Benefits of Roses with Damiana Calvario

-- TIMESTAMPS -

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 01:42 - How Damiana’s love for herbs and the plant world started
• 12:53 - How to harvest and work with roses 
• 21:14 - Rose Cardamom Horchata recipe
• 28:21 - Damiana’s current herbal projects
• 30:48 - Damiana shares her thoughts on how herbs instill hope

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Transcript from the Benefits of Roses with Damiana Calvario Video

Rosalee:
Hello and welcome to the Herbs with Rosalee podcast. I'm your host, Rosalee de la Forêt. And I'm thrilled to be joined today by Damiana Calvario. I've known Damiana for a couple of years now and we've had the opportunity to share and support each others' work in a variety of ways. And Damiana's heart-centered offerings have always impressed me and I'm just so grateful that she's here on the podcast.

Damiana is a mixed woman of color, daughter, sister, caregiver, community member, and first-generation immigrant. Born and raised in so-called Mexico City to a large family, she inherited both her mother's and father's lineages. Currently living as a guest in Chumash land, her practice blends together her Mexican roots, family's kitchen remedies, Curanderismo studies, and western herbal training. Welcome to the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, Damiana.

Damiana:
Yay. So happy to be here, Rosalee. Thank you for having me.

Rosalee:
Oh, I'm just so thrilled. Thank you for saying yes. So I wanted to get started with how I love to hear how people fell in love with the plant world and then how that snowballed into more and more, as you got deeper and deeper into your plant studies. And I know plants are such a big part of your life, so I'd love to hear how it began and how it's kept on going.

Damiana:
I feel like it also changes as I grow…and as my practice changes then this answer is always a little different.

Rosalee:
Uh-huh (affirmative), I totally know what you mean.

Damiana:
It took so many years for me to realize that this started as a kid. I grew up in a big family, as you read in my intro. And definitely, my aunties and my grandparents were very much involved in raising us. And my grandmothers always had a garden. So no one in my family would call themselves an herbalist, or they didn't really have a word for this, but they had all of these practices where—even in small containers, or a little garden in the city—they would always grow manzanilla,  chamomile, or hierba de limón. That one's lemon grass. And they just had roses, of course. They just had these special allies.

So growing up, I really took it for granted and it was just like, "Oh, I guess this is the way everyone lives and this is just a normal thing to do." And I think I was initiated by them. Like, "Hey. Go grab a handful of cilantro for the salsa." And I would just go chop a little bit, bring it back and then playing with them. And now that I look back and I'm like, "Whoa. I really was initiated then." They were the first ones that passed knowledge to me without me even noticing it.

Rosalee:
And do you remember when you realized, "Oh, not everyone grows up like this"?

Damiana:
Probably when I came to the U.S.

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Damiana:
I've been here for seven years now and, I don't know. My past life in Mexico City, I did go to college and I wanted to be a sociologist. And definitely academia really focused me on a different path. I wasn't really into growing plants or… But then, coming here, I think it was the biggest shock. Just like, "Oh wow. Where am I going to find my herbs in the market?"

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Damiana:
Farmer's markets are, in Mexico, just such a… I know you've been there tons of times. So mercados… sometimes you even get herbal advice even if you don't want it. So coming here, I was like, "Oh, where am I getting my epozote?" Or all of those little things. Or fresh chamomile. So I was like, "No. I need to get back to a farm and growing my own special stuff." And that was a re-awakening, I think.

Rosalee:
So you went off on this college adventure, were interested in sociology, you moved here. And herbs were a missing part of your life, suddenly?

Damiana:
Yeah. My last job in Mexico City, I was a green garden teacher actually. So I was already on this agricultural path, I guess, doing urban agriculture. And I came in my early 20's to California and did my permaculture certificate. So I was already into it, but living in the city, it was a part-time job, I guess, a hobby.

