Blue Moon Herbs - Who We Are and What We Are About
From the heart of Montana’s beautiful Flathead, greetings and Happy New Year from Blue Moon Herbs! Our company is a small one with a simple mission around healing and Essiac. We make Essiac tea using organic high quality herbs and we replicate Rene Caisse’s known protocol and formulae. We hang our hat on the central importance of the one ingredient she believed the most deeply in - Sheep sorrel, specifically the root. The more of it in the Sheep sorrel portion of Essiac, the better.
But this isn't just about Essiac. Its about doing things right, and what our values are at Blue Moon.
About giving and receiving...we are here for Essiac, not the money. However, it does greatly help provide a living for about six of us. We don't count our hours. We just try to do right by the money we get, which is $15 per hour. Because we are committed to respect, honesty, trust, and good communication, it works great! When you love what you do, and you all share in the work done and the benefits gained, it can be a great way of having success, not just financial and not just for some but for everyone. (Hey, Congress...!)
I have long wondered what a world where money simply didn't matter would look like. It sure would change a lot of things. I think it would be good to reflect on this. What if we got to choose?
What if we could take care of our health care needs without worrying about the cost and/or the service being covered? Blue Moon Herbs doesn't have a health insurance plan. Our steps in the right direction at this point include free soak passes at the hot springs, or a trip to the naturopath, as needs arise. It is just a token, but we are there for each other if anything comes up at least. Of course we all have free Essiac 🙂 We are healthy and happy and our fingers are crossed. We have been and remain COVID-free at Blue Moon. But wouldn't it be so great if we could have affordable health insurance that covered the services and medicines we'd like it to, and with just one small deductible for everything. We get to create the future we want. Once the dust settles at Congress, right?! 'We' is all of us. Even the ones we can't relate to. Ironic but true. We all have work to do.
Our Mission
In a nutshell, the We Can Change the World Even if It Doesn't Always Seem Like It Federation's Blue Moon mission is pretty basic: to get Essiac to who it is supposed to go to, one way or another, while providing a model for how this can be done in sustainable win-win ways that benefit both Main Street and everybody back at home.
We are inspired by simplicity. As has been the case for more than 100 years, Essiac appears to do no harm, and it just may do some good! Goodwill, kindness and respect also do no harm and will surely also do us all some good. Let's 'take it to heart.' Let us be patient but committed to justice and peace beyond Blue Moon (or wherever you are). It may take a minute yet.
Giving Back - the Glad To Be Here Project
The Blue Moon Glad To Be Here Project is our ongoing informal effort to get Essiac herbs to anyone interested and in need in our local area, especially Tribal members (We live and do business on the Flathead Indian Reservation). After all, the tea came to our modern times from Native Americans. There is much more healing to come. Our inspiration: Moke Eaglefeathers, passed on five years ago this coming May 2021. The circle is completing. As a white person, I am not sure what it means, but I want to thank Moke again in a way that will honor him and also help lives.
This grassroots approach grows good things. It's not funded by mystery money from unknown people, it is local. It develops organically, fed by real time communication and collaboration between real people. In the end, the will of the people will always prevail. Small is beautiful. It matters in the 'big' picture. Big depends on it to show the dance step of moving towards peace.
"Peace begins with a smile." - Mother Theresa
I like going by the Four Agreements - basically: Take nothing personally, Don't assume anything, Do your best, and Keep your promises. Even if that's not what you are surrounded by, hold steady.
The Future
Our future is a canvas, still blank, and awaiting our brushstroke. It remains to be seen what kind of picture we will create but one thing is for sure. Its up to all of us to create something original and beautiful without hurting anyone along the way. That's my prayer for the next week, and onward. We all want a world we can feel happy and safe living in, all of us.
Stand down? For sure!! How about, let's Sit Down. Let’s put love over hate, truth over falsehood, and goodness over evil, as Peace Pilgrim, one of my biggest heroes, advocated. Let’s not paint with blood. Let’s all take turns and cooperate. We were wired to work together. Let’s do it!
Accepting loss
I read a story about a woman whose baby had died but she kept carrying it around looking for someone who could bring it back to life. Everyone kind of looked at her a little funny, but finally she found a wise man that told her he could help her. All she had to do was bring him one grain of rice from a household that had never known sorrow.
We all know the frustration when we think we are right and the other guy is wrong and he won’t listen to reason. But real solutions come from real problem-solving, and a sincere mutual desire to work things out fairly. I don't know how you get there, but it seems like we all have to search our souls for the best way we can be part of the solution while harming no one else. Because ultimately we will come to realize that we are all feeling the same emotions even if for different reasons. That is just reality. We all want a future with a place to live and love that is safe and clean and where the citizens respect each other and work together to create a great place to raise kids and enjoy all life has to offer.
