So I did finally get out when there was a break in the showers last week and the hedgerows were heavy with ripe and ready hips and haws. The rain has clearly made for a good berry season. I was keen to see how the Mullein was coming along so I made my way straight along the path to the clearing. I was pretty sure the woolly leaves would still be too wet but hoped that maybe I could gather a few flowers. But it wasn’t woolly leaves that greeted me. It was woolly backs. Sheep! Four of them munching their way through the grass banks and not a Mullein in sight. Munched! Every last plant. To say I’m gutted… doesn’t even come close. I had been soooo looking forward to seeing them come up from the wee rosettes they had started off as last year. Even if the farmer fixes the fence, I can’t see how they can come up again. The only hope is that there are still one or two dead stalks from last year with, hopefully, some seed in them still.
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Tags: Crataegus spp, Hawthorn, Mullein, Rosa canina, Rosehips, Verbascum thapsus
You’d think that, being a student of herbal medicine, I’d have regular opportunities to be out enjoying nature; recharging the batteries and learning at the same time. 
Well, you’d be wrong. Once term starts that it! Research proposals to be handed in, clinical medicine to revise, patient notes to write up… it’s all about the books. A couple of weeks ago, however, after a particularly long and intense day in clinic, our tutor gave us the best “homework” ever. He told us to go home, make brief notes on the cases seen today and then go for a walk and “remind yourself why you want to be a Herbalist”. So I took him at his word.
It was a bright clear day thankfully but, to be honest, I’d have gone out in the rain. First stop was the Woodruff patch.
Still there – nobody’s trampled it up, dug it over or dumped an old fridge on it. I picked a few sprigs to take home (just because I love that sweet grassy smell it gives off as it dries) and took the path along the southern edge of the woods, as it was chilly in the shade. I’ve been walking these woods for over eight years now but there’s always something different about them. I suppose that makes sense because it’s always a different combination of season, time of day, weather, mood… Plenty of squirrels about today and a few jittery pigeons (not surprising they were on edge – I could hear shotguns in the distance).
I finally reached the old railway track and headed for the Rosehips as I wanted to make some Rosehip syrup. I wasn’t sure if they’d still be good or if the wildlife and the frosts would have got them but there were plenty of healthy, bright red patches to choose from. 
The haws were super abundant too and all the more striking as many of the bushes had lost their leaves. These were also on my shopping list as I wanted to make some Hawthorn vinegar. The smaller redder ones were easier to pick than the fatter, more purpley ones which had bigger thorns. The deal was, I could pick until I got pricked then I had to move on. It only happened twice though and from the big dark ones – they’re not so friendly.
When I felt I had enough, I headed further along the track to check on the Mullein. The yellow spires of Summer were all brown and dry but a gust of wind revealed a rattle which told me that they were still full of seed. I shook a few into the bag to scatter on my “wildings” pot at home. I probably should be more organised about sowing seeds but we’ll see if they come up. The first year rosettes were also doing well, all snug and woolly, settling in for Winter. I’m really looking forward to seeing them come up next year; it’s been great to see them growing from the start.
One last harvest before heading home; raspberry leaves. I had been wondering, at the end of Summer, which were the right leaves to pick. After the berries, the plant puts up new canes and I didn’t know whether to pick the leaves from these or from the canes which had just fruited.
None of the books were clear on this. Anyway, the old canes had died back now so I started picking the new leaves. Then the answer made itself quite clear. I realised that, by picking the leaves from next year’s fruiting canes, I was robbing the plant of the ability to make the energy required to produce the fruit. Better then, to harvest the leaves after they’ve done their job for the plant. Also, as a friend had pointed out, the tannins will be higher in the older leaf and that’s what gives it astringency.
The wind had dropped and the sun was
warm on my face. I felt rested, grounded, connected. For me, it’s always been about the plants; that’s where my interest in Herbalism comes from. It’s funny; I don’t really know why I want to be a Herbalist. But I know that I do. It took me long enough to find my path; 15 years of doing a bit of this, a bit of that; and now that I’m here I just know that it’s right. It’s something I want to do every day. From the plant, to the medicine, to the patient, there’s a creativity, a connection, that stimulates and motivates me. Who knows where my path will take me. There are so many possibilities and ideas to explore. But one thing I absolutely know now – wherever it takes me, I’ll always be a Herbalist at heart.
Tags: Crataegus, Galium odoratum, Haws, Mullein, my path, Raspberry leaf, Rosa canina, Rosehips, Rubus idaeus, Sally Ardoch woods, the old railway track, Verbascum thapsus, Woodruff
So, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a blog for a while now. I said I’d start it when my exams finished in May but, wow, what happened to June and July and, well, August just flooded past!
