The mission of the Solidarity Apothecary is to materially support revolutionary struggles and communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy, self-defence and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.
This episode shares some of the Solidarity Apothecary’s plans for 2025!
Links & resources from this episode
Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/
Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.
Transcript
Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host Nicole Rose from the
Nicole:Solidarity Apothecary.
Nicole:This is your place for all things plants and
Nicole:liberation.
Nicole:Let's get started.
Nicole:Hello. Welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast.
Nicole:It is nice to be back on the microphone.
Nicole:I hope you listened to the kind of 2024 review
Nicole:post where I went over different things that happened with the Solidarity Apothecary.
Nicole:This little post is just like a kind of continuation from that.
Nicole:So every year I kind of publish my goals publicly to kind of create accountability for
Nicole:the apothecary, you know, and includes.
Nicole:Include some personal stuff in there.
Nicole:But yeah, the mission of the Solidarity Apothecary is to materially support
Nicole:revolutionary struggles and communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective
Nicole:autonomy, self defense and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.
Nicole:And yeah, as I'm recording this, the fires are raging in Los Angeles and yeah, I'm just
Nicole:sending all my love and strength to people there.
Nicole:I know different herbalists are kind of mobilizing to support people with kind of
Nicole:herbs for the respiratory system who are obviously in recovery and kind of out of the
Nicole:crisis, like who've evacuated.
Nicole:But yeah, I just, it just feels like more important than ever to do, do this work and to
Nicole:focus on how the hell we're gonna be adapting to climate change, you know, in our
Nicole:communities.
Nicole:But I digress.
Nicole:So yeah, I just want to share this post.
Nicole:So I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to where this post is written so you can check
Nicole:that out and I'll just.
Nicole:Yeah, I'll just kind of read through it.
Nicole:And in the next episode I'm gonna go through all of the kind of current Solidarity
Nicole:Apothecary authorings.
Nicole:So they're like all in one place.
Nicole:So yeah, please make sure you check that out as well.
Nicole:And then I will be back.
Nicole:Proper herbal content.
Nicole:I'm going to be doing a series about herbs for
Nicole:sustaining resistance.
Nicole:Excuse me.
Nicole:Or for folks who are struggling with burnout
Nicole:who are trying to like challenge this up world in different ways.
Nicole:And yeah, I know that takes a lot of emotional, physical, energetic energy, all the
Nicole:things.
Nicole:So yeah, we're going to be looking at some kind of plant allies that can support us
Nicole:through those challenging times.
Nicole:Okay, so 2025, major focus.
Nicole:So the kind of overarching focus of the year
Nicole:is to invest in the Solidarity Apothecary ecosystem and long term offerings.
Nicole:So what does that mean in practice? It means developing systems and structures.
Nicole:So this is like my jam for 2025 is like how to improve all of these systems.
Nicole:Because, you know, like, systems work can sometimes feel like a bit of a luxury of like,
Nicole:it's not urgent, it's not like right in front of your nose.
Nicole:Um, but they are ultimately things that we invest in that help us kind of like function
Nicole:better functions, function more strategically, reduce time and energy, like going forward.
Nicole:Um, and as I've got my little Bubba, like, I need to be more and more strategic about
Nicole:getting everything organized.
Nicole:And you know, I'm quite an organized,
Nicole:systematic person, but I just, yeah, I'm longing for a bit more structure.
Nicole:Um, so, yeah, what are the plans? I'm going to be creating a
Nicole:learning.solidarityapothecary.org website.
Nicole:Actually I'm going to be pay my beloved techies who are called autonomic who do.
Nicole:I mean, I do like the website content stuff, but they do all the like, amazing, hey, my
Nicole:website's broken, please fix it stuff for me and developmental stuff.
Nicole:So yeah, we're going to be creating like a dedicated website.
Nicole:So if you've enrolled in an online course, for example, then it's going to be much easier for
Nicole:you to access that content.
Nicole:Much more sort of streamlined with different instructions and yeah, clear overview of
Nicole:lessons and things.
Nicole:It's going to be really nice.
