Ravensong Seeds & Herbals

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Courtenay, BC
Ravensong Seeds & Herbals

We are a small artisan seed and herbal product business located in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, BC Canada.
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Medicinal & specialty seeds 🌱
Farm-grown fresh-plant medicine 🌿
Seeds & herbal remedies from the heart of the land 💚
Herbal apprenticeship & farm internships📍Comox Valley, Vancouver Island BC We grow and gather each and every one of the herbs we use in our products. Growing and gathering the herbs ourselves guarantees our first-hand knowledge of quality and sustainability. Our mission is to supply you with seeds and herbal medicines of the highest standard both medicinally and environmentally.

06/18/2026

The gardens are overflowing, and our Summer Solstice Sale is now open.

The solstice marks the height of the growing season. The gardens are full, the harvest baskets are overflowing, and many of the plants we work with throughout the year are at their peak.

To celebrate the season, everything in our online store is 20% off from June 18–21.

We have also created four limited seasonal bundles, each bringing together a small collection of remedies, seeds, and plant allies we reach for during this time of year. These bundles are available at 30% off for the duration of the sale:

• Herbal First Aid Kit Bundle
• Midsummer Dream Bundle
• Sun-Kissed Aftercare Bundle
• Sunlit Celebration Bundle

Whether you’re replenishing your apothecary, planning next year’s garden, gathering remedies for summer adventures, or exploring new herbs for the season ahead, this is a beautiful time to gather what you need.

Sale ends June 21 at midnight.

www.ravensongherbals.com

06/16/2026

One of the biggest mistakes people make with herbs is expecting them to work like drugs.

Many of us have been conditioned to expect fast results.

A symptom appears.
We take something.

A problem arises.
We look for the quickest way to make it disappear.

But traditional herbalism often operates at a very different pace.

Many herbs are not about forcing the body in a particular direction.

They are about supporting the body’s own processes over time.

Nourishing deficiencies.
Supporting digestion.
Calming an overworked nervous system.
Strengthening tissues.
Building resilience.

And those kinds of changes often don’t happen overnight.

A cup of chamomile tea today may not feel dramatic.

But a cup of chamomile tea every day for three months is a different thing entirely.

The same could be said for milky oats, lemon balm, nettle, raspberry leaf, and many of the gentle herbs that have been used for generations.

Traditional herbalism was often less about finding the strongest plant.

It was about consistency.

Showing up day after day.

Paying attention.

Allowing small changes to accumulate.

Perhaps one of the reasons people become disappointed with herbs is that they expect a quick fix from a tradition that was never built around quick fixes.

Plants teach a different pace.

A slower one.

And sometimes the medicine is found not only in the herbs themselves, but in learning that pace.

06/12/2026

One of the most unusual flowers we grow.

The blooms open in soft shades of smoky lavender, silver-grey, mauve, and dusty blue, with petals that look almost like crinkled antique paper.

Every year they stop visitors in their tracks.

These are one of those flowers that seem impossible until you see them growing in the garden.

🌿 Amazing Grey Poppy

• Annual
• Full sun
• Prefers moist, well-drained soil
• Direct sow in spring or fall
• Grows approximately 2 ft tall
• Delicate blooms in shades of grey, lavender, blue, and mauve

A flower that looks as though it belongs in an old painting.

06/10/2026

Wild rose season is one of the shortest harvests of the year here on the coast.⁠
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By mid to late-May, Rosa nutkana begins to open its blossoms across roadsides, forest edges, beaches, and fields. For a few brief weeks, the air is filled with their unmistakable fragrance and the bees arrive in abundance. But rose season rarely lingers for long. A stretch of warm weather can bring it to a close almost as quickly as it began.⁠
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Right now, many of the final blossoms are fading, and before long the flowers will give way to rose hips.⁠
⁠
One of the things I love most about rose is the reminder to pay attention while something beautiful is still here.⁠
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There is an old saying to stop and smell the roses. As familiar as that phrase has become, there is wisdom in it. Rose invites us to slow down, become fully present, and notice the abundance that already surrounds us.⁠
⁠
Each year we gather fresh wild rose petals and leaves from Rosa nutkana and preserve their delicate medicine in fresh plant tincture.⁠
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Rose appears in many of our tincture blends, including Heart Harmony and several others. It is one of those plants that seems to belong almost everywhere. Gentle yet powerful, it offers support to the heart, the spirit, and the nervous system. Year after year, it remains one of the herbs we reach for most often.⁠
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Rose teaches us that every season has its moment, and that some gifts are meant to be gathered while they are here.

06/09/2026

If I could only take one herb with me, it would probably be yarrow.

If there was ever a plant that could be considered a medicine chest unto itself, yarrow would be it.

Traditionally, yarrow has been used for wounds, fevers, colds and flu, digestion, circulation, menstrual concerns, bladder issues, and so much more. Few herbs have earned such a reputation among herbalists.

Right now, wild western yarrow is just beginning to bloom along our coast. This early bud and flowering stage is when the aromatics and medicinal compounds are at their strongest, and when we harvest yarrow for all of our fresh plant tinctures.

Western Yarrow (Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis) is quite different from many cultivated garden varieties. The wild plants are often smaller, more intensely aromatic, and remarkably powerful medicine.

Its botanical name, Achillea, comes from Achilles, the legendary Greek hero who was said to have used yarrow in the treatment of wounds. For thousands of years, this plant has accompanied people through injury, illness, and recovery.

And beyond its many physical uses, yarrow has long been associated with the archetype of the wounded healer. A plant that reminds us that our wounds are not only places of suffering, but can also become sources of wisdom, compassion, and service.

