Jeannie Dunn: Woodland Botanicals

This month on HerbMentor Radio, Kimberly Gallagher and Mimi Prunella welcome North Carolina herbalist, educator, wildcrafter, and Red Moon Herbs owner Jeannie Dunn for a journey into the rich forests of the Southern Appalachians. Together, they explore woodland herbalism, sustainable wildcrafting, and what it means to build a relationship with medicinal plants that includes not only harvesting them, but tending and protecting the places where they grow.

Jeannie takes listeners into the cool, green world of an Appalachian rich cove, where extraordinary biodiversity creates habitat for some of our most treasured woodland medicines. She reflects on growing up on her family’s North Carolina farm and the generations of women who taught her to grow food, preserve the harvest, work with plants, and care for family and community. That lineage eventually found a natural home in the Wise Woman tradition and continues to shape Jeannie’s approach to herbalism today.

The conversation celebrates Jeannie’s beloved mantra, “Eat More Weeds,” and the value of turning toward abundant plants growing close to home. Jeannie and Mimi explore how favoring common weeds can also take pressure off slower-growing woodland medicinals and discuss how herbalists can move beyond sustainable harvesting toward active stewardship of vulnerable plant communities.

The episode’s anchor herb, American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), opens a deeper conversation about one of Appalachia’s most storied medicinal plants. Jeannie shares her relationship with ginseng and the complicated history surrounding its harvest, trade, and conservation. She also introduces an intriguing alternative to digging the prized root: working with ginseng leaf, offering another way to experience the medicine of this remarkable plant while keeping its roots in the ground.

Listeners will also hear how these values shape Red Moon Herbs, where fresh, local plants, seasonal medicine making, and responsible sourcing remain central even as an herbal business grows. Jeannie reflects on Western North Carolina’s vibrant herbal community, the Asheville Herb Festival, and the extraordinary ways herbalists, growers, and neighbors came together following Hurricane Helene.

In this episode, we explore:

Stepping into the rich coves and medicinal forests of the Southern Appalachians

Generations of women, plant knowledge, and the roots of Jeannie’s herbal path

The Wise Woman tradition and its influence on Red Moon Herbs

Why Jeannie w