Each new native plant I learn about, I tend to find that is has therapeutic properties of some kind. This kept happening and then it hit me. My suburban yard is full of natural “pharmaceuticals”! Dandelion for my liver cleansing and a coffee substitute. Stinging nettle for hair tonics and vitamin-rich teas. Jerusalem artichoke tubers for fresh food during the winter. Mints and herbs for digestion and flavors for my meals. Red raspberry leaves for magnesium-rich tea. Birch sap for an energizing and hydrating tonic. From virtually every plant in my yard, I could find a nourishing use for. This felt empowering.
I then looked around my neighborhood and was overwhelmed by the potential for their yards to do the same. They could be the face of the new ecological balance: distinct human habitats for restoration of food, medicine, fuel, the environment and community. But instead, these yards seem more like a reflection of their egos, battlefields where people control what can and cannot grow there; places where appearance takes precedence to ecological understanding.
The more I learned about the surrounding ecology, the more it felt as if the world is able to take care of our needs, so long as we know how to listen. I feel that we best take lessons from the Native Americans who were experts in this arena. Across millennia, their collective experiences regarding the therapeutic consumption of these plants should be listened to. Current westernized medicine cannot compare to thousands of years of this knowledge, but it can possibly be a tool to build more understanding of the value in many of these plants as well as Native American herbal remedies the plants were used for. Although I am skeptical of the testing methods that isolate a compound from a plant and rigorously test it. That takes away from the fact there are 100s-1000s of phytochemical interactions at work here that cannot be replicated in a laboratory setting. I regress…
I found this article reflects my same sentiment. http://www.motherearthliving.com/Health-and-Wellness/Native-Americas-Pharmacy-on-the-Prairie.aspx?PageId=5#axzz3ORKXUBli
Green Karen LLC 