THAT was a weekend! We were at Creative Chaos in Vernon over the weekend, a three-day massive craft fair bringing vendors from across Canada! We were able to reconnect with a herbalist who got us started on our wildcrafted herbal journey 10 years ago on Canada Day. That had to be the biggest highlight of the entire weekend, being able to say hi, then later thank him for sharing the tidbit of advice that sent us down this engaging, fun, lifetime of learning!

We debuted a new product to the Ashtree Wildcrafting line: Sample Collections! We are occasionally asked if Ashtree Wildcrafting sells cups. We went thrift store crawling and found some beautiful English china!

This past weekend was the last opportunity to register for the Thistle Workshop happening at the end of June. We have two registrants and looking forward to making a wild thistle version of artichoke dip, and making breaded thistle spears to eat it with! The next workshop coming up is July's Purslane Advanced Foraging Workshop on July 26th. We will learn about the benefits and uses of Purslane while gathering and then making a couple different dipping sauces. The deadline to register for the Purslane workshop has moved to July 12th!

Catch us in person at Lumby Days Indoor Craft Fair June 14th and 15th, Schubert Centre craft fair June 28th, Fintry Manor July 19th, and in August, the garlic festival on the 10th and Fintry Manor on the 17th.

Hope to see you at one of those events if you are in the area!

Final note for today, due to various people at wellness fairs and even at craft fairs asking if we are 7th Day Adventist, no we are not. We are evangelical in our Christian faith. A basic Statement of Faith is now added to my website in two places, the Spiritual Wafare right-hand menu, and up under About in the main menu.

https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2025/06/09/wildcrafted-tea-chat-or-is-that-a-coffee-chat-amazing-rendezvous-and-summer-outlook/

Time for an update! 2025 continues it's crazy trajectory and we've now hit full throttle!

People continue to hint at me writing books about our wild food and medicine escapades. The textbook idea is taking shape, and I've decided the herbal compendium will be a trip through history as we follow herbal medicine as far back as we can. Currently, that promises to be a food and medicine list of at least 217 foods, herbs and spices, just under half the current number of plants in my nutrtional/medicinal wholefood database.

Just today, someone hoped my foraging notebook had more in it than just the basics of how to forage for wild foods. So I may take parts of my "textbook" and build both a "herbs in the Central Okanagan" book, and either share in it or share in yet another book, the experiences we've had with using wild herbs as our pharmacy at home.

ANNOUNCEMENT TO CENTRAL OKANAGANITES!!!

The Advanced Foraging Workshop: Thistle Dip and Breaded Thistle spears, is coming up June 28th and we have two people already registered! The last day to register is June 7th. For those who like to pay in person, come see us at Booth 105 in the Vernon Rec Centre in the hallway between the Auditorium and the gym.

If you want to catch us in person before Creative Chaos, come to see us at the Rutland Flea Market on June 1st.

https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2025/05/25/book-fair-and-workshop-update/

We are a couple days away from the Arrowleaf Balsamroot Advanced Foraging Workshop on Saturday. Registration closed for this one back on May 3rd.

The next Advanced Foraging Workshop is June 28th, and will cover making yummy foods with the flower buds of Canada Thistle, and the leaf ribs of Scotch Thistle. Right now, early registrants for the Thistle workshop are in Vernon. As I do not know the trails around Vernon very well, I am open to anyone telling me where they've seen both canada Thistle and Scotch or Bull Thistle on public-use land.

Foraging has exploded this year. We are seeing evidence of other foragers, so for those reading this who also forage, remember the 5% rule! Never take more than 5% of any given patch so that animals and people coming behind you can avail themselves of the abundance too.

The textbook-writing idea is slowly taking shape. I've come to the conclusion that we are not traditional herbalists, we are phytotherapeutic herbalists! As I start writing my textbook dig up research to confirm what I want to say and verify or add to it, discovering why colleges teach backward herbalism, labelling it as Traditional, is a slap in the face and explains why so many believers are so wary of anyone who claims to be a Christian AND claims to be a herbalist or healer. My textbook will teach a version of Western Herbalism I am terming: The Phytotherapeutic Herbalist! The working title for the book is A Christian Perspective on Western Herbalism.

If you know people who would like to be kept in the loop about this book, tell them to register for this newsletter. They can visit the site to do that, or you can forward my newsletter emails to them and they can respond asking to register for the newsletter.

https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2025/05/15/foraging-escapades-writing-and-workshops/

Because I use a VPN, AND I'm a free member of GAB, I can no longer access my account! I was at a craft fair all day on Sunday, and when I got home and tried to log in, I was met with the news that GAB had decided only pro, meaning paid members, can access the site using a vpn. My choices are to go pro, or drop the vpn. I'm doing neither because I haven't earned anything from my use of the platform! On the prowl again for useful places to get word out about my coaching, natural health, the benefits of foraging, and meet fellow Christians in the process.

I don't want platforms belonging to Meta or Alphabet (ie google, youtube, etc), I don't want blockchains, web3, universal ID, and those that report to string pullers or China (ie: tiktok, polkadot blockchain, etc), and I don't want my followers to have to be tech-geeks to get connected with me such as joining the fediverse!

