Vegan Sustainability Magazine - Autumn 2015

Edible and Medicinal Herbs
by Vivienne Campbell
Discover the wide range of edible & medicinal
herbs growing all around you.
The fields, woods, hedgerows and gardens are
bursting with plants that are edible and medicinal.
Starting to notice these wild herbs growing around
you can really enrich your life, and if you’re confident
at correctly identifying these plants then
you can begin to add them to your culinary repertoire
and enhance your dishes. Whether you live
in the town or the city, you should be able to find
herbs growing there. It’s always great to find
nourishing and tasty new ingredients to use in vegan
dishes. Have a look to see if you can find any
of these plants this autumn.
Silverweed roots (Potentilla anserina):
This modest little weed grows in many countries
and has a fascinating history of uses. In Ireland
you’ll find it in areas of damp land e.g. fields,
ditches, near the beach etc. The leaves are thought
to be antiseptic and astringent so a tea can be
brewed from them that can be used to reduce
bleeding and inflammation, to ease sore throats,
gastritis and catarrh to name but a few things.
Geese and pigs love the roots and they could well
be on to something good because these roots are
edible. The Celts and the Native Americans
cooked the roots as a vegetable. It was particularly
popular in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
where it was cultivated and cooked like potatoes.
It was also roasted and ground into porridge. In
Tibet the flour of silverweed is called ‘droma’ and
it is fast becoming a staple food there. It grows
wild on the plains of Tibet: an area where it is
hard to cultivate vegetables. In Ireland it is known
as a ‘famine food’ because people returned to eating
it in times when cultivated food was rare.
Unlike many other ‘famine foods’, silverweed is
remarkably tasty. It has a lovely nutty flavour. It
really is a great wild food to get to know and start
to include in your cooking.
Hawthorn berries (Crategus oxycanthum):
Hawthorn is a common tree in Ireland. It is
often made into hedging in gardens or grows wild
in fields and hedgerows. In September it is covered
with orange-red berries. Therapeutic extracts
of the berries are used by qualified herbalists to
help people with heart problems. In fact in the
early 20 th century some doctors were still using
them. A G.P. in Ennis, Co. Clare, used extract of
hawthorn berries to treat his patients with heart
disease and he became known internationally for
his successful treatments. Qualified herbalists still
use hawthorn berries to help to ease conditions
such as high blood pressure. Don’t do this at home
because heart diseases are obviously serious conditions.
Please consult a qualified professional.
This is particularly important if you are on pharmaceutical
medication.
Silverweed
8