Tuesday, 23 August 2011
New garden poem over at Mercian Muse
If you fancy a quick tour of my summer garden in verse, hop over to Mercian Muse
Monday, 22 August 2011
Lady's mantle - a herb just for women or everyone?
For the past five months I have wanted to write a blog post about Lady’s mantle, ever since the plant emerged from the long, cold winter in a new and vibrant form. During this time, exciting pieces of information about her uses were brought to my attention which is usually a sure sign I should take closer notice and make a written record of what has been learned.
If you talk to someone about lady’s mantle they will usually comment on its structural beauty - the edges of the leaves resembling a cloak and about the perfect water droplets held in the deep cups of the leaves – giving rise to one of its common names as “Dewcup”.
According to American botanist, Ryan Drum, the 'dew' that collects on the tips of the leaves and in the well of the open leaves is actually a vascular secretion that rises up to the tips of the leave's margins at night, then rolls down into the cup to be reabsorbed in the late morning.
Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir, who runs the Scottish Academy of Herbal Medicine in Eugene, Oregon, says, “I've been using these vascular secretions (dew) for over a decade now directly on the surface of my eyes. As a vulnerary it is soothing to tired, dry and blood-shot eyes. One client used it on a broken capillary in the white of her eye that had been there for years. Within weeks of daily applications the capillary had disappeared.”
Mrs Grieve tells us that Lady's Mantle belong to the genus Alchemilla of the rose family, most of the members of which are natives of the American Andes, only a few being found in Europe, North America and Northern and Western Asia. In Britain, there are only three species, Alchemilla vulgaris, the Common Lady's Mantle, A. arvensis, the Field Lady's Mantle or Parsley Piert, and A. alpina, less frequent and only found in mountainous districts.
Mrs Grieve says, “The Common Lady's Mantle is generally distributed over Britain, but more especially in the colder districts and on high-lying ground, being found up to an altitude of 3,600 feet in the Scotch Highlands. It is not uncommon in moist, hilly pastures and by streams, except in the south-east of England, and is abundant in Yorkshire, especially in the Dales.”
The local abundance of Lady’s mantle is probably why Hill wrote in 1740, “The good women in the North of England apply the leaves to their breasts to make them recover their form after they have been swelled with milk.” This local use was subsequently proved by Matthew Wood in his practice showing how Lady’s Mantle “lifts tissue and structures that have been bogged down: sagging breasts after lactation and abdominal tissue following childbirth.”
Wood believes it is the presence of salicylates and tannins within the plant which enables the plant to be used to drive water from tissues that are damp and weak as well as strengthening fibres, bringing them back together into a health, toned condition.
The part of the plant used was originally the entire plant – aerial part and roots, but use of the roots has almost been forgotten as the overall use of the plant has changed from being a general “woodwort” to “a woman’s herb”. Mrs Grieve mentions that the fresh root was often employed.
Wood has written two useful sections on Lady’s mantle in his books, The Earthwise Herbal and The Book of Herbal Wisdom. He writes at length about the relationship between Lady’s mantle and the kidneys, showing how they both suck liquid from tissues as well as managing the concentration of fluids within individual cells. He says that the herb is indicated in “purulent discharges and infected passageways (e.g. ears, vagina) where there is pain”.
We have to turn to early herbalists to learn more about Lady’s Mantle’s use as a woundwort.
Culpepper says “Lady's Mantle is very proper for inflamed wounds and to stay bleeding, vomitings, fluxes of all sorts, bruises by falls and ruptures. It is one of the most singular wound herbs and therefore highly prized and praised, used in all wounds inward and outward, to drink a decoction thereof and wash the wounds therewith, or dip tents therein and put them into the wounds which wonderfully drieth up all humidity of the sores and abateth all inflammations thereof. It quickly healeth green wounds, not suffering any corruption to remain behind and cureth old sores, though fistulous and hollow.'”
William Salmon writing in 1710, says “It is amazing how Lady’s Mantle can restore the integrity of torn, ruptured or separated tissue as seen in hernias or perforated membranes. “
Wood gives two case histories where Lady’s Mantle restored a perforated ear drum and comments wryly that he believed it would also restore a damaged hymen, which was apparently one of its uses in folklore medicine.
David Hoffman sums up the use of Lady’s Mantle as a “woman’s herb”. He says, “Lady's mantle will help reduce pains associated with periods as well as ameliorating excessive bleeding. It also has a role to play in easing the changes of the menopause. As an emmenagogue it stimulates the proper menstrual flow if there is any resistance. However, in the often apparently paradoxical way of herbal remedies, Lady's mantle is a useful uterine astringent, used in both menorrhagia and metrorrhagia. Its astringency provides a role in the treatment of diarrhea and as a mouthwash for sores and ulcers and as a gargle for laryngitis.”
Lady’s mantle is normally taken as a tea or tincture made from plant material gathered in early summer. David Hoffman’s instructions are “Infusion: pour a cup of boiling water onto 2 teaspoonfuls of the dried herb and leave to infuse for l0-l5 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day. To help diarrhoea and as a mouthwash or lotion, a stronger dosage is made by boiling the herb for a few minutes to extract all the tannin. Tincture: take 1-2 ml of the tincture three times a day.
Matthew Wood prefers macerating the plant material in brandy rather than vodka and recommends a dose of 1-3 drops
Wood gives a much more detailed account of different mediums for administering Lady’s mantle, saying the most extensive information about various kinds of preparations in alcohol, vinegar, water, oil and salt comes from William Salmon. He used all forms internally, observing that the vinegar “..opened more and removes obstructions. … Taken continually all day, so that the amount equals at least four or five tablespoonfuls, It is a most excellent thing against a virulent Gonorrhea in Men.”
Andre Chevalier in his Encyclopaedia of Medicinal plants also quotes Andres de Laguna’s translation (1570) of Dioscorides’ Materia Medica which recommends two preparations of lady’s mantle – the root, powdered and mixed with red wine, for internal and external wounds, and an infusion of the aerial parts, for “greenstick” fractures and broken bones in babies and young children.
It was Karen Lawton, commenting on the Herb Society forum who mentioned Lady’s mantle’s energetic use. She said, “Ladies mantle connects to the whole history of the matriarchy - I use it a lot with patients who have unresolved issues with their mothers and grandmothers. If you observe the structure of the flowering plant you can see lots of differing delicate layers of depth. I harvest her and work with her with my daughter as I am trying not to pass on the female knots of my lineage to her!”
I think she may have picked up this use from Rosemary Gladstar, since Rosemary quotes from Peter and Barbara Theiss in her book, Herbal Healing for women, “Lady’s mantle is associated with the qualities of gentleness, elegance and grace in combination with powerful authority. If a woman finds difficulty in accepting a maternal role, is troubled by thoughts of abortion and suffers from morning sickness and other disorders during the first months of pregnancy, depression after birth and so on, Lady’s mantle is her herb.”
I was recently standing over my patch of Lady’s mantle with a newcomer to the Sanctuary who wanted something for a friend of hers who was experiencing heavy menstrual flooding at the same time as having to come to terms that she would probably never be able to experience motherhood in this lifetime. We picked some new leaves for her to make tincture for her friend. I shall wait to hear whether she finds it helpful.
Karen Lawton also shared a general women’s tonic she makes made from equal parts of raspberry leaf, nettles and Lady’s mantle. The dose is three drops three times a day. Her original recipe used a nettle syrup rather than a tincture and when I asked her why, her answer was that the syrup was what they had large amounts of at the time of creation and it seemed a good thing to add to the mixture!
