Plant Nations

When my oldest son was five, he backed into our wood stove and got a nasty, big burn on his back.  I consulted my natural healing book and put honey on his burn.  Then my mother called the doctor.  He told us to take the honey off.  I left it on.  My son’s burn healed quickly and beautifully with no signs at all of any kind of infection.  (If the burn had been very serious, I would have taken him to the doctor.)

Today I learned (from my new friends at www.learningherbs.com) that a poultice of grated raw potato effectively pulls the heat out of a burn.  First you run cold water on the burn while someone grates a raw potato.  Then you take the burn out of the water and put on a wad (poultice) of the grated raw potato.  You can put on fresh potato wads as needed until the burn feels better. Then you can put on the honey and a sterile bandage.

Learningherbs also reminds us about the old vinegar remedy for burns in which you wrap a burn in a clean cloth soaked in apple cider vinegar.  I have never tried this, but if I don’t have a grated potato handy, I will!

I discovered an exciting herb site yesterday.  It may be the best one I have found so far. Take a look at: www.learningherbs.com.  They have free courses presented on video. You can watch a video they made on making nettles infusion:  www.revver.com/video/1130170/nettle-infusion-herbal-nutrition-with-herbal-infusions/.

A decade ago I went to an herb use class.  Manuela (the herbalist) told us about making infusions and incorporating them into our daily lives, but somehow it is so much more helpful to SEE it than to just hear about it.  Then you can see the simplicity of the process. You know you can do it yourself.  And for me it is always so amazing that you can receive so much benefit from something so simple.

The plants just give up their goodness and their power to us! Just like that!  Magic!

I have now achieved a luxuriant growth of chard.  This happened because each year I built the thin soil in my rocky, shady garden bed.  All that compost, manure, and straw has begun to make a difference.

Because I live in the woods and my site has shade moving across it throughout the day, I concentrate on growing greens there, and put the super sun lovers in at my mother’s house.  Some sun lovers are doing pretty well in my garden, however.  I have some pretty happy herbs, and yearly tomato volunteers.

In my current garden I have so far failed to achieve an abundant growth of Swiss Chard. It grows slowly, stays small, and I never have enough to meet my needs, especially since it cooks down so much.

Curly Dock (in my opinion) has too mild a flavor to stand alone, but I finally thought to add a bunch of dock to bulk out my sauteed chard. It was excellent! I turned out a true mess of greens. (Finally plenty to go around!) The chard provided depth, breadth, bite, and complexity of taste while the dock provided needed volume and a new light, lemony top note!

Sinia Kester (left) with Martha Baker

My great-great grandmother, Sinia Louisa (Price) Kester, was a traditional herbalist. Back when she lived, (in northwestern Arkansas) traditional healing was about all there was, and she was one of those who knew the plants. She kept her medicine plants in a little black bag she carried with her at all times.