Mountain Ash Berries, Les Escoumin, Quebec (Ollin, 2002)

 

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Bio and Education:

My earliest memories of being drawn to the world of medicinal plants date to early childhood growing up in South Eastern Pennsylvannia. My parents were avid, organic gardeners and my job was to weed, which struck me, instinctively, as very odd. I still cherish those weekends in the gardens with my parents, my father tending his peaches and tomatoes, my mother's petunia bed aroud the birdbath, followed by a BBQ, my parents so content. As the youngest of four, it was then that I had them completely to myself. Our family motto was "remember the good things not the bad". So, I recovered quickly from the rude awakening after being scolded for weeding out my mother's petuna starts and leaving the plantain. Lesson learned.

It was not long there after that I happened to be wandering around the neighborhood and came upon an old Italian lady sitting on her front lawn, grumbling to herself, and suddenly to me, how annoying it was to be weeding out the plantain. As if she had no choice for fear of being in violation of some unspoken code. In the same breath she told me that it was Italian Lettuce, and it was supposed to be good for us, so we should all be eating it instead. Exonerated (!) I proudly started giving away my school lunches, cheese and bolagna sandwiches, and made myself plantain sandwiches, foraged from the woods edge by the playground; two leaves with salt in between.

My next big foray into the world of medicinal plants came with the butterfly catching, yoga, natural foods movement that blossomed out of the sixties. It was the cool thing to do to commune with nature and the Swarthmore College campus, home to the 150 acre Scott arboretum, was the perfect place to do it. It was there that I honed my skills as an illustrator; identifying and illustrating whatever medicinal plants I could find. I spent hundreds of hours throughout my high school years on the campus engaged in a self directed course of study.

Self directed study was to become my style with regard to the world of medicinal plants and natural healing. Although, I did sign up for whatever workshop or field trip I could, my greatest teachers were the plants and a passionate and dedicated community of healers and students in the greater Houston area, where I worked in an herb shop while attending Art School in the 70's, and then, in Austin, where I gravitated again to a dedicated community of natural healers.

In 1980, my first child was born, and then in 1982, my second. Motherhood brought out the lay healer in my mother. Her knowledge of natural healing handed down from her mother, and her mother before her. The stories told to me, and healing methods demonstrated to me, ranged from simple wound care to maternity care and everything in between. If we were congested there were herbal steam treatments e.g. So much of what so many run to the doctor for, my parents, both my father and mother, seemed to have some instinctive understanding of. I recalled, as a child, stealing away into the attic of our home where my father's overflowing library was stored in boxes; engaged for hours by his medical books; the early Gray's Anatomy with those amazing cellophane overlapping images of the human organ system. I would return, again and again, to the pictures of people with parasite infections, the woman with the enormous leg; "elaphantitis."

We did of course have a family doctor, Dr. Beadling, who was there for whatever we couldn't address on our own. He delivered my older siblings, and tried to deliver me but I made it out before he got there. I had probably brought my white coat anxiety with me from a past life.

In 1985, out of neccessity, for want of medicinal formulas for skin and body care, I began researching and formulating the core products in this line. Like soup, it's not easy to make just a little bit, so, whatever I could not use, I labeled and sold to area coops and health food stores. In short order I began getting requests, and more requests, testimonials from customers who had tried one of the products in hopes it wouldd resolve a chronic condition they had essentially given up on, only to find that one of my formulas healed them. I took this as a calling and began to design the labels, research packaging and commit to my growing community of customers, that ultimately spanned the entire U.S., the UK and beyond.

SERVICES:
If there is something that you are looking for that is not on this website, or, you are in need a customized blend, please contact me.
Jayne Ollin

MS University of Arizona / Professional Counseling / Addictions Counseling / Pharmacotherapy
MALS Depth Psychology / Sociology of Health Care
DIPLOMA SNHS UK : Homeopathy
MASTER HERBALIST
AROMATHERAPIST
802-449-7200

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