And teaching and adapting from the curriculum, from the normal or the traditional system into the garden as a classroom was what I did. But herbs, I think, back then were more allies for the garden. Like, "Oh. What can I plant as a companion of tomatoes?" And it was like, "Oh. Basil. Okay. I guess I'll eat basil in my food because it's already here and I want to just enjoy all the gifts from the garden." But it wasn't very medicinal, I think. It was just more, I guess cultural. I've always known to use this or that for this physical issue but also emotional or spiritual issues. Just in Mexico, it's so... it's just part of everyday life.

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) I just love that so much. I'm a bit envious, although I have my own path which led me here today, so that is what it is. But I guess, even more so, I'm just hopeful. That's something you pointed out, when you were growing up it was just so normal and I hope we see that normalization in cultures where it's not normal right now. So it's interesting.

Damiana:
We're doing it.

Rosalee:
We're doing it. It's interesting because I just interviewed Rosemary Gladstar for a previous episode and she had a similar story. She also just grew up with it and she talked about her family who were herbalists, who didn't say they were herbalists, because it was just normal. And that would be so cool. Just if all of us didn't say we're herbalists, it's just what we do. It's just normal.

Damiana:
I love that. And I really feel that was the way in my family. It was through food and beverages. My grandfather was a vet, so he did a little bit of lab medicines. He did some tinctures to heal and he did some stuff like that. But it was very his thing because he was a vet. It wasn't like we were all invited into that more serious herbal medicine.

It was more about making teas and making food. And every day was a feast in my parent's and my grandparent's house. And herbs were included as an everyday practice. And this is also, it's a beautiful part of growing up in that way and I treasure it deeply, but it's also not the only way. I also want to say that it's never late. It's never like, "Oh, I didn't grow up like that. So I don't have it in me." No. We got this.

We can pick up wherever we left off, even our ancestors left off. And we can begin today. Even if we feel like we don't know anything, we can begin today and there is already so much knowledge that we have.

Rosalee:
That is so true. I really love how you said that, Damiana, how you put that. That's beautiful. And with that, we might as well jump into our plant for today. So thank you again for being here because you are my second guest on the show, so I'm just so appreciative that you're willing to jump on board with this new thing. So to set things up for our listeners, each show, we're going to chat about one special plant. And the plant that Damiana is sharing about today is one of my personal favorites. And so Damiana, what inspired you to share about rose today?

Damiana:
Oh, roses. It's just a perfect ally. It has this dual, I think, personality. As a society, we've also made it super corny and super mainstream and super high-maintenance. And then on the other side, they grow wild, they're underrated. People don't know a lot about all the different layers and layers of medicine that they carry. So I've always been in love with them. It's always been truly an ancestor to me. I know they've been nourishing my mom and my grandmothers before me, and, of course, that love is also inherited, I think. And I think it's just such a perfect ally for me to understand different parts of my practice in herbalism.

It really shows me in a very clear way, or in a very forward way, that one flower can tend to the physical body, but also has properties to tend to the emotional body. And can be very opening and uplifting. And it's also very special in the spiritual, if you have a spiritual practice around plants. I also love this part that it's the most beautiful and soft petals and bloom, yet filled with thorns. That it becomes a fruit that you can also eat. And I've just been learning throughout the years, you can work with every single part of rose. You can work with roots, you can work with leaves. So even though I'm personally super attracted to the scent and the flower, their magic is just so multi-faceted.

Rosalee:
Oh, I so agree with you. And I loved how you brought in that corny commercialism to acknowledge that, too, because my namesake of rose, and my own name, when I was a young kid, I feel like people gave me a lot of rose things and one of the things I was given was a synthetic rose perfume and at first I loved it.

Damiana:
You were like, "I don’t like this."

Rosalee:
No, I did as a kid! I was 10 and I loved it. And then I used it, but it was pretty soon, it was like, "blech." I remember first loving it and then just the more I used it on me, I was just, "blech". That synthetic rose smell is just horrible. Obviously, no one was giving a 10 year old rose essential oil, which is astronomically expensive. But I feel like for so long, I was not big on rose because of that.

