Michael's Stories | Martha's Stories | Shalom's Stories

President & Co-Founder Michael Volchok shares his stories

Today: Michael relaxing in a field of Dandelions
Birth of Blessed Herbs Twenty years ago and struggling to support 4 children, we were asked to pick Mullien and bought groceries with the $30... Read more. I like the woods The thoughts of humankind, the pressures of our small mindedness and the vibrations of our busy lives have not been laid down there... Read more. My first experience with herbs All the infection left his leg and the wound drained naturally, I became a believer... Read more. My personal pain and hope. I have lived most of my life with a deep uneasiness that never allowed me any real lasting peace. Yet, I am finding that I have hope, despite these old and crusted patterns of behavior. Read more. More stories by Michael - Drying our first herbs - Searching for true species - Washing roots - Our first powder machine - Our first liquid extracts - About my wife Martha - Pricing herbs - Advice on buying herbs - Handling & Storing herbs - Where we find our herbs - Environmental Concerns - Where we are today - Go lightly , Go simply.	Searching for True Species by, Michael Volchok About twelve years ago we had a demand for true Prickly Ash Bark. We knew of an old timer down in Tennessee who had been collecting this bark and selling it to drug companies for over a decade. We met up with him and together we harvested a test batch and sent it to one of the most knowledgeable herbalists we knew. We were soon told it was not the true medicinal species but a tree that had somewhat similiar bark and had been incorrectly gathered and sold for years as the true thing!! We also learned the true species was sometimes called toothache tree because it makes your mouth go numb when you chew it. The bark we found in Tennessee hadn't numbed our mouths at all and so our search continued. A few years later we finally found another possible source in Texas. We drove down from Missouri and found a field where it was supposed to be located. I remember seeing the trees out my car window and being so excited to taste it so I could could be sure my mouth would go numb. I jumped out of the car, cut a big strip off a tree and proceeded to really chew into the whole piece. It only took ten or fifteen seconds for my mouth to saliva up and go numb. However, I was so nauseated that I grabbed my stomach and puked all over the field!! It was an awful experience but a glorious one. We had found the tree! Over the years we have come across several plants that get harvested, sold, and make their way into the mainstream herbal market only to be found as incorrectly named. Many of these find their way into products. If you don't have the correct herb, you don't have the correct medicine!! Sometimes it is an innocent mistake and other times not. We have worked very hard over the years to insure that we gather and buy the correct plant species. It is difficult to know sometimes, especially if the herbs are bought in cut or powdered form. For this reason we always get our herbs, as whole and intact as possible directly from collectors.