Lady’s mantle was also used in a recipe for a hand lotion given by Lesley Bremnes on the Herb Society Forum some years ago.
Ingredients
30ml.glycerin 10 drops of essential oil of lemon, rose, geranium or sandalwood
10g carragheen moss dissolved in a little hot water
30ml strong infusion of lady’s mantle
60ml alcohol (Vodka)
Method
1 Stir the glycerin into the dissolved moss
2 Add the essential oil to the vodka mixing well, and then blend the two mixtures. Stir in the herbal infusion, blending well.
3 Pour in a screw-top jar and label. Shake before use if necessary.
I have to confess that I have never had the need to use Lady’s mantle myself, although I have the tincture in my larder and I have encouraged others to make the “women’s tonic” macerated either in vodka or vinegar. Studying the plant in more depth leads me to feel she could be a useful ally during difficult times in a woman’s life, but that her more ancient use as a woundwort should not be forgotten.
If you talk to someone about lady’s mantle they will usually comment on its structural beauty - the edges of the leaves resembling a cloak and about the perfect water droplets held in the deep cups of the leaves – giving rise to one of its common names as “Dewcup”.
According to American botanist, Ryan Drum, the 'dew' that collects on the tips of the leaves and in the well of the open leaves is actually a vascular secretion that rises up to the tips of the leave's margins at night, then rolls down into the cup to be reabsorbed in the late morning.
Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir, who runs the Scottish Academy of Herbal Medicine in Eugene, Oregon, says, “I've been using these vascular secretions (dew) for over a decade now directly on the surface of my eyes. As a vulnerary it is soothing to tired, dry and blood-shot eyes. One client used it on a broken capillary in the white of her eye that had been there for years. Within weeks of daily applications the capillary had disappeared.”
Mrs Grieve tells us that Lady's Mantle belong to the genus Alchemilla of the rose family, most of the members of which are natives of the American Andes, only a few being found in Europe, North America and Northern and Western Asia. In Britain, there are only three species, Alchemilla vulgaris, the Common Lady's Mantle, A. arvensis, the Field Lady's Mantle or Parsley Piert, and A. alpina, less frequent and only found in mountainous districts.
Mrs Grieve says, “The Common Lady's Mantle is generally distributed over Britain, but more especially in the colder districts and on high-lying ground, being found up to an altitude of 3,600 feet in the Scotch Highlands. It is not uncommon in moist, hilly pastures and by streams, except in the south-east of England, and is abundant in Yorkshire, especially in the Dales.”
The local abundance of Lady’s mantle is probably why Hill wrote in 1740, “The good women in the North of England apply the leaves to their breasts to make them recover their form after they have been swelled with milk.” This local use was subsequently proved by Matthew Wood in his practice showing how Lady’s Mantle “lifts tissue and structures that have been bogged down: sagging breasts after lactation and abdominal tissue following childbirth.”
Wood believes it is the presence of salicylates and tannins within the plant which enables the plant to be used to drive water from tissues that are damp and weak as well as strengthening fibres, bringing them back together into a health, toned condition.
The part of the plant used was originally the entire plant – aerial part and roots, but use of the roots has almost been forgotten as the overall use of the plant has changed from being a general “woodwort” to “a woman’s herb”. Mrs Grieve mentions that the fresh root was often employed.
Wood has written two useful sections on Lady’s mantle in his books, The Earthwise Herbal and The Book of Herbal Wisdom. He writes at length about the relationship between Lady’s mantle and the kidneys, showing how they both suck liquid from tissues as well as managing the concentration of fluids within individual cells. He says that the herb is indicated in “purulent discharges and infected passageways (e.g. ears, vagina) where there is pain”.
We have to turn to early herbalists to learn more about Lady’s Mantle’s use as a woundwort.
Culpepper says “Lady's Mantle is very proper for inflamed wounds and to stay bleeding, vomitings, fluxes of all sorts, bruises by falls and ruptures. It is one of the most singular wound herbs and therefore highly prized and praised, used in all wounds inward and outward, to drink a decoction thereof and wash the wounds therewith, or dip tents therein and put them into the wounds which wonderfully drieth up all humidity of the sores and abateth all inflammations thereof. It quickly healeth green wounds, not suffering any corruption to remain behind and cureth old sores, though fistulous and hollow.'”
William Salmon writing in 1710, says “It is amazing how Lady’s Mantle can restore the integrity of torn, ruptured or separated tissue as seen in hernias or perforated membranes. “
Wood gives two case histories where Lady’s Mantle restored a perforated ear drum and comments wryly that he believed it would also restore a damaged hymen, which was apparently one of its uses in folklore medicine.
David Hoffman sums up the use of Lady’s Mantle as a “woman’s herb”. He says, “Lady's mantle will help reduce pains associated with periods as well as ameliorating excessive bleeding. It also has a role to play in easing the changes of the menopause. As an emmenagogue it stimulates the proper menstrual flow if there is any resistance. However, in the often apparently paradoxical way of herbal remedies, Lady's mantle is a useful uterine astringent, used in both menorrhagia and metrorrhagia. Its astringency provides a role in the treatment of diarrhea and as a mouthwash for sores and ulcers and as a gargle for laryngitis.”
Lady’s mantle is normally taken as a tea or tincture made from plant material gathered in early summer. David Hoffman’s instructions are “Infusion: pour a cup of boiling water onto 2 teaspoonfuls of the dried herb and leave to infuse for l0-l5 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day. To help diarrhoea and as a mouthwash or lotion, a stronger dosage is made by boiling the herb for a few minutes to extract all the tannin. Tincture: take 1-2 ml of the tincture three times a day.
Matthew Wood prefers macerating the plant material in brandy rather than vodka and recommends a dose of 1-3 drops
Wood gives a much more detailed account of different mediums for administering Lady’s mantle, saying the most extensive information about various kinds of preparations in alcohol, vinegar, water, oil and salt comes from William Salmon. He used all forms internally, observing that the vinegar “..opened more and removes obstructions. … Taken continually all day, so that the amount equals at least four or five tablespoonfuls, It is a most excellent thing against a virulent Gonorrhea in Men.”
Andre Chevalier in his Encyclopaedia of Medicinal plants also quotes Andres de Laguna’s translation (1570) of Dioscorides’ Materia Medica which recommends two preparations of lady’s mantle – the root, powdered and mixed with red wine, for internal and external wounds, and an infusion of the aerial parts, for “greenstick” fractures and broken bones in babies and young children.
It was Karen Lawton, commenting on the Herb Society forum who mentioned Lady’s mantle’s energetic use. She said, “Ladies mantle connects to the whole history of the matriarchy - I use it a lot with patients who have unresolved issues with their mothers and grandmothers. If you observe the structure of the flowering plant you can see lots of differing delicate layers of depth. I harvest her and work with her with my daughter as I am trying not to pass on the female knots of my lineage to her!”
I think she may have picked up this use from Rosemary Gladstar, since Rosemary quotes from Peter and Barbara Theiss in her book, Herbal Healing for women, “Lady’s mantle is associated with the qualities of gentleness, elegance and grace in combination with powerful authority. If a woman finds difficulty in accepting a maternal role, is troubled by thoughts of abortion and suffers from morning sickness and other disorders during the first months of pregnancy, depression after birth and so on, Lady’s mantle is her herb.”
I was recently standing over my patch of Lady’s mantle with a newcomer to the Sanctuary who wanted something for a friend of hers who was experiencing heavy menstrual flooding at the same time as having to come to terms that she would probably never be able to experience motherhood in this lifetime. We picked some new leaves for her to make tincture for her friend. I shall wait to hear whether she finds it helpful.
