Malago Medicinals

19/09/2025

CHANGE OF DATE - the weather is going to be awful tomorrow, so now meeting 11am on SUNDAY. By the orchard

19/09/2025

CHANGE OF DAY - the weather is going to be awful tomorrow, so will now be 11am on Sunday. Please reshare

I will be leading a foraging walk in Manor Woods Valley Group this Saturday! Meet at 12.30 (after the litter pick) by the orchard and we will see what autumn bounty there is and make a tea together. Looking forward to seeing you there

17/09/2025

I will be leading a foraging walk in Manor Woods Valley Group this Saturday! Meet at 12.30 (after the litter pick) by the orchard and we will see what autumn bounty there is and make a tea together. Looking forward to seeing you there

13/08/2025

The fruits of my labours. A summer pudding (it came out! :) ), a traditional English way of using bountiful berries, and a hedgerow jelly. 😋 Not very much as you can see, which shows how much fruit goes into making jams and jellies. By foraging and making food such as preserves, or simply noticing what is happening in our hedgerows, lanes and parks, we notice and participate in the turn of the seasons. This helps orientate us in time and space and improves our wellbeing. We can also think about the metaphors that nature offers, and how that might apply to our lives. Even if we don't have time to forage and make (which has often been the case for me), we can can still pause and and notice. For example during this time of harvest, we could think about what we are personally harvesting or are grateful for. What earlier hard work are reaping the benefits for now?

04/08/2025

I had a fantastic time at the Register of Consultant Herbalists Summer School the weekend before last. I enjoyed being attending a workshop and learning about pulses from Stephen Taylor, I loved the flowers from Trigon Farm that decorated our tables. And I enjoyed talking about, testing and making hydrosols in the alembic still . Thank you to Ceridwen Herbs and everyone for organising and creating such a successful event. 😀. And Noteworthy Farm Caravan and Campsite for a wonderful stay

25/07/2025

New small batches!! New Stock. I have just finished making a new batch of my Super Healing Skin Salve, a new product called Bruise Balm and Mineral Rich Vinegar. If you would like any please DM me.
30ml balm £8 60ml £14 and £8 for the vinegar.

23/07/2025

Very excitingly the International Register of Consultant Herbalists Summer School is coming up this weekend, and I will be giving a workshop on hydrosols. This wonderful piece of equipment is how you make them, as well as essential oils. And gin as many people have pointed out to me. In this country hydrosols are an overlooked way of preparing herbs, but they have a long history of use in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

21/07/2025

Here we have the gorgeous fluffy flowers of Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). This plant likes its feet wet, and this one is growing beside the Avon. Lots of plants that like to grow in wet places, including willow and poplar, contain a chemical called salicylic acid - or do they? If we're going to be very chemically precise they do not contain free salicylic acid but glycosides or esters containing it e.g. in Meadowsweet it is found as methyl salicylate, which our bodies converts into salicylic acid. This compound has marked pain relieving and fever reducing properties. Famously, this is the chemical that was synthesised to make aspirin. Aspirin is very effective but can also cause gastric bleeding, which plants that contain glycosides and esters of salicylic acid do not. In fact Meadowsweet is used to treat gastric ulcers, heartburn and reflux. Here endeth the chemistry lesson