There is a version of herbalism that looks really pretty on Instagram. Dried flowers in ceramic bowls. Tincture bottles lined up on a sunlit shelf. And listen, I love that aesthetic too.

But that is not what this episode is about.  

Ashley is a clinical herbalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She holds a master's of science in clinical herbalism, and spent eleven years co-running a donation-based yoga studio that wove together yoga, astrology, and herbal medicine under one roof. She also teaches yoga to women in recovery from addiction. She is, in short, someone who walks her talk in every direction.

What Grassroots Herbal Mutual Aid Actually Looks Like

When things started escalating in Minneapolis, Ashley did not rush to act. She took a week and a half to orient, reach out to the right people, and figure out where she could actually fill a gap.

She connected with the North Country Herbalists Guild and partnered with Linda Black Elk, who was already supplying frontline protesters with salves, lung tonics, and nervine support. Rather than duplicate that effort, Ashley focused on something different: getting herbal care kits into the homes of immigrant families who were sheltering in place and not going anywhere.

Every Thursday, volunteers gather at her home to assemble kits. Every Friday, mutual aid contacts pick them up and distribute them. The kits include multilingual handouts, tinctures, glycerites, and nervous system support. Her daughters, ages seven and ten, help sort donations, make labels, and draw pictures on the outside of the boxes going to kids.

The framework she built with the North Country Herbalists Guild has already traveled. When herbalists in Richmond, Virginia reached out asking how to do the same thing, she sent them everything. The mission statement, the handout templates in three languages, all of it. Like mycelium, the information surfaces where it is needed.

The Pause That Makes It All Work

One of the most powerful things Ashley shared is something she learned from The Emerald Podcast. Research shows that in a crisis, people who pause in the first thirty seconds, orient themselves, and connect with nature are far more likely to come through it. Even something as simple as hugging a tree.

Ashley lived that. The pause before the action is what made her mutual aid effort coherent, replicable, and sustainable. It is a lesson worth sitting with.

When Community Herbalism Looks Like a Garden Gathering

Not all community herbalism happens in a crisis. Ashley also hosts small garden gatherings in her backyard in Minneapolis. Women show up, sit together, journal around a plant-inspired question, make something with whatever is blooming that day, and go home with medicine they made themselves.

Lemon balm tincture. Bee balm honey. Flower essences. A closing circle.

It is simple. It is grounding. And it is a reminder that building a herbal community does not always have to look like urgency. Sometimes it looks like two hours in a garden with people you trust.

Taking Care of Yourself While Caring for Others

Ashley also got honest about hitting a wall. At the height of everything, she was consuming so much news that she had a health scare serious enough to stop her in her tracks. She slowed down, told her students the curriculum needed to breathe for a bit, and let herself rest.

Her students, being herbalists, responded with complete understanding.

If you are doing this kind of work right now, or wanting to, this episode is a grounding reminder that your capacity matters. You cannot show up for your community if you are running on empty.

Both are very much needed.

Connect with Ashley

Find her at skyhouseherbs.com. If you are an herbalist wanting to donate to her care kit effort, salves in small tins and one to two ounce bottles of glycerites or tinctures for nervous system and sleep support are most needed right now. Email [email protected] for the drop-off address.

We loved this conversation so much that we are bringing Ashley in as a guest teacher inside the Community Herbalist Certification and Mentorship Program, where she will be teaching on community herbalism and grassroots activism. If you want to learn directly from herbalists who are doing this work in the real world, this is exactly the kind of teaching we bring into the program. Learn more here.