Dina Falconi’s Radical Recipe for Healing Ourselves and the Planet

For Dina Falconi, wild meadows and untamed lawns are living classrooms and treasure troves of healing and nourishment. A pioneering herbalist, teacher, and author based in the Hudson Valley, she’s spent four decades weaving together the wisdom of nature, food activism, and holistic well-being. Her beloved book Foraging & Feasting, co-created with botanical artist Wendy Hollender, is more than a field guide—it’s a joyful rebellion, a celebration of seasonal living, and a roadmap to reclaiming our kitchens and the wild world around us.

Whether leading walks through fields laden with goldenrod and other too-often unappreciated treasures or crafting tinctures and teas in her home apothecary, she blends clinical expertise with reverence and down-to-earth humor. Raised in New York City’s East Village after an early childhood in Veracruz, Mexico, her healing journey began at eleven, when a neighborhood elder posed a radical question: “What if food could be medicine?”

That spark lit a lifelong path of inquiry and discovery. Today, Dina works from her homestead in the Hudson Valley as a teacher at the ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism in New Paltz and beyond, offering herb walks and fertile talks. Through it all, she passionately invites others to reconnect with the land, rethink our aesthetics, and fall in love with the so-called “weeds” at our feet. Her work is a living call to remember what our ancestors knew: in the unbridled wilds, the Earth offers us generous, nourishing, and often overlooked gifts.

Dina’s activism is quiet but powerful, rooted in awakening resourcefulness and reverence. She teaches us to honor what grows abundantly, to move with curiosity rather than fear, and to become stewards of our generous Earth. In her presence, the everyday becomes extraordinary—the act of caring for our planet a sacred and urgent revolution.

With that unfolding magic, we are invited to see every leaf, petal, and root as she does: as an invitation to rediscover the culinary and medicinal adventures hidden in plain sight, disguised as mere “weeds.” So, pour a cup of your favorite tea and join Dina in the garden as she gently guides us toward resilience, empowerment, and joy.

Meet Dina Falconi

INSIDE+OUT: You grew up in New York City, right? Did you also spend time in the country?

Dina Falconi: I grew up in New York City but was born in Veracruz, Mexico. My first language was Spanish.

Can you share more about that?

Dina Falconi: My father was Mexican—a mix of German Protestant ancestry and Italian-Mexican with Chontal (Mayan and Olmec) blood. My two siblings and I were raised there until I was almost five, then we moved to NYC with my mom, a Jew from New York. We didn’t grow up with my father after that.

Do you have an early memory of feeling connected to the healing or aliveness of the natural world?

Dina Falconi: During my time in Mexico, I probably had a lot of herbal exposure. As an adult, I’d smell or taste something and think, “How do I know this?” I imagine it was from that earlier life. I also have many Mexican cousins who have said, “So you take after grandma!” She was also heavily into plants, but who knows where anything comes from? Was it the genetic impact or the time we shared before I was five?

My grandmother was born in 1910; it’s likely that everyone used herbal medicine in Mexico until the 1970s or maybe the 1980s. Things didn’t change as strongly as in the United States, where almost everyone lost their herbal heritage, sadly left behind in their mother country. I’m glad I had those first years.

Indeed, those things shape us. So you grew up in the city. Did you also spend time in the country?

Dina Falconi: I went to the country in the context of summer camp when I was about ten or eleven. But we were urban kids. I grew up right by Tompkins Square Park. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, it was still somewhat safe. That was our “nature.” It was funky, but we’d dig holes and bury dolls—it was our backyard. Then, it became off-limits because of the drugs and violence. By ’74 and ’75, it was basically a blackout zone—you didn’t go in unless you wanted to get mugged.

Can you describe a first memory of being connected to healing or the aliveness of the natural world?

Dina Falconi: Healing came through food as medicine, which became a significant life theme. I learned about that from my early informal mentor, Mickey Carter, who had cured himself of a terminal illness. He was a generous Santa Claus–like elder to a bunch of Village kids.

The path I’m on really started with him. The journey wasn’t originally about nature—it was about healing and asking, “How do we relate to wellness rather than sickness?” Mickey showed us we could choose things that support healing instead of just grabbing junk from the bodega.