Summer has been hectic since the exams finished with very few opportunities for herbal adventures and even less opportunity to write about them. My Herbal forays are always accompanied by my camera and tend to take the form of “I went for a walk and I saw…” but, this Summer, each walk has identified a need for a new item in my backpack of tricks.
Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
On my first trip out I decided to head down to the old railway track to the patch of Mullein I had found last year. I had been too late for flowers but had collected seed and made a mental note to go back earlier this time. I couldn’t quite remember where I had seen it but the dry seed heads from last year stood out against the green. With my eye now tuned in, I quickly spotted the tall fuzzy spires all around and a closer inspection uncovered the first year rosettes nestled in the grass.
So, I had my plant, I had my pictures, now to collect the flowers. Oh dear… What had I forgotten? I had nothing to put them in! A rummage through my pockets produced nothing useful and so, frustrated, I walked past spire after spire of delicate little yellow blossoms.
Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)
My spirits lifted a little when I spotted this chirpy little chappy. I took several pictures to help me decide what it was when I got home to my flora.
Unfortunately, being of the family he is, it wasn’t so easy to decide. I really needed the plant in front of me or, indeed, the flora with me when I saw the plant. I love my Francis Rose and find it very easy to use but, without the ability to look at the plant close up, working from pictures is guesswork. And so, my wee backpack of tricks expanded to include:
- Containers for collecting plant material
- My
Frances Rose flora
- A loup
And with a little help from the lovely herbal community at www.herbwifery.org and a repeat visit, I finally identified it as Hedge Woundwort.
Eyebright (Euphrasia spp.)
On that previous walk, I had also been taken with this tiny beauty. I had taken pictures but, after the Woundwort episode, I had resolved to take my full kit out and ID it in the wild. And so, I settled down on the track with my flora and my loup and…
Fantastic! Result! Its Eyebright! And theres tonnes and tonnes of it. So, I’ve got a positive ID, I’ve got a collectable herb and I’ve got containers for collecting. Let’s get to work. Oh dear…
I’m not entirely sure what I’m supposed to be harvesting. It’s a plant I’ve become more aware of recently as a friend had asked me about it so I had done a bit of background reading.
However, I hadn’t really registered which parts were used. I would have instinctively said aerial parts but I was in no way sure. It would be criminal, I thought, to take a batch home only to discover it was the wrong part. What to do? After some “should I, shouldn’t I” contemplation, I hit on an idea. I fired off a text to some fellow students in the hope they had a herbal nearby or knew, for sure, which parts to collect. So I sat on a sunny bank of the old railway track for half an hour or so chatting with a few folk in Edinburgh via text and snipping a little harvest of Eyebright. I was in my element in amongst the weeds with a Flora and no Herbal but you live and learn and my wee backpack of tricks had recruited a new member.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
From the car, I had been spotting a lot of Yarrow on verges and so, confident that I was fully tooled up, I set out on my bike to collect some from less well trodden tracks. After an initial disappointment when a previously identified patch had been trodden through by cattle (not so less-well-trodden after all!), I had one of those real guiding moments. 
You know when you see a hint of a path somewhere and you just want to follow it to see where it goes? Well, having come back down a path I’ve tramped many a time before, swithering where to go next, one such half-hinted-at path caught my eye. Curious, I followed it up the bank…
A carpet of red clover opened up before me. It was a real wow moment but, given the recent wet weather, these little ground huggers were still too damp to contemplate picking. But what was that over by the fence? Yarrow! And not that low leafy stuff of roadsides and lawns. No, these were tall, proud, fully flowering stands of the stuff. This was exactly what I had been looking for but, as I set about collecting, I realised I had a problem. The tubs I had in my bag for collecting were no way going to be big enough. I was reluctant to leave now I had found it as, what with one thing and another, by the time I had got back to the Mullein I had missed the flowers again. Luckily, I had thrown my handbag into the rucksack before I left and, by decanting the contents, I had an ideal cotton bag to take the Yarrow home in.
A Hedgerow Hippy’s wee backpack of tricks
So is my backpack complete?
At the moment I certainly think so but no doubt some future ramble with highlight another glaring omission. For now it consists of:
- bottle of water
- brolly, warm jumper and hat
- mobile phone
- camera
Frances Rose floraand loup
David Hoffman herbaland scissors
- collecting pots…
…and I’m just away to sew some simple cotton bags for collecting which, inspired by some fab advice from Sarah Head on the Herb Society forum, I will also use at home, to hang the herbs up to dry in the dark.
Tags: Achillea millefolium, backpack, David Hoffman, Euphrasia, Eyebright, Frances Rose, Herb Society, Herbwifery, Mullein, Sarah Head, Stachys sylvatica, the old railway track, the path to the river, Verbascum thapsus, wildcrafting, Woundwort, Yarrow
Welcome to the Hedgerow
In the Field with a Flora – taken on the Last Days of Summer camping trip.
