Edwina Hodkinson 16/03/2021 Edwina Hodkinson 16/03/2021

Rewilding with Wild Medicine - Spring

I love this time of the year! I love the lighter days and the joy of emerging life everwhere. New green shoots, lambs in the fields, a rising vitality of filling baskets with wild spring greens and soon a brand new baby nephew due this weekend. Filming for weeds and wild medicine last week, Danielle and I giggled with excitement as we ran off into the woods, listening to the birdsong as we tapped birch, nibbled the fresh new shoots of ground elder and grabbed handfuls of wild garlic and sorrel. I imagine this is how it would have felt for our ancestors too. The joy of gathering wild spring greens for food is nothing new, and the taste of them is something most modern people have never experienced, to them these foods would have been familiar and welcoming. Did they feel crave for the taste of fresh nettle infusion as we were doing now as mother earth gives us just when we need? Our ancestors were emerging from a hard winter of shortage and being cold; we were emerging from a long hard winter of lockdown and social isolation.

Living in our digital, centrally heated homes with 24-hour supermarkets offering fresh strawberries in winter, that can be delivered to our home without ever having to even step outside in the cold to buy, it’s hard to imagine how our ancestors would have managed during the winter months, a hundred years ago, never mind thousands of years ago. My grandfather told me once of hungry, bitter winters, living in overcrowded cockroach-infested homes and of all the kids having to wear brown paper sewn together under their clothes to keep warm through winter. He came from the slums of Salford, but wind the clock back a thousand year or more and our ancestors would have found winter just as challenging, relying on the food you could either store, forage or hunt. Winters of survival, slowing down to save energy, huddled together around open smoky heaths with your very large family and animals. Even for a hunter-gatherer family, there would still be problems with finding food and staying warm and healthy where ever you spent the winter, with or without stored food. Disease would have been a problem, as well as, malnutrition, starvation, parasites and even death of those elderly, chronically sick and the very young. How would your body feel after a long nutritionally deficient cold, damp winter in a smoky home?

Imagine stepping out in spring into longer days filled with warm sunshine and surveying the wild newly grown plants. What would you need to survive and to heal yourself? We have a long relationship with the earth and the plants. They were here when we came into existence, and our bodies have adapted to extracting their nutrition and being healed by them. How else would we be here after all this time? Whilst in the western world our lifestyle has changed beyond recognition from that of a hundred years ago, our bodies have not. We still feel the need to slow down in winter, eat heavier richer foods and to sit around something which flickers; either fire or the television. We have the need for celebration, stories and good company. We get colds, flu and viruses in winter, feel sluggish and have aching joints, and stiff muscles. Whilst in the modern world we have lots more food and a greater variety of it too, our diets are even less nutritious, with the addition of chemicals, toxins, pollutants and preservatives. Three thousand BC or the 21st century and we still emerge from winter needing to feel revitalised, detoxified, craving good nutrition and with medicines to help our body recover from whatever virus or illness we have had to deal with that winter. 2020- 2021 is no different as we try to recover from the stress, isolation, and illnesses of the pandemic and lockdown.

*Wild Garlic picking on weeds and wild medicine - Towneley park woods*

Wild Garlic - It seems our native wild plans provide what we need at this time, as they always have done. There is nothing like the smell of spring as you step onto a lush green woodland carpet, take a deep sweet breath of the wild garlic and fill your basket with natures treasure. Wild garlic is the ultimate spring clean, it’s antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral anti-parasitic, gut and cardiovascular system supporting medicine that is delicious in foods of all kinds. It cleanses the gut, helps restore healthy gut flora, rids the body of lingering viruses, infection and parasites. Many people think our native wild garlic is less potent than the shop-bought bulbs that we crush into our food. I think not! We can eat this delicious food in copious amounts raw in pesto, chopped into mash or casseroles. It seems to lose its potency when cooked, so even better to eat this delicious pungent taste of spring raw in everything until your car, your kitchen and your breath is filled with its aroma. The fact you excrete the raw garlic taste and smell from your lungs means its deep at work there cleansing and ridding the respiratory tract of any lingering infection.

Dandelion - Get out into your garden on a nice day for some early spring gardening and you may be keen to dig up the newly emerging Dandelion rosettes and roots, lest they grow to form bright yellow dandelion flowers so detested by many gardeners. To a herb lover however, this is another of our amazing spring medicines. Dig up the long roots by all means, but rather than throw them in the compost bin, clean and chop them to make Dandelion coffee, Dandelion and Burdock and as food in casseroles and curries. Dandelion is another spring cleanser. Its slightly bitter taste stimulates the digestive tract and liver as well as being one of the best detoxifiers after a winter inside living on processed food, alcohol and breathing in household chemicals. Combined with burdock for the classic drink and you have two herbs in the dark deliciousness of a healthy soft drink that can help remove toxins from deep inside the cells of the body, take them to be broken down by the liver and out through the digestive tract and kidneys. Dandelion root can help to alkalise our body, reduce inflammation, remove toxins and combined with the leaf and much other spring greens can help provide the nutrition our body needs to get back to health. The root is also a great balancer of blood sugar as well as helping to rebalance hormones.

According to Katrina Blair in the Wild Wisdom of Weeds, the root combined with the leaf, stem, flower and seed can provide all 8 amino acids and is a fantastic nutrition source for the body.

The leaf is delicious as a nourishing but slightly bitter leaf green, Ideal in salads. As kids, we knew this as wet the bed, and old folk memory of its use as a diuretic. I remember as a ward sister many years ago when I did a drug round of always making sure that if a patient was on the diuretic drug frusemide that the doctor always prescribed potassium. Frusemide depleted the body of potassium by its action on the kidney. Mother nature knows this and so she puts potassium in dandelion leave to balance the medicine.