But moving beyond that commercial, corny, synthetic stuff going on with rose to actual roses. And I love working with wild roses because they grow everywhere where I live. And then I also have heirloom rose bushes that grow here right by the house and so I love working with those, too, because they also have that heady scent. And I love how you said, too, "You just can't put rose in a box of any kind." Because roses will just bramble out everywhere. And there's so many different ways.

Damiana:
Even physically, you see them and they do what they want to do. And I also tend to rose bushes in my garden. I just have one wild rose in my garden that I tend to and it was gifted me by a land tender, so it's super precious. I've been tending to that bush for two years and I think this finally is going to be the year that they're going to bloom for me. So super excited. I'll text you a picture.

Rosalee:
Oh, you'll have to do that. Absolutely.

Damiana:
And also when you grow them, when you tend to them, you really build up this relationship with them. An everyday observation and you get excited, you learn when you need to prune them, when you need to water them more. But also, how are they so different. Bush to bush, they smell so different, the flowers smell so different. I don't know, it's just such a big teacher. And then those teachings, taking them to other plants and to other beings that might not be as dramatic or as big. That's so lovely.

Rosalee:
Let's dive into some specifics, Damiana, on how you like to work with roses—what parts you might harvest and how you use those as medicine on any levels.

Damiana:
Petals are my main thing. And I also feel like, depending on the time of the year, the medicine that I'm crafting with roses changes. So right now, we are in high spring, everything's popping here in South California. So, I need to plan ahead. So for example, with the wild rose bush, I'm already thinking like, "Okay. Whenever they bloom, I do want to harvest some petals,". But it's also very important for me to let the bush go to seed. And also, I want rose hips for the fall or winter. So what I'm going to be doing with those ones is making sure that I'm not taking the whole head and I'm just taking some petals from each bloom.

So I can leave some petals, and I know that they'll be visited by pollinators and then later in the year, I can have hips. With those petals, I do teas, I do agua florida, which is huge for me and for my family. And it's basically a flower water.

We have all these different aguas. There's another one I just did last full moon that was agua cerenada. So it's basically a cold infusion of roses and then you leave it outside for the moon to do its thing. I guess it's a flower essence slash cold infusion. And then you can use that to spray your face or mix it with hydrosol or glycerite. I did with you, actually, in another one of our spaces where we share plant magic. I did a rose glycerite.

So, that one's almost ready. I'm so excited and I just feel like I'm going to be leaving and spraying it on myself. It already seems so luscious.

Rosalee:
I love that. The thing with rose is that it is powerful medicine but it's also just something…the medicine is in its every day gifts. And working with rose every day and, like you, roses are in high bloom where I'm at right now. And even walking by and having that scent just permeate the air is so beautiful. And even the act of harvesting roses for me is so deeply healing. Those soft petals and just the meditative practice. It's not like digging burdock roots. Those are two different harvesting experiences. With rose petals, it's like, "Ooh. Ooh." Saying hello to the bees as we're walking by.

Damiana:
Taking pictures of them. I feel like I have so many pictures of flowers in my phone and just going back and visiting them and really… Just an image, too. As you were saying, just watching them from the window and knowing they're there, I'm already receiving so much from them. So even if I don't harvest, just from a plant seed, or watching them, or sometimes I don't craft at all. Just bringing in one bloom, I'm putting it in water. And have it next to my altar or by my bed and just having them. They're truly magical. And I also love how they weave all of us from so many different parts of the world. They're basically everywhere. And there are hundreds of cultivars. They're just like people, they're just like us.

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) So true. You've been mentioning, well, just the way you speak of it. Just how healing it is to be around roses. That makes me think of two instances where I called on rose lately. I've had two friends who've gone through some hard times. One friend lost her partner suddenly to heart disease and another friend is going through her final PhD studies and she just has been really struggling. It's been a very difficult time for her, emotionally and everything. And so in both instances, the wonderful being that came to my mind was roses. And so, for both of them I made them rose medicines and gifted them. It's not that far, really, from getting long stem roses from a florist, but this is heart-centered medicine that they can appreciate and work with in their own ways. But there is such a heart-soothing, heart-opening, and heart-healing aspect to rose.