We can get our balance back by creating solutions that work for everyone and hurt no one. Let’s start by getting behind what we believe in, and being there for those we care for, as we do what we can to bring the Light of Love back in all its Brilliance.
Proudly introducing the second of our two newest sources for Essiac in Montana's Flathead Valley - Anchor Nutrition in Columbia Falls! Here's hoping there is not a blizzard that day LOL.
The Ancestral Medicine Section of the First International Health Congress on Integrative Oncology and Ethical and Sustainable Patient Care was held on Saturday, June 29, 2019. The place: Geneva Switzerland! We were there to see Mali Klein's presentation on the subject of the relevance of Essiac to health and healing in the 21st Century. Following Mali's presentation on Essiac are presentations by her co-panel members Dr. Patrick Shan (France) - Traditional Chinese Medicine and Dr. Manan Soni (India), Ayurveda. The speakers are very informative and provide a great perspective on the nature of healing and the common themes that cut across cultural and temporal boundaries.
Wishing all of our friends, colleagues and customers a very happy, healthy 2019! Above, from left to right are the team at Blue Moon Herbs with Mali Klein, who visited recently - Emily Angelo, Danielle Yoder, Anais Starr, Debbie Jakovac, Mali Klein, and Hannah Rostocki. Not pictured are Angie Vance, Danielle's and Emily's daughters and sons, who are Junior Blue Mooners 🙂 nor the many more who remain anonymous but have helped us help you better through their friendship love and support.
Update as of February 9, 2019:The light is now noticeably coming back here on the 47th parallel, both in length and intensity. January was a bit of a winter no-show as we watched points east of Montana getting the business. But ever since February came, it has been blizzarding and making up for lost time. I'm just about done dreaming of hills blossoming in green and gold and planting Sheep sorrel and a candy store's worth of vegetable and herb seeds, many from Strictly Medicinal Seeds and, snow or not I shall plant seeds next week! Inside. Ho hum! Outside and planting and prepping the irrigation system, adding lots of wood chips, etc., all too soon by May or maybe even April it'll be time to trade in the parka for gardening duds! Its been a few years of getting underway with infrastructure in our garden in Hot Springs Montana. Just recently we tested our Sheep sorrel seed and it is ready and viable, 50% germination rate, and those tiny seeds guarantee a good outcome.
This original blog was posted on January 12, literally just a few days before...you guessed it...winter officially really started nailing us... 🙂 Boy do I sound naive!
How Bout the Weather this Winter!
"Another six short weeks and what so far is the warmest winter I can remember in my whole life of living in Montana won't have enough blast left to make a cold snap. Hopefully there will be moisture of some sort coming, though. Our area is naturally on the dry side and we need snow in the mountains in the winter to produce a spring runoff for the valleys.... I could even rake the yard but I am holding out for snow in hopes it doesn't come to that!...It is so seductive to think maybe we'll get away without a real winter. But it being Montana and all...it always seems to come...and actually I really do like it like that. It feels 'normal.' All I know is it is Way Too Soon to call winter a no-show..." Winter has shown! It is still showing!
The Glad To Be Here Project
2018 was dedicated to strengthening our community connections. Danielle, Emily, myself, Hannah and Angie began volunteering at the local soup kitchen. Soup kitchens are great places to give Essiac away as there sure are ample folks in need who appreciate it. Essiac is a new idea to many, often welcome and encouraging.
In this vein, we have started a project encompassing our Flathead Valley and surrounding communities called the Glad To Be Here Project. There are many reasons for being glad to be in the heart of Western Montana, with the grandeur of Glacier National Park and the Mission Mountains and Flathead Lake right out your window. We believe a little bit of the healing energy of this place is in every packet of herbs we put out.
Glad to be here is a state of mind though, and the positive effects from Essiac can make it apply to wherever we find ourselves. There is beauty inside us no matter where we are.
However...there are people here, just like everywhere else, that live with poverty and despair because of health and other problems. We are giving Essiac herbs and/or made-up decoction ready to consume to anyone in our area who would like to try it for a few months or if in need, longer, at no charge. We will be keeping close track of the folks who want to take part in our follow-up research but for those not wishing to share their personal information, no questions asked. Essiac doesn't care about all that.
