Blog

As you probably know, Haven Herbs is a worker owned cooperative apothecary. All of us who work for Haven are also owners (not just employees- there is no "boss"), and that is a very different work dynamic than most people are used to. Democracy at work, being able to balance personal and professional, and working for a company that cares about you personally (and whether or not you thrive) is not common in late-stage capitalism. It is rare and precious and should never be taken for granted. I treasure my connection to Haven Herbs and the work it gives me....

As a member of Haven Herbs and a growing herbalist, I find myself constantly evaluating and thinking critically through my personal and political relationships with the plants that I interact with on a daily basis, at work, as well as the land I occupy.  In this blog post, I reflect on the links between herbalism, climate justice, and Indigenous sovereignty to offer a framework that makes the vital connections between them more visible. Currently, I live in so-called Ohio which is occupied ancestral and contemporary territory of the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, Peoria, Seneca, Wyandotte, Ojibwe and Cherokee peoples. Therefore,...

How many plants in your OWN yard can you make medicine with?  Getting started using herbs and making your own medicine may feel intimidating at first. The more one grows in the knowledge of what plants are medicine (nearly all of them, in some way or another) and begins identifying those that grow around you... it can feel overwhelming.  So we start small. We start with those that grow abundantly in our own yards, are easy to identify and provide immense benefit with little chance of harm.  I am going to share 5 of my favorite herbs that fit those exact...

Flavor is an evocation of memory, pulling our selve(s) into reveries of personal reflection and delight. These memories, and our flavor associations surrounding them, are walls against the assault of modern reality; they are safe, intimately comfortable rooms in which we get to pause and take respite from the transactional world.  Much of what makes the sensorial aspects of coffee, tea, and tisanes potent/divine/delicious happens in the nose. While our tongues can discern between the usual ‘tastes’ (salty, bitter, sweet, etc), the rest of what we consider flavor happens up in the olfactory bulb, a cluster of nerves in the...

One of the wonderful things about being part of a worker owned coop is that we each have the ability to raise issues we want to support and discuss a potential company response. There has been a lot of (much needed) activism on racial equality these days, and we at Haven have been discussing how, as a company, we can do our part.We first want to say that all worker owners stand with Black Lives Matter protestors who are fighting for equality and against police violence in their communities. Talking is never enough, and so we are always looking for ways...