SugarPill

I don't post here very much anymore, but wanted to share this with you in case you don't follow SugarPill elsewhere or have had a chance to come visit me up here on Whidbey Island.
✨
This is my gal CJ.
The very most important person in my life.
Probably you've noticed that I have been gone a bit from the shop lately, and that our hours have been a little wonky. (BTW, I won't be in until 1pm today, Thursday 5/16) Probably you've noticed, if you know her from visiting Saltwater in Langley, that she hasn't been behind the bar lately.
CJ was diagnosed with breast cancer.
We've been deep in the eye of the kind of storm that a sudden f**ks**tstack of terrifying news brings, and I know that many of you reading this are all too familiar with that experience. It's already been a full time job navigating the health care system, and the road ahead for CJ is long and daunting - but thankfully we have been assured that there is reason to expect that she is going to be ok, and that her disease, while it sucks in every conceivable way, is manageable.
This is a link to a GoFundMe that I just created for CJ, and there is a lot more information there about what is happening. If you are able to help her financially, that would be amazing, as SugarPill is a sturdy little business but I will be wholly unable to support us both and cover the mountains of medical expenses she is about to incur. I will be setting up a Caring Bridge page for those of you who would like to stay in touch about her progress and other ways to support us as her treatment begins. She is also sharing the more personal - and often very entertaining - aspects of her journey on her own social media if you know her and care to follow along.
I really appreciate all of the love and support that so many of you have already showered up on us, and the patience that you have had with my absences from the shop. We are both really lucky to have so much love and beauty in this world, and are aiming ourselves at the future when this particular storm has passed and we can breathe a little more easily again.
xok

Donate to CJ is gonna kick cancer's ass. Can you help?, organized by Karyn Schwartz There are people in this world who are powerful because they set out to ha… Karyn Schwartz needs your support for CJ is gonna kick cancer's ass. Can you help?

I don't use Facebook almost ever anymore, but I DID want you to be able to access my latest newsletter, if you have not already received it, and to invite you to subscribe to it (they don't come very often - don't worry!) if you would like to receive news, details about upcoming events and also occasional special offers like the one in this edition! You can sign up for future mailings at www.sugarpillseattle.com

https://mailchi.mp/0595522c23bb/holidays-at-sugarpill

For many many years, SugarPill has been honored to bring you the magic of beekeeper, poet, teacher, activist, father, friend, and all around amazing human Bob Redmond in the form of the very best local honey that he both helped to produce and taught others to do the same. First as Urban Bee and then as Survivor Bee, Bob has worked tirelessly to create a world in which bees could thrive, humans could benefit from their alchemical transmutation of pollen to sweetness, and that there could be more understanding, appreciation for and preservation of our fragile ecosystem. I am very sad to tell you that after living for many years with cancer, Bob will be making his own transition soon, and the world will be a less sweet place to be without him. I hope you will join me in supporting his family through this time, and to help give him the easiest transition possible, and not leave his family with an excessive financial burden as a result.

Supporting the Redmond Baranski Family, organized by Margo Williams As you may know, Bob was diagnosed with Stage 4 (metastatic) cancer in May of 2… Margo Williams needs your support for Supporting the Redmond Baranski Family

Finally got my phone number back, and you can call OR text now.
206.322.7455(PILL)
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Not mentioned but definitely the heart of the botanical world of magic in Langley is my AMAZING neighbor across the street, Flying Bear Farm. Flower Medicine at it's best https://instagram.com/flyingbearfarm?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

The business of herbal healing | Whidbey News-Times South Whidbey resident Karyn Schwartz owns SugarPill, where she formulated custom herbal medicine.

I know I haven't been present on this particular platform much... It's been a very busy and lovely summer so far, getting used to being at the new shop! Hope you can come visit soon. You'll find us on 1st Street in Langley, every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays, across the street from the sweetest flower-lined alley 🌸

Hello Langley ✨

After 13 years of kicking and screaming, I finally agreed to let someone make a functional website for SugarPill 😮 Visit sugarpillseattle.com and sign up for our mailing list if you would like to stay in touch!

