Information Overload

Hi Friends! I am very happy to say that after a decade long wait, your friend Faeryn was accepted into the program of choice to make official the study of herbalism. Happy dance! Whoo! I came here with the intention of asking about the first two herbs I'll be studying and to ask about sourcing... But I almost got seasick from looking through page after page after page of mentions of those herbs... And little of it aligning with the information previous to it. I understand that forums are not official documents or sources, they are opinions, ideas and great for sharing information across long distances and covering material with friends we'd never get to without the internet. So I do understand that I shouldn't be basing educational material from a forum. That's not quite where I'm at. I think where I'm at is in disbelief at the lack of standardized information about herbs. I mean, doesn't it seem like with any other substances, especially those that people consume, that you can look up and find information on that is consistent from one source to another? Or am I having delusional derp sauce on my spilled marbles tonight?

I really am in disbelief about it. But, all the same...

For those of you not growing your own, where do you source your herbs from? Do you have awesome local spots? Give me all your herb details!!!

Congratulations!

Maybe it is best to wait until your classes to learn what the teacher has to offer?

It always seemed to me that "herbalism" or the like is as much art as it is science.  Standardizing is probably near impossible.  Just to give a very basic example, person A grows a given herb on a new property they just got bought, in an area that has been commercially farmed for the last 20 years.  Most likely, the soil is entirely dead, having lived on a diet of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizer.  Person B grows the same herb in their garden that has been amended heavily with on-site made compost from all organic ingredients, has never had commercial chemicals applied, has had minerals added, and has been mulched with wood chips for the last 8 years.   Will those herbs have remotely the same effect on a person's body?  I would think they would not.  So person A might tell you that you need 3 cups of this herb to have any effect on condition X.  Person B tells you person A is crazy, you need only a tablespoon, and 3 cups is way too much.  Both could be correct, but your conditions are different than either of those, so who knows what you need?  I'm sorry that probably isn't helpful to you at all, just my understanding of why finding standardized information can be a struggle.

Congratulations, Faeryn! That's excellent news!! I wish you all the best in it!

YAY!!!

Care to share your choice of school?

What do you want to do with your soon to be new found knowledge? I ask, because I once went down the path to find standardized herb information. I too was bamboozled. Myself, herbalism is used to treat my own family and the occasional friend who is crazy enough to use weeds as medicine.

I decided that for my purposes, I did not need such precise science. If you want to open a practice, well, I guess you will have to keep searching.