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Two Bangladeshi women joined the Nepalese community for the day and made a spring detox tonic from cleavers.
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Working together to clean and sort hawthorn berries for use in a tincture to help lower blood pressure and strengthen the heart.
All ages
The project ran across four seasons and involved a total of eight day-long trips to the woodlands and forests. The enthusiasm and interest was so great that the first winter workshop was over-subscribed, with 55 people appearing on the first day. Numbers had to be more carefully managed down to about 30 a day for the spring, summer and autumn sessions. Those taking part included all ages, and involved the usually difficult-to-reach teenager group. While the adults and older children experienced the workshops, younger children explored the woods, enjoyed woodland activities and created nature-inspired artworks. “The format of the day worked well,” Joanna continued. “To begin with, the group went for a walk of about two hours where we identified, collected and talked about the plants we saw. The areas we explored included a community-run walled garden with surrounding woodland, a council-run country park with visitor centre facilities, and the fields and hedgerows near a community-run village hall. “Afterwards, we ran workshops making simple medicinal or cosmetic items using the materials we gathered. This helped those taking part to relate the plants to the end products that are often similar to those they see around them in the shops in the city. They found this really interesting and we think it helped them to remember the plants better. Storyteller Alasdair Taylor also joined us on some of the walks and his memorable stories from Gaelic and Celtic folklore added some forest magic to our walks.” Monica Wilde from Napiers, the herbalists in Edinburgh, ran the practical workshops. Her main reason for getting involved was to help preserve and pass on the knowledge of British herbal medicine and the practical applications of it that are easily accessible to everyone.
www.snh.gov.uk 31
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