Want to Learn About Healing Plants? And Harvest Some?

 Until recently in human history, plants were our main source of medicine. And the early pharmacists of this age studied the scientific make-up of healing plants to make our modern drugs. I imagine if we transported a healer from ancient times to the 21st century for a bit of a peek, they'd be astonished at the tiny round pills that people take now to improve their health. We'd need to explain to them that there is a reason for this. In contrast to ancient communities and landscapes, modern humans do not have healing herbs growing outside their homes or any knowledge of what is good to use for different conditions. To make the healing effects of plants available to everyone, we've had to make artificially-made drugs that copy the plant healers. Of course these pills can't give all the helpful effects of the original plant. But they can target specific results and also make them much more concentrated. We've become so used to using pills for all medical treatment that in this current culture, we've all but forgotten the vibrant ancestors of modern-day drugs. In fact, doctors are trained to renounce herbal medicine, warning their patients that they are dangerous.This would make me laugh if I weren't so frustrated with this attitude. Years ago I took a workshop in herbal medicine, one of many I've attended. We looked at solid yearly figures of death caused by drugs/pills and by medicinal herbs. There were thousands in the former and not one in the latter category. Of course, if you ate a poisonous mushroom, you might well die. So don't plant poisonous mushrooms in your herb garden!

I lived in a mountain community when my kids were little, and there were a number of natural healers living nearby. Gradually I began to learn about plants that heal, and started to add them to my garden of vegetables and flowers. Some were so common that I didn't think of them as medicinal: like parsley, sage and thyme. Others were ordinary weeds that I found could really help some health conditions. My youngest daughter had frequent ear infections, and I learned that the flowers of the mullein plant were a great help, and it was already growing along our driveway! Year by year I learned more, and my garden started offering a wide pallet of helping plants.

I remember a visit to my Iowa family when I was a young adult. I noticed some lamb's quarters growing at the edge of my mother's garden, and picked some to cook. I had learned to love lamb's quarters, though we call that plant a weed. My mother was shocked. "We don't eat weeds!" It is true that our current paradigm is to eat only what you buy at a grocery store or grow from packets of approved seeds in your personal garden. Yet many plants that we call weeds are actually treasured healers and were brought over from Europe intentionally, medicine to keep the settlers strong in the new country. One of these is plantain, a low-growing plant that loves compacted soil. You find it all over where there are paths, growing where footsteps create the perfect soil medium. The more you open your mind to the wide diversity of plants in our world, you realize that we use a tiny percentage of them for food. And then you can't help but delve into the mystery of all these thousands of other plants. How can they be beneficial to our own species?

Here at Prairie Hill, I started an herb garden when I first moved in, about 7 years ago. Each year I've added a few more, and now there is quite a community of plants that are good for treating all sorts of physical needs. I love growing them. They're like friends. Each fall I harvest an abundance of them and make tinctures, salves and teas. Some are good for everyone, like the healing salve I make from the plantain leaves. But some are more specialized. I inherited my mother's tendency toward tachycardia (occasional spells of rapidly beating heart). She had to go to the hospital when she had these episodes and they did all sorts of things to try to calm the heart. But I discovered that when I was having a bout of tachycardia, a few drops of motherwort tincture under the tongue calmed my heart in seconds. I used to carry a little bottle of motherwort tincture in my purse so I always had it handy. Then I realized that this herb actually nourishes the heart, building its health. So I started taking a few drops in water every day, and it's been a long time since I've had an incidence of tachycardia. Years! Motherwort grows wild here and in many places, but I have a special section for it in my herb garden. The action of motherwort on the heart muscle is similar to the function of many herb healers. They nourish particular organs and promote health there.

All these words about how plants help heal us has a specific purpose right now. It's the time of year that I like to harvest. And since my herb garden has way more herbs than one person would ever need, I've offered healing herb workshops each fall. It includes a time inside while we learn about different herbs, how to use them, and how to prepare them for medicine. We share about our own different experiences using herbs. During this time, the participants decide on a few herbs that sound like they might be good for their own unique needs. Then we go out to the herb garden to harvest what each person has targeted for themselves or their family. Then, after the harvesting, some folks stay to make medicine together.

I just realized that this coming Saturday, October 4th, is my only free Saturday for several weeks, so I've decided to throw the herb party then. It looks like it's not supposed to rain (though we badly need rain! Maybe we could do a rain dance at the end!). I think it makes sense to begin in the early afternoon (1:00) so we have the whole afternoon for learning, harvesting and making medicine. I'll pull together some sort of snack in the middle to keep up our energy. So you local folks, this is your invitation to come and join us. I've signed us up for the common house living room at 1:00. And when we're ready, we'll all go to the garden and each person can find the plant(s) that most appeal to their needs. There's no charge for this, unless you stay at the end to use the tincture or salve ingredients that I'll buy. Please let me know if you'd like to come. It should be a fun and friendly experience where we all learn and share.