Читать книгу Self-Sufficiency: Natural Home Remedies - Melissa Corkhill - Страница 10

It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with what plants grow in your area. Spend time in the garden with a notebook to record what you find. Make drawings, press leaves and flowers between the pages and take notes. It doesn’t have to be scientific. Make notes about what you see and how you interpret the plants around you. Ask questions – does it have large or small leaves? What are they shaped like? Is it flowering now? Where is the plant growing – in shade or full sun? Soon you will start to build up a good knowledge of the plants growing in your backyard, then you can start to learn about their healing properties. Don’t expect this knowledge to come all at once. I have been working with and learning about plants for over 15 years and there is still so much more to learn, but each season I gather a bit more knowledge about what I can use to help heal my family.

Once you have studied the plants in your area, take your notebook further afield and observe the hedgerows around your home, local wasteland or park. Make notes on what is growing or flowering now, what is coming up and where you found it. Highlight plants to visit again in a couple of weeks time. For example, if you spot an elder covered with tiny white buds in mid-Spring, make a note to come back in a week and you’ll be rewarded with plumes of frothy white flowers that can be harvested to make an excellent remedy for hayfever. Soon you will have built up knowledge of your local plants; you will possess an invaluable resource for when it comes to treating your body holistically. You can use your knowledge to create a map of natural healing remedies that are easily accessible in your area.

It will soon start to become second nature to brew up a batch of nettle tonic in early spring or to harvest a couple of handfuls of hawthorn berries in the autumn to make a hearty concoction of hawthorn brandy that can be used to treat heart conditions in the months ahead. For these and many more recipes, take a look inside.