Fun, interesting weekend with Woodland Essence founder

Hey, all! I just got back from New Hampshire where I spent the weekend at a Organic herb/apple orchard for a medicinal tree and herb retreat. One of the teachers was the founder of Woodland Essence. She is the real deal when it comes to herbalist, healer, teacher. She is the most peaceful, caring, kind person I've ever met. I walked up to her and said "I just want you to know that you have helped me and so many people with your herbs and the Lyme community and I thank you". She gave me a big hug and said she is so glad to hear that and wishes everyone healing thoughts.

Throughout the weekend, We (group of 20 women) spend the time learning about trees and their immune system, how they fight off invaders and help each other survive threats. We walked in the woods, where she would stop in front of a tree and told us how to treat the trees with the utmost respect and only cut certain branches. She showed us how they peel the bark off and gather the peels to make the tinctures. As someone who just ordered her stuff and didn't really think about how it was made, I was blown away by the whole process. It's a huge commitment to create the products that she creates with a mind for sustainability, conservation and ecology. I can also tell you her love and respect for nature's bounty blesses each product. It was truly a life altering experience and I will never look at a tree the same way again.

I just wanted to share this with everyone. I hope it makes someone feel happy and hopeful as we face our dark days and fight the fight. Stay strong, my peeps!!!

Yes, It was this weekend. It was part of a series of retreats for radiance and wellbeing. I knew that Kate was the featured teacher, so I just had to go. I went with my mom and it was held at Heartsong herb farm. It's an organic apple and herb farm. We did a lot of other stuff, like meditate, yoga, singing in the forest with the trees. Very earthy crunchy stuff. The herb farm owner, Nancy Phillips has written a book about herbs and medicinal uses, and is so happy and lively. Both she and kate are ayurvedic healers, so we also learned about that.

It's fascinating the whole natural medicine world - I think is a tight community. These healers travel all over the world together, visiting indigenous cultures and finding herbs, trees and plants that heal.

They are very concerned about the trees and are part of a movement to save the trees around the globe because they believe the trees give us life with their oxygen and their "medicine". It was interesting to learn that when a tree/plant/herb is stressed by an environmental threat (fungus, bacteria, etc), it sends out the chemicals to fight the threat. These are the brown spots, blemishes, etc. All plants have this ability, but if the plant is treated with pesticides, it doesn't have to do it, so the phytochemical just aren't there like they are when the plant is organically grown or wild harvested. Sadly, the food industry thinks we will reject imperfect looking fruit and vegetables, so they developed the pesticides to make them "look" better, but from a nutrition standpoint, they pale.

There was some lodging, but my mom and I stayed in a hotel about 20 minutes away. The meals were Ayurvedic and totally organic and healthy, We made Pine needle tea from gathering Pine needles (it's really healthy for you!) and had fresh apple cider from her apple orchard and apple crumble for dessert. Makes me want to own my own farm!

Hi Mike! Happy to hear from you. Hope you are well. All my best to you and yours!

That sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing. I will have to look the farm up. Totally up my alley.

They also have events in Cold Brook NY too I think.

I definitely believe in the mind, spirit and body connection, otherwise where would we be? Anway years ago I was diagnosed with Lyme, had a puppy service dog 2 years ago struggling with that and Anaplasmosis, her training buddy also with Lyme, the ticks have been awful in NY, anyway after lots of frustration and watching what the antibiotics and lousy food has been doing its worst on me, the fam and the pups I researched, came acrosss pine needle tea from several outside enthusiasts and realize that arborvitae is eaten like wild fire by our rabbits and deer and they have tons of ticks and no Lyme to speak of, so I made my tea from that which is where thuja is made, so seemed like a win win situation. It was, Friday the pups were positive for tick borne diseases and Monday they were negative. So once a month the small dog gets the tea made with raw honey just a bit and it cold water added after it steeps, she gets 1 teaspoon the medium large dog gets 1 tablespoon and I get a cup. i was squimish and day one just took 1/2 cup but after having another horrible bite by the tiniest nymph or whatever that little deamon is, I did the tea a half hour later I could feel my hand again and the pain was gone, saw my doc and a few weeks later I did a lab that came back negative, I took the script for Doxy but never took it just the tea for 2 days and then 1x a week for a month. So now we just take it monthly for good health, it is amazing and I know the vitamin C and other vitamins are very high in this tea so really research and check it out. I have 2 auto immune illnesses and with this and good diet for my body, mind and soul I plan on beating it. I get the dogs checked every 6 months and they are doing well with no Lyme issues just regular health dogs stuff even the older one and I get checked every year and all negative for Tick borne diseases. After 2 years I have my autoimmune numbers cut to half the amount, I also changed doctors because the endo I had was getting mad at my healing, I only use providers that use evidence based methods and he was changing since the research hospital took him over, not sure why but I feel positivity is necessary for success. I was told this by several specialists too at the same research hospital, sorry for him great for me. Prayers and success with tons of blessings to all of you on a journey to healing. Never give up, get support in several places and keep moving forward.

Arborvitae (a form of wild White Cedar), and Pine needle tea. Interesting, I'll have to look this up some more.

I can finally make something from my front yard.