Episode Five - Growing Health: Plants as Food & Medicine
Discuss
The adjective “eclectic” is defined as “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.” What do you think it means when applied to medicine? What range of sources did the Eclectics draw from?
The Eclectic Medical Institute was founded in Worthington, Ohio in 1833, moved to Cincinnati in 1839, and closed a hundred years later, in 1939. What made Ohio especially hospitable to eclecticism during those years? What changed?
What would you find in King’s American Dispensatory? What does the term “materia medica” mean? How do materia medica differ from contemporary pharmaceuticals?
The Soda Pharm “blends an apothecary with a modern take on the old fashioned soda fountain.” What’s an “apothecary”? Why would apothecaries be drawn to mixing syrups with seltzer water to create “sodas” (aka pop)?
Look up the derivation of “Coke,” “Pepsi” and “Lithiated Lemon Soda” (7 Up). What happened to these concoctions when they became mass-marketed beverages?
Many of the plants Janet Lasley mentions tend to be regarded as “weeds:” dandelions, purslane, lambs quarters, clover. What’s the difference between weeds and cultivated crops?
What are some of the reasons ginseng, goldenseal, ramps and other plants are endangered?
Listen
Real Herbalism Radio is a podcast filled with a variety of useful information about herbalism, medicine-making, ritual and more.
Medicine Stories is a podcast hosted by herbalist Amber Magnolia Hill. Her goal with the podcast is to encourage people to pay attention to what stirs their soul through nature, ancestry, dreams, consciousness-expanding experiences and substances, trauma and loss, and healing in all its many forms. She interviews herbalists, story keepers, ancestral listeners, consciousness explorers, earth dreamers, and other wise folk in an effort to explore the mythic journeys people undertake when coming to know themselves.
The Herbal Highway podcast is hosted by Karyn Sanders and Sarah Holmes, Emiliano Lemus and Renee Camila. It supports Indigenous land rights, protection of sacred sites and the sustainability of the Earth as integral parts of individual, community and global healing and promotes community knowledge of herbal medicine.
In Defense of Plants is another great podcast hosted by Matt Candeias, with a focus on plant conservation. And showing the world that plants are interesting organisms in their own right.
Watch
In this talk, botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer discusses “The teachings of plants: finding common ground between traditional and scientific knowledge”
Read
Links
United Plant Savers was one of the stories featured in this month’s episode. United Plant Savers’ mission is to protect native medicinal plants of the United States and Canada and their native habitat while ensuring an abundant renewable supply of medicinal plants for generations to come. The work of United Plant Savers involves research, education, and conservation of native medicinal plants and their habitats.
The mission of the Lloyd Library and Museum, featured in this month’s podcast, is to advocate for education in plant-based science, medicine, conservation, art and history. They provide resources to engage visitors and researchers from the community and around the globe.
This link from the Lloyd Library gives detail about the history of Eclectic Medicine featured in the podcast.
More information here about the Lloyd brothers and Eclectic Medicine.
Here is some interesting information featured in a Smithsonian article on the history of ginseng in the United States.
Dawn Combs, interviewed in this episode, is the author of Sweet Remedies. She is the co-owner of the herbal health farm Mockingbird Meadows, chief soda jerk at her family’s unique storefront apothecary called Soda Pharm and the master formulator of their herb- and honey-based products. Trained in ethnobotany, she travels across the country to speak about botanical wellness using functional foods and home health proficiency. She writes a column, Roots Rx, for Heirloom Gardener magazine and is a regular contributor to Mother Earth Living, Mother Earth News, and Hobby Farms. She has written two previous books about herbal healing.
The American Botanical Council is an excellent source for reliable herbal information, including the expandedCommission E monographs, scientifically researched information on a number of specific medicinal plants, sponsored by the German government, where plant medicine is much more widely recognized.
Books
Wendy Geniusz is the director of American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Her book Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings, (2009) provides valuable context and information on traditional ecological knowledge and demonstrates ways that indigenous peoples are taking back control of previously colonized research on botanical knowledge of plants indigenous to this region.
