So if you have been following my Marigold video’s on YouTube here is the final instalment, How to Make a Marigold Healing Balm. If not then check out how to plant the seeds and pot on the seedlings on my Marigold page. Although initially I was going to do another planting them out I realised that maybe that would have been overkill on the horticulture and decided to go straight to the main event!

On this vid you can see me gathering Marigolds on my allotment. I love this bit because I am so in love with my allotment. I think you can just make out on either side of the Marigolds my Brassica bed which is producing the most enormous cabbages and cauliflowers at the moment. In the background is a lovely patch of Meadowsweet that lives on the border of our pond that is full of Water Lilly’s. Anyway perhaps I should do a pictorial tour at some point but for now I digress!

Back at the dispensary I then demonstrate how to make the Balm. To make 90g of Balm (which is a lot, you could happily half these amounts and still have a lot of balm!) you will need 80g of coconut oil. This can now be bought from most supermarkets or Asian food shops and is solid at room temperature. If you can’t find any then vegetable shortening will be fine.

Next you need 60g of Marigold flowers. It might be that the amount of balm that you can make will depend on how many flowers you have. If you only have a few plants then you can gather, weigh and dry your flowers whilst more grow. If you keep gathering they will keep coming and within a few weeks you will have enough. Weighing them before drying will mean that you know how much of the fresh flowers you had so that you can follow this recipe, you can mix fresh and dried flowers when making the balm. For the medicinal properties of Marigolds visit my Marigold page.

Ok so you also need 8g of beeswax. This is easily sourced off eBay, Neal’s Yard or Baldwins. If you want to make a vegan balm then you could use cocoa butter or emulsifying wax obtainable from the above. These help to set the balm so that it remains solid at warmer temperatures.

You will also need some Lavender and Tea Tree essential oils. The Lavender is very soothing, anti–inflammatory and also incredibly good for burns. The Tea Tree is anti-microbial and along with the Marigold makes this Balm antiseptic. You could add other essential oils if you like such as Ravensara that combines well with the Tea Tree for cold sores.

Everything else that you need and the instructions of how to make the balm are on the video. Once made the balm will last for a few years as the Marigold and essential oils will preserve it. What tends to happen is the bright gold colour fades and the essential oils evaporate. When this happens you will know that it has lost its potency and its time to make another one!

Use the Balm where ever the skin needs support in healing for example on cuts, grazes, after shaving, on chafing, blisters etc. Or where there is tissue damage on eg bruises, sprains, burns etc. Or as an antiseptic on spots, fungal infections, cold sores etc. I have also used it on insect bites. If you involve your kids in making the balm and because the Lavender is very soothing it can be helpful as a magic balm for any bumps, knocks or upsets.

So I hope that you have fun making this balm and that you find it a useful addition to your first aid box. Please let me know about your experiences making and using it and happy making!

Well here it is my second installment of my Marigold Healing Balm Project.

Here I demonstrate how to pot on the seedlings that have grown from the seeds planted in my first video.

I am really looking forward to these going onto the allotment and fingers crossed producing a load of beautiful sunny flowers.

Next Gathering and Making the Balm!

It seems ages ago now, although in fact it was only the weekend before last, but in my busy schedule I have only just got round to writing up my day at the Chorlton Big Green Festival. Never mind it was thankfully a memorable one.

Mind you the preparation for the day actually began weeks ago with planting out my Marigold seeds and building my new Ethnomedica stand. The last few days before Festival being given over to creating the mini herb garden with Karen from the Hulme Community Garden Centre and a mad panic rush getting my new practice leaflet printed. (Note to self: Don’t leave printing to the last minute; rows in print shops do not go along with my image of being a calm yummy herbalist!) Anyway eventually at about 10pm on the Friday eve I managed to collapse on the sofa with a can of cold beer having just dropped of umpteen boxes, bowls, posters, herb gardens and Marigolds at St Clements ready for the morning.

After all that, setting up was actually fairly straight forward. This gave me a little time before we opened to have a look around the site. I must say that the space we were in on the top floor of the Church was stunning with its beautiful window, arched ceiling and wooden floor, it added a calming spirit to the event. Outside in the grounds many other stall where busily being put up and delicious smells where wafting past from the various delicacies on offer from the food stalls. I was however quite glad that I was inside as although it was sunny it was cold!

Just before 11 Sue the Wellbeing space organiser (thanks for all the hard work Sue!) gathered all the stall holders together to introduce ourselves and after a bit of harmonious humming we opened to the public.

I must admit that the next five hours are a bit of a blur. I know I must have spoken to hundreds of people because my voice went very deep and croaky just before 4pm when I was due to start my herb walk. I don’t know if it was the Reiki from the next door stall holder, the emergency piece of cake I sent Brian out for or the sage leaves I chewed from my handy herb garden but by the time we gathered for the start of the walk I was back to normal, phew.

Judging from the cards in the Ethnomedica chest quite a lot of those hundreds where remembering their childhood herbal remedies and contributing to our project. Dock leaves for nettle stings as always where a favourite as was comfrey for bruises cuts and rheumatism. Nettle tea used as a hair conditioner was a new one on me but apparently it works. Others included Lavender for sleeping and warmed olive oil in the ear for earache. Big thanks for all who contributed; these will be sent on to Kew Gardens and added to the records.

Of course the major event of the afternoon was my demonstration of how to make a Marigold Healing Balm. I was a bit trepidatious about this to begin with as there where only about 2 people watching at the start but by the end there was quite a crowd. I feel really inspired by it actually and am thinking about developing Green Man Remedy Demo parties as a side line! Have included some pics of the demo, at some point I am going to do a video to add to my growing collection on YouTube.