Wait patiently for the flowers and, sharing them with the bees when you pull of the heads you can make Dandelion Bhajis (see our video), and a salve that is great for aching joints and muscles as well as being healing for psoriasis.

Nettles - Its still very early in spring here in the north of England and I’m waiting keenly for enough Nettle and cleavers to harvest. They tend to grow side by side and I am delighted to have them in my garden. They have just about broken through the cold soil and are too tiny to pick so I’m waiting patiently for them to grow and take into my body as teas. Nettle is a super nutrient and like the rest of our weeds, we have been told to pull them up and buy vitamin pills and superfoods instead from halfway around the globe. We have growing around us one of the most nutritionally dense foods in the world and we can have it for free. It’s full of vitamins, A, C, some Bs, thiamine and K. Iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chromium, copper, protein, phosphorous, selenium, riboflavin, silicone, Whilst we live in a society of food abundance, our modern-day diets lack sufficient nutrition for health and many medical conditions can be caused by insufficient vitamins and minerals. Nettles provides the body with the nutrition it needs to heal and function correctly. Can you imagine how it would have been for ancestors to put nettle in food and feel its vitality? It’s a heating food and like many of the spring wild foods like mustards and wild garlic, they are great forwarming a sluggish winter body and awakening it to spring. Nettles are another great cleanser, anti-inflammatory and good for supporting an adrenal gland tired after the ravages of winter survival. I find it so amazing that as nettles grow and the pollen rises, nettles can be mother natures answer to hay fever especially it combined with Elderflower and Plantain. For spring babies it’s also a great herb for supporting new mums healing a pregnancy tired body and increasing breast milk.

A good way to take nettles into your body is to make a deep infusion. Take a handful of fresh nettles. Don’t worry about the sting. You can wear gloves and the sting will be neutralised in hot water. Put them in a pan. Cover with hot water and leave covered overnight. The resulting liquid will be deep dark green and you may smell the iron in it. Strain, reheat and drink throughout the day. Your body will love you and crave this powerful nutritious drink.

Cleavers - I have been cultivating a small patch if cleavers in my garden for tea, but have also secret supplies of big, sticky clumps known only to me that I harvest in profusion for creams and lotions to use all year with my patients. I have a beauty therapist sister who closely keeps a jealous guard of my stock of cleavers oil as she likes it to use her own skin. When I go walking I love to squeeze the refreshing green juice from it an lick it from my hands.

Cleavers is often known as sticky willies or goosegrass and grows alongside nettles. Cleavers is another of the deep spring cleansers. I see Nettle as cleansing the blood, wild garlic the gut, the lungs and lingering infections, Dandelion and Burdock the cells and the liver; and Cleavers is a herb for cleansing the lymphatic system. Its not as cut and dried as that as every herbalist knows, but its a way of making it simple and seeing how amazing these herbs are in spring. Cleavers seems to sweep through a clogged up winter infection weary lymphatic system, getting rid of battle-worn dead white cells and debris from infections whilst giving it all a good MOT. Its like the ultimate spring clean for lingering seasonal infections that just haven’t quite gone. Cleavers seems to brighten up the skin too, helping to cool eczema and any skin irritiations as well as being a diuretic to remove toxins from the body. Traditionally its used to help reduce winter weight gain and is allegedly an aid to dieting and reducing cellulite. I don’t know about that but it does make a great cleansing drink if you put fresh cleavers in a container, add cold water and leave over night. drink the next day with a twist of lime or lemon.

Edwina Hodkinson 07/12/2020 Edwina Hodkinson 07/12/2020

Northern Root Medicine; Angelica

Sitting listening to Lila, a Sami medicine woman in Jokkokk, Swedish Lapland, a few years ago had a major impact on my relationship with Angelica, and since then Angelica (Angelica archangelica) and I have become firm friends. I had once grown it in my garden, crushed the leaves between my fingers to smell its aroma and dug the dark aromatic roots and tasted the aromatic medicine on my tongue, that made it tingle. My elderly neighbour had queried the tall majestic plant with its large green umbrella like flowers (Umbrels) and I told her it was Angelica. “The one you buy candied?” she asked and I nodded in response. Dorothy, my neighbour was a prolific baker but this was as far as our conversation about Angelica went.

Years later, north of the Arctic circle in Swedish Lapland, I sat with a big group of women mainly from the UK and drank every delicious word of wisdom about Angelica and other Sami medicines such as Birch, Spruce, Pine and Rhodiola with a hunger an afternoon couldn’t satisfy. I wanted to know more about these herbs, especially about Angelica, the tall plant that had any years ago grown in my garden. My third encounter with Angelica was in healing a deep chesty cough I had, it was the Angelica that made the difference in clearing it up.

Angelica, the herb of angels and sacred to the people of the north. I loved encountering it growing wild in Orkney last summer, A herbalist who was my guide around Skara Brae told me it had been planted by the Vikings when they settled as they revered both its medicine and its sacredness. Even today this Norse grown Angelica found growing in Orkney, is put in Kirkjuvagr gin, distilled in Kirkwall. No wonder it tastes amazing.

Angelica (Angelica archangelica) is native to parts of Northern Europe and grows wild in damp places and is often found in gardens. Here in the UK it tends to be wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) that we often find, still with that beautiful aromatic aroma, so distinctive of Angelica and with many of the same properties.

Angelica has always been associated with the sacred, as well as being a valuable lung and digestive medicine as well as a nerve tonic.

