Healing plants
Wild Juicing
Foraging for weeds Whatever the weather, our day starts with walking the dogs and (sometimes with cats in tow) and sometimes foraging for weeds. We are lucky to live in an area where there is no intensive farming, no crop…
Usnea Barbata, Old Man’s Beard
Usnea, Old Man’s Beard Lichens are composite life-forms, the product of a symbiotic relationship between algae, funghi and yeast. Many of them look like plants, but they are not plants at all. Lichens can grow in almost any environment, from…
Pine Pollen Boost
Pine pollen is nature’s perfect boost for good health and the immune system. Pine pollen is ‘the sperm’ of the pine tree and almost the same structure as human testosterone. It is the most abundant source of testosterone in the…
Cleavers (Galium aparine)
Galium aparine has many common names including cleavers, clivers, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, velcro weed and it is an excellent spring tonic. It grabs your attention and hangs on, quite literally, when you first venture into…
St John’s Wort
St John’s Wort, Hypericum perforatum, is one of my favourite healing plants. It grows all over around here, more abundantly each year. The healing plants are like that, the more they are appreciated, the more they grow. St Johns Wort…
Nature Healing
Nature heals and Nature grows and Nature is in us, but are you in Nature? In 2008 we crossed a threshold; for the first time in our history more than half the world’s population now live in urban environments. As…
Chamomile/manzanilla
Chamomile/manzanilla grows wild around here and I’ve been picking and drying it. It smells beautiful and fresh and tastes much nicer than any of the commercial versions. Only a few heads are needed for a cup, which I sweeten slightly…
