Foraging Recipes

Greater plantain (Plantago major) on left, Ribwort plantain (Plantago lancelota) on right Plantain is an old favourite amongst herbalists, with Nicholas Culpepper in the Seventeenth-Century stating: ‘…plantains are singularly good wound herbs, to heal fresh or old wounds, or sores, either inward or outward’. Its Gaelic name ‘San-Lus’ means ‘all heal’. It is a powerful detoxicant, used to treat snakebites, It has been observed in both India and North America that toads and fro

Elderflower Recipes Elderflower is the key ingredient in French liqueur St. Germain, and included in our own Edinburgh Gin. Most European countries from Denmark to Italy consider the Elder sacred, with Danes and old English believing its deep connection with the faerie folk, while Sicilians and Russians believed it drove away evil spirits and bad luck. Elderflower, both as a plant and medicinal herb, was so well known in the time of Nicholas Culpepper in the 1600s, that he

Hawthorn is an essential medicine carried by almost every British herbalist. It is the protector of your most vital organ: the heart. Both flowers and berries contain Oligomeric proanthocyanadins, known to normalise heart function, strengthening heart activity without upping the heart-rate or blood-pressure. Other constituents relax the cardiac blood vessels, bringing more nutrients and oxygen to the heart muscles, helping the heart heal. It also has long traditional use for

Nicholas Culpepper said of Cleavers: ‘It is a good remedy in the spring…to cleanse the blood and strengthen the liver…fitting it for that change of season that is coming’. A spring clean herb, to help move that stagnating lymph, to clean and spruce you up for the new growing year to come. Cleavers and Wild Garlic Pesto Ingredients: ½ cup cleavers leaves (stalks are too stringy, so remove the leaves from stalks) 1½ cup wild garlic leaves ½ cup parmesan cheese (freshly grated