A lot of times when I get phone calls the caller will think they are talking to a big company that sells herbs, has a huge herb garden, and that somehow I know the magic cure for their ailments. None of this is true. The callers seem surprised, but as this is usually a one woman operation it is impossible to do everything. So I just try to teach about herbs and alternative medicine through my web site the best I can, and am doing my part to rid the world of Poison Ivy and Oak rash.

Reading my emails, checking my orders, and hearing from people all around the world never ceases to amaze me. Not even after a decade. Thank you. 

 A small weedy herb garden ( I can't stand to pull up most plants) surrounds the front entrance of the workshop, and our collection of herbs is growing slowly. I do not run a retail store, my business is 95% internet and about 5% wholesale. I have a large separate kitchen to make my remedies and candles.

  5/06 Lately I have a new helper and friend, Stacey. She processes and ships orders for the Poison Ivy Treatments. She has been a God send to me and you will enjoy talking to her.

O6/07 Another amazement, She's stuck with me and is great at handing orders and telling me what to do :-) So she's now in charge of order handling. I'm still available for phone and email help if needed.

 I don't wildcraft on a grand scale because I feel that herbs should be grown as much as possible. Most should not be taken from the wild. I do enjoy a lot of time in the woods and on back roads taking pictures, especially when the weather is nice. I take a lot of pictures of the medicinal plants that grow around me in Middle Tennessee USA, and I guess I have done that well. I have been honored to have them published in magazines and text books around the world.

 The only herb that I do harvest a lot of is Jewelweed, but its pretty invasive and does better when you thin it out anyway. It provides most of my meager income, as it is a wonderful remedy for Poison Ivy, Oak and other skin rashes - even those of unknown origin. You can read about Jewelweed here.

    I am self taught, I never went to college, nor have I received any formal herbal education. I am a reader with insatiable curiosity, and that is how I learned so much about herbs. I supplement this with studying them in the wild and can identify at least 300 species of native and naturalized plants in my area. This has taken over 15 years of study. Before the internet came along I spent a lot of time in the library studying all the field guides and herbal books. It was like I was preparing for something but did not know what.

Oh by the way, I cannot prescribe any herbal treatments or regimens for you. Thank the FDA for keeping us from telling you a lot of what we know!

  One day in 1997 I started a little web site about herbs. My how it has grown! I am very thankful for the people who visit my web site and especially those who help pay the bills by buying my products, sponsoring the site or even just recommending this site to friends.

Thanks for reading this. Please visit my Blog, I just started it and need someone to post!

Update : I moved to Erin Tennessee in 2004. A lot of people have asked me if my name change from Bergeron to Bergeron was because I got married, but no, its the opposite, and it wasn't all that bad. At least it has turned out OK. Every ending is a new beginning.

The Plant Lady,  Karen Bergeron

Published in Journal of Practical Nursing Winter 2003

I cannot remember when the plant kingdom did not fascinate me. Something about being in their presence brings back childhood memories of splitting dandelion stems and putting them in glasses of water to watch them curl, waving the seedpods in the air to watch them fly away, and eating the “little sour bananas” from the common wood sorrel plant. My sisters and I made small princesses from hollyhock flowers in red, pink and white. Even today the smell of Mugwort reminds me of a freshly mowed hayfield on the Illinois prairie.

Later in life I began to learn to identify wild flowers and soon saw that many of them were listed in the herb books that I read. I soon learned that Tennessee was home to over 300 medicinal plants and decided to learn more about that. As I spent more time in the southern woods I soon found out that poison ivy was the most common plant I came across in my wanderings. If I wanted to continue my explorations that little problem needed to be dealt with. Just like an answer to a wish, out local electrical cooperative featured an article about a man named Stanley Flynt who made his living wild crafting herbs, with a picture of Jewelweed and a caption saying it was an old folk remedy for poison ivy. It took me a year to find the plant, but once I recognized it I noticed that it was very prolific in most of Tennessee, so much so that it is considered an invasive plant. And yes, the juice put a stop to my chronic poison ivy outbreak, as well as those of skeptical family and friends, much to their amazement as well as my own.

In 1997 I started my web site, Alternative Nature Online Herbal, after a post of mine about St. John’s Wort generated hundreds of email questions. The web site grew with the help of friends who submitted articles. I met Deb Jackson over the net, and her contributions to the herbal descriptions have been tremendous. I feel very lucky to have met such wonderful people over the Internet.

I did not think of selling a product this at the time the site originated, as I was busy with raising the children and working. That would come later when a friend asked to publish an article I had written for my web site about Jewelweed, which was followed by people asking me to sell something made from it. Over the last five years I have sold Jewelweed products from my web site to 1000’s of satisfied customers.

A good web site needs pictures, and the cost of getting those was more than what was feasible for a mostly informative, non-commercial site. I never dreamed of being a photographer but last fall had a thumbnail picture of Jewelweed published in National Geographic Adventure Magazine. I have given public lectures on medicinal plants, marketing web sites and even brokering herbs. My love of Nature has been returned in the opportunities I never knew existed.

You will rarely hear me mention the word “weeds”; I feel that wild plants are a better description for these beings. A weed is only a plant that is useless, as if there is such a thing. Many of our common medicinal plants are otherwise known as weeds. Dandelion, Chickweed and Ground Ivy are common lawn plants that most of us would rather be rid of, but they are all used in traditional herbal medicine. Even poison ivy yields berries that birds find tasty! But a wild plant is one that grows where its seed landed and makes the best of it. No matter what, they usually tough it out and somehow make another generation. When you cut them they’ll bush out both above and below the ground, coming back twice as strong. I think we can learn a lot from our wild plant friends. I know I have. But I still turn my nose up at poke salet!

Karen Bergeron lives in Erin, Tennessee and is editor of Alternative Nature Online Herbal at http://altnature.com , an extensive site with herbal descriptions, hundreds of herb photographs, as well as articles and links related to herbs and alternative medicine. She also makes and sells Amazing Jewelweed Remedies, which are used for poison ivy, oak and skin conditions. Karen has a huge collection of herb photographs she takes for educational and commercial use.