153 – Beautiful Calendars and Merch to Support Herbal Solidarity Across Borders!

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host, Nicole Rose, from the

Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things plants and

liberation.

Let's get started.

Hello. Welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast.

I'm so sorry for ghosting you.

I will explain all the things that have been going on and I've got some very, very exciting

updates as well.

Long story short,

I did the course launch, didn't I? As you heard me bang on about it all the time

for my PTSD course.

And then,

yeah, my son's grandma came up to help for the last day, which was amazing.

So I got to be able to send out the newsletters and stuff like that.

And then because she lives far away, and it was, like, an amazing chance to have someone

look after my son who I,

you know, completely trust.

I went on a prison visit to see my friend Kev inside, and I will talk a little bit about.

About his conditions and a action alert shortly.

But basically,

after just working my *** off, I then thought,

yeah, the day after a launch, I will drive all the way to Cambridgeshire,

which was ******* ridiculous.

But I'm just.

I've just been so desperate to see him.

And I've been meaning to go to see him, but,

like, I'd planned to kind of, like, stop in Southampton and have my ex's mum, you know,

like, ask her to have Lee then, and then have,

like, a shorter drive, but it's just not worked out because of the heat waves and

people getting sick and stuff.

So I just thought, right, I'm just gonna drive

from my caravan.

Let's do it.

So it was, like six hours each way with a

couple of breaks.

Oh, was rough, but the visit was, like, incredible.

And,

yeah, it just was, like, amazing to have a hug and to talk about everything.

Like, we've always stayed in touch on the phone.

You know, we speak like, three, four times a week, like, pretty much every week.

But,

yeah, like, just nothing beats seeing someone in person.

So it was very, very special.

But I think, yeah, I think it was, like,

maybe kind of old school.

Nicole, like, not very wise decision in terms

of, like, I was just smashed.

And, like,

yeah, it was kind of sad, but, like, the course didn't make as much money as it usually

makes, and I think there's different factors, but I think mostly it's because, like I

mentioned, my son broke his AR in August, so I lost, like, a month of work.

So, like,

all that kind of buildup where I'm, like, promoting it and doing podcasts and Social

media and like getting people to join the waiting list, like that just didn't happen

until kind of too late.

So yeah, it's just been a little bit like.

And then I had to do like a big kind of financial audit of like what is possible to

cut, what is possible to pause.

Yeah, I'm not like, I try and not be dictated to by astrology.

Like I'm enough,

enough of a sceptic that I'm like, meh, I'll be fine.

But then the other part of me and I think probably having a mum who's really into

astrology,

it's like sometimes I feel like transits are just not noticeable and other times I just

feel like smashed and I don't know how other people have been doing but this like Venus

retrograde and recent Mercury retrograde,

it's been rough.

I just feel like nothing's been smooth and everything's felt quite hard work.

But. Yeah, but basically after this like crazy like launch period of just like late nights,

working loads, like just doing way too much, like loads of pressure and then the prison

visit, basically my son, we took him to a soft play.

Bad ******* decision.

Always a bad decision,

you know, Again, cold, wet, rainy day in England.

What are you going to ******* do if you don't have like a house to visit?

Someone's off play.

Of course he caught a ******* virus, didn't

he? So then he was like really sick for a week or

like 10 days,

four days of like intermittent fever, which if you're a parent is just so stressful because

it's like unbearable watching this little vulnerable ball of love, like suffer.

So. And I have kind of like, not like medical anxiety but like,

I think I went through a lot with him after he was in hospital.

Oh God, I don't want to go down this route but like he went to hospital after his first sort

of vaccines for a week with having like a really severe reaction, like was on a drip and

stuff.

Like, just don't get me started about how traumatising it was.

So now whenever he's ill I just feel like kind of like really intense.

Like my nervous system is just like really overwhelmed and I just need a lot of kind of

tlc.

Not that anyone giving me tlc, but I just mean I need to kind of like keep on top of that,

otherwise it's just, yeah, too, too rough on the nervous system.