This is our very last weekend here in the Gayborhood! I hope we have prepared you well for our relocation this summer to Langley on Whidbey Island!
We're open Saturday from 11-6 and Sunday 11-4ish, and almost everything that's left in the shop is 50-75% off. Hope to see you - and if you can't come by this weekend, stay tuned, because we have some surprises coming up...💖

I realize that this has been the longest goodbye ever, but time is funny, how it can go so excruciatingly slow and then all of a sudden things happen in an eyeblink. March 31st - only 4 weeks from today - will be our last regular day of business here on Pine Street - and we're gonna have a little party that night to celebrate! Details to follow - and also a huge blowout sale of merchandise and furnishings to follow as well, from April 1-9. I'll keep you posted about all of that - but meanwhile here's a few other things to know:
1. For those of you who haven't already heard, we are NOT closing, but we ARE moving! We will be reopening later this spring in Langley up on Whidbey Island!
2. We ship. Always have. Still don't have a website. Might some day.... But all you have to do is call, email or message us and we can send you anything you want or need - and we might even deliver it to you in the city personally...
3. However, there's gonna be a stretch of time between the start of April and at least the end of May where we will not have the ability to do anything except pack and move and unpack - so if you rely on us for anything at all, you are going to want to stock up soon - especially if you are a regular mail-order customer.
4. I'm not going to be doing very much more ordering between now and the move - so come in sooner rather than later to pick up anything you might want or need from us before we run out!
5. The past few months have been incredibly sweet here, even though also really hard, especially for me. Leaving this community and leaving this city, my home for 34 years, is as heartbreaking as it is exciting - and I really appreciate having had this time to say goodbye to so many of you in person. I hope to see as many of you as possible in this next little stretch of time, and also just want to say - Langley is the BEST day trip from the city you can imagine, and I cannot wait to be your destination there!
6. I will for sure be in the shop every Thursday through Sunday this month; probably more. Julia will be with you Monday through Wednesday. Fern's about to have their baby, so keep them in your thoughts💖
XOKaryn

This is gonna be a long one, so I'll start by saying that we are closing early today, at 5, so I can spend a little time with this miraculous person who I will not see again until after they have their baby!!! But YOU will have almost all of next week - Monday through Thursday - to come by one last time and say thank you to Fern for all that they have given you over the years.
Ten, I think, is how many we have been lucky enough to have them here, sharing their magic and expertise and care.
There's really no way that I can express what it has meant to me that Fern has returned to SugarPill in between all of the other endeavors and adventures they have embarked on over this past decade. They have allowed me to witness so much of their evolution as an herbalist, far surpassing my own knowledge in so many ways, and challenging me to grow in this work even as they looked to me for guidance along the way.
I think that one of the things I will always be proudest of about "owning" this business, is that it has never just been me determining what it has become, and it would not even still exist without Fern.
I could never have done this without you.
I owe you the world.
xok

Amazing opportunity for immersive herbal studies in the PNW✨🌲

The Arctos School's Herbal Immersion Program — The Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies The Herbal Immersion Program is an invitation to those who want to steep themselves in the magic and medicine of plants and place. The course provides a thorough foundation in herbal materia medica, botanical identification, plant energetics, and medicine-making in a participatory, engaging setting.

I've seen a lot of other people post about this so I know I'm not the only one, but this period between the Holidays and the New Year always feels like a liminal space in time to me. It's as if the world stops moving for a little while and everything grows quiet.

I believe it's genuinely difficult for us as humans, particularly in today's society, to give ourselves permission to slow down and accept this time of quiet. I know that for myself I often find it difficult to give myself that permission. I always find myself struggling with guilt during this time; guilt for not doing more, for taking the time to relax, for not being in a state of constant readiness. It's ironic to me that we spend so much of Summer looking forward to this time, and yet when this time comes we find it so hard to just embrace it.

That's why it's important to be mindful and not place constant pressure on ourselves. Even today I caught myself thinking; "I should have done more this past week. Why do I keep putting important things off?" And yet this is the first time in years that I've allowed myself to really relax during the holidays, to take the time to carefully select meaningful gifts for those around me. To just BE.

I recently saw a post where someone said that this is the time of year when everyone is the laziest, when everyone is the most complacent, when the least is achieved. I genuinely believe that this is a toxic mentality. This is the mentality that prevents us from ever truly taking the time to love ourselves and love our lives. Life isn't about constant achievement, it's about taking satisfaction in each accomplishment and sometimes it’s about allowing ourselves to rest.

Animals understand that there's a time of year to hibernate, to regain strength and wait out the winter months. As always, there are lessons to be gained from the natural world around us that we often lose sight of.

