The Light is Returning

Hello wild ones! 

March is finally here. Do you feel it?

I know we can all look at our calendars but do you feel it? 

Do you see the green that has suddenly begun to unroll her luscious, aromatic carpets that feel as though they have just arrived out of nowhere. It feels like only yesterday the land was beige and icy but in a flash, those nourishing displays of spring greens have already begun to pave the way towards a very magical and beautifully wild year ahead.

And have you noticed yet, the feel of the sun’s rays as they find a resting place on your cold cheek, offering a warm, soothing blanket, removing her woes of a winter full of painful, icy blasts. Did you notice how your cheek suddenly remembered, though it was an almost forgotten dream, the feel of the sun as it melted and thawed away that which almost turned your flexible body into stone? It almost feels like love. Like care. Like a warm bowl of soup after sickness.

And did you see, there are flowers! Granted, most are still well-hidden, only just waking from their long, lazy slumber. But day by day, there are more, stretching their arms and opening their eyes. 

I’ve seen blackthorn blossom, cherry blossom, primroses, dandelions, daisies, and I had my first taste of sweet violets at the weekend. I squealed with joy as I closed my eyes, allowing the taste on my tongue to take me on a journey back to my childhood. The fumbling of tiny fingers, as they rubbed the rustling packets of parma violets, hoping for the release of a tiny pill of sweet joy. 

And I pondered for a moment, how those sweets no longer even contain any trace of real sweet violet flowers. 

As I closed my eyes, holding that memory, I allowed my mind to wander further back. I imagined the days before this, for hundreds of thousands of years, when parents and children alike would no doubt, also, delight in the excitement of tasting their first wild, sweet violets of the year – and how they would benefit from the beautiful medicine offered to them by these delicate, yet potent, little flowers.

In contrast to the parma violet sweets that we know today, originally, sweet violets were a wonderful medicinal plant, which our ancestors worked with to help treat a variety of ailments. One in particular, was as a heart medicine. That is, a calming nervine to help raise our spirits when we have hit a dark place. Especially when one’s heart is broken due to loss or trauma and when stress begins to take over.

I’m a big believer that across every stretch of the world, and within every step of each season, nature offers us some form of heart medicine. Heart medicine is not scarce in this world. It is not something we need to pay for, to be imported from a faraway country. It is abundant and can be accessed at any time, if only we take the time to search it out, connect with it, and get to know it, just as our ancestors did for all those thousands of years. 

I also believe it is important to stay connected to our hearts – and so does nature, it seems. 

In a world where there are so many humans who have become dangerously disconnected to their hearts, maybe it is time we made the effort to seek out our humble allies for their support. And maybe we start to tell their forgotten stories once more, so that others may also be inspired to seek the medicine they have to offer. A balm for the heart.

I guess change starts with us. How we show up in the world, the things we choose to value or worship. Where does most of our time go? And is that time well-spent? Is it nourishing our hearts or harming them?

I can’t answer that for everyone but I can hope to inspire more people to take a step outside and reconnect with what once made us whole, entire humans. And the answer to that is out there, in the wild. In the quiet, in the still. This is where we hear the answer. This is how we heal our hearts.

So, on that note, this month I would like to take you deeper into the wild history and heart medicine of the sweet violet.

The light is returning but we are not fully there, yet. We are still in this liminal place (which by the way is exactly where we are meant to be), as we approach Spring Equinox on 20th March. Half in, half out. Equal dark and equal light.

And though we may see the light, feel her warmth, and long for her full return, we are still very much held by the darkness. So, a balm for the heart, might be just what the doctor ordered, to get us through the final stretch!

I hope you enjoy the information and I would love to see you on a course soon!

Please do let me know if you are enjoying my newsletters and what else you would like to receive from me!

Love and wild magic,

A Wild Balm for the Heart

Sweet Violet Folklore

This wonderful plant has a rich history with humans that dates back thousands of years!

The ancient Greeks told how this was the very flower that the Goddess Persephone was gathering when she was abducted by Hades and take to live with him in the underworld. 

The Goddess who was once the Goddess of Spring, then also became the Goddess of the underworld. Meaning this is the perfect flower to represent Spring Equinox – a time when we sit in the balance between the light and dark.

This then links in with the battle we feel within at times between our own light and dark. When we too feel we are being dragged away from the light by other forces, taking us away from all that once felt good and beautiful.

However, this is where we can start to take inspiration from these strong, female, deities, as the ancient Greeks did too. 

Though Persephone was abducted and forced to live without light in the underworld, she learned to master this way of life and became queen of the underworld!