One of the Old Northern European names for Angelica is “Chest wort”, work with it and you will soon feel its medicine. It dries and warms the lungs, improving pulmonary circulation. It’s good for nourishing lung tissue and can help with expectorating sputum, that may be deeply embedded in the lungs, infected or being produced in copious amounts. Its decongesting and also good for sore throats and fevers too. Its warmth is great in a hot tea for those with fevers when you just can’t get warm as it increases the circulation and opens the pore to help a person sweat, cool the body and bring down a fever naturally. On teaching Weeds and Wild Medicine we did a guided tasting with Angelica, it was amazing to see how readily people were feeling Angelica’s deeply penetrating lung clearing affects as well as it decongesting sinuses. I’m not sure how traditional it would be in Lapland, but Angelica certainly makes an amazing chest or sinus rub made with leaves and seeds to which essential oils can be added.

Wild Angelica stem - — *Wild Angelica stem* -

Like many superb chest herbs, Angelica is also a magnificent, stimulating, digestive tonic. Being a warming, aromatic bitter, its good for a weak digestion, encouraging the production of stomach acid and for enhancing other digestive functions. It’s particularly helpful when stomach acid is low which is often seen in people as they get older. Low stomach acid is common and gives very similar symptoms to elevated levels of stomach acid. Angelica is also an anti spasmodic so great for wind, colic and bloating. Angelica is also a key ingredient in Swedish bitters which are renown tonic for improving general health

Its good to learn that Angelica improves circulation through the Liver, protecting hepatic cells from injury. I find it interesting to learn that in the cold, dark, northern lands where alcoholism is seen as a problems, Angelica is traditionally used to help people come off alcohol, as whilst it is protective to the liver, it can also help to stop the craving. Traditionally the seeds are chewed when the craving occurs.

Other traditional uses for Angelica are in regulating periods, for gout and arthritis, urinary infections and for increasing the circulation.

Often when I feel low in energy, I sip a teaspoon of Angelica tincture or just chew on pieces of dried root. Angelica can be a great pick me up, and good for helping promote mental clarity as it apparently increases circulation to the head. It’s a strengthening nerve tonic and good for elevating low moods and depression. Its also great adrenal support too.

American Herbalist Jim Macdonald says its good herb to use when you are“ so despondent you cant even pray.” I put Angelica flower essence in some of my medicines for patient who feel low and floored by life’s tough challenges, it seems to help.

Matthew Wood (2008) likens Angelica it to “Bear Medicine.” as according to Native American medicine traditions, the root is brown, furry, oily and pungent. He says that bears eat such roots in spring after hibernation to start building up their body mass. Angelica’s oiliness supports the adrenal cortex to increase energy, appetite, digestion and nutrition . I find it effective in medicines for people that are fatigued and run down. I like Mathew’s analogy of Angelica and Bear medicine, he says; “As the bear goes into hibernation in the winter, Bear Medicine can help calm the mind, open up the imagination and bring people into the dream time” Its interesting to learn that Angelica and has been used for shamanic work with the Saami people, traditional saunas in Scandinavia and also in some native American sweat lodges. Traditionally the roots are burnt and The aromatic smoke can open up the peripheral circulation to help perspiration and also open up the mind and imagination for more spiritual work.

All parts of Angelica can be used. Leaf, seeds, root and stem. A medicine available all year round and in winter the roots would have been readily available, and dry well for winter use. Easy to carry in a pouch and travel with, being a preventative medicine as well as being used for medical problems. As well as being chewed Angelica was also smoked in a pipe made from its own stem or put in coffee. Its interesting to learn that the stem of angelica was also used as a musical instrument called a Fadno.

Angelica tea.

For every 1 teaspoon of angelica root use 1 cup of hot water. Place in a pan, cover bring to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to steep for half and hour to and hour, strain and drink. It might be time effective to make all doses for the day in one go. Take one cup 3 times day.

Cautions: Not to be given in pregnancy and can cause photosensitivity so avoid using when sunbathing or when using sun lamps. Also stop using 1 week before planned surgery.

Thanks to Nikki Darrell for her kind permission for use of the Angelica archangelica photograph - http://veriditashibernica.org/

Bibliography

Edwards, Gail Faith (2000) Opening our Wild hearts to the Healing Herbs. Ash Tree Publishing, New York

Fischer-Rizzi, S. (1996) Medicine of the Earth; Rudra Press; Portland

McIntyre, A (2010) Herbal tutor; A structured course to achieve professional expertise, London: Octopus publishing.

Robertsdottir: A.R. (2016) Icelandic Herbs, and their medicinal uses. North Atlantic Books, California.

Wood, Matthew (2008) Earthwise Herbal; A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants: North Atlantic Books, California

http://www.norrshaman.net/Saami%20Ethno%20Medicine.htm

Edwina Hodkinson 11/11/2020 Edwina Hodkinson 11/11/2020

Late Autumn medicines; leaves, roots, herbs and spices

*Permaculture garden - Offshoots, Towneley park, Lancashire*

The evenings darken, the air chills and like nature we draw further into our homes and inward in preparation for winter. Go outside and it’s difficult to see what medicines are available among the dead vegetation and sparse hedgerows. The Rosehips and sloes will have softened with the first frost and in sheltered areas it will be still possible to harvest Plantain and Lungwort for chest medicines. Look closer and you may see Cleavers and Dandelion leaves growing close to the ground, as well as a few young nettles taking advantage of late frosts and shelter.

