Notes on Blending Herbs

I honestly believe medicine grows on trees. And in flowers. Shrubs, bark, even the roots in the dirt – I’m positive they all can be medicine. It helps if you know where to look and what to look for, though. Wanting to know the secrets of plants is part of the reason I’ve been studying and working with herbs for the past several years.

I got the original inspiration to blend herbs with weed in Toronto (like so many other things I’ve built this business on…). I was in the cutest little head shop, it had a new age Tokyo vibe (it makes so much sense in my head, also – I’ve never actually been to Tokyo), and they had these adorable herb boxes filled with stalks of lavender and chamomile. They were labeled something like “smoking herbs” and I was very intrigued.

The man behind the counter explained to me that they were for blending with weed, “to stretch out your bag,” he offered. I loved the idea, but I had to know more. How would smoking these herbs with cannabis affect my high? How would it taste? How would it feel?

I didn’t buy them. I was ballin’ on a budget (quite frankly, I still am and somehow, it’s gotten smaller?), but I stayed curious about it. I was just beginning this new chapter of my life, so everything felt like a message from the Universe, calling me to go a little deeper. And this wasn’t exactly new. Growing up, I was exposed to a lot of different herbs by my father, who used to walk into his front yard and grab a fistful of leaves to solve every problem. Congested? Fever? Headache? Bug bite? “Boil some tea” he would instruct as he handed over the appropriate herbs. I could slightly remember him mentioning smoking other herbs to me back then, too. But it hadn’t stuck.

Sometime soon after my trip to Toronto, I came across this book called Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss. I mean, I literally walked right by it because this book had been in my house for my entire life, and I knew that because it’s an impossibly thick paper back book with SO many words, one of those random middle sections filled with black and white pictures, and it’s bright orange. When I was a kid I really loved to read, so I had picked up every book in my house at least once. But when I picked that one up as a child, I took one whiff and it smelled so damn old I placed it right back down, never to notice it again. Until I walked by it that day.

That book changed me and my understanding of plants. It helped me realize that plants and plant medicine are a natural way of life that we as a society have strayed desperately far from. It broke down so many herbs and so many applications for healing that I was honestly overwhelmed. My relationship with plants changed and all of a sudden I felt emotionally invested in everything coming out of the ground, every potted plant around me, everyone of my little weed babies growing in my closet tent.

Plants are so precious, and they are so giving. I’m not a pharmacologist doctor, but I have seen and experienced firsthand the incredible and vast healing that plants can achieve. In many instances, I have prepared the plants myself, sometimes even grown them myself, to create plant medicine for myself and others. I find it empowering and exciting to know that we can take a lot of our healing into our own hands when we simply look to the Earth. As a society, we are quick to put our health into the hands of another, but I often question if we aren’t supposed to be the health experts of our individual lives? Maybe it’s not for everyone, but it’s been the path for me.

I love that the Universe has called me to share my love of herbs with others, and I think it’s really cool that we get to showcase other plants alongside cannabis. (She’ll always be our Queen, but the entire Court is dope!) There are infinite pairings that can be customized and curated based on an individual goal for physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual healing. If you don’t want to smoke them, you can prepare a tea blend to drink – with or without cannabis. Even if cannabis really isn’t your bag, don’t sleep on the Herb Kingdom!

If you’re wondering about my favorite herbs to smoke with weed, I’d love to share. My number one is rose (…too cliche?) because it not only tastes amazing, but it is a natural mood booster and it really does bring a beautiful sense of grounded-ness and inner peace to my experience. My second favorite is skullcap, which is an anxiety and stress reducer that really helps to clear the mind.

Do you have an herb that you like to smoke, or one that you’re excited to try when we open? Don’t worry if you’re new to this- I’ll be there to share some more stories and suggestions when I see you in the store!