So anyway, so he got sick and I was just trying so hard to not get sick.

Just like all the immune tonics, like all the vitamin C and Zinc, all the good food,

but just.

You just can fight, like, tiredness and sleep

deprivation.

And I was just waking up a lot because of

these fevers.

And.

Yeah, so then I got sick.

So all the clients that I'd rearranged from

Lee getting sick, I then had to rearrange because I was sick.

So then there's just been this, like, huge backlog of stuff to do, like, in terms of,

like,

yeah, just kind of like working on people's recommendations, sorting stuff out in the herb

shed.

Like, like every client, there's always like,

one or two little extra things that can be a challenge of, like, this plan's not working,

so I need to, like, update it with something else.

Or maybe they've got new blood tests that I need to look at.

And it doesn't sound like much, but when you're supporting, like, over 100 people,

that cumulative load is, like, really full on.

I mean, 100 people wouldn't be a problem if I worked full time, but it's, you know, I. Like

I said I've got, like.

I think it's like 12 hours of childcare in total with the nursery maybe a little bit more

now, but, like, anyway,

so I made a really hard decision to basically pause new clients.

So my Rosehip Herbal Clinic is kind of just like, I put a notice up there.

I took the packages offline and just said, like, you know, I will kind of reopen things

in the near future.

Like, I'm hoping for, like, end of January, if not sooner, but I don't have any nursery for

like, two weeks in December.

And yeah, I'm just feeling, like, not burnt out, but just kind of like,

it's not my first ******* rodeo.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, I know my limits of, like, if I keep pushing at this pace is unsustainable.

And once you kind of like, hit that burnout y stuff, it's really hard to get back from it.

And I just don't have the infrastructure in my life to, like, let that happen in terms of,

like, needing to take care of my son and stuff.

So, anyway, so I've paused, like, new clients.

And unfortunately, the Black Flag Herbal

Clinic, the free clinic, is also still paused.

Oh, my God. We've been trying to do this bandana to do, like, a fundraiser at

Christmas.

And, like, it's just been really challenging.

Again, I think it's this Venus Mercury nonsense.

Like,

so I don't know if it's going to be ready.

It's close.

Like, I'm, you know, I'm not An illustrator.

But it's like a lot of back and forth around

kind of design and aesthetics and what's working and it's just not felt quite right, if

that makes sense.

So, anyway, so that's on the pipeline.

Wow. Sorry.

This is a really long update and I've only got

an hour to record it, so I better.

I better move on.

But basically, there's been lots going on

behind the scenes and,

yeah, I've just not been running on, like, all cylinders.

Like, I think what people don't realise when you're a single mum to a two and a half year

old is that, like.

Like,

you just don't get a chance to rest, like, until they're asleep in the evening.

And even then I'm often needing to, like, work and stuff.

So it's like,

you know, like, when your body is like, screaming to just, like, have a lion or just,

like, have some, like, parasympathetic downtime,

and then you just have to, like, repress that urge and you just have to, like, keep going

and do all the things and all the housework and food and the caring.

It's like.

It's a bit.

Yeah, it is rough.

I'm not gonna lie.

I've been in a bit of, like, a grief zone of

like,

oh, this isn't what I was imagining.

And, like,

ah,

I don't know, like, I have to, like, pay £20 an hour to, like, get any rest, which is,

like,

rough, especially when a third of your income's been cut.

So I don't know, but I'm feeling like I'm crawling out of it.

Venus and Mercury are gonna be going, or maybe not, I don't know.

Whatever.

They're gonna be going direct again, thank

God.

I think things will pick up.

It's all like.

I hate the phrase first world problems, but it

really is.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, I'm living my best life.

I've got a beautiful boy, I've got safe

housing, I've got enough money for food.

Like, things are good.

Like, I'm ******* privileged as ****.

