Three exciting announcements from Nicole Rose and the Solidarity Apothecary.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism podcast with your host, Nicole Rose from the Solidarity Apothecary.
Nicole Rose:This is your place for all things plants and liberation.
Nicole Rose:Let's get started.
Nicole Rose:Welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast.
Nicole Rose:I have got a bunch of exciting announcements for you today from the Solidarity Apothecary.
Nicole Rose:I just thought it'd be easier just to do like a standalone episode talking about all the things and yeah.
Nicole Rose:The first one is I am teaching a practical medicine making course.
Nicole Rose:It's gonna start on Friday, the 30th of June, and it's for three days and finishes.
Nicole Rose:, in the afternoon of Sunday, 3rd of July, or kind of early evening time.
Nicole Rose:I really wanted to get this live sooner, but I had this kind of virus, which I mentioned a little bit before, and I was a little bit like.
Nicole Rose:Or have I got the energy to do this?
Nicole Rose:I'm not sure, but really need the money.
Nicole Rose:But yeah, I've just decided just to do it because I think it's gonna be absolutely amazing.
Nicole Rose:People are always mithering me to do practical courses and I'm always like a little bit too tapped out.
Nicole Rose:, back in my old life I used to be part of a workers' co-op and we had this kind of like funding to organize, , popular education around community food growing.
Nicole Rose:So I used to literally organize courses for a job and I got so burnt out for from it.
Nicole Rose:Like I just couldn't hack it anymore.
Nicole Rose:Like all the kind of, , kind of customer service stuff of like everyone's requests and needs and just like I am like quite an introvert.
Nicole Rose:I know people don't think I am cuz I'm like, well loud and brash, but actually like, I really love my own time and, , anyway, this is a right, right.
Nicole Rose:rant on the side.
Nicole Rose:Anyway, I've decided just to do it because I think it is gonna be tons of fun.
Nicole Rose:And most importantly, I think the people that come will come away with knowing how to do fucking shit loads of things in terms of medicine making.
Nicole Rose:, so we're gonna be learning how to make tinctures.
Nicole Rose:, so that's like, , herbs kind of infused in alcohol.
Nicole Rose:We're gonna be looking at just this like folk method of tincture making and also how to do it like weight to volume where you're measuring everything.
Nicole Rose:, we're gonna look at glycerites, like there's nowhere really to learn how to make effective glycerites.
Nicole Rose:If I'm honest.
Nicole Rose:I've got my online course, which is amazing.
Nicole Rose:You can check that out.
Nicole Rose:That's like a little workshop.
Nicole Rose:, But yeah, in terms of getting stuck in like face to face, we're gonna be trying loads of samples.
Nicole Rose:We're gonna be making like warm infused glycerites over the weekend, like over the 48 hours with single herbs, dried herbs, fresh herbs, combined herbs like you're gonna get to just experiment and try everything.
Nicole Rose:And we're also gonna be making like beautiful kind of cold glycerites, like rose petal and lemon barn glycerites.
Nicole Rose:We're gonna be making infused oils.
Nicole Rose:So I'm gonna show you how to make, , this amazing infused lavender oil, which is like super simple process.
Nicole Rose:, and the lavender oil that we make, you're gonna be able to take some home.
Nicole Rose:And we're also gonna use that for people experiencing repression.
Nicole Rose:, we're also gonna learn how to make infused oils with the kind of like warm methods, like with boundaries and slow cookers.
Nicole Rose:, and then we're gonna look at how you make ointments from these infused oils.
Nicole Rose:So how do you combine oil and wax effectively?
Nicole Rose:You know, what are the good ratios?
Nicole Rose:, you know, how do you add the essential oils, stuff like this.
Nicole Rose:, we're gonna look at vinegars like again, the warm method and the cold, kind of like slow infusion methods.
Nicole Rose:Some of the nuances between vinegars versus, , you know, glycerites and tins and things.
Nicole Rose:And then we're also gonna look at how to make cough syrup.
