The botanical medicine cabinet With a little care, you can find herbal remedies growing around you BY JODI DELONG ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRENDA JONES
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Beautifully illustrated by the author, Medicinal Herbs of Eastern Canada is the perfect field guide for your summer hikes and quick reference to sowing your own herb garden at home.
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eastcoastliving.ca
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ong ago while a student at the former Nova Scotia Agricultural College (now the Dalhousie University Agricultural Campus), I grew interested in wild plants, for gardening, culinary and medicinal purposes. A presentation I did on useful wild plants began with a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, in which he stated, “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Go outside and walk around in your back yard, and you’ll be fascinated— amazed, even—at the plethora of common plants that you may know as weeds, but which in fact have virtues as healing herbs. Take for example, broad-leafed plantain, a ubiquitous plant that grows just about anywhere—in meadows and ditches, on roadsides and beaches. Its fibrous network of roots make it oft-cursed by gardeners—including this one—but it is a valuable plant with a number of purposes. I have a jar of plantain cream, made by a friend who runs a small business, which I use on insect bites, assorted cuts and scrapes from gardening, and other injuries. It’s also useful as a sunscreen and a paw protector for dogs in winter—all this from a lowly “weed.” Among other wild plants that are known as beneficial herbs are the lowly dandelion, useful as a pot herb (leaves) and an ingredient in both jellies and wine (flowers); valerian, which is a boon to pollinators and to those struggling with sleep issues; and chickweed, useful as a potherb, in a poultice or in the bath. Brenda Jones knows and loves wild herbs. The Charlottetown, P.E.I. woman published an exquisitely beautiful book in 2020, Medicinal Herbs of Eastern Canada. (Nimbus, $22.95). Not only is it highly useful and packed with information on how to use many common wild herbs of our region, but it’s also illustrated by the authors own artwork. Brenda meticulously created paintings of each herb profiled in her book, from the glorious blue flowers of chicory to the otherworldly pitcher plant, provincial flower of Newfoundland and Labrador. Brenda’s relationship with nature and with herbs goes back many years, but it wasn’t until she returned to her home province of P.E.I. a few years ago that
SUMMER 2021
