About Us

OUR MISSION AT HEALING HARVEST HOMESTEAD AND THE SCHOOL OF BOTANICAL ARTS & SCIENCES

Our mission is simple and important: To provide the best herbalism and aromatherapy education with mentorship and support in a place comfortable for Christians to learn these skills so ALL families can have access to a qualified herbalist to support wellness.

Our Values and Ethics:

1) We speak truth, even when it’s not popular.

2) We value the earth; sustainable, honest practices; high quality products; and we recommend the best and safest herbs and essential oils accordingly.

3) We give back. Between 10 and 15% of our profit is given to earth- and people-centered causes.

4) We believe in our students. All students must do the work, of course, and we are dedicated to being here for each person with human mentorship and support.

5) Everyone is welcome here. We teach from a God- and faith-centered perspective on herbalism, and I hope this doesn’t bother you. I don’t beat the Bible, but you won’t find elements commonly found in other herbal and aromatic schools here, such as Wicca, pagan practices, earth worship, occult practice, astrology, etc.

What you will find in our Healing Harvest Homestead and School of Botanical Arts & Sciences:

• a loving and giving community to support you as you grow in your skills—-a vibrant and engaged herbal and aromatic family

• researched content and lessons based on both traditional anecdotal evidence, current clinical and scientific studies, and my own years of experiences with myself, clients, and students.

• thousands of formulations between all our courses, free content on YouTube and the website

• help with your customization and formulations inside the Confident Herbalist Tribe and Ditch the Drugstore, the Family Herbalist Certification program, and other large courses that are upcoming in the future

• people who care about your progress

• multiple ways to learn the content (video, text, audio in some courses, searchable capacity, etc.)

• and a whole lot more….

Now that I’m a 60 year old grandmother and free of all medications for a very long time now, I often can’t believe how I suffered needlessly in my past with health issues. And most of the suffering was due to debilitating side effects.

It wasn’t my fault. It was just the way I (and about 99% of all of us) was raised—-to take pills to cover every single discomfort and health need. If you find yourself in this place too, just know: It’s not your fault either.

Traditional knowledge of herbalism has been stripped from the people starting in the 1800’s (some say even earlier with the witch trials) and culminating with the FDA, AMA, health insurance industry, and money-making Big Pharma making herbalism illegal to practice as a medical profession and healing modality in the 1930’s.

And now here we all are downing pills like candy….because we just don’t know any other way. Our traditional knowledge of healing herbs has literally been stolen from us.

It’s time to learn the noble skills of herbalism again!

It’s time to take the good we have from modern medicine and combine it with the good from God-given plants! Plants that support our body’s natural healing processes, and not just mask symptoms.

From terrible seasonal allergies, severe rosacea for decades, constant urinary tract infections and the accompanying yeast infections from the antibiotics, L4-L5 disc issues, not knowing how to help my colicky infant effectively (at all), mental health and anxiety needs, ear infections, chronic respiratory issues with too many bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia to count…..and more…..

I dealt with some terrible health issues from my childhood all the way into my 40’s.

I finally drew the line in the sand.

At that point I had been studying herbalism for around two years, and I just said, “NO more.” I turned 100% to natural herbal and aromatic remedies. Not a single allopathic pill has crossed my lips in nearly 13 years now except for a 3 month experiment with Losartin for high blood pressure that didn’t work for me. I’m so done with side effects.

Yep! Well over a decade free from OTC and Rx drugs. Herbs and essential oils….and knowledge. Knowledge in herbal medicine is an investment in your (and your family’s) long term health. It’s about leaving a legacy for your kids and grandkids!

Truly, I can’t tell you how empowering it is…..

How many thousands and thousands of dollars we’ve saved.

How quickly we’ve healed from things gone wrong

To know how to use the beautiful gifts God has given us here in this earthly realm for our food, medicine, and health is an incredible gift.

It is my passion and my mission to teach these gifted skills to everyone I can….everyone who is interested….everyone who wants to learn the traditional ways of health that have stolen from us in these modern times…..

That’s what we do here.

Here’s a quick history of how Healing Harvest Homestead and the School of Botanical Arts & Sciences came to be:

(Some time frames are rough estimates, as my memory jumbles things together sometimes….)