And the apothecary is still functioning and serving people, you know, like, people are

still doing the PTSD course and reading the books and requesting the care packages and

getting their medicines and, like, even if I feel like a duck,

that's just like paddling quickly underwater, I think kind of other people are like, at

least still kind of like, yeah, getting their needs met, if that makes sense.

So, anyway, so, yeah, so a lot been going on, but it's all Good.

So I still have a episode to record about insomnia, which I need to do to kind of like

wrap up the series I did on sleep.

So maybe you've listened to the previous

episodes about things like nightmares.

So I promise I will do that soon.

But I just thought I would come in with a few

updates.

I'm so sorry I didn't basically get a chance

to record a podcast in time to promote the Hawthorne programme.

So the applications are now closed for that.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say the main reason I couldn't record anything is I just had like a

perpetual sore throat, so I couldn't talk for longer than 10 minutes about losing my voice.

So anyway, but, yeah, but the Hawthorne programme is like a three month container of

collective care for people experiencing state repression.

So people on TR who've been arrested, who have, you know, got cases hanging over their

heads, who've been getting raided by police, like stuff like this,

we basically have a group chat and group calls and then people get like one to one herbal

support from me and then there's like a bunch of online content that they can work through,

like at their own pace, you know, around like repression and the nervous system and

herbalism.

So there's been like 40 applications, which is amazing.

And I'd really hoped that I'd got back to people already this week.

Applications close on Sunday, but like, I wasn't expecting that many applications.

And yeah, I just need.

I just kind of want to like personally reply

to people that I'm not able to support right now.

And yeah, I've been very like, reflective about that recently of just kind of like that

grief around your own limits of like,

I literally can't support that many people on my own, like without, you know, kind of

funding or infrastructure for that or whatever.

But like, yeah, just kind of like hard having a child that needs you all the time.

But then it's also hard having like email after email from people in like really

intense, like distress who are like really going through the ringer in terms of stay

violence and then just, you know, having to like not reply for 3 weeks because of just

being like mega overwhelmed.

So anyway, so if you've applied, then please expect an email from me, hopefully tomorrow,

if not Monday.

And yeah, I'm super excited about this

offering.

Like, nothing comes close to me than

supporting people experiencing repression.

Like I went through a decade of,

you know, being arrested, being on bail,

three and a half years in prison, really heavy licence conditions, seeing all my mates get

sentenced to prison.

Like, I've, you Know, I went through that

stuff when I was really young and it's kind of like stayed with me how traumatising it is if

you don't have support through that kind of experience.

So that's like literally why I create the Solar Apothecary.

So it's a very, very special offering.

So that's exc.

But the announcements that I wanted to make today were about some sexy merchandise.

So yeah, onto the fundraising.

No rest for the wicked.

But basically,

folks probably know I've been involved in a project for years now called the Mobile Herbal

Clinic Calais.

It's a mobile clin, a mobile clinic with a

team of kind of doctors and herbalists and first aiders.

Paramedic, you know, we have the odd paramedic who volunteers, but basically we used to go to

FR pretty much the first week of every month and that's kind of reduced literally because

of finances, which is extremely frustrating.

But yeah, when we are in France, like people are coming to the clinic with wounds and

musculoskeletal problems like sprains and strains and yeah, kind of upper respiratory,

like coughs, colds, things like this.

And you know, you get everything from gunshot wounds to TB and someone's collapsed and

they're not breathing.

You've got to get them to hospital.

Like, you know, it's like a whole spectrum of care and our kind of main role in the field is

actually just like advocating for people,

like getting them to hospital, giving them translated materials so they know where they

can access further like higher health care as well as offering herbal support as a kind of

like self care tool.

So maybe that's like a wound cleaning kit with a fantastic herbal wound spray.

Maybe that's like respiratory pack where someone can have cough syrup and chest rub and

an immune tonic and they kind of have, have translated instructions of where to go if

their cough doesn't get better, et cetera,

et cetera.

I've talked about the clinic a bunch, so.

But basically it's extremely grassroots.

Fundraising is really rough for this project.

Like I don't know if other herbalists have managed to get grants and stuff, but it's a

nightmare.

