Herbaholic’s Herbarium

Wild Drugs: A Forager’s Guide To Healing Plants

I just wanted to post to spread the word about an excellent book for all the hands on makers of their own herbal remedies out there. Written by the lovely Zoe Hawes the herbal genius behind the annual Herbal Journal diaries that I’ve been raving about for the past few years.

This book will appeal to anyone who is considering making their own herbal remedies by going out into the fields and hedgerows to gather the ingredients for themselves, for free. It really is a complete guide to all you need to know and more besides, its rare that a guide really lives up to its title, but this one does. The instructions are clear and precise, it deals with over 100 common ailments and over 50 different herbs that you can find in the wild from woodland, riverside, grassland, hedgerow and even the garden.

Zoe writes in a manner that avoids any confusion, and she packs in so much information in to the 256 pages of Wild Drugs that the reader really can’t go wrong. Starting with information on the history of herbal medicine, she then takes you through how to harvest the different parts of the plants and how to forage safely and legally. Next you’ll discover how to identify plants, helping you learn what the different leaf and flower types look like, teaching you a little basic botany that will help you understand what your looking for when a cordate leaf or a whorled flower is referred to in other books. Descriptions follow on the various plant families you’ll come across with easy descriptions which can help you learn what plant belongs to what family just by looking at it.

Once you know how to identify, find and gather your herbs, you’re then ready to discover how to use them and Zoe being a qualified Medical Herbalist is the ideal person to take you on this journey of discovery, she talks you through how herbs affect the body, their actions, explaining what is meant by the various herbal terms such as demulcent and nervine. Preparing the herbs is your next step and here once again Zoe explains what you have to do to get your foraged plants ready for turning into a remedy. This section is rounded off perfectly with descriptions of how to take herbs be it an infusion, tincture, ointment or syrup and each entry has the weights, measures and dose information you’ll need.

A mixture of wild flowers, plants, trees and shrubs are covered and each individual herb entry contains useful and interesting information relevant to the plant, fact and folklore, what to look for, where to look, where to look for it,  which part to harvest and what ailments it can be used to treat, which is invaluable information to me, I can recognise all the plants in Zoe’s book, but what they are useful for treating escapes me for a large part of them. With each herb you also learn how to use it, any cautions or contraindications it may have and what other herbs it combines well with and you even get a foragers checklist to help summarise what you’ve learned from the plants main text. Many of the entries also include a suggested use and from Agrimony Wine to Yarrow Wound Salve there are lots of ideas for things to make using your freshly foraged bounty. Each entry also contains splendid photos of the plant being described.

The remedies for common ailments contains sections that deal with different parts of the body conjunctivitis, burns and mouth ulcers can be found under skin, eyes and mouth for instance and each ailment describes how it presents itself, lists the herbs that are useful to treat it and also provides remedy suggestions you can make yourself. Concluding with a list of 10 herbs that are versatile and should be in everybody’s home herbal first aid kit, their uses and the types of preparations they can be stored in, plus a glossary of terms used in the book.

Wild Drugs should be on every herbal foragers bookshelf. This book is so much more than a list of herbs to use, there’s something for everybody. From my point of view it’s refreshing to have to hand a book full of plants that can readily be found locally be it in the garden or hedgerow, that use simple additional ingredients that once again are easy to obtain and walks you through making your own remedies, simply and easily whilst teaching you something without lecturing you or telling you before you can do A you simple must do B & C, which I often find irritating and sometimes condescending, Zoe doesn’t, it’s like having a foraging guide along with you who lets you get on with it but will help when you need it and put you right if you’re going wrong.

Forget growing your own drugs, go out into Mother Nature’s larder and let Zoe show you how to source and make your own Wild Drugs. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, if you’re interested in foraging for medicine you need this book!

Hottentot Fig (Carpobrotus edulis)

During our stay last year I was surprised at how familiar the plants and herbs I saw in France were to the UK, I’m not sure why I expected it to be so vastly different, but I did. But not far from the lighthouse at Granville I found Wild Fennel growing, which I picked a little of to add to some salmon we BBQ’d and it was wonderful, I usually use dill with salmon, but since France I’ve been a fennel convert. Beside the Fennel I found Yarrow and Burdock and in clumps in various coastal areas I found Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris). As I said in my post about looking back and looking forward, all the plants I’m writing about in this post can be found in parts of the UK, but the four I want to take a closer look at, I’ve never seen them in the UK before, so they were new finds for me, even though I knew what they were from reading wild flower books.

The first is Hottentot Fig I got very excited as we drove out of Barfleur, a beautiful little fishing village,  to see at the side of the road a vast expanse of this delightful plant, I knew straight away what it was and couldn’t believe my eyes, this is the benefit of having to drive slower in France, you get more time to view the local flora and fauna! I’m not just interested in herbs as I’ve said many times before, but in wild flowers to and it always thrills me to discover that a wild flower can actually happily fit under the herbal canopy when I discover a culinary, medicinal or cosmetic use for it.

