Southern Folk Medicine with Phyllis Light

<p class="MsoNormal">Come with us to Arab, Alabama, to meet Phyllis Light, herbalist, responsible forager, native plant conservation advocate, founder of the Appalachian Center for Natural Health, and author of <em>Southern Folk Medicine: Healing Traditions from the Appalachian Fields and Forests.</em></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Phyliss Light was born on Brindlee Mountain, in this southwest extension of the Appalachian Mountains, into a family with Creek and Cherokee Indian roots. She learned herbalism from her grandmother, and spent long days of her childhood "gleaning" – harvesting wild foods and medicines, fishing and hunting, with her father. "It was a very practical kind of herbalism," Phyliss explains, "if it didn't work, we didn't use it. We didn't have the money to go to the doctor unless it was something drastic." As an adult she was an apprentice of the late Tommie Bass, the world-renowned healer known as "the Herb Doctor of Shinbone Ridge."</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Although sh...