Grandma's herbs

[Guest guest]

My grandma was something else. I went to her garden YEARS after she had

stopped being able to garden and there was a patch of Comfrey still coming

up. This Comfrey is from a patch her mother had brought over from France in

the late 1890's very early 1900's when she was sixteen. I dug some of it up

and still have it growing here in Western Washington. (Yep, got some of it

potted to go with me next week.)

 

She also had concord grapes and my brother's fancy landscaper tore the vines

out after 70 years of growth. They reached clean over the porch and gave

the best grapes ever!

 

Grandmother was a big believer in nutrition via natural foods etc. She had

done amazing amounts of research all through her life. She had a female

friend in Canada who she used to write long letters to and they talked about

herbs and how to best use them, when to pick them and lots of stuff like

that. This was back when my Dad was a little boy... He was born in 1932.

 

She had Rhubarb, which was harvested for both the stalks and the roots. Big

ones, let me tell you. Any how, she would measure out dried herbs for me

when I was little. I grew up with teas. My sister was born with a major

birth defect and she dosed her too and she lived to be a woman grown with a

child of her own.

 

She used slippery elm, rhubarb roots, comfrey (either the roots or the dried

leaves depending on the heat, time of year, health and so forth.) Clover,

the pink kind, alfalfa sprouts and the inner bits of willow bark scraped

free. I still remember helping her. She taught me to compost and garden,

and we NEVER EVER used any kind of chemical in her garden. In fact I

remember how shocked I was to find out people did.

 

We would mark where the Burdock grew and gather some if it was young to eat.

Later she would go back and get some roots, always careful to not take it

all. She also gathered what she said her mother called " ewe's tongues " in

French. I don't remember the exact phrase. (Later I realized this was

sheep's sorrel.) She used to talk to some guy named Gibbons about stuff

that was wild to eat. She wrote for Prevention magaine and remained a

charter member.

 

My father was one heck of a musclar healthy guy and his body was painted for

health and weightlifting magazine covers by Tom Beechum countless times when

he was in his twenties. I think he was so healthy was because of his Mom's

knowledge of herbs and the vitamins in foods. Another one of the reasons

Grandma wanted to know this stuff was she had an eye problem and she wanted

to fix it. (She did.)

 

As a young woman she used to swim the channel daily when she lived in Jamica

Long Island. She was wonderful and I adored her. I miss her dreadfully,

but all my regard is plowed back into the earth and herbs. It will very

hard moving to the city. But like her love of me, my love of nature will

never die and I can take a lot of my plants with me.

 

Thanks for listening

 

Louise Haddaway