“Healing came through food as medicine, which became a significant life theme. I learned about that from my early informal mentor, Mickey Carter, who had cured himself of a terminal illness.” – Dina Falconi

Mickey was my connection to this whole journey, which began at the age of eleven through his influence—in the middle of a chaotic city that was also rich and ripe with alternative healthcare, herbal medicine, and herbal apothecaries. There were four herb shops within walking distance of our house. There was also a rich food culture that was experimental, traditional, and ethnically diverse. There were macrobiotic restaurants, raw food restaurants, Hare Krishna restaurants, and more. That environment also inspired me to go in this direction.

If you had to choose an essential herbal apothecary for your loved ones, what plant allies would you include and why?

Dina Falconi: That’s not easy—there are too many! It’s not just about one or two special plants. There are hundreds of plant allies surrounding us. Every season brings someone new—“somebody” shows themselves in nature. The gifts vary through the year and even by location. In Lyonsville, where we live, the plants might differ from those just ten miles away. The excitement is in tuning in. Even just being aware of what’s growing around you is its own kind of medicine.

Do you feel that the herbs that show up near your home are there because you or someone in your family needs them especially?

Dina Falconi: The ones that show up near your home are the ones you’re going to have a relationship with—but you might need something that isn’t growing right there, and that’s okay, too. I always encourage others to learn about whatever is right at their feet and see if it’s helpful to them. Something from further away might be more appropriate for you, though, so it’s better not to limit yourself. Of course, it makes the most sense that if you can find what you need right at your feet, that’s the best.

Can you speak to why and how the sourcing and processing of plants matter for efficacy, if at all?

Dina Falconi: If you’re buying herbs rather than gathering or growing them yourself, it’s so important to be educated. That’s why I focus on teaching people how to connect directly with plants—how to gather, grow, smell, taste, and understand their qualities. When you do that, you know what to look for in terms of freshness and potency. Too often, people are buying things that look like sawdust.

There’s also a deeper issue: where the herb comes from, the quality of the soil, and whether it was harvested responsibly. Many commonly used herbs are invasive, so over-harvesting isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some of our greatest plant allies are abundant and resilient, such as dandelion and burdock. However, if you’re using something like goldenseal, which is endangered and potentially toxic in large amounts, you want to be careful—use it sparingly and source it consciously.

So yes, there’s the question of over-harvesting, and then there’s also the question of toxicity to the Earth and our bodies. Is your medicine coming from an organic or wild source that’s clean and without pesticides? Those are questions you should ask your grower or harvester.

Are there other factors you consider important when harvesting, such as moon phases, seasons, or time of day?

Dina Falconi: It depends on what medicine I’m making. Let’s say I want to tincture motherwort—I’ll gather it at a specific stage in its growth when it’s at its peak potency. So, you tune in to the plant’s cycle. The time of day matters, too. I like to harvest in the morning before the heat wilts the plants—around 10 a.m. on a hot June day is ideal.

I’m less attuned to moon cycles, though I might note a full or new moon on the label. It’s more about the plant than the moon, and about real life: if motherwort is perfect now and I can’t wait for a full moon, I gather it now. As an herbal medicine maker, I aim for peak potency. But I also teach: don’t get hung up. If you find a plant you need and it’s not the “perfect” moment, harvest when you can.

Did you have mentors and teachers along your path, or did you learn another way?

Dina Falconi: It’s been a lifelong, self-directed journey with lots of study, but yes, there have been mentors along the way. Pam Montgomery was one of my earliest mentors, back in my 20s, in the late 1980s. She had a folk medicine approach. Then came my clinical training with William LeSassier. I studied with him one-on-one for two and a half years, learning how to assess clients and create customized formulas.

There were others, too. I’ve been going to herbal and healing conferences for decades—teaching and learning from herbalists around the world. Ryan Drum was very influential. I also had the opportunity to study with Rosemary Gladstar and Amanda McQuade Crawford, who was wonderful, although I don’t think she teaches anymore.

Can you speak to how cultural attitudes toward herbalism have shifted since you began this path?

