Vegan Sustainability Magazine - Autumn 2015
A free, online, quarterly magazine for vegans and non-vegans worldwide who are interested in the environment and sustainability.
A free, online, quarterly magazine for vegans and non-vegans worldwide who are interested in the environment and sustainability.
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Edible and Medicinal Herbs<br />
by Vivienne Campbell<br />
Discover the wide range of edible & medicinal<br />
herbs growing all around you.<br />
The fields, woods, hedgerows and gardens are<br />
bursting with plants that are edible and medicinal.<br />
Starting to notice these wild herbs growing around<br />
you can really enrich your life, and if you’re confident<br />
at correctly identifying these plants then<br />
you can begin to add them to your culinary repertoire<br />
and enhance your dishes. Whether you live<br />
in the town or the city, you should be able to find<br />
herbs growing there. It’s always great to find<br />
nourishing and tasty new ingredients to use in vegan<br />
dishes. Have a look to see if you can find any<br />
of these plants this autumn.<br />
Silverweed roots (Potentilla anserina):<br />
This modest little weed grows in many countries<br />
and has a fascinating history of uses. In Ireland<br />
you’ll find it in areas of damp land e.g. fields,<br />
ditches, near the beach etc. The leaves are thought<br />
to be antiseptic and astringent so a tea can be<br />
brewed from them that can be used to reduce<br />
bleeding and inflammation, to ease sore throats,<br />
gastritis and catarrh to name but a few things.<br />
Geese and pigs love the roots and they could well<br />
be on to something good because these roots are<br />
edible. The Celts and the Native Americans<br />
cooked the roots as a vegetable. It was particularly<br />
popular in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland<br />
where it was cultivated and cooked like potatoes.<br />
It was also roasted and ground into porridge. In<br />
Tibet the flour of silverweed is called ‘droma’ and<br />
it is fast becoming a staple food there. It grows<br />
wild on the plains of Tibet: an area where it is<br />
hard to cultivate vegetables. In Ireland it is known<br />
as a ‘famine food’ because people returned to eating<br />
it in times when cultivated food was rare.<br />
Unlike many other ‘famine foods’, silverweed is<br />
remarkably tasty. It has a lovely nutty flavour. It<br />
really is a great wild food to get to know and start<br />
to include in your cooking.<br />
Hawthorn berries (Crategus oxycanthum):<br />
Hawthorn is a common tree in Ireland. It is<br />
often made into hedging in gardens or grows wild<br />
in fields and hedgerows. In September it is covered<br />
with orange-red berries. Therapeutic extracts<br />
of the berries are used by qualified herbalists to<br />
help people with heart problems. In fact in the<br />
early 20 th century some doctors were still using<br />
them. A G.P. in Ennis, Co. Clare, used extract of<br />
hawthorn berries to treat his patients with heart<br />
disease and he became known internationally for<br />
his successful treatments. Qualified herbalists still<br />
use hawthorn berries to help to ease conditions<br />
such as high blood pressure. Don’t do this at home<br />
because heart diseases are obviously serious conditions.<br />
Please consult a qualified professional.<br />
This is particularly important if you are on pharmaceutical<br />
medication.<br />
Silverweed<br />
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