FULL MOON * BIG NEWS
I wasn't sure exactly when to make this announcement but somehow, this moment of the full moon on the eve of the 12th anniversary of signing my lease here at SugarPill seemed like the right time to tell you that WE WILL BE MOVING! Not immediately - probably sometime in the spring, and certainly not before our anniversary of opening the shop in February - but in the forseeable future - and word has started getting out, so I wanted you to hear it from me. There's a lot of reasons why I will be leaving this perfect little jewelbox space on Pine Street, and believe me, I am just as heartbroken as I am excited for a new adventure. I've been in the gayborhood since 1989 and I have known some of you for just that long, while others of you are new acquaintances, and it's going to be SO HARD to let go of that familiarity. BUT - rest assured - SugarPill is not closing! She will be coming with me to Whidbey Island and yessss I will finally put a website up someday and anyway it's not happening until some time from now but I know a lot of you only come in during the holidays and I wanted to give you a heads up so you make sure to stop by this holiday season!! More to come, but for now, just know, I am so so grateful for all of you and all of the love you have shown this tiny little shop for all these years. I'm still gonna be doing what I do, and I'll do everything I can to make the transition as easy as possible for you as well as for me. And I'm totally gonna cry every time I see you between now and when we pack these shelves up to move, so prepare yourself to see me be an absolute wreck for the next few months. Love you 💖~ karyn

Free, timely course for herbal practitioners, given the respiratory tripledemic situation happening right now. Also, can everyone please be more careful and at the very least, wear a mask out in public? ERs and hospitals in general are overwhelmed again, and the season is just starting.

Influenza-pathophysiology-and-natural-therapeutics-digital-download Description This course is consists of 3 hours of in-depth audio lecture, with PDF files of the lecture notes, powerpoint, and supplemental readings is included. This is entry-level to intermediate and requires no previous training in herbalism or nutrition. Lifestyle, nutritional and traditional h...

What better time to talk about my gratitude for Fern - and to offer an opportunity for you to share your own for this magical being who has been with me at SugarPill for nearly a decade now!
It's not at all an overstatement to say that this shop would never have made it this far without Fern. They are indispensable. Irreplaceable. Ingenious. They are as humble in their work as they are brilliant, and as generous with their knowledge as they are tirelessly in pursuit of even deeper understanding. We have all been so lucky to have them here for all these years, and none more lucky than me.
And now, FERN IS HAVING A BABY!! Among many big changes on the horizon for SugarPill, we will be missing Fern - at least for a while - when their little little arrives in a few months.
Pictured here are some items that Fern has requested in preparation for birth from the shop, and posted in our bio is also a link to some other necessities for post-partum care.
If you would like a tangible way to say Thank You to Fern for all the times they've been here for you, please consider gifting any of these items either here in the shop, or on-line at their registry. We'll keep a collection here of the things we can provide and send them home with Fern for the holidays, so feel free to purchase them when you visit us next, or call the shop and we can make it happen over the phone.
Let's make sure they have EVERYTHING they need! Thank you in advance - and THANK YOU FERN for everything you have done for all of us!❤️

I just got back from a trip to see my mom for the first time since before COVID. Everywhere I went, from the airport to the skilled nursing facility where my stepdad is currently in rehab, I was nearly the only person wearing a mask. I sat on an airplane surrounded by people who were coughing and sneezing and not even covering their faces with a hand or an elbow. It's truly as though we've learned nothing - or perhaps just do not care about whether or not we might be putting someone else's life at risk.
As a destination for so many of you when you have a health concern, we have tried to keep the shop a safe place for any and everyone to visit - even when it has cost us business. With cold & flu season and now RSV and STILL COVID going around, I'm asking of all of you to please take better precautions when you are out and about in the world. We still recommend wearing a mask here to protect our community (and require masks on Mondays) and I know I was a little lax myself during the warmer months when we always have the door wide open - but I am back to wearing mine nearly always when I am out in public just as much to protect you as to protect myself and my family. And I would hope you would do the same - ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE SICK. It's really not ok to come here - or really to go anywhere - if you are coughing and sneezing without at least a mask on. We cannot help you if we end up with what you came in here with - so please be more mindful of those you come into contact with when you are not feeling well - and also aware that every reinfection you suffer from COVID does place you more at risk for long term, serious health problems. I know this study is flawed for the limited population it looked at, but everything I am reading suggests similar risks, and we really should all be taking this much more seriously:

Repeat COVID is riskier than first infection, study finds The risk of death, hospitalization and serious health issues from COVID-19 jumps significantly with reinfection compared with a first bout with the virus, regardless of vaccination status, a study published on Thursday suggests.