Nicole Rose:So I make cough syrup with glycerine, but I combine it with like a wonderful, like marshmallow gloop.
Nicole Rose:, so we're gonna be learning how to make the gloop effectively, how to make it nice and thick and delicious so that it's soothing and amazing for mucous membranes and how to strain that out and combine it with glycerine, you know, how long does it last, like things that can go wrong.
Nicole Rose:We're also gonna be looking at how to make, , lozenges so combining like glycerine and powders so that you can make things that are especially great for digestive health.
Nicole Rose:, and yeah, it's all gonna be on the land where I live, which is this like amazing small holding that is my stepdad's, kind of small holding.
Nicole Rose:And my, me and my mom live here and I moved in a long time ago after prison, even though I was like, I'm never gonna live with my mom again.
Nicole Rose:Like, I left home at 16.
Nicole Rose:But, , yeah, I've never left ever since.
Nicole Rose:And it is absolutely beautiful.
Nicole Rose:Like, you'll have an amazing time.
Nicole Rose:Like there's wonderful facilities.
Nicole Rose:, there's like camping, there's like a beautiful nature reserve behind the house with an amazing hill.
Nicole Rose:There's hot showers and my mum is offering to do the catering, so she's like an incredible kind of like self-taught, like wholesome food person now.
Nicole Rose:, so it's not gonna be anything fancy, but it's like really nice, like plant-based meals and yeah.
Nicole Rose:And obviously it's really nice to be able to like pay her and support her in that work.
Nicole Rose:, but you know, you're also able to not.
Nicole Rose:Not pay for food and accommodation.
Nicole Rose:So accommodation is only 10 pounds a night.
Nicole Rose:What?
Nicole Rose:The food is off the top of my head A but it's on the course page.
Nicole Rose:, so if you wanna make it a little bit cheaper and only pay the 250 for the three days for all the medicine making costs, then that's like totally okay.
Nicole Rose:I'm also like really open-minded.
Nicole Rose:For people if you need like a payment plan or something like that, like just literally drop me a message and once I've got enough people on it, like kind of 10 paying punters, then I will kind of make some announcements about , people being access it for kind of free or just donation of what they can afford.
Nicole Rose:, cuz I've kind of designed it to have like a third of the people that are there being there, like in solidarity places.
Nicole Rose:, So, yeah, I know, I know the price is like a, a lot for a lot of people, if that makes sense.
Nicole Rose:Like I'm really, really aware of it.
Nicole Rose:, but I'm also aware after, yeah, five years of teaching courses that people do pay for things like this.
Nicole Rose:They pay for retreats, they pay for events, they pay for conferences, and yeah, like I think, you know, it's.
Nicole Rose:Important to pay people, , including me, like I'm a working class femme.
Nicole Rose:Like I grew up on state support and benefits.
Nicole Rose:, didn't go to university, anything like that, you know, accessed herb school in my late twenties.
Nicole Rose:, so.
Nicole Rose:And yeah, have kind of been wrecked by PTSD most of my adult life.
Nicole Rose:So that's really affected my kind of income earning potential.
Nicole Rose:But again, this is another rant.
Nicole Rose:I'm just saying like, , yeah, like I'm aware that it's not accessible for everyone, but I've like, Crunched the numbers really accurately in terms of how much it's gonna cost for all the ingredients and supplies, which are really expensive these days.
Nicole Rose:And also like what feels like a good amount for me to be able to like take home, if that makes sense.
Nicole Rose:And that money will be invested in obviously like paying myself, but also covering a lot of my medicine, making costs.
Nicole Rose:This year because I'm about to announce some amazing herbal solidarity packages, , which isn't one of the exciting announcements today, but, , it will be soon.
Nicole Rose:So, yeah.
Nicole Rose:So just back to the course.
Nicole Rose:I know it's really short notice, , but it is gonna be amazing.
Nicole Rose:I do not teach things face-to-face very often.
Nicole Rose:It's gonna be a small group, like maximum 15 people is gonna be super practical.
Nicole Rose:Like if you wanna have that like tactile experience of.