You can eat Hottentot Fig fruits raw, cooked, or they can be dried for later use or made into pickles, chutney etc. There is very little flesh in the fruit and it must be fully ripe otherwise it is very astringent, it’s texture is ‘pulpy’ and very mucilaginous and it has a sweetly tangy flavour when ripe. You can also eat the leaves raw or cooked, they are very succulent and can be eaten in salads and can also apparently be used as a substitute for pickled cucumber.

Hottentot Fig isn’t a plant that is used much these days medicinally, however the astringent juice of the leaves is considered antiseptic by some. It reportedly has been used to treat cuts, eczema, insect bites, ringworm and sunburn, and taken with water, it has been used for treating diarrhoea and sore throat. The leaves have medicinal properties and the expressed juice has been used as a lotion for treating Portuguese Man o’ War stings and burns.

Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum)

If you look at the prickly leaves of Sea Holly with the untrained eye, it would be hard to believe that this plant is edible and has medicinal properties. Last year my eye was trained enough to know what the plant was, but beyond that I knew nothing about it. So when I came home I did some research and discovered that the young shoots can be eaten when cooked and are normally blanched first to remove some of the bitterness, they are then used as an asparagus substitute. The root can also be eaten when cooked, it’s used as a vegetable or candied and used as a sweetmeat in fact ‘Candied Erygno’ was once eaten by people as an aphrodisiac! The taste is apparently slightly sweet and smells of carrots. The boiled or roasted roots are said to resemble parsnips or chestnuts in flavour. Roger Phillips in his book ‘Wild Food’ gives a recipe for ‘Candied Eryngoes’ as found in Gerard’s Herball which are stewed in “rose water, cinnamon and a graine of Muske“, the roots done in Gerard’s way apparently take on the delicate flavour of the rose water.

Sea holly roots were collected on a large scale in the 17th and 18th centuries in England, the Essex town of Colchester was famous for it’s Candied Erygno. They were sold and used as a restorative lozenge by some. The plant is still used in modern herbalism where it is valued especially for its diuretic action. The root has aromatic, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, stimulant and tonic properties. It can be used in the treatment of cystitis, urethritis, and as a means to alleviate kidney stones, and to treat enlargement or inflammation of the prostate gland. Used externally as a poultice, the dried powdered root aids tissue regeneration. The root should be harvested in the autumn from plants that are at least 2 years old.

Sea Bindweed (Calystegia soldanella)

Sea Bindweed is a cousin of the Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) the bane of any gardener who has the misfortune of it taking root in their good earth. The young shoots can be cooked as a vegetable or pickled and used as a samphire substitute, although caution is advised since the plant might have a purgative effect, so it isn’t advised to consume it in large quantities. Maori’s roast the roots and they are eaten as a vegetable there called Powiwi, Sea Bindweed is also known as Beach Bindweed.

The  juice that oozes from the stalks and root hardens into a type of resin and is used as a purgative, it also has anti-scorbutic, diuretic, febrifuge, irritant and vermifuge properties.

Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum)

Rock Samphire has an earlier season than it’s cousin Marsh Samphire, and is in season during spring, rather than summer. Gourmet chefs swear by the superior flavour, but it’s hard to find, and Marsh Samphire with its characteristic saltiness makes a good alternative. The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked and apparently taste vaguely of fennel, but the taste is more bitter and lingering. They have a powerful salty flavour, which has been described by one person as tasting like ‘a mixture of celery and paraffin’, so I’m not sure that I want to add this to the wild food menu, but I may be pleasantly surprised. The leaves are used as a flavouring in salads and are best gathered in spring, the young leaves when sprinkled with salt and boiled make a very good pickle. It’s rich in omega-3 oils, anti-oxidants, vitamin C and minerals.

Rock samphire has carminative, depurative, digestive and diuretic properties. Once again this plant is little used these days in herbal medicine, though it is a good diuretic and holds out potential as a treatment for obesity. It has a high vitamin C and mineral content and is thought to relieve flatulence and to act as a digestive remedy. The young growing tips are best gathered when in active growth in the spring and used fresh. The leaves have the reputation for helping people lose weight and so are used in treating cases of obesity as well kidney complaints and sluggishness. The essential oil is a digestive, a few drops being sprinkled on the food, it is also used in perfumery.

Garden Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) aka English Rhubarb

The Rhubarb in our garden has given us a wonderful harvest this year, enough to make several crumbles and pies and I’ve frozen some for later in the year for making more of the same, we have Rhubarb Wine from last year, so I didn’t want to make any more wine. I didn’t want to use it all in pies and crumbles so I had a search around the net and I now have a batch of Rhubarb & Stem Ginger Muffins cooking at the moment which smell delish and then I remembered an old chutney recipe I’ve made in the past, so I’m going to make some of that with the remaining rhubarb.

It’s been a while since I’ve made this particular chutney because I’ve been making a variety of different chutneys and relishes over the past few years, but it’s time to dust off my old fruity chutney recipes and this one and the Spicy Apple Chutney which haven’t see the light of day for some time, are going to get made very soon. As now is a busy time I can’t really fit in the chutney making so I’ve frozen the ‘chutney’ rhubarb for when I get back off my hols. Both of the chutney’s mentioned are terrific with pork, chicken and cheese and can be used in curries where you’d usually use Mango Chutney.