1960’s and beyond:

My dad taught me to garden and forage for edible wild foods as a young child, so I came with a background of what nature had to offer in terms of foods. As an adult, I gardened every where I could, growing at least some of our foods each year—sometimes in containers only and sometimes in decent-sized plots. We were “urban homesteaders.”

2005:

My first introduction to natural remedies that actually worked…then years of self-study. I began making some of my own skincare and became interested in herbs. (This was roughly the year I naturally cleared up my rosacea and then my L4-L5 back issues + sciatica a couple years later!)

2011-ish:

I took my first herbalism intensive course via snail mail and started my herbal products business selling in person and then online shortly after.

2012:

I began teaching people (everyone I could) about herbalism and natural products. I probably drove plenty of people crazy. Sometimes I held classes in my home or elsewhere. It was about this time that I drew the line in the sand and removed ALL OTC and Rx drugs from my life. I’ve used only herbs ever since—not even an antibiotic or over-the-counter drug for anything. Just herbs & oils.

2013:

We moved out of Las Vegas, Nevada and into the Southern Nevada Spring Mountain range in a tiny (150 people) off-grid village called Cold Creek. There we homesteaded on 2/3 of an acre and raised poultry, created a large food and medicinal garden, and experienced more freedom from city life. We commuted into Vegas an hour away each day for work.

But this opened our eyes to what could be done in a better environment. Gardening is a bit tricky in the Mojave Desert. The foraging is actually pretty good though!

2015:

My herbal products business had become too busy, and I couldn’t keep up. I was still working as a school teacher for a very large public school system, still had children at home, and was trying to finish a third college degree. And…I continued to take herbalism courses. I fit them in however I could. I was beyond hooked. I decided to give up the products business because I just couldn’t do it all anymore.

2015:

My customers weren’t happy that they couldn’t get their products from me, so I decided to start a website to share all my formulations with them—to teach them how easy it is and to help them become more self-reliant.

I’m terrible with technology, but I was determined. Toward the end of 2016, I began “teaching” online on my website, www.healingharvesthomestead.com. I shared my formulas, why they worked, and really started a great bank of knowledge for people. NOW the site has hundreds of articles, and my YouTube channel which I started years later also has hundreds of videos. Free.

2017:

I discovered a homesteading group for business, and I learned that my website could generate income for us. (Who knew?) So that’s when I went to work giving and giving and giving free and valuable information for whoever was interested. I still do this. It’s a mission.

2018:

We retired from our career jobs and moved to N. Idaho from S. Nevada to a 27 acre property, and a whole new world of foraging and gardening in this wild and beautiful area opened up for me. All my previous 50 years were spent foraging and growing in the Mojave Desert…and now I was in the Mountain West. What a new world of plants!

2018:

We started our medicinal herb gardens in addition to our large vegetable garden on our new property. We grow most of our veggies, and now we’re growing probably around 60% of the medicinal herbs we use. Between what we grow and forage, there are well over a hundred medicinal plants available if we plan things out right.

2019:

I created my first online herbalism course, and it was a great success!

2019, later:

I opened up our herbalism mentorship and membership: The Confident Herbalist Tribe. Now, five years later, it’s JAM-packed with masterclasses, foundational courses, hundreds of replays from past weekly live Q&A chats, everything is searchable, all courses have researched texts, and there are transcripts! We even have our books on an audible system.

(Being a previous public school teacher and working with special needs children, I deeply respect the need for diverse learning experiences.)

2021:

I created our first large course, Ditch the Drugstore, a structured step-by-step family herbalism course for people to create their customized home apothecary. What makes this course different from other family herbalist programs is the number of formulations (over 200) and the fact that I personally or our experienced team supports people with customizations for safe and truly unique individualized formulas.

We’re not generic at Healing Harvest Homestead! Holistic herbalists work with individual people…and we don’t treat herbs like drugs. When you buy a ready made formulation, you’re basically treating the herbs like an over-the-counter option.

Individualization is vital!

2022:

Healing Harvest Homestead School became the School of Botanical Arts & Sciences. So we’re referred to by either name (HHH or SOBAS or both).

2023:

We moved our apothecary/studio into an office space in our small town. It had taken over our home on the mountain! The nice thing about this was it opened locals’ eyes to herbalism, and I got to meet many new people. It also made me “stop my day” at a certain point.

2024:

We had to move the apothecary/studio/office again. Now our apothecary and studio and offices are in a super cute cottage in town. We even have a little yard where you can probably guess what I’m growing: medicinal herbs!

At our “real” home on the mountain top, we’re still busy growing and foraging over 100 medicinal herbs and hope to start having herb walks up there sometime soon when time permits.

The HHH School of Botanical Arts & Sciences is growing!

With thousands of students who have taken small to large courses, many have graduated with a certificate of completion in Family Herbalism, and in our massively valuable herbal membership, the Confident Herbalist Tribe, we’re always adding even more courses and herbal learning opportunities.

Our team has grown to include customer service, content writing, systems management, community management and oversight, case study managers, and a social media assistant.

Sometimes I can’t believe it.

From 40+ years teaching beautiful children preschool to 8th grade; to owning, running, and teaching herbalism in our online herbalism school. It’s kind of crazy. But I am SO passionate about getting the traditional knowledge of plant medicine to the people, it’s become a heart-centered mission for me.

Every extended family needs an herbalist who knows how to make what the family needs. Sure. You can buy ready-made formulations nowadays, but in my opinion, this is just turning herbs into over-the-counter drugs.

We’ve helped thousands of people at this point. I love the folks in our community, and appreciate them (you) for however you want to show up.

Realistically, good herbalists work with individuals to support and balance health and wellness, common ailments, and include the aspect of mental wellness too.

Herbs saved my life, literally.

Herbalism education at Healing Harvest Homestead has also blessed the lives of thousands of others since I “accidentally” started the website so long ago.

This is my abbreviated “About” page.

If you want the WHOLE scoop about how a girl who lived in Las Vegas, Nevada for 50 years, then moved off-grid into the Southern Nevada mountains to commute back and forth to work for the five last years of my teaching career (due to being sick and tired of the city) and ended up founding and running an herbalism school in N. Idaho, and at age 60 is trying to figure out how to slow down a bit——Well, you can find that page HERE.

I invite you to learn herbalism with us!

Check out our courses HERE.

Subscribe to our newsletter, and get the Herbal Remedy Guide and Cheat Sheet (or many other free resources you come across here).

Subscribe to our YouTube channel! It’s growing, and I’d love to have you in that community too!

Don’t be a stranger.

This website has been a labor of love for seven years now, and contains hundreds of articles for you to learn from and enjoy. Our YouTube channel is the same….it’s growing! Come with us on the journey!

Hugs, Health, and Herbs,

Heidi

P.S. Here are a few other more personal tidbits:

1) I have four children ages 27 to almost 40 and two step-children, similar ages.

2) We now have six grandchildren!

3) I love reading everything, pretty much, but especially the Bible and herbal and garden books. Once in awhile, I enjoy a cowboy novel, like C.J. Box books about Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett. I also like Sophie Kinsella books, although I haven’t had time to read one in years. They’re hysterical!

4) Mr. V. and I have been married for nearly 13 years, and he has been the biggest supporter of my dreams of anyone in my entire life. What a great man and the love of my life. If he hadn’t come to work for the business about four years ago, Healing Harvest Homestead wouldn’t be where it is.

5) I have a huge flock of chickens. I used to have a couple herds of goats, but they are a LOT of work.

6) We now have four heelers: two blue boys and two red mixed girls.

7) Our orchards are a haven for me, and so is the top of our mountain, where the forest part is. Actually so are the lower gardens and the old horse pasture where wild things grow.

8) I’m actually shy. But herbalism is too important to not share. How can I not share something that has saved me and so many others?

9) Same thing with God. How can I not talk about my Jesus and give God the glory for everything in my life experience? I’m so glad I listened to the Holy Spirit and became born again. It changed everything for me.

10) I refuse to watch the news. I just can’t do it. I don’t listen to it either. If you ask me about politics, I will stare at you blankly. Negativity is not allowed in my life.

You’re special to us! And I hope you’ll join the community!

1) You can do this by picking up one (or all) of our FREE resources. This will add you to our newsletter list, and you’ll get valuable herbal, aromatic, traditional living, and encouragement each week. (Unsubscribe any time you want.)

2) Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

3) Follow me on Instagram! Here you’ll find short, actionable reels and posts plus what a day in the life looks like.