🌟PATTY MURRAY 🌟
As a small business owner, I've had the opportunity to meet so many of our elected officials, and our Senator Patty Murray is one who I can unequivocally tell you really cares about the things I know you care about AND who tirelessly fights for those things on all of our behalf. I've had the great privilege to meet with Patty a number of times over the years, and have been genuinely moved by her concern for and work on behalf of reproductive rights, LGTBQ+ equality and so many other issues. We cannot lose her. If you do nothing else today, get your ballot in and make sure your friends and loved ones do the same. The 5 minutes it takes to do the simple but increasingly profound act of voting is truly the very least any of us can do right now to safeguard the fragile hold we still have on being a democracy, on being a state where people who can become pregnant maintain the right to determine their own lives, where qu**rs have a voice in national conversations and so much more.
🌟VOTE🌟

Please Vote. So much is at stake, and it matters. And really, to choose not to vote in this election means you are quite fine with half the people in this country, possibly including yourself, being denied bodily autonomy. It means you are quite fine with your q***r loved ones, perhaps even yourself, being targeted with violence and discrimination. It means that you are quite happy with racism and white supremacy. It means you truly can't be bothered to do even the simplest thing to stand in the way of overt fascism. It means you cannot bear to lose your own sense of righteousness even though it might cost other people their actual lives.
Don't be that person. Just vote, and vote blue, no matter how inadequate you feel the options might be. And they get on with the work of creating better options, because that's how democracy works.

Support the Pickett Family, organized by Acacia Salisbury On October 19th, 2022 D’Vonne Pickett Jr was tragically murdered. A father, husband, son,… Acacia Salisbury needs your support for Support the Pickett Family

Hi! Just an occasional reminder that I rarely use or even look at Facebook, which is why you don't see much from SugarPill here anymore. BUT I DO regularly share things on Instagram and you should definitely find us there because there's a lot going on at the shop these days and that's where you will be able to find out what's new! 🌸

Thread by @1goodtern on Thread Reader App : Ten things twitter folks know about Covid that people on the streets don't. 1 Covid isn't over 2 There's no such thing as herd immunity 3 Covid is hospitalising thousands each week 4 Covid harms kids...…

The Pandemic’s Legacy Is Already Clear All of this will happen again.

Migration Alert! It's going to be massive this weekend, with an estimated 316 million to 400+ million migrating birds on the wing each night, according to BirdCast. Warmer colors on the map show where migration will be most intense. This should make for great birdwatching—and it's also a good time to turn off nonessential indoor and outdoor lights to avoid disorienting birds. Sadly, light pollution and unsafe windows contribute to the hundreds of millions of birds estimated to die in building collisions in the U.S. every year. Learn more about our Lights Out project and other ways to help keep birds safe here: http://bit.ly/LightsOutForBirds

High blood pressure - it's a symptom, not a disease.
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These days, the most common cause for high blood pressure is metabolic syndrome (hyperinsulinemia, too much insulin in the blood).

This is caused by eating too much simple carbs for too long -> too much insulin -> too little growth hormone -> too much IGF1 (insulin growth factor 1) -> the muscles don't grow, the bones won't regenerate, the fat cells won't accept triglycerides etc.
The only tissue that isn't affected by too much insulin is the skin.

All of those building materials for various cells end up floating in the blood. It's simply too much, so the kidneys compensate by keeping water in. Diuretics won't help.

What to do:
* Ditch the simple carbs. Eat real food (lots of veggies, with suitable amounts of fats and proteins).
* Take missing nutrients (magnesium, chromium, zinc, B, C, D, E, fish oil, protein, fats, iron (if the hemoglobin is low), along with a good multivitamin, to catch all the various co-factors.
* Exercise (to a sweat each day, no need for hours-long marathons).

Do all three at once; your metabolic disease will clear up within days.

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The second most common cause for high blood pressure is a food allergy or sensitivity. You eat something you react to, all the time, you get interesting problems. Including hemorrhoids with varicosities in the back of your left leg.

Your blood is overloaded, because the liver can't handle all the gunk coming from the digestion. The kidneys compensate by keeping water in, so diuretics won't work.

Look in the mirror and ask yourself what food you can't live without, then live without, totally and completely.

Or try to figure out which of the most common food allergies has hit you personally (lactose / dairy / gluten / corn), and remove them completely from your diet.

You can react to other food groups too. You usually know which food causes gut pain, pimples, migraines, diarrhoea, constipation etc. (Food allergies are hereditary, to a degree. If most of your family suffers from problems with dairy, and you think you don't, try to do without (completely! no "sq**rt of milk in my morning coffee" or similar). Quite a few of your small inconveniences might just clear up.)