Karen Lawton also shared a general women’s tonic she makes made from equal parts of raspberry leaf, nettles and Lady’s mantle. The dose is three drops three times a day. Her original recipe used a nettle syrup rather than a tincture and when I asked her why, her answer was that the syrup was what they had large amounts of at the time of creation and it seemed a good thing to add to the mixture!
Lady’s mantle was also used in a recipe for a hand lotion given by Lesley Bremnes on the Herb Society Forum some years ago.
Ingredients
30ml.glycerin 10 drops of essential oil of lemon, rose, geranium or sandalwood
10g carragheen moss dissolved in a little hot water
30ml strong infusion of lady’s mantle
60ml alcohol (Vodka)
Method
1 Stir the glycerin into the dissolved moss
2 Add the essential oil to the vodka mixing well, and then blend the two mixtures. Stir in the herbal infusion, blending well.
3 Pour in a screw-top jar and label. Shake before use if necessary.
I have to confess that I have never had the need to use Lady’s mantle myself, although I have the tincture in my larder and I have encouraged others to make the “women’s tonic” macerated either in vodka or vinegar. Studying the plant in more depth leads me to feel she could be a useful ally during difficult times in a woman’s life, but that her more ancient use as a woundwort should not be forgotten.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Three weeks left!
Only three weeks until the Springfield Sanctuary Herb Festival 9-11 September. Come and join us for two fun-filled days of herbs, kites, stories and songs! Learn how to dye your own wool from natural dyes harvested from the Sanctuary in Kristina's magical dyeing glade. Join the Sanctuary Apprentices to make your own medicine and Denise Fiddaman for herb walks. If you want to gather your own wild foods, Ian will help you identify what is available at this time of year.
Lucinda Warner and Ali English will be furthering our knowledge of using herbs externally and making tonics from local herbs. If you want to know more about propogating herbs, Sam and Louise from Garden Organic will show you how to do it.
Sky Symphony Kite team will be displaying four times over the weekend. Check the online programme to make sure you don't miss their stunning new kite ballet.
The field will be open for camping and to set up stalls from 3pm on Friday and the festival will kick off with an open mic at 7.30pm.
We're trying to keep costs at a minimum, but we'd welcome your donations to help us pay for the loos and cover expenses. Suggested donations are £40 for the weekend and £20 per day. Email sarah at headology dot co do uk for more details and directions to the venue.
Lucinda Warner and Ali English will be furthering our knowledge of using herbs externally and making tonics from local herbs. If you want to know more about propogating herbs, Sam and Louise from Garden Organic will show you how to do it.
Sky Symphony Kite team will be displaying four times over the weekend. Check the online programme to make sure you don't miss their stunning new kite ballet.
The field will be open for camping and to set up stalls from 3pm on Friday and the festival will kick off with an open mic at 7.30pm.
We're trying to keep costs at a minimum, but we'd welcome your donations to help us pay for the loos and cover expenses. Suggested donations are £40 for the weekend and £20 per day. Email sarah at headology dot co do uk for more details and directions to the venue.
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
The Cycle of Life
It is difficult to write when you are constantly away from home and the travelling leads to exhaustion, no matter how enjoyable things might be along the way.
July/August was supposed to be a fun month – a reward to ourselves for all the hard work we had accomplished beforehand. Friends were joining us for the storytelling festival at Much Wenlock. The weather was much better than forecast – only a few heavy showers and some sunshine. The stories were wonderful and the music lovely, but my mother (who is registered blind and has vascular dementia) decided to go for a walk on her own and had to be returned home in a distressed state by a passing neighbour. She then refused to enter the house for several hours, necessitating calling out the doctor and the ambulance.
When I rang my father to tell him we’d arrived at the festival, it was all over, but I could hear the fear in his voice. He’d been taking a nap when it happened. I had to phone my sister in Italy to brief her on events and she visited the following weekend to make sure everything was safe.
The next weekend I was presenting at Herbfest. It was a wonderful weekend full of enthusiastic herb lovers who welcomed the opportunity to make their own herbal concoctions and wanted to expand their experiences.
It was a long and exhausting journey to north Somerset and I was wiped out with the stress of it all when we returned.
The following Tuesday, my cousin rang me to say my aunt had died. Although it was not unexpected news, it was very sad to share the pain of his loss and worry about breaking the news to my mother. The two sisters had been estranged since my grandmother died forty years ago, but I’d tried to keep some level of communication between the two families and was grateful I’d taken time to write to my aunt and sent photographs just before her death which she had been able to take comfort from.
At 7.15am on the Thursday my eldest son rang to say his wife’s waters had broken and she was in labour. I went into work to be told that because I am managed from the Sheffield office and worked mostly from home, I would no longer have a desk or any shelf space. I was devastated.
To put this in some kind of context, it must be explained that although we have a fairly large and comfortable house, in the past month we have finally, after thirty years of no maintenance, had the roof insulated along with the cavity walls, the gutters and facias replaced, the front door, back door, garage doors and porch replaced and the lounge furniture recovered and the lounge redecorated.
This has meant Chris had to clear several spaces including the roof, box room and our daughter’s bedroom as she decided to come home to live permanently after four years away. The front room which houses both Chris and my computers and the piano where I give lessons is completely filled with extra furniture and piles of books and papers. There are only tracks through the debris and I can’t turn my chair round without hitting something.
The thought of bringing the contents of my work desk and two bookcases/shelving units home was too much. I spent the following week in tears. It brought back all the grief from being made redundant eight years ago when I had to literally put fourteen years of work into black rubbish bags to be thrown away when we cleared my office.
At 5.50pm on Thursday 28th, Richard rang us to say we were now grandparents to a 7lb 14oz boy called James Michael. We heard the first baby snuffles as he lay on his mother’s tummy in the labour ward of St Peter’s hospital in Woking. Laura followed the family tradition of short deliveries, only being in established labour for 5 hours and managing with gas and air.
After a two hour journey and then a further hour wait in the hospital the following day, it was wonderful to finally hold the tiny, warm bundle in our arms and marvel at the tightness of his grip. Everyone else remarked how much he looked like Richard, but I could only see the face of someone I’d never met before, a new person to welcome into the family and learn more about.
The Warwick Folk Festival was very enjoyable, with stunning performances from The Spooky Men’s Chorale and Show of Hands. We also appreciated the lazy days last weekend spent with our friends in The Lake District finalising the details of our American holiday in a month’s time.
The joy of all these events has been tempered by the sadness of my aunt’s death and my mother’s increasing frailty. Every time I speak to her she asks me when I am coming to visit. It doesn’t matter I have been there every three weeks for the past year and will be there again tomorrow and every two or three weeks for the rest of the year. It will never be enough, but it is all I can manage.
July/August was supposed to be a fun month – a reward to ourselves for all the hard work we had accomplished beforehand. Friends were joining us for the storytelling festival at Much Wenlock. The weather was much better than forecast – only a few heavy showers and some sunshine. The stories were wonderful and the music lovely, but my mother (who is registered blind and has vascular dementia) decided to go for a walk on her own and had to be returned home in a distressed state by a passing neighbour. She then refused to enter the house for several hours, necessitating calling out the doctor and the ambulance.
When I rang my father to tell him we’d arrived at the festival, it was all over, but I could hear the fear in his voice. He’d been taking a nap when it happened. I had to phone my sister in Italy to brief her on events and she visited the following weekend to make sure everything was safe.