In autumn and winter many medicines are now under the soil and cannot be seen. Some of the best herbs I know for coughs now lie underground, only available to dig if you know where to look. Elecampane and Angelica roots are great herbs for deep seated wet, infected coughs that need help to loosen (expectorate) from deep within respiratory passages, as well as being fabulous restorative digestive tonics and there is also slippery mucilaginous Marshmallow roots for dry scratchy coughs that need soothing and healing. Horseradish root is an amazingly pungent, warming herb that despite being quite invasive is a pleasure to dig up for clearing congested sinuses and chests and well as improving the circulation.

Evergreen herbs grown in gardens can also provide valuable medicine for winter, and are really worth growing and nurturing in sheltered areas. Thyme is perfect for all kinds of coughs from deep, wet, infected coughs to dry, spasmodic ones. Sage and Rosemary also have expectorant properties and great decongestant medicines for the chest and sinuses. All of these are great digestive tonics too which is why they are often paired with fatty meats. They can be all bought as fresh and dried herbs in winter from good grocers to use in medicines if you don’t grow them in the garden.

British people are drawn towards spicy foods from the east, especially at this time of year. Herbs that are warming and drying are perfect for balancing ailments and illnesses cause by our cold damp winters and provide amazing medicine for coughs, colds and flu, as well as any other conditions. A well stocked store cupboard can provide instant access to some really valuable medicines that are accessible, affordable and don’t need many skills of identification. You just look at the label.

Cardamom – Elettaria cardamum

One of our favourite winter spices is Cardamom, and we love to keep them around in winter for use in our cough medicines, to put in teas, mulled drinks and coffee or just to chew on when needed. Cardamom is a member of the Ginger family and is often called the ‘Queen of Spices’ in India. The pods are picked green and then dried. They can be bought whole or powdered from markets, Asian grocers or supermarkets.

Cardamom is a warming, sweet, aromatic spice that is a rich source of vitamins such as vitamin C, B vitamins; and minerals; Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Iron, sodium and zinc

Chewing on just the seeds or pods like chewing gum can sweeten the breath; those lovely aromatic oils helping to fight malodorous mouth bacteria, reducing the smell of alcohol and garlic on the breath. An article from the Dental Research Journal states that the oil extracted from cardamom seeds is a potent antiseptic that is known to kill the bacteria that can lead to dental caries, bad breath and other infections.. They suggest that it stimulates salivary flow and the fibrous outer coat helps in mechanical cleansing of the teeth. In short, it has all the benefits of an aromatic breath freshening chewing gum and none of its nuisance.

In fact Cardamom is great just to chew on anyway. I find it really good for helping to counteract acidity in the stomach as well as being great for indigestions, nausea and travel sickness. Its handy just to store in a small container and keep with you to be used when needed.

Most people just don’t realize how great a medicine cardamom is for the digestive tract in general, and it is used in the east as a general digestive tonic and can be particularly helpful for bloating, wind, spasm in the gut and many other uncomfortable digestive complaints. One of our favourite ways of using it is by taking the seeds out of a few pods and putting them in the blender with some natural live yoghurt and equal quantities of cold water and after whizzing it up for a few seconds, straining and using it as a lovely healing digestive drink, which you can add fruit to if you want. I like the fact that as a coffee drinker cardamom can be used to quell some of the jittery effects of caffeine and it does taste rather nice in winter to have a few pods in the cafetier when I brew up my morning coffee in winter.

Like most of the other spices it’s good as a stimulating, expectorant for wet coughs and phlegm that gets stuck in the chest as well as a decongestant for the sinuses and nostrils. Just chew on a cardamom pod, and you can feel it working on your sinuses. Its anti bacterial action can also be helpful with chest infections, and the anti-spasmotic effects of those aromatic oils can ease coughing fits. there is some folk usage of it being supportive of people with asthma too. Again its great to carry round and chew a as a first aid remedy for sore throats.

Its warming, stimulating effects can be useful in increasing circulation and it can be great to use in an infused oil with other spices such as ginger, rosemary, chilli, horseradish and black pepper as a potent joint and muscle rub. Ideal for use with damp aching joints in winter.

As the darkness of late autumn merges into winter its good to know that apart from supporting winter ailments it also has the ability to lifts the spirit, calming and clearing the mind. I’m thinking that as 2020 draws to a close after a challenging year this may help with anxiety, tension and nervous exhaustion. With a twinkle of the eye its also good to mention its traditional use as an aphrodisiac as it is reputedly a remedy for increasing sexual desire and virility.

Hot spiced apple

Put 2 litres of freshly pressed apple juice in a large saucepan. Add 2 sticks of cinnamon, a teaspoon of cardamom pods and a few cloves, a chunk of freshly grated ginger and a three star anise. Heat until it’s just starting to boil, turn the heat down low and simmer for about half an hour until the spices are infused.

This can be enjoyed on its own or as a winter drink for colds and fevers.

References:

McIntyre, A (2010) The Complete Herbal Tutor; Gaia :London.

Bruton –Seal, J & Seal, M (2010) Kitchen Medicine; Merlin Unwin Books: Ludlow.

https://www.banglajol.info/index.php/BJP/article/view/8133

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353705/

Edwina Hodkinson 06/07/2020 Edwina Hodkinson 06/07/2020

Fireweed - The Herb of Regeneration

Rosebay Willowherb

I waited until the rain stopped and the land dried, Its late afternoon and the Burrs country park in Bury, Lancashire is still busy. The cafe is closing and the campsite awaiting to reopen as lock down eases. All along the East lancs steam railway track that runs through the park big patches of magenta strike out from the July uniformity of the land which has lost some of its colour now the blossom has died back. The Burrs country park was once an industrial site, the old cotton mill and bleach works as you enter the park now are just patches of stone walls and water filled pits, some with signposts indicating where things used to be; The Mill, the water wheel, gas storage and the midden. The cottages and pub still remain along with one lone factory chimney next to the car park. Its now a tourist destination with its own caravan club campsite and very much loved by local people as a recreation area. All along the cobbled road, the canal and river Irwell big lush swathes of Rosebay Willow Herb (Epilobium angustifolium) also known as Fireweed provide colour and suggest that these areas were once burnt in some way.

