It’s the Canada day weekend  – we Canadians here in the Ottawa valley celebrated by imitating drowned rats.  Only out in the country will people go out in the pouring rain at midnight to set off fireworks.

Everywhere I look I see elder trees (Sambucus nigra spp. canadensis) dressed up in their white lace finery.  I like elders because they are scrappy.  They are feisty trees, break off a twig and stick it into the ground – they are likely to grow.  One of my favourite harvesting spots was “improved” several years ago by having everything cut back.  Now, 3 years later, the elders are reasserting themselves.

Elders are trees who enjoy having their feet wet so I am sure they are satisfied with the surplus of rain we have been getting recently.  I feel sorry for the farmers.  An unusually wet spring meant a late start on their planting and now I see lakes where their fields should be.  Despite the lack of a stretch of warm sunny days I can see the effects of climate change overall in the flowering of the elders.  They ordinarily would not (I guess I should say in years past because who knows what is ordinary anymore) traditionally they would bloom the 2nd or third week in July.  Today is the 2nd of July and they have been in full flower this past week.

Elderflowers and elderberries are both used medicinally.  As it is the flowers that I am at the moment enchanted by I want to focus on their uses.  Many folks know about the blessing of elderberries and their uses while the flower wisdom is not quite as well known.

Elderflowers are great for conditions of both the upper and lower respiratory system. Elderflowers are exceptionally good anti-catarrhals.  They excel when the symptoms are caused by allergies.  Runny nose and itchy watery eyes?  Elderflowers can help.  Great for feverish conditions elderflowers can be combined with other good diaphoretics/febrifuges like yarrow (Achillea millefolium), boneset (Eupatorium perforatum), joe pye (Eupatorium purpureum) or wild bergamot (Mondara fistulosa).  When used for fevers the remedy should always be taken hot.  I sometimes like to give folks a tincture blend and then have them take it in a cup of tea.  Its success in increasing peripheral circulation means that elderflowers can be helpful when there is poor peripheral circulation or when we want to increase elimination via the skin.

Elderflowers are not often one of the herbs we first think of when we think about herbs for conditions of the nervous system but they do have a gentle action that can work on states of emotional distress.  I find that they are soothing and that the very gentleness of their effect is part of how they heal.  I feel they help us to integrate our feelings – particularly feelings of loss and grief.  I was talking to a man recently who was concerned because he was losing weight and could not sleep.  His father had died just a month previous.  While I could understand his concern and his desire for a solution I did not see these “problems” as “problems”  He was a son who had lost his father.  To be lost and bereft was …..human. Elderflowers would have been a good support for him.

I haven’t yet tried this myself but I have read that the flowers/leaves can be used in an infused oil for salves for sprains and strains.  I think I might give that a try this summer.

A person would never harvest anything from an elder tree without first asking permission of the Hylde-moer.  This is the Elder-mother, a guardian spirit who watches over the tree.  To harvest without her permission is to bring about bad luck.  If you were by the tree on Midsummer’s eve it is said you can see the Faery king ride by.  Elder wood crosses used to be placed on graves to help the newly dead to find peace and elder wood crosses hung over doors and windows so as to disappoint the charms of witches.  Burning elder is said to bring death to the family while a pregnant woman who kisses an elder tree will bring luck to the baby.

“If the medicinal properties of its leaves, bark, and berries were fully known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might not fetch a remedy from every hedge for sickness and wounds.”       John Evelyn, 17th century

“Thinking is skilled work.  It is not true that we are naturally endowed with the ability to think clearly and logically – without learning how, or without practicing.”  A.E. Mander

I was listening to Susun Weed’s podcast (Tuesday nights at 7:30 pm) when I heard her say that she wished “people who wanted to learn about herbs would get off the internet.”  I laughed out loud.  Long and hard.  Partly because irony and partly because – truth.

There is a lot we can learn on and from the internet.  Herbalists of all levels of experience can come together to share info and swap ideas and best practices.  When I first started studying herbs and herbalism books were the main source of info.  Books!  Can you believe it?  The only herbalists I could interact with were those who lived in the same city as I or those who, if I were lucky, I got to meet at conferences.  Actual bricks and mortar places to study herbalism are few and far between.  What if you are not lucky enough to have one in your city, town, or village.  The internet is a great place to start if you have an interest or passion for herbalism.  The problem (in some case the danger) is that there is no quality control.  No curation or vetting of the reams and reams of information out there.  Add to the mix commercial interests and the internet can easily become a breeding ground for dis/misinformation.  What is the expression – like drinking from a fire hose?

Don’t trust the internet.

I read a blog post that told me that mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is not used medicinally.  This person also helpfully informed me that they had been an herbalist for over 30 years so they would know.  I have no way of knowing how long they have been an herbalist but I can categorically state that mugwort is used medicinally.  It shares some qualities with its sister wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) but has a more profound action on the nervous system.

On a different site I saw a lovely photo (truly representative of the plant) of boneset (Eupatorium perforatum) misidentified as Gravel Root (Eupatorium nosensum) aka Joe Pye aka Queen of the Meadow.  Don’t even get me started on the use of latin names vs common names.  Should I have made the effort to contact the content providers and inform them of their error?  Maybe.  Shrug.  I am not the internet police.  I have my own work.

I’d rather urge anyone trying to learn via the internet to sign up for a heaping dose of caution.  Check and recheck any info that you find online.  No one knows everything.  Many people know nothing.  An experienced herbalist has a depth and breadth of information that cannot be accessed via a facebook post.  A good rule of thumb is to seek out a minimum of 3 separate references.  Ensure that they actually are 3 separate and distinct sources.  If herbalist A and herbalist B say the same thing but they both got their info from herbalist C then you only have 1 source – herbalist C.  Think critically.

I vacillate between thinking I am the most cynical person alive and also thinking I am not cynical enough.  You inform me via your website that these 6 herbs are the best herbs for elimination and no others will do and what do you know – you just happen to sell a product that is a blend of those 6 herbs.  Well they must be the best.  Please immediately ship to me your product.  On the other hand I was fall off my chair shocked when I read pages and pages of material I knew for a fact had been plagiarized from a well known and respected herbalist.  Who does that?  Sigh.

It is great that on a cold winter’s day I can stay in my footie pajamas and learn about ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens).  But seeing as it grows nowhere near the Ottawa valley where I live, harvest, and heal perhaps I would be better served by layering up, getting out the snowshoes and spending time live and in person with the white pines (Pinus strobus) that line the back edge of our property.

For the record – one of the latin names in this post is made up.  Do not believe everything you read.