In 2025 I’m becoming more organised and writing two articles a month for the Herbal Reality website. I focus on short research bulletins – research seeds. You can read about the latest research for plants like thyme, pomegranate, cinnamon, saffron, shatavari and many others on the site.
Had a lovely conversation with Robin Harford for his Eat Weeds podcast which you can hear via this link. https://eatweeds.transistor.fm/53. We strolled around the gardens where I work at Ham House in Bristol and chatted about herbal tea, the ginkgo tree there, linden and anything else we could find. This was in November 2024.
Very excited that my mini-herbal tea blending course is now launched on the Health and Wellbeing Trust website. I’ve chosen to support this charity as some of the revenue goes to helping people access complementary medicine therapies and services. There is an hour of instruction and plenty to download to get you up and running. The course costs £25.
Read about my recent herbal tea blending workshop at Kingshill House in Dursley. If you and a small group of friends would like a workshop, drop me a line. Group sizes between 5 and 12 work well.
The Power of Plants Festival in Stroud organised by the National Institute of Medical Herbalists was fantastic. I did a workshop on how to create herbal teas. Read more here!
Food Matters Live podcast on ingredients for longevity was shared May 2024. This was a panel discussion.
I was a speaker at Vitafoods 2024 in Geneva on “botanicals for mood and cognitive health”. I talked through the latest science and which herbs are used to support cognition, mood and sleep. The areas to watch include the importance of scent and aromas, menopause, and of course the microbiome.
Excited to talk about Curiosity at the Stroud Business Women’s Network monthly meeting. What a supportive audience and full of amazing ideas to help me grow. Thank you. (Photo by Debi O’Brien, SBWN).
Contributor to Soil Association webinar, April 2024. This explored “what is good for the soil might be good for you” and brought together agriculture and food specialists to discuss the importance of the soil for our food and our existence. I talked about the organic herbs and how science shows that some have higher levels of phytochemicals and nutrients in them. We also discussed the need for more collaborative conversations like this.
In February I published an article on herbal research for Herbal Reality – the awesome website packed with information about herbs. You can read it here: https://www.herbalreality.com/herbalism/herbal-research/how-can-we-reap-the-health-benefits-of-herbs-lets-talk-about-research/
Panelist at Food Matters Live, October 2023 https://foodmatterslive.com/person/vivien-rolfe/