I cut long stalks of Fireweed and hand them to my partner Pete to carry as I climb down a slippery bank to harvest more, hoping I dont fall. The spikes of blossoms are delicate and a vivid pink in some patches and their intensity on this dull day catchs my eye. We harvest as much as we can carry and take them back to the car. Later as the day cools to evening and its still dry and light I sit in the back garden to pull off the leaves and flowers to seperated them from the long stalks. Stripping off the outer covering of the stems I lay them to one side to dry for cordage. The pink flecked, straw colored, waxy plant fibre makes a lovely cordage that I like to use for wrapping special things, its always much prettier than the willow, nettle, lime and bramble cordages I often make. Laughing, Pete and myself take a knife and slitting the stems in half we expose the pith. We ease it out and put it in our mouths, it tastes like sweet cucumber that gets mucilaginous as we hold it in our mouths. I’ve read it can give a sugar buzz but we didnt feel it. In indigenous cultures this was seen as a valuble food and I read somewhere the pith is used to bake Indian ice cream for indigenous tribes in North America. Rosebay willow herb really is an amazing plant and revered in native cultures in the northern hemisphere, somtimes being so revered it forms part of the creation stories and in one tribe represented the first totem pole. We like to think that for all its amazing uses our ancestors would have used it too, only we have lost the memory.

Rosebay Willowherb is a tall 1.5m perennial with stunning magenta flower spikes is a familiar sight in summer and can be found in parks, hedgerows, derelict ground, along railways and is classed as a weed. Ecologically is has a use in helping to repair and regenerate damaged, traumatised and burnt earth. After the second world war it covered the bombsites, earning the name "Bomb weed." I find it hard to believe that this stunning plant, beloved of first nations people in Alaska, Canada and Siberia is just considered a weed here and very rarely used in herbal medicine.

For first nations people it it is a valuable food, healing tea, fire lighting material, waterproofing for mittens, cordage and effective medicine, being used both internally and externally. The fermented leaves, once imported to the UK from Russia was a delicious tea (Kapoori tea) and was popular here before Indian and China tea became our national drink.

Bruised Rosebay Willowherb to ferment to make tea with.

Rosebay Willowherb is Full of vitamin A, C and with a plethora of anti oxidants it tastes like a nice quality green tea, looks prettier and is easy to make at home from the flowers and leaves. Rosebay Willowherb is also an excellent herb for the digestive tract with a history use with infectious diarrhoea and was once the favourite herb of the American eclectic physicians in treating cholera, typhoid and dysentry. This is due to both its anti microbial, and astringent properties. Its also has an anti-inflammatory effect on the bowel so helpful at managing ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis and ulcers.

Looking at recent research, I'm finding that Rosebay Willowherb apart from being anti bacterial and anti viral, has an anti fungal action too and was effective against all the nine fungal species tested in the study. Of note it is particularly effective in treating Candida, with a pre-biotic effect that can help support normal gut flora. Native people use it to help with the "green diarrhoea" that come with the transition from the winter diet of grain and meat to the summer diet of vegetables and fruit. Its ant- inflammatory, astringent and healing effects should make it very useful in helping Irritable Bowel Syndrome too. I'm thinking of this time in our history when we have a prevalence of damage to the human microbiome, not just to the overuse of antibiotics, but from the glyphosates in our food and environment, sugar, mercury in fillings, processed foods, chlorinated water etc. This can lead to an overgrowth of unhelpful gut bacteria, Candida being only one species. How helpful of Mother earth to provide us with a medicine to help us with fungal over growth and damaged guts from dysbiosis.

Apart from being good digestive medicine its been used traditionally for an enlarged prostate gland, prostate cancer, heavy periods, asthma and whooping cough, and it has a immuno-modulating properties too, and when extracts of Rosebay Willowherb are studied in labs it was found to be effective against the flu virus, improving mortality and survival rates. Extracts of Fireweed has even been patented by a pharmaceutical company for its anti-tumour activity.

Fireweed is excellent too in skin care, being good in a salve for cuts, burns, rashes, acne, eczema and psoriasis and is used commercially in skin care products. Some studies show it has an anti-inflammatory effects on the skin which has been shown to be comparable with steroid creams. One of my friends tried a salve on her psoriasis and said it made a difference in healing the plaques and reducing itching. Native people have used the mashed up root for boils, infections and abceses, the leaves were plastered on bruises.

As a hydrosol it can be used effectively as a skin wash for Burns, irritated and itchy skin and is also anti bacterial.

Having tasted the pith which is a little like cucumber and once eating the new shoots, it seems a shame that we seem to have lost our cultural memory of how useful a medicine and food Rosebay Willowherb really is. Not only this but as cordage and a fibre once made into nets, as well as a wick for lamps, wilderness bandage, and coffee from the roots. Yet again we are relying on first Nations people of the Northern Boreal forests to remind us of the magnificent of our abundant local plants and how to appreciate what we have on our own doorstep here in Bury.

