You just have to start where you are.
So, where are you?
How do you even figure out where you are?
Remember when I suggested this?
"Bring out every vitamin, supplement, green drink mix, fish oil, tincture, capsule, probiotic, prebiotic and essential oil that you have used over the last 30 days - including the ones in your cosmetics and toiletries and "green" cleaning products, because they certainly count! - and lay them out in front of you." reminder link
If you're hankering to break up with that jerk Big Herb, then you have another good reason to take a critical look at the products you've been using. (Or better yet, the few items you were left with when you whittled it down after that 30 day break I recommended.) You need to know what - if anything - in that pile of stuff is essential to you.
What you're trying to find is the necessities - by your own definition. But it's not the products themselves that are the necessities, it's what you want them to do for you. You're going to have to open your mind to the
And then, challenge yourself to find a way to source the solutions you need closer to home. Much closer.
"Necessity is the mother of invention. A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem". - So saith Plato, and who are we to argue with Plato?
I've encouraged you, time and again, to look down at what's already growing at your feet. What are the weeds in your flowerbeds and lawn? What's coming up in the cracks in your driveway or between your patio stones?
These tell you where you are.
The chances are very, very good that these weeds are going to be of use to you. Nature does that, it's one of the Big Mysteries of Life that the most humble of weeds are the most useful. Plantain, dandelion, chickweed, violet, mullein - and others depending on your climate - between them, will cure almost any ill, provide almost every nutrient that's in a bottle of vitamins, feed your gut bacteria with prebiotics, balance your hormones, soften your skin .. oh heck, let's do a little review of these, shall we?
Please note: "spp." in the Latin name indicates "various species".
Plantain (Plantago spp.) - Chew & spit a fresh leaf onto any bug bite or sting for instant relief. The same will draw out splinters and infections. A tea of the leaves can be used to clean wounds, help to heal a stomach ulcer or leaky gut. Used as a mouthwash, plantain leaf and/or root will resolve an abscessed tooth and is a good long term remedy for gum diseases. The seeds can be used like Psyllium (they're cousins) or added to oatmeal or baked goods for their prebiotic fibre.
Dandelion (Taraxicum officinal) - The flowers can be used to make wine or a syrup that's almost indistinguishable from honey (it will even contain pollen, like good honey should). The stems, chewed raw, are recommended for pancreatic health. The leaves are a friend to the kidneys, somewhat diuretic but so loaded with minerals that there is a net gain, not loss as there would be with diuretic drugs. They're especially nice made into a mineral rich vinegar. Leaves and roots contain inulin, a prebiotic (gut bug food). Roots are a friend to the liver and can also relieve depression/anger issues. The root or root/leaf tincture, just a few drops taken before meals, balances stomach acids, resolves indigestion and allows the better absorption of minerals from food, thereby helping to prevent age related bone loss and joint pain.
Chickweed (Stellaria spp.) - The leaves can be used as a poultice or a soothing compress made by soaking a cloth in the tea, to resolve eye infections. The leaves are highly nutritious (and very tasty!), eaten raw or as an infusion (tea brewed for 4 hr or more) but they are best used fresh, not dried. Chickweed contains saponins that (may) aid in weight loss and definitely aid in balancing hormones. The tincture made from fresh chickweed taken regularly resolves that oh-so-uncomfortable issue of dry vaginal tissues.
Violet (Viola spp.) - The flowers, made into a (pretty, purple) syrup, make a gentle effective laxative for that is safe enough for children. The leaves are moistening, use them in face packs or the tea as a moisturising face wash, or internally to soothe a dry mouth or throat. As an ointment or compress, they can be used externally to dissolve cysts and fibrous lumps, especially when used alongside tincture or tea taken internally. Like plantain, violet will draw out splinters and infections if the leaves are used as a spit poultice.
Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) - The flowers that come in the second year are infused in oil and used as a remedy for earache. As a tea or tincture they relieve pain and promote sleep. The leaves, smoked, used as a tea, inhaled as a steam or made into a syrup are a remedy for coughs due to 'stuck' phlegm. The leaves as a poultice or a cloth soaked in the tea and used as a compress resolve swollen glands anywhere on the body (including testicles). The leaves and roots, used externally (or in some cases tincture taken internally) resolve bursitis, slipped discs, cracked ribs, broken toes and speed healing of larger broken bones.
That was all just off the top of my head, check the sidebar for more information on these little jewels.
If you're about to tell me you don't have weeds, then I must ask you why not? Have you been dutifully yanking them out? Well, next time, let them grow on a bit, then have a closer look before you yank them. Find out their names and do the research. You might be able turn them into something, rather than tossing them on the compost pile.
Or have you no weeds because you've been spraying them away with chemicals? If so, then a great big fingerwagging tsk to you!
What were you thinking??
You're not alone, of course. Many, many people don't see the irony of buying organic groceries yet spraying their own yard with the very same chemicals they want to avoid in their food. It's idiotic, really, but then people have been trained to not think clearly. Large sectors of the economy depend upon people not thinking clearly. I forgive you, so you should forgive yourself.
