Everywhere we go, we can find plant spirits. In this podcast, clinical herbalist Ashley Elenbaas invites us to discover the healing power of plants—not just their medicinal properties but their deeper wisdom and gifts. With respect and reverence, Ashley guides her listeners to be open to the teachings of these potent teachers. If you are looking for a holistic approach to healing that can help you achieve optimal health and well-being, then pop in for a listen.
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Savoring the End: Final Episode & Leaving the Garden | Ashley Elenbaas
Monday, September 21, 2026 • Duration 18:29
What does it mean to savor an ending?
In this final episode of the series, I reflect on change, transition, and the tender work of letting go. As my family and I prepare to move into a new home, I share some of the emotions that arise when one chapter closes and another begins.
Together, we explore the burden of fullness and consider how releasing what no longer serves us can create space for new growth. I offer several questions for self inquiry:
● What are you ready to release?
● What are you being asked to witness?
● What lessons and practices do you want to carry forward?
As we welcome the Equinox, we pause to honor the balance of light and darkness and the wisdom found in every season of transition. Endings can be difficult, but they can also be beautiful invitations to trust, reflect, and begin again.
Thank you for being part of this journey and for sharing this space with me. I would love to hear what you are releasing and what you hope to carry into the season ahead.
HERBAL COURSES
🌱 HERBAL FOUNDATIONS APPRENTICESHIP
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
Book - "Prayers for the Wild Heart" Compiled by Gail Faith Edwards - https://blessedmaineherbs.com/collections/literature/products/prayers-for-the-wild-heart-tribe
Savoring the End: The Danger and Wisdom of the Wind | Ashley Elenbaas
Monday, September 14, 2026 • Duration 30:28
In this episode of Savoring the End, I reflect on the changing winds of early autumn and the feeling that something in the air is asking us some big questions about our next steps.
Drawing inspiration from the film Chocolat, I explore the wind as both a force that calls us forward and one that exposes what is tender. Sometimes the wind tells us it is time to leave. At other times, it asks us to stay, protect what we love, and become more deeply rooted in our values.
HERBAL COURSES
🌱 HERBAL FOUNDATIONS APPRENTICESHIP
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
Savoring the End: When Life Makes You Wait | Ashley Elenbaas
Monday, September 7, 2026 • Duration 18:26
There is a strange pause in the garden right now. Summer isn't quite over, but autumn hasn't fully arrived. Some plants are still blooming brightly, while others have already gone to seed.
In this episode of Savoring the End, I explore the doldrums, an old sailing term for the place where the winds go still and a ship has nowhere to go but wait.
Together we'll explore:
• The garden's transition from late summer into autumn
• Why periods of stillness can feel so disorienting
• Sunflowers, goldenrod, jewelweed, echinacea, and the first changing maples
• The difference between being stuck and simply being still
• What it means to recognize something as complete rather than trying to squeeze more from it
• How waiting itself can become a practice
The wind will pick back up. You don't have to make it happen. Sometimes our work is simply to stay in the boat.
I will also share some personal stories of the moment and show you what a sunflower head looks like once it has given everything it can.
Book - "Blue Iris: A Collection of Poems and Essays" by Mary Oliver - https://amzn.to/4ydDQOb
HERBAL COURSES
🌱 HERBAL FOUNDATIONS APPRENTICESHIP
Savoring the End: The Burden of Fullness
Monday, August 31, 2026 • Duration 35:19
As late summer reaches its peak, the garden begins to bow beneath its own fullness. In this episode, I explore Doyo, the transitional season associated with the Earth element and how we have to work this time of year to stay grounded.
I’ll take you on a tour of my garden, my mammoth sunflowers, Joe Pye weed, and look for the signs of Doyo in each of them. I share a few simple practices for building support from the ground up and stories from my life when things almost fell apart.
In this episode:
● What the sunflowers are teaching me about fullness, endings, and support
● Doyo, the Earth element, and the practice of returning to center
● Simple grounding rituals with bare feet and trees
● A short strength practice for building physical support and reserves
● A centering tea with chamomile, catnip, ginger, licorice, and rosemary
● A simple navel-pulse practice for exploring your own sense of alignment
As the season begins to turn, perhaps the invitation isn't to resist the change, but to strengthen our roots, tend our center, and create the support we need for what comes next.
A 15-MINUTE STRENGTH PRACTICE
Here are some equipment free practices you can do each day to build strength in your core and in the supportive muscles of your body.