What I find of particularly interests, is its its emotional uses. Herbalists using it as a flower essence, tell of its potency in treating burn out, PTSD and of its ability to help us reconnect to the earth again. I'm thinking of the collective damage done here not just to the land but of humanity too, especially in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic that has had such an impact on people not just of this land but globally. That deep damage from fear, isolation, hardship, poverty, grief, and loss. Damage so deep it has disconnected us from the Earth and each other so much, that we are trying unconsciously heal that loss with material things and becuae of this are willing to damage the land that supports us. There are those who say that the land provides the medicine that's needed close to the sickness. Mother earth certainly knows that we are sick and this sickness is collective and deep in our DNA. She is providing a powerful healing medicine that we need here during these times of disconnection, trauma and collective PTSD.

Thanks to Nikki Darrell from http://veriditashibernica.org/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045895/

https://www.academia.edu/9659653/MINI_REVIEW_Fireweed_A_treasured_medicine_of_the_boreal

Edwina Hodkinson 29/06/2020 Edwina Hodkinson 29/06/2020

Plantain- The Sacred Herb under our feet.

And thou, Waybread (Plantain), mother of worts
open to the east, mighty within;
over thee carts creaked, over thee queens (women) rode,
over thee brides cried out, over thee bulls snorted.
All of them thou withstood and dashed against;
so may thou withstand venom and that which flies
and the loathsome that yond the land fareth

From the Saxon Sacred Nine Herbs charm

I’m stood in an ancient place. The grass is high and nettle grows deep in the ruins of cottages. Somewhere in the grass a cricket chirps and crows settle on the willow by the stream. I disturb a roe deer which scuttles away from the undergrowth, startled by my presence and horses graze silently in the next field. I’m not far from the public footpath but no one seems to come through this meadow. Scanning my eyes over whats left of the small holding of Buckley fold, I look to see whats growing here and put my basket on the ground. I’ve been coming to this place since I was a small child and remember when you could see the brick and stone ruins of the cottages in the corner of the field. As kids we always wondered where the capped well was buried, and it was only in later years when I found an old map, and I learned that the well was in the corner of the field now marked out by changes in vegetation. The new housing estate is close by and soon it will cover this meadow with new homes and so this lovely place is not forever. But for now its my main place to harvest Nettle and Plantain.

I move through the long grass and crouch down parting it with my fingers. The Plantain is well hidden, but still abundant and I carefully pick the blade like leaves that so many mistake for grass. Ribwort plantain Plantago lanceolata is easy to identify from the strong fibre ribs that mark the full length of the lance shaped leaf. Its very similar to its cousin Broadleaf Plantain Plantago major, which has much broader leaves and grows on the footpath and in the corner of the field. Both plants are inter-changeable in their medicinal uses and can grow alongside each other; The Broad leaf Plantain on the path and the Ribwort in the long grass. Both are tough inconspicuous plants that can withstand a lot of standing on. A month ago when it was in flower it was easy to see. The small corona like flowers of Ribwort reminded me of little lamps indicating where it grew, which was all over this meadow. One of my friends said it reminded him of the corona virus! Now there’s a thought if you consider the principle of the doctrine of signatures that states that a plant can give you a indication of what its good for by the clues of how it can look, its colour or shape. I’ve not found any research to show that it can affect the virus directly but it might be deemed as one of the herbs that could help support healing in the lungs in recovery from the virus. Now that the Ribwort have turned to seed, I nibble them as I fill my basket with leaves. They taste nutty and are very nutritious full of omega 3 fatty acids and many other nutrients.

Ribwort plantain - Plantago lanceolata — Ribwort plantain - *Plantago lanceolata*

If I was given the choice of having use of only one herb to have access to then it would be Plantain. Plantain has so many uses and it was the herb that introduced me to herbal medicine, and I feel solely responsible for me training to be a Medical Herbalist. Many years ago I had a bad cough that lasted for months and would not go away. I had a chest X-ray, antibiotics and a whole host of pharmaceuticals that did nothing to alleviate this very dry and irritating cough that was getting me down. I went on a herb walk and the Medical Herbalist who led it, introduced me to Ribwort plantain. Feeling I had nothing to lose, on his advice I picked Ribwort from an ancient meadow that had never been sprayed and made it into a cough syrup. Within a week the cough had gone and I was hooked on learning more. (Herbal medicine can get very addictive). Plantain is an excellent medicine for coughs of all kinds particularly those dry, irritating, hacking coughs that benefit from a cooling, soothing, moistening remedy that can help to expectorate phlegm . Plantain seems to have the knack of drawing towards it things that are stuck, infected or stagnant, so its a great herb for moving congested mucous whether that be in the lungs or sinuses, as well as toning and healing mucous membranes. I think Plantain works well if too if you have a cough that seems to linger long after the virus has gone. The Allantoin, one of the healing constituents in Plantain is great for healing that damaged, irritated tissue of the lung and respiratory tract. Plantain is also anti viral, anti fungal and anti bacterial with research showing its effectiveness against the herpes virus.

Plantain’s healing action extends to other systems of the body. Its antibacterial, healing and soothing action mean its a good herb for managing urinary tract infections, clearing the heat from the burning pain of cystitis and it is soothing too. I think it works best in a tea for urinary tract infections and would combine well with other herbs such as Bearberry, Pelitory of the Wall, Yarrow, Bilbery leaf and Marshmallow.

Plantain is a digestive herb too. Its soothing action is excellent for gut irritation and inflammation in the stomach and bowels, being helpful for gastritis, ulcers, colitis, IBS, stomach and bowel infections. It reduces spasm and colic and can help expel parasites from the gut. It’s astringent action makes it also good for diarrhoea . What I love about plantain is its ability draw toxins towards itself and expel them from the body. This is an ideal herb for food poisoning both in terms of helping to expel the toxins, reducing the discomfort of gut spasm and diarrhoea.

