Blog — Herbalist Monica Wilde

Winter foraging and wishing you 2021 blessings. The new plants appearing in the depths of winter bring with them hope for world change and renewal. Well 2020 was a rollercoaster year to say the least! Yet on the ground, at soil level, Nature continues to show her constancy as - inevitably - the seasons change and one year passes the baton to another. I am sure that we are all hoping for a much better 2021. Aside from my personal resolutions and dreams, I truly hope that 2021 will be a fresh start for humanity’s relationship with the natural world....

Known as the ‘weeds of cultivation’, arable or garden weeds, some people spend a lot of time and effort eradicating edible weeds to replace them with vegetables. Nowhere is the irony more amusing than in growing salads! The following ten plants will all invite themselves onto your patch of soil and can be harvested for food instead of just weeded out and discarded. 1. Chickweed Stellaria media. It’s seems that wherever you’ve bared the soil, chickweed will be in like a shot to cover it up again. It spreads over the surface of the soil putting down very fine roots as...

How do you make sure you have a year round supply of your favourite herbal power shots and wild juices? One way is to make cordials, jams and jellies but I use less and less sugar these days. Alcohol and vinegar make good preservatives. But sometimes you just want them plain, or want to decide later what you’ll turn them into. Freezing is an option but I quickly run out of space. Pasteurising is the best way to ensure you can keep juices, herbal and mushroom decoctions without buying a second fridge, although they must be refrigerated once opened. If...

Among the 5 senses, the eyes perceive about 80% of all impressions. So, don’t just take your eyes for granted! Healthy Eyes = Good Vision Sharp-eyes will help you do well—at home, at work, or behind the wheel.  It’s recommended that you should not compromise your eyes’ health. Keeping your eyes healthy becomes doubly imperative in modern times. Smart phone and computer screens have virtually become the core of our daily lives without giving way to any middle ground. As per a recent Verizon study, on average Americans spend about 9 hours and 39 minutes a day in front of...