- Wall sit — held 30-45 seconds, repeated 2-3 times
- Plank — held 30-45 seconds, repeated 2-3 times
- Push-ups (modified on knees if needed) — 3 sets of 10
- Bicycle crunches — 3 sets of 10
Herb of the Month: Jewelweed
Monday, August 24, 2026 • Duration 22:18
Meet Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), one of my favorite late-summer plants for cooling, soothing, and tending hot, irritated skin.
In this month’s Herb of the Month, I take you into the garden to meet Jewelweed up close. I’ll show you how to identify it, harvest its juicy, gel-like stems, and use it fresh on the skin.
In this episode, we’ll explore:
● It’s many names like “touch-me-not” and spotted jewelweed
● Its traditional uses for poison ivy, bug bites, stings, and hot skin rashes
● How to harvest and use the cooling sap inside its succulent stems
● Why Jewelweed so often grows right alongside poison ivy
● Some of the plant’s medicinal constituents and what modern research has to say
● Stories from my own experiences using Jewelweed, including with the young herbalists at my recent Junior Herbalist Camp
I’ll also share an important conversation about the difference between traditional herbal knowledge, personal experience, and clinical research and how we can hold all three with curiosity and respect.
Jewelweed feels a little like the Midwest’s wild aloe: juicy, cooling, soothing, and arriving at exactly the right moment in the heat of late summer.
Join My Upcoming Herbal Apprenticeship Courses - https://www.skyhouseherbs.com/
In this episode, I’m taking you into the late summer garden to explore the simple practice of deadheading and what it can teach us about letting go. As I remove spent blooms from my petunias, I reflect on the ways we continue to hold onto things that have already completed their cycle and how much energy that can quietly require.
Just as a plant redirects its energy when we remove dying flowers, we can create space in our own lives by recognizing what is finished and allowing it to go.
🌿 In this episode, I explore:
• What deadheading teaches us about letting go
• How to recognize what is fading, decaying, or already complete
• Why releasing something at the right time can support new growth
• How digestion and elimination mirror the body's natural processes of release
• Gentle herbal support including triphala, marshmallow root, psyllium husk, and fiber
• How eclipses and seasonal cycles can invite reflection and change
• The symbolism of Mary Magdalene, the skull, and the relationship between death and new life
The garden reminds us that we cannot grasp anything forever. Flowers bloom and fade. Seasons change. Bodies release. Old versions of ourselves fall away.
Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is recognize what has already ended, remove what is no longer serving the whole, and give our energy back to what is still alive.
🌱 This week, I invite you to go outside and deadhead something. As you do, consider what you might also be ready to release in your own life.
Savoring the End: A Personal Reflection on Weathering Change
Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 29:55
Late summer has always felt like a sacred threshold to me. The garden is overflowing with life, yet there is a quiet awareness that the season is beginning to turn. In this episode, I share some personal reflections on savoring these final weeks of summer and the herbs, foods, and practices that are helping me prepare for the transition into autumn.
• Why late summer feels so full, and why fullness naturally gives way to change
• The herbs I have been reaching for recently, including Astragalus, Reishi, nourishing mushrooms, Ginsengs, and Maca to help build resilience and support the nervous system
• Seasonal foods that nourish the Earth element, including carrots, beets, tomatoes, grains, and warming cooked meals
• The wisdom of Late Summer in Chinese Five Element Medicine and why Earth sits at the center of the seasonal wheel as a time of integration and transition
• Why I believe sympathy is one of the medicines our world needs most right now
• Simple rituals for slowing down, building reserves, tidying our homes, and savoring the gifts of this season before autumn arrives
As we approach the upcoming eclipse, I hope this episode offers a gentle reminder to slow down, appreciate what is here today, and prepare ourselves with intention for the season ahead.
I'd love to hear from you. What signs tell you that late summer is beginning to shift where you live? Share them in the comments below.
A Devotional Life in a Broken World: Yarrow & Stitching It All Together
Monday, August 3, 2026 • Duration 34:56
In this final episode of A Devotional Life in a Broken World, I spend time with Yarrow, one of our oldest and most enduring medicinal plants. For thousands of years, Yarrow has accompanied humanity through injury, grief, and survival. She has never promised a world without wounds. Instead, she teaches us how to tend them with courage and keep walking.
