62 Elecampane and Mullein: Herbs for Healthy Lungs in the Cold Season
The New England Herbary
As the year sinks halfway into the dark and the cold season approaches, two old cold-season herbs come in from the garden: elecampane and mullein. In this episode, Brenda shares their folklore from Ireland, England and New England, the planets Culpeper gave them, and two simple traditional preparations for the cold months: an Irish mullein milk and candied elecampane root. In this episode: The Scorpio new moon on November 9, and Mercury and Venus both turning direct on November 13 Why Culpeper placed elecampane under Mercury and mullein under Saturn Elecampane as elfwort, the cure in the old...
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61 Samhain: The Ancestors' Table and the Turning of the Celtic Year
The New England Herbary
The morning after Samhain, I sit down at the ancestors' table. This episode explores the old English custom of souling and soul cakes, the Irish and Celtic ways of welcoming the dead home in the dark half of the year, and the two plants that belong at this season's table: the apple, with its hidden star, and mullein, the "hag's taper" once carried as a light for the dead. In this episode Why Samhain was a season, not a single night, and how All Saints' and All Souls' grew from it Souling in Shropshire and Cheshire, and the Antrobus Soulcakers who still perform today Setting a place for the...
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60 Samhain, The Thinning Veil and the Turning of the Celtic New Year
The New England Herbary
As the last golden days of October give way to the dark half of the year, we stand together at the threshold of Samhain, the ancient Celtic new year, when the veil between the worlds grows thin. In this episode, I share the old stories of Samhain from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man, the herbal lore of the apple, and a simple candlelight ritual to close the door on the old year and welcome the new one, gently, in the dark. In this episode: Why the Celtic new year began in the dark, and what that teaches us about beginnings The Hunter’s Moon, Scorpio season, and Mercury...
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59 Rowan and Red Thread: The Celtic Tree of Protection at Samhain
The New England Herbary
In this episode Where we stand on the Wheel of the Year: the week before Samhain, the Hunter’s Moon in Taurus, the Orionid meteor shower, and the start of Scorpio season with Mercury and Venus retrograde Rowan’s many old names, the tiny five-pointed star on every berry, and its place in the Irish ogham How Scottish families used rowan wood and red thread to guard the hearth, the butter churn and the cattle, and the old Scots rhyme that went with it The Irish tale of the Quicken Tree of Dubhros, a rowan that fed, healed and sheltered two lovers on the run A traditional rowan and apple...
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58 Putting the Garden to Bed| Fall Cleanup the Herbalist’s Way
The New England Herbary
As October’s first frosts arrive, the garden is ready to rest. In this episode, Brenda shares the old way of putting the garden to bed: not stripping it bare, but tucking it in. Drawing on wisdom from her friend and longtime gardening teacher Bettylou Sandy, she walks through what to cut back, what to leave standing for the birds and native bees, and how a blanket of fallen leaves feeds the soil all winter. She shares how to plant garlic at the New Moon in Libra, and introduces witch hazel, New England’s native tree that blooms just as everything else lets go. Whether your garden is acres,...
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57 Mabon: The Balance Of Light And Dark, And The Rising Of The Harvest Moon
The New England Herbary
Autumn equinox 2026 arrives September 22 at 8:05 PM Eastern — the exact moment light and dark stand in balance before the Harvest Moon rises full on September 26. This week's episode is a Mabon meditation on the second harvest, the threshold between light and dark, and hawthorn — the old hedgerow guardian of doorways — plus a folk-method walkthrough for a simple hawthorn haw cordial to carry you into the dark half of the year. In this episode: — The exact astronomy of the 2026 autumn equinox and why "equal night" isn't quite exact — Mabon's roots in Welsh myth, the English harvest...
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56 Elderberry Syrup for Cold Season: The Herbal Craft of Putting By
The New England Herbary
Learn how to make elderberry syrup at home with this simple, traditional folk-method recipe — plus what makes elderberry one of autumn's most trusted allies for cold and flu season. This week, we're deep into putting-by season — the quiet, practical work of turning a harvest into medicine that lasts through winter. I walk through the full elderberry syrup process step by step (no fancy equipment, no precise measurements, just the old way of doing it), along with the plant's constituents, energetics, and history — including its old European folklore as a guarded, protective tree, and its...
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55 The Sturgeon Moon and the Second Eclipse: Light at the Full
The New England Herbary
Sturgeon Moon eclipse ritual: a full moon in Virgo, a partial lunar eclipse, and the old grain-harvest folklore that echoes it. This week we hold the second doorway of eclipse season with gratitude, not urgency. "The sky doesn't belong to any one tradition. It just gets read, faithfully, by whoever's standing underneath it." The moon has been swelling since the new dark of the total solar eclipse — and on August 28th, it arrives full, under the shadow of a partial lunar eclipse in Virgo. We trace the Sturgeon Moon back to its true source with the Algonquin peoples of the Great Lakes and Lake...
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54 Virgo Season Herbalism| The Craft of Putting By
The New England Herbary
Virgo season has arrived, and it's time for the craft of putting by. This episode covers calendula's uses in tea, skincare, and a step-by-step calendula-infused almond oil recipe for your fall and winter apothecary. As the sun crosses from Leo into Virgo, the wheel turns from gathering toward keeping. We explore the old mythology behind Virgo — the maiden with the sheaf, her roots in the stories of Demeter and Persephone, and why she and Scorpio are so often called the zodiac's most misunderstood signs — alongside this week's moon phase and what it asks of us as the season shifts. Then we...
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53 Yarrow for Wounds & Boundaries| When the Sun Goes Dark
The New England Herbary
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): the herbalist's wound-herb, a plant of protection and boundaries, its folklore, medicine, and plant spirit — an eclipse-season episode. A grounded look at yarrow's uses for wounds and women's health, its old names and divination lore, and the psychic protection tradition that made it a plant of sacred edges. There is a corner of my Vermont land I did not want you to see — a flooded acre where the black ash are dying and the emerald ash borer has come at last. But standing in that broken ground, calm and unbowed, was yarrow: the herb that has staunched the...
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