If you've been following my herbal offerings for even a short time, you know that I'm not about focusing on fear. While some alternative health practitioners rally around toxins and pollutants, I'd rather focus on joy and the things that I do have control over. But unfortunately, environmental contaminants do exist, and we can't simply ignore them away. 

That's why I'm especially grateful to Sarah Sorci for coming on the show. She has taken it on to research important contamination issues for gardeners and foragers, and then shares that information in a way that's based on empowerment rather than fear. (Love that!)

By the end of this episode, here’s just a sprinkling of what you’ll know:

► As a forager, how can you navigate effectively around contamination concerns?

► How can you address it if your garden soil has contaminants?

► How can you navigate conversations with neighbors about using herbicides or pesticides on their property?

► What simple and practical safety tips can you implement today when using your garden hose? (Don’t forget to download your handout from Sarah!)

Here is one of my favorite takeaways from our conversation: 

“We should all have access to being able to harvest clean and safe food and medicine, whether from our gardens or from our local communities. And I wanted to create a location  where gardeners and foragers could find some answers to these [safety] questions in one easy location.”

If you’re not already familiar with Sarah, she is an herbal educator, writer, and the founder of Sweet Flag Herbs. She loves supporting folks who seek meaning, empowerment, and environmental sustainability by connecting with plants.

Through her writing project, A Nourishing Harvest, Sarah explores environmental contamination issues that affect gardeners and foragers, translating scientific data into practical and approachable free articles. She also creates beautiful educational boxes that facilitate ancestral connection by way of the plant world. Sarah has offered hundreds of classes and plant walks throughout Western New York and beyond.

Sarah came to herbalism by way of an Environmental Studies degree, farm work, and offering therapeutic gardening programming. She’s a 2014 graduate of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine's Holistic Herbalism program, and she’s taken clinical herbalism classes with the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine. Sarah is grateful to the unnamed elders, foragers, and tenders who have contributed to our collective herbal knowledge.

Sarah lives and gardens with her partner in Chautauqua County, NY, homeland of the Seneca Nation of Indians (sni.org).

If you’d like to hear more from Sarah, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get easy links for her website and social media. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.

I’m delighted to share our conversation with you today!

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Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.com

For more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!

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On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.

Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.

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Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and teaches many popular online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.