Victoria Lindchan: Urban Farmer
A short and sweet Prismatic Plants Q&A with women talking about the role of plant-based medicine in their lives.
Interviewee: Victoria Lindchan
A mama, a lover, and a woman who admires the bigger workings outside of everyday life like the earth, sun, and moon. She grew up in London, then St. Louis, and spent a good bit of her adult life traveling the world. After finding dissatisfaction in the fashion industry, she became curious and pursued a career in farming where she could ground herself in soil. With her newfound passion for plants, Victoria has become a bit of an urban-homesteader, growing a wide variety of food in her backyard in Philadelphia. From this self-cultivated plant knowledge, she creates a wide variety of potions and fermentations from her home-grown produce and herbs.
PP: How did you first discover plant-based medicine?
VL: Through growing vegetables in my garden in Philadelphia. I started growing calendula and it opened up my world to the magic of healing plants. My favorite medicines to make from my garden are teas and herbal oil infusions.
PP: What is one of your key plant-based medicine rituals?
VL: Nourishment tea, I drink a quart every day. Based on the recipe from herbal godmother, Rosemary Gladstar’s Libertea & Aviva Romm’s post-partum tea: red raspberry leaf, milky oat tops, nettle, rosehips, spearmint, lemon balm. Equal parts. I drink it as a maintenance tea, like a multi-vitamin to keep me from feeling depleted. Now my whole family loves it!
PP: Do you have a cultural or ancestral connection to any plants?
VL: Ancestral connection through my paw-paw’s (grandma) Chinese lineage with the tea plant. She always made tea and would read my leaves.
PP: What is the one plant/herb you can’t live without and why?
VL: That’s a tough one! Two come to mind. The stinging nettle for its versatility. Packed with vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, potassium, vitamin K, it is fabulous for detoxification, anti-inflammation, anti-histamine, blood-builder, and regulator. Chamomile for it's calm and nostalgia for me. An herb of my childhood, my mama would always make some before bedtime. I continue this ritual with my son today.
PP: Can you share your favorite self-care practice?
VL: It’s seasonal for me. Winter, always with a cup of tea and a long hot shower. In the spring and summer, I love to stroll and tend to my garden. The fall, a hike in the forest during golden hour.
PP: What’s one organization you think people should know about and support?
VL: The Spirit Weavers: an annual gathering teaching and sharing ancestral ways.