Week 33 - learning about natural remedies

Its funny how life works.  How is it that trends and culture can change us so significantly?  Evolution in the traditional sense has been happening for millions of years, something that dictates the natural world that we live in.  However, there is a mini but very rich evolution going on within all our lives.  Fifteen years ago, someone using herbal medicine on this side of the globe might have been described as "a bit of a hippy", but not necessarily in the positive spiritual sense, perhaps more of a belittling way that says "you're a weirdo".  

But, times change, society evolves and trends can open us all up to wonderful possibilities.  Potentially ones that go full circle.  Alchemy and the study of natural remedies is, in its essence all about the relationship between nature, man and the cosmos. All pretty deep stuff and you'll be pleased to know that I'm not about to delve into the topics of the cosmic pattern of universal order, the fibonacci sequence or Benoit Mandelbrot's fractal geometry of nature.......But, let me say this: we very clearly have a deep relationship and resonance with nature and in the last few years a huge number of us have become incredibly conscious of what we do with our body and what we put into it.  I am absolutely one of those people, even if on a very minimal level and recently have become more interested in using nature's goodness in my every day life.

Jemma Foster is a wonderful human being and friend of mine who has learnt the art of plant medicine  and puts it to ingenious use in her cooking.  She has an alchemical approach to her food that supports and balances the body.  Her brand Mama Xanadu's is about conscious cooking and creative mixology that directs nature's medicine cabinet to the table, healing from the inside out.  What a delight then, that I was able to go to her recent workshop on natural remedies at the very marvellous Farmopolis on the jetty in Greenwich.  

I was greeted not only with a warm and loving hug from Jemma, but also with a glass of some homemade tea made from 14 different herbs including passion flower, sage, angelica, fennel and hibiscus as well as essences for the nervous system to "de-frazzle" me from a day of stress, computers, travel and general London life.  It was lovely, fresh, clean and zingy.  In amongst an encapsulating tent of greenery, were tables set up with an absolute abundance of beakers, jars and test-tubes filled with mysterious liquids, essences and elixirs.

Jemma began with a bit of background and explained the foundations of alchemy and did talk about this relationship between nature, man and the cosmos, which I found rather hard to follow.  But, ultimately what Jemma was getting at is that there is a clear relationship between us and the natural world.  We are all just passing energy and balance and there is a pattern in nature that all things are made through.  Most of us know that we share around 98% of our DNA with chimps.  But, we also share 50% of our DNA with bananas and 38% with dandelions.  So, its clear that there are great number of herbs, minerals, spices and flowers that all pertain to certain parts of our body and our well-being.  One thing I loved that Jemma told us is about how certain foods can help the parts of our body that they resemble.  My hearing should be like a wolf considering how many mushrooms I eat.

We talked about flower essences and in particular Bach Flower Remedies, which is a system of 38 flower remedies that corrects emotional imbalances where negative emotions are replaced with positive.  We are clearly very receptive to them and there is a different essence for a different emotional state.  We got to play around with some of them at Jemma's mini apothecary lab, where she has created her own essences and we could mix some of them into our Kombucha teas.  We also got given our own little pipette bottles to mix a longer lasting remedy that we could take away with us.

Jemma's "mythological elixirs" are her own blend of essences that have properties relating to mythological characters.  So for example, I chose to mix Pandora's Box and Prometheus.  Pandora's famous curiosity for what lay beyond invited all the evils into the world when she opened the box and for me, I need to be content with things as they are.  Prometheus was punished for giving fire to man by being tied to a rock and having his liver devoured by an eagle by day, only for it to regenerate at night so he could endure the same fate the next day and the next and so on.  I feel like I'm stuck in a bit of a rut which I why I chose that one.  I love how she uses the myths of these characters and applies them to her narrative.  

Finally we moved onto Jemma's urban physic garden where we were met with oodles of glass jars filled with all manner of herbs, spices, flowers and leaves.  There was roseship, watercress, caraway, bee pollen, chamomile and masses more.  In our lovely goodie bags that we were given, we each had a couple of empty tea bags and a little pot to make our own blends of tea infusions and salt.  I started with my salt mixture and put together celery seeds (good for joints, inflammation, high cholesterol and menstrual cramps), sage (the king of herbs), caraway (good for toothache and digestion) and coriander seeds (good for colds, flu, high cholesterol and the menstrual cycle).  It smelt delicious.

For my tea infusion I put together some lemon balm (good for insomnia, anxiety and headaches), cardamon (good for digestion and nausea), nutmeg (good for brain function and pain relief) and passion flower (good for anxiety and insomnia).  Also in the goodie bags were a handmade pomegranate and myrrh lip balm and a packet of seeds for us to grow ourselves.  Loads of goodness.

Jemma is so clearly passionate but also very knowledgeable about all of this, I felt such conviction in what she was saying. She lives and breathes it and I am so inclined to believe all of these remedies work and I certainly understand the healing and powerful properties of the natural world. 

Jemma is running more classes in the coming months so if you fancy making your insides pure and learning how to make your kitchen fit for an alchemist, check out the list of events at Farmopolis.