The Miscellaneous Adventures Digest
A new podcast episode and a wild tea to try.
Hello all and welcome to this week’s newsletter. We bring news of our latest podcast episode and introduce a favourite flower with which to make a delicious, July wild tea.
Lessons from the Woods: Leaving
Episode 5 of Lessons from the Woods is the last conversation we recorded before we left our woodland home and headed north in January.
In this episode, we talk about how we’re feeling about leaving in the last week of our time in the woods. We think about what we will miss, how hard it will be to say goodbye to friends (both human and more than human) and what will become of the land we live on.
Little did we know how hard leaving was actually going to be, and this week, we recorded the follow up episode recounting the day we left and how it felt to say our final goodbyes to a place we loved. But you’ll have to wait until next week for that!
We hope you enjoy this episode, and as ever, do let us know what you think or ask any questions in the comments.
A July flower for wild tea - Meadowsweet
I’ve written before about my love of wild teas and the way in which harvesting, infusing and drinking the tea of wild flowers helps foster a deeper connection to nature:
“Preparing and drinking it allows me a moment to connect fully with the plant, sensing the goodness it contains, noticing the taste and smell, considering similarities with other plants and wondering how they might work together.
It’s a quiet, connective moment; something that brings calm and clarity to an otherwise busy day full of the usual distractions of school runs, work and general life chores.”
(you can read the full article this quote is taken from over on Life Aligned, here)
July is a perfect time to gather flowers for tea, so many wonderful species are now blooming in the trees, meadows and hedgerows that it can actually be a little overwhelming. This week, meadowsweet has really started to come into flower here. Sometimes known as queen of the meadow (or ditch), meadowsweet grows on roadsides, on the edges of meadows, fields and hedgerows and anywhere else it can get a foothold, especially damp areas. Unmistakable with its fluffy creamy white flower heads, the toothed leaves grow in opposite pairs up the stem, with a tiny leaf pair in between each larger pair. Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid (used in the making of aspirin) and if you break the stem, you will notice the distinctive antiseptic smell of germolene. The flowers are more pleasantly fragrant, think vanilla, almond and honey. When infused in hot water, they make a lovely tea that can help to clear headaches and stomach upsets*.
Before you gather any wild plant, please be sure you are 100% certain of its ID. There are lots of other white flowers out there that are quite poisonous (hemlock, for one) so please triple check before ingesting anything wild. This is a great website for ID and we always recommend this book. It’s also wise to be sure the area you are collecting from has not been sprayed with weedkiller.
To make tea:
Simply gather a handful of flowering heads from an abundant patch. Pour just boiled water over the flowers and allow to infuse for 5 minutes. Strain and enjoy.
*Meadowsweet is considered safe but does contain coumarin, so it is best to avoid if you take blood thinning medicines. Also best avoided if you are allergic to aspirin.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Emma and Andrew