Certified Herbalist Certificate

Taking a holistic approach to healing and health has been a lifelong journey. I learned a lot growing up on a farm in western Montana. More than anything else, I established a way of life I love and nurture daily here on my mountaintop sanctuary in Potomac, Montana. Herbalism and plant medicine are second nature, coming from a farm family. Plants, animals, and nature were my grounding and strength and still are today! Two years ago I completed my Certified Herbalist Certification with Dr. Nicole Apelian. My quest for knowledge is not just in books, but also in gardening, foraging and wildcrafting. I have attended the Herbal Academy Webinar for the past years, each year bringing more and more inspiration to continue on with my passion for herbalism, flower medicine, aromatherapy and energy healing and reiki. This has been my search throughout my life and I can honestly say, it was sparked as early as my earliest memories being born into an agricultural farm family.

​My mother used to take me to Garden Club in a baby basinet while the women gathered to discuss gardening, horticulture, growing everything from flowers for bouquets, culinary and medicinal herbs and vegetables, and how to host a beautiful luncheon. Of course, it was the 1950's so things looked a little different then. I grew up around my mother's and grandmother's friends and the elders of our community. They always had the most magnifcent spreads for various gatherings of sandwiches, homemade deserts, jellies, and compotes and mead, homemade butter and gorgeous salads and homemade spirits. Even though they loved their gatherings and luncheons, my mother and her friends and their children and all of us made time to be in the great outdoors foraging for huckleberries and hiking in the back country. I grew up spending my summers outside! My brother Bill and I spent a great deal of time with our grandfather in the garden in the summertime. That is where my love of gardening really bloomed.
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Living in a small community has it merits and its drawbacks. The merits were many, and the drawbacks few, but I left my valley when I was only 16 years old to live, study, travel and work abroad,  Meanwhile, the first 16 years of my life, I learned so much about agriculture, gardening, canning, cooking, butter and bread baking, and patisserie baking of all kinds from my mother and grandmother. Feeling the freedom of running and playing in the fields of potatoes, wheat, barley, and alfalfa and the pastures full of our dairy and beef cattle. Our farm animals were beloved to all of us, and we enjoyed the freedom of riding horses, playing out in the fields, in the barn, and living the kind of life many could only dream of in our very rural Montana farm community. Since my return 25 years ago, I have led a solitary life in nature with just my beloved dogs. Sophie and the kitties left us un 2019. I lost Sicilia right after my father's death in August of 2024, and I felt the life drain out of me until last April 2025, my Lucky Boy Shasta Sequoia Skye came into my life and rekindled my lust for life and my joy! Meanwhile, I still continue on with my passion of creating beautiful botanical skincare and body care products, blending essential oils for natural perfumes and blending essentail oils for my skincare line and aromatherapy body lotions and creams, as well as making tinctures, teas and healing salves.  During and after the Covid-19 Pandemic, and then the care of my elderly parents, my business was set on the back burner for some time, but even then I persisted because as I wrote about in my December Blog, farming, gardening, foraging and wildcrafting isn't a job, it's a way of life. It's whata my parents did, and it is what I was born to do. And of course, life wouldn't be as fun without my dogs. Sophie & Sicila loved being out with me foraging in the forest for huckleberries. It was our favorite thing to do! 
​My newest quest is studying under the renowed herbalist, Rosemary Gladstar at her School of the Art & Science of Herbalism where I am embarking on further studies to further my knowledge to better serve my community.

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