So yeah, we really are dependent on people

buying like merchandise and we would love to build up the amount of people that are just

donating like once a month.

But I think, yeah, inevitably it's the sexy merch that sells.

So yeah, we have the original design drawn by Imani.

So it's like these beautiful illustrations of plants that we use in the clinic with the text

saying plants?

No, no, Borders.

It was our most ever, like most popular ever

design.

I always get emails from people asking me,

when is it coming back? And I've been like, it's not coming back,

but I'm just capitulating to it that it's easier than trying to find another

illustration and go through all that stuff.

Stuff.

And it is just a beautiful design.

So we've got a few more options this year.

So we've got it available as T shirts and in several different colours, like a beautiful

green colour, a maroon, a rusty kind of orangey brown and like a kind of mustardy

yellow and black obviously.

And then we also have a sexy black long sleeve T shirt for you punks that love the long

sleeves.

So. And it's got no borders down the sleeves as well.

Well, and then we've got hoodies, so we've got like a black hoodie again with the no borders

down the sleeve and the same design.

And we've also got the hoodie in green this time.

So. Yeah, so please check them out.

So they are a pre order, which basically means

you order it now.

And then at the end of November I tell,

well, I give the printers, the screen printers, who are a awesome crew of punks who

are just like super talented at this stuff, super professional use all like organic

sweatshop free clothing and they basically order everything.

I put it all in a spreadsheet of the numbers and then they order it and then they print it

and then they give it to me and then I text everyone being like, can anyone help me post

out these T shirts?

And then we post them out basically.

So you won't get your T shirt straight away.

They will get printed like the first week of December.

So I don't want to like give like Christmas promises, but if you order sooner, you will

kind of be at the top of the pile, if that makes sense.

Because I just go through the order list like bit by bit when I'm packing things.

So.

So, yeah, so they're pre order.

So get in there now.

We ship everywhere apart from Europe.

I'm sorry, it's just horrendous posting to

mainland Europe, Post Brexit.

So if you live in Europe, on the mainland,

just hit up your mates in the UK and ask if you can order things to their address and then

maybe they can post it to you.

Because I just have too many experiences of

packages getting returned and ****** emails from people demanding refund funds.

And like it's really rough, like running a grassroots project and people thinking that

you're Amazon, like I am not Amazon.

So,

yeah, and like, you know, we send everything out tracked with Royal Mail, but it would just

take too long to email everyone with their tracking info.

So.

Yeah, and you know, 95% of things just get delivered fine.

But like the odd parcel gets.

Goes missing, that person gets upset or

sometimes they don't even ******* remember that they've ordered something.

Then they email six months later saying, where's my thing?

I put this address of a squat down and I'm just like,

off, dude.

No, I'm not, I promise.

I have a customer service face on.

But basically there's like a whole fancy terms and conditions page now where I'm just like,

this is a pre order, this is what it means.

Like if you haven't received your item within

eight weeks, like, please email us.

Like anything beyond eight weeks, you won't

get a refund.

Just lots of learning from doing this, like so many times.

How many years have I done this?

Oh, at least five years in a row.

Probably more.

Probably more like, oh, what's 20, 19?

Oh my God, seven years.

And I've done it like twice a year.

So yeah,

so anyway, it's probably.

Yeah, but anyway, so they are beautiful T

shirts.

Like they are going to make that little queer cutie you've got a crush on very happy if you

buy them a T shirt.

So yeah, please, please, please that and also

give it a share on social media.

That would just be so appreciated because,

yeah, it's just hard with the algorithm in it.

Especially if you put refugee or Calais in the

caption.

You just get like buried.

So, yeah, if you can kind of promote it forward, the emails I send out,

it would just mean the world to me.

Okay.

And then the other sexy merchandise that you want to get your hands on is for a crew called

Nobody's Herbals.

So I'm going to talk about them in a second.

But basically they've got a Herbal Resistance

calendar.

Don't all come at once.

