edible traditions
The Power of Plants By Lisa Masé If you ever have made soup when you are not feeling well, you probably cooked it with onions or garlic. Rich in sulfurous compounds, these powerfully anti-microbial and anti-bacterial members of the alium family reduce inflammation. Plants are medicine. Chemical compounds in plants, known as phytochemicals, mediate their effects on the human body through processes identical to those in conventional pharmaceuticals. Another potent plant medicine, local, raw honey is anti-bacterial and anti-viral, and, when combined with garlic, makes a potent cold remedy. Instead of simply quelling symptoms, this elementary remedy addresses the underlying cause of the illness. In the spirit of supporting individual and community health, Dr. Thomas Enos founded the Milagro School of Herbal Medicine. The School teaches students to work with plants as medicine through the Foundations in Herbalism program. Graduates use their skills with families, communities, and businesses, in a variety of healing arts practices. In New Mexico, the practice of herbalism is covered under the Unlicensed Health Care Practice Act (www.nmcaamp.org). This law recognizes unregulated healthcare practices, like herbalism, and their community and cultural importance in New Mexico. Further, it means a medical doctor can refer a patient for treatment to these sorts of wellness providers. Herbalists, as health care providers, specialize in the therapeutic use of plants as medicine. Herbalism, from traditional folk practices to clinical treatment protocols, spans all cultures. At Milagro Herbs of Santa Fe, Dr. Enos has been growing medicinal herbs and sharing his plant knowledge since 1990. He wild-crafts and cultivates herbs of the Southwest to formulate herbal remedies and natural skin care products. Plants have been used medicinally for millennia. Even before written records, humans worked with them in Chinese medicine, the ayurvedic medicinal system in India, and the Hippocratic elemental healing system from Greece. People the world over still successfully practice these healing systems today. For example, Hippocrates may have prescribed willow leaves and bark to reduce fever. Salicin, a phytochemical compound that has anti-inflammatory properties, can be taken as tea by boiling white willow leaves and bark. Later, scientists would synthetically reproduced salicin as acetylsalicylic acid to create aspirin.
Foundations in Herbalism is an eight-month immersion program that teaches the principals of herbal medicine, medicine making, botany, and ethical wild-crafting. The program incorporates a wide range of herbal medicine modalities, from European and Southwestern to Chinese and ayurvedic. Milagro’s Foundations of Herbalism encompasses four areas of study: Materia Medica, an in-depth study of thirty plants of the Southwest and ways to harvest, process, and administer them as medicine; Herbal Botany, developing plant identification skills through observing botanical anatomy and studying vocabulary, both in the field and in the lab, and learning how and why to harvest different plant parts, and how to process and store them for future use; Herbal Pharmacy/Medicine-Making teaches the methods necessary to successfully craft a home apothecary, including hands-on instruction to make tinctures, vinegars, flower essences, salves, liniments, syrups, infusions, and first aid applications; Herbal Therapeutics focuses on staying healthy through the seasons, using seasonal foods as the grounding of good health and instructs on common ailments and the herbs used to heal them. Erin Galiger, one of Milagro’s instructors, explains that herbal medicine is embedded in the human experience, especially since many herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and oregano, all with medicinal properties, are commonly eaten in food. Because pharmaceutical drugs can have dangerous side effects, many people veer away from them and look for safer, less invasive, and more natural and nourishing ways, like herbal medicine, to bring their physical body back to health and balance. Galiger further elucidates that herbal remedies have been used by every culture since time immemorial, assisting humans and animals to prevent and cure illness. She says herbs offer their medicine to help keep us healthy in all stages of our lives, from infancy to death; Mother Earth cared for us long before pharmaceuticals came into existence. If you have not yet visited Milagro Herbs in Santa Fe, stop by, peruse the apothecary, and learn more ways to incorporate plant medicine into your life. 419 Orchard Drive, Santa Fe, 505-820-6321 www.milagroherbs.com Lisa Masé is a food as medicine educator, homesteader, folk herbalist and translator living between Vermont, Italy, and New Mexico. For recipes and healthy eating suggestions, visit www.harmonizedcookery.com. subscribe @ ediblesantafe.com
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