Sasha London-Welker is a farmer and the owner of Green Goddess Farm, North of Kyogle in northern NSW. She’s been growing Certified Organic fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs for the last 15 years and is passionate about growing food for her community while honoring the soil, insects, birds and the wild plants who share the land she farms. I first met Sasha at Lismore Organic Farmers market, where her stall was always overflowing with the most vibrant produce. Recently, Sasha has begun to deep dive into all aspects of medicinal herbs starting from the growing process all the way to making high quality herbal medicine.
We begin this episode with a special memory from Sasha’s childhood that really sparked her love of herbs. She paints a beautiful picture of collecting Nettle in the spring with her family in the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sasha remembers delicious pots of Nettle and cups of Nettle tea. And surprisingly few stings! Apparently Aussie Nettle is much fiercer in the sting department!
While in the beginning Sasha was farming organic veggies, herbs crept in as cut flowers and then more intentionally as she used them to support her own health. Calendula was an early ally for her beautiful skin healing properties. Sasha shares a special experience with Nettle on her land, where she sat in communication with the herb and was then inspired to pivot and really lean into medicinal herb growing and herbal medicine making. During our chat she shares her experiences of growing and making medicine from so many special herbs, including Milky Oats, Echinacea, Chamomile and Californian poppy.
We chat about the impact of working in farming on health and Sasha shares the difficulty of achieving balance. She works outside in the sunshine on an organic farm with beautiful produce to fuel herself but also has to be careful about boundaries and listening to her body when she needs rest- admitting it’s easy to overwork when you live at your work and feel so passionate about it. She shares working more deeply with particular herbs has been a big support.
This is such a juicy episode, Sasha’s passion for organic growing and her love of herbal medicine is infectious and inspiring!
**CONNECT**
You can connect with Sasha and purchase her handcrafted herbal medicines via her Estsy site here or stay in touch via instagram here.
You can connect with JESS via instagram and facebook here and here, join her newsletter community here, buy her handmade herbal products here or book an appointment here.
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The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins. You can find Chad's music here and here.