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MOTMOT COLLECTIVE is a female-owned small business committed to celebrating the plants and bees. Michele Crosta is an herbalist and passionate environmental advocate. She studied 3 years under herbalist David Winston. In addition to her herbal pursuits, Michele teaches yoga, sharing her knowledge of holistic wellness with others. Driven by a deeply rooted connection to nature, her work blends herbalism, environmental stewardship, community engagement, and yoga, as earth-based movement, forging a heartfelt connection with our inner compass.
How did you first become interested in herbalism, and what direction has that taken?
I grew up in a health-conscious household — no soda, no fast food, no high-fructose corn syrup. My family turned to oatmeal baths for chickenpox, cooked meals from scratch, and leaned into natural ways of healing and living. That lifestyle stayed with me through college and into adulthood.
Over time, I found myself more and more drawn to healthy living. I frequented local health food stores (I still love a good one!), started a tiny fire escape garden, experimented endlessly in the kitchen, practiced yoga, brewed kombucha, and joined a local CSA to support organic New Jersey farmers. I also read everything I could about alternative ways of living and healing. It was never a dramatic shift — it always felt like a part of me.
Herbalism, however, found me in the most unexpected but perfect way. A friend from high school — a botanist working on a book about plants found along the Pacific Crest Trail — came to visit us in Jersey City. Knowing about my fire escape garden, he brought me a plant: Anise Hyssop. He casually mentioned it made a great tea.
For years, that one little Anise Hyssop lived in a pot on my fire escape. I never harvested enough to make tea — I’d just munch on a leaf or two while watering and let her bloom in peace each summer, feeding the pollinators. When we moved to Asbury Park, she came with us — and now, her babies live happily in my garden by the shore. She finally gifted us enough leaves for tea — sweet and soothing — and became the very first plant I researched and worked with medicinally.
That one plant opened a door.
From there, I started adding more medicinal plants to our garden. Each one sparked curiosity, leading me to learn about their healing qualities and experiment with them in the kitchen. For me, the kitchen has always been a place of healing — food is medicine — and welcoming herbs into that space has deepened my understanding of how plants support our health and well-being. Honestly, herbalism was a natural next step in our lifestyle — one that has enriched our connection to the land, to the seasons, and to each other.
How did you come to study with David Winston and how did that influence your path?
Growing up in a health-conscious household, health food stores were a regular part of life. It was through those visits that we first came to know David Winston’s line of herbal formulas, Herbalist & Alchemist. One of those formulas ended up playing a pivotal role in my family’s story.
After my mom underwent bladder sling surgery, she faced a long and frustrating journey of chronic urinary tract infections. Multiple rounds of antibiotics offered no real relief — but then she tried David’s UT Compound. It was the only thing that brought her comfort and lasting support. That experience left a lasting impression on me.
As my own interest in herbalism deepened — moving from lifestyle curiosity into intentional study — I knew I wanted to better understand how these plants worked and why they were effective. Returning to school felt like the natural next step, and when I discovered that David Winston offered an in-person program based right here in New Jersey, it just felt like the perfect fit.
Studying with David was a transformative experience. His deep respect for traditional plant knowledge, paired with his clinical insight, helped me see herbalism as both an art and a science. It broadened my understanding of how to work with herbs not just in the kitchen or garden, but as part of a truly holistic approach to wellness. His mentorship helped ground me in a lineage of herbalism that’s rooted, rigorous, and deeply respectful of the plants.
What is the connection for you between herbs and yoga?
When I began teaching yoga in 2016, it was in a traditional indoor studio setting — the typical place to practice. But my personal relationship with yoga had always been rooted in the outdoors. Before becoming a teacher, I practiced on the beach at the Jersey Shore, in open-air studios in Costa Rica, in fields, on rooftops, and in backyards. Nature had always been an essential part of my practice.
Being indoors, I felt something was missing. I longed for the feeling of a breeze on my skin, the rustle of leaves, birdsong, and the gentle hum of insects — the aliveness of the natural world. I wanted to share that with my students, to bridge the gap between the studio and the wild.
That longing gave birth to a class I created called Botanical Yoga. Each week, I brought in a specific plant (fresh when possible) and designed the class around its qualities. I wanted my students to experience the plant on a sensory level while also exploring the deep connections between the healing aspects of yoga asana and the healing power of herbs. Many of these parallels unfolded intuitively — emotional support, energetic qualities, physical alignment, spiritual grounding.
At the time, I was compiling notes for each class — the common and botanical names, origins, active compounds, uses medicinally, culinarily, and spiritually, along with yoga postures that mirrored the plant’s qualities. I had no idea I was essentially creating a materia medica. I remember sitting in David Winston’s class, receiving his materia medica handouts, and suddenly realizing: I’ve been doing this all along.
That moment was pivotal. The plants had been quietly guiding me — deepening my curiosity, refining my path, and eventually leading me to formal study in David’s program. It’s a powerful reminder that when we open ourselves to the wisdom of the natural world, it responds. The plants truly do lead the way.
Describe the MotMot Collective.
As an artist, I’ve always been drawn to working with a variety of mediums — from paints to pottery to plants and sewing to wax. MotMot Collective began with beeswax candles, quite naturally, after I moved next door to a beekeeper and found myself with access to local wax and honey. The alchemy began there: melting raw beeswax in all its forms, cleaning it, experimenting with wicks, and refining each candle until it felt just right.
Working with beeswax teaches patience. It’s slow to melt, slow to cool, slow to set. But it burns warm and clean, with the most delicate, sweet honey scent. And when you know where it came from — that the bees were loved and the land was honored — it’s even sweeter.
Sourcing is the soul of MotMot. I care deeply about where my ingredients come from — how the land is tended, whether it’s grown in regenerative and organic ways, and if there’s enough for the pollinators and wild ones, not just us humans. I grow as much as I can — in my small home garden and off-site garden in New Jersey, as well as a small garden in Nosara, Costa Rica, where I cultivate ginger, turmeric, papaya, ylang ylang, and other botanicals featured in my products.
When I can’t grow enough myself, I turn to small-scale, organic herb farmers whose integrity I trust. Farmers like Linda and Eric at Bluestem Botanicals, whose plants are vibrant, beautiful, and clearly grown with care. Supporting people in our community who are doing good work is foundational to MotMot’s mission.
Everything I create under the MotMot umbrella is born from experimentation — from the kitchen, the garden, and the wild places I love. Most of the products I offer were first made for my family — to support our travels, our health, and our hearts. It brings me so much joy to know that these offerings now support others, too — physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Over time, my craft has naturally evolved to include teaching. Sharing herbal knowledge has become a deeply meaningful part of my work. The MotMot Garden has become a living classroom — a space to welcome students into direct relationship with the plants. I believe some of the most powerful learning happens in person, in the presence of the plants themselves — through sensory experience, touch, taste, smell and seasonal connection.
From plant walks and medicine making, to teaching how to grow, harvest, and share plant cuttings, to tea meditations and seasonal ceremonies aligned with the Wheel of the Year — my work is rooted in relationship. With the land. With the plants. With each other. MotMot is an extension of that relationship — and of a creative practice that is ever-changing, always growing, and grounded in love.
