The half-wild apothecary garden - with pics

I was just telling someone about how so many of the Medicine Plants that grow in my garden do so without any input from me, the supposed gardener. In many if not most cases I just stand back and let them do their thing. Whether birds bring in the seeds or they've lain dormant in the soil just waiting for permission and the right conditions, who knows - but the ones that just come up of their own accord are some of my favourites.

The story of my cannabis "allergy"

This isn't really just a story about cannabis per se - which I'll probably refer to as pot or weed for the rest of this post, seeing as how I'm Canadian and to my mind "cannabis" just sounds pretentious - so much as it's a story of discovery. About what works, and what doesn't, for my particular allergy symptoms, and about how I figured that out. (hint, painfully).

For you see, although "they say" that an allergic response is a matter of histamine, that's actually kind of meaningless information when you're going through it. When one person gets runny eyes and nose, another will get dry sinuses and headaches. Where one will have a wet cough, another will get a swollen, dry throat. And if, as happens to me, antihistamines only make you feel sick and spun out and the symptoms don't abate under the influence of the drugs, the point is moot.

And no, I haven't been tested to see if this is, in fact, a true allergy. It might instead be - as many so called allergy symptoms are - a healthy response from my body to get rid of an irritant.

A very strong response that if I I ignored, it would be to my peril.

Spring tonic herbs - getting rid of the grunge

Spring has finally sorta kinda sprung here, touch wood; Paul (my husband, hibernating partner through this long awful winter and faithful keeper of the fire to the point I think he deserves a medal) still has the the wood stove going at night and again in the morning to take the chill off, but the days are far, far better than they were. We had blizzards and ice storms in April! No fair!!

Anyhoo -

There's a blog I pop into once in a while where they're currently discussing the idea of cleansing toxins while losing weight. Because we store toxins in fat cells, when we lose weight, that crud all goes back into circulation; that can be nasty, and it's a very good reason NOT to lose weight too quickly. As I've been offering my 2 cents worth in comments there it's twigging my memory of all the really great options that we have available at this time of year for getting rid of what I like to call the grunge ..

Vinegar walk

(Originally published 7 June 2015 here )

High summer is coming on fast, and that means a change in the plants I'm gathering.

The first round of picking stimulates the growth of stinging nettle, but once you've done a second round, they start to need a rest. If we get rainy cool weather there will be a third round, but if not, nothing until fall. After they flower and set seed, nettles get a rush of new leaves on the old stalks, tender and delicious for those last few meals. Of course I harvest nettle seeds, too, they're such excellent medicine for exhausted adrenals. But while the plants are ragged, while they flower and before that last rush of growth, nettle leaves get too strong and they can actually damage the kidneys if picked at the wrong time.