Nicole Rose:Yeah.
Nicole Rose:What is a glycerite meant to taste like?
Nicole Rose:Or what's the difference between like a kind of strong, effective tincture and one that doesn't taste so good or, you know, what happens if there's mold here or you know, how do you dry this herb out?
Nicole Rose:Or how does it work with roots?
Nicole Rose:Like, I've literally been learning medicine making for like, Over 15 years, you know, like I obviously started this journey in prison.
Nicole Rose:And then ever since I've been experimenting and to be honest, like I've sort of learned the hard way.
Nicole Rose:Like I've learned through practice and practice and practice and making this and making that and that not working and that not working.
Nicole Rose:And like with the glycerites, it's took taken me like five years to really get on top of like the nuances of like, this really works with berries.
Nicole Rose:This really works with fresh plants.
Nicole Rose:This really works with dried roots.
Nicole Rose:, and I really hope that I can share some of those skills cuz I'm aware that there's like 1,000,001, uh, potential community projects out there that could support people to access herbal medicine.
Nicole Rose:, and people, you know, just don't have the skills.
Nicole Rose:And I think a lot of the university and training courses around herbalism, like they don't have enough room in the curriculum to really dive into the practical stuff as much as the learners would like.
Nicole Rose:So I know it'll be a really amazing asset for people studying herbal medicine, , and just anyone involved in community projects like that, you know, wanna make medicine for, for their community, for refugees, for, you know, anyone they're supporting.
Nicole Rose:Like it's such an amazing way of building kind of, , community self-defense, right?
Nicole Rose:Like making these medicines that can support our immune systems, can support our digestion, can support our nervous systems.
Nicole Rose:, and we're gonna really be looking as well at like sustainable harvesting.
Nicole Rose:You know, like how much should you take from a plant or a tree.
Nicole Rose:And also like potent medicine making, like what we're gonna really be concentrating on over the three days is like, How effective will this medicine be?
Nicole Rose:Right?
Nicole Rose:Like is the, is there like, you know, okay.
Nicole Rose:I talk about constituents a lot in course, like it is part of my herbal medicine framework is to really think about the chemicals that I'm kind of wanting to work with from that plant, but also holding space for their complexity that.
Nicole Rose:Plants are really complex, and when you take out one of the constituents and isolate it, you'll often have different side effects.
Nicole Rose:So it is about the plant as a whole, but we are really gonna be talking about like what's more effective for what, right?
Nicole Rose:Like if you harvest this herb, what is the best way to get the most potent medicine from that plant?
Nicole Rose:And I think that, again, is something that's hard to learn on your own, if that makes sense.
Nicole Rose:, and we're also gonna look at kind of medicine making systems.
Nicole Rose:So, you know, like what labels do you need to write, what records do you need to keep?
Nicole Rose:, you know, it's not gonna be like thorough like GMP style stuff, but it's gonna be like, what is good for like a home or d i y medicine maker?
Nicole Rose:how can you store medicines, for example?
Nicole Rose:And throughout the course we're gonna be looking at like, how can you make this medicine like en mass?
Nicole Rose:, You know, like, because it's one thing like making like a little kind of tincture in a jar for yourself, which is a hundred percent where I started.
Nicole Rose:And it's another thing being like, okay, how do we make 8,000 medicines to get to Ukraine?
Nicole Rose:Or how do I make like 600 ointments at once, for example?
Nicole Rose:Or you know, like, 500 cough syrups for one trip to Cali in the winter, for example.
Nicole Rose:So I'm gonna be sharing all my tricks with that.
Nicole Rose:And uh, yeah, cheeky tip buckets.
Nicole Rose:You're gonna learn a lot about buckets.
Nicole Rose:I love using like high quality food grade buckets and medicine making.
Nicole Rose:It's like my kink or something.
Nicole Rose:Okay.
Nicole Rose:So yeah, so the full cost is three twenty seven, three hundred and twenty seven pounds, but the actual cost is 250 and you're welcome to come and just pay that and not.
