The Lily of the Valley is my favorite flower. This fairy was drawn by my wonderful daughter Madeline Charlotte for me. I will always think of my great grandmother's home on the Chesapeake Bay when I smell Lilies of the Valley.
Four of the Pebbles hiking just as the frozen lake is starting to thaw near Ann Arbor, MI.
A basket of handpicked Lavender from a local magical Lavender U-Pick Farm.
A sparkly winter day where my kids are playing in one of their favorite spots - balancing on logs in our back yard.
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Welcome to Rootfolk Serendipity! My name is Tina Stone and I'm a community herbalist with a passion for education. My family loves creating beautiful, handmade things of many kinds (myself, my husband Daniel, and our eight children) - it is how we celebrate life. I am enthralled and mesmorized with the beauty and wonder of plants and every day I feel richer for integrating teas, green salves, face creams, foot soaks, herbal remedies for aches and pains, beautifully scented cleaners, nourishing herbal foods (think lavender brownies), gardening - the wonder of watching flowers, drawing or crafting around nature discoveries, and hiking our local parks to see native plants in their natural habitat. I've come to see herbalism as more of a rich, healthy way of life instead of just a way to handle ailments. I wildcraft and make many herbal potions in small batches with organic and local ingredients (whenever possible) - and I desire to grow every herb I can in my gardens! I do happily sell some of what I make, but since I really want this knowledge to spread I am totally delighted to educate folks on how to make their own cleaners, remedies, and body care items - so that their home can be a place of safe, natural, healthful provisions - made with love and customized to their specific needs. Herbalism is the medicine of the people so it can be very empowering to learn how affordable and doable it is to make many herbal remedies (a salve is not that hard)! It is my great wish for this knowledge to spread for the sake of caring for our planet, our health, and adding beauty to our worlds. I love nature, books, history, art, creating anything homemade, the power of love, story, truth, faith, hope, reconciliation, education, community, and music. I have especially focused on creative avenues for children's education the past 20 years and it is my great desire for children to have a love of nature and a sense of wonder and magic about the creation around us. Grassroots and organic growth are most important vehicles of change to me, so like Dr. Seuss' Lorax I avoid biggering, organizations, and mass production whenever possible.
More than anything else I also want every child and person to know their value and preciousness as they find their place in the world. My husband and I love working with small groups where we work through sharing our stories and recovering from difficult traumas or events - providing support, community, grace, love, and freedom. Dignity, equality, love, and each of us finding our voice being our utmost desire. (This is not directly related to herbalism, but herbalism can be very supportive in walking through this process). 
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I can't believe this is our backyard when we are just minutes from congested highways and busy Detroit. Grateful. We need some wild spaces.
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Some of the things I most love to make are chai (my elixir of life), tea blends for daily nourishment, relaxing, colds, or tummy aches, salve, luscious FOOD FOR YOUR SKIN creams, poultices, tinctures of MANY kinds, bone broth, curry, kombucha, ginger beer, elderberry syrup, laundry soap, floral skin toner, household cleaner, sugar scrub, nourishing nut butter balls with herbs for stress, and the list goes on with something new with each book I read or course I take. There is such dignity and delight in providing for yourself, your own family, and your community with healthful, handcrafted items. Come chat with me and join me in this journey to incorporate these amazing provisions around us (the plants in our backyards) into our lives with a mix of playfulness and some serious education.
Herbalism is an affordable, sustainable, and wonderful lifestyle - a way to nourish your body and soul. Several generations ago it was common knowledge in many families how to nourish and build up your body's health with local herbs in cooking and homemade medicines as well as home and body care. Families that have strong ethnic and cultural traditions of using herbs will still to this day discuss how to change their diets as the seasons change and what herbs to add in to support different body constitutions and needs ( if you are hot/cold, dry/damp, tense/lax - tissue states). Much herbal knowledge was lost in our culture around the 40s when antibiotics were introduced and we didn't understand how we needed both medical advancement and saving the traditions of millennia - of how to use the plants around us for nourishment and medicine. The herbal resurgence of the past few decades has been a most exciting regeneration of important and treasured ancient knowledge. Modern surgical and pharmaceutical medicine is certainly amazing and has done many things to enhance our health and extend our life and there does not need to be a conflict between a wise use of herbalism for daily health maintenance, colds and flu, natural care of the home and body, and then saving more invasive and pharmaceutical measures for when they are appropriate. There is no need to pick between these therapies as they are both extremely valuable. Herbal medicine has empowered me to take direct responsibility for my own health and make as many choices as I can as far as what I ingest and put on my body myself. I can say that herbalism has enhanced my health immeasurably and I feel the direct results (although many of the benefits accrue over weeks and months and are not instant or drug-like). Time in nature and working with the plants can help us maintain a childlike sense of wonder and awe. It is a joyful therapy for the soul to be submersed in the study of the amazing design of the plants and all their useful properties and actions (many still yet to be discovered). 
