By Cara Anderson
IG: @carajojo
My sister gifted me a Heart Home Herbal Tincture made by Suntrap Botanicals. The blend is “A formulation to promote intimacy with ones self or the world around them. To take when the heart feels closed and cold. To remember sweetness, to feel loved.” I take it every day, and I love the ritual, and I do notice when I do not take it. I place a few drops in seltzer, as directed. It’s a heart opener blend, Geraldine said that she makes one every season and this one was specific for moving through late summer into fall.
An herbal tincture is essentially created by using alcohol to extract desired chemicals from herbs.
The clinical herbalist herself is plant lover, Geraldine Lavin. Geraldine is also a cultivator, intuitive artist, and teacher from Philadelphia. Geraldine’s training includes the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine’s Full Time Clinical Herbalism program, and many mentors. She recently taught Apothecary 101: Introduction to Herbal Solvents, a free herbalism class at Yale University, where she taught people how to make Fire Cider.
Geraldine is preparing to settle up in the Hudson Valley of New York for the winter. There, she’ll be managing a small herb farm where she can supply bulk herbs to people and business as well as grow for her apothecary. She loves living in the mountains.
Look forward to an interview with Geraldine in the upcoming months! In the meantime, Geraldine and friends will be focusing on how to utilize invasive plants, settling into the Hudson Valley, and continuing to educate and heal.
If you’re looking for some added herbal love to add to your wellness routine, Geraldine sells balms, tinctures, digestive bitters, medicinal mushroom mixes, and more. You can also contact Geraldine for her consultation services for allergies, anxiety, artist’s block, athletic injuries, autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, depression, digestive disorders, emotional trauma, headaches, menstrual cycle complaints, sleep complaints, and that ever creeping general feeling of surviving- not thriving.
Check out www.suntrap.co/ and stay up to date with Geraldine on Instagram @suntrapbotanical.