But cut it the hell out.
By the way, it's not the end of the world if your yard has herbicide residue. It doesn't last forever (if it did, you wouldn't have had to keep spraying, now would you?). Just stop. And watch the weeds come back. Do they look healthy? Once they do - meaning a nice healthy green, no misshapen leaves - the residue is gone. You may now use your weeds.
And I wish you would.
Big Herb has turned consumers into snobs. It promotes the idea that exotic = better, and as you can see from the review of those few common plants above, that's just not the case.
As well as the weeds, there are other plants at your fingertips. Many of the common flowers and perennials we grow are useful to humans. Look yours up, see what they can do for you.
I've seen hedges of barberry and even - yes! - goji. Don't be fooled into thinking that goji berries are some exotic from the Himalayas. They're tough, weedy shrubs that will grow anywhere, adapting to almost any soil or climate. All parts of the plant are useful from growing tips of new leaves to the roots. They've been grown as hedges in Britain and some parts of the US for a couple of hundred years, and often escape into the wild. Besides - do you really want to rely on dried up little fruits shipped in from the Himalayas? You do know that region is claimed by both India and China, right? Neither of those countries has a stellar record for farming techniques or labour practices .. but I digress .. sorry ..
The common cedar hedge isn't something you should use internally, but if you take some clippings, dry them, crumble them up and mix them with dried sage, then burn just a little of that in an ashtray or large shell, you have what's called "smudge", a woodsy incense of sorts that literally disinfects the air. Say a prayer or affirmation as the smoke rises towards the heavens. It's far safer than any "essential oil".
(Okay, I can't resist; here is Susun Weed on essential oils. And to think, I almost got away with a post with no links!)
There are the trees around you, am I right? Is there oak in your neighbourhood? Have a look at the leaves. Are the "lobes" rounded or pointed? If rounded, you've found white oak, and you can collect twigs and small branches, peel them, and from those little strips of bark you can make a very effective mouthwash for troubled gums and weak enamel. Add a little violet leaf or something from one of the mallow family to moisten your mouth, because dry mouth is the root of most oral problems, and maybe a smidge of plantain to draw out any infection. Try that instead of "oil pulling". It's cleaner, safer, and tastes better. (But for heaven's sake, don't add essential oils to it like some people do.)
Are there pine trees in your neighbourhood? Come spring, watch for that yellow stuff they're shedding, that's pollen. Collect it! As is, it is loaded with nutrients, just like "bee pollen". Tincture it, and you have good support for men in andropause. Look it up. I bet you have linden trees, too. Oh linden, that beautiful, fragrant and common city tree - the flowers promote sleep and also normalise blood pressure, up or down as needed.
Fruit trees, bushes and hedges, even the so-called ornamentals, all have their uses, too, beyond just the fruit. The leaves and bark are useful too. Do you have a peach tree in your neighbourhood? If so, I'm jealous. Peach leaf is a wonderful medicine. Look it up. Cherry bark, too. The young leaves and buds of currant bushes, the leaves of raspberry or blackberry. Look them all up!
In other words, look down at your feet, around at your surroundings, up at the trees. That's where you are, so that is where you start. That's Underground Medicine you're looking at, it's all around you, even in the city. Perhaps especially in the city. Knowing this is the keys to your freedom from Big Herb's clutches.
That's your reality check.
The reality is that you are going to find more valuable plants this way than you ever will by throwing your money into the quest. There's more variety there than you'll see any health food store, supplement aisle or website supplier. By learning to recognize these weeds and trees and flowers in every season, and learning when and how and why to use them, you're training your mind to think in new ways. And by learning to make tinctures and oils and teas and smudge and mouthwashes from what's already there, where you are, you'll build essential skills so that all of this becomes second nature in no time.
This is something that takes money out of the equation entirely. So whether you're someone who hardly has any (like yours truly) or someone who has plenty to invest, just put the damn monetary value of any of this out of your mind. That might be the hardest part of this for those who think of themselves as 'consumers' or even 'educated consumers' to wrap their head around.
This isn't consumption, it's something other.
It's an unfolding, a new version of reality opening up before you. It will reveal itself only insofar as you allow it to, only insofar as you are open to seeing everything through "the unworn corners of the eyes", as Stephen Harrod Buhner puts it.
There you go. I don't think anything more needs to be said.
An epilogue, of sorts:
I'd like to thank the small gang of readers, some new, some that have been hanging around for years, for the questions asked, the frustrations expressed and the ideas given to me that have nudged me to keep going with this blog.
To those of you who are new, keep exploring through the index on the sidebar; there's a lot of information about the plants I work with and the various things I do with them that I probably won't want to write over again, but that you'll want to learn. Keep asking questions, either by email or comment, I'm always happy to help or point you in the right direction. I like the questions, they keep me sharp.
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