(Wherein she starts out on a philosophical bent, then gets pretty real about horsetail herb and does a little pep talk at the end)
There's a 'trend', you may have heard of it, known as 'rewilding'. It seemed to come out of something like the same place as the paleo movement; from the idea that we're in an evolutionary mismatch, both with our food and our disconnection from 'nature' (whatever that means) .. and so in one way or another people are reaching for ways to re-establish that connection, or eat and live in ways that are more evolutionarily appropriate. (It's been a 'thing' forever, of course, just by different names.) I'm on the tail end of that hippie, back to the land generation so I've lived that way a bit, and my somewhat older husband, a bit more (he actually lived on a commune in the wilds of British Columbia for a while in the 60's!).
The funny thing is that when people really do put themselves into a position where they are 'living off the land' they discover what humans have known all along; that it's really fucking hard to do. From 'here' it looks noble and romantic, and I suppose we could say it is .. but it's life-threateningly difficult too. Not only that, but when done authentically, it can/will often suck out any and all energy that might have been used for other purposes beyond hardscrabble survival.
My husband and I love our fruit trees and we always grow some veggies, but we don't enjoy having to fight with slugs for our cabbage. There are farmers and gardeners in our area who are better at growing food than we are, so we support their efforts by buying from them. Instead I've embraced the foods I am good at growing - weeds, lol. So many of them are more nutritious than modern vegetables, they're pest resistant, and I find them tasty. I also have a fascination for the medicinal plants so I grow them, too (half the time, by growing I mean I don't yank them out when they volunteer in my garden.)
I don't like to call what I do re-wilding (although I've been accused of being part of the rewilding trend.) This isn't nostalgia or a return to 'better times' (because the past wasn't better, on lots of levels), or even the pendulum swinging back. As I see it, integrating wild with cultivated is the next step forward. We humans are not the same creatures we were when we lived more intimately with nature, we've changed. We've changed physically. Most of us can't handle the fibrous foods of the wild. Many of us couldn't cope with the cycles of feast and famine our forebears had to put up with (and many didn't survive).
We've also become naive enough to believe that nature is kind and gentle. She's generous, I'll give you that, but kind and gentle? Not so much. That naivete means that nowadays I have to spend as much time cautioning people about the medicinal plants that can hurt them as I do encouraging people to learn what's safely edible in their back yards.
The wise women and root doctors of the past had the advantage of generations of experience to come up with their remedies and methods of using the wild plants for food and medicine. We've lost much of that, only to replace it with petrie dish or animal testing of extracts which are not, in any way, a replacement for human experience in field and kitchen. The extracts Big Herb makes from plants so closely resemble drugs as to make no difference, so they carry the same risks. The edible wild plants, once processed and renamed 'superfoods', have been 'tamed' to the point that they carry none of the advantages we sought from them in the first place. What commercial processing does with the medicinal and edible wild plants so changes their natures that we needn't have bothered with them at all.
Kitchen versions of wild foods are more vibrant and nutritious, kitchen versions of medicinal plants are safer (when made and used correctly, of course). And - this is so important - growing or picking and preparing the plants ourselves means we can be assured that they're of the highest quality possible, free of mold or additives.
I've always approached medicine plants and wild foods with a sense of awe and caution. My foolishness was in thinking that everyone else would do so as well. I somehow knew that more wouldn't mean better, that a little of a strong tasting root or leaf would be plenty and more had the potential for harm.
But then, I'm perhaps more moderate than others in many ways - I've never been much of a party animal; even as a youngster I never drank heavily or got into strong drugs (I used to like pot but its WAY too strong for me now). I don't binge eat, either .. I mean I do like a treat, but half a chocolate bar does me fine.
So it seems there's a certain temperament that's suited to working with herbs that keeps a person quite safe, and another that can get a person into trouble, even with - okay, especially with - the commercial versions of extracts, high dose 'supplement' capsules and essential oils.
Another problem, of course, is the temperaments of those who make their living doling out or producing 'herbal remedies'. These are business people, not herbalists. The trusting consumer (gawd I hate that word), who might tend to be as cautious as can be about their diet or taking prescription medicines, doesn't see that when they use these products they're trusting their health to .. well .. the equivalent of a used car salesman who works on commission.
What I suggest is that we simply make a couple of course corrections to get ourselves back on track. We have to remember that medicinal plants are exactly that, medicinal, and so not to be used casually. That our modern digestive systems, perhaps used to a lifetime of processed foods, won't be 'cleansed' by a sudden inundation of wild foods, they'll actually be harmed. These things are useful and beneficial, but only if used with respect.
