QUINTAIS IMORTAIS: Growing herbs for health’s sake

sábado, 22 de setembro de 2012

Growing herbs for health’s sake

When Ricky Bratz goes out to her garden, she might pick passionflowers or purple coneflowers. The flowers are beautiful, but she mostly admires their medicinal effects. Bratz, a community herbalist, believes that blood pressure, sleep problems, anxiety and other health issues can be treated with herbs.

Bratz gardens in a corner of an enclosed lot at Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute, an educational farm and sustainability learning center near Chapel Hill. The tendrils of passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) climb and cling to the fencing that protects them from deer. Holy basil (Ocimum sanctum), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), gotu kola (Centella asiatica), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) also grow here.

Bratz, 28, was trained and earned certificates in programs at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in Asheville and One World Healing Arts Institute in Asheville. She is working under the direction of Mimi Hernandez (a founder of One World) to gain professional membership with the American Herbalists Guild.

She started the garden in May, but says, “It has been growing in my mind for some years.” She chose plants based on her own health needs. “I grow a lot of immune-system modulators, adaptogens and nervous system tonics because I know those herbs keep me happy and my body in balance.”

Bratz has experience identifying plants in the wild and harvesting them, she said, but not much experience growing them.

She chose mostly plants that are easy to grow, but she’s also experimented. Gotu kola, which prefers shade and a moist environment, is thriving in full sun.

The herbalist hoped to support just her personal use in the garden’s first year. But some of the plants, such as the holy basil and passionflower, flourished, and she can easily share them with others. She snips fresh plant tips for a daily tea, and harvests other herbs to dry for later use.

She has harvested three 32-ounce Mason jars full of dried herbs from four holy basil plants. That is much more than she can use in a winter season for tea. She can sell, give away or trade the rest.

From those same plants, she has made a 16-ounce tincture, an alcohol-based extract, and plans to make more. She also plans to dry more for client use.

Bratz researches to find out which part of the plant is useful – the above-ground parts, the roots, or perhaps both. She also determines which health concerns she wants to address and whether she’ll use the herbs every day or only occasionally.

“For example, from just three little boneset plants, I will have more medicine for the winter than I really need. After cold-and-flu season is over, I may not need it anymore until the next year. So maybe I don’t need very many boneset plants in my garden,” she says.

“But lemon balm, I might want a lot of because it is something I could potentially take every day, and it is uplifting, gently calming and soothing.”

She is also thinking about next season. She’ll save seeds from the garden and start her own plants for next spring. And she won’t use the echinacea this year; she’ll divide it to make new plants for next year.

“I get a lot out of visiting the garden and just saying hello,” Bratz says. “The flowers make me happy.” And they make her feel better.