Hedgerow Medicine day with Woodland Ways

Last weekend I went on a day course on Hedgerow Medicine & Medicinal Wild Plants with Woodland Ways who run great bushcraft courses in Oxfordshire and Leicestershire http://www.woodland-ways.co.uk/buy-online-hedgerow-medicine-and-medicinal-wild-plants-758.html

Our friendly and knowledgeable course instructor Danny led the group on a plant identification and foraging walk along the verges of a quiet rural lane, along woodland rides and along the edges of fields adjoining woodland.  He then led us to the base camp in Appleton woods where we ate a packed lunch while he got the fire going for tea for which some of us used fresh herbs we had picked along the way, in my case a pleasant tasting sprig of wild mint.

Danny showing us Cleavers

 Ground Ivy

 Burdock

Plantain flowers

 Ribwort Plantain leaf

Comfrey leaf

Cutting a Willow branch

 Wild Mint

 Base Camp

After lunch it was all hands on deck making various preparations with the herbs we had gathered.  We made Cleavers ointment, Burdock & Comfrey liniment, Plantain Cream, Elderflower, Ground Ivy & Bramble shoot tea blend, dried Hedge Woundwort for wounds & stripped Willow bark to make natural painkillers.   During the afternoon tea break Danny went through the law on foraging and showed us some useful reference books on plant identification and use to encourage us to go away from the course and carry on finding and making our own hedgerow medicines.  We finished the afternoon by dividing everything we had made into jars & packets to take home our own hedgerow medicine kits.

Making remedies on the outdoor work surface

Burdock & Comfrey liniment

The Burdock Comfrey leaves were chopped up and divided in two lots.  One lot was put in a billy can with distilled Witch Hazel and set by the fire to make a decocted water extract.  The other lot was put in a bowl with surgical spirit to make a strong alcohol extract.  Surgical spirit is used rather than vodka as it does not evaporate as quickly when applied to the skin.  These were left for about 2 hours then strained and mixed together to make a liniment.   This is for external use for bumps, bruises, breaks & sprains.  

Comfrey leaves for chopping

Chopped Burdock & Comfrey leaves decoction with distilled Witch Hazel

Chopped Burdock & Comfrey leaves steeping in surgical spirit

 Straining the steeped surgical spirit

The Burdock & Comfrey decoction & tincture mixed together

Burdock & Comfrey liniment in jars 

Cleavers ointment

Large quantities of Cleavers were gathered.  These were pounded and then wrung to extract juice.  The juice was added to lanolin and worked in till it combined to make an ointment.  This was hard work at first but got easier as the juice was absorbed.  It made a nice pale green ointment for chapped skin, eczema and similar irritated skin conditions.  Caution some people are lanolin sensitive.

Squeezing Cleavers juice

Mixing Cleavers juice with lanolin

 The mixed Cleavers ointment

Filling jars with Cleavers ointment using improvised piping bag

Jars of Cleavers ointment

Plantain cream

The Plantain leaves were chopped up.  Half of these were put in a pan and covered with olive oil and left near the fire to extract fat soluble constituents.  The other half was put in pans with hot water and left by the fire to steep to extract water soluble constituents.  The infused oil and water were strained into a bowl into which grated beeswax was added.  The mix was whisked to make a cream which was poured into jars and left to set.   The cream is good for inflamed skin such as stings, bites & thorns as Plantain has a drawing action.  

 Chopping Plantain leaves

 Plantain leaves ready for decoction

 Straining the Plantain infused oil

Whisking Plantain decoction & infused oil with beeswax 

 Plantain cream in jars

Elderflower, Ground Ivy & Bramble shoot tea blend

We stripped off the dried leaves & flowers from Elderflower heads, Ground Ivy stems & Bramble shoots Danny had collected previously and left to dry.  These were mixed together to make a tea blend which will be useful for colds & flu.

Fresh & dried Ground Ivy

 Elderflower, Ground Ivy & Bramble shoot tea blend

Willow bark pain killer

Danny cut a branch from a Willow tree along the route.  The outer grey bark was scraped off with the back of a knife then the inner green bark was cut and peeled in sections which can be cut into 1 centimetre squares which can be chewed as a natural painkiller or added to tea blends for colds & flu.  Willow bark contains Salicylic acid which is the active ingredient in aspirin.  Caution don't use if allergic to aspirin.

Stripping Willow bark

Hedge Woundwort for wounds

Hedge Woundwort has a coagulating agent in it so is very good for wounds.  The plant can be used fresh, crushed or chewed and put on wounds or used dried to make a decoction to put on wounds to stop bleeding.  The plant can be laid out on sheets of newspaper to dry over a few days and crumbled into powder for use when fully dry.

