Wild Medicinals and The Drought

I spent the day with the apprentices today.  We spent the morning learning the basics of cleaning and preparing wool for spinning and the afternoon working with some wild medicinals.  This year has been very interesting year for those of us that are bonded with wild plants.  Because of the very early spring, the the late frost, and then the drought all the plants seem to have changed their normal patterns.  Not that plants have ever lived by human rules, but this year has been especially odd.  From harvesting maple sap in January (instead of the usual March), to now counting four seasons of raspberries (usually we only have one or two), to some very normal plants simply not making an appearance at all this year.  I have been very concerned with what the plants have been saying this year.

Yes, plants do communicate.  I know that sounds waaayyy out there, but like animal tracks in the sand, plants have markers of their own that once a human gets past their own noses, they can be easily read.

One of the easiest plants to read is the slippery elm.  This is a tree that produces the wild medicinal of slippery elm bark, an excellent internal bandage, great for healing most ailments of the digestive track, and one of the best treatments to get people use to eating foods they may not be use to eating.  Eating strange foods can be a survival strategy but people often find that when they try to force their body to consume something it is unfamiliar with, their body will reject it.  By first drinking a slippery elm bark slurry, the body can be prepared to deal with something it has never had to deal with.

The tree itself has this wonderful tell that scientists have known about for many years, though they can not tell you WHY or HOW the tree does it.  Before a stress year the slippery elm tree will send out thousands of seeds.  On good years, it will not send out any.  So when you see many seeds on a slippery elm tree it may be time to batten down the hatches, so to speak, because even though we do not know HOW the tree knows it will be a bad year, never less it does react to a bad year that is coming.

This spring the slippery elm trees put out thousands of seeds and as a witch of the woods, I knew to listen.  We put up extra corn and hay for the animals and planted a few more edibles for ourselves as well.  I even did a video on YouTube about this phenomenon this spring and said that the elm was telling us to get ready.  Sure enough, it is a good friend to listen to.  The drought hit about 2/3 of the North American continent, killing many plants and will more than likely drive up food costs after the fall tallies are done. 

Listening to the plants is a good way to stay ahead of the game.

Well, many of the wild edibles and medicinals are running late this year, so those of us that are harvesting are finding that we will have long weeks of nothing and then suddenly all the plants will be ready for harvest at once.  This makes for a crazy few days of trying to harvest enough of everything before it fades away.

Today we focused on:

 

Field vervain.  This makes both a nice tea and a tincture that can be used to help relax the body and let a person rest.  Mixed with meadowsweet it s a great night time pain medicine.  It is not as strong as valarian or hops but it is a bit stronger than chamomile.  This plant is easily found in pastures or waste places and would be very hard to over harvest.  Feel free to take as much as you want.

 

 

Jewelweed or touch-me-not, nature's cortisone.  This plant can be crushed where it stands and rubbed on insect bites, poison ivy, friction rashes, sunburns...anything that you might buy a cortisone cream for.  It does not store well except by freezing it.  It can be ground up in a blender with a touch of water then poured into ice cube trays and frozen.  Take out a cube when you need some topical relief.  I do this with a few more ingredients; a cucumber, some witch hazel tincture, a couple aloe leaves, and a good couple handfuls of jewelweed, stems and all.  This is blended until smooth and then pour through a sieve into ice cube trays.  Almost any skin ailments can be made to feel better with one of those cubes rubbed across it.

 

 





 

Lobelia, one of the darker medicines that we use.  Lobelia made in a gentle tincture of apple cider vinegar is wonderful for opening up airways during an asthma attack or in cases of allergies.  Chewed it acts like nicotine and, if used VERY carefully, can help a person who is quitting smoking.  It can even help level out withdrawal symptoms of any stimulate addiction.  For us in the temperate zones it is one of our few stimulates we can gather from the wilds.  Caution must be used with this plant, however because in a strong tincture it can cause dizziness, stupor or even (in very rare cases) death.  It is a plant that must be approached with respect to the little green ones that live in our world.

 

Heal all, Self heal or wound wort, the name of this plant says a great deal.  This wild member of the mint family has been used for healing by indigenous people on just about every continent.  It is best dried in a dark, well ventilated place and stored where it will not get damp or exposed to light.  The best way to use this plant is in a warm tea or even a sun tea.  Internally it is used as most mints are to help with an upset stomach or diarrhea.  It is also used to boost the immune system when a person is feel the first symptoms of a fever.  It's mild antibacterial action makes it a great gargle for sore throats or mouth sores (and the gargle can be swallowed, not spit out).  It can also be used cooled to wash out infected eyes or styes.  Actually, this tea can be used for so much more and I often put a handful of it into many healing teas I send out the door.  It is a common plant for common people to heal themselves with.  A good friend to know.

White snakeroot is a VERY dark medicine.  In fact this is actually a toxic plant.  Humans rarely if ever die from eating it, but over the centuries people have been poisoned from it.  How, if we don't die from eating it?  Well, humans are not very proficient at extracting everything that is in plants, we simply do not have the digestive tract to do this.  Cows, however, have multiple chambers to their stomach and can extract every last bit of nutrition as well as toxins from a plant.  The toxin in white snakeroot is stored in fatty tissue, such as breast and milk.  When we humans drink this milk, we take a highly concentrated form of the poison into ourself.  This is the "milk sickness" that killed thousands over the years before we learned how to manage our pastures (and now <yuck> feed lots).  It was what caused the death of Abraham Lincoln's mother.

So how is it a medicinal?  Well, there's really only one way to use it somewhat safely.  Roll the leaves up much like a sage bundle and tie it tight with a cotton string.  When this has dried it can be lit and blown out for the smoke and used like smelling salts of old.  It is guaranteed to wake up a person that is in a stupor.  If it doesn't, stop immediately and either way, call a doctor. 

And last but probably the most important of this buch was the elderberry.  The elderberry season came slowly and went fast and we are on the tail end of it.  Still there were enough elderberries left to make seven gallons of elderberry syrup, on gallon for each apprentice.  Elderberry, or Sister Elder as it is known on the North American Continent (Mother Elder on the European Continent) has been a sacred healing plant for a very, very long time.  It is still one of the most widely used medicinal plants, either through the elder flower or the elderberry.  Elderberry juice cooked slightly makes a wonderful healer for most upper respiratory infections.  I drink about a cup of it a day to keep my immune system strong through the cold winter months.  When my great grandmother was alive she told how elderberry syrup was one of the things that kept the 1918 flu pandemic from their door.  Most old families of the area talk about the tales of how elderberry, along with other plant cures, saved most if not all of their family's lives during that dark time.  I mix it with my kumbucha in a glass jar and sip on it all day long.  I will not go into all the things this combination has done for me, but I suggest anyone who can, try it.  In a month of continual use you will be shocked at how good you feel (and look too).

We did check out the wild hops but found they weren't quite ready.  When you work with wild edibles and medicinals you have to check you stands daily and harvest when the plants are ready, not when some human made calendar says they should be ready.  I can wait for my hops.  She is a great comfort for those who cannot sleep (just breathing in the fumes can make most people sleep) and helping women going through menopause (it is very high in a plant based estrogen).  In a week or two we'll go out and gather that one in.

A good day's work done.  We have 8 fleeces ready for the spinning wheel and 5 wild medicinals either ready or getting ready to be stored for what ails us.  Not bad for seven apprentices and one tired teacher.  lol  Tomorrow we start building the handicap ramp into the house, but tonight I am going to surf through all the wonderful blogs that are out there.  You all have a sweet night and may all your dreams be good and powerful.