Fresh is best! Think about the difference in the vitality and taste of canned or frozen food compared to fresh. When you eat freshly picked vegetables you can feel the energy of the plant enter your body. Not only are you ingesting the vitamins and nutrients of the food you are also consuming the essence or life force of that food. It is the same with herbs. Whether you are making an herbal tea or preparing remedies for future use, using fresh herbs makes all of the difference in strength and energy of your preparations.
Creating a midwife garden, and sharing these plants with your clients, is a wonderful way to promote health naturally and to aid the body in nourishment and healing. Just as a healthy uterus and nourished mother create a healthy baby so does healthy soil create healthy plants. Does the soil where you want to plant smell earthy? Is it rich in humus, or organic plant matter? Pick up some of that soil and hold it in your hand. Is this soil teeming with life or does it feel tired and depleted? Think about the rich soil of the woodlands. That soil became self-enriching through years of fallen leaves, and decaying matter. Microorganisms and worms are busy at work decomposing fallen organic matter. Create that cycle in the plot where you will plant your garden.
If you haven't gardened before plant only two or three kinds of plants the first year. Really get to know those plants well. Marvel at the design of each plant. Use all of your senses to come to know the personality of the plants.
You could begin with one of the most nourishing plants, alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Alfalfa is a general tonic, is rich in vitamins and minerals, a source of vitamin K, alkalinizes the body, and has an affinity for the kidneys. This perennial plant grows 2-3 feet tall. Alfalfa sends its roots down deep, which allows the plant to soak up the minerals buried within the topsoil of the earth. Alfalfa is a strong plant and is easy to grow. Its lush green toothed leaves are oval in groups of three. The flowers are a royal purple. I especially love the spiral shaped seedpods.
Once your alfalfa plants are established you can harvest leaves at any time to make fresh tea. Don't worry about hurting the plant. Harvesting small portions of a living plant actually make the plant stronger. The plant sends more energy up from the roots to stems and leaves when some of it has been harvested.
To make alfalfa tea use three tablespoons fresh leaves to eight ounces of water. Boil the water, turn off the heat, and place your clean leaves in the water to simmer for ten minutes or so. Then strain the leaves from the water, add honey and lemon if preferred, and enjoy. You could make up a big pot of alfalfa tea and offer it to pregnant moms on prenatal day.
Calendula (Calendula officinalis) is another easy to grow herb that has a sunny disposition. Grown from seed, the whole flower tops are anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, a lymphatic and are astringent. Calendula promotes cell repair and is an antiseptic. It can be used externally for bruised, scraped, cut or burned skin, cracked nipples, and diaper rash. Add an infusion of calendula into a postpartum bath or a peri-bottle to soothe a hard working perineum. The brightly colored yellow and gold calendula petals are eye appealing and tasty with a green salad. The petals also make a lovely, gentle tea.
No midwife garden would be complete without a patch of red raspberry (Rubus idaeus). Red raspberry leaves are a uterine tonic and are astringent. The leaves strengthen, tone and nourish the uterus and are rich in iron and calcium.
This prickly stemmed, bramble plant is a perennial that is an intermediate between an herb and a shrub. Although the plant may not give berries the first year, you can still harvest the leaves for tea. Use three tablespoons leaves per eight ounces of water. You can combine red raspberry with alfalfa for an extremely nourishing tea for pregnant women. For a really tasty tea add two or three raspberries in with the leaves.
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is another easily grown herb for a midwife garden. The flowers and leaves are used as an alterative, or blood purifier, and strengthener. Red clover is also rich in vitamins and minerals.
Once again, combine red clover with alfalfa and red raspberry for a nutrient dense tea. When combining herbs the rule of thumb is that you use three tablespoons fresh herb, in whatever combination you like, per eight ounces of water.
You might want to invite "wild" herbs into your midwife garden. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), of course, grows over most of North America. The roots and leaves of dandelion are a diuretic, hepatic, tonic for the liver and bitter. This plant supports the liver and is an amazing diuretic.
Catnip (Nepata cataria) is another plant that is found growing wild. The leaves and flowering tops are carminative, anti-spasmodic, a nervine and are astringent. I find catnip calming and relaxing to the digestive system. It is a very useful tea for colic in babies.
Nettle (Urtica dioica) is yet another highly nourishing herb found in the wild. The leaves are a tonic, and are astringent, diuretic, and hypotensive (when the kidneys cause high blood pressure.) The list of minerals and vitamins found in nettle contains about every nutrient necessary for health.
Wear gloves when you harvest nettle leaves as the acid on the little hairs on the stems really gives a painful sting when it contacts skin. Once again, you can drink nettle tea alone or combine with red raspberry, alfalfa, or red clover.
The book, Growing 101 Herbs That Heal, by Tammi Hartung is an excellent resource as is Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants and Herbs by Steven Foster ad James A. Duke.
Having fun nourishing your pregnant moms, and yourself, with the healing
and nurturing delights of fresh herbs from your own midwife garden.
Read more of Janice's nature wisdom in The Roots
of Natural Mothering