The next weekend I was presenting at Herbfest. It was a wonderful weekend full of enthusiastic herb lovers who welcomed the opportunity to make their own herbal concoctions and wanted to expand their experiences.
It was a long and exhausting journey to north Somerset and I was wiped out with the stress of it all when we returned.
The following Tuesday, my cousin rang me to say my aunt had died. Although it was not unexpected news, it was very sad to share the pain of his loss and worry about breaking the news to my mother. The two sisters had been estranged since my grandmother died forty years ago, but I’d tried to keep some level of communication between the two families and was grateful I’d taken time to write to my aunt and sent photographs just before her death which she had been able to take comfort from.
At 7.15am on the Thursday my eldest son rang to say his wife’s waters had broken and she was in labour. I went into work to be told that because I am managed from the Sheffield office and worked mostly from home, I would no longer have a desk or any shelf space. I was devastated.
To put this in some kind of context, it must be explained that although we have a fairly large and comfortable house, in the past month we have finally, after thirty years of no maintenance, had the roof insulated along with the cavity walls, the gutters and facias replaced, the front door, back door, garage doors and porch replaced and the lounge furniture recovered and the lounge redecorated.
This has meant Chris had to clear several spaces including the roof, box room and our daughter’s bedroom as she decided to come home to live permanently after four years away. The front room which houses both Chris and my computers and the piano where I give lessons is completely filled with extra furniture and piles of books and papers. There are only tracks through the debris and I can’t turn my chair round without hitting something.
The thought of bringing the contents of my work desk and two bookcases/shelving units home was too much. I spent the following week in tears. It brought back all the grief from being made redundant eight years ago when I had to literally put fourteen years of work into black rubbish bags to be thrown away when we cleared my office.
At 5.50pm on Thursday 28th, Richard rang us to say we were now grandparents to a 7lb 14oz boy called James Michael. We heard the first baby snuffles as he lay on his mother’s tummy in the labour ward of St Peter’s hospital in Woking. Laura followed the family tradition of short deliveries, only being in established labour for 5 hours and managing with gas and air.
After a two hour journey and then a further hour wait in the hospital the following day, it was wonderful to finally hold the tiny, warm bundle in our arms and marvel at the tightness of his grip. Everyone else remarked how much he looked like Richard, but I could only see the face of someone I’d never met before, a new person to welcome into the family and learn more about.
The Warwick Folk Festival was very enjoyable, with stunning performances from The Spooky Men’s Chorale and Show of Hands. We also appreciated the lazy days last weekend spent with our friends in The Lake District finalising the details of our American holiday in a month’s time.
The joy of all these events has been tempered by the sadness of my aunt’s death and my mother’s increasing frailty. Every time I speak to her she asks me when I am coming to visit. It doesn’t matter I have been there every three weeks for the past year and will be there again tomorrow and every two or three weeks for the rest of the year. It will never be enough, but it is all I can manage.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Summer abundance
I have never grown as many plants from seed as I have this year. Tomatoes, salad leaves, peas, runner and French beans, basil, two types of spinach, radishes, courgettes, butternut squash, ashwaghanda, holy basil, sweet clover and pokeroot from home produced and bought in seeds.
I’ve also never given away quite so many plants as well – runner beans,
St Johns wort, Michaelmas daisies and other assorted herbs. It was when I was potting up the third batch of St Johns wort plants from the garden and handed over a particularly succulent marshmallow plant that the thought crossed my mind, “If I give away so much, will I have enough for myself?” The compulsion to give was too strong. The plants must go.
There is a Native American tradition which Stephen Buhner describes in his “Secret Life of Plants”. When the tribal medicine man arrives at a home where healing has been requested, tradition demands that the spouse of the person should give away all possessions as gifts to other members of the community. The act is performed before the healing commences in anticipatory gratitude.
Other beliefs teach there is no need to hang on to possessions, because whatever we need will be provided by the universe. I know I don’t have the confidence yet to practice this philosophy, but this year is showing how abundance can be the flipside of gifts freely given.
In response to my plants, I have been given new varieties of tomatoes and lots of chilli plants. The basil seeds which grew so easily and magnificently were a gift during a workshop on seed planting and propagation during a Mercian Herb Group meeting in March. Sharing the runner bean plants has brought me closer to many people I value as friends.
I really should not have worried about having enough St John’s wort. The main bed of plants flowered on June 12th, almost two weeks before their normal day of 21st June. There are already three jars of oil infusing on the sunny windowsill in the kitchen and my first batch of tincture is already a glorious shade of crimson. The recent torrential rain combined with ten days absence in Northumberland and Newcastle has played havoc with my ability to pick the flowers every day, but I know there will be enough for my needs and to give away.
Spending the weekend with my parents enabled me to visit the Sanctuary and see which herbs were ready for harvest there. I missed the last of the apothecary’s rose petals (and Chris wouldn’t let me gather from the three briar rose bushes heavy with blossom at Beamish Museum!), but the William Shakespeare were still blooming even though the petals were heavily waterlogged. I gathered as many as I could and dried them by the kitchen rayburn. They are now infusing in cider vinegar waiting to show their colours at Herbfest on 23rd July.
The walk down to the Sanctuary was also a kaleidoscope of colours provided by ladies bedstraw, red & white clover, knapweed and plantain accompanied by a variety of butterflies, damsel flies and grasshoppers. I watch so many wildlife programmes bemoaning the loss of native habitats. I am so fortunate to have a meadow blooming at my feet!
I’ve already dried two harvests of catmint and ox–eye daises, but more was waiting for me along with a palette of colour provided by weld, wood betony and hyssop. Helped by the three people who attended the Saturday workshop, we picked purple sage, SJW, betony, goats rue, motherwort and enjoyed a wonderful tea of lemon balm and calendula flower.
Janey brought her carding pads and set to work on the wool we boiled for lanolin over Easter. The conclusion was that the wool was really only fit for felting rather than spinning, but it still leaves a wealth of possibilities for future crafts.
I had less than two hours on Sunday to complete my gathering and weeding after preparing Sunday dinner and before we had to pack everything up to come home. I intended to remove the last few docks from the new herb bed, but found myself harvesting and weeding skullcap instead. I also gathered a tiny basket of heartsease which I set to dry for a “hope” tea in the future.
Bees were everywhere – white and yellow/orange-bottomed bumblebees and honey bees. I watched them feeding from red clover and motherwort, climbing around the plant to suck the nectar from each individual floret. Their activity was so different from their sister bees collecting pollen from wide open evening primrose flowers or even St John’s wort flowers, where they appeared to brush their tummy over the pollen or wrap pollen strings around their whole bodies – something I’d not seen before.
The stand of motherwort was so beautiful. I kept looking at it wondering what I could make with it. I’d already gathered enough for vinegar. I have tincture and oil left from last year and it was far too hot and my time severely limited, for me to gather any more. So I left the strawberry and cream pink motherwort and the deep blue of the hyssop to the bees.
It is hard to accept you can’t do everything, especially when colours and scents call seductively to gather and process. There will be further opportunities. The calendula and bergamot are still a long way from flowering, so they and the tansy will greet me when I return in August.
I’ve also never given away quite so many plants as well – runner beans,
St Johns wort, Michaelmas daisies and other assorted herbs. It was when I was potting up the third batch of St Johns wort plants from the garden and handed over a particularly succulent marshmallow plant that the thought crossed my mind, “If I give away so much, will I have enough for myself?” The compulsion to give was too strong. The plants must go.
There is a Native American tradition which Stephen Buhner describes in his “Secret Life of Plants”. When the tribal medicine man arrives at a home where healing has been requested, tradition demands that the spouse of the person should give away all possessions as gifts to other members of the community. The act is performed before the healing commences in anticipatory gratitude.