I find some Broadleaf plantain and pull the leaf to break it from the stem. The fibres are tough and it feels slightly resistant to my hand. I think of the ancestors and how they viewed this plant not only as sacred but as an essential herb to have around when travelling or working outside. I muse for a moment on the Ancestors, after all this is a very old place and very close to the Roman road and a very small, almost ploughed out hengiform tumulus is only a few fields away. Plantain was one of the nine sacred herbs of the ancestors and I think of why they called it “Way Bread”. Of course you can eat the leaves and they can be a bit stringy; but this was only one of the reasons why it was a herb revered by Travellers. Not only does the Broad leaf plantain grow under your feet and the Ribwort on the grassy verges, but its the very plant you want with you for any form of first aid on your travels. Chewed up into a spit poultice, this is a fantastic herb for putting on insect bites. Buckley Fold is abundant with horse flies in the warm, damp of summer. I know from experience how bad my body responds to a bite from these little buggers, and have had to have antibiotics and antihistamines in the past for cellulitis after some particularly nasty bites on my legs. I was bitten on my face here by a horse fly a few years ago and after the initial panic I used copious spit poultices on the bite and despite a green chin, the bite was only a small pimple when I got home. The anti histamine, antiseptic and drawing action of the Plantain did its job. I have heard of countless stories of people using it for dental abscesses and infected wounds. It is also an excellent wound healer and used in salves and creams and as well as an antibacterial action, it can heal a wound pretty quickly even dirty wounds. I like to use it with Daisy, or Self Heal; which ever one I can get access too. There is nowt as good as keeping your medicine local and sustainable! Plantain is also a good medicine for healing broken bones, ligaments, and as a muscle rub. It contains Allantoin which is also in Comfrey. Ancestors would have used mashed up roots where the Allantion concentration is higher or just the leaves. This would be excellent medicine combined with Knit bone/ Comfrey - Symphytum officinale or Bugle - Ajuga reptens to ease the pain.

Broad leaf Plantain - Plantago major — Broad leaf Plantain - *Plantago major*

So back to ancestors and travelling; Plantain, especially the Broad leaf plantain would have been put in shoes to ease aching feet and to heal blisters. Katrina Blair in The Wild Wisdom of Weeds suggests it can be used to purify water and whilst I don’t know how effective this is, and I wouldn’t like to risk it with out looking at some good research, it is an interesting concept given Plantain’s effectiveness as a herb that draws toxins towards it.

One of the ways I like to use Plantain is as a Succus. Putting plantain leaves through a juicer has made me realise it is surprisingly juicy. I should have known this as I have chewed it up for spit poultices enough times.

Picking lots of healthy looking fresh plantain from clean places free from doggy wee and car exhaust fumes, I take them home to wash and dry. I use a hand macerating juicer and extract as much of the thick, vibrant juice as I can.

Then putting the juice through a fine sieve to remove any bits of plant debris, I measure and add equal amounts of vegetable food grade glycerine. Then put it into a sterillised bottle and label. To use this take 5 - 10 mls up to 3- 5 times a day in water. This will last for a year.

Photos by Peter Yankowski

Edwina Hodkinson 28/05/2019 Edwina Hodkinson 28/05/2019

Reclaiming our Native Medicines

Connecting with the seasons

Danielle and myself sat in the garden in Offshoots; Its a beautiful permaculture garden at Towneley park, Burnley, Lancashire. We’d not been here since last year and it was good to come back, to see each other and just spend time in this beautiful garden full or herbs, fruit and vegetables that we have always called the Magic Garden. We have been teaching Weeds and wild medicine here for the last five years and lockdown came just a few days before the start of this year’s course. We, as well as our students were gutted, and we had missed the Magic garden more than we thought. Sitting down drinking Valerian flower tea we discussed what we loved most about our native plants; The Weeds and Wild Medicines that love to grow so close to us, that continually fuel our passion as Herbalists and that got us as excited as six year olds at a party when we saw so many of our old plant allies growing in abundance in the garden. We giggled as we spoke their names aloud. “Wood Betony, Elecampane, Honey suckle, Valerian, Agrimony, Lungwort, Lemonbalm, Comfrey and so many more.

As Medical Herbalists we often dispense herbs from tinctures in brown bottles to our patients, and they heal and help people a lot. But the healing goes so much deeper when we connect to the plants, see what they look like and how they grow, where they grow and how it feels to touch them, smell their aroma and taste them in a tea made fresh straight from that plant. We sit with them and allow them to tell us about who they are, and this medicine goes much deeper than what are often just thought of as chemical constituents in a brown bottle or in tablet from a health food shop. This is the medicine of the Earth and our ancestors, and it is very powerful indeed.

The healing starts in the going out on the land, swinging a basket and leaving the modern world behind with all its troubles and challenges. Greeting the plants, connecting with them and casting our eyes over them to check identification and to see which of the plants are good to put in our medicines. Foraging can be meditative and addictive and often we enter plant time forgetting that in our liminal zone of filling a basket, we lose track of time and place, our breathing deepens and we feel our body relax. Often we taste and smell the herbs, feeling them with our fingers or digging them deep into the soil, with damp earth under finger nails and mud on our boots. We get good at seeing detail from a distance, recognising them across a field, learning the habitats of the plants; what grows where and when and in our still meditative, mindful state, the animals and birds sometimes quietly watch us. We are aware of something deeper happening to us as we connect to the land! We awaken to the bliss of reconnection with all of life and the Earth.