Damiana:
I also loved what you said about the everyday medicine. I also feel like that's why it's a tonic, it's a heart tonic. So my sister recently also just passed the bar and she's now an immigration lawyer in California. Shout out.

She's amazing. But just going through that process of studying for the bar, I was also bringing her lots of roses.

So either some infusion, or those waters to spray herself, or some treats, like little cookies with roses. And also blending them. I also feel like rose goes with, even when I make medicine for mutual aid or giving away, I feel like rose is such a strong and vast container, but it's my go-to to round up medicine. Even a flower essence, if I'm blending, it's always like, "Oh, I need to sneak in rose." Or some petals into my bath blend. Or salts, or… It really feels like they can hold a lot, they can harmonize a lot of different mixes.

Rosalee:
Thank you for that word. Harmonize. I knew there was a word there. I was going to describe that and I couldn't find it myself so yes, a beautiful harmonizer. That's wonderful. I love all these ways that you're talking about using it and working with it because there's just so many ways internally—teas, glycerites, elixirs, foods. But rose is so versatile, so we can turn to rose for those external or skin. And rose is actually one of my favorite things for the skin. I love infusing rose petals into oils. You've been mentioning spritzing and hydrosols, which is also lovely. And there's just all those.

Damiana:
Vinegars, too.

Rosalee:
Vinegars, oh.

Damiana:
I've had bad sunburns and rose vinegar is so soothing, too.

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) I'm so glad you mentioned that. That is a really powerful one for rose and there's those different levels of healing there. I know that rose modulates inflammation. So for sunburns, or just protection from the sun, rose is wonderful. But then there's just something so beautiful and just lovely about putting rose on skin.

Damiana:
It feels so luscious. It feels like…The everyday self care. And I know we're so busy, but even taking 10 seconds to spray rose, or smell rose… And it doesn't have to be this super expensive essential oil that also takes tons and tons and tons of plant material for us to use this perfume, which to me doesn't seem like a medicinal practice. But just doing a little bit of face oil, or doing a little spray, or putting it in our food really quickly. It just feels so luxurious and those are my five minutes of like, "Oh, I'm taking such good care of me and I'm treating myself." As if it was a special day, because every day is a special day.

Rosalee:
Every day is a special day. Especially with roses in our lives. So speaking of wonderful things to do with rose, you have a recipe to share with everyone, a rose horchata. And this is an amazing recipe.

Damiana:
Yay!

Rosalee:
I've made it twice already, so I'm really thrilled with it. I've loved horchata for so many years and I always especially crave it in the hot summer. And so when you sent this recipe I was just like, "Oh." It just never occurred to me to make it myself. It's always something that I get when I'm out and about. So would you share a bit about the recipe?

Damiana:
Yeah. Oh, wow. I was shy and nervous. Like, "What recipe do you give an herbalist?" But it's always so fun to learn new practices and really noticing and acknowledging how the herbalism world is so vast that, even between us… I'm a baby on this path. I've been practicing, I think, for seven years now and I know some people have been walking for 30 plus years. And they're still learning. So it's always so beautiful to just go back to what can I share that is part of my life and that has been with me forever? And just sharing in a genuine way. So I'm just so happy that resonated with you and that you enjoyed it. My mom made me horchata for right now.

So I'm drinking a version of what I shared with everyone. So another of my go-to's with rose is very cooling. It's very cooling physically, but it's also very cooling emotionally. Whenever I'm heated up, mad, or fired up inside, rose also helps me to calm down and…  Nothing wrong with being angry and nothing wrong with being hot. But whenever we want to tone down or balance again, that roses are really a great go-to. So horchata, if someone out there doesn't know horchata and has been living in a cave. It's an agua fresca.