As an example of one of the seemingly innocuous yet dangerous 'supplements' out there, I offer the story of horsetail herb in capsules. Silica - the selling point for horsetail supplements - does wonderful things in our bodies. It gives us nice nails, skin and hair and it plays a role in bone health, among other things. Horsetail has long been taken, in small medicinally appropriate amounts, as a tea.
It was well known - from experience - that ingesting the plant itself irritates the kidneys to the point of possibly irreparable harm. "But" objects the supplement industry "silica isn't water soluble! You won't get any in the tea!". No, but you'll get what can only be termed the 'wisdom' of horsetail, which is its ability to extract silica from the soil and disperse it into its tissues. What horsetail does is teach the body how to distribute the already abundant silica in our tissues to where it needs to go, the places it hasn't been reaching. It's the silicon, not the silica itself, that is the medicine, that nudges, or teaches (however you want to visualise it) the body back to its normal behaviour. Hence, only very small amounts of a fluid horsetail preparation are needed. Or safe.
Horsetail is indigestible. Not in the way that resistant starch or other prebiotic fibres are indigestible by the body but taken up and used by the gut bacteria. It's like microscopic shards of glass that pass through the system and end up, somehow, in the kidneys. Ouch.
Interestingly, the earliest sign that horsetail is harming you doesn't come as an ache in the kidneys, but a feeling of slight uneasiness. Just feeling a little out of sorts. Maybe jittery. Who would attribute that to the horsetail? Hardly anyone. Yet ignoring that feeling, that oh so subtle message from your body, is done at your peril.
Horsetail is also touted as being antifungal, which it can be, sometimes, under ideal circumstances. We once knew only to pick horsetail when very young from open sunny areas. It tends to grow under trees and in early spring can be found growing in sunny patches, but once the tree canopy has filled in, it's in the shade and damp and has taken up the fungal growth that goes on in its environment. This fungus can't be seen or smelled, it doesn't hurt the plant, but it can mess with the human who ingests it, especially those who have sensitivities in the first place. Oh the irony, eh?
Commercial pickers don't - can't, to be cost effective - ensure every plant is picked under ideal conditions, and just a few spores can spread the fungus throughout the whole lot. Horsetail is difficult to dry and store, and will again moulder under less than ideal circumstances, so even a commercial tea should be viewed with suspicion. And remember, unless you have a high powered microscope, there is no way to know if it's clean or not. Is it worth the risk?
Meanwhile, oats can do for your nails and hair what you wanted horsetail to do! Safely, too. But it's not like the supplement industry is going to tell you that - although yes, you can buy 'milky oat tincture' and yes, it's safe. For fungal issues, there's calendula. In fact, there are many plants for either issue that can be used more safely than horsetail.
Be smart. Educate yourself. Every time you hear tell of a medicinal herb or wild food you think you might want to try, look up the possible side effects and pay attention to that information. Dig, go down rabbit holes, find out about the traditional uses (if there are any, and if there aren't, you may well wonder why not) and use your best judgement and abundant caution in your decision making process.
You also need to understand whatever health issues you're trying to deal with in the first place, and that's a lot of work too. Is your skin acting up because of what you put on it, or is it from something you're eating (or not eating)? Is that a grumbling gall bladder or is it actually a rib problem? Do you have "terrible PMS" because your hormones are out of whack or is it that your teenagers are actually monsters? (lol)
If you can't commit to the amount of work and research and deep thinking required to choose the right plants for your situation, or if indeed you need them at all, this self reliant path might not be for you. That's what this is, you know. Self reliance.
The self reliant person can't afford too much wide eyed idealism. You need a little, to be sure, but you also need a rapier sharp bullshit detector. You need the ability to recognize an authentic, as opposed to authoritative, voice when you hear one. Patience, too, and humility, so that you can take the time necessary to learn all the skills and terms of the trade. That applies to life in general, not just learning about wild plants as medicine or food, of course.
I don't spoon feed my readers because I want you guys to do your own research and try things out for yourself (and if I'm lucky, you'll share that so I can learn from you, too). Links in posts too often breed complacency; if I keep offering you sources of information you're less likely to look for your own. This is your journey, I can't make it for you. I only share my hands-on experience so you know it can be done, safely, and that it's darn fun, too.
More medicine chest posts coming up, and remember, I take requests. If there's something you'd like me to write about my experiences with, just ask.
And wow, keep those great questions coming!
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