I love how the symbolism here shows us how we can learn to conquer our darkness by not being afraid of it but by becoming sovereign to it. Learning to accept it, to live with it, spend time in it, and discover what inner growth can be found as a result. And eventually, like Persephone and the seasons themselves, overcome the darkness. 

She eventually returned and learned how to live in balance with both the light and the dark by spending an equal amount of time in each.

Sweet Violet Medicine

It is the heart-shaped leaves which offer us our first clue with how this plant may be worked with as a medicine. Then of course the sweet scent and taste, which immediately lightens the spirit. 

While Sweet Violet (image 1) offers us a balm for the heart, their cousin, the Dog Violet (image 2), also has plenty of medicinal benefits on offer, too. And both of the plants at times cross over in some of the ways they can be worked with. Though you won’t find the dog violet until April.

Sweet violets have been used for centuries to support lung health and help treat coughs and virus symptoms. 

However, sweet violets have also historically been worked with to support with stress, fatigue, insomnia, as well as symptoms of menopause and depression. And I believe it is the whole experience which becomes the most potent of medicines, by taking a walk in nature and gathering them with our own hands.

First, we must find their perfect habitat. They are commonly found in shady woodland margins and hedgerows. However, they are sadly becoming less common due to loss of habitat in the UK as more of our woodland and hedgerows are destroyed.

So, just like our own hearts, I believe this is a plant that needs rewilding!

I struggle to find this plant locally, so I chose to plant it in my forest garden, a few years ago with the intention of gathering more seeds and new plants, once they start to spread prolifically, and then rewild them in my local woodlands and hedgerows, where they should already be thriving.

If you struggle to find this incredible little plant, I encourage you to do the same.

Sweet Violet Recipe Tips

Once you are harvesting, the first thing to do is to make a tea. You can use both the leaves and the flowers but if a purple tea is what you are after, then use only the flowers. You can squeeze in lemon juice at the end to change the PH and watch as the colour magically transforms to pink. I like to add some honey and then chill in the fridge to serve chilled, over ice, for a violet lemonade – a flower sprig slipped down the side for garnish.

When brewing, I prefer to leave mine to infuse for as long as I can, to really draw out as much of the medicine as possible. Simply pour over hot water, cover the mug with a small plate to trap the volatile oils (or use a sealed jar), and wait. You can wait 20 mins, 1 hour, or up to 8 hours for full extraction! – Then store in the fridge and consume within 2-3 days.

And if you are lucky enough to find this plant in abundance, a sweet violet syrup is a wonderful traditional recipe. The original parma violets!

Simply infuse as above and then stir in some raw honey once cooled to sweeten (or sugar if you prefer). The more honey or sugar you use, the longer it will keep. Store in the fridge and serve over ice-cream, pancakes, cereal with yoghurt, or simply by the spoonful for a cough or a broken heart.

You could also go a step further and make gut-healing sweet violet sweeties or jellies, by adding some grass fed gelatine and pouring into moulds to set.

Join a Spring Foraging Walk

If you enjoyed learning about wild violets, why not join me on a Spring Foraging Walk? 

I will be taking you deeper like this with each plant or mushroom that we find along our way, only we will go further into the identification features and get to sample all the wonderful wild flavours that are on offer from each.

I will also be bringing along some homemade wild treats for you to taste, like my spring nettle and lemon cake, above!

SPRING EQUINOX WILD WOMEN GATHERING

Come celebrate this ancient festival with your circle of sisters, as we reclaim our wild upon North Yorkshire moorland. 

Join us as we celebrate the return of the warm, lighter days with an evening connecting deeply with nature and all of her wonders!

Tickets go on sale for this event on Monday 10th March at 6pm, so keep an eye out in your inbox for the booking link. There are only 15 spaces.

FORAGING & FERMENTATION

If you are interested in joining me for a full day of learning how to Forage and Ferment, I have provided details below! 🙂

FROM FOREST TO PLATE

This will be a fully immersive day spent getting to know the abundance of delicious wild edibles available to us in Spring and all the ways we can work with them to create gut-nourishing, immune boosting, and incredibly tasty ferments!

FOOD AND DRINKS

I will teach you how to create a variety of different fermented foods and drinks, from sauerkrauts and kimchi’s to wild, fizzy soda’s and alcohol ferments that are low in sugar and actually good for your health!

On this day you will enjoy:

An introduction to foraging in spring walk.

Wild teas & organic refreshments all day.

Gut-healing workshop.

Wild kraut & kimchi workshop.

Fermented wild starters & sodas workshop.

How to wild brew alcohol to support health, not destroy it.

A FREE complimentary PDF full of  instructions and recipes.

Highest quality, organic, wild food lunch and tasters.

Plus take home your own wild goodies that we make on the day.