So finally the day ended with my herb walk. This involved walking from the church down to Chorlton Green and back again; i.e. a very short distance. However we managed to see; Groundsel, Oregon Grape, Chickweed, Hawthorn, Daffodil, Herb Robert, Dandelion, Dock, Feverfew, Wood Avens, Nettles, Periwinkle and ending up under a beautiful Horse Chestnut tree who’s unctuous sticky buds where just opening up. Not bad for especially considering the late spring and the freezing wind!

Thankfully by the time I got back Brian had packed most of the stall away which just left me the heavy stuff to lug to the car (thanks B!). This gave me just enough time to hang out with some old and new friends before it was back home for tea.

All told this was a really successful and enjoyable day. It was a shame I didn’t have time to also enjoy the rest of the festival but hey I’m not complaining. Thanks again to the organisers of the festival and to those who visited the Wellbeing area and my stall for making it such a great day.

Is it me or does spring seem late this year? Perhaps its not; I guess that after the winter we have just had it just feels like it is. I must say though it is wonderful to wake up and it be light, after all we are only a few weeks away from the spring equinox. I also love the feel of the sun on my face and the smell of the earth as it warms up on days like today. It almost makes me glad of the winter so that I can look forward to these treats in the early spring. 

Out in the garden all sorts of plants are emerging. All around there are snowdrops under trees, crocuses on the park and even a few daffodils. Whilst I ate my lunch today I spotted a pair of blackbirds, a robin, a wren, bluetits and even a goldfinch feeding on our bird table. A marvellous display until Louis, my cat, appeared to eat his lunch and frightened them all away!

Given that it has been such a glorious day here I also decided to go for a walk and see if I could spot any medicinal plants. I was particularly on the lookout for some Coltsfoot flowers as these are often one of the first herbs to appear. Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed and managed to find a few clumps that have just emerged on some rough ground round the corner. They were really low to the ground with their lovely bright yellow faces directly in the mid-day sun. As you can see from the pictures they have tiny four petaled flowers that make up the central disc which is surrounded by a multitude of silky ray petals. This is characteristic of the Compositae family of plants that include Sunflowers and Dandelions. Their scientific name is Tussilago farfara which is easy to remember when you know its main medicinal use which is as a cough remover – “tuss” refers to cough and “farfara” to far far away!

The other herb that I spotted which was growing in great perfusion down the side of the dual carriage way was Chickweed – Stellaria media. I also spotted some in the park which is where these pictures came from; saved me from getting squished on the side of the road. Chickweed is an ephemeral which means that it can grow from seed to maturity and then dies in the space of weeks not months. It therefore can be found fresh at most times of the year but especially from early spring onwards. Its flowers are tiny with white petals that when open look like little stars, hence Stellaria. It can be used as a salad plant and I have even seen recipes for Chickweed Pesto! However, it is a skin herb that it is used medicinally, often eternally in an oil or ointment to help with the itch of eczema. Looking at these pictures you can almost see how this plant works as its leaves look cooling and moistening, ideal for hot dry itchy conditions.

Anyway as write this the sun has disappeared here in Hulme and grey clouds are rolling in. Hopefully not for too long and as the world warms up again no doubt more signs of spring will emerge. That reminds me I must get on with weeding the allotment!

Here is the first installment of my Marigold Project where over the coming months I am going to show you how to grow, harvest and use Marigolds. In this video I demonstrate how to plant up the seeds to grow in a propagator. Hope you find this helpful, let me know what you think!

Visit my Marigold page to find out more about this beautiful herb and project.

Have been looking at other herbal medicine related blogs and found this by Martin Hughes-Games on the BBC Autumn Watch Blog. It features him going on a herb walk with Christine Stapeley who is an inspirational herbalist based in Wiltshire.

I saw her speak last year at the National Institute of Medical Herbalists Conference where she demonstrated how to make remedies based on ancient recipes.

I love this sort of thing especially when they are made with really simple herbs we can find in our back gardens or growing all around us.

Anyway here she is talking about self heal, red clover and making a muscle rub out of nettle seeds. Wonderful!

Now is the time that the beautiful little coltsfoot flowers begin to appear. These are perhaps the earliest spring flowers, along with the snow drops and crocuses. They tend to grow on waste land so are good one for city dwellers to spot. Mind you if you are gathering them try to find a place free of dogs!

I have make a… cough syrup from these using a similar process to the one I use for my Thyme & Onion Syrup.

I also found this great blog called Eat Weeds that has an intersting page on Coltsfoot with a video by Chris Holland showing how to identify the plant and introducing the culinary and medicinal properties.

These are some pics of Coltsfoot I found on wikimedia common:

Just thought I would update you all on my progress with developing my recipes for my talk, Beat Flu with Home Remedies and herb gathering.

I have been concocting several remedies which, although come from traditional recipes, have needed some experimentation to adapt and develop to our modern tastes. Hence I have been up to my elbows in slices of onion and sugar attempting to get the quantities right for my Thyme and Onion Cough Syrup. This has proved somewhat tricky as too much sugar and it turns to jam and too little and it could ferment and explode in the cupboard! I now thankfully have it right and have various patients trialling it on their coughs.

Yesterday was a definite root day. I was digging them up all over Manchester. I started in Whalley Range, just around the corner from my practice with a rather wonderful Elecampane. This was in the garden of a friend of mine who earlier this year asked me to look at a strange plant that had appeared outside her front door. With its giant leaves and sunflower like flowers I immediately recognised it as Inula helenium or Elecampane. As the roots are a fantastic cough remedy I am tincturing them and also going to try making them into cough sweets. I was also on my allotment digging up Horseradish root to make into Horseradish vinegar, another remedy I will be demonstrating on the 7th Dec.

Oh well back too it, I must get that blend of spices right for my Lozenge recipe…..