About Me
I love the Great Basin and its many plants, animals and minerals, and every thing I do here is to show you that this land is beautiful, full of life and medicine, and that we must preserve it for all the generations to come.
Hi friend, I'm Leah, the founder of Leah's Naturals. My first and foremost intention when coming out here is to be with the land. If nothing else, she has given me the most peace, and the least I can do is just admire her beauty.
The Great Basin is an arid place where no water escapes, it just sinks down into the earth. The plants and animals that thrive here are very special.
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I first started high desert hiking to heal my broken spirit from a very stressful place in my life. My nursing career began in 2010 and from the start it never fully agreed with me. I suppose I had a more holistic lean to me from the start (big surprise coming from a massage therapist). My underlying philosophy was that the body will heal itself given the right circumstances: rest, hydration, whole foods, stress reduction etc. I was refusing vaccines before it was cool.
I did follow this inclination to help folks heal at one point, doing some health coaching, and even trained under a fairly well known herbalist. But having young kids at the time while trying to work and run my own business proved that I could do them all, but none of them really well. So I gave it up and continued to work at the hospital.
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Every day off I hiked alone to be with my thoughts, and always with dogs. Quietly, the land has showed me the medicines that support and strengthen the body, the minerals that enliven the spirit, not to mention all that fresh air and hiking has done me a world of good.
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When you come out here almost every day you will create a relationship to the land. Plants and trees will start communicating with you.
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Out of the blue one day I remembered a time many years ago while I was living in Markleeville, CA, a native friend gave to me some "NDN tea" (Indian tea) when I had a bad head cold. It was made up of just one plant otherwise known as Mormon tea. It helped tremendously at the time and it had sparked my interest in native plants. Through some research I found that this plant was very old and one of the best and only antihistamine plants in North America. I started to wonder if there were more plants out here like that, and guess what? Of course there are! Now I spend much of my time researching pub-med to see if any studies were done, reading old texts and talking to elders. My best experiments I will offer on this site!
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What I don't forage, I grow and if I cannot grow it, I buy organic.
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Leah's Naturals is a journey into the medicinal plant world of the Great Basin and eastern Sierra. I hope it inspires you to look at dusty hillsides and sagebrush differently.
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L