The sun is shining and the hedgerows are bursting with interesting flora. I'm not a herbalist, although I would love to be one, I am a complementary therapist and energy worker, but I have always had a beginners interest in herbs and the healing properties of plant life.
I live in Bulgaria, moved here a couple of years ago and since then my interest in herbs has sprouted. What are the reasons? For one, I now have the time to ponder and research, no distractions from work, I live in the mountains which are abundant with wild herbs and plants, and the local people know all about the healing properties of the trees and plants, even young children will tell what plant to use for what ailment. So I feel honoured to be in such a place and surrounded by knowledge handed down through generations.
Walking along the road with neighbours, regardless of the language barrier, they will pick leaves, flowers and eat them, encouraging me to do the same, and will let me know what the healing properties are. Now I have a tired brain, years and years of child rearing and busy work schedules. Now in my 50's I have finally stopped and in the process my brain has lost some of its ability to retain information, so I rely on the writing of Dr James Duke (The Green Pharmacy), Leslie Kenton (Healing Herbs, and Passage to Power), Dieter Podlech (Herbs and Healing Plants by Colins Natural Guides), Deni Brown (Herbs and Their Uses, The Royal Horticultural Society) and David Hoffman (Complete Herbal) plus of course information from the internet and from my neighbours.
This blog is my road of discovery, healing, spirituality, through the seasonal herbs I find around me.
In my garden I have a persistent and annoying plant that sends runners underground, and the more I pick it the more it flourishes, so in my quest to find out more on how to eradicate it, I found it was called horsetail or Equisetum Arvense, field horsetail, bottle brush, shave grass. This invasive weed has an interesting history, from cleaning pans to buffing up metal, but the bit that interests me is the anti ageing aspects of this silicon rich plant. Apparently silicon has been depleted from our diets through high-tech farming and chemicals. Silicon appears to bind minerals needed for strong nails, hair and bones and is essential for the production of collagen and elastin. Now this appeals to me, I'm not a botox girl and I'm certainly not an under the knife girl, but natural silicon containing 15 minerals and bioflavoids sounds good enough to drink. Other healing properties of horsetail include usage for prostatitis, incontinence, cystitis, urethritis and tendonitis, one person mentions short term use and only under the watchful eye of a trained herbalist, but I'm of the thinking nothing ventured nothing gained so I'll give it a go. We don't eat our chemical laden foods under the watchful eye of a chemist so why would I worry about organic fresh herbs that have been used since the start of time?
A few hours in my garden gathering the late spring horsetail all juicy and fresh, I tied it together with a piece of string and hung from a window. I've read it's not good to dry plants in direct sunshine, and we have a lot of sunshine so I left it hanging below the window ledge. Every day I've checked it, and today I think it's dry enough to scrunch up and store out of sunlight in a glass jar. So today I'm feeling a sense of satisfaction having harvested my first crop of horsetail. To use this herb you put 5 teaspoons of dried herb into 1 litre of water with a teaspoon of sugar (the sugar helps to release the silicon), simmer for 3 hours, strain, allow to cool then drink.
I'm starting with drying herbs and as my knowledge grows I'll move onto to other forms of preserving, like oils and tinctures. Last year I gathered St Johns Wort and made tinctures with vodka, but I either have a secret drinker in the house or I've stored them in the wrong kind of container as the liquid has disappeared. It's not St Johns Wort time yet, but when it arrives I will have another go and take a bit more care about the container I store it in.
Today the elderflower is bursting on the trees, so on my early morning walk along the lanes with my two dogs, I gathered a canvas bag full of fresh unpolluted blooms. They smell wonderful. It is best to pick the flowers when the sun has dried the dew. I took a few blooms from each tree so that I didn't interfere with the next process, the elderberries – I don't think I'd be very popular if I left the trees with no fruits. And anyway, I have plans for the fruit.
Whilst walking red clover was growing everywhere. I remembered being a child and sucking on the flowers of clover and tasting honey, so of course I gathered that too.
Back to the elderflowers or Sambucus Nigra, also known as 'the one plant medicine chest'. Last year I made cordial, which went down a treat mixed with sparkling white wine. I even froze some cordial in plastic bottles for a taste of spring at Christmas. This year I decided that I'm going to try drying out the blooms and storing them for tea.
Elderflower Tea. 2 tsps of dried flowers to 1 cup of boiling water, leave to steep for 15 minutes, strain and drink 3 times a day.
On to what have I found out about the elderflower. Apparently it comes into its own in the winter when it is used to lower fevers, it is meant to be great for colds and flu and helps to break up mucus stored in the body, and being a spring high pollen bloom it also helps with catarrh and sinusitis. This reminds of the homeopathic principle that what causes the problem can also heal the problem.
Whilst researching what to do with these wonderful blooms I found out the leaves of the elder tree can be boiled and the liquid strained and used as insecticide. Yippeee great news, as I am currently boasting nine swollen insect bites on one arm after my day picking horsetail, so as I type I have a huge saucepan of elder tree leaves simmering on the stove.
Red clover, like I said earlier, as a child I used to suck the honey flavour nectar from these flowers, but now I have found out that the red clover flower and top leaves are a diuretic, expectorant, have a cooling and relaxing effect to reduce spasms, hence they are good for lung problems. Other qualities are for skin complaints eczema and psoriasis, certain cancers and gout. I'm particularly interested in the gout aspect of red clover as I do enjoy my red wine. Again I am drying out the plants to make teas, apparently you boil 4 to 6 heads, then stand for 15 mins, and enjoy 2 - 3 cups a day.