The heart of our mission is to simply put people and Essiac together. That is truly what we are about more than anything - that and encouraging others to do what we are doing, in their own communities. Say Yes to being an Essiac tea-maker and/or Sheep sorrel grower (for the root). There's a big change coming and it's returning herbal medicine to its well-earned place at the table. "Essiac is a worthy vocation." - Gregory Klein
The Glad to Be Here Project is putting Buddhist philosophy (lovingkindness, gratitude, service) into action and it is also an experiment to see how high quality local Essiac can make a difference in lives!
The big projects and huge organizations have a role to play but we all do. What it ultimately boils down to really is about making a difference in a direct way, with benefit for giver and receiver alike from one-on-one connections, one person at a time, one day at a time. Saying "Yes" and keeping promises.
It was Rene Caisse's dream that Essiac become freely available for everyone everywhere. We CAN change the world. We were told that one person was not going to be able to, but the rest of the story is that people coming together to heal what is broken opens the doors of miraculous positive change where anything is possible. May the Force be with you!
We have a new partner for sourcing Essiac done properly in Europe! We have been working closely with a team based across Germany and Switzerland, Arupa AG, to produce a fresh organic crop Sheep sorrel. It's been two years in the making and I have now received word that the sorrel roots and tops have been successfully harvested and will be available to us in the next couple of months. Germany has long held a reputation for producing some of the finest herbal medicine in the world and we are very pleased to announce we will be offering an international sampler: Essiac with German Sheep sorrel and Essiac with US Sheep sorrel - both top quality and certified organic!
Our new partnership with Arupa AG means that we will also be able to offer our overseas friends and customers a more local source for good quality Essiac herbs. This will help bring down the high shipping rates considerably as well as reduce the delivery times. For more information click here. All teas are now in stock and can be ordered online from the link.
Thank you everyone for a great 2018! May our world be blessed with peace and prosperity for everyone everywhere in 2019.
Debbie Jakovac
Owner, Blue Moon Herbs
"This is the Way of Peace: overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love." - Peace Pilgrim
Mali Klein, author of the best books in existence on Essiac and Rene Caisse, is coming to Polson Montana in June 2018! This trip will be a short one but we plan to cram a lot in 🙂 We'll be shooting lots of video to share with you on Vimeo (The Essiac Cafe) and YouTube.
For Blue Moon Herbs, 2018 is the Year to Get Active Locally. We have spent the last two years digging Sheep sorrel roots but this year is not desperate in that department, and we are officially returning to our main focus - providing the info and inspiration for folks everywhere to do what we're doing - making Essiac like Rene Caisse did, using the roots as well as the arial parts of the Sheep sorrel plant, and providing it for friends and family, community and region. Selling Essiac on the internet has been an amazing experience, but local is really where Essiac's heart lies. Locally produced Essiac. Local Essiac caregivers. Small farms. Micro-businesses. Folks feeling good all over again :). Local economies too!
There is much good to come from people sharing information and finding answers together. In anticipation of Mali's visit we are having a little tea party! We're looking for a small group of local residents who would like to explore the beneficial effects of Essiac in the coming weeks before Mali's visit. Come on down if you are in the area on April 24, 2018! That is, 103B 3rd. Avenue East (Mrs. Wonderful's Marmalade Cafe), Polson, Montana, USA.
If you can't make it, stay tuned! If you are interested in being part of the group for the anecdotal study, but you don't live near Polson, MT contact us. The Essiac Spring Tea Drinkers Guild Study Group is a state of mind and an idea ready for the times 🙂 Read up on Essiac and its history and practical uses in Mali's new book - The Essiac Essentials Handbook - available exclusively through Blue Moon Herbs in June 2018 in softcover version, English. It is currently available online via Amazon in English, French and German and is well worth the read for anyone who wants to know the true story from the women who knew it. The rest of the Klein/Snow books still in print and a handful of other good reads including Rene Caisse's own I Was Canada's Cancer Nurse, are available from our online store. A no-cost option is to visit the online Rene Caisse Room and watch hours worth of videos and read the Homemaker's Magazine article that put Essiac back in prominence in 1977, where it has remained ever since. Enjoy your Essiac!
THIS is part one of the story of a journey. The underlying theme is Essiac but it is about the journey, too. Hope you enjoy it. Part one involves hot springs, Jasper National Park, and a cross-country tour by rail through the middle of Canada. The journey begins with Polson Montana in the rearview mirror, heads north through British Columbia and Alberta, then east through Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and finally into the giant province of Ontario. The journey continues by car from Sudbury to Bracebridge, Rene Caisse's home town, where Canadian Journey Part two - Coming Back to Bracebridge - will share some brand new insights and perspective, along with the first of 1000+ photos of what Bracebridge collectively still has of the history of their very own citizen, Rene Caisse, who gave us Essiac, and whose legacy continues on. Canadian Journey Part Three will be about the Vision Quest and fast held at Grandma Isabelle's, up in the north, land of the Black Fly and the Mosquito, the Bear, the Sandhill Crane, the Loon, and Many Many Others. Canadian Journey Part Four has a hard act to follow! My life has changed profoundly. Part four will be about the future.
