Ojas Naturals

In my video talking about making Hops tincture yesterday I mentioned I make mine doing a ratio based tincture. Here is a formulation sheet to help you understand and make your own ration based tinctures

Free Download: Making Herbal Tinctures by Ratio

This two-page guide walks you through the process of making herbal tinctures using weight-to-volume ratios—a method that ensures consistency, potency, and confidence in your tincture-making. You'll learn how to work with both fresh and dried plants, choose the right alcohol strength, calculate ratios, and prepare your herbs for optimal extraction.

Whether you're just beginning your herbal journey or refining your home apothecary skills, this handout offers clear, practical steps with room for heart, intuition, and tradition. Keep it on hand in your kitchen or workshop as a trusted companion for crafting tinctures with intention.https://ojasnaturals.myshopify.com/products/making-herbal-tinctures-guide

Meeting Elecampane: A Hands-On Harvest & Herbal Medicine Workshop

Saturday, October 24, 2026
10:00 AM 1:00 PM
We invite you to join us for the Elecampane harvest here at the Chuckanut Center. This year we have an abundant crop of this beloved medicinal root, and it felt like the perfect opportunity to share a hands-on day of harvesting, learning, and making medicine together.

Elecampane has long been valued in traditional herbal practices and is a wonderful plant to get to know through the process of growing, harvesting, and preparing it. There is something special about working with roots — slowing down, digging beneath the soil, and connecting with the deeper parts of the plant.

During this workshop, we will spend time getting to know Elecampane as a plant ally, learning about its history and traditional uses, and exploring ways to bring it into the home apothecary.

Together we will:

• Harvest fresh Elecampane root and learn how to clean, prepare, and preserve it.
• Learn about Elecampane, its traditional uses, and its role in herbal practice.
• Explore practical ways to work with Elecampane in your home apothecary.
• Create an herbal remedy together from the fresh harvest.

You’ll leave with:

• Freshly harvested Elecampane root.
• A jar of the remedy we prepare together.
• A bottle of Elecampane honey tincture.
• Practical skills for harvesting, preparing, and working with Elecampane root.

Root harvesting is one of the most rewarding ways to deepen your relationship with medicinal plants. Join us for a day of digging, learning, and sharing in the abundance of the season.

Cost: $65

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meeting-elecampane-a-hands-on-harvest-herbal-medicine-workshop-tickets-1995020065721?aff=oddtdtcreator

Roots, Barks & Berries of the Pacific Northwest

Sunday, October 11, 2026
11:30 AM 1:30 PM
A 5-Week Herbal Medicine Series

Autumn is one of the most rewarding seasons for herbal medicine. As plants draw their energy inward, their roots, bark, and berries become rich with medicine and nourishment.

Join me for a five-week immersive journey exploring four of my favorite medicinal plants of the Pacific Northwest. Together we'll study these remarkable plant allies through the lenses of Western & Traditional Herbalism, Ayurveda, medicine making, along with direct personal experience.

This course is designed to deepen your relationship with our local medicinal plants—not only through study, but through observation, practice, and firsthand connection.

At the Chuckanut Center - 103 Chuckanut Dr. North, Bellingham, 98225

To register and find more information-

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roots-barks-berries-of-the-pacific-northwest-5-week-herbal-series-tickets-1995037195958?aff=oddtdtcreator

Its been an abundant recently in the plant world for me, from epic Fireweed (Ivan Chai) missions, to munching down and gathering huckleberry and mountain blueberries, to the Reishi find and now my neighbor hooked me up with a bunch of these specialty hops buds!! They smell so good and are filled with sticky resins which made processing this tincture extra messy and fun.

I'm slowly getting more comfortable doing this whole video thing and have some fun ideas in store for the future but for now I'm doing what I can and trying to share a window into my herbal and tea life on here. I hope you enjoy and if you do and what to know more sign up for my monthly newsletter at https://ojasnaturals.myshopify.com

I also have a substack where I have been starting to write about my adventures in Taiwan, herbalism, tea and Ecuador - https://jameskeskimaki.substack.com

Artist’s Conk Honey Tincture

Continuing our exploration of Reishi and cultivating resilience, today I wanted to share our Artist’s Conk (Ganoderma applanatum) Honey Tincture.

Artist’s Conk is a perennial member of the Ganoderma family that grows abundantly here in the Pacific Northwest. I love working with the medicines that grow around us, and this beautiful mushroom has become one of the local Ganoderma species I’ve come to deeply appreciate.

Our Artist’s Conk is prepared as a dual extract with alcohol, water, and raw honey to capture a broad spectrum of its constituents.

For the month of September, you can use code SEPTEMBER for 25% off.
You can find the Artist’s Conk Honey Tincture here:
https://ojasnaturals.myshopify.com/products/artist-conk-honey-extract-dual-extraction-1oz

And while you’re there, please sign up for the Ojas Naturals newsletter. It’s where I share plant and tea musings, recipes, Tea of the Month and Plant of the Month, special discounts, upcoming classes, and offerings around Ayurvedic wellness.

Thanks for following along and supporting this small herbal business and my continued exploration of the plants, fungi, and teas I love.

Free Reishi Plant Monograph

Continuing with my exploration of herbs and fungi that can help us cultivate resilience, I wanted to share my Reishi monograph as a free download.

Reishi has a long history of use as a deeply nourishing and restorative mushroom. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Lingzhi is traditionally associated with calming and nourishing the Shen, or spirit.

Through an Ayurvedic lens, I like to think of Reishi as having rasayana qualities. Rasayana is an Ayurvedic approach centered around nourishment, restoration, resilience, and longevity, with an emphasis on supporting Ojas, our deeper reserve of vitality and strength.

Reishi also has a long relationship with contemplative and spiritual practice. Traditionally, it has been valued as an ally for quieting inward, meditation, and cultivating a deeper connection with the spirit.

For me, resilience isn’t simply about pushing through more. It’s about nourishing ourselves deeply enough that we have something to draw from when life asks more of us.

If you’d like to dive deeper into this beautiful mushroom, I’m offering my Reishi Plant Monograph as a free download.

Sign up for our newsletter when you visit our webpage for our monthly newsletter, with plant and tea musings, recipes, and discounts .

https://ojasnaturals.myshopify.com/products/reishi-artist-conk-plant-monograph-ebook