Step into the woods and something shifts. Your pace slows. Your senses wake up. What once looked like an ordinary path becomes a living classroom, filled with plants that have stories to tell and healing properties waiting to be understood.
Being outdoors in our natural world, growing a seed into a fully bloomed plant, or pulling what we once called a “weed,” only to discover it is rich in nutrients, may feel like a responsibility to some. To others, it is a calling.
Enter, Bridget Giuffrida, owner and chief herbalist of Sweet Herb Medicinals LLC, in Boulder Creek. As Bridget shared with me, “Planting, growing, harvesting and preparing plants as medicine becomes an act of caretaking for ourselves, for our communities, and for Earth itself.”
Where the Calling Began
“My grandmother and a high school friend’s mother,” Bridget shared. “They both shared their love of plants and respected their value and shared their healing properties with me.”
Those early influences shaped her philosophy about plants, their nutritional value, and their role in healing. Bridget believes that “natural food items should be safe for both internal and external use, and that what we put on our bodies matters just as much as what we put into them.”
She openly shared her personal experience with arthritis, the products she developed to support her well-being, and remedies for health and beauty. At the center of her work is a simple philosophy: “Be Happy. Be well.”
More Than a Class, It Is an Experience
“I bring people together,” Bridget explained. “You are signing up for the education and the fun of it with other like-minded people. It’s a hands-on experience.”
Participants learn how to make each product step by step, from brewing the perfect cup of tea using different plant parts, to infusing oils for massage, baths and body care, and creating healing ointments. “Simple herbs are transformed and remarkably effective,” she shared.
Learning by Doing, and Taking It Home
Sweet Herb Medicinals offers a wide range of classes and workshops for adults and children alike. From herbal education and making kombucha and fermented foods brewing to kids’ nature classes, wellness workshops and skin care creations, each experience is practical and engaging. Participants take home the products they make, along with the knowledge to recreate them.
Walking, Making and Remembering
Beginning Feb. 14 in Boulder Creek, Bridget offers a seven-week Making and Walking Herbal Class that meets on Saturdays. The course includes herbal tea preparation, tinctures, liniments, infused oils and guided herb walks at Quail Hollow and Felton Library, where participants identify plans and create products to take home each week.
From Local Woods to Distant Lands
I was fortunate to interview Bridget just before she left to teach a hands-on class in Belize, and to learn that she will be having an upcoming workshop in Sicily, Italy. Her work reminds us that the language of plants is universal and deeply human.
Bridget quotes: “The care of the Earth is our most worthy and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.” —W. Barry.
If you are curious and ready to connect with the Earth in a meaningful and adventurous way, explore sweetherbmedicinals.com. I am thinking about Sicily!
Janet Janssen is a Life in Business and Speaker Coach. For those who would like to improve their communication and speaking skills, visit janetjanssen.com/speaking. Janet is also on the board of Leadership Santa Cruz County and active with the local Chambers of Commerce.