 Hedge Woundwort for drying

For more photos of the day see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153484273967938.1073741900.657002937&type=1&l=2aa3ec9cdd

The gifts of Spring - beauty, food & medicine

I spent Saturday 11th April at Springfield Herb Sanctuary on a work day.  I helped dig over a bed which will be used for planting herb plants.  I kept the Dandelions and Docks I dug up to take home to turn into Dandelion tincture and Dock tincture.  I also had a walk round with Sarah, my herbwife mentor, seeing all the herbs that are coming up in her herb beds at the sanctuary.  This is really helpful for learning to identify plants at different stages of growth, which is one of the things I am learning as an apprentice herbwife.  Sarah very kindly let me dig up a young Tansy plant to take home to plant in my own herb bed for future use. For future events at the Sanctuary see http://kitchenherbwife.blogspot.co.uk/p/springfield-sanctuary-workshop-dates.html

At Springfield Herb Sanctuary

 View from the Sanctuary over the Cotswolds

The herb beds I helped to dig

 Elecampane coming up

 Lady's Mantle 

Solomon's Seal

For more photos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153255717357938.1073741890.657002937&type=1&l=6c20633d26

Back home in the kitchen I put Dandelion roots & leaves into a jar and filled the jar with vodka to make a another batch of tincture.  I have been taking 2 half teaspoons a day since decanting the first batch, it definitely seems to be helping with my digestion.  I washed and chopped up the Dock roots into a separate jar to make tincture, which should be helpful for poor absorption, anaemia, skin problems, sluggish bowels, constipation & liver congestion.  Any dock with yellow roots can be used as this indicates the presence of the medicinal compounds.

Last weekend I harvested a big bag of Nettles and a bag full of Cleavers at the allotment, plus a few Wild Garlic leaves.  Some of the Nettles were used for Nettle Aloo (see recipe on previous post) as part of a dinner for friends, accompanied by raita made with natural yoghurt and finely chopped Wild Garlic leaves.  I also made Nettle Pasties (see recipe below) to take to the woods for a New Moon picnic.  My husband got in the act and made Nettle Soup with onion, potato, celery and nettles, with some Miso added at the end to make a nice rich dark nourishing broth.  The Cleavers were roughly chopped and put in a jar with vodka to make Cleavers tincture, which should be useful for lymph congestion or swollen glands such as Tonsilitis.

I also paid a visit to the woods and picked Hawthorn leaves to make a tincture with brandy, which can be combined with tinctures of the flowers and berries as they appear, to get the maximum benefit.  Hawthorn is renowned as a tonic for the heart and circulatory system.  My husband dug up a patch of Lesser Celandine, also known as Pilewort, after the nodules on the roots which look like haemorrhoids.  This is an example of a traditional plant signature in which physical features of plants were thought to indicate what sort of conditions the plant would be beneficial for.  And indeed Pilewort is a remedy for piles, both as dried herb used to make an infusion for internal use and to make an ointment from fresh herb by making a double-infused oil and adding beeswax, to use externally.

Recipe for Nettle Pasties - makes 2 large pasties or 4 small pasties

Pastry:

8oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

4oz butter

3-4 tablespoons of cold water

- Sift the flour & salt into a bowl, add the butter chopped into lumps and stir to coat the butter in flour.

- Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

- Sprinkle the water over the mix and stir with a round-bladed knife till the mixture sticks together in large lumps, if it is a bit dry add a bit more water.

- Collect the dough together into a ball.

- Knead it lightly on a lightly floured surface to make a smooth dough.

- Wrap the dough in cling-film and leave in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

Filling:
Large colander of washed nettle tops with stalks removed
Medium onion finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves very finely chopped
1 medium mushroom finely chopped
Wedge of blue cheese crumbled
2 beaten eggs
Salt & pepper to taste
- Saute the onion to soften it, add the garlic & mushroom.
- Steam the nettle tops in a little water for a few minutes till well wilted.
- Squeeze out the liquid with a wooden spoon, drain the liquid into a jug to use in stock for soup.
- Mix the vegetables with the cheese & eggs, add seasoning.
- Roll out & cut the pastry to make rounds.
- Put filling in the middle of pastry rounds and top with another round, press the edges together all the way round to seal.
- Use any left over pastry to make pastry decorations, stick on with a little water.
- Bake in a medium oven for about 25 minutes.
- Eat hot or cold, they are perfect for taking out for a picnic.

Nettle Pastie

Dock roots being prepared for tincture

Dock Root Tincture

 Cleavers Tincture

Hawthorn Leaf Tincture

Lesser Celandine/Pilewort

Making Pilewort Double-infused Oil

References

'Hedgerow Medicine' Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal

'Letting in the Wild Edges' Glennie Kindred

'Wild Drugs' Zoe Hawes

Spotting signs of Spring and Spring tonics

On Sunday I paid a flying visit to the woods to look for signs of spring growth starting to come up from the woodland floor.  I foraged a bagful of fresh young nettle shoots and a small handful of cleavers to take home to make various nourishing things with.  I also spent a few moments communing with my herbal ally, Hawthorn.  I held 2 thick branches in my hands and put my forehead against the trunk.  I had a feeling of being held in the arms of a woman, who I will call Hawthorn Lady, it felt peaceful and comforting.  I cut a few small branches to strip bark for tincture and offered some Hawthorn Berry tincture in water as a gift in return.

 Hawthorn Lady

  Young plants coming up - not sure what yet

 
Figwort

 A young Stinging Nettle

A young Hedge Woundwort

Very small Cleavers 

 Herb Robert coming into leaf

Hazel catkins

Once back home I processed what I had foraged.  I washed the nettles to rinse off soil and picked out dead leaves, bits of grass and other unwanted matter.  I wore gloves for this to avoid getting stung while doing it.  A handful of nettles plus the small amount of cleavers I had picked went into a cafetiere with just boiled water to infuse for tea.  Some of the nettles went into a jar with apricots, Seville orange peel and red wine to make a restorative tonic.  The remaining nettles went into soup.  I scraped the bark off the hawthorn twigs and put the scraped bark into a jar covered in vodka to make a tincture, this is an experiment as there is very little documented use of hawthorn bark in the herbal literature.  

 Hawthorn Bark Tincture

 The nettles I collected in the woods

 

Nettles are very nutritious, full of vitamins and minerals.  Spring is the time to eat them when the tops are fresh.  They are a spring tonic, some of the first fresh greens available.   They are a tonic for the blood, as they are high in iron in chlorophyll, in a form that is easily absorbed.  They stimulate the kidneys and help clear the blood of toxins. They have an anti-histamine effect which can help hayfever and other allergies.  They enhance immunity and help protect us from infections.  They reduce blood sugar levels and stimulate circulation, which is helpful for diabetics.  They are helpful in treating gout and arthritis.  Nettle roots are used to treat enlarged prostate.  So when you see nettles in the future put on some gloves and gather up a fantastic source of nourishment and support for good health.

Cleavers, often known as Goose-grass, is another great spring tonic plant.  Spring is the best time to eat it before it gets too tough and hairy.  Cleavers cleanses the lymphatic system, so is helpful for swollen glands, adenoid problems, tonsillitis and earache.  Cleavers is also known for helping to shrink tumours.  Cleavers is helpful for urinary irritation and infection such as cystitis.  As cleavers cleanse the body internally this helps clear and nourish the skin.  It is most effective used fresh.  So keep an eye out for cleavers and pick some when you find it for an internal spring clean.

There is lots more information about both these plants in 'Hedgerow Medicine: Harvest and Make Your Own Herbal Remedies' Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal. 

 Nettle & Cleavers infusion

Recipe for Restorative Nettle Tonic

- Half fill a jar with fresh nettle shoots.

- Fill most of the rest of the jar with chopped dried stoned apricots.

- Add the peel of 2 Seville oranges.

- Fill the jar with red wine.

- Poke the contents with a chopstick to make sure there are no air bubbles.

- Leave in a dark place for 2 weeks.

- Strain through a muslin bag, squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

- Decant into sterilised glass bottles & keep in the fridge.

- Take 2 teaspoons once or twice a day when you need a pick-me-up.

Recipe from 'A Year with James Wong: Grow Your Own Drugs' James Wong.

 

Restorative Nettle Tonic

Recipe for Nourishing Nettle Soup

- 1 Medium onion - chopped.

- 3 Cloves of garlic - finely chopped.

- Saute in about 25g of butter.

- Add 8 carrots, 3 parsnips & 2 sticks of celery chopped with leaves.

- Sweat in pan on low heat with lid on.

- Wash nettle tops and pick out dead leaves etc, roughly cut up with scissors.

- Add nettle tops to vegetables.

- Add a chopped orange with pips removed.

- Add about 1 litre of vegetable stock, to cover vegetables.

- Bring to boil, then simmer till vegetables very soft.

- Blend in liquidiser or with hand blender.

- Add 150ml double cream and stir in.

- Season with freshly grated nutmeg and salt & pepper to taste.

- Serve with fresh bread and butter.

My own recipe, adapted from a recipe of Sarah Head's at http://kitchenherbwife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/what-can-you-do-with-young-nettles.html and a recipe in 'Grow Your Own Drugs' James Wong

 Nourishing Nettle Soup