The intention of this trip was taking journey back to the source. Again and again history came alive for me... when going through the old newspaper clippings, photos, documents and other history, it almost felt like those times were now…I sat on the bench outside Rene's Clinic door and imagined how many people had come through that door ("Cross the bridge and turn left.."). Now the treatment rooms are apartments. The Inn I stayed at in Bracebridge is famous for being full of ghosts…although I did not see any. And then there was the long wait at the deserted train station/museum in Staples, MN, echoing with the traces of the many travelers who had passed through there in the heyday of passenger train travel in the US. Let's bring it back! Tell Congress to fund Amtrak!
'Back to the source' in the case of the Essiac herbs in its deepest sense means Northern Ontario, and the people who used these herbs since way before Rene Caisse came along. I was very honored to take part in a Vision Quest and Fast retreat right there where it all began.
There I was - 'All Aboard!'...My journey began with a drive up to Jasper, Alberta from Montana, to hop the train east!
Fairmont Hot Springs in BC was halfway from Polson to the train station in Jasper, and it was really great to soak and let it sink in..the adventure is begun! Kimberly Erickson, Blue Moon Herbs/ReneCaisseTea.com Order Fulfillment Expert and Rental Car Returner, was also very happy to be 'along for the ride' 🙂 The following day, Jasper National Park and the Icefield highway made for an amazing drive. The roads were bare and the place was deserted!
The train arrived on time at Jasper, just when we pulled up! (70 hrs. later my train would finally roll into Sudbury Jct...) Whew, made it! We had gotten a late start due to trying to figure out airplane mode and international texting and as we gazed into the little cell phone screens, time marched right on...and then we needed divine intervention to get the car to start! (It worked!) All in all it was an extremely scenic and enjoyable, albeit fast-paced get-me-to-the-station-on-time kind of drive to the train stop. 🙂
And then, in fairly short order, I was headed eastward, back on a train for the first time in 22 years. I was very surprised to see no mountains after just a few hours, and although I didn't realize it at the time, it would be the last mountains I'd see until I was home again..I guess Montana people think everyone has mountains.. well, if you are from western Montana...:) Although the landscapes I saw were very beautiful, it is good to be home again to my landscape.
The Canadian train is called ViaRail. Their cars are one-story, except for the observation car. The food is good and not too expensive either and the fare is very reasonable especially converting from US dollars. It was really fun making friends with some of the passengers. When you are going by rail, its best to not be fixated on arriving on time! We were 15 hours behind by the time we got to Sudbury Jct.
It was great seeing the country in the spring - Manitoba must grow enough grain to feed a big chunk of the world! But it was a little unsettling for ye olde Western Montanan to gaze into the distance and see a mirage of mountains that upon closer scrutiny were just my brain not computing properly~!
There must still be a lot of uncharted territory in Canada. The allure of Canadian rail travel began when I discovered that there actually is a train called the Polar Express! It goes up to Moosonee, at the bottom of James Bay, 100 miles past where any roads go! Other than Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and then at long last Sudbury Junction, there really aren't too many population centers…and north of the country we passed through - the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.."the Bush" - what would it be like to live there? I think about how I love to climb all the way to the tops of mountains and wonder how that would translate to a land like this. Would trying to reach the edge of the horizon in a sweeping place like this..cause one to lose their mind? See, you can daydream about this kind of stuff when on a train.Once into Ontario, things really got minimal - many stretches of no cell phone service, no stops with real stations.. at long last I was off the Hotel California Train. And my luggage, too 🙂 Got my rental car the next morning and set out for Bracebridge by way of North Bay, where Rene lived with her husband Charles McGaughey, in the 1940s. I did get a glimpse of the water--lots of water out here! And the Canadian Shield really starts showing through along the roads.
Before I knew it ---- next stop Bracebridge!! Stay tuned for Canadian Adventure - Part Two - Coming Back to Bracebridge!
Funny how one day things appear in a certain light, and then the next day everything changes in such a fundamental way that its like when a whole flock of birds simultaneously moves as one, in a new direction altogether. Suddenly the picture has transformed and it's a brand new beginning!
"A new idea is like a plant. It takes time to establish a good root system before it begins to bear fruit." - Mali Klein, Essiac Master Class 2014
Food for thought: Mali posits a plateful of it in the following synopsis: Read More →