As I filmed this episode, the world itself seemed to be carrying fresh heartbreak: places of worship desecrated and restored, wildfires surrounding sacred ground, earthquakes displacing families, the loss of members of our own community, and the familiar feeling of searching for words when none seem adequate. Rather than asking how we fix a broken world, I explore a quieter question: What does devotion look like when we cannot hold everything at once?
Throughout this series we have discovered that devotion is not about certainty or having the perfect response. It is about returning, again and again, to what is ours to tend. Drawing on the wisdom of Yarrow, the words of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and a deeply personal story about an unexpected family heirloom, I reflect on the small acts of care that quietly stitch our lives back together.
This episode closes not with answers, but with a simple devotional practice and a final invitation to carry one living question forward. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is place our hands on something growing and let that be enough for today.
In this episode:
• The ancient medicine and symbolism of Yarrow as a plant of healing and perseverance
• Why devotion is not about finding perfect answers, but continuing to show up
• Reflections on grief, sacredness, and finding meaning in overwhelming times
• A personal story about inheritance, memory, and the quiet ways symbols find us
A Devotional Life in a Broken World: Faith and the Still Burning Rose
Monday, July 27, 2026 • Duration 29:37
In this fourth episode of A Devotional Life in a Broken World, I sit with Rose and one of the most tender questions I know: What is faith, and how do we find it again after it has been wounded?
Drawing from my own childhood experiences with Catholicism, stories of my grandmother's quiet devotion, the Christian mystical tradition, Sufi poetry, and the timeless symbolism of the rose, I explore the difference between faith as inherited belief and faith as a living relationship. Together we consider what happens when the containers we were given for devotion crack, and whether losing trust in an institution must also mean losing trust in the sacred itself.
For centuries, Rose has been a symbol of the heart that continues to open despite sorrow. Known as Rosa Mystica, the Mystical Rose, she reminds us that faith is often hidden beneath the surface, alive in the roots long before we see it bloom again.
This episode is an invitation to grieve what has been lost, honor the questions that refuse easy answers, and tend the small daily practices that quietly rekindle the flame of devotion.
In this episode we explore:
• Why questioning can be an expression of faith rather than its opposite
• Rose as a symbol of devotion across Christian, alchemical, Sufi, and goddess traditions
• Childhood wounds, spiritual disillusionment, and finding our way back to trust
• The hidden nature of faith and the image of Rosa Mystica
• Simple daily rituals that help keep the heart open to the sacred
Whether you are rebuilding your spiritual life, grieving a tradition that could not hold you, or simply longing to feel connected to something deeper again, I hope this conversation offers companionship more than conclusions.
Clematis: You Are Not Here to Be Used | A Devotional Life in a Broken World
Monday, July 20, 2026 • Duration 22:23
In this third episode of A Devotional Life in a Broken World, I spend time with Clematis, a plant that offers no herbal medicine, no harvest, and no practical utility but simply climbs toward the light and offers its beauty freely.
Watching Clematis has made me wonder how often I measure my own life by productivity, usefulness, or visible outcomes. What would it mean to pray, to rest, to read, to create, or to simply be present without needing those moments to produce something in return?
Together in this episode, we explore devotion that asks for no audience and expects no reward. Inspired by the writings of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, this episode reflects on beauty that continues to bloom even when it is unseen and the quiet courage of offering ourselves fully to something larger than our own ambitions.
I also share one of my own devotional practices: making small pilgrimages to places that help me remember my place in the world so I can simply arrive and offer something small to a mothering force that feeds me so much.
If you've been feeling exhausted by the pressure to always produce, perhaps Clematis has something to offer you as well.
In this episode we explore:
• Clematis as a teacher of beauty for beauty's sake
• Devotion beyond productivity and measurable outcomes
• Prayer, contemplation, and sacred rest
• The spiritual practice of pilgrimage
• Living without the need for an audience or recognition
• Two things can be true: Living a devotional life AND being a social activist
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● Wind as a source of change, vulnerability, and seasonal illness
● Wisdom from Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and Italian folk traditions
● The relationship between cold air, the neck, and our immune defenses
● Astragalus and Reishi for long-term seasonal support
● Echinacea and Red Root at the first signs of illness
● Nervines for wind-related anxiety, restlessness, and disrupted sleep
● How to discern whether we are being called to move or invited to hold our ground
This episode guides us toward deeper questions: What do I value enough to protect? Where am I being asked to take a clearer position? What needs sheltering and what is ready to be carried somewhere new?
