CULTURE
Meet the Pollinate Herbalist
Lindsey Coyne
The power of nature is central to the soul work we do at Pollinate Ritual. We access this power through multiple channels, one of them being with our resident Herbalist Lindsey Coyne. Lindsey will be bringing her knowledge and skills to our retreats, writing a bit for the magazine, leading foraging hikes throughout the year, and developing some amazing teas, tinctures, ritual oils and other surprises for us. Lindsey sat down with us to talk a little bit about her practice and relationship to plants.
WHAT IS YOUR FIRST MEMORY OF WORKING WITH PLANTS?
One early memory that sticks out for me is of a beautiful stand of jewelweed near the spring we collected our water from. I was drawn to this plant by its unique pitcher-shaped flowers of yellow and orange. The common name, jewelweed, comes from the way it collects the morning dew on the tips of its leaves smooth teeth, creating tiny “jewels” that sparkle in the sun. Jewelweed grows in moist areas and it can often be found near plants that contain urushiol, such as poison ivy and nettles. Plants containing urushiol cause a fiery rash on many people. Jewelweed is known for its ability to combat the itch and burn of rashes caused by urushiol. My family’s days were spent walking all over 600 acres of the farm on which we lived and worked so we had a lot of uncomfortable meetings with plants containing urushiol and often suffered for days with itchy rashes. During this time I usually carried my field guide to edible and medicinal plants with me everywhere. This was before I’d had any formal training in working with plants. I looked up this jeweled plant and found that it could be used for such skin irritations so I gathered up a bundle that I could barely wrap my arms around and took it to my kitchen. I chopped it up and threw it in a pot, covering it with coconut oil. I took a large wooden ladle and smashed the plants into the oil, creating a vibrant green liquid that slowly heated on our stove. When the process had extracted the plant’s healing oils, I removed the plant matter and added a little beeswax to help stiffen the oil into a salve. My husband had been clearing fencerows which is a fancy way of saying he was using a chainsaw to remove invasive plants that were compromising the fences, most of which had poison ivy entangled with them. Needless to say, when you hit vines of poison ivy with a chainsaw, you are sprayed with that nasty urushiol and subsequently covered in a rash from head to toe. He was the first to use our new medicine and he was finally free of the discomfort that he had been
experiencing for years, before I came along.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO PLANTS, HOW DO YOU COLLABORATE WITH THEM?
It is the case that when you surround yourself with nature and have limited interaction with humans, you begin to develop connections to all the living things. Not only had I moved to a farm, but I was the mother of a toddler and these incredibly isolating factors brought me into a world of wonder, that allowed me to find comfort in my natural surroundings. I’d been a hiker, camper, traveller all my life but I always did these activities with other people. Then, it was just me and a tiny human who was seeing things through fresh eyes. I let myself see as he did, touch, smell, taste, listen, it was like I was learning about the world all over again and this time my teachers were the
plants and animals we lived with. I foraged many of the plants in our area and fed our family a more diverse assortment of plants than had ever been available to me before. This new way of life allowed me to live in harmony with the seasons. The plants have become my friends, with whom I work everyday. Plants are life giving, I admire the power of plants to heal our cells and the power to kill us. I know the plants I use well enough now to stand in front of my collection and ask my body what it needs today, then grab whatever comes to me. Plants have taught me to trust my intuition.
WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH TO HEALING?
I am a holistic herbalist, which means that I prefer to treat the whole person rather than treating a single symptom. Good health is not simply managing or covering up symptoms, it is a combination of nourishing food, manageable stress, abundant movement and restorative sleep. There are many herbs that can help us achieve all four of these pillars of good health. When working with clients, I like to establish the area they feel they need the most support and go from there.
I believe that the actual healing rests with the individual and not me. I am an expert on plants and “You” are the expert on your body. Working together we can find ways that you can heal yourself, but I am not responsible for that healing. Just like it is your choice to take a pill from the doctor, eat a salad or a cake, go for a run or watch tv, it is your responsibility to decide how herbs can be integrated into your life and routine. Once you determine what you are willing to do, I can make suggestions on herbs that could benefit whatever aspect of your health you are trying to improve.
I am a student of knowledge and practices that have been passed down through generations and across cultures. I marry this with the current and evolving data on nutrition to help people to assist people in their healing journeys.
DO YOU HAVE A CURRENT PLANT YOU ARE PARTICULARLY INFATUATED WITH AT THE MOMENT?
Lately, I have been using yarrow daily. In Greek mythology, it is said that when Achilles was born, his mother dipped him in yarrow tea, holding him by the ankle. When he died, as the hero of the Trojan war, it was a wound on the ankle that took his life, the only place the yarrow bath had not touched. This led to the Greek name for yarrow, Achillea millefolium. Throughout the Trojan war, and wars to come, yarrow was used to stop bleeding from the wounds of soldiers.
