COLUMNIST: grass roots remedies
Summer is a great time to get started with foraging, much that is in season is found in trees or shrubs around eye level, making identification and picking easier for many of us. Most people find flowers one of the easier parts of plants to identify and distinguish between. One green leaf can look much like another, whereas the variety of colours, shapes, and structures of flowers give us much more information about which plant we are looking at.
Flowers are best picked early on a dry day if you intend to dry the flowers to use in teas later in the year - any moisture on the plants can easily lead to mould developing. If you can, and we know this is Scotland, go foraging on a sunny day, when the plants are producing more of the volatile oils that give us their aroma and many of their medicinal properties.
Foraging flowers responsibly by leaving plenty for the other beings who live amongst them is a gentle way to reduce your herbal tea miles. Compared to herbal teas that we buy, foraged or home grown herbal teas are fresher, cheaper, and perhaps more attuned to our local area and needs.
If you’d like to reduce your herbal tea miles by growing your own medicinal plants, many local allotments and community gardens have summer plant sales where you can purchase or sometimes swap plants that you know thrive in your local conditions or look out for open days at our growing sites in Edinburgh at Lauriston Farm and Glasgow at Plot 26.
The plant of the moment for midsummer is St. John’s Wort, Hypericum perforatum, traditionally gathered around St. John’s Day on 24th June and used in rituals to protect people and livestock from evil spirits. These days, you may know St. John’s Wort as a remedy useful for anxiety, it is particularly helpful for low mood when the nights are longer, so we gather it now to use in the darker months.
A favourite foraging walk at this time of year with students is to Lochwinnoch where common valerian, Valeriana officinalis, and meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria, grow together in abundance.
If we’re in luck with the weather, we can pause to inhale the complimentary aromas. The slightly medicinal meadowsweet, reminding us of Germolene, and the heady Valerian, relaxing us and deepening our breath. Gathering armfuls of the meadowsweet, we take it home to dry for teas and make other remedies such as meadowsweet tincture - the number one fall back for preventing and treating heart burn.
Another seasonal treat of the Summer is common lime flower, Tilia x. europea, also often known as linden flower or linden blossom. Lime flowers are sweet and perfumed with a calming effect that relaxes without sedating. As a tea, they can be taken during the day when feeling anxious or panicky, usually without drowsiness, though some folk who are under a lot of pressure may find their body responds to the unusual calmness with a bit of a need to lie down.
City parks are often full of lime trees - if you’re not sure if there are any near you, it can be useful to listen rather than look for them. The flowers attract so many insects that the trees literally buzz with their activity. One of our favourite ways to use lime flower is as an infused vinegar.
LimeflowersApple cider vinegarBottle or jar Strainer muslin or other fine fabric Label
Thoroughly clean a bottle or jar and dry well.
Fill the bottle or jar loosely with lime flowers, keeping them on their stems.
Pour over apple cider vinegar to fill the bottle or jar with an inch or two to spare at the top.
Shake well and place in a cool, dark place.
Shake every few days.
After 3-4 weeks, strain, keeping the liquid and composting the spent flowers.
Bottle the lime flower infused vinegar and label with contents, date, and where you foraged them.
Store in a cool, dark place for up to 2 years.
Add 1 tablespoon of lime flower vinegar per cup, add hot, cold, or sparkling water. It is optional to add 1 teaspoon of sweetener to your drink to create a sweetened vinegar drink.
Catriona Gibson (she/her) is a medical herbalist and foraging tutor with Grass Roots Remedies Co-operative who has a herbal clinic at Woodland Herbs in Glasgow.
Grass Roots Remedies shares practical knowledge about growing, foraging, and making remedies with abundant local plants and also runs an award winning low-cost clinic in Wester Hailes, South Edinburgh. To find out more about courses, including seasonal foraging and home remedy making, click HERE. For more information on the work of Grass Roots Remedies, including volunteering opportunities in Edinburgh and Glasgow, email hello@grassrootsremedies.co.uk.