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Recent Posts
the great debate: internal use
In my meanderings through various Facebook groups, professional communities, and coffee clutch conversations of late I find more and more conversations about — and contention surrounding — the internal use of essential oils. Questions surrounding safe use of essential oils come faster — and are sometimes responded to…
mooning over love
Ah, lurve. Few things are more fun to elevate and celebrate with oils, herbs, and food than sweet, sweet love. Whereas many of the best parts of love are arguably intangible, love is still very much informed by our senses — especially in the physical expression…
hitting the road for discovery & connection
I’ve been busy of late fulfilling orders, researching new products, testing new recipes, and finalizing the Winter, 2014 catalog that will feature many of Untamed Alchemy’s new creations. As a result, I’m thrilled that the next few days provide a much needed break from my desk…
Oils & Herbs for Virgo
Meet Virgo… Intelligent, observant, independent, and precise, Virgos are one of the bigger thinkers of the zodiac — they love to analyze details and get into the nitty-gritty of things with much of the action focused on their thought processes as opposed to physical action.…
untamed fact #23 (chemotypes)
Individual essential oils can present with unique chemical compositions dependent upon details like their source location, climate conditions during the source plant’s growth cycle, and so on. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is an excellent example of an essential oil with a variety of potential chemotypes: you’ll…
aromatherapy for grief & loss
Can I be completely honest with you? The last two years have been doozies. I mean pick-you-up-and-throw-you-down fire walks. In the first year I lost my job at a place that held my heart and my core relationships. I went from being surrounded by people…
guidelines: blending for expectant mamas
I am often asked about blending specifically for expectant moms. Below you’ll find my general guidelines which are either on par with–or more conservative than–guidelines from industry experts on safe use of essential oils. I’ve posted them as a permanent page as well–downloadable pdfs of…
eat your way to independence: symbolic foods for freedom
As specific holidays approach, I get an increasing number of emails from readers asking for articles, recipes, spells, and advice relevant to the upcoming holiday: aphrodisiacs before Valentine’s Day, oils and herbs for gratitude before Thanksgiving, and so on. This year, I noticed for the first time…
why friday the 13th is your lucky day
Many people dread Friday the 13th expecting the worst from the negative superstition that surrounds it, but the day can be considered to be lucky in many ways, especially for women. The day gets a bad rap because of associations assigned by groups afraid of both the…
mooning over white fir, sage of the north country
Abundant and varied evergreens are among my favorite things about our new home–our property is dotted with both individual trees and thick stands of various pines and firs. My single favorite trees may be the two White Firs (Abies concolor) that grow here; their silver-green needles on…
bright ideas for a bold, beautiful garden
Visitors to our Santa Fe farm often commented not only on the delicious flavor and prolific yield of our fruit and veggie gardens, but also on the enduring freshness of the items they yielded: most things stayed fresh looooong after similar store-bought items would turn or wither. We had…
home, sweet home! we’ve arrived in idaho!
We have long loved the high desert of Santa Fe and enjoyed the more than three hundred annual days of sunshine the environment provided over the decades we called it home. Using biodynamic principles in planting, harvesting, and putting by, we were able to delight in…
