Natural Medicine in the City Day 2

New day, new stuff to do in our workshop on herbalism. We began the day by heating the oil infusion we made last week on our lovely fireplace in the Eco Pavilion. Then we looked at various plants that we can find in the garden and use in herbalism. Finally, we made a hair wash and strained the poplar bud infusion that we will use next week to complete the salve.

I was late at the workshop so by the time I arrived, the oil infusion was already being heated on the fireplace. The smell from the poplar bud infusion was amazing however and brought a nice scent to the room as it slowly heated up. As the infusion was heating, we went outside to find common plants that can be used in herbalism. This week, we were partnered up and sent on a treasure hunt to identify and collect a plant in the garden. My partner and I were responsible for collecting dandelion which turned out to be the "super-plant" of the day. The other plants that were collected were plantain, garlic, oregon grape, sumach, violet and bay laurel. I was actually very surprised at how useful dandelion was. Personally, I grew up hating dandelion as it was the "hard to kill" weed in the family garden that my parents and I attempted to remove multiple times yet never really succeeded. It was also very common and quite frankly, everywhere. That was why I was so surprised to find that dandelion could be used in herbalism, let alone turn out to have so many different uses. I learned that the entire plant could be used and was actually full of vitamins and minerals. Leaves could be used as a salad green and the roots could be used to make a dandelion tea as well. As part of this activity, we drew a human figure on a piece of paper and identified which parts of the human body that the plant can be used on. By the end of the activity, our human figure was quite decorated and covered with arrows and colours that showed where each plant can work on.

The last activity of the day was to make our bay laurel hair rinse. This was surprisingly simple as it only required a pot of water, heating it with crumpled pieces of bay leaves and mixing it with some apple cider vinegar. I have yet to use my hair wash but I will try it once I bring it home. The next part of the activity was to strain the poplar buds from the oil infusion. We waited for the oil to cool first and then using cheese cloth, the buds were strained from the oil. It was to say the least, a very messy task and the oil did spill onto the table. The infusion was also quite sticky as well. However, we were able to collect our jar of infusion that we will use next week to make our salve.

It was a good workshop as we worked towards completing our salve and also made a hair rinse. I enjoyed the treasure hunt and was quite surprised at the number of common plants that I could use in herbalism, as well as how effective they were. Of course, I was particularly surprised at the healing powers of dandelion, a plant I used to hate. Now I can see dandelion in a different light, and not as a nuisance in the garden. Can't wait till the next workshop!