Other beliefs teach there is no need to hang on to possessions, because whatever we need will be provided by the universe. I know I don’t have the confidence yet to practice this philosophy, but this year is showing how abundance can be the flipside of gifts freely given.
In response to my plants, I have been given new varieties of tomatoes and lots of chilli plants. The basil seeds which grew so easily and magnificently were a gift during a workshop on seed planting and propagation during a Mercian Herb Group meeting in March. Sharing the runner bean plants has brought me closer to many people I value as friends.
I really should not have worried about having enough St John’s wort. The main bed of plants flowered on June 12th, almost two weeks before their normal day of 21st June. There are already three jars of oil infusing on the sunny windowsill in the kitchen and my first batch of tincture is already a glorious shade of crimson. The recent torrential rain combined with ten days absence in Northumberland and Newcastle has played havoc with my ability to pick the flowers every day, but I know there will be enough for my needs and to give away.
Spending the weekend with my parents enabled me to visit the Sanctuary and see which herbs were ready for harvest there. I missed the last of the apothecary’s rose petals (and Chris wouldn’t let me gather from the three briar rose bushes heavy with blossom at Beamish Museum!), but the William Shakespeare were still blooming even though the petals were heavily waterlogged. I gathered as many as I could and dried them by the kitchen rayburn. They are now infusing in cider vinegar waiting to show their colours at Herbfest on 23rd July.
The walk down to the Sanctuary was also a kaleidoscope of colours provided by ladies bedstraw, red & white clover, knapweed and plantain accompanied by a variety of butterflies, damsel flies and grasshoppers. I watch so many wildlife programmes bemoaning the loss of native habitats. I am so fortunate to have a meadow blooming at my feet!
I’ve already dried two harvests of catmint and ox–eye daises, but more was waiting for me along with a palette of colour provided by weld, wood betony and hyssop. Helped by the three people who attended the Saturday workshop, we picked purple sage, SJW, betony, goats rue, motherwort and enjoyed a wonderful tea of lemon balm and calendula flower.
Janey brought her carding pads and set to work on the wool we boiled for lanolin over Easter. The conclusion was that the wool was really only fit for felting rather than spinning, but it still leaves a wealth of possibilities for future crafts.
I had less than two hours on Sunday to complete my gathering and weeding after preparing Sunday dinner and before we had to pack everything up to come home. I intended to remove the last few docks from the new herb bed, but found myself harvesting and weeding skullcap instead. I also gathered a tiny basket of heartsease which I set to dry for a “hope” tea in the future.
Bees were everywhere – white and yellow/orange-bottomed bumblebees and honey bees. I watched them feeding from red clover and motherwort, climbing around the plant to suck the nectar from each individual floret. Their activity was so different from their sister bees collecting pollen from wide open evening primrose flowers or even St John’s wort flowers, where they appeared to brush their tummy over the pollen or wrap pollen strings around their whole bodies – something I’d not seen before.
The stand of motherwort was so beautiful. I kept looking at it wondering what I could make with it. I’d already gathered enough for vinegar. I have tincture and oil left from last year and it was far too hot and my time severely limited, for me to gather any more. So I left the strawberry and cream pink motherwort and the deep blue of the hyssop to the bees.
It is hard to accept you can’t do everything, especially when colours and scents call seductively to gather and process. There will be further opportunities. The calendula and bergamot are still a long way from flowering, so they and the tansy will greet me when I return in August.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Violet: friends and family
The last time I wrote about violets, Henriette Kress left me a comment saying, “See, I don’t get violets. We have v.tricolor and that tastes ghastly. No “gentle mucilaginous green” taste, no, it’ll clobber your tongue to tell you to fxxx the hxll off. V.odorata, gentle mucilaginous, check. The rest? The wild dry ones? Most emphatically not.”
This had me worried. I’d never tasted heartsease but it was on my list of things to do with violet’s relations. I’d already chewed a dog violet leaf and that was basically tasteless but more mucilaginous than the odorata. I was intending to do the same with heartsease, but Henriette’s comment did have me wondering. Would it be bitter? Would it be as unpalatable as she described? I would have to “bite the bullet” or rather, leaf and see for myself.
I haven’t found any heartsease growing in the garden this year. For the last five years or so they have wandered around the various beds popping their beautiful flowerheads up out of various beds from late spring to summer. I think I killed them all off by replanting some in the old wheel frame which acts as my sole hanging basket – sometimes I forget to water it and after last winter, nothing survived.
I thought I would have to buy new seeds this year to repopulate the heartsease, but the plants in the Sanctuary had other ideas. They reappeared in March and have been blooming beautifully for the last three months. You may have seen the photos on Facebook.
Last weekend was the menopause workshop where fourteen women got together to discuss, laugh and create amongst the stunning flowers and herbs of the Sanctuary, ending with a beautiful healing circle.
I was standing by the bottom bed while others searched for motherwort, lady’s mantle and nettle to put in their tonics and decided it was time to test the palatability of heartsease. I picked a leaf, chewed and waited to be told to “go away”. It didn’t happen. From the virtually tasteless tiny leaf developed the most amazing amount of mucilage – soothing, calming and definitely welcoming to the tongue.
I picked a bunch of aerial stems and gathered the other women together – presenting them with a leaf each to chew and experience. They all agreed it was pleasant, very mucilaginous and a fascinating experience as most of them had not known the term mucilaginous before.
We discussed Henriette’s comments and agreed that environmental conditions must dramatically affect a plant’s makeup. Finish plants must have a sterner outlook on life than our own as they have to survive in colder conditions with a much short growing period.
I’ve not seen viola tricola growing wild in the UK, but I saw it everywhere when I was travelling from Oregon to California three years ago. I shall look for it again on the east coast when we return to the vast continent to explore from the Canadian border down to Boston in September. There they call it “Johnny jump up” because of its proclivity.
My first awareness of heartease medicinally came from an Israeli herbalist on Henriette’s email list. She talked about using heartsease for childhood eczema, so I steeled my heart to their beauty, gathered a bundle in the garden and made an infused oil. Those I gave it to reported it was helpful, but I might do many other things before handing out a salve now, including using a chamomile water to reduce the heat in an inflamed condition before applying any kind of oil.
James Wong also likes heartease. He talks about using heartease as an anti-inflammatory for eczema and combines it with chamomile in a cream.
Viola eczema cream
Makes one 150 ml pot
2 tbsp (20 g) viola flowers, stripped from their stems (heartsease, viola tricola)
2 tbsp (20 g) Roman or German chamomile, dried (you could use 4x the amount of fresh)
1 tsp beeswax
2 tbsp almond oil
1 tsp vitamin C powder
1 tsp glycerine
2 tsp emulsifying wax
250ml freshly boiled water
1. Place the violas and chamomile flowers in a glass bowl. Pour over the water to cover. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Put the infusion into a medium-sized pan (this will form the bottom of your double boiler or bain-marie).
2. In another glass bowl, add the beeswax, almond oil, vitamin C powder, glycerine and emulsifying wax. Place on top of the infusion pan, and warm over a gentle heat, stirring until melted. This takes about 10 minutes.
3. Strain the infusion, then slowly whisk it into the oil mixture until incorporated – the texture should be smooth, like mayonnaise.
4. Pour the mixture into a sterilized dark glass ointment pot, then seal.
USE: Apply to affected areas morning and night. Ideally, apply within a few minutes of bathing, to keep moisture in the skin.
STORAGE: Keeps for up to 6 months in the refrigerator.