Can I say that it's right, it's my show, I can say what I want.

Sorry, this is a really weird episode.

I am like tired.

Okay. You know like when,

if you have children,

when you're like, child gets like tired and then they just start.

My ex's mum calls it, he's going over the top, he's gone.

I'm like that.

I'm like so tired that I've just like gone

into like silliness land.

But basically this calendar is like ******* sexy.

So there's like different illustrations for each month with like herbal themes.

We've got like mushrooms growing out of like police cars,

like different routes, like people in balaclavas.

Obviously it's, it's giving me like strong Euro punk anarchist vibes but like of the

beautiful aesthetic kind.

And it's just like.

Yeah, it's just really, it's just really gorgeous.

Like I really need to order my own copy.

But yeah, so the calendars are available and then they also have these large T shirts with

someone like running through a kind of forest and there's like mountains and then they've

like cut a fence and then there's herbs growing.

Obviously there's herbs growing up the fence but it says uncage, the land migration is our

nature.

Oh and they're so gorgeous.

I wish I wore like normal T shirts but I'm

gonna buy one and then kind of like try and fem modify it.

Like I'm not gonna lie, I just like a SK Skinny fit tea.

But yeah, they're really, really beautiful T shirts.

And also the previous design, maybe you've seen it on my Instagram,

is also available which is like,

I can't remember what it says.

Like your walls, borders plants won't follow

your law in order with like a Bulgarian cop car covered in plants.

So you're getting the vibe.

But they're really, really beautiful.

And again,

please share the out of them.

So basically they're fundraising for a project

called no Borders Herbals.

So I have talked about them before and, and I've put them on the website and you're

actually able to donate to them via my website as well.

Like that's where the original text was.

But now they've got their own sexy website and it is sexy.

I mean like caps lock ******* sexy.

So I'll read the blur, but it says, yeah, no

Borders Herbals is a self organised grassroot network of medicine makers, growers, foragers,

community organisers and solidarians sourcing, skill sharing, making and distributing herbal

medicine to people facing border violence on the so called Balkan route.

So yeah, so they are basically like at zero of like funds right now.

But the.

Yeah the plans or like they've been doing like

so much stuff like in terms of like building that infrastructure, building that research,

like testing out different packs to use, like distributing things.

And it's quite hard to talk about the project because like as a kind of region solidarity

work is like extremely criminalised.

Like you know, like people do get arrested in

France and stuff.

And it's not that it's not criminalised but like it's kind of like next level more so I

don't want to say like underground but I just mean like yeah, it's kind of harder in terms

of like anti oppression to organise there particularly because like the far right and

stuff is like so strong and yeah,

just kind of like migration in general is like so heavily criminalised so.

But yeah, but they've been doing like all sorts of stuff on the ground which again can't

really easily talk about but lots has been happening and again super grassroots like

project need your support and they've got the same order deadline as us.

So 29th November, get your order in.

By then if you live in a squat, if you're part

of a distro, order 10 t shirts, do you know, I mean you'll be able to sell them on.

Just support it if you can and again re share it on social media if you don't mind.

Okay, this has literally been a podcast of shameless plugs but I've got one more and I

guess this is the one that is.

Is.

Well they're all really close to my heart actually.

But this is about my friend Kev in prison.

So yeah, if anyone's followed me for a long

time, you'll have heard me talk about Kev.

And you know I get, we get the odd picture of us together on a visit which is lovely.

But yeah, basically it would be a really long show if I talked about his case in detail.

But the very short version is he is living in a close supervision centre which is a prison

within a prison.

It's literally a prison within a prison.

Like when you visit it is, is a tiny building with like razor wire and like wire like over

the top of it and walls around it within like the bigger prison unit.

And the regime is really, really, really full on in terms of solitary confinement.

So yeah, like Kev,

I won't.

I'm not going to go into his whole case

because like I've literally got 10 more minutes of childcare.

I'll put a link to his website in the show.

Notes, notes.

But long story,

like shouldn't be in prison.