Nicole:I mean, if you've logged into the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress course, you can see
Nicole:that, you know, it's pretty well, well laid out and.
Nicole:But yeah, I just kind of want to make that like a separate thing because my website's
Nicole:getting a bit heavy ensuring all systems are set up for book sales which fund the prisoners
Nicole:herbal work.
Nicole:So if you didn't know, the books that I sell, Prisoners Herbal, the coloring book,
Nicole:Overcoming Burnout, Herbalism and State Violence, like all of the kind of income from
Nicole:those books funds everything I do in terms of making medicine, distributing it, distributing
Nicole:prisoners herbals to people around the world.
Nicole:And let me tell you, postage is inexpensive.
Nicole:Thankfully printing is like fairly affordable
Nicole:and active distribution are amazing at kind of fronting the costs for us.
Nicole:But yeah, every time someone is requesting a book in the U.S.
Nicole:for example, we're posting it from the U.K.
Nicole:which is not strategic.
Nicole:And I know we need to get a whole pallet of books to the U.S. it's just, yeah, that was
Nicole:what was happening happening originally but hasn't happened in a fair while.
Nicole:And again it's all this stuff that I want to sort out.
Nicole:So I want to get all their ebooks sorted as well with like an online distributor so that
Nicole:they can kind of get to, like, other platforms.
Nicole:And yeah, I won't say too much because I haven't signed the contract, but a certain
Nicole:radical publisher has contacted me about publishing the Herbalism and State Violence
Nicole:book and the Prisoners Herbal Books, which would be ******* amazing because it would mean
Nicole:someone else can do all the printing and posting and, yeah, would make it much more
Nicole:accessible for getting books to prisoners.
Nicole:So watch this space.
Nicole:With that, completing the redesign of our
Nicole:Prisoners Herbal database and reconnecting with folks who've received books to see if
Nicole:they can distribute more.
Nicole:So I'm Sitting on about 800 prisoners herbals, I think, at the moment.
Nicole:And, yeah, I would really like to get them into people in prison before doing another
Nicole:kind of print run.
Nicole:This is a thing like, once you've got rid of all the books, you're like, yay, we did the
Nicole:thing.
Nicole:And then it's like, okay, we'll do another
Nicole:print run.
Nicole:This happened like three times in a row.
Nicole:But, yeah, someone who I've been kind of, yeah, paying basically to help with my.
Nicole:To help with my emails a couple of hours a week, Chantelle just.
Nicole:Hello.
Nicole:If you're listening to this from Herbs, Fruits
Nicole:and Remedies, she's been updating this kind of database that we have of prisoner herbal books
Nicole:and just making it much kind of like clearer and more structured so that it will be easier
Nicole:to come back to a prisoner family member who requested a book and be like, hey, can we
Nicole:double check that the book got through?
Nicole:Because obviously prisons stop a lot of books getting in.
Nicole:Do you need an.
Nicole:Anything else?
Nicole:Like, could the prisoner write a testimonial? Do they have any friends that want a copy?
Nicole:We can, like, reconnect with all the prisoner book projects that have taken loads of us.
Nicole:Loads off us, like, historically and yeah, just kind of make the whole thing a bit more.
Nicole:A bit more structured, a little less ad hoc.
Nicole:Investing in my herb shed.
Nicole:So I have a beloved herb shed which is like
Nicole:the size of a big kitchen.
Nicole:It's amazing.
Nicole:And yeah, it's.
Nicole:I built it when my granddad died and left me some money, which is what I bought the shed
Nicole:with.
Nicole:And I bought my van with, which I also need to
Nicole:sell.
Nicole:So if anyone wants a Mazda Bongo that's 1080,000 miles, let me know.
Nicole:It's probably not worth much anymore, but, yeah, they need the income and it's a
Nicole:beautiful van.
Nicole:And unfortunately, I don't know if the Calais
Nicole:project are able to take it on or want to take it on, so might have to sell it privately.
Nicole:Please send me an email if you're interested and you're in the uk.
Nicole:But yeah, anyway, investing in my herb shed.
Nicole:So I'm thinking about maybe organizing
Nicole:building like a second storage shed.
