An Herbalist’s Story
By Meghan Henshaw
I’ve always been interested in plants, ever since I was a little kid coming to the Civic Garden Center’s annual plant sale with my mom. I went to an environmental liberal arts college in Northern Wisconsin and fell into managing the college’s quarter-acre community garden. I was so enamored with the tactile experience of growing things that I dropped out of school and landed a farming internship with a big medicinal herb company on the west coast.
On the farm, I learned how to grow, harvest and process medicinal plants like echinacea, black cohosh and motherwort, but I also started to understand how these same plants could support wellness and vitality in the body. I learned about different ways to process and apply herbs and created my own herbal products for the first time. While living in New Mexico in my early twenties, I became a licensed massage therapist and deepened my knowledge of anatomy and the human body.
My combined interest in plants and physiology eventually led me to getting a degree in Herbal Science. I then went abroad to England for a masters in Ethnobotany, the academic study of people using plants. I traveled all over the world, studying herbal medicine in places like Italy and Morocco, before returning to Cincinnati during the pandemic.
In my time back, I’ve been growing a plethora of medicinal plants in a community garden, which I incorporate into custom teas and tinctures for the clients in my herbal practice and small batch products for my business, Ocotillo Herbals. I teach classes and workshops all over the city at places like the CGC, Fibonacci Brewing and in private homes. At a monthly lecture series in Northside the last Tuesday of every month, I discuss a range of topics; upcoming talks include herbal energy alternatives to coffee and herbs that support queer health. On most Thursday mornings, you’ll find me in the Walnut Hills community garden on Melrose Ave. working with a crew of volunteers digging burdock root, harvesting sage seeds and cooling off from the summer heat with herbal iced tea.
To learn more about my herbal story and check out my line of products please visit ocotilloherbals.com.
Learn from Meghan and experience her garden this summer at our class An Herbalist’s Garden: Medicinal Plant ID and Usage!