Perhaps this is one reason yarrow has remained such a beloved herb for so many generations.

06/08/2026

Our hearts are full.

Thank you to everyone who came out to our annual plant sale this weekend.

After months of sowing seeds, tending seedlings, potting up plants, and preparing the gardens, it is such a joy to open the gates and share this place with others.

One of the most meaningful parts of the weekend is seeing plants find their way into new gardens, meeting familiar faces, and connecting with so many people who care deeply about growing food, medicine, beauty, and habitat.

Thank you for your support, your kindness, and for helping make this gathering such a special part of our season.

We hope your new plants settle happily into their new homes and continue to bring abundance, pollinators, medicine, and beauty for many years to come.

Thank you all for being part of it. 🌿

And a special heartfelt thank you to Garden Alchemist for lending your hands, energy, and support throughout the weekend. We are so grateful for your help. 💚

06/05/2026

One of the most common coastal plants around us right now is also one of the most misunderstood.

Over the next month, silver burr ragweed (Ambrosia chamissonis) will begin budding and flowering along beaches, dunes, and coastal shorelines throughout the Pacific Northwest.

With its silvery foliage and sprawling colonies, ambrosia plays an important ecological role along the coast. Its extensive underground rhizomes help stabilize dunes, reduce erosion, and anchor shifting sands. The soft silver leaves are adapted to life in the salt spray and drying winds of the seaside.

Yet despite its importance, Ambrosia is perhaps best known for something else entirely.

Its pollen is a well-known cause of seasonal allergies and hay fever.

But here’s where things get interesting.

In herbal medicine, ambrosia has long been used as a remedy for many of the very symptoms it is known to provoke.

A tincture prepared from the fresh aerial parts, especially when the plants are in bud or early flower, has traditionally been used to help relieve acute hay fever symptoms.

In my experience, it often works remarkably well when taken at the onset of symptoms. Each summer, we prepare a fresh plant Ambrosia tincture here at Ravensong, and it remains one of the primary ingredients in our Allergy Easer blend.

Interestingly, modern medicine has arrived at a similar conclusion through a different pathway.

Today, pharmaceutical allergy treatments are produced from ragweed pollen extracts and used in allergy immunotherapy to help reduce allergic reactions.

There is something fascinating about the fact that the same plant known for causing hay fever has also been used as a remedy for it.

Perhaps it is another reminder that plants are often more complex than they first appear.

The medicine and the irritation sometimes come from the very same place.

06/04/2026

This weekend, we’re opening our gates.

After months of sowing seeds, potting up divisions, tending gardens, and caring for plants through the spring, our Annual Plant Sale is finally here.

We’ll have hundreds of organically grown plants available, including medicinal herbs, native plants, pollinator plants, tea herbs, dye plants, perennial flowers, and many rare and unusual varieties that can be difficult to find elsewhere.

Everything is grown right here on our farm in Black Creek, and we always look forward to this weekend as an opportunity to connect with fellow gardeners, herbalists, plant lovers, and curious wanderers.

If you’ve been meaning to visit Ravensong, we’d love to welcome you.

June 6 & 7 • 9am–5pm

Ravensong Farm
Black Creek, BC

More information: https://ravensongherbals.com/plants

06/03/2026

A few moments from our May Apprenticeship weekend.

One of the things we emphasize throughout the herbal apprenticeship is that before we learn about a plant, we first meet the plant.

Before the medicinal uses, constituents, preparations, and theory, we spend time with the living plant itself. We observe its growth habits, notice its environment, touch its leaves, smell its aroma, taste it, observe how it feels in our bodies, and learn to recognize it through direct experience.

Over the weekend, we spent time in the gardens working with rose, arnica, motherwort, coastal mugwort, and other seasonal plants that are abundant on the farm right now.

Together we explored herb drying and preservation, seasonal growing techniques, harvesting practices, fresh plant tincture making, herbal actions, and the relationship between the four elements and health. Students also prepared and harvested herbs and made their own fresh plant tinctures directly from plants growing on the land.

As always, some of the most meaningful learning happened in the spaces between the lessons: sitting with the plants, asking questions, sharing observations, and gradually building familiarity through repeated encounters over the course of the season.

Each month the gardens change, the plants change, and the lessons change with them. It is a gift to witness these relationships deepen as the year unfolds.

I'm already looking forward to our June gathering.

06/02/2026

One of the most interesting things about nettle is that sometimes, the sting itself is the medicine.

Throughout many traditional practices, fresh nettle stings have intentionally been used to stimulate circulation, warmth, and the body’s own inflammatory healing response, particularly around areas of chronic pain, tension, stagnation, and arthritis.

But of course, there are also times when you don’t want to keep stinging 😅

And interestingly, the plant itself often becomes the remedy.

Once nettle is crushed, blended, or bruised, the delicate stinging hairs are broken down, releasing the fresh green juices of the plant without continuing to inject the sting.

Fresh nettle juice contains anti-inflammatory and antihistamine compounds, which may help explain why many people find it soothing when applied directly onto the skin afterward.

It’s one of those fascinating examples in herbalism where the same plant can both stimulate and soothe depending on how it’s prepared and used.

Everybody reacts differently to nettle stings.

Some people barely welt at all, while others experience intense itching and irritation that can linger for hours or even a day or two afterward.

Fresh plantain and dock leaves are also traditional remedies often used to calm nettle stings and irritated skin.

There’s something beautiful about how often the natural world seems to offer both the challenge and the remedy side by side 🌿

Address

Courtenay, BC

Website

http://ravensongherbals.com/

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