Nicole Rose:Stay at the site or not have food.
Nicole Rose:You're also super welcome to email me and tell me what is possible for you and we can organize some sort of payment plan.
Nicole Rose:, And then, yeah, I am gonna have like five places available for people on either really low incomes or from projects that are doing lots of medicine making, who would really benefit from it.
Nicole Rose:, so yeah, definitely just basically reach out.
Nicole Rose:Like I'm pretty flexible.
Nicole Rose:, I've had to like three, four people book now, which is really exciting, but it's not quite enough to know that it's definitely gonna happen.
Nicole Rose:, so hopefully a few more people will book.
Nicole Rose:I haven't really promoted it very hard yet, but, , yeah, and you know, in terms of doing it again, I think maybe next year I'll do it if it goes well.
Nicole Rose:, I, the rest of the summer is like super booked up where we live, so I think it's unlikely that I'm gonna do it over the summer.
Nicole Rose:Maybe it's something we could do in the winter, like in a village hall or something, but really we need the plants growing right.
Nicole Rose:To make all these different things and to harvest the medicine and stuff.
Nicole Rose:So, so yeah, that is, The first exciting announcement.
Nicole Rose:, the other exciting announcement is I am open to supporting one-to-one people, , with my Solidarity Apothecary clinic.
Nicole Rose:So I have been supporting people like, you know, like one or two people a week, , kind of one-to-one with medicine, so having a consultation and then giving them herbal recommendations and getting it in the post.
Nicole Rose:But, , I'm trying to kind of scale that up now and see more people, , and also starting to see people, , who want to like invest in a package.
Nicole Rose:So everything like, you know, in everything that I do is sliding scale.
Nicole Rose:And you can see on the website, which is clinic.solidarityapothecary.org.
Nicole Rose:, you can read all about the sliding scale and where you might fit.
Nicole Rose:There's different packages available basically.
Nicole Rose:From people, , who I'm gifting my medicine and my time to, like in solidarity.
Nicole Rose:So for example, former prisoners, , or refugees, uh, without kind of access to funds.
Nicole Rose:, and then there's kind of other packages of people with financial resources, and that means that you actually pay for all of my time, right?
Nicole Rose:So like, you know, like.
Nicole Rose:The, , time it takes to do the consultation, the time it takes to type up your notes, to do research, to plan your formulas, to get back to you with your recommendations, to decant everything in the herb shed, to go to the post office and get it in the post.
Nicole Rose:Like, you know, herbalism is like very poorly paid, underfunded invisibilized, like femme labor, like through and through.
Nicole Rose:, but I'm trying to get a little bit better of like showing how much some of this stuff costs, right?
Nicole Rose:In terms of energy and finances.
Nicole Rose:But yeah, the kind of like, Focus of the people I'm working with are often people who are kind of like frontline organizers in different ways who are kind of experiencing burnout, and I wanna support them so that they can like keep engaging in struggles for liberation for the long haul.
Nicole Rose:I burn out really badly, which people will know.
Nicole Rose:I wrote a book about it literally.
Nicole Rose:But I kind of love supporting people who are, I mean, I'm not happy that they're in the same place that I was, but I really like focusing on people who.
Nicole Rose:Are kind of at that place of like they've experienced like chronic enduring stress, whether that's emotionally, financially, physically, energetically, politically.
Nicole Rose:You know, and they're just in the depths, right?
Nicole Rose:Like they're, maybe they have chronic fatigue, they have some sort of chronic illness.
Nicole Rose:Their like psycho-emotional mental health is deteriorating.
Nicole Rose:, and yeah, like, and it's hard to find your way out, right?
Nicole Rose:And you need support.
Nicole Rose:And I think what's nice.
Nicole Rose:About one-to-one support is like, it's actually very effective.
Nicole Rose:Like I think for organizer types, like we're so obsessed with collectivity and everything is in our groups and our collective, so sometimes we can be kind of lost.
Nicole Rose:Do you know what I mean?
