Herb Awareness Week!

I’m a bit behind the 8 ball this week, because Herb Awareness Week started on the 6th March!

Go check out who and where your local Herb Society is and see what events they have for it, go here to the Herb Federation of New Zealand website to see if there is one near you.

Every year specific herbs are chosen to promote.. this year, drum roll please… the herbs are;

Corriander,  Coriandrum sativum.  

Chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla/recutita.

Puha, Sonchus oleracues.  

*~(I don’t have any in my garden at the moment to take a photo (to be honest I probably weeded it out, bad!)  So lets educate ourselves…. It’s really high in vitamin C apparently if you get it young it is high in iron as well.  Traditionally used in “boil ups” with pork.  The sap used to be expressed, dried and used as a chewing gum as a cure for bad breath or sore gums.  Down south it was rubbed on katipo bites… the leaves crushed can also be put on wounds to prevent poisoning (like rose pricks!).  A decoction of the leaves can be used to help the placenta come away during childbirth.  For this reason it shouldn’t be drunk by pregnant women.  All this information I’ve gleaned from my wonderful book Maori Healing and Herbal by Murdoch Riley.)~*

and Red Clover, Trifolium pratense.

I’m having a bit of a love affair with Red clover at the moment, it is wonderful for skin complaints esp. for children, and for all sorts of cough, including whooping cough.  I’m making a tincture right now  out of the dried flowers that I’ve been collecting over summer, which I’m going to use for our dog..more in my next post!

I got a cracker harvest of coriander seeds this year (see top photo).  I use the seed more than the fresh green herb, I’m in the loving side of the camp for coriander,  the rest of my family are not.  But I find I can sneak in the seeds to meals and chutney without too much ado!  Now a thing I have discovered whilst at markets is that a lot of people don’t realise that coriander is an annual and actually a winter herb.  I got a lot of people asking why their plants were going straight to seed!  Now is the time to start planting your coriander, if, in future you must grow it in summer grow it in the shadiest coolest part of your garden and/or sow every two weeks.

Now German chamomile, where does one begin and where does one end.  I know I’ve been meaning to write a whole blog post about chamomile, but perhaps because the quails all ate my chamomile seedlings this year (took me a while to work out why my plants weren’t growing!) that I haven’t been incredibly inspired!

So in full laziness I’m going to direct you to another website that has all the info you need!  Go here to Herbwisdom..

Happy herb awareness week!  If you haven’t tried any of these herbs this is the time to do it, personally, I’m now on the hunt for Puha!