Rhubarb Chutney

Makes 7 x 227g Jars

1kg Rhubarb, chopped
500g Cooking Apples, peeled and cored
2 Medium Onions, finely sliced
500ml Apple Cider Vinegar or Red Wine Vinegar if you prefer, I always use Apple Cider though.
300g Light Soft Brown Sugar
100g Sultanas
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
1 Tbsp Salt

Wash and trim the rhubarb, and chop into 2cm lengths. Chop the apples and peel and slice the onions. Place the rhubarb, apples and onions in a heavy-based, aluminium free pan with the vinegar and wine, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes until the onions are nice and tender.

Add the sugar, spices, sultanas and salt, stirring, and continue to simmer for 45 minutes to one hour, stirring occasionally, until it is good and thick.

Remove from the heat for ten minutes, then spoon the chutney into hot, dry, sterilised jars and seal. Keep in a cool, dry place for two weeks before opening, but the taste is so much better if left for 3 months to mature. Makes a perfect Xmas gift item, so I hope non of our relatives are reading this as they’ll know what they’re getting this year!

And More Rhubarb…

Rhubarb is actually a vegetable and not a fruit, despite the fact that many of us eat it in sweet dishes. Rhubarb does have some medicinal properties, anybody that’s eaten a large helping of the stuff will testify to its laxative properties, in small does it’s good for treating diarrhoea but it doesn’t have the same medicinal uses as Chinese Rhubarb (R. palmatum) which is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Mrs Grieve in her book A Modern Herbal has some fascinating information on Rhubarb

“Garden Rhubarb contains no emodine, rhein or rhabarberine, but has in it a crystalline body, rhaponticin. Potassium oxalate is present in quantity in Rhubarb leaf-stems, and certain persons who are constitutionally susceptible to salts of oxalic acid, show symptoms of irritant poisoning after eating rhubarb stewed in the ordinary manner. Many people of a gouty tendency do well to avoid it, and those subject to urinary irritation should take it very sparingly or not at all.

Rhubarb stems did not come into general use as a substitute for fruit till about 100 years ago [that was in 1931]. We hear of a pioneer grower, Joseph Myatt, of Deptford, sending, in 1810, five bunches of Rhubarb to the Borough Market and only being able to dispose of three. But he persevered in his efforts to make a market for Rhubarb, raised improved varieties, and a few years after, Rhubarb had become established in public favour as a culinary plant.

It was, however, soon realized that the use of Rhubarb as food was sometimes attended with some risk to health. Lindley, in his Vegetable Kingdom, 1846, remarks that oxalic acid exists in both Docks and Rhubarb, and that the latter contains also an abundance of nitric and malic acid, and goes on to say that whilst these give an agreeable taste to the Rhubarb when cooked, he considers them ill-suited to the digestion of some persons. The Penny Cyclopaedia, 1841, warned persons subject to calculous complaints against eating Rhubarb stalks, owing to the presence of oxalic acid, stating that ‘the formation of oxalate of lime, or mulberry calculus, may be the consequence of indulgence.’

The chemical constituents of Rhubarb leaves were till recently not fully ascertained, but the analysis has lately been undertaken under orders from the Home Office, in consequence of fatal and injurious effects having resulted from eating the leaves cooked as spinach. The report of the official analyst states that the leaves contain some 0.3 per cent oxalates of potassium and calcium oxalates.

In Maunders’ Treasury of Botany Rhubarb leaves are mentioned as a pot-herb. Green (Universal Herbal, 1832) says: ‘The leaves are also used by the French in their soups, to which they impart an agreeable acidity, like that of Sorrel.’ Reference has recently been made in the press to a letter which appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1846, in which the gardener of the Earl of Shrewsbury at Alton Towers, Staffordshire, told how rhubarb leaves had been used there for many years as a vegetable. He also mentioned that the flower of the plant (before the leaves expanded) could be used like broccoli.

The flower of the plant, when in bud form, has been eaten as a pleasant substitute for broccoli; when cooked au gratin, with white sauce over it, the cheese quite obviates any bitterness of taste.

It is possible that the chemical composition of Rhubarb varies to some extent according to the variety and the soil on which it is grown. It has been stated that the amount of water present is less when the plants are grown on poor soil, while the acid principle is more abundant.“

A Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
on the shore at Coudeville Sur Mer

Having had a rather icky June and sitting with my ass glued firmly to the pity pot I decided at the beginning of last week that I had to shake the doldrums and get on with life, what better way than to find something to focus my energies on and to look forward to? It dawned on me that (at least at the start of last week) it was 3 weeks until we went on holiday, so it seemed the perfect solution to the doldrums, start sorting, packing and organising the holiday.

Last year our French holiday was a lovely relaxing experience, although it took me 4 days of sulking and pouting when I discovered I couldn’t get any internet connection and I suffered withdrawal symptoms before I started to enjoy it! It took Simon reminding me that I was supposed to be getting away from it ALL to make me realise that the world won’t end if I’m not answering emails, enquiries and doing all the things I’m involved with in cyberspace. This year that won’t happen as I’ve made up my mind that I need a break from bits, bytes, ISP & html and all that goes with it, and I’m looking forward to 16 days of internet silence.

