How a Witch Survives This Economy
The owner of Flower Power knows how to fix a bad situation
As a child, Lata Chettri-Kennedy was very sick. After years of being checked in and out of hospitals, she read about herbalism and made tinctures from the weeds in her backyard. “I got better in one month after being sick for my entire youth,” she said.
At sixteen, she ran away from home and landed in New York, where she opened Flower Power, a herbs, roots and tinctures store on East 9th. That was in 1994. Her lease was $1,000. “My ex was a wonderful real estate negotiator,” she told the Local East Village in 2012.
Today, her store’s still open, and her husband makes her oatmeal with mango in the morning.
She seems like she knows how to fix a bad situation, so I gave her a call.
How did you come to herbalism?
As a young person, I was very ill. At 14, I started studying alternative herbalism. I discovered the Wise Woman Tradition, which is about going into your backyard and learn about the local weeds. I found dandelion and red clover, they were my gateway herbs. Dandelion is a liver tonic and red clover is an alterative. We overlook them in the backyard. I made tinctures out of them, and I got better in one month after being sick for my entire youth. That was hundreds of years ago. Actually, that was about 45 years ago.
Tell me about your wellness and beauty routine, whatever that means for you.
In the morning, my husband makes oatmeal, but it’s got seeds like chia and flax, and fresh blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, pomegranate seeds. Berries are a super antioxidant. The best thing to do first thing is eat a lot of berries.
I have one cup of black tea in the morning, that’s it. Then I drink herbal teas all day long because I live above my shop, so I have access to like 300 herbs.
I love Tulsi, which is holy basil, because it’s an adaptogen, it’s a nervine, meaning it’s good for the nervous system. It’s centering and I meditate a lot, so it puts me in a grounded place. They have studies in other countries, where they used dried Tulsi for cerebral encephalitis, like brain inflammation. One group was treated with traditional medicine and others were treated with Tulsi. The Tulsi group actually survived and the other people did not. It’s simple, but it’s super powerful.
I love mixing it with like rose petals. Red clover is always my favorite. You can get them everywhere. They grow in springtime. It’s an alterative, which means it kind of changes stagnant situations. It’s a blood cleanser. It has a lot of phytoestrogen, which people are wary of, but plant estrogens are intelligent. They're bidirectional. So if you don’t need something they’re offering, you’ll just pee it out. We have all these estrogen receptors in our body if we’re going to like the subway, say, there’s all these horrible xenoestrogens in the air. Isn’t it better to drink red clover so that they’re already satisfied? It’s much better for you than getting it out of your perfume or whatever.
I like tart herbs like sumac, hibiscus. I love drinking amla, an Indian gooseberry. It’s not a local plant, unfortunately, but it’s so delicious.
If I’m coming down with something, I’ll drink ginger with lemon and honey or cayenne pepper. It goes right to your sinuses and it’s so warming. I’m Indian, so I love hot and spicy stuff.