Have you heard of herbalism? What about Biblical Herbalism? If you’ve ever wondered whether herbs belong in a Christian home—or worried that “natural remedies” somehow tip into New Age territory—this conversation is for you. Felice Gerwitz sits down with Camila Johnson of The Eden Institute to talk about reclaiming plant knowledge for the glory of the Creator. Learn about the curriculum she built so moms can learn right alongside their children, one plant at a time.
Biblical Herbalism: Learning God’s Design with Your Kids
I raised five kids across a wide age span. I’ve reached for simple kitchen remedies when medicine made me feel worse. And I’ve watched too many science videos that never once named the Designer. Camila’s approach puts the glory back where it belongs. It is important to teach our children that they are important to and the world they belong to has so much to offer.
Biblical Herbalism ~ Episode 588
Camila is a former middle-school English teacher, a mom of four (two still at home), and the creator of a K–12 biblical herbalism curriculum. She grew up with Brazilian grandmothers who reached for peppermint tea and honey-lemon without calling it anything fancy. Later, she spent years studying plants on her own because the formal courses she found either ignored spiritual health entirely or leaned heavily into Far Eastern mysticism.
She decided to build something different: a curriculum that names the Holy Spirit, honors the Designer, and treats plants as provision rather than objects of worship.
Why This Matters for Homeschool Families
Most of us were never taught how our bodies actually work or how the plants growing nearby can support them. Schools aim at tests. Life requires stewardship. Camila’s curriculum starts with that gap.
Each week focuses on one plant. The history lesson shows who used it and how. Geography shows where it grows and why the climate shapes its “energetics.” Science is pure observation—smell it, draw it, label the parts. Bible opens the week (sometimes a short original story about the Eden family, sometimes straight Scripture). Character grows through waiting for longer preparations, such as glycerites and tinctures. Art, language arts, and even a little Latin show up naturally because everything circles the same plant.
Younger children (Sprouts, K–2) make same-day teas and cold infusions. Third through fifth (Seedlings) begin the slower medicines. Middle and high school levels go deeper into constitutions and matching plant patterns to people patterns. The whole thing is designed so mom learns too. You do not have to arrive as an expert.
You Do Not Have to Grow a Garden
Camila has turned her backyard into a food forest, but she is clear: you can source every herb in the curriculum from reputable suppliers. She partners with Mountain Rose Herbs. The lessons work whether the plant is growing in a pot on your windowsill or sitting in a mason jar on the pantry shelf.
Start with one plant. Smell it. Ask what the scent might tell you. Read the short history. Draw it. Make a simple tea together. By the end of the week the children (and you) know that plant well enough to recognize it again. That is how real knowledge sticks—not through five disconnected subjects, but through one living thing studied from every angle.
The Heart Behind the Work
Camila’s online foundations course and her book Back to Eden: A Biblical Foundation for Herbal Healing (available on Kindle) lay out the same framework: five basic tenets of healing that Scripture already names—rest, nutrition, hydration, and so on. A fever is not the enemy; it is the body doing what the Creator designed it to do. A headache can be the body asking for salt and water. The curriculum teaches children to notice those signals and respond with wisdom rather than automatically suppressing them.
Free two-week samples for both elementary bands and a simple body-pattern quiz are available at her site so families can try before they commit. Pre-orders for Sprouts (K–2) are open; Seedlings (3–5) follows closely. She is also an approved ClassWallet vendor for families who can use education dollars.
Visit edeninstitute.health and the homeschool page at edeninstitute.health/homeschool.
See Eden’s Table Up Close
Eden’s Table is Camila’s Bible-rooted herbalism unit study for elementary students (Sprouts, K–2, and Seedlings, 3–5). Every subject runs through one plant a week. Start with the nine-week Starter Unit as an instant download, or get the full year in three printed books.
Listener gift: use code EDEN13 for 10% off the $39 Starter Unit or the $249 printed set, either level, through October 31, 2026. Shop Eden’s Table at edeninstitute.health/homeschool.
Enter the Sweet 13 Birthday Giveaway
The Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network turns 13 this October, and Eden’s Table is our presenting sponsor. We’re celebrating all month with more than $1,500 in prizes for homeschool families, including a CTCMath annual family membership and $250 to spend at Media Angels. Drawings happen on four Fridays, and your entries carry forward, so one sign-up keeps you in every drawing. Earn bonus entries by following a show, leaving a review, or sharing the birthday page with a friend.
Enter the Sweet 13 giveaway here
Resources from Media Angels
- Creation Science Bundle — faith-based science materials that help families explore God’s design while building a solid worldview.
- Creation Anatomy: Study Guide to the Miracles of the Body — a natural companion when you are teaching children that they are fearfully and wonderfully made.
More at MediaAngels.com/store.
More Listening
- Should You Consider Homeschooling? Research, Real Fruit, and Clearing the Noise (Episode 582)
- Science Labs That Actually Work at Home
- Teaching Creation Science (Episode 362)
- Start Your Homeschool Day Right: Morning Routines That Set the Tone for Success (Episode 565)
- Homeschooling Uncovered: Research, Funding, and Surprising Facts! (Episode 559)
Have a happy homeschool week.
About the Guest
Camila Johnson is the Founder and Executive Director of The Eden Institute, where she develops Bible-rooted herbalism curriculum designed to help homeschooling mothers teach science alongside their children. With a passion for showing that the created world is evidence of a Designer, Camila creates resources that integrate history, character, and the natural sciences with rigor and reverence. She is a mother who believes that moms don’t need to be experts before they begin; they simply need to be willing to learn alongside their children.
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