Personally, I can never get a cream not to separate, but then I haven’t tried an emulsifying wax. Maybe I should.
My harvest of heartsease this year is infusing into cider vinegar. I thought long and hard about how to preserve it and what I would find most useful. I already have some wonderful oil from the odorata in the garden and the infused vinegar is being used up on salads, so a vinegar to extract all the minerals from the plant seemed to way to go.
If you would like to see many of the other plants growing in my gardens this month, take a look at Facebook.
This had me worried. I’d never tasted heartsease but it was on my list of things to do with violet’s relations. I’d already chewed a dog violet leaf and that was basically tasteless but more mucilaginous than the odorata. I was intending to do the same with heartsease, but Henriette’s comment did have me wondering. Would it be bitter? Would it be as unpalatable as she described? I would have to “bite the bullet” or rather, leaf and see for myself.
I haven’t found any heartsease growing in the garden this year. For the last five years or so they have wandered around the various beds popping their beautiful flowerheads up out of various beds from late spring to summer. I think I killed them all off by replanting some in the old wheel frame which acts as my sole hanging basket – sometimes I forget to water it and after last winter, nothing survived.
I thought I would have to buy new seeds this year to repopulate the heartsease, but the plants in the Sanctuary had other ideas. They reappeared in March and have been blooming beautifully for the last three months. You may have seen the photos on Facebook.
Last weekend was the menopause workshop where fourteen women got together to discuss, laugh and create amongst the stunning flowers and herbs of the Sanctuary, ending with a beautiful healing circle.
I was standing by the bottom bed while others searched for motherwort, lady’s mantle and nettle to put in their tonics and decided it was time to test the palatability of heartsease. I picked a leaf, chewed and waited to be told to “go away”. It didn’t happen. From the virtually tasteless tiny leaf developed the most amazing amount of mucilage – soothing, calming and definitely welcoming to the tongue.
I picked a bunch of aerial stems and gathered the other women together – presenting them with a leaf each to chew and experience. They all agreed it was pleasant, very mucilaginous and a fascinating experience as most of them had not known the term mucilaginous before.
We discussed Henriette’s comments and agreed that environmental conditions must dramatically affect a plant’s makeup. Finish plants must have a sterner outlook on life than our own as they have to survive in colder conditions with a much short growing period.
I’ve not seen viola tricola growing wild in the UK, but I saw it everywhere when I was travelling from Oregon to California three years ago. I shall look for it again on the east coast when we return to the vast continent to explore from the Canadian border down to Boston in September. There they call it “Johnny jump up” because of its proclivity.
My first awareness of heartease medicinally came from an Israeli herbalist on Henriette’s email list. She talked about using heartsease for childhood eczema, so I steeled my heart to their beauty, gathered a bundle in the garden and made an infused oil. Those I gave it to reported it was helpful, but I might do many other things before handing out a salve now, including using a chamomile water to reduce the heat in an inflamed condition before applying any kind of oil.
James Wong also likes heartease. He talks about using heartease as an anti-inflammatory for eczema and combines it with chamomile in a cream.
Viola eczema cream
Makes one 150 ml pot
2 tbsp (20 g) viola flowers, stripped from their stems (heartsease, viola tricola)
2 tbsp (20 g) Roman or German chamomile, dried (you could use 4x the amount of fresh)
1 tsp beeswax
2 tbsp almond oil
1 tsp vitamin C powder
1 tsp glycerine
2 tsp emulsifying wax
250ml freshly boiled water
1. Place the violas and chamomile flowers in a glass bowl. Pour over the water to cover. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Put the infusion into a medium-sized pan (this will form the bottom of your double boiler or bain-marie).
2. In another glass bowl, add the beeswax, almond oil, vitamin C powder, glycerine and emulsifying wax. Place on top of the infusion pan, and warm over a gentle heat, stirring until melted. This takes about 10 minutes.
3. Strain the infusion, then slowly whisk it into the oil mixture until incorporated – the texture should be smooth, like mayonnaise.
4. Pour the mixture into a sterilized dark glass ointment pot, then seal.
USE: Apply to affected areas morning and night. Ideally, apply within a few minutes of bathing, to keep moisture in the skin.
STORAGE: Keeps for up to 6 months in the refrigerator.
Personally, I can never get a cream not to separate, but then I haven’t tried an emulsifying wax. Maybe I should.
My harvest of heartsease this year is infusing into cider vinegar. I thought long and hard about how to preserve it and what I would find most useful. I already have some wonderful oil from the odorata in the garden and the infused vinegar is being used up on salads, so a vinegar to extract all the minerals from the plant seemed to way to go.
If you would like to see many of the other plants growing in my gardens this month, take a look at Facebook.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Times of change: Menopause
On Saturday I shall be facilitating a workshop at the Sanctuary looking at herbs which can support women (and their families) during menopause. As this is something I am/have been experiencing for the last four years or so, it is a subject I feel intimately involved with. I thought I would share a few things which have helped me to retain a reasonable quality of life during this time.
In today’s busy world, there is considerable pressure to be continually happy and successful in our lives. Our culture idolises younger people and cosmetic companies continually spread the message all women should strive to preserve their youthful appearance “because you’re worth it”. The underlying sign appears to be that if you show any signs of aging, you somehow become invisible and worthless.
These continual messages have caused many women to fear the time when their ovaries cease to function; when they pass from “fertile mother” into that of “wise woman”. They fear the change in body shape, the supposed loss of sexual attractiveness and believe stories that all women suffer terribly from a range of symptoms during the years while their body readjusts to hormonal changes.
They worry about emotional imbalance. Some women talk about feeling “as if they are going mad” because emotions may not be contained as they were before. Periods of unhappiness or grief are considered signs of an inability to cope or function properly and expressing anger is not considered “proper” in a polite society.
Many people associate sadness and unhappiness with lack of self-worth and failure, yet all emotions are part of the human condition. Our capacity for all shades of emotion and sentiment may well increase as we grow older and are exposed to loss, death and bereavement in all its many forms. This is not something to be feared, but acknowledged as a part of life from which to learn and grow.
The usual decade during which the majority of women experience menopause is the fifth. Some women will suffer an early onset of menopausal symptoms in their forties and some women may have to undergo a surgical hysterectomy at any age.
The grief caused by this sudden onset of menopause can catch many women unawares. With the current trends to start families later because of career or partnership commitments can mean a woman loses her choice of whether or not to have a family before she has had time to consider which path she wishes to travel.
There is then the decision whether or not to go down the hormone replacement therapy route (HRT). It has to be a personal decision but anyone asked to engage with this therapy should consider all the facts before embarking on it.
If you do decide to receive HRT, current best practice is that the drug should not be prescribed for more than five years. Many women try to come off it, but because the subsequent menopausal symptoms are so bad, they often go back on the tablets. I have friends who were on the drugs for over ten years because their GP did not reviewed the prescription.
Germaine Greer and Susun Weed have written what I consider to be excellent if controversial books about menopause and they both cite research which shows that HRT does not deliver many of the original claims when it comes to issues like loss of bone density. You really have to get as much information as you feel is helpful and then make your own decision.
One of the most powerful allies in our journey through life is to be aware and knowledgeable about our own bodies and how they work. To be able to find meaning behind a seemingly meaningless situation or symptom is half the battle towards coping with and either accepting or challenging whatever troubles or concerns us.
There are many good books and online resources which look at the menopause from both a sociological and herbal perspective. It is also helpful to discover some basic anatomy so you understand how your body and particularly the reproductive and endocrine (hormonal) system works.
