Herbal remedies

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We all spent a morning with the subject of herbs used for medicinal purposes. Diana is a medical herbalist so is the perfect teacher. AP loved this part and has had an interest in the old ways of medicine for a long time.

Many herbal remedies have been discovered over hundreds of generations of interaction between people and wild plants, though much of this knowledge is now lost in the mainstream of culture. Indeed many medicines are in use today originate from herbal origin.

Medical herbalism differs from traditional medicine in that it aims to treat a person holistically - the cause (or more usually a multitude of causes) not just the symptoms. The herbalist will do a thorough interview with the patient - ask them about their diet, lifestyle, daily routines, trauma, digestion, breathing, immune system, fertility, breathing, aches and pains and so on. The herbal remedy will be a mixture of herbs tailored to the individual. There was someone who once came to a herbalist talking about blisters on his tongue. After a thorough discussion it was discovered that he only ate fruit. This was again due to other psychological issues - a medical herbalist would treat all these ailments - a traditional doctor would have had him out of there in 5 minute with something just for the blisters.

So on a previous day we had harvested some calendula also known as pot marigold, the flowers smell absolutely divine and have such a beautiful orange colour which RM loves. We picked the flowers off and they were left on the rayburn to dry then put in a jar of olive oil, to extract the the medicinal properties of the herb. So the day of the herbs, Diana has her own consultancy room in the small holding. It has been set up really nicely and you feel really warm and comfortable in there. Diana talked about the different medicinal herbs, the lesser celendine (native to England) also known as pilewort, as you may of guessed, its good for piles and funnily enough the root of the plant, which is the part that is used look like piles! Diana explained any flower with the word wort on the end of it means a plant worthy, lots of medicinal plants in England end it wort such as catwort,elderwort,figwort,garlicwort and motherwort.

We made two salves/ointments, calendula salve which was made from fresh flowers steeped in oil, this one was one that was previously made, the oil has to sit for at least a week or two before use. We mixed 200ml of infused calendula oil with 30g of beeswax to give it solidity, this was them poured into individual clean glass containers. Calendula is an all round healer, healing wounds and good for inflammation, it is applied to the skin and helps wounds heal faster, can treat burns, bruises and cuts and the minor infections they cause.

Fittingly, this was also the day we made some nettle soup. We picked a carrier bag of young nettle leaves and you cook them with potatoes and onions and blend it down to a soup. Not only is it delicious but is very good for you - a spring tonic, much higher in iron content than even spinach - showing the value of the old knowledge of edible wild plants (even ones you might think were a weed!)

Talking of weeds the dandelion plant is a dark horse! AP is now in love with the dandelion plant having dug out lots and lots for a medicinal use. Dandelion root is used to make dandelion coffee, it does not contain caffeine but is enriched with vitamin A, B complex C and D as well as iron, potassium and zinc. It is full of antioxidants which act as a cleanser for the liver. The leaves can be eaten in salads and acts as a diuretic, increasing the amount of urine the body produces therefore riding the body of toxins and helping digestion. The leaves also support kidney functions. Dandelion also improves the immune system so next time you pull a dandelion out and curse it for its abundance remember the dandelion is your friend.

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