Seems like a tall order. I almost had 100 followers over on Gab too, and was in conversation with a lady about herbalist courses, our shared faith, and textbooks. She wanted to continue the conversation and now she's left hanging because I can't get to my account! Very frustrating. I did not have an offsite contact for her. . . not good!

I am frustrated.

Brighteon Broadcast News, Jan 23, 2025 – AI REASONING models will change everything: Health Ranger demonstrates chemistry solutions for herbal medicine extracts
https://old.bitchute.com/video/3yLUnMUj2yW4/

Apparently, even in the world of natural health, you have your stalwarts who know what they know and refuse to entertain any change to what they know, and who get threatened enough to slander and lambaste anyone who questions it. The level of lambasting and slander by a so-called herbalist, reminded me of the medical terminology problem rearing it's head out there.

Let me wrap this up now. You will find me using modern terms for conditions the human body has suffered for millenia. I don't apologize! The herbs that helped way back then, continue to help now in the exact same ways for the exact same conditions under different names. If modern research calls into question long-held understandings, and that research isn't trying to sway the disillusioned masses or swing over to eastern concepts of medicine, I will consider it.

Click to read the full article here:

https://naturalhealthgodsway.ca/2025/01/20/clearing-the-air-around-modern-versus-historical-terms-and-references-in-medicine/

The week before the fires broke around south/central BC, some interesting articles were published, such as this one about an "emerging parasite" that poses danger to both dogs and humans. When we see the word "emerging" now, a healthy dose of skepticsm says it was "enhanced" in a lab somewhere and then released.

https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/440482/Emerging-parasite-poses-danger-to-dogs-and-humans#440482

We already have various medications on the market that deal with tapeworms. But there are foods that have also been known to kill worms and other parasites in the human body.

The root of black and wild cherry, Oil of Oregano, and Aloe Vera are three herbal treatments specifically mentioned to deal with intestinal worms. Ginger is also known to be anti-parasitic, along with black pepper, chokecherry, chamomile, garlic, onions, lemons, pomegranates, pumpkins, tarragon and thyme.

That short list is by no means exhaustive, but it is encouraging. Foods often described as anti-malarial are anti-parasitic. They got their description from how well they kill off blood flukes, but have been known to kill off other parasites as well, making them immensely valuable since 2020 broke out.

So make sure you eat your dewormers several times a week! Eat them daily if your area is prone to parasitic infestations. The list of anti-parasitic foods is far longer than what's been shared here, but these are a good sampling.

I've been accepted to the big wellness fair one town over, at the end of September! I'll get an event announcement up soon to share with any Canadian friends you may have who might be in BC. It turns out that herbal vinegars can be sold at craft fairs without a temporary permit. I am creating labels to sell my daughter's Prickly Lettuce ACV tincture as a herbal vinegar, and have put an "info card" up on my site that is only accessible via the QR code on the label. In person, I'll have the info card printed out and ready to be handed to each person who buys it. Hopefully this helps pay for the table fee, which is quite steep. Thankfully the fair runs for two days, so pray we break even at minimum, maybe pay back more of the trunk costs or even pay it off with extra at maximum.

Echinacea, also known as coneflower, is one of the most commonly used herbal products, valued traditionally for immune system support and relief from respiratory symptoms.[i] Native Americans used echinacea for hundreds of years to treat respiratory infections, colds, coughs, bronchitis and more.[ii] While its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activities are well-known, at our echinacea research database you can learn about 130 diseases that this herbal remedy may benefit. With at least 54 known pharmacological actions, emerging evidence also suggests echinacea has anxiety-relieving and mood-enhancing effects.[iii]
https://www.activistpost.com/2023/04/new-benefit-of-echinacea-discovered.html

Holiday Foods, Day 1, Lettuce! From Caesar salad to the traditional tossed iceburg lettuce salad, lettuce gets used as the basis for many salad options during the holiday season. The precursor to domestic lettuce - Prickly Lettuce, can actually be used in tincture form as a painkiller and has been used to wean people off opiod dependencies although prickly lettuce itself is not addictive. The white sap that springs up when harvesting the thorny plant is a topical aenesthetic that works immediately, making the prickly harvest easier to tolerate. To use Prickly Lettuce in a wild salad, run your thumb up the center spine of each leaf to remove the tiny thorns, then wash and prep as normal. Larger leaves are more bitter than younger leaves and this is true throughout the growing season, however, bitters are known to aid in improving digestion, so we eat the leaves the entire growing season.

This is the last holiday foods post. For those that stuck with me from Day 38 to today, you now have 38 nutritional/medicinal wholefood profiles that you can use year-round. If you aren't sure how to use a given food for a pre-diagnosed condition, your local herbalist or naturopath can be of assistance. If there isn't one in your area, contact me, and after filling out my client intake packet, I can help you with recommendations around using food as medicine in your home. The wholefoods nutritional/medicinal database these profiles were pulled from is available for sale on my website. I'll also be compiling these profiles into a digital and paperback book that you can buy in the New Year. I'll be creating a calendar from these profiles as well, the goal there was to pick my top 12, but I kept annotating more than 12, so we'll see how I fit them into a 12 month calendar. I hope to have that ready for sale shortly after Christmas, before January 1st.

If you want links to any of these items, let me know. Otherwise, have a very merry CHRISTMAS! Merry in old English means "strong/strength". May you exit your holiday festivities healthier than you entered them! :-D