Meet Amelia South

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amelia South. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amelia below.

Amelia, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

When I knew I was getting divorced from my first husband, I needed to find a way to not have to live with him anymore. I discovered that being a farm apprentice was a thing–I could live and work on a farm for a whole season and develop some work skills and work history. This was ideal for me because I’d been in the FFA in high school and I had been a stay at home mom for over 4 years, so I had a large gap in my work history. I took the steps of finding a farm and finally got accepted at one.

Moving there was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. I went from being a stay at home mother to two young children to working full time at a farm up to 60 hours a week. I saw my children one day a week during this time. That season lasted 7 months and it was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. It allowed me to escape a toxic situation safely, helped me develop work skills that I still utilize to this day while running my own small farm, and gave me the experience I needed to get hired at almost every subsequent job I had thereafter.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a practicing holistic herbalist, which means I help people find natural solutions to their chronic health problems utilizing both food as medicine and herbs that I grow or forage here in Connecticut. I’m also a professional Foraging Instructor. I teach people how to find wild edible and medicinal plants in their own backyard and how to eat them or make them into herbal remedies. I have a micro farm in Eastern Connecticut where I grow as much of my own food and herbs as possible. I teach classes online and in person and I make content for social media that shows people how I find and craft many of my remedies.

I LOVE showing people just how many edible and medicinal plants are growing mere feet from their own back door. I also have a slightly different teaching style. I prefer to see a place with fresh eyes–someplace I have never seen before. That way, when I find a plant or mushroom that I recognize the people who are with me can see my genuine excitement at the discovery, and hear the stories I have to tell about working with it. It not only proves I know what I’m doing but also gets my client excited to find similar things for themselves.

I’ve got an in-person Retreat coming up in Connecticut in April 2025 and I’m also working on expanding my foraging walks so that I can offer travel packages. I’ll come out to you and teach you about what you have on your own property and show you how to eat and make medicines with it all!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

My willingness to try new things is absolutely one of my most treasured qualities. Anyone who is afraid to taste something new will not be drawn to foraging. Once you get used to the flavors being so different from modern foods, your whole perspective changes… as does your health!

I’m also grateful that I was so keen on absorbing as much knowledge as possible about herbalism when I first started out, because it led me to seek out more in-depth knowledge. I am constantly listening to a new podcast or reading a new book, always learning and exploring more about ways to heal myself and others.

And as much as I may not want to admit it, my father taking me out on hikes as a child and my stepmother forcing me to work in her gardens brought me up with certain skills and awareness of the natural world that I was forced to learn… and that I still call back on to this very day.

How would you describe your ideal client?

There are a few… I want to reach the people who have a piece of land and who want to learn how to return to nature. The people who have been disappointed or even hurt by the pharmaceutical industry, who are tired of doctors prescribing medication after medication rather than helping them root out the true cause of their health problems. I want to find the ones who WANT to know how to heal themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and sexually and who are willing to do whatever it takes. Someone who wants to connect with nature, heal their relationship with food, open their eyes to the world of plant medicines, and become the person their primal heart truly wishes them to be.

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Image Credits

Ling Messer

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