The Herbary

The herbary, come and browse our beautiful handmade products, organic skincare, herbal balms, organic teas, tinctures and amazing treatments. We look forward to welcoming you.

We still have some availability at our student clinic. A wonderful opportunity to have a herbal consultation at a reduced price. Come and experience how herbs can help you

Beautiful soaps available at the Herbary today. We are open 10-4pm

Our uplifting tea, a beautiful blend of rosemary, lemon balm, liquorice, pine needles, orange peel and rose. The perfect pick me up. Available at the Herbary today and online at
www.theherbary.org

Lovely new books by herbalist Julie burton-seal & Mathew Seal, packed with information on local herbs and wonderful recipes available at the herbary

Our amazing mushroom mix is now available online and at the herbary, carefully crafted with lions mane, turkey tail and reishi to support you naturally.
www.theherbary.org

Nisha will be doing a talk on herbal medicine for women at the menopause cafe on 3rd August

Our amazing mushroom mix is back in stock, lions mane, turkey tail and reishi. Soon to be available online pop in or phone us on 07548383828 to order. 🍄 🍄‍🟫 🦁

Such a treat to see some century in the woods today, so perfectly beautiful

Heh, another "St. John's Wort interferes with meds, it's dangerous, dangerous I tell you" comment on a simple question about using SJW, in a plant-related forum.

I wrote a rather long answer, and would like to save it for posterior, er, posteriority.

Here it is.

The comment:
"If anyone decides to use SJW internally, be advised that it interacts with MANY different medications, including antidepressants and birth control."

My reply:

this is interesting ...
.. the birth control thing came about in 1997 or 1998, after SJW hit it big in the USA, on a TV program called 20/20 in 1995. The pharmacogiants looked at each other, this is eating into our profits, what to do ...
.. and whammo, in 1998 came BIG BIG headlines, two women in Sweden had taken both the pill and SJW in 1997 and gotten pregnant.

In order to take this seriously, we would also need to know how many women in Sweden had taken the pill and not taken SJW, in 1997, and gotten pregnant. This info never showed up. I later learned that it's around 10 % of all ladies on the pill, because
- if you forget one, the pill won't work for that month,
- if you get diarrhea, the pill won't work for that month,
- and it says right on the package, 99,5 % certain, so every 200th s**g would be a hit anyway.

So the "it interferes with birth control" thing is right out propaganda against SJW. Very well executed, to be sure to be sure, as it's always trotted out whenever somebody talks about taking St. John's wort, but propaganda nonetheless.

The antidepressants now, it won't interfere with their action, but it can (rarely, I think) make side effects worse. Which again is very interesting, as they did research on the efficacy against severe depression in the early 00s. They took SJW vs placebo vs a very well-known antidepressant. The result was, placebo was better than SJW was better than the drug. The headlines screamed from the rooftops "placebo better than SJW", same for the summary, and you had to read the actual paper to get to the fact that ooooo nice, SJW is better than the drug.

My advice if you suffer from depression is,
- take nutrients,
- go out into the woods and meadows regularly (nevermind the weather),
- take herbs which help you get rid of your stresses and stressors,
- get therapy, if you have been abused,
- and take SJW, rather than drugs.

Depression is not a drug deficiency, not a herb deficiency, but it rather too often includes a deficiency in nutrients we need for feel-good hormones. Magnesium, the B:s, D, and less important but still needed, chromium, zinc, C, E, fats, proteins, iron (if you hemoglobin is low), plus a good multivitamin.

🙂

Have a great summer, and do go out into the woods and meadows, preferably every day. It's gorgeous out there.
(Hedges work too, just walk along rows and rows of them, admire them and check what all is growing and moving in there.)

Edit: Serotonin syndrome is a dangerous interaction with SSRI-type depression meds. It hits some, others not. Start slowly, and if there's racing heart, you feel hot, or you get low blood pressure, back off.
Thank you all for pointing this out to me. 😊

Nisha and Becky had a lovely time making tinctures this week. the beautiful borage was donated to us by Sue from the village who found it growing in her tomato patch! The vervain was grown at little world herbs, such a wonderful time for the herb garden 🪴

A fresh bouquet of garden herbs, come and experience the power of fresh herbs, have a nibble and see how many you can identify, a free packet of herbal tea if you can guess them all!

Harvesting rose petals to dry an use in our teas, such a nurturing, comforting flower 🌹 lifts our spirits, relaxes and opens the heart, promoting self-care, we use the apothecary rose but any rose can be used. These beautiful flowers are usually covered with lovely little pollen beetles which are very sadly missing this year

Introducing our chamomile eye gel, soothing, cooling and refreshing available at the Herbary and online at www.theherbary.org

A beautiful evening in the herb garden, listening to bird song and enjoying the herbs 🌿

Our lovely face creams, skin care and teas are now available from our new online shop, to celebrate we are offering 10% off all products during June. We will be adding more of our favourites as well so please let us know if anything is missing. We have had some lovely reviews so please do share. Many thanks Lucy and the herbary team 🍵 🌿 ☀️use code SUMMER 24 for the discount ❤️🌺

Harvesting some lemon balm to dry tonight and use in one of our delicious bespoke teas for a client at the herbary. Did you know you can make your own special herbal blend at the herbary, just pop in, give us a ring or email us

My new favourite herb book. Amazing, you can hear Christopher’s voice talking, packed with information, easy to read and a great herbal resource

We are looking for someone to join our team on Saturdays 10-4pm at the herbary. Ideally a herbal student for dispensing, reception and shop. We are a small, busy clinic, shop and herbal dispensary in Biddenden.

Our teas are made in-house with our wonderful dry herbs. Come and find one to warm you up on this chilly day. They come in 100g packs or a taster 30g

A colourful fan of incense sticks.

We wish this was smellagram, but we guess you’ll just have to come in and choose your favourite fragrance in person! We’re open until 16:00 h today if you’d like to stop by.

A few more new books from our shop shelves.

Come have a browse today and tomorrow from 10 to 13 h, and Thursday to Saturday from 10 to 16 h.

Come in and find that perfect gift for your beloved on Valentine’s Day.

Love body oil, relaxing bath salts and pretty rose quartz heart necklaces 💖

Did you know all our herbal tea blends come in small taster packs? They are £3.50 each, and the perfect way to try them out to see which ones you like.

And if you haven’t made loose tea before, we also sell tea pots and infusers.

Or you could just choose from our convenient range of tea bags from , , , or .

This new book from is now on our shop shelf.

This is a collection of writings on psychedelics, a group of plants that have recently been re-emerging into the eye of science due to their potential therapeutic uses.

Back in stock! Delicious local honey made by bees in Biddenden and High Halden.

Do you know that locally produced honey may help strengthen your immune system and ease symptoms of seasonal allergies?

Come get a jar to sweeten your tea or breakfast.