Hannah Schiller of Foliage Botanics on bioregional herbalism, place-based medicine making, the importance of letter writing

The Ground Shots Podcast

Episode #34 of the Ground Shots Podcast features a conversation with Hannah Schiller of Foliage Botanics. Hannah and her herbalism project are based out of the Hudson valley of New York.

Hannah and I met back in 2012 when we both interned at the United Plant Savers' Goldenseal Sanctuary in Rutland, Ohio. Since then, we lived a summer together in North Carolina and have involved ourselves in the same communities on the east coast. We have written letters to one another over the years as I have been on the road and Hannah semi-nomadic for awhile, finally landing in New York.

Hannah Smith Schiller is an herbalist, botanist, and all-around plant enthusiast who runs Foliage Botanics, a small herbal business in the Hudson valley of New York. Her work is a confluence of all the passions and pieces in her background—agriculture, art, clinical herbalism, land stewardship, social justice. She offers herbal products, health consultations, a seasonal apothecary-land share, and teaches classes. Each month Hannah leads a by donation plant walk at varying locations around the valley where she lives focused on botany, plant identification, and ecological appreciation. At the heart of her work is this element of education, hoping to empower others to take back their health and their food and engage more deeply with the plant world, and to provide a variety of opportunities for people to bring plant medicine and wild foods into their lives. She is a cheerleader for bioregionalism, making our communities more localized and self-reliant, breaking down capitalist approaches to ancient knowledge, and shifting our cultural mentality from endless growth to minimalist, place-based, seasonal living.

In this conversation with Hannah, we talk about:

Hannah's letter writing project – The Bones We Keep, and the importance of letter writing

Hannah's quarterly seasonal bioregional herbal packages : A Wild and Common Place

the importance of bioregional herbalism

how bioregional herbalism gives us a perspective on the limits of a place

Hannah's journey studying plants and herbal medicine

some interesting ecological information about Black Birch

Links:

Hannah’s website: Foliage Botanics

The United Plant Savers

A beautiful video capturing Hannah and her work: https://youtu.be/gIzB-fw5I10

blog page for this episode: http://www.ofsedgeandsalt.com/ground-shots-podcast/hannahschiller

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Theme music: 'Sweat and Splinters' by Mother Marrow

Interstitial Music: ‘Lady Death Anthem’ by Damiyana

Hosted by: Kelly Moody

Produced by: Kelly Moody and Opia Creative