Yarrow demonstrates the ability of plants to change actions based on what a particular person’s body needs from the plant. In this way it is able to regulate blood flow, whether it be to encourage blood flow or reduce blood loss. I am using yarrow in a different way, as an emotional armor. The ability of this plant to regulate blood pressure in turn helps us to regulate our emotions. My teachers often recommend drinking yarrow tea if you feel as though you have been engaged in battle, even if the battle was just a tough exchange of words with family or coworkers.
After almost an entire year of isolation with my son, there are few days when we don’t ruffle each others feathers a bit. I find that having a cup of yarrow tea in the early afternoon helps me put aside any confrontations of the morning and protects me from any blow ups later in the day. It has a wonderful aromatic, floral flavor that is mild and only slightly bitter.
IF YOU COULD ONLY HAVE 5 PLANTS TO GROW OR FORAGE WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
Ginger — I use ginger tea every day to warm me from the inside during the winter. It is an important member of my medicine cabinet and the first thing I reach for when I have an upset stomach. It’s also just so delicious, I add fresh ginger to so many meals in the winter. It helps soothe a sore throat and breaks up mucus so it can be more easily expelled.
Dandelion — this one is special because I can use roots, leaves and flowers, all for different ailments! I make a dandelion root tea to strengthen and detoxify the liver. The leaves are mineral rich, nutritive and diuretic, helping the body clear out stagnation.
The flowers are mood elevators and a tincture or oil infused with dandelion flowers can help us get through the winter months as they contain the bright energy from the sun. Dandelion flower is a particular ally in healing wounds and scars that have trauma associated with them.
Plantain — best known for it’s skin healing abilities, plantain offers much more than just external relief. It is vulnerary, accelerating cell proliferation and speeding the healing of wounds. Cuts, stings, bites, scrapes, rashes, and allergic skin reactions can all be healed much more rapidly when plantain is applied. When this prolific plant is brewed as tea, it has moistening and soothing effects on the digestive system while carrying the ability to
break down biofilms that can impair the body’s ability to function properly.
Oatstraw/milky oats — oats soothe, calm and rebuild the nervous and digestive systems. This is my favorite herb when I am overwhelmed, as it relieves stress and promotes relaxation. Oats are extremely nutritive and a daily strong infusion of oats provides the body with B-complex vitamins, plus oat straw tea is high in minerals like calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and selenium. It also contains amino acids, such as tryptophan, lysine, leucine and arginine. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, helping to build and preserve muscle, support healthy energy levels and regulate your metabolism.
Garlic — the ultimate antimicrobial, garlic affects bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. While garlic’s constituents are carried throughout the body, they exit via the respiratory pathway of elimination. There, they directly destroy fungi and bacteria while stimulating a mucosal immune response against viruses. This makes garlic a remedy specific to microbial infections of the lungs. Garlic is a vital plant for managing infections throughout the respiratory tract, including cold, flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis, strep throat, and sinus infections. Ear infections can also be managed with topical
applications of garlic in oil and as a chronic sufferer of earaches i often use this application. At first sign of illness I grab a few cloves of garlic, mince them and cover them with raw, local honey which I take by the spoonful each time I enter my kitchen until the illness is gone.
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL SOMEONE INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH PLANTS IS THE GOLDEN RULE OF THE WORK?
Learn about each plant slowly and in depth. Many herbalist prefer to work with one new herb a month or even one per year. A single herb can act upon multiple body systems and it could take quite a bit of time to be able to apply an herb to each of its affinities. You should never recommend an herb to someone else that you have not used on yourself.
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON IN YOUR KITCHEN AS OF LATE?
I always have a bunch of things brewing. I started using a blend of roots as a liver cleanse which had a very bitter taste until my teacher suggested adding cocoa powder, coconut milk and a dab of honey. Now my liver cleanse is a special treat I look forward to each day! I’ve been dabbling in herbal kombucha the last few weeks, which is kind of like taking care of a plant or pet.
I always have herbs infusing in honey, oils, vinegars and alcohol, which have to be turned daily and eventually strained. I am formulating some tea blends for some common complaints. New tea blends will include a restful blend, digestive blend, cold/flu blend, and a very special anti-inflammatory roots and bark chai blend. All this is in addition to working with Kathryn at Pollinate to develop some potent medicines that are in line with our spring theme of Mend, which we are so excited to bring to you all in April 2021!
You can contact Lindsey for one-on-one consultations here: https://pollinateritual.com/pollinators-1
©Pollinate Ritual 2021