Nicole:I also want to kind of improve the INV system,
Nicole:make it kind of less in my head and more that like, if I needed to like bring someone on
Nicole:board to be some sort of like dispensing assistant, for example, then they could just
Nicole:like know exactly where everything is, how much we've got of everything.
Nicole:I could know which glycerites I need to make, for example.
Nicole:You know, like, everything has just been in my head for such a long time of like, I know
Nicole:exactly what I'm running out of all the time.
Nicole:And yeah, no one's brain should have to kind of hold that much information.
Nicole:So I want to improve my system.
Nicole:I want to tighten up my GMP practices, my good
Nicole:manufacturing practices.
Nicole:You know, they're not too bad for like someone that's kind of like, you know, I'm very on it
Nicole:with more kind of prescriptions that I give to clients, but I'm less, you know, rigorous with
Nicole:other sort of DIY projects.
Nicole:And I just want the whole thing to be kind of like solid.
Nicole:Redesigning my herb garden.
Nicole:So I've got this amazing herb garden that is
Nicole:like completely neglected and I just, I look at it with so much sadness and grief about not
Nicole:being able to managed it.
Nicole:And I think ultimately the design of it was wrong at the beginning.
Nicole:But you obviously only learn that a few years in.
Nicole:So I'd like to redesign the whole thing with much bigger paths, much kind of bigger raised
Nicole:beds.
Nicole:If you love growing herbs and you are good at herb garden design, I would actually be
Nicole:genuinely interested in maybe paying someone to help with it because I just don't have the
Nicole:time or head space to do it at the moment.
Nicole:But it's just, yeah, such a big part of not only teaching people about herbalism, but
Nicole:just, you know, feeling connected to plants.
Nicole:You know, my background is in sort of community food growing and horticulture and
Nicole:stuff.
Nicole:So it's like I feel sad that I'm doing less of
Nicole:that stuff, if that makes sense.
Nicole:And yeah, it's something I can do with the baby as well when he's a bit bigger is
Nicole:gardening and stuff.
Nicole:So email templates.
Nicole:So systematizing my inbox with different filters and templates to make it kind of
Nicole:easier to manage, you know, easier for Chantal to manage.
Nicole:I also want to sort of document more of my procedures, you know, in the Kind of geeky
Nicole:world.
Nicole:They call them like standard operating
Nicole:procedures, SOPs, but like just basic things of how I do things like sending newsletters or
Nicole:updating my website or you know, like really getting all my medicine recipes.
Nicole:Like one of the things I'm doing with the glycerites is like writing down the exact
Nicole:amount of time and temperature it's taking to make them so that it's easier for someone
Nicole:else.
Nicole:Like I could trust someone else to.
Nicole:To do it, if that makes sense.
Nicole:And yeah, and so that's kind of all the system stuff and then investing energy in creating
Nicole:long term offerings.
Nicole:So I am working on this course at the moment called do no Harm, which is like a
Nicole:comprehensive introduction to kind of clinical safety and herbal like safety for, excuse me,
Nicole:for like grassroots herbalists and also like kind of quote unquote clinical herbalists.
Nicole:And we're going to be looking at that binary in the course.
Nicole:But it is, yeah, I think that so many people want to do amazing community work and they
Nicole:feel restricted because either they don't feel like quote unquote qualified enough or yeah,
Nicole:there may be a herbalist, but they don't feel like competent enough, for example.
Nicole:And like I want to create a resource where like you feel very confident in your practice
Nicole:of actually you are really supporting people and you know in your bones when you need to
Nicole:refer.
Nicole:So there's like a whole module all about red flags.
Nicole:Like this is something we've talked about in Cali, like so much is like there's one thing
Nicole:knowing, okay, this cough syrup that I've made is like unlikely to harm anyone.
Nicole:There's another thing triaging people and missing someone that's got potential TB for
Nicole:example.
Nicole:So it's kind of like yeah, how we manage red
Nicole:flags, like looking at some of the kind of medic, different categories of medication, you
Nicole:know, what are our absolute no nos that can keep us safe.
Nicole:And also like how can we do harm by not practicing herbalism?