The holiday was full of ‘firsts’ and surprises, on the beautiful and almost deserted beach of  Coudeville Sur Mer I saw a Little Egret, I couldn’t believe my eyes at first but I spent a fascinating hour watching him strut about the beach looking for little crabs to eat. The closest thing I’d seen to an Egret in the wild in the UK is the Grey Heron, although Egret’s can be found in the UK in Devon, Cornwall & Wales, I’ve never seen one on my travels. In the breeding season the Little Egret has a feather crest that’s called breeding plumage that sits on the back of his head.  Sad to think that at one time, the plumes of the Little Egret were in demand for decorating hats. They had been used for this purpose since at least the 17th century then in the 19th century it became a major craze and the number of egret skins passing through dealers reached into the millions. Egret farms were set up where the birds could be plucked without being killed but most of the supply was obtained by hunting which reduced the population of the species to dangerously low levels (stimulating the establishment of Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1889). Now conservation laws protect this species, and the population has rebounded strongly.

What’s the French for Pong?
Dragon Arum (Dracunculus vulgaris)

Another first was seeing Dragon Arum (Dracunculus vulgaris), in the garden of Musée de Saussey well actually I SMELT it before I saw it, phew! The flowers are stunning, a rich burgundy colour with a long black spadix that can reach a total length of 135cm. This plant also goes by the names of Devils Tongue, Voodoo Lily, Ragons, Snake Lily, Black Arum, Black Dragon, Dragonwort & Stink Lily, and is most commonly found in an area ranging from the Balkans through to Greece and Turkey. The eerie, erotic beauty of this plant can be a little shocking, the leaves continue to develop into a spiral and have white \ / slashes all over the them. Exotic looking it is, but don’t stick your nose in for a sniff not unless you want to go a funny colour, when I said phew I meant it. The odour of this plant smells like rotting flesh, because it needs to attract carrion-eating pollinators. That said the disgusting aroma only lasts for a few days, so once it’s been pollinated it has no aroma, but when it’s there it really pongs! I could find no modern medicinal use for the Dragon Arum, but apparently Dioscorides thought it resembled a dragon. So it was used for the eyes and ears, for ruptures, convulsions and coughs.  Dioscorides says, “But being beaten small with honey, and applied, it takes away the malignancie of ulcers.” I hope he used it when it wasn’t attracting pollinators!

I’m now looking forward to this years holiday which is now just under 2 weeks and counting and to this years ‘firsts’, we’re going to the same lovely, relaxing place in Normandy that we went last year and this year we get an extra couple of days away, 16 instead of 14.
First stop will be Calais, so I can visit the new herb garden at Notre Dame de Calais that Caroline Holmes has designed, to see the progress, at least I hope there has been progress. Then on to Rouen where we’ll be staying overnight, Simon wants to visit the Gros Horloge which is an astronomical clock, the mechanism of which dates back to the 14th Century, they also have an exhibition of some very old clocks and clock mechanisms, clocks are Simon’s passion, just as herbs are mine, so it’s only fair that we include some of what interests him whilst away. Whilst we’re in Rouen we’ll also stop off at the Botanical garden there, they have a large rose garden and a medicinal herb garden as well which has over 60 medicinal herbs. Next we travel to Fecamp to see the Benedictine Museum, they have a herb room there designed to show some of the herbs and spices that go into making the liqueur. We’ll then continue travelling to our gite in Saussey and I’ll have 14 days of reading, stitching, knitting, walking, discovering new herbal delights and relaxing!

I love the peace and tranquillity of France, the traffic travels more slowly to start with, the air smells different, the food is trés bon, and everywhere we went the sea was blue and clear! The cider is lovely, we’ve exhausted the supply we brought home last year so we really need to go back for some more, the Pommeau is all gone to! If you’ve never sampled it, Pommeau is a lovely Normandy mix of 75% apple juice and 35% Calvados (apple brandy), it’s delightful with a sweet, caramel apple taste and smell, that I became hooked on, and this year will bring a lot more back home. It’s delicious served chilled and is served as an aperitif in Normandy, it’s like a fortified wine, almost like sherry but a lot nicer in my opinion

Whilst I was putting together the packing list for things to take this year, I came across the photos from last year and realised that I never blogged about several new plants I discovered whilst in France last year which included Sea Bindweed, Sea Holly and Hottentot Fig, so over the next week I shall correct that oversight and share a few of the photos I forgot to include last year. Most of them grow in the UK as well, but like the Egret and Dragon Arum, I’d never seen them before my visit to France.

Another Of My Photo’s Used As The Cover For The Herb Society Journal ‘Herbs’

Forgive me for showing off again but I was rather chuffed when the latest issue of Herbs arrived through my letterbox and I discovered that another one of my photos had been selected to be used for the cover. There’s also a little interview type thing about me in there as part of the “My Life In Herbs” series that’s been done on all the trustees of the Society over the past couple of years.

