ARTICLE Herbal Medicine
by Frances Wright
The incredibly wet weather, and lack of sun does not seem to have affected the weeds at all. They are experts at adapting, which is just as well, as my chard, french and runner beans, kale and sweetcorn are miniature/eaten by slugs (they even had my onion tops) So to plug the long hungry gap I have been relying more than usual on nettles and fat hen. If you keep cutting your nettle patches back, they will keep supplying you with fresh tender shoots all year. Fat hen (chenopodium species, there are 3 types, all edible) can be brought to your garden via seeds in horse manure. Once youve got it, it will come up every year, in my garden , via my compost when I spread it. Like the nettle, it is very rich in calcium (it has a white 'bloom' on the leaves, a 'doctrine of signatures' which reminds us of white bones) and protein. Nettles have lots of iron and trace elements too, and of course vit.c and folic acid like any greens. So I'm still healthy, though I'm glad the sun is back now, and my other veg is growing.
Tansy eaten by the fence At last I can harvest my other herbs, St
Johns Wort, Hyssop, Lemon Balm, Yarrow, Meadowsweet and Mint. They are spread out thinly in a shady airy barn, and in a couple of days will be dry enough to shred off their stalks, and put into paper bags. Then after another week of heat, when really crisp, they will be packed loosely into airtight jars. The ponies and sheep have 'harvested' the Tansy where it pokes through the fence next to their paddock. They use this to keep gut parasite numbers down (it works well in humans too)
The sun also enabled us to make a sun tea, putting herbs in spring water outside for a few hours, and then drinking the potent fragrant brew.
Sun Tea brewing
Frances Wright works as a consultant herbalist, registered with the URHP (Unified Register of Herbal Practitioners). She runs lay courses and a professional herbal medicine course, and volunteer days at the Althaea Herbal Healing Gdn, nr. Totnes
www.greenlaneherbs.co.uk 16 London & South East Connection - August/November 2012
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