MedicineCrow Blog

Chronic Inflammation
"The Silent Killer"

Inflammation, the body’s natural immunity and healing response, when unchecked causes damage to the body. Acute inflammation such as redness and swelling ought to resolve when the trauma or illness has healed. However contributing factors such as diet or radiation can cause inflammation to become chronic.

Aromatherapy Expert
Goes Deep Into the Skin

A cursory look at popular fashion advertising suggests that beauty is created with an elaborate array of expensive cosmetic products. The dizzying selection of commercial cosmetics are mostly designed to alter or cover up a person's features with a layer of stuff. What's more, the industry is slow to adopt non-toxic ingredients. Since the skin absorbs whatever is applied to it, by using these cosmetics we are ingesting more toxins through the skin than through the digestive tract.

Reflections on the
Grassroots Healthcare Revolution

Part 3:

One of the fundamental concepts that William and I have emphasized in the Farm to Pharmacy series is the importance of having simple herbal gardens at home as the basis of grassroots healthcare. As our starting point, we identified about thirty species that meet the following criteria: easy to grow in most parts of the U.S., relatively safe and nontoxic, possessing a wide range of therapeutic benefits, and easy to incorporate into a home pharmacy and herbal lifestyle. The lectures, plant identification and medicine making workshops revolved around becoming familiar with these important plants. It is our belief that if families know how to incorporate these herbs into simple kitchen medicines and basic home remedies, as they once commonly were, that a vast amount of unnecessary toxic medications could be avoided and general immunity and health levels in the population increased.

Reflections on the
Grassroots Healthcare Revolution

Part 1:

One week ago William Siff and I completed teaching the fall season intensive at Goldthread Herb Farm. It was the sixth week-long program that we had done together, which included spring, summer and fall this year and last. It was again a unique and memorable event, filled with shared learning, healthy work with the healing plants and a sense of restoring and creating something precious and meaningful for our society. It was also a time to reflect on what we had accomplished, and where the program might evolve to next.

One of the Most Prolific and Important Teachers of Ayurveda In the World Returns To MedicineCrow In September!

Poor quality food, environmental toxins, and stress all contribute to imbalances in the body that can be treated through cleansing.  Cleansing is the proces of eating a specific diet supplemented with herbs to encourage the organs and tissues to release toxins to be eliminated by the body.  Many health concerns - both physical and mental - can be effectively addressed through cleansing and detoxification.  However most people don't know the process to effectively and safely detoxify.

Goldthread Medicinal Herb Farm Pioneering
Grassroots Healthcare Business Model

As a licensed Acupuncturist, Bill Siff was familiar with using herbs to treat his patients. However having exotic medicinal plants shipped from around the world didn’t sit with his idea of sustainable grassroots healthcare. He realized that for a resurgence of botanical medicine, herbs would need to be locally grown and cost-effective. Along with his wife Sarah, he started Goldthread Herb Farm in Conway Massachusetts, which supplies herbs for their associated apothecary in nearby Florence.