Life here has been fairly hectic as usual and I’ve not had much time to blog, coupled with lots of ‘life stuff’ going on as well as you can see from my previous post, thanks to everyone who emailed me or left a comment it meant a lot. I’m happy to say that I’m starting to get my head back together again and I’m planning a series of blog posts over the next couple of weeks so watch this space. Of the changes to take place in my life,  stopping blogging is NOT one of them I’m pleased to say, blogging about herbs and sharing the experience with others is one of the things I enjoy doing, but due to lack of time its the first thing to suffer and get put on hold, something I’m not happy about. So I’m cutting back on other things which should give me more ‘me time’ so that I can do the things I want to do, which is a good job because I still have a lot of things I want to blog about. I have a lot of catching up to do reading everyone else’s blogs as well and I plan to do some of that this weekend and over the next couple of weeks before I go away. I promise there will be something decent to read again on Herbal Haven

Bye, Bye Pye Pye

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged and for a little while I wasn’t sure that I ever wanted to blog again or do anything. I’ve had some family stuff to deal with, nothing I couldn’t overcome, but enough to leave me feeling a little low. Then just over two weeks ago I lost my little Pyewacket and there’s been such a huge hole in my life I’ve been very down and miserable ever since. It was very quick and sudden but taking him to be put to sleep was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life and as hard as I try I can’t shake the blues and emptiness his loss has left me feeling. I’ve taken the time I’ve been quiet to make some decisions about life and now I just have to set about putting those decisions into practice, not all will be popular with some people but at the end of the day that’s life and it’s time I did what works for me.

2010 Herb Society Bee Aware Stand

Another reason for my silence in blog land is my involvement with the Herb Society Bee Aware stand at the Gardeners World Live show at the NEC which is taking place this week. I’ve spent ages sewing wings on knitted bees and glueing on eyes, sorting out volunteers, designing posters and a Bee Aware information leaflet and all the other things that are required to put together a display at GWL, the lovely Ruth Waters grew all the herbs for the display which includes a wild herbs display that can’t be seen in this photo, which was taken before the stand was finished, I forgot to take photos of the completed display doh, I’ll be helping out tomorrow and will take some complete photos then.

Close up of one of the finished Knitted Bees

Sorting the GWL stand was more difficult to do given how low I felt, I had a few days where I just couldn’t be bothered and it felt like it would never get finished, last weekend and Monday were manic as I tried to finish the bees for the display. Tuesday was the set up day at the NEC so I spent almost 7 hours bringing all the individual elements together to make the stand with the help of Ruth and her husband Kevin and of course Simon who has been an absolute star the past couple of weeks.

There’s been a few teething problems that I’ve had to deal with over the past few days but fingers crossed it’s all sorted now. I’m slowly getting used to Pye not being here any more but I miss him and our routine, even the annoying things he did like trying to pull my knitting off the needles when I was knitting are things I miss. There’s a big empty space in my heart and life where his furry little face should be. It’s actually taken me over a week to post about his passing as everytime I started I cried so much I couldn’t see to type. Not everyone will understand how you can get so upset over a cat, but for someone like me who can’t have children your cat becomes your baby and Pye was my baby boy, he truly was a Mummy’s boy and his Mummy misses him.

Leaf, Bark & Fruit Of An Apple Tree

The next blog party will be hosted by Lucinda over at Whispering Earth, her chosen subject is “Leaf and Blossom, Bark and Berry: My Favourite Tree Medicines“. I use more flowers and berries from trees than leaves or bark so this may be a tough one from me as most of the things I make are from the elder tree, I can’t include Cramp bark or Blackberry as they’re shrubs, unless Lucinda is flexible as to her definition of ‘tree’. I also tend to use my tree parts more in the autumn than other times of the year so it will be interesting to see what other people use year round and I’m looking forward to reading everyone else’s posts.

If you haven’t joined the blog party before but would like to it’s easy, write a piece and add it to your blog and send Lucinda the link before the 20th June and she’ll add it to the list on her blog on the 20th. If you don’t have your own blog, if you send your post to me as a word document I can add it as a guest post to the UK Herbarium blog.

Pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria)

Another month and another blog party, this time hosted by me, the theme for this month is Local Wild Herbs, New Herbal treasures, for which I set a kind of mini challenge to everyone taking part to go and make new friends with a herb they’ve never paid much attention to before. We’ve had some cracking submissions so far.

Lucinda over at Whispering Earth wrote about her new found herbal treasure in her post Speedwell My Belle a beautiful post that contains some fab photos, recipes for making a speedwell flower water and suggestions for making a tea with it and adding it to skin creams, she rounds of her post with a lovely piece of poetry written by James Rigg in 1810. Lucinda says “One thing that strikes me about this little flower is her wonderful contradictions, she’s pale, delicate, frail looking, innocent and flimsy but, like all weeds, she’s also tenacious, clever, wilful and a true survivalist. She reminds me to never judge a book by it’s cover! I think it’s probably these contradictions which give the tea and essence this wonderful sense of being grounding yet also spiritually and emotionally uplifting. Compared to the other flowers around, mainly dandelions and daisies, that have these strong upright stems, that of Speedwell is fine and flexible, sometimes standing up, sometimes laying almost flat and creeping.”