References and websites are included in the resources section at the end of this post. Rosalee de la Foret has written an excellent article about menopause in this month’s Plant Healer Magazine which gives a brief overview of some issues women face from a Chinese Herbal Medicine perspective with some corresponding herbs which can help.
The changes in hormonal activity which women experience can be helped by looking at vitamin and mineral intake in the first instance. It was Henriette Kress who drew my attention to the need for extra B vitamins during menopause. She talked about women who experienced hot feet during pregnancy and how hot feet were a symptom of lack of B vitamins.
Hot feet were something I had suffered with during each pregnancy, but no-one had ever explained why it happened or what I could do to make it better. Of course, since no-one else mentioned it, I thought I must just be really strange and didn’t tell anyone else either. I just went to bed with a cold hot water bottle and waited for my hot feet to disappear!
The same symptom appeared again as I entered menopause. This time I didn’t wait but increased my B vitamins with a supplement. The hot feet disappeared, as did the dreadful heat I suffered for twelve months every time I went to bed. Now, if I stop the tablets, the night heat returns, so I try not to go without them for more than one or two days if I’m away from home.
Paul Bergner talks about mineral deficiency amongst modern cultures. He recommends making up a simple recipe for magnesium deficiency by putting 1 tablespoon of milk of magnesia into 3.5 tablespoons of 5% apple cider or white vinegar and stirring until the milk of magnesia dissolves. If it won’t dissolve, add a touch more vinegar. This produces an ionic solution of magnesium acetate. The mag is 100% ionic and thus nearly completely absorbable as opposed to about 35%
with a pill.
Add one tablespoon of this mixture to one litre of water and drink throughout the day. Don’t exceed this dosage or it can cause loose stools, but he says it is very effective and results should be seen within several days.
Your body can change dramatically during the menopause. Things which have been certainties for the past fifty years are suddenly no longer there and new challenges appear. I can give you two personal examples.
All my life I’ve had greasy hair. It is fine and has always been something I’d rather ignore than take time over. The issues I faced during my teenage years with not being able to wash it more than twice a week has probably scarred my soul!
Once my body began to change I noticed large white patches and a terrible itching on my scalp. At first I thought I’d somehow burned my scalp since the patches had arisen from nowhere, but it soon became apparent I was suffering from terrible dandruff. Proprietary shampoo helped a little but didn’t solve the problem completely. I also noticed I could leave my hair for a couple of days and there was no grease in sight.
Luckily, around the same time, James Wong presented his second series of Grow your own drugs. One of the episodes dealt with dandruff and itchy scalp by rubbing with a mixture of infused thyme and rosemary oil. Over the next few weeks, Chris and I spent a memorable holiday in Spain during the first Icelandic volcanic eruption. One of the good thing about the golf resort we were staying on was that there were large numbers of herbs growing everywhere.
Risking life and limb from stray golf shots, I gathered thyme and rosemary and brought them back with me on the thirty hour coach journey through Spain, France and England. (Never to be repeated!) Once dried, I made double infused oils from both the herbs and mixed a quantity together to apply to my hair. I applied it liberally first thing in the morning, left it for an hour or two and then washed my hair in the usual way.
The herbal oil completely removed the dandruff and stopped the itching on my scalp. I continue to apply it every two or three weeks and haven’t had a recurrence of the problem in eighteen months. One thing which did happen was that I “lost” the thyme oil amongst all the jars of oil in my larder. Instead I mixed first golden rod and then elderflower with the rosemary and still achieved a positive result. Last week I found the thyme oil again, so will be returning to the original combination.
I know my hair will never be spectacular, but I have been able to grow it over the past four years. A couple of months ago, I caught Chris looking at me and his comment was, “Whatever you are doing with your hair, it seems to be working.” I took this as a compliment.
Another problem which many women face during the menopause is vaginal dryness. After seeing a recipe for a wedding night salve made from marshmallow leaves and seeds and a few drops of clove essential oil, I made up my own recipe for a sunflower oil based salve made from double infused marshmallow leaves, calendula and a touch of St John’s wort thickened with beeswax. Originally I included lovage, but it’s just as good without. It works wonderfully, but you do have to be careful about tell-tale handprints left forever on the sheets or pillowcases!
If you have access to a saucepan and fridge, you might want to think about creating your own water-based lubricant. This recipe comes from a long line of female herbalists and midwives who appreciate its properties and was shared by Rebecca Hartmann.
Simmer 1 tablespoon of flax seeds in 1 cup of water until it’s reduced by half (maybe 20 minutes). Strain immediately. (If you let it cool, it’ll be too thick to strain.) Store it in the fridge when you don’t need it as it will only keep for a couple of days unrefrigerated.
You could experiment with scents and flavours; just add herbs or spices to the simmering pot! Mint, cinnamon or fennel can be nice. Start with a small amount, too much of a strong herb or spice could cause burning in sensitive areas. Avoid essential oils for the same reason. Although it might be tempting, stay away from sugar, as it can lead to infections.
The basic lubricant should be condom-safe (it’s completely water-based), but if you do plan to use it with condoms, be sure not to add any ingredients that might damage the latex — i.e., nothing oily or caustic.
There is so much to say about the menopause – everyone could write their own book on the subject because everyone’s journey is different. One of the most important things to do is to learn about your body and take time to listen to what it is trying to tell you. Hopefully this will enable the journey to be travelled more easily.
Calming and uplifting herbs from Kiva Rose
Chevalier, A Herbal Medicine for the Menopause
Gladstar, R Herbal Healing for Women
Griggs, B The Green Witch: A Modern Woman’s Herbal
Edwards, G F Traversing the Wild Terrain of Menopause
Henriette’s Herbal Homepage
Herbs for sorrow
Hoffman, D The Holistic Herbal
McGarry, G Brighid’s Healing:Ireland’s Celtic Medicine Traditions
Rogers, C The Women’s Guide to Herbal Medicine
Shaw, N Herbal Medicine : A Step-by-Step-Guide 1998 Element Books
Shaw, N Herbalism: An Illustrated Guide 1998 Element Books
Shaw, N & Hedley, C Herbal Remedies 1996 Parragon Books Services Ltd
Weed , S Healing Wise : The Wise Woman’s Herbal
Weed, S New Menapause Years
Wood, M The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using plants as medicines
In today’s busy world, there is considerable pressure to be continually happy and successful in our lives. Our culture idolises younger people and cosmetic companies continually spread the message all women should strive to preserve their youthful appearance “because you’re worth it”. The underlying sign appears to be that if you show any signs of aging, you somehow become invisible and worthless.
These continual messages have caused many women to fear the time when their ovaries cease to function; when they pass from “fertile mother” into that of “wise woman”. They fear the change in body shape, the supposed loss of sexual attractiveness and believe stories that all women suffer terribly from a range of symptoms during the years while their body readjusts to hormonal changes.
They worry about emotional imbalance. Some women talk about feeling “as if they are going mad” because emotions may not be contained as they were before. Periods of unhappiness or grief are considered signs of an inability to cope or function properly and expressing anger is not considered “proper” in a polite society.
Many people associate sadness and unhappiness with lack of self-worth and failure, yet all emotions are part of the human condition. Our capacity for all shades of emotion and sentiment may well increase as we grow older and are exposed to loss, death and bereavement in all its many forms. This is not something to be feared, but acknowledged as a part of life from which to learn and grow.
The usual decade during which the majority of women experience menopause is the fifth. Some women will suffer an early onset of menopausal symptoms in their forties and some women may have to undergo a surgical hysterectomy at any age.
