The herb I am most thankful for, that is the question that the awesome Herbal Hive Community have put to us. There are so many that I could write about, each of them supporting me through different stages of my life. Natural medicine is the only medicine I take and plants are huge part of that.
I have always felt a natural affinity towards trees and plants. Nature provides us with all that we need. She is the finest medicine cabinet. Once you begin look into medicinal plants, you soon realize that we are surrounded by them.
That nature is full of abundance. If you slow down and take the time to meet each plant, you will pick up on their subtle energies. ( Though some, are not so subtle at all.)
I thought about the ones I have used more recently, perhaps I could talk about one of them. But then, I thought, why not go back to the beginning. The first plant that called to me and has supported me for a long time now.
I stopped eating meat during my teenage years and after struggling for a while with how I could meet all of my dietary needs, the nettle plant became my savior.
I became anemic not long into my journey. Every else in my family ate meat, so for quite a while I just ate my potatoes and veg, thinking that I would be okay. The Irish Diet, especially when I was a teenager, was mainly mat and two veg, with one of those veg always potato.
So I spend time researching what it was that my body actually needed to be healthy. Discovering herbs along the way and the fact that nettles, those stingy plants, that I had been stung by, so many times, actually contained all that I needed.
Could it really be that simple. In nature, well yes it can, yes it was. I began adding them to my diet, mainly in the form of soups and stews. Throwing them in near the end. You really don't want to over cook, just enough to get the sting out and help you digest them.
I first began drinking tea, when I was pregnant. Herbal tea that is, I don't drink caffeinated drinks, I never have. With nettle tea being the first one. At that point in my life, I knew enough about food, to keep myself healthy. But I knew that I could do with some extra support, now that I was growing a life inside of me.
Spot the beautiful nettle plant
Nettles, are full of vitamins and minerals. Having such a high iron content, which is exactly what I needed when I stopped eating meat and now that I was pregnant. They also help to tone the uterus, which is great pre and post birth. As well, as helping you to provide, nutrient rich milk for your baby.
If I am going to drink tea, then that is what I will make. I like to harvest the plant in the spring and dry them in bunches, hanging from my drying branch in my truck.
Growing up in Ireland, I was spoilt for nettles. They grew in abundance around me. Here where I live now, I need to go higher in the mountains, as it is too dry here. I have found some patches here and there and successfully transplanted some in the last place I lived.
When one of my canine companions got sick. I made him bone broth with nettles. After a few weeks he bounced back. Whenever I have been really sick, I will juice some nettles along with lemon and carrot and it has always, really helped me to regain my strength.
It was the first plant, that I turned to, when I got a kidney infection, at the beginning of the summer. It is a wonderfully effective diuretic, helping my body to eradicate toxins.
It was also the first thing that came to my mind when my mother told me she had arthritis, I suggested she replace her black tea, with nettle tea and to this day she still drinks it and suffers little with her arthritis.
Nettle is the herb, that has been in my life the longest. I get super excited when I see some growing. As well as having such wonderful medicinal properties, it can also be used to make rope and textiles. You can make wine and medicinal beer with it. (yes beer was medicinal when it was first made)
It also makes some of the best fertilizer, if a tad smelly. But it is so good for the soil, as it is super rich in minerals, especially nitrogen. Happy soil, means happy veg and happy veg, means happy body.
So you see I have a whole lotta love and gratitude for nettles. They certainly, have played a huge part in my healing and life journey, this far.