So agua frescas, it's just a whole cosmos of different beverages that we have everywhere, or in many parts of Mexico. And they're just non-alcoholic, usually cooling, beverages, drinks. But they can also be warm—actually, horchata is one of the ones that can be served warmed. And they include all sorts of different things. So people craft them with veggies, fruits, seeds, weeds, herbs, all kinds of seasonal stuff, whatever is growing around them, really. So the one that I shared mixes different seeds, so it's basically an overnight cold infusion with uncooked rice, coconut, almonds, and then some yummy spices. So roses and cardamom and a little bit of cinnamon.

And cinnamon is a warming herb, but we also don't want to cool our belly. So in Mexico, it's also very typical that you always want to—I've said this 100 times I think today—but round again your food. Give this other part to it so it's not going to be cooling your belly. So that's why they introduce the cinnamon and that's how I was taught. So you leave all of that overnight and then in the morning, you blend it and you strain it. And then I love adding marshmallow root. Just I cannot have enough right now in South California with the fire season coming up, with the summer and after-summer, I'm always sneaking in those yummy marshmallow roots.

And you can adjust the sweetness with, we traditionally do with piloncillo, which is a type of molasses. But you can just use molasses, or honey, or maple syrup, or whatever you work with. And it is really yummy. It's our version of a nut milk, I think.

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) For the sweetener on mine, I used rose-petal infused honey that I just already had on hand.

Damiana:
Wow.

Rosalee:
I really loved the marshmallow in there. And I mentioned my friend who's going through a hard time finishing up her PhD studies and just how stressful that is. And she's been having a lot of gut issues. And so I actually made this exact recipe for her and I'm bringing that to her today. And I know she's going to love it because it tastes so yummy. But it just is that multiple healing levels that we've been talking about, I think, between the cinnamon, and the cardamom, and the roses, and the soothing qualities of those. The milks and the marshmallow root is just going to be a wonderful way too, just beautiful medicine for healing the gut too.

So it's just there's all these different ways you could look at this recipe. So to get yours, so you have the ability to get your own recipe card so you can see this recipe exactly and you can download that above this transcript. So thank you very much, Damiana for sharing that with us.

Damiana:
Of course.

Rosalee:
And I really want to hear from people when they make it.

Damiana:
Me too. I think it's also super versatile.

You could add dairy if you drink milk. Milk is a great electrolyte so for the warmer months, I also add that milk in there. And seeds can also—even in Mexico, there are hundreds of recipes of different horchatas depending on where you are, and what you're growing at that moment, and what is seasonal, or what you saved. So my favorite one is also done with cantaloupe seeds.

So, whenever you're eating cantaloupe, you clean the seeds, you process them as you would to plant again next year or next season. You dry them, and those ones, you can use to replace, let's say, the rice, or to replace the almonds. Or if you don't work with nuts, you can always just do sunflower seeds or pepitas. Or you can play around.

Rosalee:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) So many options.

Damiana:
So many options.

Rosalee:
I know I'm going to make this recipe many, many times. So I look forward to playing with it as well.

Damiana:
Yay.

Rosalee:
Well, Damiana. One of the many things I love about herbalism is how people bring it to life for them. And I'm curious, what herbal projects do you have going on right now that you'd like to share?

Damiana:
I just started an essence circle. So I'm super excited about that. Once a month, we get together, and we have an essence of the month. I call it a journey, we just relax and grab a pillow and we journey with that essence, we take it at the same time. And I really think about it as a collective knowledge pool. So it's not a class, it's not really directed. It's probably a little guided and contained by me. But the intention is just to receive collective knowledge from one being. And I'm just obsessed with essences.

So that has been really exciting. And I'm actually putting together a little ‘zine. I don't know when this is going to be published, but that's probably going to be ready by July. And I'm putting a little ‘zine with friends that's going to be all about roses. It's called Amorosa.

So I hope that this can be going and that this can be just the first volume of many, because as we've talked through this episode, the medicine of rose is so vast. And there's just not enough rose books out there or collective projects. So we need one more.

