My Mission

To offer herbal healing to my local community and beyond by sharing the wisdom of the plant world through education, inspiration and hand crafted botanical offerings. I truly believe it is our calling as humans to tap into the powerful healing that nature provides us and to ally ourselves with the plants that can bring balance to our bodies, minds and spirits. I believe in working in reciprocity with the earth and always do my best to return more than I take to my community and home planet. I create and teach with humble respect and awe along with a mentality of stewardship and protection of the land. Join me on this journey to reconnect with our health, the earth and our roots.

My Story

My name is Amber Joy Kennedy. I’m an artist, writer, educator, homesteader, witch and folk herbalist. I live with my partner, Adam and two kitties in a stone cottage in the hills of Northern Vermont where I enjoy tending my garden, reading and cooking and where I run a small herbal practice called Boheme Botanika.

The dream of Boheme Botanika began about a decade ago out of a desire to reconnect with nature and with my roots. I had become disenchanted with depending on mainstream modalities to make money, meet my health needs and even rely on a giant, planet destroying system for my food. I was struggling with my sense of self, battling depression and feeling a deep ache in my soul for something I had no name for. I decided there had to be a better way.

I moved out of my apartment in Massachusetts and into a renovated camper to try my hand at “off-grid” living. I raised chickens and bees and grew most of my own vegetables. I spent winters as the caretaker for a goat farm, teaching myself to milk and make cheese and yogurt. I spent a lot of time alone in the woods, I read a lot, I cried a lot, I got really strong and I started taking an herbalism class at Clearpath School of Herbal Medicine during that time. Being my very first introduction to herbalism, the concepts were way over my head at the time but it stirred up an intense passion and curiosity and illuminated a new path that I had no idea existed up until then. I grew up using plants to heal a scrape or burn and with some working knowledge of herbal remedies passed down from my grandmother, and my mother always had herbs in the garden and lining the pantry shelves but discovering that plants could actually be used to bring balance and true healing to the body was a miraculously empowering moment.

That spring I turned most of my vegetable garden into an herb garden and learned everything I could about foraging and the plants growing wild all around me. I took classes and apprenticeships covering everything from Traditional Chinese Medicine to Indigenous Healing Arts to Eastern European Folk Medicine and beyond. As I learned more, I healed. When I set out I thought I had found a fun, new hobby but I soon realized that as I used my hands to dig in the earth or harvest Lavender, clean Burdock roots or drink Nettle tea that this was my calling and I was actually healing more than just myself. I was healing my bloodline.

It dawned on me that my hands were remembering how to do this work and how to turn plants into medicine… just as my ancestors had done. I wasn’t just learning a new skill, I was remembering a long lost art that was as ancient as my DNA. This was the thing that I was missing, the empty spot in my soul, the thing with no name. Herbalism has brought me a sense of purpose and a connection to the earth and most importantly a connection to people. It’s been my way to add a few tidy knots to the web of life and hopefully bring some beauty, comfort and healing to someone who needs it.

And so I began Boheme Botanika. The name is an homage to my Bohemian ancestry. I started out making botanical skincare potions and herbal makeup, tapping into my background in Esthetics. Then I brought in some of my bartending knowledge to craft artisan bitters and tinctures formulas. I called on my career in the holistic health field to formulate detox teas and immune support remedies. It has since evolved into a full herbal line including folk remedies, oils, teas, salves and nature inspired products. All concocted with nature and created with intention and the healing of the earth and her inhabitants in mind. Many are my versions of those old folk remedies that I grew up using.

I have since moved out of that little camper and up to the mountains of Vermont where I still feel like a guest in these untamed woods. I continue to study, wild craft, grow my own herbs, write about and create with these green beings and while I will forever be a student, my newest passion is helping others to find the wisdom of the plant world that healed me and make a vital connection to nature and their own roots through teaching classes, giving lectures, writing and offering one on one sessions. I hope you will join me in the forest to hear her healing secrets someday soon!

Blessings,

Amber Joy