I'll also share more about open enrollment for the Year Two Herbal Apprenticeship and invite you to our Fall Equinox Gathering with Adam and me in Minneapolis on September 19.
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A sacred, seasonal monthly gardening circle where we root our hands in the soil and our hearts in community. We explore medicinal plants, create herbal medicines, plant inspired art, and tend to both the earth and our own nervous systems. All levels of gardening experience are welcome. Classes are in-person in the Minneapolis metro area.
A live gathering for plant spirit support in changing times. Each session includes a check‑in, a short reading, and simple practices with medicinal herbs that support stress, depletion, and emotional overwhelm. We draw plant spirit cards for symbolic guidance. This is a calm, supportive space to settle, listen, and be held by plants and shared wisdom. Come as you are—quietly listen, participate in the chat, or simply rest in the hour.
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A sacred, seasonal monthly gardening circle where we root our hands in the soil and our hearts in community. We explore medicinal plants, create herbal medicines, plant inspired art, and tend to both the earth and our own nervous systems. All levels of gardening experience are welcome. Classes are in-person in the Minneapolis metro area.
A live gathering for plant spirit support in changing times. Each session includes a check‑in, a short reading, and simple practices with medicinal herbs that support stress, depletion, and emotional overwhelm. We draw plant spirit cards for symbolic guidance. This is a calm, supportive space to settle, listen, and be held by plants and shared wisdom. Come as you are—quietly listen, participate in the chat, or simply rest in the hour.
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
• A closing ritual for carrying your own unanswered questions with greater trust
If this series has accompanied you in your own devotional life, I hope these conversations continue long after the videos end. The questions are still alive. The garden is still here. And perhaps that is enough to begin again.
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A sacred, seasonal monthly gardening circle where we root our hands in the soil and our hearts in community. We explore medicinal plants, create herbal medicines, plant inspired art, and tend to both the earth and our own nervous systems. All levels of gardening experience are welcome. Classes are in-person in the Minneapolis metro area.
Book - “Untie the Strong Woman” - by Clarissa Pinkoles Estes - https://amzn.to/3SKDv6g
HERBAL COURSES
🌱 HERBAL FOUNDATIONS APPRENTICESHIP
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A sacred, seasonal monthly gardening circle where we root our hands in the soil and our hearts in community. We explore medicinal plants, create herbal medicines, plant inspired art, and tend to both the earth and our own nervous systems. All levels of gardening experience are welcome. Classes are in-person in the Minneapolis metro area.
A live gathering for plant spirit support in changing times. Each session includes a check‑in, a short reading, and simple practices with medicinal herbs that support stress, depletion, and emotional overwhelm. We draw plant spirit cards for symbolic guidance. This is a calm, supportive space to settle, listen, and be held by plants and shared wisdom. Come as you are—quietly listen, participate in the chat, or simply rest in the hour.
• What in your life is asking to be tended without any promise of return?
• Have you been measuring your devotion by its productivity?
• What does true rest feel like in your body?
• Is there a place you could visit regularly simply to become small and present?
Thank you for joining me in this ongoing inquiry into what it means to live a devotional life in a broken world!
HERBAL COURSES
🌱 HERBAL FOUNDATIONS APPRENTICESHIP
A 12‑month online journey designed to help you weave herbal medicine into the fabric of daily life. This is the place we begin, learning to make our own remedies, meeting the plants in our backyards and kitchens, and connecting deeply with the rhythms of nature. It is a foundation built not just of facts, but of relationship and trust in the green world.
For those who have laid the first stones and are ready to walk further into the woods. This second year focuses on the art of advanced formulation, clinical skills, and discovering your unique seat of service as a community herbalist. Here, we refine our listening and deepen our apothecary practice, moving from student to practitioner.
A sacred, seasonal monthly gardening circle where we root our hands in the soil and our hearts in community. We explore medicinal plants, create herbal medicines, plant inspired art, and tend to both the earth and our own nervous systems. All levels of gardening experience are welcome. Classes are in-person in the Minneapolis metro area.
A live gathering for plant spirit support in changing times. Each session includes a check‑in, a short reading, and simple practices with medicinal herbs that support stress, depletion, and emotional overwhelm. We draw plant spirit cards for symbolic guidance. This is a calm, supportive space to settle, listen, and be held by plants and shared wisdom. Come as you are—quietly listen, participate in the chat, or simply rest in the hour.