Brigitte in My Herb Corner wrote about Agrimony in her post May Blog Party a superb post that’s choc full of information, lots of it new to me and I love finding out about herbs from other countries which is something that Brigitte is superb at doing living in New Zealand and originating from Austria she has a wide knowledge of herbs and loves sharing her experiences and remedies. Lovely photos she shared with us of her books that she used for reference to write her post. “My old German book also reveals that Agrimony cleanses the intestine (bowl) is healing for hardened liver and it says there is no better treatment for flushing out kidney gravel. Further it mentions Agrimony for colds, coughs and hoarseness with mucus (the so called ‘Spring-illness’) A poultice can be applied by wounds with puss formation and ulcers.”
The agrimony plant that I put in last year has made a lush cushion of growth over the past few weeks and I’m now looking forward to trying out some of remedies she mentions, especially the one for tired feet, something I suffer from a lot in the hot weather.

My own contribution is a bit of a cheat really because as I said at the beginning of my post “I have to confess that I stepped no further than my own back garden to discover my new herbal treasure, and to further confess that I knew it was there all along.” When I set the theme I’d already decided which herb I was going to write about, and you can read more in my post Avens Calling! ”Mrs Grieve describes how you can make a simple tincture by pouring a pint of proof spirit on an ounce of the bruised root and macerating it for fourteen days and then filtering through paper. Two or three teaspoonsful of this tincture can be taken in any watery vehicle, or in a glass of wine, is a sufficient dose. I’ve made up a patch of Aven’s Root Tincture to try, I harvested the roots, and gently washed off the soil and dried them then filled my jar with the roots and covered them with vodka, unfortunately the batteries in my camera have died so I can’t take any photos to show you. Dosage 1-3ml of the tincture 3 times a day.“

Herb Bennet Flower (Geum urbanum)

When I set out what this months blog party would be about, I said “I’m hoping that everyone will step outside their back gardens or go to a local place they can gather wild herbs (if they don’t have a garden) and find a wild herb they don’t normally use or aren’t familiar with and embrace it“, now I have to confess that I stepped no further than my own back garden to discover my new herbal treasure, and to further confess that I knew it was there all along.

However I’d never done any more than pull it up and compost it and get in a tizz at the chaos that ensued when we had to comb out the little hooked seed heads from either Fuzzball or Pyewacket’s fur. The seed heads are cat magnets, we have section at the front of the house that’s a little wild and Herb Bennet grows there freely, it happens to be our cats short cut so they always get covered with the prickly little blighters. But then by chance whilst looking at another herbs potential for using in the kitchen, I discovered that Herb Bennet can be used for flavouring homemade beer and soups with it’s clove scented spiced root. Excuse me? Clove scented, time to look at this herb in a different way, so when I came up with the idea for this months blog party, I already had my chosen herb in mind.

Herb Bennet Seed Head

For those that don’t know Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum) let me introduce him to you. He’s a perennial wild herb known by several different names, including Wood Avens, Colewort, Clove Root, St Benedict’s Herb and Avens, he’s a member of the rose family and grows between 20-60cm in height. The flowers are hermaphrodite and bloom throughout May to August, they are a bright acid yellow have five petals and five sepals and are approximately 1-2cm in diameter. The flowers to me have no scent, although some internet sources claim that they are scented, maybe my nose is broken? Once the flowers have gone over they develop their seed heads, which are also called burrs, these develop to enable the plant to get carried to new areas, usually in the wild by small furry animals such as rabbits. The mechanism is a strong one, as left unchecked, Herb Bennet can quickly take over an area.

The principal constituent is a volatile oil, which is mainly composed of Eugenol which is also a major constituent of Cloves, and a glucoside, Gein, geum-bitter, tannic acid, gum and resin. It has Astringent, Styptic, Febrifuge, Sudorific, Stomachic, Antiseptic, Tonic and Aromatic properties. Parts used: Aerial Parts & Root.

In order to know more about this herb, I hit the books to see what people had used it for in the past, what it’s used for now and any other nuggets of information I could discover. Mrs Grieve has a lot to say about the historical use of Herb Bennet, although in her book he’s listed under the name Avens, she says that “The plant derives its name of Avens from the Latin Avencia, Mediaeval Latin, avantia or avence, a word of obscure origin and which in varieties of spelling has been applied to the plant from very early times. The botanical name, Geum, originated from the Greek geno, to yield an agreeable fragrance, because, when freshly dug up, the root has a clove-like aroma. [That said, Florence Ranson in her 1949 Penguin paperback says that the word Geum comes from the Greek word meaning "I taste", not being well up on the Greek language I'm not sure which lady is correct? Florence goes on to add that the whole plant can be collected in July when the flowers are at their best and recommends drying the stalks as well for use. She further adds that one of the cousins of Herb Bennet, Water Avens (Geum rivale) can be collected and used for the same medicinal purposes as Herb Bennet, another herb to check out in the future!] Mrs Grieve says that the scent of the root “.. gives rise to another name, Radix caryophylata, or Clove Root, and its corruption, Gariophilata. Avens had many names in the fourteenth century, such as Assarabaccara, [I've come across this in old books and didn't realise it was Herb Bennet!] Pesleporis, or Harefoot, and Minarta.”