Rosalee:
So true. Those are both really beautiful projects and definitely the exact projects that I'm used to seeing from you. Just these heart-centered, beautiful offerings. And for those of you who'd like to get in touch with Damiana, see more of her offerings, a great way to get in touch with her is through Instagram. Her handle is laluneria. She also has a Patreon, laluneria as well —and great ways to get in touch with her.

You can get the recipe from Damiana above this transcript, as mentioned. All right, Damiana. We're here for the last question and this will be the question I'm asking all of my guests in Season One. And I'm looking forward to hearing the many different responses. So this question is, "With all the challenges that we're facing today, what are some ways that herbs instill hope in you?"

Damiana:
Oh, wow. What a beautiful question. I want to hear what everyone says, too. Well, first of all, taking care of myself. I think herbalism has been very empowering and knowing that there is something that I can do daily to take care of myself at many different levels. But also take care of my family, being there for my community and preventing a lot of issues that can come up. And really bringing it into an everyday practice and part of our lives. Just where you grew up, continuing that and passing on that to others. And then that being said, connecting that self care to community care.

I think mutual aid for me has been huge. I've been working doing mutual aid projects my whole life I think, since I was 15 in high school. And it has never stopped. In different ways, honestly, I'm not proud of every single project. I haven't done everything right. But I think especially this past year, just showing up with herbal care for our communities, I was part of this amazing collective called the L.A. Herbalist Collective and we did so much medicine for L.A., unhoused folks, and undocu communities, and other vulnerable communities around us. And it was just such a great way to also focus our resources and get going, get doing something.

I try to have one big project a year. This year I'm supporting a Zapatista community in Jalisco. And we are helping them build a traditional pharmacy. So I am accepting donations. Everyone is welcome to join me in this effort, to join us. I'm also part of a brigade, this is not my personal effort. But if someone has an abundance of herbs at home that wants to donate to this indigenous community, I will be taking them myself. I'm also doing a raffle. So I'll be posting about that in a couple of weeks.

But I think just herbalism is truly the people's medicine and it is for every person. It might be overwhelming, it can be so fast at times. But also if we focus on what is around us, and what we've been growing up with, or what we see, we don't need that much. If we have five plants that we know and we can share the abundance of those five plants. We can really see the benefits of that in our community reflected back to us. I think herbalism has been a big pillar on both my physical and my mental health during these challenging times. And it is a joy and an honor to be able to share that with others.

Rosalee:
Thank you so much, Damiana. That was both inspiring and empowering. And I just really appreciate all of your offerings and all your energy and work you're doing to contribute to making this world a beautiful place. Again, everyone who wants to get in touch with Damiana, see more of her offerings, check her out on Instagram at laluneria. 

So I know I'm ready to go put myself into a rose bush and just luxuriate there in that experience. I'm sure listeners are too.

So Damiana, I'm so glad you were with me today. Not only for the Herbs with Rosalee listeners' benefit, but just for me, personally. I just always love being able to chat with you and see what you're up to. So thank you so much for being here.

Damiana:
Same. Thank you so much for having me, Rosalee. And thank you so much for all you do too. I will never forget that we got connected first by doing a mutual aid project and that you supported and made possible my work, I think three years ago. With the caravans, with the caravanas de migrantes in Tijuana. And truly, you made that effort possible in a big way. So thank you so much for always showing up and being part of my crazy projects. It's been so fun.

Rosalee:
Likewise. Absolutely. All right. Thank you so much, Damiana. And before you go, be sure to sign up for my newsletter below, so you'll be the first to get my new videos, including interviews like this. And I'd also love to hear what you thought about this interview, your relationship to the beautiful rose flower. So leave your comments in the area below. I deeply believe that this world needs more herbalists and plant-centered folks. And so I'm so glad that you're here as part of the Herbs with Rosalee community. Have a beautiful day.

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Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Healand co-author of the bestselling book Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She's a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and has taught thousands of students through her online courses. Read about how Rosalee went from having a terminal illness to being a bestselling author in her full story here.