Mary's Story

 

My name is Mary McCallum, and I’m a clinical herbalist who currently lives on Washoe land in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I spend most of my time here with my partner and son, connecting with wild medicines, tending to our honeybee hives, raising ducks and chickens, livestock guardian dogs, making small-batch herbal medicines, and running my newly launched business -Mountain Song. Many of you may know me from my previous business - Sierra Roots Wellness. That dream 5 years ago came from a dream of returning to this land. Back to the Sierra’s to ROOT down into the land, plant medicines, and in the community here.
Mountain song was born from my reciprocal connection to the lands around me. Mountain song is for the land, it's for the people, it's for the plants and animals that call us back home here in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I’m now hearing the song of the land and am going forth with a mountain song with the intention of being a living echo of the roots of the land. In a relationship, in its truest sense. Mountain Song, bringing us all home again.

My love for these mountains runs deep as the Sierras are my birthplace and my greatest teachers. My deep deviation and communal connection with the Sierras has only strengthened over time and I am so grateful and blessed to call these mountains home.

My journey started long ago, after a decade of health concerns of my own in my early 20’s. I then was led to begin my work as a herbalist, determined to research, study and experience as much plant medicine education as I could to bring back to my community. I was called back to nature. Through my re -connection to the earth and its beings, I found myself in an endless connection to the land and its beings. I honor the earth, my family, my ancestors, and my teachers, as well as the plants, animals, and honeybees, for helping guide me on this path.

I choose to walk the plant path with integrity to live in a reciprocal way in each way I operate my business. Mountain Song will serve as a place to access locally made small-batch seasonal herbal medicines and focus on growing & learning about local plant medicines from the Sierras. Mountain Song will strive to work at the intersection of local, social, and environmental justice, making plant medicines and education accessible to all. Mountain Song additionally strives to work with local non-profits to create more access to medicines for needed populations and wildfire relief and believes that creating more accessibility to herbal medicines will benefit our communities and beyond. My roots run deep in the Sierra Nevadas, and my intention is to continue to form connections with the land I inhabit while supporting and helping to guide the ones who share space on this land with me. Mountain song brings us all home again.