Community Supported Herbalism Project

Support Local Wellness: What Is Community Herbalism?

Community herbalism is the time-honoured practice of keeping wellness grassroots, accessible, and relational. It is the belief that vital well-being belongs to everyone, not just those who are financially privileged or who have the right social connections. Instead of happening in detached wellness spas or clinics, community herbalism thrives in shared spaces: through hands-on medicine making, community workshops, neighborhood plant walks, and sharing remedies with those closest to us.

It is a model built on three core pillars:

• Grassroots Connection: Reconnecting people directly to the seasonal rhythms and the plants growing right outside their doors. We are surrounded by plant allies who can support us in times of need.

• Mutual Abundance: Operating on the principle that the earth provides enough for everyone when we share resources and knowledge. Through sharing knowledge and resources freely, we all come out ahead.

• Mutual Aid: Ensuring that the remedies created always support those in need and reach the less resourced members of our community.

At its core, community herbalism is about remembering how to take care of the land beneath our feet, and how to take care of each other.

Who Am I?

Hi, I’m Bryce. It's a pleasure to meet you! Before I start to ramble, here are the quick bullet points:

• The Basics: I'm a 40-something gay, autistic man. Born in Nova Scotia, raised in Colchester County, and educated at Acadia University.

• Hobbies: Learning EVERYTHING, linguistics, karaoke, cooking, gardening, and avoiding long walks on the beach (sand is my mortal enemy).

• Favorite Herbs: Skullcap (because my thoughts are always spinning), milky oats (to soothe my frazzled nerves), and chamomile (for calm, tasty sips).

The Winding Path: Beginnings

My path to herbalism was a winding one. As a kid, I read Clan of the Cave Bear and became fascinated by the heroine, Ayla, a medicine woman who was entrusted with the knowledge of the Clan and could tackle any situation. I aspired to be her. By my teens, I was the queer kid hiding in the library reading books on herbal remedies, folklore,  aromatheraphy, homeopathy, Reiki, and other energetic therapies. I even had a side hustle writing about alternative healing for early internet websites and teaching workshops in my teens and early 20's. But back then, I didn't realize herbalism was a viable, living tradition, so the passion faded out for a couple of decades and I went on to get a "real job".

From Corporate Fintech to Frontline Care

Life took me on a detour in my 20's and 30's and I moved to Toronto for a decade, working in corporate fintech. Corporate life wasn't for me. It ate at my soul. In 2019, I came home to Nova Scotia with the intention to chase my passions and dreams. I wanted to leave the corporate world behind and do work that made me feel fulfilled and actually impacted others in positive ways. My first adventure was studying makeup artistry. I went to college, completed the training, became a licensed makeup artist and spent a year working at a makeup counter. When height of the pandemic hit I wanted to help but I wasn't sure how. I found an opportunity to work as a caregiver in long term care and assisted living facilities. This ignited a passion for healthcare and I returned to college again to become a certified Continung Care Assistant (kind of similar to a nursing assistant in other jurisdictions). 

Healing Burnout

Frontline care during lockdown took a heavy toll. I hit a wall of deep burnout, physical pain, and a foggy mind that conventional medicine couldn't shift. Desperate to feel like myself again, a random YouTube suggestion led me to seek out a clinical herbalist. The relief and vitality I found through plant medicine didn’t just heal my body—it reignited the passion of my youth.

I knew my next adventure had to be learning the medicine of the people. Did you know that according to the World Health Organization, 80% of the world's population relies on traditional and herbal medicine for survival? I'm a bit of a geek so I dove headfirst into the science, phytochemistry, botany, and extraction techniques. It was fascinating, but I was missing two key components: hands-on relationships with the plants, and connection to the community.

Education & Mentors

I have completed over 250 hours of foundational training in community herbalism covering herbal first aid, urban foraging, medicine making, community care, client consultation, and trauma-informed practice. I hate name dropping but I should acknowledge some of the incredible teachers who have shared a small piece of their knowledge with me: Lorna Mauney-Brodek, Katja Swift, Savayda Jarone, Ryn Midura, 7song, April Graham, Rosemary Gladstar, jim mcdonald, and Thomas Easley. These teachers, and many others, have shaped my practice and what I hope my practice will become. It is vital to acknowledge that much of our modern collective herbal knowledge comes from Indigenous traditions, enslaved people, and colonized communities. Much of this wisdom was ancestral wisdom, sacred knowledge, and survival medicine, often extracted, stolen, or preserved through centuries of systemic violence, forced displacement, and hardship.

Special Acknowledgement

I carry deep gratitude for the resilience of the ancestors, lineage-keepers, and traditional healers who fought to keep this knowledge alive. In my practice, I commit to honoring these roots by rejecting the commercialization of sacred medicines, respecting the land, and using this knowledge to directly support, heal, and support our local communities. This commitment is an on-going journey but I would like to specifically mention Laurie Lacey, KhadiYah Preciado, the Sowa Rigpa Foundation, and the Ibn Sina Institute of Tibb for helping educate me on indigenous traditions and the importance of acknowledging the traditional sources of the knowledge we hold.

I live, learn, and gather plants in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

As a settler, I recognize that the botanical knowledge I share is inseparable from the land that has been cared for by the Mi’kmaq since time immemorial. I acknowledge that the Peace and Friendship Treaties did not surrender rights to this land or its resources.

I strive to honor Indigenous botanical traditions without appropriation, support Indigenous-led sovereignty movements, and ensure that as we tend to ourselves, we are also working to support Indigenous-led efforts to care for and protect this land.

The Future

Currently, I am pursuing deeper formal study with Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism (Boston) and continuing to build my relationships with the plants and the local community with a year-long in-person program here in Halifax with Savayda Jarone at the Bloom Institute.

This Community Supported Herbalism project is my way of bringing everything full circle. It is a shared ecosystem: your investment in these small-batch, handcrafted remedies directly funds my tuition, and in return, I get to share my education and ensure that our collective abundance reaches those in our community who are less resourced.

I am actively looking to meet and collaborate with like-minded plant people in our community. If you see me out on a local plant walk, come say hi.