Nicole:Right.
Nicole:And what does kind of like more community
Nicole:grassroots herbalism? Like what, what does that look like?
Nicole:What's in our scope of practice for that?
Nicole:So yeah, every night when he goes to sleep, and he Normally sleeps between 6 and 7, I then
Nicole:spend 2 hours on my phone working on it, just kind of doing bullet points, ready to make the
Nicole:slides and researching things and bits and bobs.
Nicole:Yeah. So it's gonna take a long time at that rate, but I think it will be a really good
Nicole:offering to f.
Nicole:Um. And yeah, another thing on the sort of horizon for like this winter is like this kind
Nicole:of frontline herbalism kind of membership or learning community, as I'm phrasing it, which
Nicole:is going to be bringing together kind of different online courses about like herbal
Nicole:preparedness, herbal first aid, like action medic work, herbalism and stay violence, like,
Nicole:you know, some of the things I've already done.
Nicole:And making that kind of content accessible to people for one sort of like monthly price.
Nicole:And again, like, no one will be turned away for lack of funds, like all of my offer
Nicole:offerings.
Nicole:But yeah, having like an option for people to subscribe and kind of engage in that content
Nicole:at their own pace.
Nicole:But then also having like a community aspect,
Nicole:bringing in a bunch of like more experienced herbalists or differently experienced
Nicole:herbalists, herbalists that have experience working with like unhoused folks or harm
Nicole:reduction projects to do kind of like individual, like webinars or workshops with
Nicole:people in that community.
Nicole:I want to have like a whole sort of decolonizing herbalism series with people from
Nicole:different kind of herbal lineages talking about kind of herbalism in their context and
Nicole:stuff.
Nicole:And then like a community care, like, thread
Nicole:series where we're looking at herbalism for like different groups of people.
Nicole:And then, yeah, having these kind of standalone courses and then having like a call
Nicole:a month where we can like really coach people on, like, who want to start new projects.
Nicole:Like, hey, I want to start a free clinic.
Nicole:Like, how do I do that?
Nicole:And then everyone participating can share their knowledge and learn from them.
Nicole:And, you know, if it went well, it could create like a nice kind of like steady stream
Nicole:of income to fund, like, the apothecary's work to fund other grassroots herbal projects, you
Nicole:know, like the mobile herbal clinic in Calais, for example.
Nicole:And yeah, that's just a dream.
Nicole:Like, I think I love the herbalism, PTSD and
Nicole:traumatic stress course, but the kind of launch, like feast and famine model is like
Nicole:quite kind of stressful.
Nicole:And it also means, like, people aren't accessing those courses for like several
Nicole:months at the time who maybe need them.
Nicole:But yeah, so this is all in progress.
Nicole:I'm just beavering away at it like a little
Nicole:mouse on my phone in the evenings when the baby's asleep.
Nicole:But yeah, watch this space.
Nicole:I also want to focus on, like, increasing enrollment and things that already exist.
Nicole:So I really want to kind of up the enrollment in the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress
Nicole:course.
Nicole:I really want to increase the amount of people that are signing up for the glycerin workshop,
Nicole:especially people that pay for it.
Nicole:That would be great.
Nicole:So, yeah, I Just kind of want to make the most of things that are already there, increase the
Nicole:kind of book sales and like, build my newsletter list because, you know, that's how
Nicole:I can put out calls for solidarity.
Nicole:It's also how I can generate donations and people doing action alerts for people in
Nicole:prison and stuff.
Nicole:And also, you know, like, selling you the
Nicole:things.
Nicole:So. Yeah. And then, yeah, just kind of like, that's all the kind of, I guess, like, online
Nicole:things.
Nicole:But I also want to, like, continue on with the kind of, like, important aspects of the
Nicole:solidarity apothecary.
Nicole:So continuing to respond to requests for
Nicole:herbal care packages, and I'm going to be talking about them more soon.
Nicole:Continuing to post out prisoners herbal books to folks in prison, teaching their practical
Nicole:medicine, making intensives, which I'll talk about more in the next episode.
Nicole:Creating regular podcast episodes.
