you, "Please bring some delicious sauerkraut or fermented carrots." If you haven't tried fermented carrots, lactofermented carrots, get a jar at the grocery store. They are a little pricey, and then you'll feel inspired to make your own. If you're craving something spicy, then that's okay, eat the spicy foods. But what your body is asking for is warmth, possibly, and supporting your overall digestion. Spicy foods, if you can tolerate them, are fantastic for your health. There's so many studies that say that people who eat spicy food, who bring in those spicy medicinal constituents into their body, it helps your circulation. The studies show that it can really, really support overall health. Oh, and if you're creating something salty, and we all do, guess what? That probably means that your body is wanting more minerals, and we all need more minerals. Hands down, we all need more mineral-rich foods. If you're tasting, and this goes side by side with herbs. If you are tasting nettle or if you're tasting some sort of seaweed, then they have a salty flavor to them. And that is an indication that there's minerals present in the herb. So, if you're craving salty, you might want to think about increasing your mineral consumption every day. So, kitchen herbalism is a reclaiming and a remembering and a rekindling of getting to know our kitchen and getting to know ourselves and really listening. Because as you bring more herbs into your kitchen, there's going to be herbs that you fall in love with, and there's going to be herbs that you could leave them behind. You might not like hibiscus. You might love rosehips. And there's no way for me to know that or any other herbal teacher until you start to build your own relationship with these herbs. But you will, over time, as you play and integrate with different herbs, really develop a relationship with them. It's because your body, whatever is going on in your individual biochemistry, resonates perfectly with certain herbs. You don't even have to think about it. You just have to do the practice of herbalism, practice herbalism in your kitchen. That is simply by making an herbal infusion every single day and seeing if you like it or not. If you don't like it, or the herb doesn't feel safe for you, or it doesn't resonate with you, guess what? There are so many herbs that are out there that can offer all the things that your body needs. And so through the practice of kitchen herbalism, it's a reintroduction to your own intuition. And so start to listen to your body and what sort of things you're craving, and don't instantly grab something that might not be nutritious. Think about what your craving is, and then try to figure out a way to satiate it with something really nourishing. I can tell you that things like having ingredients like high-quality cinnamon and delicious, beautiful, vibrant vanilla beans in your kitchen, you can create the most nourishing and luxurious herbal infusions and herbal preparations for yourself while taking care of your nervous system, and also tastes absolutely delicious.

This is beautiful advice for our listeners, Jess. You have offered many tips and tricks throughout this conversation. I would love for you to share with our listeners as a final question, three simple practices that they could adopt this week in their kitchen for holistic support.

