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Magnolia & Maple Blossom Munchies Mid-March
This week I found Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) in full bloom, its zingy lime-yellow blossoms looking like they’d been dyed with fluorescent marker pen. Maple blossoms, apart from Sycamore, are edible and taste like peas. Yum! Norway Maple has leaves much larger than our native Field Maple (Acer campestre). Norway Maple has 7 pointed lobes,…
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Medicinal plants of Southern Africa
CERTAIN TREES of the Southern African woodlands, such as the one featured in this Post, the Murumanyama Tree of Zimbabwe (Cassia abbreviata/ Xeroderris stuhlmannii), stand out amongst the other trees of the woodlands on account of certain unique characteristics offering acknowledged benefit to humankind. In the case of the Murumanyama tree, also known as Muremberembe…
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A Smile Says Everything
Dentistry is considered one of the oldest medical professions, with evidence of dental practices tracing back to 7000 B.C. in the Indus Valley. 9,000-year-old Neolithic human skeletons were discovered that show evidence of drilled teeth, with later practices including beeswax fillings and herbal remedies to manage pain. Early dentistry was often avoided by patients till…
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Make Ground Elder Soup
This week I’ve been down to the riverside to check on the carpets of Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Spoiler alert: it’s not Elder (Sambucus sps). It is, however, very tasty and nutritious. It was brought over as a pot herb by the Romans, and left here to ravage our gardens with its invasive nature ever…
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PLANTING POTATOES
I see lots of posts from people wanting to plant potatoes and asking questions about the process, and when the best time for planting is, so I decided to share my preferences that are based on 50+ years of successful growing.One frequently mentioned time for planting is “Good Friday.” (The Friday before Easter).Since the date…
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Stinging Nettles
Everyone knows Stinging Nettles, they’re everywhere in the UK. They’re a menace, but they’re really good for you, especially for women. Stinging Nettles make amazing compost for the garden, a nutritious feed for farm animals, and have even been used to make fabric in the past! Trust me, if you’re eating it, the stems are…
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Wild Garlic
Now you’ve got to be careful of this one. Wild garlic is bloody lovely, but it’s also very similar in appearance to lily of the valley. A poisonous plant. In all honesty, I don’t really go with wild garlic these days, simply because I find it really easy to grow my own garlic and spring…
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Cleaver Tinctures
This is what I did to make the tincture: pick a load of cleavers, stick ’em in a jar, then fill the jar with whatever alcohol you have that’s 37.5%. I prefer vodka, as it doesn’t affect the flavour too much. I give it a few months for the nutrients to transfer over into the…
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Cleaver
Cleavers are bloody brilliant, I pick them every year to make my own multivitamin. I read the other year that, because they don’t count as a food and they don’t count as medicine, the multivitamins you get at the shop aren’t well regulated. So you’re downing pills, thinking it’ll strengthen you, but in reality it…
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