Here is the zoom link for the weekly class. If participating from home, it is encouraged to follow along with the processes in your kitchen. In person participants have access to see, smell, sample the decoctions, take herbs and plants home, etc. Both are great ways to learn!
Topic: Dr. James 20 Herbs @ Far West
Time: 11:00 AM Every week on Tue
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84077361167?pwd=jb7xPv7A0Rp9aTOyMHdl8U3jzBLI1G.1
Meeting ID: 840 7736 1167
Passcode: 217212
Where This All Comes From
This guide is the companion resource for the 20-Herb Foundation Course. Over 20 classes you are learning 20 essential herbs — one at a time, understanding each one deeply before combining them. After every few herbs, a Formula Class shows you how to put what you've learned to work.
The formulas in this guide did not come from a textbook. They came from decades of real practice. My father spent over 40 years testing, measuring, and adjusting herbal formulas for real families with real health needs. What you hold here are first-level formulas — the starting points he worked from. They work. But understand that the refined formulas in our professional capsule line represent 40 years of continued development on top of this foundation. That is not something you can replicate by buying herbs off a shelf and throwing them together. The ratio IS the formula. The years of test-measure-adjust are irreplaceable.
These formulas are yours to use, experiment with, and learn from. They are starting points, not endpoints. The more you work with them — taste them, observe how they affect you, study the properties of each herb — the more you will understand why professional-grade herbal formulas are what they are.
How to Use This Guide
Use the navigation tabs at the top to move between the sections of this resource.
General Information — The universal principles that apply to every herb and every formula. Preparation methods, extraction efficiency, storage, safety. Read this once thoroughly and refer back often.
Herbs & Formula Classes — One detailed sheet for each herb, plus complete formula sections. Each class builds on what you've learned. Use the dropdown menu to jump to any class.
Quick Reference — Fast lookup for formulas by condition. Find what you need at the kitchen counter.
One Principle Before You Read a Single Formula
The medicine comes from the herb, not the water. Water is the delivery vehicle. A cup of tea and a half-cup of concentrated tea can contain exactly the same amount of medicine — the difference is only how much liquid you're drinking to receive it.
Every formula in this guide can be made stronger or weaker by adjusting how much water you use. The herbs and ratios stay identical. What changes is your dose size. A strong preparation means a smaller amount of liquid delivers the full therapeutic dose. A weak preparation means you drink more liquid to receive the same medicine from the same herb amount. Neither is wrong — they are simply different concentrations of the same thing.
This is one of the most important things you will learn in this course: think in herb amounts, not cup volumes.