OMG! It arrived! My delivery from Horizon Herbs with loads of medicinal herbs in it! Hallelujah!
HERE is who I ordered from. While I have been falling in love lately again and all over with herbs and their culinary uses - think mint, lavender (chocolate scones), sage, oregano, borage (try flowers in your salad), thyme and rosemary (roasted chicken with roasted potatoes) - my even deeper and older love goes for their positive and powerful medicinal effects on us humans.
While pregnant with Ms D, my wonderful midwife Jeanne had introduced me to raspberry leaf tea and through my gardening class, someone had brought hibiscus tea into my life, and then while pregnant, I started using an herbal mix that was supposed to prep my uterus for birth. Apparently the effect on me was so strong (read: i am that sensitive) that I went into contractions. Roberto was taken by the power of these 'weeds'.
So, with all their amazing powers, I wanted to plant them in my garden, so we could put them to use anytime we needed them.
Who inspired my love for herbs? I cannot possibly tell. It seems it was always there. Whether my sister and I munched the sweet red clover buds on the meadows in the village I was raised in or my love for fennel or chamomille tea or possibly my mom's cooking which ALWAYS included herbs, dried or fresh!
But I can tell you, who made me want to know herbs better and use them not merely for culinary uses:
Juliette de Bairacle Levy, whose passion and knowledge of herbs is unsurpassed!
Read more about this amazing woman HERE.
So, what did I order and what am I planting or sowing?
Well, it's a bunch and I will keep updating as I keep planting, but along with a bunch of seeds, I received a comfrey root today that needs to go into soil TODAY; moon in virgo, you know.
So, what's the story on comfrey, Symphytum Officinale?
Juliette calls it a 'wonder herb', claiming it's "good for almost every ill of mankind". It is most often used for repairing fractured or broken bones. So, having two wild little girls, this can come in handy,I figured. Some refer to comfrey as 'knit-bone'. It is also good for skin conditions and many natural cosmetics for several skin conditions, contain comfrey. Screams Saturn to me, for the astrologers reading. How to use it? Externally through rubbing leaves on a grater and smear it on or simply rub the leaves on. Of course, you can eat the leaves in a salad or with potatoes.
Read more about comfrey's use in medicine HERE.
How to grow that thing?
You probably can buy a plant but I ordered the root. It is an herbaceous perennial with pretty little purple flowers.
Comfrey is also a good helper in pulling nutrients from deeper parts up to the area more close to the surface due to its vast root system, thus, making it a great plant to grow next to annuals, who need nutrient density closer to surface, especially when starting from seed.
Plant it in a well- spaded area.
It likes full sun.
Dont cut the leaves the first year and wait in the second until about 2 inches when it reaches about 2 feet (yes, they get big!)
Of course, Mother Earth News did an article on COMFREY a bit ago. CLICK HERE.
"Nature never says one thing and wisdom another." Decimus Junius Juvenalis
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