She goes on to say “It was called ‘the Blessed Herb’ (Herba benedicta), of which a common name still extant - Herb Bennet - is a corruption, because in former times it was believed that it had the power to ward off evil spirits and venomous beasts. The Ortus Sanitatis, printed in 1491, states: ‘Where the root is in the house, Satan can do nothing and flies from it, wherefore it is blessed before all other herbs, and if a man carries the root about him no venomous beast can harm him.’ Dr. Prior  in his Popular Names of English Plants considers the original name to have probably been ‘ St. Benedict’s Herb,’ that name being assigned to such as were supposed to be antidotes, in allusion to a legend respecting the saint. Other names include Goldy Star of the Earth, City Avens, Wild Rye and Way Bennet.

In mediaeval days, the graceful trefoiled leaf and the five golden petals of the blossoms symbolized the Holy Trinity and the five wounds of Our Lord, and towards the end of the thirteenth century the plant frequently occurs as an architectural decoration in the carved leafage on the capitals of columns and in wall patterns. ”

Herb Bennet Leaves

Mary Thorne-Quelch in “Herbs And How To Know Them“, Faber & Faber, 1946, echos what the Ortus Sanitatis says re Herb Bennet being a useful for banishing evil. She explores the holy herb connection and says Avens was used as a charm against all evil and was also an antidote against the bites of serpents. According to her, the name Avens is believed to be a corruption of a word meaning ‘antidote’. She also makes mention of one of its other names Colewort and she like me finds that name hard to fathom because Colewort was the name used to describe members of the cabbage family that don’t form heads such as kale. Thorne-Quelch also says that Water Avens can be used in its place and that the root of both varieties is used in brewing and medicine.

One of my favourite old Herbals “Robinson’s New Family Herbal” 1863, which belonged to Simon’s Grandma and I inherited when he and I got together says of Avens “This plant is invaluable, and is much superior to most of the drugs kept in the shops. It possesses astringent, antispetic and tonic properties.” The root I learnt from Robinson’s was used as a substitute for Peruvian Bark (Cinchona sp), the powdered root of Avens can be used for those suffering from agues (fevers) and the recommended dosage is 1 dracham every 2 hours. If you’re unfamiliar with the old apothercary doses you can find a list of them in another post I did.

Robinson gives so many uses for this herb including the treatment of diarrhoea, chest and breast pain and curing stitches in the side, he says that it revives the system with its warming qualities. It’s a good spring tonic and purifier and is best taken in the spring as a decoction. Avens can also be used to remove windy colic, as an aid to digestion and if the decotion is used as a wash it can help remove spots and other skin eruptions. Robinson gives a recipe for making a

Compound Tincture Of Avens

Avens Root, Bruised, 2 Ounces
Tormentil Root, Bruised, 1/2 Ounce
Angelica Root, Bruised, 1/2 Ounce
Raisins, Muscatel, 2 or 3 Ounces
French Brandy, 1 Quart

Macerate for a month in a warm place, then filter. Dose half an ounce. Mrs Grieve gives a variation of the above recipe in her book and says “The same ingredients infused in a quart of wine will form an excellent vinous tincture. The infusion is considered an excellent cordial sudorific at the commencement of chills and catarrh, cutting short the paroxysm, and the continued use of it has restorative power in weakness, debility, etc. Its astringency makes it useful in diarrhoea, sore throat, etc. It is taken, strained and cold, in wineglassful doses, three or four times a day. ”

Hilda Leyel in “Herbal Delights“, Faber & Faber, 1937, lists Avens in her chapter on Cordial Herbs, she says the name Avens is derived from the Greek word meaning “giving perfume”, I must find out what it actually does mean! She also mentions that the root stops ale from turning sour, something that I’ve read in several other places, she also recommends using the root to make a very pleasent tisane and I’d happen to agree with her, the taste is earthy and bitter but not in a nasty way and you most certainly get the scent and taste of cloves. Curiously enough Mrs Leyel gives a lot of the same information about Avens as does Mrs Grieve including her version of the Robinson Compound Tincture recipe, which isn’t that syurprising I guess, given that Mrs Leyel was the editor of Mrs Grieve’s book A Modern Herbal. She does say that the root has to be dried with great care “to prevent the loss of scent”, I’ve put a few roots in the dehydrator and some hung in the airing cupboard where I normally dry herbs and I’ll see which method preserves the most scent. Apparently according to Leyel & Grieve the 25th March was fixed by old physicians for harvesting the root (and the soil had tio be dry at harvest time). On this date the root was said to be at its most fragrant. It loses much of its odour in drying, so must be dried with great care, and gradually, then sliced and powdered as required.

Mrs Grieve describes how you can make a simple tincture by pouring a pint of proof spirit on an ounce of the bruised root and macerating it for fourteen days and then filtering through paper. Two or three teaspoonsful of this tincture can be taken in any watery vehicle, or in a glass of wine, is a sufficient dose. I’ve made up a patch of Aven’s Root Tincture to try, I harvested the roots, and gently washed off the soil and dried them then filled my jar with the roots and covered them with vodka, unfortunately the batteries in my camera have died so I can’t take any photos to show you. Dosage 1-3ml of the tincture 3 times a day.

