Prodigal Gardens-Homepage

It is heartening to see people turning once again to this most ancient tradition of healing, but there is a need to take it a step further and reclaim our relationships with the plants themselves, the very heart of herbal medicine. It is a very different experience to seek out your medicine from the forest and the field than to choose a product from a shelf in a store. And lately some of our "herbs" are looking more like drugs and less like plants!

The Upper Midwest is an herbalist's paradise with an incredible variety of edible and medicinal herbs growing in natural wild gardens. Many of our most useful plants grow in amazing abundance and can be easily identified. Common "weeds" such as dandelions, nettles, and burdock can be used in many creative ways as both food and medicine. Most herbal preparations can be made right in your own kitchen with no special equipment. It is my intent to help people learn about wild foods found growing in local, natural gardens and to demystify the art of herbal preparation. I believe that seeking out our own foods and medicines directly from the land can be an integral part of healthy living. It also teaches us to be more sensitized to the living creation and to deeply appreciate the incredible giveaway of God's green blessings all around us.

	Welcome to Rose Barlow's Original Prodigal Gardens Website! As you may have noticed, it has been moved from www.prodigalgardens.info to www.rosesprodigalgarden.org in honor of Rose and her work. We continue to be dedicated to educating the public about the Safe and Wise Use of Medicinal Herbs and Wild Foods through direct experience, connection to the Earth and what is provided for us in abundance by Nature. Rose's articles, instructions, recipes and links support people in their efforts to learn how to do things for themselves. However, we do not support unauthorized for-profit replication or paraphrasing of this information for the sale of commercial products. The information contained in this website is for non-profit educational purposes only. It may be used by schools, nature centers, outdoor progams and others who respect it and plan to use it sustainably, honoring the plants and their natural communities in environmentally friendly ways. As you explore Rose's extensive original website you will discover a wealth of information

In these times when many people are exploring alternatives to our present health care system, we are seeing a growing interest in using herbal medicine to support and nourish us in our healing journeys. The herb market is flourishing and we see many new companies and herbal products on the shelves each year, and there is an abundance of information coming off the press to educate us about their uses.
It is heartening to see people turning once again to this most ancient tradition of healing, but there is a need to take it a step further and reclaim our relationships with the plants themselves, the very heart of herbal medicine. It is a very different experience to seek out your medicine from the forest and the field than to choose a product from a shelf in a store. And lately some of our "herbs" are looking more like drugs and less like plants! The Upper Midwest is an herbalist's paradise with an incredible variety of edible and medicinal herbs growing in natural wild gardens. Many of our most useful plants grow in amazing abundance and can be easily identified. Common "weeds" such as dandelions, nettles, and burdock can be used in many creative ways as both food and medicine. Most herbal preparations can be made right in your own kitchen with no special equipment. It is my intent to help people learn about wild foods found growing in local, natural gardens and to demystify the art of herbal preparation. I believe that seeking out our own foods and medicines directly from the land can be an integral part of healthy living. It also teaches us to be more sensitized to the living creation and to deeply appreciate the incredible giveaway of God's green blessings all around us.