Dina Falconi: We’re in an herbal renaissance. Foraging and wildcrafting are more accepted—and even fashionable—but that can come with misunderstandings. There is a vast amount of content online, and not all of it’s accurate. Still, I hope it inspires people to connect with plants, protect ecosystems, and tune in to the landscapes from which they forage. Once you start gathering wild foods, you naturally begin to care for the land. That’s a big part of it.

Are you still teaching in person?

Dina Falconi: Yes, I’m still teaching through different organizations—ArborVitae among them—and offering plant walks, which is one of my favorite things. I’m doing walks with places like the Kingston Land Trust, Hudson Valley Seed Company, and Opus 40. For now, I’ve paused the six-month program I started in the early ’90s. It was a big commitment, and I’m not sure I’ll bring it back.

You have written two incredible books. Would you say they have been “successful”?

Dina Falconi: My first book, Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Bodycare for Every Body, is still in print and has sold over 30,000 copies. The real success is that people still use it and feel empowered by it. I love hearing that herb teachers are using it in their classes. Some might say, “It’s not millions,” but in publishing terms, 30,000 is actually huge.Academic friends tell me that 6,000 is considered a big success.

Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook has also sold tens of thousands and feels successful in a deeper way—it empowers people to connect to plants and transform their kitchens into spaces of healing. That’s a revolutionary idea that came from that 11-year-old me learning from Mickey, who asked: “What if food could be medicine?” That theme runs through the book, even if it presents as celebration and creativity. Also, it asks: How do we connect directly to the plant kingdom and the Earth to feed ourselves with confidence? 

I love cookbooks but often find the recipes too rigid. In Foraging & Feasting, the recipes are meant to be flexible—more like a conversation with the reader about “who’s” growing nearby. It’s structured but also allows for improvisation. Working with Wendy Hollender was a privilege. I directed the art to help tell each plant’s story through “plant maps”—showing their life cycles, how to ID them, what parts to use, when to harvest, and more. The feedback has been super positive.

There’s also an important point about Foraging & Feasting: we self-published it and chose not to sell through Amazon. That decision limits distribution, but it aligns with our values. If we went the Amazon route, we’d likely sell hundreds of thousands more copies—but at the cost of independent bookstores, which can’t compete with Amazon’s pricing.

I want indie bookstores to make money. It took a while for places like Rough Draft in Kingston to carry the book, but once they did, it became one of their bestsellers—because you can’t get it cheaper online. On Amazon, it might be listed at $65 to $100, while local shops sell it for less than half. That grassroots model means we’ve sold thousands instead of millions, but I’m proud of it—even if those in the book industry tell me, yet again, “You guys are fucking nuts.”

How many bookstores carry it now?

Dina Falconi: We have hundreds of retailers around the country and internationally, though the Hudson Valley and the Northeast are our strongholds. It’s been a lot of footwork—but deeply worth it.

Elliott Cowan, who wrote Plant Spirit Medicine, and other authors and healers have shared insights into the energetic healing and intelligence of plants. How does that resonate with you?

Dina Falconi: At those conferences I mentioned, I connected with Elliott and others deeply rooted in plant spirit medicine. That lives in the work, yes, but it’s not my personal entry point. I don’t teach it as a system. For me, it’s more like: “Here’s how you connect to a plant.” Spirit might be part of it, or not; I don’t name it. I’m a plant person.

Have you ever felt plants communicating with you?

Dina Falconi: That might come down to language. In my classes, we practice whole-body connection—it’s like plant meditation. When you’re present with a plant, something may come: a sensation, an insight. You’re building relationships. Sometimes it’s a feeling, sometimes it’s more. Whether it’s a matter of “spirit” is up to each person. There are many ways to connect, depending on our timing, needs, and openness.

“…you have to take care of what takes care of you, or it won’t be there.” – Dina Falconi

How do the ideas of sacred reciprocity or “the honorable harvest” resonate with you?

Dina Falconi: It’s at the core of it all because you have to take care of what takes care of you, or it won’t be there. For real. This isn’t an abstract concept regarding giving thanks (although it’s always good to give thanks!) It’s like, “Take care of nature because it needs our care and support—and it won’t be enough just to do a prayer.” (Although I love Earth prayers!) It’s more like: how do we fight to care for what takes care of us? So I don’t know as much about sacred reciprocity as I do about actual need.