Whilst being in Bulgaria I've had a couple of occasions to visit the doctor. Once I had a particularly nasty bout of cystitis. Armed with my dictionary, a high temp and a need to pee every 5 minutes I visited the local hospital. The only English-speaking doctor was the paediatrician, I felt like I was visiting Patch Adams. He was a charming man, wearing a funny hat and silly sunglasses, which I hope was for the children's benefit and not mine. Following a short consultation he sent me away armed with a prescription for antibiotics, herbal tablets, herbal tea and vitamin C. I was amazed, since in all my many years of living in the UK, I have never been given a prescription with herbal remedies, unless of course I paid a lot of money for a herbalist consultation, which brings me back to ingrained knowledge and understanding of herbs in this country.
Every year on 21st June, midsummer solstis I visit a beautiful place called Etera. It's a small place boasting skills and crafts from around Bulgaria. It has been built using traditional methods and follows a stream along its cobbled paths. On the 21st June it celebrates herb day, and people get up at dawn, collect herbs, they then decorate huge wooden wheels and display them at Etera, the wheels are judged and prizes given. It has all the usual stuff going on, traditional dance and singing, traditional food, and along the river lines of stalls selling all sorts of herbal remedies.
Last year I was intrigued by a stall selling bee and St Johns Wort products, on the stall were bags of tiny little pellets - yellows, oranges, greens and browns. The woman on the stall told me to take it in the winter as it was very good for me and it was important to keep it in the fridge!!! That's all I could understand. So I put it in my fridge in its plastic bag and waited for winter. When winter arrived I decided to look it up on the internet and find out what it was. I knew what it looked like and that it was a bee product. It actually looked like it could have been bee poo, and as a result became known as that. It wasn't bee pollen, although initially I thought that was what is was. Then I came across propolis, I realised that I had seen many products in Bulgaria boasting propolis as an ingredient, so having read all about it and found out how to take it, every morning for two months I mixed a little with yoghurt and honey and took it 1 hour before food. Now I didn't know how it worked but I never caught a cold all winter.
On further investigation it claims to be anti microbial, and dentists love it to support enamel, deal with cavities and support the gums. When I was in Scotland in March this year I went into Holland and Barrat and asked of they sold propolis as I wanted to buy some for my family, they didn't stock it, then I went to two independent health stores both stocked it, but both had it sitting in glass jars on the shelf. Now everything I have read about it and also what the Bulgarian woman had told me was that it has to be stored in cool conditions or the power of the propolis is reduced. A local chemist in Tryavna keeps her jars of propolis in a fridge behind the counter. So if you decide you would like to try this amazing product make sure it has been stored properly.
Wild strawberry leaves. Yesterday evening walking up the garden path I noticed little red berries, they were wild strawberries, tiny tasty fruits, I managed to gather about 20 of them, barely a mouthful, but very delicious. Of course that became my next quest - what are the healing qualities of these beautiful plants? So today I have collected leaves and have them drying on the dining room table. Wild strawberry, also known as Fragaria Vesca, is a cooling astringent tonic herb, it is a mild diuretic and has laxative properties. It improves digestion and benefits the skin. The leaves I am drying will be good mixed with other herbs for teas, so currently I have strawberry leaves, elderflower blooms, and red clover spread out drying, I have horsetail already dry and waiting to stored - this feels good, that budding herbalist in me is starting to get expression. I have a deep warm feeling, a feeling of self-sufficiency, a feeling of worth, a feeling of joy and most of all a feeling of stepping out on to a new path of discovery.
I am keen to walk up the mountain at the back of the house, the meadow at the top of the mountain is full of flowers, butterflies and bees and I am sure that there are hidden treasures up there. It's too hot today but tomorrow morning, armed with my canvas bag, a pair of scissors and my Herbs and Healing Plants book I shall head off. The book I'm taking with me is wonderful, it's like an idiots guide to herbs, it has 5 sections; blue, yellow, red, white and green, and of course, the colour of the flower tells you which section to go to - foolproof. When I get home I can get into the heavy tomes that get all Latin on me but give me a lot more detail and are far to heavy to drag up a mountain.
At the end of last summer our neighbour invited us to join her and some friends on a walk up the Stara Planina mountains, we had an early start, 7.00, we were the youngest on the walk being in our mid fifties, the oldest person was 85. We walked for 10 hours across the mountains, stopped for a BBQ on a home built wood fire, and spent at least an hour picking wild thyme. The eldest person, a wonderful man, was collecting the herb to dry and sell in the market, so once we had filled our bags we helped him to gather as much of the herb as he could carry. This guy was the fittest of the group; he carried a huge old heavy canvas rucksack, a small axe and had the stamina of a 20-year-old athlete. He wore a strange wicker hat with a solar fan fitted to the front to keep him cool. On our walk he would wander off and come back with hands full of hazelnuts, presents for us, herbs for eating, wild raspberries. What a joyous and exhausting day. I dried my wild thyme and still have it stored in glass jars in a dark cupboard, I've found out that not only is it good for cooking with, but it also works as a mild anaesthetic for the nasty irritating coughs, intestinal complaints, acute and chronic bronchitis, catarrh, laryngitis, flatulence and most importantly for hangovers after over indulging in red wine.
