Ten Questions to get to know Kate Huet
14th May 2024
Thousands of people worldwide engage with The Herb Society through our social media, especially instagram, our website and this blog.
Kate Huet MNIMH leads the Trustees as Chair Person for The Herb Society, a voluntary role.
Get to know Kate and what inspires her through this quick snapshot in ten questions.
1. What’s your first memory of being inspired by herbs?
Family walking holidays, with Mum always stopping to introduce me to what we saw growing, her enthusiasm and knowledge was infectious. Often we would taste what we saw. So I knew from a very young age that many plants were edible and what not to pick. We regularly collected nettles as food, to have as a vegetable or to make soup with. Comfrey leaves were a staple first aid tool for bruised knees and shins. I just grew up knowing about plants.
2. Who do you look to for herbal mentorship or advice?
There is not one person, this is a community and there are multiple places to ask questions of other practitioners, many of whom I know well. Weekly I will find new information or something will spark my interest and off down the proverbial rabbit hole I go, to research and find answers. Then there are books – I don’t know a herbalist without a vast library of books. I also pay to do courses on a regular basis. Currently I’m studying with Lisa Ganora and Kat Martello who are in the USA, about advanced tincture making techniques – you just never stop learning and the learning environment is a global one.
3. What is the lesson you’ve learnt from herbs that you’d most like to share with others?
Patience. You have to wait……. for the right time, or the right amount of time, for everything if you are working with Nature, our most effective healer.
4. Tell us about a place you’ve visited that’s been a great herbal experience.
Every morning I go in to my Physic Garden where I am surrounded by literally hundreds of medicinal herbs, it fills my soul and it is my happy place.
5. Describe your current practice with herbs and the benefits this brings.
I have a community practice and herbal dispensary in a rural area. I’m asked by my patients to help with all manner of health conditions, some very simple – others very complex. So, for my patients this gives them a local healthcare practitioner, who happens to be a herbalist, as an option rather than drive six miles to a GP – who they can rarely get to see anyway. For me, it’s seeing my patients getting better and then telling others that as a herbalist, I was able to help them. It’s almost as though at first they are surprised by their positive health results – then their confidence and trust grows – for many I am now their first call, in a moment of health need. Herbs have never let me, or my patients, down.
6. Where do you see your interest in herbs evolving over the next five years?
I’d love eventually to train in horticultural therapy, then use my physic garden as a place to give people an opportunity to fully engage hands-on with herbs, in order to improve their mental health and wellbeing. Mental health is not well served in mainstream medicine, I know that herbs and horticultural therapy has an enormous amount to offer.
7. How do you see the role of the Herb Society in the UK and your contribution to this?
We are an educational charity. To be able to do this we have to share our knowledge in an ever growing and diverse environment. This takes team-work, money and commitment – my contribution so far has been to:
- increase the frequency and content of the newsletters,
- reintroduce Online Events and secure some excellent speakers,
- increase the team of Trustees and Volunteers,
- find new sources of income for the charity and ensure that whatever we do, does not financially cost the charity more than it can afford.
8. If you could make one change that could increase awareness, appreciation or application of herbs in the UK, what would that be?
Have a medical herbalist in every NHS healthcare practice – funded by the government. It could change the nation’s health and improve their knowledge about the need for self-care, improved nutrition, better lifestyle practices and halt iatrogenic illness.
9. And, has to be asked, what’s your favourite herb, and why?
Aloysia citrodora (Lemon Verbena), the fragrance is exquisite and the infusion of the leaves is just so very lovely and calming.
10. Finally, if you were herbal advisor to a new colony being established on Mars, what advice would you give?
Don’t poison the planet, work with it and learn from your catastrophic mistakes on Earth.