Medicinal Forest Garden Trust Update July 2024
A newsletter on medicinal forest gardening including plant suppliers, courses, events, podcasts, sustainability lists and a recipe for limeflower cordial!
Here is a quarterly update on medicinal forest gardening including plant suppliers, courses, events, podcasts and sustainability lists and reports!
SEEDS AND PLANT SUPPLIERS
Quercus Edibles based in Devon, UK, have a great online shop with some interesting herb plants available! They have Sweet Tea Vine (Gynostemma pentaphyllum) in stock at the time of writing. This is an unusual but vigorous climber. Also known as 'Jiaogulan', this is a plant that can help the body respond to stress, anxiety and promote overall wellbeing. It is native to the mountains of southern China and Korea, and also found in Japan. Part of the curcubit family, the leaves have a sweet, slightly cucumber flavour. Sometimes described as having an aftertaste similar to green tea. A rather fast growing, scrambling plant that will require something to climb up!
COURSES
Medicinal forest gardening for your health and the planet
Saturday 5th October 2024 at Ivywood Apothecary, County Clare, Ireland
A one-day practical course all about healing trees and shrubs. This course will be led by Anne Stobart, medical herbalist and permaculture specialist in medicinal forest gardening. During the course there will be a focus on design and sustainability using perennial and woody plants suited to garden sites or woodland growing. Anne will talk about creating a thriving medicinal forest garden. She will discuss practical details of harvesting and the health-promoting recipes that can be made from a range of tree and shrub species. Cost is 120 euros. For registration details go here.
PODCASTS
On cultivating forest products - regenerative agroforestry
Worth listening to is the Regenerative Agroforestry Podcast series still available from 2019-2022, with links to University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry podcasts. Their previous episodes include 'Growing American ginseng' (from 2019), and cultivating shitake mushrooms (from 2021).
A lifetime in herbal medicine in five interviews
Recordings of a series of interviews with Sylvia Burgos Toftness of Deep Roots Radio based in Wisconsin in the USA. In the first in a five-part series with Anne Stobart, educator, author, clinical herbalist, and developer of medicinal permaculture, Anne looks back and describes how she became interested in and focused on medicinal herbalism. In part two, Anne explains her interest in North American trees and shrubs that heal. In part three, she talks about her research and publication of Household Medicine in 17th Century England. In part four Anne discusses her latest book Trees and Shrubs That Heal. In the last of the series in part five, we hear about Anne's design and development of a medicinal forest garden.
EVENTS
Herb Society Day
Herb Society Member Day and AGM on Saturday 14 September, 10 am-4 pm at Sheffield Botanical Gardens, UK. Includes guest speaker Phil Deakin on “The plants you need will find you - stories and journeys into herbal medicine “, and tours of the botanical gardens.
SUSTAINABILITY
Threatened Herb Species List
The Airmid Institute in USA issues a biannual list which identifies plants at risk in their native habitats - though some are also naturalised elsewhere. White sage is one to watch in USA and so are olive trees in parts of Europe and Asia. Many conifer species are globally threatened including cedars, cypresses, and spruces. Juniper is deemed as 'near threatened' in UK. You can join the mailing list for future articles and announcements.
State of Europe's Forests Report
Did you know that you can sign up with Forest Europe for a newsletter and also access detailed statistics about Global Forest resources by region and country. Download a State of Europe’s Forests report from 2020 - the next one is due in 2025 - with lots of statistics by country on current tree cover, tree planting achievements, forest carbon and energy supplies. Whereas Europe overall has about 35% of land with forest cover, the UK stands at just 13% forest cover. Although European cover is increasing, there are threats of deterioration due to drought and fire as well as disease and infestation (bark beetle especially). The report identifies that further sustainable forest management is needed but this requires attention to poor and volatile economic returns.
AND FINALLY A SEASONAL RECIPE
A recipe for lime flower cordial
8 handfuls fresh lime flowers
2 limes, zest and juice
1.2 kg granulated sugar
1.5 litres water
Measure the sugar and water into a pan and heat to dissolve the sugar as a syrup. Put the flowers into a large bowl. Add the lime zest and juice to the flowers. Pour the syrup over the flowers, zest and juice. Cover with a clean cloth and leave for 2-3 days. Then strain the cordial through a sieve lined with muslin into a large jug and pour into sterilised bottles. Store in a refrigerator for 5-6 weeks or use plastic bottles which can be frozen. Use as a refreshing cordial with water and ice, or dilute with warm water and sip for insomnia.
(this and more recipes from Trees and Shrubs That Heal)
ABOUT THIS UPDATE
Anne writes the Medicinal Forest Garden Trust Update every 3 months with news of interest including books, events, gardens, projects, suppliers of medicinal trees and shrubs, and more.
