YOU CAN DO THIS!

I'm in a mood, folks.

It could even be said I'm in several moods at once. I was in a real snit, earlier (you can read this post over on my other blog if you want to know just how snitty I was).

There are still vestiges of that snit, but at least there's now a healthy helping of humility to balance it out.

If you were one of the dozen or so people to actually watch the video in the last post here, and if you've been a regular reader, you know that some of us are pretty concerned (putting it lightly) with the problems inherent in commercial herbalism. As far as I can tell, Big Herb has a lot to answer for. Not only is it responsible for the decimation of medicinal plants in the wild all over the planet, it's also guilty of gas-lighting the public about how, when and why to use medicinal plants in the first place.



By the way, I include most "Naturopathic" practitioners under the category of Big Herb. The umbrella is a large one. Any individual or organisation that participates in or recommends or advertises the sale or use of factory-produced supplements, powders, tinctures, extracts, standardized extracts, essential oils, super foods, super herbs (I'm looking at you, Big Cannabis) .. is guilty either by commission or association.

If they use the term "plant based medicine", they're charlatans.

Fuck them all, and fuck anyone who is too wilfully blind not to see through them, too.

There. Glad I got that off my chest.

That was the snit, now for the humility part.

I have to acknowledge that I'm only one small voice shouting against a very strong wind. And that what I have to say - plant medicine is best when grown in our own back yards and prepared with our own hands - sounds like crazy talk. And it sounds impossible for most people to achieve. But it only sounds that way because Big Herb has donned a white coat of authority and made people believe that they don't have the skill set, they don't have the "education" .. etc.

It's true, most people don't have the education. But that education is as simple as can be. If you can learn to identify vegetables and fruits in a grocery store you can learn to identify the plants in your back yard. If you can boil water, you can make an herbal remedy.

It's simply a matter of applying your attention. It's simply a matter of focusing your intention towards learning - really learning - a few basics.

Another of the ways Big Herb "gaslights" the public is in perpetuating the belief that the more exotic the plant, the better the remedy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most effective (and safest!) of our medicinal plants are the common "weeds" right under our noses. Plantain, mullein, cleavers, red clover, dandelions, even St John'swort - all of these, I promise you, are to be found somewhere near you. They're growing in your driveway, along the fence of the nearest school yard, at the edges of the Walmart parking lot. While you might not want to pick them from those areas (although in an emergency I wouldn't hesitate) you can learn to identify them there. You can collect seeds or transplant them and get them established in your own yard. You can tuck them in among your prettier perennials (and many of them are pretty in their own right) or intersperse them with your standard vegetables where they will thrive.

Others are already growing in your flower beds - roses, purple cone flower (that's echinacea), carnations, violets, lavender all have health giving, life enhancing properties. If you're growing kitchen herbs, you're growing medicine - thyme, basil, sage, oregano.

When you cook, you're already using herbal medicine - garlic, onions, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, even salt. All the spices and herbs we use for flavouring are healers. Home cooked food, after all, is the best medicine.

How do you think Big Herb got the idea for things like curcumin (turmeric) supplements? And why do they add "piperine" (black pepper)? Because Indian mamas and grandmas have long used those spices, not only in cooking, but they'd also spread them on a chapati and give them to their loved ones to treat colds, flu's and tummy bugs.

Don't be tempted by the "convenience" of capsules. Instead, let me tell you of real convenience - a garden full of medicine.

I was just outside in my own garden and started to count all the medicinal plants I have out there, some planted, some that just sprang up. I lost count. Some are single specimens, some are quite large colonies. Here's a partial list for you to look at. See what jumps out at you and says "grow me!" or even "hey, I have that, it's medicine?".

I have:

Plantain, dandelions, stinging nettles, yellow dock, red clover, golden rod, asters, roses, St John'swort, comfrey, burdock, calendula, violets, pansies, chamomile, mullein, mallows, yarrow, monarda (aka bergamot or sweetleaf), self heal, horsetail, chickweed, shepherd's purse, wild ginger, Solomon's seal, echinacea (purpurea and angustofolia), motherwort, lady's mantle, sage(s), vervain, cleavers, mint(s), evening primrose - those are the medicinals and no doubt I've forgotten a few.

Our land is only about 1/5th of an acre. Part of that is taken up by the house, Paul's studio/shed, a woodshed and the wood chopping area and of course the driveway. So, it's not a huge growing space, really. Yet I have all those medicinal plants, plus we've put in fruit trees that are now quite large - 3 apple trees, a crab apple, 2 pear trees and 2 plum trees, there's a currant bush that's threatening to take over and a rather big planting of rhubarb. And we have vegetables here and there.

So you see, a lot can be done in a smaller space than you might expect. My medicinals are in mixed in with flowers in 3 main beds and along the edges of the lawn (some, like the self heal, are in the lawn, ha!). The beds are maybe 10' by 10' (they're not exactly symmetrical so it's hard to say).

I like my yard chaotic, but it needn't be. Medicinal herbs grow nicely in formal beds, too (look at monastery gardens, for instance). It happens that my favourite medicinals are wild plants so I let them be wild, but you don't have to. And lots of these plants will grow happily in pots.

My point is that no matter how overwhelming it looks, this business of growing your own medicinal plants is simple, rewarding and a lovely thing to do. And it's a hell of a lot better than swallowing a dose of Big Herb's evil ways.

And while I do gather other medicinal (and edible) plants from the wild, and I encourage you to do so as well, there is no reason to go for the native plants - however useful they may be - that are dwindling in number. If you do your research, you will always find a common, plentiful plant that will do the job just as well - sometimes better. Remember, Big Herb likes to tempt you into believing only the exotic and rare is useful and that's a Big Fat Lie.

IF you are certain you need a plant that's endangered in the wild and nothing else will do, find someone who grows it and buy from them. Beware the phrase "sustainably wildcrafted". Plants like goldenseal, chaga and other medicinal mushrooms, American ginseng, the cohosh family, false unicorn root and trillium (bethroot) are among some of the most popular and most likely to be taken from land that can least spare them.

Please, don't participate in the decimation of plants in the wild. Please, don't take capsules full of dust. Please, don't take Big Herb's word for it that standardized extracts are safer. Nature doesn't need standardization. That's just another gas-lighting trick to keep you lining their pockets and blinded to their lies.

Go have (another) look at my recommended reading and viewing list, take heart, go out there and learn!