THE HERB LADY OF LAVENDER GLEN

My Red Hat Lady group was recently entertained with a performance by Susan Gingerich who portrays "the Herb Lady of Lavender Glen". The Herb Lady is dressed in garments reminiscent of early pioneer women and she pretends to be from 1830 transported into this era. She had gathered specimens from my yard and her presentation featured the historical uses of herbs and our relationship with other plants and the benefits of using natural products in cooking and healing. As I grew up with a mother who was an herbalist, I knew the "weeds". She held up plantain and I exclaimed, "Psyllium!" Several in the group knew "psyllium" but did not know that it came from a weed that might be in their yards. I told how Mother would gather the plantain "seeds" after green-gathering time and the plants had "gone to seed" and whenever any of us was "bound up" we were given some plantain seeds. Other plants she showed were yarrow, mint, elderberry, raspberry vine, and mullein--all from my yard.

Susan holds a PhD and is the President of The Ohio Sunshine Health Freedom Coalition which is a non-profit, grassroots organization which is dedicated to educating and informing the public about health freedom. She is an advocate for the passage of Ohio House Bill 259, a bill which "protects consumer access to homeopaths, naturapaths, nutritional consultants, and other natural and complementary and alternative practitioners providing services that do not rise to the level of concern requiring state licensing" (from the bill).

For more information, go to www.ohiohealthfreedom