Karl-Heinz Peper was born on December 28, 1958, in Spols, a small East Frisian village in today's municipality of Uplengen, where he grew up on a farm. He learned early on from his mother about the use of medicinal plants and has been practicing as a naturopath since 1992. Over the years, he received valuable insights into traditional applications from older people, including farmers and farmwomen, especially after he began giving lectures to East Frisian rural women in 1993. In 1995, he acquired documents from the East Frisian pastor and botanist Jan van Dieken (1893-1971), who had interviewed farmers and farmwomen for over 30 years and recorded the knowledge he gathered. This prompted Peper to systematically research this topic, which was the subject of two films produced by NDR in 2007 and 2008.