Nicole Rose:Sometimes we can kind of drown in everyone's else, everyone else's needs and expectations, and there's less attention on us and our body and our needs.
Nicole Rose:So I love to hold space for people of just hearing them, hearing their stories, hearing where they're at.
Nicole Rose:Recognizing their symptoms, observing their bodies, and then, you know, finding plant medicines that can support them.
Nicole Rose:, so coming up with herbal recommendations.
Nicole Rose:One thing I'm really passionate about is I always wanna explain which herbs I've chosen and why.
Nicole Rose:So I do like a kind of herbal recommendations document.
Nicole Rose:Obviously it's complete nonsense in terms of self-employment and making money, but for me, when I was really sick and I'd be seeing health practitioners and they were recommending stuff left, right, and center, like it made me feel very disorientated and disempowered because I didn't understand why I was taking something.
Nicole Rose:Or you know, why that particular herb had been chosen.
Nicole Rose:And I think it's really amazing to share with people one, so that we're not like gate keeping knowledge.
Nicole Rose:Two, so that you have some actual consent about what herb you are gonna have in your body, and three so that you can really build a relationship with that plant, you know, because that's really what is healing and amazing about herbal medicine is like actually having relationships with the land, right?
Nicole Rose:Like that is healing.
Nicole Rose:So yes, so I support organizers.
Nicole Rose:I also support people experiencing state violence.
Nicole Rose:So that's like defendants and ex prisoners and prisoner families so they can get support with some of the effects of like chronic stress and trauma.
Nicole Rose:You know, things like headaches, poor sleep, muscle pain, regular infections, nausea, et cetera.
Nicole Rose:, obviously I've taught this massive 60 lesson course on herbalism and PTs d so I do think that my sort of specialism in this field is supporting people with kind of like complex, , PTSD whose nervous systems are generally, you know, Overwhelmed and been in a state of kind of constant activation or fight or flight and working with them with herbs to help them access more parasympathetic kind of rest and digest time.
Nicole Rose:, and addressing some of those, , kind of cascading inflammatory effects in the body due to chronic stress.
Nicole Rose:Yeah, I think for me, like one of the things I really wanna offer is like a supportive space.
Nicole Rose:Like obviously, , yeah, like I have more like class awareness than a lot of people, if that makes sense, because of my childhood and stuff.
Nicole Rose:And I also, , have been through a lot of these experiences like prison for example, and, and also sorts of things.
Nicole Rose:So like, I like to kind of try and create a space without judgment.
Nicole Rose:Cuz I know from my own experiences of visiting herbalists that has often been very disempowering and triggered a lot of class stuff in me, whether it's judgment about my dietary choices or my lifestyle choices.
Nicole Rose:, for me, like I often, I've been supporting people like recovering me, like in recovery from using heroin for example.
Nicole Rose:And it's just like zero judgment space, like harm reduction focused and yeah, just constantly trying to humanize people when they've experienced like relentless, dehumanizing forces in society, if that makes sense.
Nicole Rose:So anyway, and even if you're not one of those two people and you just need some support with your health, please contact me.
Nicole Rose:I've got the energy and the interest, and.
Nicole Rose:Yeah, I really, yeah, I know I do a lot of like big political organizing and events and all this stuff, but like there is something really sacred about one-to-one support and I think so many people could have such radically different lives if certain parts of their health shifted, if that makes sense.
Nicole Rose:And yeah, it's a real tragedy when we're kind of stuck with like chronic health issues and things.
Nicole Rose:Because of like a lack of support basically.
Nicole Rose:So again, like the packages are on there, like, if that's not something you can afford and you need to talk about it, let's just talk about it.
Nicole Rose:You know, like it's, it's totally okay.
Nicole Rose:Like I wanna be supportive.
Nicole Rose:, generally I focus on supporting people in England and Wales, but yeah, I am open to seeing people further afield if they can kind of chip into the postage cross.
Nicole Rose:All right, so that was the second announcement.
Nicole Rose:I'll put the link in the show notes.
Nicole Rose:And then the third announcement is that I am going to bloody Italy this weekend.