The joy continues back in the kitchen as we make medicines or find creative ways of storing our harvests until we need them. The medicine continues in the dispensing of them, taking them into our body or putting them on our skin and feeling how effective their healing is. This is the world of our Indigenous ancestors in these lands; People who knew the plants and lived in relationship with them; understanding their medicine and knowing that it went much deeper than what we see as chemical constituents in a bottle. To them the plants had personalities, stories and there was a certain etiquette in working with their medicine that relied on the sun, the moon, the time of day and of course utter and absolute respect. Prayers were uttered and offering made. The land was alive, the plants had spirits and everything was connected. There was no separation between physical, emotional and spiritual healing; the boundaries between medicine and magic were merged into one. We know this from the earliest plant medicines books that have been translated from Saxon times and from the folk tales told all over Europe.

The plants of course know us too, we live in relationship with them. The plants were here long before human kind and developed their medicine for their own protection and healing as well as the ecosystem around them. Humans are part of that ecosystem too, although we have long since forgotten this and fallen out of balance with nature. We are still important in the balance of life and I am reminded of this when I sometimes thin out the roots of plants that I forage, harvest them and see how the plants are more abundant in that place the next year. Often we carry seeds on our clothes or boots or replant shoots from the roots we harvest only to see a big healthy plant growing a few years later. In our modern world we forget our connection to plants and how crucial they are to the the survival and evolution of our kind. We would not be here without their ability to not only heal us, but to feed us, clothe us, provide fuel, cordage, resins, containers, utensils, tools, shelter, artistic expression in dyes, pigments and adornments.

*Willow, Nettle, Rosebay Willowherb and Bramble cordage*

When we’re out working with native wild medicines we are so reminded of that connection we once had and how our indigenous ancestors and the plants worked in harmony with the energy of the seasons, giving our bodies what they needed to stay health.

In the the first greening of spring, the plants that first to emerge are those that wake up our bodies from the sluggishness of winter. They provide us with deep cleansing, helping our body to shake off the last of the winter infections, ridding our intestines of parasites that have accumulated from living in close proximity to each other and our animals. They are heating too and help get the blood flowing, stimulating our liver and extremities as we wake up from our slowing down in winter. They are plants like nettles, wild garlic and the mustards, and are so deeply nutritious. It is no accident that after a winter of living off stored food, meats and sometimes enduring famine, that the newly emerging plants are the super foods of Dandelion, Nettle, Cleavers, Chickweed, Plantain, Wild Garlic that not only cleanse and heal but power pack us with their nutrition. How many people are now called to make a wild garlic pesto or nettle soup and know instinctively that it makes them feel good.

late spring when the pollen is high, Mother Nature gives us the medicines we need for hayfever, rhinitis and summer sinus congestion. Elderflower, Plantain and Nettle are in abundance and and just what we need for those allergies that cause so much discomfort.

Summer is a busy time for Herbal folk with so much gathering and making to do. Sometimes the harvest time is narrow and often missed. Lime blossom is ready for only a couple of weeks in July, and so those waiting in anticipation for those calming, creamy, heady blossoms have to be every ready with baskets to harvest or wait another year. The medicines of summer are often nervines, wound healers and digestive herbs. Some of the best wound healing medicines can be found at this time to help with any injuries from work or from travel. Self heal, Yarrow, Plantain, Rosebay Willowherb, Mugwort and St Johns Wort are in abundance. Plantain grows along all the track ways and lanes and is the perfect first aid remedy for bites, stings, cuts, blisters, dirty wounds, infection and boils. In warm summer days with an increase in the risk of digestive upset due to warmer temperatures and flies. many of the plants provide medicines that are great for diarrhoea; such as Rosebay Willow herb, Plantain, Herb Robert, Agrimony and others can ease colic such as Chamomile, Lemon balm and Fennel. On long summer days reaching in to late summer and autumn, I am reminded of how ancestors would have taken advantage of the long, light days to travel long distances or do vital work in building, harvesting and processing of food. What better medicine than fresh nettle seeds to give energy to tired bodies and minds and provide vitality to those wanting to party or make love. Mugwort helps us to dream.

Autumn sees a change in energy and although folk would be very busy with the harvests, its a time to slow down and prepare for winter survival. Elderberries, Rosehips and Blackberries are great anti-virals and many of the fungi such as Turkey tail, Hen of the woods, Chaga and Birch polypore are superb immune tonics. Fly Agaric can be a superb topical treatment for sciatica and muscular aches and pains. The barks of trees such as Wild Cherry are good for coughs and the Willow and Birch inner barks can help with damp and aching joint that we often encounter in winter.

As the land cools and we plunge into midwinter most of our medicines are now in the roots. Deep healing medicines to get us through winter; Angelica, Elecampane, Horseradish, Marshmallow and Sweet Cicerly roots to help support respiratory problems and Valerian root to calm us and take us into the deep winter relaxation of slowing our bodies down into the sleep of midwinter. Burdock, Nettle, Silver weed, and Dandelion roots can give us carbohydrates and nutrition as well as medicine.

*Horseradish root, Rosehips and Lungwort*

We love it that herbal medicine is a life long journey and our weeds and wild medicines are our greatest teachers. They know us, they have been with us since humanity first came to these shores and even earlier than that. They grow close to us and share their gifts just when we need them. They are free, accessible, mostly sustainable and all around us. Danielle and myself are on a lifelong mission to try and change peoples perceptions about our weeds, those amazing native medicines that were so revered by our ancestors and just keep giving to us so generously. They are the abused, the despised, the poisoned and unwanted. They are also the resillient rebels, radicals and the plant resistance squad and they will never ever leave our side or stop wanting to help us.