There’s quite a controversy brewing in the herbal world these days, and at the heart of it is a traditional folk remedy called Fire Cider. The recipes can vary but usually combine some mix of garlic, horseradish, onions, ginger and cayenne infused in apple cider vinegar with added honey. It can help stave off and treat colds and flus, is immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and has decongestant and circulatory stimulant properties. It is a perfect winter remedy to have on hand and take on a regular basis.
Rosemary Gladstar popularized this remedy, gave it the name Fire Cider and has written and taught about it extensively throughout her long herbal career. Here is a video of her discussing and making her version of Fire Cider.

Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? So how could this much-loved folk remedy be causing such an uproar in the herbal community? It seems that a small company the makes and sells their own version of Fire Cider (as many small herbal businesses do) has trademarked the name Fire Cider and sent Cease and Desist orders to other small business that have been making and selling this preparation as well. Many herbalists are disturbed and upset by this as they feel that Fire Cider is a folk remedy that should belong to the commons.
“The thing is, Shire City did not invent the name “fire cider.” That name has been around for decades (if not longer) and was coined, or at least made famous, by Rosemary Gladstar of Sage Mountain. Shire City was just the first to legally claim it as its own. It now officially belongs to them, not to all of us fire cider makers. It’s as if they took the name of their grandmother’s family recipe and slapped a trademark on it, preventing any other grandchildren from calling their versions of the recipe the original name. What was once a part of herbal folklore is now legal property of a business.” ~Steph Zabel: Herbalist, Ethnobotanist & Plant Educator
“Herbal medicine has a long history of being the people’s medicine. The knowledge of traditional and historical plant-based remedies has been a SHARED one; handed down through families and communities by many generations of healers, mothers and fathers, grandmothers/fathers, aunts/uncles, etc.” ~Sue Kusch
“…someone from the company [Shire City] or their counsel contacted Etsy and Amazon and that a number of small herbalists were shut down . They insisted on their right to trademark the name, describing its use as unknown before they publicized it. Given the patently untrue assertions, the high regard Rosemary Gladstar is held in and the history of fire ciders, the herbal community erupted with petitions that picked up thousands of signatures in a few hours, calls for boycotts and the Shire City Fire Cider Facebook page was flooded with critical comments.” ~Karen Vaughan
“Herbalism is intrinsically about lots of people sharing, modifying, and adapting practices to their local landscape or the needs of their community. To share something as if you’re the only place it can be gotten doesn’t empower people to take care of their own health; that’s not what herbalism is about. It’s great if they want to buy it from you because they don’t have time to make their own, or yours is of really excellent quality, but they should know, too, that anyone can make this stuff, and that traditionally, everyone did.” ~Ryn Midura
“…it is most important that the name and product “Fire Cider” be returned to its rightful owners, the herbal community, many who have been making, using, and selling Fire Cider longer than Shire City Herbals has been in existence. When I first made Fire Cider, named it such, and taught hundreds of other people how to make it through my books, videos, classes, and conferences, I never imagined for a moment that anyone would think they could claim it as their own, or worse, deny others the right to sell it.” ~Rosemary Gladstar
I agree with Rosemary and all the other herbalists. As with so many folk remedies that have been passed down from generation to generation, Fire Cider belongs to the herbal community. If you feel the same way, I invite you to stay up to date on all the Fire Cider news here and to sign the petition. Then, make your own Fire Cider, give it away, share the recipe and heck, even sell it!
This Saturday I am offering a workshop on herbal vinegars and oxymels and the infused vinegar we are going to make is a bottle of Fire Cider that everyone will get to take home with them. Join me and others to ensure that this herbal folk remedy stays where it belongs: in the hands of the herbal community.

Early last summer I was contacted by the fine folks from Creative Mornings Ottawa. They wanted to know if I would be interested in giving a presentation on urban foraging at the Arboretum Festival. I don’t know what temporary insanity possessed my to say yes, but yes, I said.
Now, I have no problem sharing information with large groups of people. I love my teaching job, giving workshops and leading plant walks. I’m happy to speak at length about my favourite plants and their uses to anyone willing to listen. But the thought of standing in front of a room full of people  presenting something that resembles a prepared, practiced and coherent talk, filled me with panic and fear. This was definitely venturing way out of my comfort zone and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through it without some help. So I turned to my friends. My plant friends.
In herbalism, relaxing nervines refer to a category of herbs that have a nourishing, calming and soothing effect on the nervous system, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, supporting our resilience to the negative effects of stress, promoting healthy sleep and easing anxiety and worry. Relaxing nervines range from mildy calming to sedative and hypnotic. Some herbs in this category include: Milky oats (Avena sativa), Skullcap (Skutellaria laterifolia), Vervain & Blue Vervain (Verbena officinalis, V. hastata), California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), Valerian (Valerian officinalis), Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), Hops (Humulus lupulus) and Catnip (Nepeta cataria) among others.
As the date of my talk grew near I went to my apothecary and mixed a tincture blend of relaxing nervines that included chamomile, blue vervain and skullcap. Leading up to the talk on the day, I started taking the tincture by the dropperful about every hour increasing the dose to a dropperful every few minutes in the last 10 before my talk. That was probably overdoing it a bit at the end and if I hadn’t been so keyed up those doses would have laid me out on the floor, but hey, I was able to take a deep breath, walk onto the stage and not fall apart into an anxiety-ridden mess. Success!
So um yeah, here’s a video of the presentation if you want to check it out.

And I just want to clarify my comments in answering a question about allergies. One woman wondered if she could eat wild foods if she had seasonal allergies. I suggested that trying small amounts of some plants before they flower and produce pollen might be a good approach. I think it’s also important to note that some people have allergies to plants regardless of whether they are exposed to pollen or not and people with allergies to one plant in a family, may be sensitive to other plants in the same family. Allergies to plants in the aster family are relatively common for example, and people with this allergy should avoid plants like chamomile and echinacea. Folks who are allergic to cashews may react to sumac. If anyone out there has a better understanding of the allergic response please chime in. Bottom line, I always teach that when trying a new wild food for the first time, ingest only a small amount and wait 12-24 hrs to see if there is a reaction before consuming more. Safety first darlings!