Biophilia and the healing power of Nature: What makes medicine, ‘medicine’?

Words by Neil Allies There is a phrase that is sometimes used amongst practitioners – a ‘brown bottle herbalist’ – meaning, at its extreme, someone that uses herbs straight out of a bottle, without building a relationship or knowledge of the actual plant itself. This type of herbalism probably does not reflect the experience of ...
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- October 6, 2023

Healing herbal vinegars – discovering an old way to use herbs at home

Words by Neil Allies Medical herbalists prescribe herbs to patients to help improve their health but what’s the best way to ‘take’ herbs? Hippocrates, the ‘Father of Medicine’, is famously reported to have said ‘Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food’ (although there’s no evidence he actually did write this). Whoever did say it, ...
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- September 22, 2023
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Why study herbal medicine? Insights from a student herbalist

Words by Neil Allies Why study herbal medicine? It’s an important question and there is a huge range of answers: a desire to reconnect with old traditions; frustration with other medical treatment; personal experiences; a desire to help others; to feel more empowered to help yourself; an interest in the natural world and plants. Whatever ...
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Warming Winter Remedies

At Grass Roots Remedies, we work to rekindle people’s passion for our traditions of community herbal health care in an ecologically sustainable way, whilst acknowledging the contributions from other cultural traditions. For much of the year, we look to the hedgerows, forests and coast to find locally available, sustainable plant, fungi and seaweed communities. ...
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Advolly Richmond on Rev Thomas Birch Freeman, a talk at The Garden Museum, London

Given on a windy Tuesday evening, a recent talk at London's Garden Museum shared ongoing research into the botanising of Reverend Thomas Birch Freeman. For Advolly Richmond, revealing the botanical contributions of Birch Freeman is an ongoing project, which began in 2014/2015, when Richmond was prompted to look into the lives of black gardeners. ...
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- January 23, 2021
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Ayurveda and Below Ground Veggies

Ayurvedic medicine is one of the oldest systems of medicine still in use today, and was passed from Brahma, the creator god of Hinduism. A holistic system, with eight separate branches, at its core is the aim for balance of the body, mind and spirit. With winter still with us, this blog discusses a ...
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