Oh, just three. Well, herbal infusions. I think making a daily herbal infusion and integrating herbal infusions into your daily life for you and for your kiddos, really making it a practice, is often overlooked. And water being the universal menstruum, the universal solvent, it actually can find its way into the herbs that you submerge into the water and create such an incredible extraction that really mirrors the whole plant itself. Almost exactly. Water is an incredible, incredible menstruum for kitchen herbalists. And so, the simple act of making herbal teas, and my students know exactly what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say, bring hibiscus into your kitchen. Because one of the—in herbal infusions and syrups. Because something that we navigate, whether we have kids or not, is artificial colors and artificial flavors. And we are, again, hijacked by commercialized, created products in plastic bottles. And we don't have to be. Oftentimes, when we're starting a wellness practice or jumping into kitchen herbalism, people feel as though they might have to sacrifice something that they love. And I'm here to tell you that there is no sacrifice happening in your kitchen or in your kitchen herbal practice. There are replacements and swaps that will go far and beyond anything that you can find at the grocery store. Challenge me, please email me, and we will find a recipe that will taste better than anything you can buy at a coffee shop or at the grocery store. With a little bit of raw honey and some herbal magic, you can create beautiful things at home. So, herbal infusions. And then I would also say three simple practices. Okay, herbal infusions. Getting hibiscus into your kitchen. It's the simplest, most beautiful practice. I want a jar of hibiscus on everybody's counter. And if you have it, please make a hibiscus simple syrup. Simply making a decoction of hibiscus. You would put two cups, or let's say four cups of water, into a pan, put some hibiscus in, reduce it by half, and then mix in raw honey once the decoction has cooled. You can put that on top of blended lemonade. You can put it into sparkling waters. You are swapping artificial colors and bringing in so much beauty, so much vibrancy in color that you will see over time that it supports your overall immune health when you get some of those things that bog our system down. Then have some simple first aid herbal preparations on hand. So that is a really great way and a fantastic way to introduce herbalism and kitchen herbalism into your home. Having some first aid staples, especially what we talked about before, like a yarrow styptic powder. If I could have hibiscus and yarrow styptic powder on every counter, then we would be getting somewhere. Because in our information age, we can read so much and we can see so much beautiful imagery of kitchen herbalism and herbalism. And until it integrates into our home and we actually see the effect, then our relationship is disjunct. But once you have a yarrow styptic powder, and again, you can find organic yarrow leaf, aerial parts, powdered yarrow, you can find it really, really accessibly online from reputable herb sources. When you have a cut, now we focused on little ones, but you can also think about the older people in your life that you love so much, your parents or your grandparents. As my grandmother used to say, she had leaky skin. She would always just bump into things, and she would bleed and trickle, and they put little bandaids on them. Then the bandaids, the blood comes out of the bandaid, and it's part of aging. Sharing the yarrow styptic powder with everybody in your life, not only will it bring peace into those injury moments, but it will radically shift the way you look at kitchen herbalism and the potency and what plants really do have to offer. Because once you have a cut that is bleeding and you put yarrow on it and it stops the bleeding, and you will never look at herbs in the same way again. And it doesn't get old. It just keeps being a botanical miracle. So that's what I would say. Herbal infusions, enjoy them. And then also, if you have little ones, bring those herbal infusions and truly make a tea party experience at night. The beauty of creating a really quick herbal infusion with chamomile and not focusing on a long infusion. Because if you focus on a long infusion with chamomile, you can get some of those bitter notes, and you can get some of those more complex notes that are fantastic and help the body with digestion and bloat and all of those things. But for little ones, it's okay to just do a gentle, aromatic tea just a couple of minutes. If you're serving tea to a three-year-old and a six-year-old, and create a short, gorgeous chamomile infusion ritual, and give them little cups, and let them pour it, and let them add raw honey, and help them find their own relationship with chamomile and other herbs like lemon balm. So herbal infusions, integrate them everywhere. A jar of hibiscus on your counter, and simple first aid, but predominantly and focused on everybody, get a little bit of yarrow styptic powder. And also, please keep that on your kitchen counter.

Jess, we are going to have to tell our audience where they can find you out in the world, not only so they can learn more about you and the work that you do, but also so they can take you up on that challenge you mentioned earlier.

You can find me on Instagram. I share loads of recipes and guides and all sorts of free educational content on Instagram at JKB Journal, so you can find me there. Then you can navigate from there to my website, or I have a website where I have ebooks, recipe guides. There's a bunch of free—there's a free ebook on there right now, and there's loads of resources. Then twice a year, I hold an Intimate Mentorship where we make kitchen medicine and herbal remedies together in real-time. There is something so fun and potent about having 50 to 100 women making an herbal remedy together all over the world. We have so much fun and we create a small community for three months, and we really get the herbal practice flowing in our home. I love watching the transformation of women who have longed to be herbalists, and they just have never put their energy into their herbal practice. I inspire every single week with tutorials and recipes and live classes together where we really get medicine making in their kitchens. We do live syrup tutorials, and we make salves and infused oils and all sorts of lovely herbal remedies, and then we share them, and we share experiences. Then during that mentorship, we also have kitchen hours where you can come show your remedies and ask me questions. We really develop a one-on-one feel and a small community feel in those mentorships. So please join me. I run those twice a year. And you can find me on Instagram sharing every single day about kitchen herbalism.

That sounds so dreamy, Jess. I'm so glad that you are out in the world sharing these herbal preparations from your kitchen with so many. We are grateful for your teachings and time today, Jess.

Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.