Nicole:So, like, I think I mentioned this before, but
Nicole:I have literally just surrendered to the fact that interviews are really, really hard while
Nicole:I'm trying to breastfeed and do, like, contact naps with Lee.
Nicole:So, yeah, I might have to just do more sort of like solo series like this until Lee is older.
Nicole:Yeah. But I would love to do some seasons this year, like, particularly about herbs and harm
Nicole:reduction.
Nicole:You might have heard at the beginning of the review episode that, yeah, been in the kind of
Nicole:throes of it with active addiction in terms of my partner relapsing with heroin during my
Nicole:pregnancy, which was just like, horrific timing for both of us in terms of finances and
Nicole:instability and anxiety and things.
Nicole:And yeah, he went to rehab for six weeks and he's out and he's doing amazing.
Nicole:He's going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings every single day.
Nicole:He's, like, doing therapy with the rehab.
Nicole:Like, he's doing so good.
Nicole:And, you know, when it's the right time, we want to do a kind of series where we'll be
Nicole:interviewing people he knows from the rehab and other projects and sort of NA and stuff.
Nicole:Like, not as representatives of NA as it's kind of anonymous.
Nicole:But, yeah, we're going to be interviewing different people and we're going to do like a
Nicole:big fundraiser for his rehab, which is a charity who are really struggling financially.
Nicole:And I wanted to kind of bring in like, the herbalism stuff with that.
Nicole:I also want to do a series about herbalism and climate change because it just feels so
Nicole:important.
Nicole:So. Yeah. Any recommendations for guests is welcome.
Nicole:You know, I have also thought about, is there anyone that could, for example, do other
Nicole:interviews that we could publish on this podcast, you know, with like, radical
Nicole:Herbalism projects around the world and stuff.
Nicole:Like, you know, I want it as a platform to still be useful.
Nicole:Just because I'm limited doesn't mean that it should be limited, if that makes sense.
Nicole:Anyway, and I've written here on this blog, I'm trying so hard not to indulge in shiny
Nicole:object syndrome by getting excited about new projects before systematizing existing ones.
Nicole:Gemini Ascendant, anyone?
Nicole:This is like classic Nicole.
Nicole:I am Aquarian with a Gemini Ascendant and a moon in Capricorn, which means I get stuff
Nicole:done but I also have like a billion one ideas that take me in like all the directions.
Nicole:So yeah, anyway, these are the like sneaky things I would really love to do if I can do
Nicole:everything I've mentioned already and if I'm able to organize child care.
Nicole:So I haven't been seeing like one to one clients because it's very time consuming.
Nicole:It's really not very well paid.
Nicole:Like I basically often do it unpaid to support
Nicole:people like prisoner families and things.
Nicole:And I, you know, I subsidize my time with the PTSD money.
Nicole:So it's not like it's completely unpaid.
Nicole:But I just mean like if I've only got two afternoons a week with childcare and I would
Nicole:maybe be able to see like a couple of people a day with that like in the afternoon.
Nicole:So it just doesn't feel like possible.
Nicole:But I would really love like in the autumn to create like a group program for burnt out
Nicole:organizers where we could like come together in a collective way.
Nicole:Shout out to Attica Apothecary because I've been like swooning over their model for this
Nicole:and I need to ask them some questions about how it all works.
Nicole:But yeah, basically like a kind almost like a group coaching program.
Nicole:Program, but I hate the word coaching.
Nicole:But yeah, but having like group calls and like
Nicole:everyone for example is like taking different nervines or taking herbs to sleep and then we
Nicole:all come together and talk about it or we're all trying to implement changes in our diets
Nicole:for example.
Nicole:Yeah. Just to create kind of community and accountability.
Nicole:And I was thinking if it's for like organizer types and there would be this like
Nicole:relationship building across different movements which could be super, super nice.
Nicole:So yeah, that's on the back burner.
Nicole:I also there's a new project near me in Glastonbury called the People's Apothecary and
Nicole:yeah, they're operating at Bridie's Yard.
Nicole:I'm not sure if it's like officially launched yet.