Michael Castleman’s first chapter of The New Healing Herbs: the Essential Guide to More Than 130 of Nature’s Most Potent Herbal Remedies (2017), provides a very helpful overview of 5000 years of herbal healing across multiple cultures, along with context for the collapse of professional herbal medicine in the United States.
Londa Schliebinger’s Plants and Empire, Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (2004) is an excellent read on botanical prospecting, plant movement and loss, knowledge extinction and abuse of Indigenous Caribbeans and enslaved Africans during the colonial period.
Steven K Buhner’s The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth. (2002) offers accessible and fascinating information on plant communication and how Western culture has not provided entryway to perceive these messages from plants. He also provides a compelling critique of technological medicine.
In Thus Spoke the Plant, A Remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters with Plants, (2018) by Monica Gagliano, plant sentience is the focus. This book helps to awaken senses as well as spirit.
Do
Herbal Bug Spray
Any one of these plant-based essential oils help to keep mosquitoes at bay. Here is a recipe that combines several. If you can afford only one, lemon eucalyptus essential oil works especially well.
· 30 drops geranium essential oil
· 30 drops citronella essential oil
· 20 drops lemon eucalyptus essential oil
· 20 drops lavender essential oil
· 10 drops rosemary essential oil
· 1 TBSP vodka
· ½ cup witch hazel
· ½ cup water
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a glass spray bottle. Shake well to combine. Shake before each use as the oils and water will naturally separate some over time.
Herbal all-purpose salve
There are many good recipes for making a homemade salve. This recipe from the Herbal Academy gives easy-to-use instructions.
Herbal First Aid Kit
Identify local plants in your area, along with easy to purchase herbs that can be useful for common first aid needs such as cuts, scrapes, bruises, and bites. Here are several websites that offer ideas for what to put in your kit and how to make them.
https://seekingjoyfulsimplicity.com/diy-herbal-first-aid-kit/
https://rootsy.org/herbal-remedies-for-preparedness/
https://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/make-your-own-natural-first-aid-kit
Eat
Garlic Mustard Pesto
In this podcast, we learned that ramps are in danger of extinction from overharvesting. On the other hand, garlic mustard is considered an invasive plant, and can be used in similar recipes. It also makes an excellent pesto. To make:
Gather and chop about 10 cups lightly packed garlic mustard leaves and tips,
Add:
½ cup ground walnuts
1-2 cloves garlic
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
¾-1 cup extra virgin olive oil
teaspoon salt to taste
1 teaspoon honey
Juice from ½ lemon
Mix all together and serve over pasta.
Energy Balls
Many people call Rosemary Gladstar the mother of American herbalism. She has written numerous books on herbs, most of which provide numerous recipes for herbal teas and tinctures, tonics, syrups, liniments, poultices and salves. Here is an adaptation of her very popular recipe for Zoom Balls. Try them!
“Energy balls” are a delicious and healthy combination of nut butter, natural sweetener, and powdered herbs. Experiment with adding additional ingredients like shredded coconut, chopped nuts, chocolate, dried fruit, or spices like nutmeg, cinnamon or five spice powder.
Ingredients:
4 cups of nut butter (such as almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, tahini or a combination of these.
2 cups honey (use less or more, to your taste. You could also try maple syrup).
½-1 cup powdered herbs.
For energy, Rosemary uses herbs such as guarana, kola nut, Siberian ginseng, Asian ginseng and cardamom powder. You can also add nutmeg to taste, if you want.
For general health, you could use “adaptogenic” herbs which are defined as safe to take over long periods of time, and which help with stress. Some examples of adaptogenic herbs include ashwagandha, eleuthero, holy basil, milky oats, and stinging nettle.
Fun add-ins:
1 package chocolate or carob chips
1 cup finely chopped nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, etc.
8 ounces shredded coconut
Up to 2 ounces bee pollen
Dipping chocolate
Instructions
Mix all ingredients, roll into small balls and chill. If dipping, melt dipping chocolate and dip balls one by one into melted chocolate, placing on wax paper to cool.
Store in a cool, dark place.