Nicole Rose:I'm really excited.
Nicole Rose:Some comrades have translated the prison's herbal book into Italian.
Nicole Rose:Printed copies aren't quite available yet, but the tour is gonna be like promoting the book and generating interests and excitement about it and connecting with people doing prisoner support and, and like organizing in different ways around kind of political resistance, whether that's against, , like high speed railways that are destroying land bases or whether that's like, yeah, just kind of queer trans feminist organizing or prisoner support like, , yeah, the tour is gonna be awesome and I'll put a link in the show notes.
Nicole Rose:To kind of where I'll be.
Nicole Rose:, it starts off in a mi with an amazing, , d i y herbalism festival, , in Bologna.
Nicole Rose:And then, , we go to Rome and that's at a queer feminist, trans feminist squat in the city.
Nicole Rose:Gonna be talking about the prisoner's herbal and kind of like broader struggles.
Nicole Rose:And then gonna go to Milan.
Nicole Rose:And be at the Villa Occupata, which used to be Villa vegano.
Nicole Rose:Maybe people know it as that.
Nicole Rose:And look again at the Prisoner's Herbal and this, you know, the kind of connections between political struggle and herbalism and prison.
Nicole Rose:And then we're gonna go to the Susa Valley, which has been like a real hot hotbed of struggle against the Tav, like the high speed railway for decades.
Nicole Rose:And we're gonna look more at herbalism as like a kind of tool of resilience.
Nicole Rose:Look at things like burnout.
Nicole Rose:And we're also gonna be looking at struggles against borders, cuz it's kind of like a border hotspot there.
Nicole Rose:A bit like K Yeah.
Nicole Rose:And then on the Friday, , we're gonna go to do an event in Turin in the evening and yeah, that's gonna be more focused on kind of, , anti prison work and pri anti prison struggles.
Nicole Rose:, yeah, and I'm just.
Nicole Rose:So excited.
Nicole Rose:I'm gonna go there with my sweetheart, Rob, maybe you saw the Instagram post and that's looking very cute.
Nicole Rose:But yeah, we're gonna go together and , it's gonna be amazing.
Nicole Rose:Hopefully try and have a bit of a romantic time in Italy as well.
Nicole Rose:But yeah, I'm just really stoked that comrades have invited me.
Nicole Rose:It just reminds me like what a fucking honor it is.
Nicole Rose:To be able to be supported in this work and to know that people.
Nicole Rose:Getting it right.
Nicole Rose:Like they're passionate about it.
Nicole Rose:They understand like the, you know, the connections between plants and creating a different world and how can we support revolutionary struggles with plant medicines.
Nicole Rose:And when I was designing the Italy tour graphic, I found this amazing picture of this like abandoned prison.
Nicole Rose:And of course it's just like covered in plants, right?
Nicole Rose:And it just was so beautiful to me.
Nicole Rose:And, , I use the text along the edge, which is like freedom or blossom in the ashes of prisons.
Nicole Rose:And that's, yeah, that's kind of my work in the world.
Nicole Rose:So, yeah.
Nicole Rose:So the, those are the three announcements.
Nicole Rose:Please get in touch.
Nicole Rose:If you're interested in the course.
Nicole Rose:Please get in touch if you're interested in like one-to-one herbal support.
Nicole Rose:And if you are in Italy, then please share the events and please come along.
Nicole Rose:I would love to meet you.
Nicole Rose:I'm really sorry I don't speak any Italian.
Nicole Rose:, but it's gonna be, it's gonna be great.
Nicole Rose:And , I'm probably gonna die of heat exhaustion and mosquito bites.
Nicole Rose:But I'll do my best anyway.
Nicole Rose:And yeah, the next podcasts are gonna come out with like the final, the final chapters of the prisoners herbal book, and are gonna be looking at wound care in prison in like a prison environment.
Nicole Rose:And also like connecting with plant allies.
Nicole Rose:So yeah.
Nicole Rose:Thanks for listening so much.
Nicole Rose:For listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.