Making your own syrups or tinctures from home-grown elecampane (Inula helenium) to treat respiratory probems has never been easy. Traditionally we use the plant’s root and digging up and chopping its tough roots is difficult and often something you really don’t want to do to your carefully nurtured and rather lovely plant.Early herbals are sometimes very specific as to how the root must be prepared. The Leechbook of Bald1, or example, includes a long descripti...
Well, not rosebuds in the winter but certainly the hips from the hedgerow roses once they’ve been slightly softened by frost and before the birds eat them.
Weight for weight, rosehips contain 20 times more vitamin C than oranges and wartime babies may remember being regularly dosed with spoonfuls of rosehip syrup in the 1940s and ‘50s. More recent studies have shown that rosehip extracts also have anti-inflammatory properties and can reduce the pain of osteoa...
Discovering the power of plants Posted on: 11 March 2015
I have been reading an advance copy of Carole Guyett’s book “Sacred Plant Initiations” which will be published in April. I’ve known Carole since we studied herbal medicine together in the 1980s and she has always been fascinated by the power of plants: not just their obvious medicinal properties but their spiritual power. To that end she has studied as a shaman and celtic priestess and – apart from her highly regarded work as a medical herbalist in Ireland – she has...
The last of the grapes Posted on: 13 November 2014
The last of my grapes are still hanging on the vine outside and seem to
look at me rather reproachfully saying “do something with us before we
fall off...”. It has been a bumper crop this year and much as I (and any
neighbours willing take some) like grapes there is a limit to how many
you can eat, especially since the variety which covers my pergola –
providing much needed shade in summer – have quite a few pips and rather
tough skins.  ...
Reports in the national press in early October about the use of
“honeysuckle” as a remedy for ‘flu apparently triggered a 264 per cent
increase in sales of honeysuckle tea on Amazon with the supplier, Bella
Shop, reportedly offering 10 tea bags for a hefty £25.59, and said to be
running low on supplies. Enthusiasm for the herb followed
publication of a study at Nanjiang University which found that mice
absorbed a molecule from hon...