Wildflowers

in #nature6 years ago


Picking up wildflowers or herbal tea?

Back in the old days people relied on the nature when it came to strengthening immune system and treating various illnesses, most of which today can be easily taken care of with the modern day medicine picked up at the local pharmacy.

Some of the traditional or folk medicine is still going strong here in Latvia. We are still turning to the nature quite often when it comes to our health whether in form of medicinal plants, natural honey, sauna traditions or winter swimming. Can everything be cured with folk medicine today? Not really. Many people died from simple, curable illnesses back at the old days as well.

However, there is extensive wisdom and knowledge of boosting and strengthening one’s health in the folk medicine passed from generation to generation and that in my opinion should not be discarded with no care. I still get a call from my grandmother from time to time, asking what kind of tea she should send over that I’ve not managed to collect myself, though these days all sorts of herbal tea can be bought at specialized nature shops or regular grocery stores, or even at pharmacies. She can go on for hours about different uses of each plant. Who needs Wikipedia?

The best time to pick up plants for tea is right before the summer solstice which is around twenty first or twenty second of June. This year summer started early with a lot of warmth and sunshine. All is blooming early, so I decided to go for a walk to the meadow near the forest on the wildflower, tea hunt.

Oh my! I did not return empty handed! ^^



There are various ways herbal tea can be used not only for consuming in the classical sense. Some plants can be used for inhalations to help with breathing and lung diseases, compresses, cleaning and healing wounds, skin care, as ingredients in handmade soap, in sauna or bathing. So much room for creativity and being mindful about many wonders earth provides us with!



Red clover, Lady’s Mantle or alchemilla and yarrow will be great addition to chamomile, peppermint and lavender from my tiny garden

These will now dry up. If lavender comes along I hope to dabble into the handmade soap creation experiment and use some fun plant combinations. Will see.

Song of the day: Claptone, Zola Blood - Birdsong
Tiny happiness of the day: Morning coffee & Tim Ferriss podcast
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If your grannie is in a good health, she could write you a small herb guide. Just imagine how wonderful gift that would be. :) And you could always give it to the next generations!

If your grannie is in a good health, she could write you a small herb guide. Just imagine how wonderful gift that would be. :) And you could always give it to the next generations!

Hey.. those white ones are "weeds" you said.

What does clover taste like in tea?

Those white ones are called ground elder or bishop's weed so.. it is considered weed here though its leaves can be used in salads.

Clover doesn't taste like anything really. I usually mix it with something else like yarrow.

My grandma told me some health related stuff about ground elder but I can't remember what it was and how this plant should be used.

I thought the white ones were yarrow but hey, I am no hippie so what do I know :P

In the first photo the white ones are ground elders and in the last photo white ones are yarrow. Stems are different and yarrow has lovely, flowery scent while ground elders don't have distinct scent :)

Hey, I don't know if I can be called hippie, haha! Though I've been called hipster before :D

Ooo soap making sounds fun, have you tried those soap berries I think they come from a type of red gum. Would love to see how your garden progresses and how the soap turns out. I enjoy reading about nature alchemists like yourself :)

Woah. Had not heard about soap berries before. Looked it up just now. That is pretty cool! Not sure if they are available here though. Maybe need to ship them from somewhere. Hm :)

I was actually thinking about doing another update on my tiny garden soon! Everything is progressing nicely ^^

Oh dang about the soap berries :( yess for the garden though haha :)

If you like wild herbs and flowers you should try nettle which is very good in pies when used kinda like spinach with some feta cheese for example.

Yeah. It is common here. We use it for salad, pies and soup. Specially spring time :)

Hi m31. We were talking about this the other day how medicines and the health profession have made huge advancements. Someone even mentioned that a long time ago it was known that you could die from drinking ice cold water. Do the soap thing it sounds like fun.

Hey @cryptoandcoffee! ^^ It has indeed made advancements, but there are also issues with it. Sometimes doctors don't ask the right questions and treat only symptoms, prescribe pain medication without discovering causes. Also it seems people focus more on treating illnesses than preventing them and working on boosting overall health and life's quality.

Ah, yeah! I will give it a shot :)

You are right. We have become a pill popping society. Sometimes if they looked at the causes then there would be no need for all the medicine.

-puts on song of the day as usual, to play while I comment-

That's quite the pretty bounty you returned with there =) The only thing I have to say about using herbs, etc, as remedies and teas is, first, that I used to do it and it's great as a creative, practical hobby ^^ but second, that one should also be careful with this... There are stories aplenty of people making themselves sick by either over-dosing on certain plant-teas, or ingesting a herb that was not meant for the purpose they thought it was.

But your beautiful image at the bottom reminded me of another hobby I used to thoroughly enjoy: Flower pressing! ... =) ... They can last years if preserved correctly.

Yeah. Some plants look very similar and while one can be good and even healthy others can be deadly. I only use plants that I recognize and know won't do any harm. Same with berries and mushrooms from forest.

We have a saying here that goes along the lines..if you consume things too much, you do only harm to yourself (in Latvian - Kas par daudz, tas par skādi). Everything in moderation :)

Ah flower pressing. I did that too. I thought about pressing some and paint them as well, you know, like they did in old medical journals or something. Could be fun :)

I can feel calm when I see flowers. Like when drinking herbal tea.

Chamomile, peppermint and lavender sounds like a really awesome tea. Add honey and some lemon and I'm in. I also love homemade herbal soaps and shampoos. I love a piece like this and that there are still people who respect nature and use it the way we're meant to.
Thank you

Back in the old days people relied on the nature when it came to strengthening immune system and treating various illnesses, most of which today can be easily taken care of with the modern day medicine picked up at the local pharmacy.

Some of the traditional or folk medicine is still going strong here in Latvia. We are still turning to the nature quite often when it comes to our health whether in form of medicinal plants, natural honey, sauna traditions or winter swimming. Can everything be cured with folk medicine today? Not really. Many people died from simple, curable illnesses back at the old days as well.

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