Meet the White Witch


Stevie Nicks the original white witch
Stevie Nicks the original white witch

Greetings from the White Witch, founder of Craft of the Wise. 

About the White Witch

“Herbalism was a blend of fantasy, fact, and superstition. People created their own remedies, invoking the gods for a blessing. If the remedy did not work, the ill person would invoke a different god and try another remedy.”

-Judy Griffin, Mother Nature’s Herbal 


I first acquired an interest in the natural sciences, including biology and earth science, when I was a young girl. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Rochester in New York State and have taken college-level botany, chemistry, and astronomy classes.


I am also the Founder and Editor of The Creative Cottage, a lifestyle blog featuring information for urban farmers, backyard gardeners, small-scale growers, homesteaders, and survivalists. My expertise includes herb gardening, organic gardening, and butterfly gardening. 


My writing projects include topics covering the history, mythology, and folklore of herbs, organic gardening, butterfly gardening along with the culinary uses of herbs and spices. I have written articles for a variety of print and online publications including The Herb Quarterly, VeggieLife, The Essential Herbal, Back Home magazines, and Llewellyn’s Herbal Almanac, Magical Almanac, and Witches’ Datebook.  


I'm currently living in South Florida on 1.25 acres where I grow a variety of fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and butterfly plants throughout the property and in raised beds gardens. I live with an ever-growing collection of dogs, rabbits, chickens and turkeys. My home is across the street from the 60,000 acres wilderness of JW Corbett Wildlife Management Area, home to birds, otters, snakes, wild pigs and the occasional alligator. 

Here is a little bit of information about my journey towards becoming a herbalist.

Greetings from the white witch
Greetings from the White Witch

Natural Health Consultant

I am a perpetual student of herbalism and continue to study the fields of alternative medicine, aromatherapy, herbal medicine, homeopathy and naturopathy. My writing projects have included topics covering the history, mythology and folklore of herbs, organic gardening, butterfly gardening and cooking with herbs.

Teenage Wanderer

As a young preteen and teenager, I spent many afternoons wandering the undeveloped forests of the Adirondack Mountains in and around Lake Placid, NY. In the fall I recall collecting and feasting on a variety of wild blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. At Christmas time I would help collect pine boughs, which were used to make aromatic balsam pillows and garlands that were used to decorate the house. 

In later years my mother became interested in the identification and collecting of wild mushrooms. I remember her serving plates full of wild puffballs, which had been sautéed with lots of sweet butter and fresh garlic. I remember seeing and avoiding the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) on many of my journeys. Although I have some experience in the proper identification of wild mushrooms I would still rather buy my mushrooms from the grocery store just to be safe and make sure I don’t accidentally ingest any ‘magic’ mushrooms.

Gardener and Cook

I have enjoyed cooking and gardening for many years. As a child, I helped my mother weed her vegetable garden and always dreaded the zucchini harvest. We had so many zucchini from that garden that my mom even found a cookbook with over 101 ways to cook zucchini including a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake. It was quite an interesting item for a young girl's palate to experience but it didn’t make the zucchini disappear any faster. 

When I was much older I commandeered my friend's front yard and turned it into a garden, which I filled with a plethora of flowering bulbs and alpine plants. In the summer of 1991, I relocated to the south, which was a bit of a shock. I went from a zone 4 garden in the Adirondack Mountains of New York to a zone 10 garden in southeast, Florida.

Medicinal Herbalist

A few years ago I began to suffer from digestive problems and was diagnosed as having Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I researched the many herbs such as dill, fennel, ginger, mint and chamomile that could help with various digestive complaints. I began growing a multitude of herbs in order to keep a ready supply of medicinal herbs on hand for making my own tea blends. I joined my local herb society to learn what herbs grew well in the hot and humid south and began to write a monthly column for their newsletter in order to share my growing knowledge of herbs with my fellow society members.

My friends, neighbors and family members began to ask me for advice on minor ailments such as upset stomachaches, insomnia and headaches. They also started to come to me whenever one of the recipes they were following called for fresh herbs or for advice on growing their own herbs and flowers. All of this knowledge gained throughout the years eventually lead me to start writing articles for magazines, anthologies and my own blogs.