The grief caused by this sudden onset of menopause can catch many women unawares. With the current trends to start families later because of career or partnership commitments can mean a woman loses her choice of whether or not to have a family before she has had time to consider which path she wishes to travel.
There is then the decision whether or not to go down the hormone replacement therapy route (HRT). It has to be a personal decision but anyone asked to engage with this therapy should consider all the facts before embarking on it.
If you do decide to receive HRT, current best practice is that the drug should not be prescribed for more than five years. Many women try to come off it, but because the subsequent menopausal symptoms are so bad, they often go back on the tablets. I have friends who were on the drugs for over ten years because their GP did not reviewed the prescription.
Germaine Greer and Susun Weed have written what I consider to be excellent if controversial books about menopause and they both cite research which shows that HRT does not deliver many of the original claims when it comes to issues like loss of bone density. You really have to get as much information as you feel is helpful and then make your own decision.
One of the most powerful allies in our journey through life is to be aware and knowledgeable about our own bodies and how they work. To be able to find meaning behind a seemingly meaningless situation or symptom is half the battle towards coping with and either accepting or challenging whatever troubles or concerns us.
There are many good books and online resources which look at the menopause from both a sociological and herbal perspective. It is also helpful to discover some basic anatomy so you understand how your body and particularly the reproductive and endocrine (hormonal) system works.
References and websites are included in the resources section at the end of this post. Rosalee de la Foret has written an excellent article about menopause in this month’s Plant Healer Magazine which gives a brief overview of some issues women face from a Chinese Herbal Medicine perspective with some corresponding herbs which can help.
The changes in hormonal activity which women experience can be helped by looking at vitamin and mineral intake in the first instance. It was Henriette Kress who drew my attention to the need for extra B vitamins during menopause. She talked about women who experienced hot feet during pregnancy and how hot feet were a symptom of lack of B vitamins.
Hot feet were something I had suffered with during each pregnancy, but no-one had ever explained why it happened or what I could do to make it better. Of course, since no-one else mentioned it, I thought I must just be really strange and didn’t tell anyone else either. I just went to bed with a cold hot water bottle and waited for my hot feet to disappear!
The same symptom appeared again as I entered menopause. This time I didn’t wait but increased my B vitamins with a supplement. The hot feet disappeared, as did the dreadful heat I suffered for twelve months every time I went to bed. Now, if I stop the tablets, the night heat returns, so I try not to go without them for more than one or two days if I’m away from home.
Paul Bergner talks about mineral deficiency amongst modern cultures. He recommends making up a simple recipe for magnesium deficiency by putting 1 tablespoon of milk of magnesia into 3.5 tablespoons of 5% apple cider or white vinegar and stirring until the milk of magnesia dissolves. If it won’t dissolve, add a touch more vinegar. This produces an ionic solution of magnesium acetate. The mag is 100% ionic and thus nearly completely absorbable as opposed to about 35%
with a pill.
Add one tablespoon of this mixture to one litre of water and drink throughout the day. Don’t exceed this dosage or it can cause loose stools, but he says it is very effective and results should be seen within several days.
Your body can change dramatically during the menopause. Things which have been certainties for the past fifty years are suddenly no longer there and new challenges appear. I can give you two personal examples.
All my life I’ve had greasy hair. It is fine and has always been something I’d rather ignore than take time over. The issues I faced during my teenage years with not being able to wash it more than twice a week has probably scarred my soul!
Once my body began to change I noticed large white patches and a terrible itching on my scalp. At first I thought I’d somehow burned my scalp since the patches had arisen from nowhere, but it soon became apparent I was suffering from terrible dandruff. Proprietary shampoo helped a little but didn’t solve the problem completely. I also noticed I could leave my hair for a couple of days and there was no grease in sight.
Luckily, around the same time, James Wong presented his second series of Grow your own drugs. One of the episodes dealt with dandruff and itchy scalp by rubbing with a mixture of infused thyme and rosemary oil. Over the next few weeks, Chris and I spent a memorable holiday in Spain during the first Icelandic volcanic eruption. One of the good thing about the golf resort we were staying on was that there were large numbers of herbs growing everywhere.
Risking life and limb from stray golf shots, I gathered thyme and rosemary and brought them back with me on the thirty hour coach journey through Spain, France and England. (Never to be repeated!) Once dried, I made double infused oils from both the herbs and mixed a quantity together to apply to my hair. I applied it liberally first thing in the morning, left it for an hour or two and then washed my hair in the usual way.
The herbal oil completely removed the dandruff and stopped the itching on my scalp. I continue to apply it every two or three weeks and haven’t had a recurrence of the problem in eighteen months. One thing which did happen was that I “lost” the thyme oil amongst all the jars of oil in my larder. Instead I mixed first golden rod and then elderflower with the rosemary and still achieved a positive result. Last week I found the thyme oil again, so will be returning to the original combination.
I know my hair will never be spectacular, but I have been able to grow it over the past four years. A couple of months ago, I caught Chris looking at me and his comment was, “Whatever you are doing with your hair, it seems to be working.” I took this as a compliment.
Another problem which many women face during the menopause is vaginal dryness. After seeing a recipe for a wedding night salve made from marshmallow leaves and seeds and a few drops of clove essential oil, I made up my own recipe for a sunflower oil based salve made from double infused marshmallow leaves, calendula and a touch of St John’s wort thickened with beeswax. Originally I included lovage, but it’s just as good without. It works wonderfully, but you do have to be careful about tell-tale handprints left forever on the sheets or pillowcases!
If you have access to a saucepan and fridge, you might want to think about creating your own water-based lubricant. This recipe comes from a long line of female herbalists and midwives who appreciate its properties and was shared by Rebecca Hartmann.
Simmer 1 tablespoon of flax seeds in 1 cup of water until it’s reduced by half (maybe 20 minutes). Strain immediately. (If you let it cool, it’ll be too thick to strain.) Store it in the fridge when you don’t need it as it will only keep for a couple of days unrefrigerated.
You could experiment with scents and flavours; just add herbs or spices to the simmering pot! Mint, cinnamon or fennel can be nice. Start with a small amount, too much of a strong herb or spice could cause burning in sensitive areas. Avoid essential oils for the same reason. Although it might be tempting, stay away from sugar, as it can lead to infections.
The basic lubricant should be condom-safe (it’s completely water-based), but if you do plan to use it with condoms, be sure not to add any ingredients that might damage the latex — i.e., nothing oily or caustic.
There is so much to say about the menopause – everyone could write their own book on the subject because everyone’s journey is different. One of the most important things to do is to learn about your body and take time to listen to what it is trying to tell you. Hopefully this will enable the journey to be travelled more easily.
Calming and uplifting herbs from Kiva Rose
Chevalier, A Herbal Medicine for the Menopause
Gladstar, R Herbal Healing for Women
Griggs, B The Green Witch: A Modern Woman’s Herbal
Edwards, G F Traversing the Wild Terrain of Menopause
Henriette’s Herbal Homepage
Herbs for sorrow
Hoffman, D The Holistic Herbal
McGarry, G Brighid’s Healing:Ireland’s Celtic Medicine Traditions
Rogers, C The Women’s Guide to Herbal Medicine
Shaw, N Herbal Medicine : A Step-by-Step-Guide 1998 Element Books
Shaw, N Herbalism: An Illustrated Guide 1998 Element Books
Shaw, N & Hedley, C Herbal Remedies 1996 Parragon Books Services Ltd
Weed , S Healing Wise : The Wise Woman’s Herbal
Weed, S New Menapause Years
Wood, M The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using plants as medicines
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