Nicole:But anyway, they contacted me about being involved somehow and I've been thinking like,
Nicole:could I do that like one afternoon a month for example, just see people like for free as part
Nicole:of a free clinic.
Nicole:So yeah, that's a. Maybe, maybe seeing one to one clients again.
Nicole:I've also wondered if kind of finances and time allow about developing these like
Nicole:workbooks for prisoners.
Nicole:So like loads of people want to continue doing
Nicole:a distance learning program in, in herbalism and I just.
Nicole:It just hasn't happened basically.
Nicole:Well, there's been like little inter iterations of it but nothing kind of
Nicole:consistent.
Nicole:So I had wondered about working with people to
Nicole:put together kind of workbooks that we could send to someone in prison that they could like
Nicole:work through slowly and yeah, be involved in some kind of herbal harm reduction project
Nicole:locally.
Nicole:So yeah, who knows what that could look like.
Nicole:It's just something I'm like more and more
Nicole:passionate about now after all my experiences with my partner and stuff.
Nicole:Okay. Beyond the solidarity apothecary, other organizing goals so supporting the mobile
Nicole:herbal clinic to receive £3,000 per month in monthly supporters.
Nicole:I've just got the text sorted on the website, I've got a graphic ready to go and I just,
Nicole:yeah, I'm going to be sending that to the newsletter soon but I would just love it if
Nicole:people could donate like once a month to the clinic.
Nicole:I mean if we had enough people doing that then the project could kind of continue
Nicole:indefinitely and that would just be so incredible.
Nicole:Organizing an online prisoner solidarity training.
Nicole:I've done like several face to face prisoner solidarity trainings with different
Nicole:collectives over a really long time and I just would love to make that as like a more online
Nicole:resource, you know, and collaborate with a bunch of people to make that happen and have
Nicole:like different workshops on different things.
Nicole:Continue to amplify calls for solidarity on my networks.
Nicole:I've mentioned my partner's fundraiser personal goals.
Nicole:Get fit Postpartum, you know, pregnancy really changes your body and I'm trying really hard
Nicole:to love myself and know that I've just literally grown a ******* human.
Nicole:And that's amazing.
Nicole:But it also feels disorientating not feeling
Nicole:like strong and not feeling like kind of athletic or like how I've been historically.
Nicole:So yeah, I would like to get more physically fit.
Nicole:I think it would help my mental health a lot as well.
Nicole:Get to more local things, make more local friends.
Nicole:Because yeah, traveling to Bristol just isn't.
Nicole:Is impossible really.
Nicole:Like with Lee it's just.
Nicole:Yeah, it's just really far in the car and he
Nicole:hates the car.
Nicole:So I'm trying to figure that stuff out.
Nicole:Need to build my confidence in getting out of the house with Lee more.
Nicole:I want to participate in some family kind of Al Anon type meetings.
Nicole:And yeah, when me and Rob go to Cornwall in the summer, I really want to get some time in
Nicole:the ocean because I miss it.
Nicole:And I want to develop my skills in surfing, which are zero right now.
Nicole:And yeah, paddleboard and stuff.
Nicole:And then learning pathway goals.
Nicole:I want to enroll in like a functional medicine training.
Nicole:I want to complete my kind of foot health diploma course.
Nicole:And yeah, my word of the year is root systems.
Nicole:So, yeah, it's all about growing these roots, getting everything stronger, getting
Nicole:everything systematized so that when I do have more capacity and energy out of this kind of
Nicole:baby phase, then yeah, things will hopefully flourish more.
Nicole:But please get in touch if anything that you've heard now is like, oh, that sounds
Nicole:interesting.
Nicole:I'd like to maybe do that with Nicole or with
Nicole:the Apothecary.
Nicole:I'd love to hear from you.
Nicole:And yeah, definitely messages on Instagram and stuff are much easier for me than emails at
Nicole:the moment.
Nicole:But yeah, thanks for listening.
Nicole:And the next episode is going to be all about
Nicole:out the kind of offerings of the Apothecary.
Nicole:Okay, take care.
Nicole:Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.
Nicole:You can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the
Nicole:show@solidarityapothecary.org podcast.