Teaching how to be in the right relationship with the land, food, and our bodies and sharing this wisdom is a radical act. Is there anything else about that “fight” you mentioned that you bring to your life?

Dina Falconi: Everything I’m doing holds a subtle but clear message to that end. Foraging & Feasting is subtly revolutionary. It says: fall in love with the plants we’re taught to hate. Look at dandelions—sprayed, despised—and yet they’re beautiful, useful, healing. We even made art prints of them! You might have one on your wall and still poison it on your lawn.

But once you fall in love, you stop spraying. You see that what you need is right at your feet. You learn to use and honor the plants instead of trying to eradicate them. And then you want your neighbors to stop spraying, too, because that runoff is what we all drink.

My activism is in that shift: helping people love the plant kingdom. Once you love it, you protect it. That includes soil, water, pollinators—everything. And yes, I often focus on invasives. Garlic mustard is aggressive, yes—but it’s the first green to appear after the snow melts. It’s rich in beta-carotene, medicine, and food. In a food desert or ecological imbalance, that’s a gift. We need to learn how to work with what’s here and ask: how can abundance help restore balance?

Some herbs can be too aggressive, but we’re talking about hunger and food deserts, issues of poverty—both in the body and in the ecosystem. When something invasive arrives, it can also be a gift. So it’s more like: how do we work with this?

“At home, I’ve been dancing with the same garden for 30 years. It’s wild, imperfect, alive. And it constantly teaches me about control, reciprocity, and letting go.” – Dina Falconi

Any advice for Hudson Valleyians about being better stewards of the land and pollinators?

Dina Falconi: First, I’d ask anyone using pesticides or herbicides to pause and consider: What are you really trying to do? What chemicals are you putting into the Earth, the water, and your own body? This is still happening—it’s crazy. A lot of it comes down to aesthetics. We’ve been taught that a “good” lawn looks a certain way—homogeneous, tidy, predictable. But that ideal is harmful. We need to let wildness return to the landscape in a way that feels beautiful and welcoming. Diversity isn’t messy—it’s life.

At home, I’ve been dancing with the same garden for 30 years. It’s wild, imperfect, alive. And it constantly teaches me about control, reciprocity, and letting go. As an educator, I try to help people shift their aesthetics—so they stop judging something for not fitting a cookie-cutter mold and start noticing the wild beauty that already exists.

And what about chemicals like Roundup—what would you say to someone still reaching for those?

Dina Falconi: Most people use Roundup to kill weeds. But often, those “weeds” are actually our friends—plants like dandelion that offer food and medicine. So when you spray them, you’re poisoning what’s trying to help you. Plus, you’re harming the soil, water, and ecosystem. We need to rethink who’s showing up in our yards. Many so-called invasives are gifts. It’s not about letting them take over—it’s about understanding them, finding balance, and creating beauty with what nature is offering. Even things like poison ivy can be removed mechanically or manually, though you may have to be persistent.

“If we control nature with toxins, we are killing nature. Yet we are nature, so it’s going to kill us too. It’s an obvious relationship; this is not an abstract theory.” – Dina Falconi

Is there anything else you want to say about better stewardship in the Hudson Valley?

Dina Falconi: Love the air, love the water, love the soil—love the Earth. That’s the core. We need to stop using chemicals and start asking whether they’re truly necessary. Ever. When we reduce our use of pesticides and herbicides, we get cleaner water, healthier soil, and thriving pollinators. Support farmers who feed the land while feeding us.

Also, let’s rethink human waste—yes, poop and pee! These are part of a bigger regenerative cycle. Instead of polluting, our waste streams can become part of the solution. That might sound radical, but it’s all part of thinking holistically about how we care for the land.

Are there any exciting new projects or events upcoming for you? 

Dina Falconi: At this time in my life, I’m more excited by not creating too much new stuff, but instead staying in the groove of what is: tuning into the plants and just living the life I’ve been meandering with for decades. 

+ + +

Photos courtesy of Dina Falconi

Follow/Connect with Dina Falconi via Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Sign up for Dina’s foraging newsletter HERE.

Buy her newest book, Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook

+ + +

Click HERE to see all of our exclusive interviews with the amazing folks who proudly call the Hudson Valley home.