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January 4, 2026

Happy New Year!

I hope you’re stepping into this new year with a sense of renewal and joyful expectancy and tons of hope and gratitude.

Before anything else, I want you to know how grateful I am that you’re here. In a world that constantly pulls at our attention, choosing to learn, grow, and take responsibility for your health is no small thing, and I'm thrilled you choose to spend time with Healing Harvest Homestead and me.

Whether you’re new to my work or you’ve been part of this community for years, thank you for walking this path with me. Your being part of the Healing Harvest Homestead and School of Botanical Arts & Sciences student community means everything to me.

There are many aspects of herbal medicine I enjoy teaching, but the heart of everything my team and I do is all about health—whole-person (holistic) healing rooted in herbal knowledge (both traditional and evidence-based) and safety as well as utmost respect for each unique body/mind/spirit. We're all different, and our plant choices should reflect this.

We were created with bodies designed to heal, and God placed an incredible pharmacy in the medicinal plant world to support that process---just for us! When we learn how to use His gifts well, we open so many new doors to our health and wellness.

Wherever you are on your herbal path, as long as you've begun, you have chosen wisely. So many people aren't even aware of the plant gifts from our Creator. You are here, so you have such a great advantage!

My goal is to help you understand both people and plants so you can confidently support health in consistent, real, everyday ways. Not just gathering information for information’s sake, but practical, useful understandings you can actually use.

As we move into this new year, I’m especially excited about where we’re headed at the School of Botanical Arts & Sciences. The focus ahead is growth and more depth—helping you truly get a handle on your health rather than feeling reactive, overwhelmed, or dependent on systems that don’t always serve you well.

I want you to have the best natural home apothecary all ready to go for your family. What a great gift and legacy this is!

We have some new courses planned, and upgrades for many of our solid older ones. The Confident Herbalist Tribe continues to expand, evolve, and grow, too! We've added monthly Special Sessions (live talks) on higher level herbal topics, and these have been so successful and desired that we'll be adding more as this year goes on....and that is in addition to our monthly plant masterclass deep dives, and lots more inside.

I could go on....but this note will become long-winded 😂.

Stay tuned for more!

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Quick DIY Cleaning Formula to Make Today

My son and his family just left to go back home, and wowie, it is quiet with the children gone. I miss them so much, and I feel immense gratitude and joy that they came for a visit. It meant the world to me and Mr. V.

But children (and pets, too) can sure wreak havoc on a home! Cleaning is a must, and I LOVE cleaning with aromatherapy combined in a healthy non-toxic yet effective cleaner. What a win!

Here's a super easy one that you can make today, with ingredients we all probably have or that are easy to find (and not expensive). Enjoy!

20 drops lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

20 drops lemon (Citrus limon)

3 tbsp white vinegar (5%)

Distilled water

8 ounce spray bottle

Add the essential oils and the vinegar to the spray bottle, and fill to the shoulder with the distilled water. You can also use hydrosol if you have it! Lemon, lavender, rosemary, peppermint...all would be great hydrosols to choose...but the distilled water will work fine too.

Place your spray top on and shake well to blend. In fact, be sure to shake before every use. This is because there is no solubilizer in the spray, so the essential oils will separate. This is not a big deal for a cleaning spray...just remember to shake well.

Spray directly on surfaces that can handle vinegar and essential oils (ceramic, some hard woods, glass, porcelain and other bathroom surfaces, some floors, etc.). If you're not sure, do a quick online search to check, or do a patch test. Shake. Spray. Wipe clean and allow to air dry.

Use up within one month.

This spray has some wonderful antimicrobial, odor-eliminating, and immune-boosting benefits too.

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You Might Enjoy.....

Here are latest updated or new articles, and some brand new videos!

1) Herbal Trends in 2026

In this video, I share a few of my thoughts about 2026 and more updates. Also, meet my son and DIL, grandkids, and my sweet mom!

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2) An Herbalist's View of Detoxification

Everyone wants to clean up their body, especially at the New Year! The thing is, our body is already constantly in the process (and doing its best despite all the toxic garbage we inadvertantly put in and on our bod) of filtering out toxins and wastes.

Find out how an herbalist considers detoxing....

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3) How to Get Your Poinsettia to Bloom Again

This isn't really medicinally herbal, however, it is related to gardening, which I love. Anything to do with plants....I love. Did you know that you can keep a poinsettia alive and growing? Here's how:

​How to Get Your Poinsettia to Bloom Again​

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Encouragement and Inspiration

As we step into a new year, I think many of us feel two things at once: hope for what’s ahead… and a little heaviness about what’s behind. 2025 was a rough year for some of us, I know from personal experience.

God speaks into that space so clearly in Isaiah 43:18: “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past.”

That verse isn’t telling us to erase our memories or pretend last year didn’t have hard moments. It’s an invitation to stop living there. To stop rehearsing what didn’t work, what hurt, or what didn’t turn out the way we hoped.

Here's a great tip to do now: Go back through your photos from 2025. Not to analyze or critique. Just to look and enjoy.

You might be surprised by what you see. Moments of joy you forgot about. Small wins that didn’t feel big at the time. Pets. Flowers. Happy faces. Events you forgot about.

Ordinary days that were actually full of amazing goodness. Evidence that God was present — even in seasons that felt hard while you were living them.

So often, we tell ourselves a story about how a year went that isn’t fully true. Our minds are really good at highlighting what was hard and overlooking what was good. Looking back with intention helps us correct that story.

Step forward carrying proof that God has already been with you — and He will continue to be.

One step at a time.

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A Very Quick Note

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned in a note that Mr. V. and I have made the hard decision to raise our prices this year. Like most, our business costs have sky-rocketed, and although we do not want to, course costs will increase just a little bit. It's been several years of steady prices for most of our course offerings, and this was a difficult decision.

To help, we've decided to wait until January 10th to change the checkout pages. So, if you'd like to enroll in a course, now is the time to do it!

We're even opening up the Confident Herbalist Tribe for a few days for those who want to take advantage of current pricing (for subscriptions, students are grandfathered in at the price they joined).

For Ditch the Drugstore and the Family Herbalism Certification program, we're opening up a brand new student group later this month, which includes live instruction and Q&A (replays included). If getting your home apothecary dialed in while you're learning family herbalism has been on your to-do list, don't hesitate!

Thank you so much for being here, in our community, whether you're a student or not. We love you, and we're so grateful to you from the bottoms of our hearts.

Hugs, Health, and Herbs,

Joe and Heidi

P.S. Please forward this note along to a friend who might enjoy the information🥰