By Lise Wolff Everywhere I walk, violets are blooming. Although I can say they are of the Viola genus, I can’t get much more specific as there are about eighty cultivated and/or wild violet species, with innumerable hybrids. Mostly violets spread by runners, although inconspicuous brown flowers growing at ground level produce tiny black seeds […]
By Lise Wolff Glechoma hederacea (ground ivy or creeping charlie) grows everywhere. Waste places, parks, along walks and in many people’s gardens and lawns. Most everyone ignores it if they’re not outright trying to kill it. As an herbalist, I know that what people need most often grows right under their feet. No need for […]
By Lise Wolff The chill of winter leaves me craving burdock root tea. Perhaps it is the desire to retreat and burrow inward for the season. Or possibly we northern-types are programmed to eat hearty root vegetables to instill strength to get through another long, cold winter. Arcticum lappa is burdock’s botanical name. Arcto is […]
By Lise Wolff With the deep freeze of winter descending upon us, I thought it might be appropriate to encourage you to infuse your life with the deep green of stinging nettles (Urtica dioica). Although its tender young leaves are often eaten as a spring tonic, it would make just as much sense as a […]
By Lise Wolff Using plants for life’s common mishaps is easy. Not only are the plants fairly common, but within a small cluster of plants anyone can cover a tremendous range of real life situations. A naturopath, trying to point out that everything could not be covered with such a small kit, once said, “What […]
By Lise Wolff A few years ago, I read a question & answer column in a health magazine of sorts where a reader asked if the dandelions growing in her backyard were the dandelions sold in commerce. The famous author and M.D., Andrew Weil, seeker of health secrets throughout the world, told her to buy […]
By Lise Wolff Have you ever considered what a miracle your body is? Everyday it works with what it has been given, breaking down, building up, transporting, transforming, synthesizing, momentarily holding onto, expelling and otherwise utilizing what is moving through it at the moment. Of course, during all this cell activity there is waste material. […]
North Country Herbalist Guild creates community, teaches art of herbalism By Patricia Cumbie Co-op Consumer News, May-June 1999, Vol. V, No. 6 The poetic murmur of herbal terms greets the newcomer at recent North Country Herbalist Guild meeting in Minneapolis. Words like “lobelia,” “scullcap,” and remedies like “cayenne salve, bee tincture…” lose their mystery as […]
By Noemi Herrera St. Cloud Times There’s still time for people to attend this weekend’s herbal medicine workshop today and learn about some naturally occurring remedies of nature. The workshop, which resumes at 10 a.m. today, is being conducted by six-year herbalist Lise Wolff. She is teaching people to identify and collect plants that have […]
Interview with Lise Wolff Sprout, Seward Co-op, August/September 2005 Toni: How did you become an herbalist? Lise: I was in New York studying to be a physical therapist and volunteering at a holistic learning center. I came from a pretty “sciencey” family, and for various reasons was convinced natural medicine didn’t work. So I decided […]