Stop and take a moment to notice the little things along your path. They may take your breath away and help you to step back from the stress of the day with new eyes and insights.
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I want the Lavender Honey that that bee is going to make.
Michigan's amazing park systems are a true treasure. We love to hike, explore and key down our stress by some deep breathing and immersion in the woods.
My daughter took this amazing picture of rock and flora working together. Contrasts.
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My Elixir of Life - the ROOT CHAI - with lots of nourishing roots. We try and have this every day we can - especially in the winter and during season changes. We re-use the herbs 3x! Getting all that goodness out of there.
Herbal drinks are endless in their creative possibilities! I cannot remember EVER having a stomach ache that kombucha didn't aid. Also mojitos (virgin or otherwise) are certainly quite an excellent blend of mint, lime, and sometimes raspberries or other fruit too... a family favorite.
Mary Alice's (a wonderful neighbor of ours from when I was growing up) Bulgar Whole Wheat Bread. So yummy. This stuff toasted with butter is about as good as food gets.
I love how in New Orleans they started adding Chicory Root to their coffee during a tight time when their ports were blocked and they still keep Chicory (a local plant) in their coffee blend to this day! Let's try and find local abundant plants to use for food whenever we can! Really cool and DELISH!
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Several years ago my oldest daughter & I completed an AMAZING and rich local herbal intensive course all over southeast MI parks with jim mcdonald, an extremely gifted, creative, and intelligent local herbalist from White Lake. I would highly recommend taking any class you can from him. I have also taken short courses (some virtual, some in person) from Larken Bunce (extremely brilliant), Margi Flint (Reading the Body), 7Song (Herbal First Aid), Rosemary Gladstar (inspiring grandmother of the resurgence of herbalism in our modern culture), and Heather Nic an Fleishdier (a Scottish Herbalist). Western Herbalism is the take on herbalism that I resonate with most, but gathering insights from other traditions throughout the world is also a great confirmation when fabulous similar herbal ideas are confirmed in other cultures' honored herbal practices (like TCM and Ayurveda). I love that midwives in generations past often used only a handful of herbs, but knew them inside and out - enough so they could make a remedy for someone who was ill from what they could gather in that person’s yard. What a lot we can do with just a little bit of solid understanding. Just learning one plant and all its uses can be a positive step towards improving your family's health. Starting with a little bit of knowledge and adding one change to your family can go a long way as a great start to a healing journey. Just adding Nettle infusions to my daily regiment has virtually eliminated my seasonal allergies. One of the biggest mis-steps in learning can be to speed through and not spend the time getting to know one plant at a time (the analogy being that getting to know different plants is like building a relationship with a person) so that you can really learn all the nuances and intricacies of each plant. To be fair, the body of knowledge is so great in herbalism that it would really take decades to build up a really solid body of knowledge - and then there still would be continual learning and discoveries after that (that huge area to explore is what makes this field so fascinating). Just like the midwives who knew 10 herbs inside and out, the knowledge I have has helped me live more thoughtfully and in a more grounded manner with gratitude and connection to the seasons, plants, and the body I have been given.
I'd love to share with you what has benefitted our family and how your journey might be enriched with preserving, valuing, and treasuring this ancient knowledge. You can become a caretaker of this wisdom and pass it on to future generations. Really herbalism is very closely linked to food, ethnicity, culture, tradition, celebrations, ceremony and many of the most magical things that make life worth living - what adds the zest we need to make mundane, daily things beautiful and tasty. 
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Taking time to play! Can you believe this swing we found in the wild made out of a vine? If this is not an encouragement from the Creator to play, rest, and enjoy then I don't know what it is!!!
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Mamas Reimagine the World
Mama Stone Community Herbalist West Bloomfield, MI tinastone(at)fastmail.fm mamasreimagine.org |
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