When Wildflowers Became Weeds: A Reflection on Herbal Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and Forgotten Wisdom
It’s something I’ve been turning over in my heart and spirit lately.
We all know that modern pharmaceuticals didn’t appear from thin air; they were born from the natural world. And before medicine was something you picked up at a pharmacy, it was something God placed in the hedgerows, the ditches, the prairie grasses. Plants like mullein soothed the lungs, goldenrod eased inflammation, and dandelion gently supported the liver.
These weren’t fringe remedies.
They were part of God’s provision.
Familiar. Trusted. And they worked.
But somewhere along the way, the story shifted.
By the early 1900s, as cities swelled and industry took root, so did the rise of laboratory-made drugs. Chemists isolated the “active” compounds from God’s plants, replicated them, and refined them into pills, syrups, and injections. It was a marvel of science; but let’s be honest, also a shift of stewardship.
Synthetic drugs were easier to patent.
Easier to regulate.
And far more profitable than the medicines people could grow, share, or receive freely—like manna from the earth.
Suddenly, herbalism became “folk” medicine.
Midwives and homeopaths were discredited.
And the plants our ancestors once relied on (gifts from the Creator!) were dismissed as ‘weeds’.
The War on Weeds (and Wisdom)
As lawn culture took hold and industrial farming expanded, native botanicals—those same plants used for generations to nourish and heal—were labeled “invasive,” “unwanted,” and “unruly.”
Plantain, goldenrod, milkweed, mullein, chickweed, cleavers, violets (plants that show up exactly when and where we need them) were sprayed down and plowed under.
We didn’t just lose plants.
We lost stories.
We lost wisdom.
We lost a connection to creation that reminded us: healing was never meant to be out of reach.
It was placed here, by a loving God, right beneath our feet.
Why This Matters
The shift from wild to synthetic medicine wasn’t only about better outcomes (though that’s what we were told). It was also about control. Dependency. Profit.
It’s not that pharmaceuticals are all bad, many save lives. But we have to ask:
Why were the natural remedies that sustained communities for centuries suddenly dismissed?
Why were the faithful stewards of herbal knowledge (often women) silenced?
And who benefits when what once grew freely from God’s earth is repackaged and sold back to us?
Returning to the Old Ways
At Meadowlark Made, we believe healing is sacred. We see our work not just as herbalism; but as a form of worship, a way of honoring the Creator and His creation.
We use herbs others might call weeds.
We work with whole plants, not just isolated compounds.
We infuse our tallow with goldenrod and dandelion, violet and yarrow—not because it’s trendy, but because it’s how God made them.
This work is personal. It’s ancestral. It’s deeply spiritual.
And in a world that moves too fast, it’s our quiet way of saying:
