It’s hard to stop.
We all have our favourite topic.
I usually get to talk about mine to students confined to a classroom, where they are captive.
It has been a long time since I went ‘out’ and talked to strangers, I have just been too busy. But when a Gardening Group asked for me to be a speaker for a midweek meeting I really wanted to go. I like gardeners – because they like plants and they were as interested as I thought they would be in what medicines they could make from the weeds they grow/dig up from their gardens.
There is so much to say!
I took a poster of my second favourite free medicine to show them – Dandelion [first is nettle], and I hoped it wasn’t a ‘trigger’ for those gardeners who spend a lot of time weeding, but seriously – these plants ought to be cultivated for the uses they have to keep us healthy!
This is actually sold as wrapping paper [£5.95 from Willow & Stone] but I put mine in a frame and use it as art…
Dandelion Root – used a bitter stimulant for the digestive system to keep digestive juices flowing to promote optimum digestion of food, especially if dug up in the Spring. If dug up in the Autumn the root contains a high percentage of starch in the form of Inulin, which is great food for your gut microbiome.
Dandelion Leaves – used as a diuretic [I have substituted it for Furosemide in some patients and it worked just as well]. Dandelion leaves are high in Potassium which can often be leached out with some diuretics, so that makes Dandelion leaves even more useful… The leaves also are bitter, so added to a salad in small quantities they also stimulate the digestive system.
I talked about my training, about what I grow, about the training school I started with a colleague, and about how they could use what is growing free around them to easily make simple remedies for common conditions. Nettle leaves and Elderflowers for hay fever for example….
Yes, I probably talked too fast – I need to calm my enthusiasm sometimes.
I enjoyed it so much I have agreed to go to another gardeners’ group in August, where I plan to deliver a talk called Intelligent Medicine – because that’s what medicinal plants are.
Maybe if you are local to me, I will see you at a talk one day!
Meantime – you are welcome to join my membership HerbWorks for £9.99 a month. Just click the button below.
I look forward to seeing you…