Culpeper says of Avens that it’s a safe herb, so much so that no dose needs to be prescribed which I find a little odd. He also says that the roots can be added to apple tart in place of cloves to impart their delicate aromatic flavour, something to test when my roots are dry and I’ll use it in place of cloves. Like Gerard, Culpeper advocates using the root steeped in wine to give a delicate flavour and taste, both of them say that Avens is a good preservative against the plague. Gerard also recommended chewing the root for curing foul breath.

Despite not being a herb that many people blog about or seemingly use much these days it is still used by and written about by herbalists. David Hoffman, the Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal cites its use for treating intestinal troubles such as dysentery and mucous colitis, and for settling nausea. The astringent properties make it useful for using as a treatment for gingivitis and sore throats and as a mouthwash and gargle. Hoffman says that its often combined with Agrimony to treat digestive problems like colitis. He recommends collecting the roots in spring and the aerial parts in mid summer when the flowers are at their best. Andrew Chevallier, Encyclopedia Of Herbal Medicine, echos what Hoffman says adding that Avens can be used to tighten loose gums, heal canker sores and made into a lotion or ointment it can be used to sooth hemorroids. Going back to what Robinson says about it being good for treating agues, Chevallier says that Avens is reputed to have a mild quinine-type action which is what makes it a substitute for Peruvian Bark which contains quinine.

I haven’t found a beer or ale recipe yet containg Avens, but when I do I’ll be trying it, I’ve made nettle and ginger beer before and want to experiment with other herbs and one that’s reputed to stop beer spoiling seems a perfect candidate. I can’t believe that something I’ve overlooked for so many years has so many useful properties, as a clove substitute it will give a milder flavour, cloves can sometimes be very harsh. I can use it to make a tisane to cure the windy moments that I get occasionally, make a decoction and tincture which have a multitude of uses and as just occured to me, the seed heads can be dried to add to autumn pot pourri mixes. I certainly won’t be overlooking Mr Bennet again and the discovery has whetted my appetite for discovering other useful herbs that I’m overlooking.

References

Grieve, M - A Modern Herbal
Ranson, F - British Herbs
Robinson, M - A New Family Herbal
Leyel, H - Herbal Delights
Gerard, J - Gerard’s Herbal
Culpeper, N - Culpeper’s Herbal
Hoffman, D - The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal
Chevallier, A - Encyclopedia Of Herbal Medicine

Romanesco Broccolli - A Natural Fractal

I was just reading Lucinda’s latest post about Comfrey and as I looked at her lovely vibrant comfrey leaf photos my mind wandered, and I was drawn back in time to the 90’s when via my first husband I discovered the beauty of fractals. Back then I was amazed to learn that the mathematical patterns being generated in labs around the world, such as the Mandelbrot Set, occurred in the real world within nature. So much so that I spent some time delving into the subject more than I would have done if it had been just manmade and computer generated mathematical patterns. That said I find the computer generated fractal images beautiful and can happily while away time honing in on different parts of the Mandelbrot or Julia Sets using jolly programmes created to generate fractals.

It never ceases to amaze me when you zoom in and find more of the same images merging in to each other. The connections between fractals and leaves are currently being used to determine how much carbon is contained in trees and although not all leaves show a fractal nature, they truly are beautiful things to behold if you see the ‘art’ in the natural word. If truth be told, looking at the pattern in nature helps me refocus and reaffirm that there is some pattern in my seemingly chaotic life.

The beauty of the structure of a leaf

For my herby friends who aren’t familiar with fractals a simple definition is “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,” a property called self-similarity. Look at the picture of the Romanesco broccoli above to get an idea of what that means, if you look into a large part you can see smaller ‘copies’ of the pattern, zoom into that you see an even smaller one just the same as the larger ad-infinitum. If you’re interested in learning more the Wikipedia link above has lots of interesting information on the subject. Other examples of fractals in the real world include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, snowflakes, blood vessels, pulmonary vessels, some trees and ferns. This recursive nature is obvious in some ferns for example a frond from a fern is a miniature replica of the whole: not identical, but similar in nature.

Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum)

I know this is going off on a tangent from what Lucinda was originally disussing , but I found it fascinating that I could take her idea and discussion and wind up looking at Comfrey in a totally different way and from that realise that in my quest to understand how herbs work and how I can use them. I’m forgetting to take the time to do the visual version of taking time to smell the roses, and I’m not actually sitting and looking at the beauty of the plant and connecting with it outside of the medicinal. It’s amazing how much we take things for granted in life, like the comfrey, we spend all our time debating whether it’s safe to use, looking at what it can be used for and yet most of us never look at the plant itself and take time to discover her inner beauty, good job we have other people about to pull us back to ground and make us think about things in a different light every once in a while. I’ve been feeling out of sorts with the world and as if I was missing something, I think this afternoon thanks to Lucinda I’ve put my finger on what that something is! I’m seeing only small parts of nature and not experiencing her as a whole, time to take a look from the other end of the telescope methinks and view the finer details.