Herbalist

The Green Pantry

The village herbalist or wise-woman was the first physician most people ever knew, gathering root, leaf, bark, and berry from hedgerow and wood to brew remedies, ease childbirth, and soothe the dying. Her knowledge of which plants healed, which poisoned, and which merely comforted passed by word of mouth across generations, the green medicine that served the poor long before any licensed doctor came.