Removing the offending foods usually clears up this type of high blood pressure.

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Other causes include:

Your blood vessels aren't as elastic as they used to be. Eat 100 grammes (4 oz) of berries every day. Don't add sugar.

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If your liver is overworked, it will send metabolic waste on another round through the veins. The blood gets overloaded, the kidneys compensate by keeping water in. Diuretics won't work.
Help the liver by taking yellow dock root or barberry root, or similar.

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If the kidneys aren't up to par, diuretics might work. Help the kidneys by taking goldenrod or corn silk tea, and/or by taking nettle seed or milk thistle seed.

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If the heart is tired, diuretics probably work.
Eat lots of local berries (don't add sugar!), eat fatty fish regularly and take hawthorn and/or garlic.

Also take vitamin C, 4 x 2 grammes a day.

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Stress will raise your blood pressure. For this, I recommend motherwort (it lets you relax about life's minor setbacks), cinquefoils (you stop worrying about what others think, stop trying to please everybody) and various relaxing herbs, like lemon balm, lavender, rose and chamomile.

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So remove the cause. Taking out the symptom without also removing the cause will have the problem pop up elsewhere, as a different symptom.

(Photo: Chocolate haw, Crataegus erythropoda.)

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Henriette
Feel free to share!
Henriette's herbal: http://www.henriettes-herb.com/

The book "Practical herb cards" (with cardboard cards # 1-52 bound into a book with more photos and text and a cardboard box):
http://www.henriettes-herb.com/articles/herbcards.html
"Practical herb cards 2" (with cardboard cards #53-104 and a do-it-yourself cardboard box):
http://www.henriettes-herb.com/articles/herbcards2.html

Two exquisite practical herb books:
http://www.henriettes-herb.com/articles/pract-herbs.html
http://www.henriettes-herb.com/articles/pract-herbs2.html

The same text in Finnish:
https://www.facebook.com/henriette.kress/posts/pfbid04gQLDG5fxZM8KU61uMitWw9euC2GMTdz4tC6RQG7Z8NMLnKK9fgFgm4E1JAL57dZl

Hooray for rain! See you at 11.

Good morning! We will be CLOSED today, partly due to the heat and also to attend to a pile of late summer chores that cannot be put off any longer. It's been super slow here this week, so I figured you wouldn't miss me - and I will be back regular hours tomorrow and through the weekend. Stay cool out there. 🌡️🌾🌻

I had the incredible pleasure of meeting Judith Arcana, one of the members of the Jane Collective, at a screening of the new documentary about them. I REALLY encourage you to find a way to see it.
It's an amazing and, unfortunately, timely story - and also a triumph of documentary filmmaking.
Earlier in the day, I spent some time with a couple of fantastic young women in their early 20s, who are - like I was at their age - determined to know everything they can possibly learn about their bodies, about reproductive self-determination and about how to help find solutions for people dealing with pregnancies they do not want to carry to term.
In the evening, I got to talk to Judith about what it was like, 50 years ago, when she had the same concerns, at a very different moment in history, and what stories she has carried with her ever since.
I don't think it's an overreach to say that reproductive justice connects just about every important issue of our lives, and that to base the future of democracy unapologetically in the fight for bodily self-determination for ALL is perhaps the only way that we are going to be able to build a broad enough coalition of people in this country to defeat the ultra-right wing that has USED abortion for 5 decades now as a way to amass power despite not giving a s**t about anything having to do with "life".
Anything and everything you can do in whatever medium you work best in is going to be necessary to reframe this fight, and move forward into a future where nobody has to be afraid of living in their own body.
The Janes is the story of a group of women who did what they could do, at a moment when it was absolutely necessary and seemingly impossible. They did not think of themselves as extraordinary people, just determined to be of service.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p2CjlOwwTSk&feature=youtu.be

The Janes | Official Trailer 🔥 🔥HBOMax Documentary Police arrested seven women who were part of a clandestine network. Using code names, blindfolds and safe houses, they built an underground service for women...

Some of the most elegant language about choice, and privacy, and love, and purpose and happiness and so many other things wrapped up in the question - which should only be asked of oneself - regarding parenthood that I've read.

The Mother of All Questions, by Rebecca Solnit I gave a talk on Virginia Woolf a few years ago. During the question-and-answer period that followed it, the subject that seemed to most interest a number of people was whether Woolf should have had children.