Welcome to Alternative Leaves!

It’s official #herbfam, we’ve started a blog! Approaching herbal medicine can be intimidating, especially if you're unfamiliar with the ingredients in our herbal tinctures, and it can be daunting trying to figure out which blend works best for you. Have no fear! We’re a sister duo that has discovered the power of plants and aim to share it with the world! So let’s dive into how we got here.

Both of us sisters have experienced health problems that left us in the hospital time and time again for things that were deemed “silly” by doctors, like period pain or migraines. As a result, we were prescribed medication for our issues that had a slew of insane side effects OR required us to consistently take massive doses of pain medication just to get by day-to-day, and we found that unacceptable. There HAD to be another option other than filling our bodies with pharmaceuticals that make us feel like shit -- right?

Fast forward through the rabid research montage of endless Googling, speaking with our communities, and trial-and-error testing, here's what we discovered:

1) There were a lot of other people with similar problems to us who didn’t have access to resources that could help AND

2) Natural remedies were a surprisingly effective and non-invasive way to help the body heal itself

And that’s how we met our first plant friend -- yarrow :) Yarrow was introduced to us as a way to alleviate terrible period pain given its ability to regulate blood flow in the body. Having spent most of our cycles doubled over crying, swallowing pain pill after pain pill to lackluster results, a few drops of a yarrow tincture in our tea felt like heaven! There was NO pain (a first!), and we became hooked on finding more plant-based ways to support our mind and body. A whole world opened up after that!

After seeing such amazing results with ourselves, friends and family, we knew we had to share what we learned on a larger scale, and Alternative Leaves was born! As we build, we aim to keep accessibility, community, and sustainability at our core -- this always has and always will be a place that anyone and everyone can get help, and we’re proud to work with local farmers to source organic, sustainably farmed plants. Plant medicine is a gift from Mother Earth -- we can’t strip her of all she has and expect more!

We’ll be on the blog in the coming weeks diving into other plant ally’s, herbal remedies, tincture recipes, and education. Stay tuned!

Bayli + Courtney

Sisters and co-founders