Has like resisted conditions in the prison

system which has led him to experience really intense repression in the system.

Like he's racialized.

Like it's all to do with like the prison

officers union and like the embedded racism in prisons.

But basically he's in really intense solitary confinement and it's just like worse than it

thing.

So yeah, the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur.

I don't know how to Say it.

But they literally did a report about Kev and

the conditions of cses of saying it's like one of the like worst kind of regimes of solitary

confinement they've like come across.

So yeah, he's basically like spending like several days like not getting out of the cell.

And yeah, like if you can imagine living in a two by two room for like hours and hours and

hours at a time, it's brut.

And it's very intentional in terms of the regime and how they are restricting people so

not letting certain prisoners out with other prisoners, restricting time in the courtyard,

restricting time doing other activities, cancelling visits left, right and centre.

Yeah, and just kind of having these really long kind of lockdowns where he's just not

getting out and he's obviously going stir crazy.

So yeah,

please just take like two seconds to fill in this Action Network thing.

You basically pop your contact details in and it automatically emails the prison.

I'm not like one of these people that's like, this is illegal, this is not illegal but like

it is an illegal regime.

Like they are not following their prison

service kind of rules, they're not following human rights law.

Like they are just basically torturing him because they ******* can.

And there needs to be much more, more organised resistance to that.

And I probably feel a lot of grief about,

yeah, my kind of struggles in terms of like consistently organising prisoner solidarity.

Now I've got a son like on my own and all this but like basically he really needs your

support and if you can get involved in a group, like I work for example,

the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee, which is like a kind of prisoner support crew

within the industrial works of the world, the iww, which are kind of like, like they can't

call themselves an anarchist union but like pretty much everyone involved is an anarchist

and they do lots of workplace organising and agitation and different things.

So yeah, if you want to kind of get involved in a crew that's like organising support for

Kev more consistently, then they are a great group to join.

But yeah, if you've only got two seconds, please just like fill in this Action Network

thing.

I would really, really appreciate that because it is unbearable seeing someone you love just.

Yeah, getting treated so horrifically in prison.

So yeah, I would appreciate that.

Oh my days.

Have I got any other updates? I don't think so.

I'm gonna be.

Have I got any other updates? I don't think so right now other than just

like all out with this like merchandise and promotions and Christmas capitalism of like

promoting this much.

But,

yeah, we really need, like,

something needs to change with this fundraising malarkey.

I am exhausted from not having having resources to do stuff,

and, you know, I'm super resourced compared to most.

But watch this space.

For my Frontline Herbalism membership.

I have been working on it a lot in the evenings.

And,

yeah, part of why I've paused my clinic is I just want to give it my kind of full energy

and attention just to, yeah, create something where there can be that kind of, like,

recurring,

like, revenue kind of like sustaining projects and where,

yeah, loads of people could learn these skills in like, like herbal street medicine and

disaster response and community herbalism.

And we can have, like, guest teachers and

learn from, like, a bunch of people.

And. Yeah, I'm just so excited about it.

And I'm going to be working on the sales page

soon, so people can join the waiting list.

But I'm done selling T shirts.

This girl's out.

So, yeah, I just want to raise money to make happen.

And I'm just excited about it and I'm passionate about herbalism.

And I'm gonna stop talking now because my little one is on his way back.

But thank you for listening.

I promise I will be back soon with the episode

to finish off the sleep series.

And it is on my list to approach more people

to do some interviews.

There's like, a bunch of people that have said yes, but we just haven't been able to, like,

nail the interview.

But I just.

Yeah, I really want to have more people on the show.

So if you're interested in that, drop me an email as well.

Okay. Thanks for listening.

I will put everything in the show.

Notes, please buy a T shirt, please share everything on social media.

The action alert for Kev.

And I appreciate you pre.

Please take care of yourself through this

******* virus season.

And, yeah, sending lots of love.

Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline

Herbalism podcast.

You can find the transcript, the links, all

the resources from the show@solidarity apothecary.org podcast.