Health in your backyard

Margaret Roberts

Margaret Roberts

Published Sep 4, 2012

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Margaret Roberts is a household name in the field of natural products in SA. Her book, My 100 Favourite Herbs published by Random House Struik offers information on how and when to propagate, plant, grow and harvest herbs, their uses through the ages, companion planting and recipes – for the kitchen and for the health. Here are a few of the recipes from this extensive book...

Carrot, apple and parsley smoothie

Serves 1-2

This is a quick and delicious energy drink that fills a gap – and children love it.

2 peeled carrots, topped and tailed

½ cup fresh parsley

1 large apple, peeled and cut into chunks

1 stick celery

1 cup grapes

1 cup unsweetened apple juice

Whirl in a liquidiser until smooth and serve immediately in a tall glass.

Note: Because of its high vitamin content parsley naturally tones the skin and brightens the eyes, while vitamins A and C and its phosphorous content ensure elasticity, healing and toning throughout the body. Fresh parsley eaten daily will do much to clear the skin, break down oiliness and heal acne and pimples. A simple parsley lotion or bath is an instant toner.

Calendula healing cream

1 cup good aqueous cream

1 cup calendula petals

½ cup chopped borage leaves and flowers

½ cup chopped comfrey leaves

2 tsp vitamin E oil

Simmer the aqueous cream in a double boiler with the calendula, borage and comfrey for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Cool for 10 minutes, strain and add the vitamin E oil. Spoon into sterilised jars, seal well and label. Keep any excess in the fridge.

Note: A nourishing cream can be made for dry winter feet and can be massaged into your dog’s feet, too. Calendula lotion can be used as a toner or splashed or dabbed on as a lotion. Dry, itchy, flaking skin, after-shave redness, rashes, grazes and sunburned skin all show results with this lotion. Use a dash of calendula bath vinegar to add shine when washing your hair. It can also be added to bathwater to relieve dry, itchy skin, sunburn, rashes and grazes. Use as a foot soak to soothe blisters, calluses and dry, cracked heels.

Californian poppy bath salts

6 cups coarse non-iodised sea salt

3 cups Epsom salts

3 cups Californian poppy flowers

1 cup Californian poppy leaves

½ cup crushed cloves

Mix the sea salt and Epsom salt together. Spread a thin layer of salt on a clean surface; spread the flowers, leaves and cloves over the salts. Cover completely with a clean plastic sheet, tucking the ends in to seal it. Leave the mixture to mature for a few days, usually a week is best. Remove the plastic sheet and mix everything together well. Store in a jar or tin and keep well covered.

Use one cup of the mixture in the bath. Tie the salts in a face cloth, soak the filled face cloth in warm water and use it to wash all over. The salt dissolves on the body. Lie back in the bath and massage the legs and feet well with the face cloth. You’ll emerge feeling relaxed and ready for bed. This gentle salt rub will help to relax spasm and pain; it also acts as a diuretic and will ease nightmares. A calming tea of the petals will enhance the effect of the bath salts.

Note: Californian poppy stems contain a latex that has painkilling compounds in it. Native Americans pounded the stems to pulp and bound them around broken limbs in both humans and animals; they also used stems as a padding for splints and as a compress, warmed in hot water, over a painful back or aching hip joint.

Ginger hot toddy

2 tsp honey

2 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbs thin ginger slices

Dash of brandy

½ cup boiling water

Warm the honey, lemon juice and ginger in a double boiler. Add a dash of brandy and the boiling water and simmer until everything is well mixed. Pour into a mug and sip slowly.

Ginger circulatory cream

1 cup minced fresh ginger

1 cup aqueous cream

2 tsp powered cloves

½ tsp cayenne pepper

6 drops peppermint essential oil

Gently simmer the ginger, aqueous cream, cloves and cayenne pepper in a double boiler for 15 minutes. Strain and add peppermint essential oil. Mix well, spoon mixture into a sterilised jar and seal well.

Note: Use ginger in a footbath to deodorise smelly feet and to soften horny skin. Freshly grated or thinly sliced ginger root added to the bath will stimulate the circulation and help remove toxins from the body.

Ginger can irritate sensitive skins, so always test the mixture first on the inside of the wrist before adding to bathwater

Add leftover grated ginger to spent coffee grounds and sprinkle under tender plants to kill snails. Sprinkle ginger powder and cayenne pepper to deter ants and mice.

Evening primrose cough syrup

1½ cups fresh primrose flowers, leaves, stem and bark thinly peeled with a sharp knife and chopped finely

¾ cup honey

¾ cup fresh lemon juice

1-2 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated

Simmer the ingredients together in a double boiler for 20 minutes. Pour through a new sieve that has been sterilised in boiling water. Store the syrup in a sterilised bottle, with a good lid, and label accordingly. Take a teaspoonful at a time, at least six times a day, to ease a cough.

Note: Evening primrose is beneficial for all skin ailments, refining, moisturising and encouraging new cell growth. Apart from working on the surface of the skin, improving elasticity, softness and strength, external applications of evening primrose extracts and oils are assimilated by the underlying tissues, improving general circulation. Make your own evening primrose cream as it is quick, easy and extremely soothing for sunburn, windburn and dry skin. Evening primrose flower lotion makes a refreshing splash-on or mist spray that is excellent for refining and toning greasy skin.

Toss old evening primrose plants on to the compost heap, cover with grass cuttings and leaves, and within a fortnight the heap will be disintegrating with heat and speed.

Coriander insect-repelling spray

Excellent for white fly, aphids, fungus and scale.

Coriander sprigs, flowers and leaves

Rue sprigs, flowers and leaves

Khakibos sprigs

1 cup sunflower oil

Fill a bucket with the coriander and rue plus a few chopped sprigs of khakibos. Pour enough boiling water over the plants to cover and leave this potent mixture to stand overnight. The next morning strain and discard the herbs on to the compost heap.

Mix in the cup of sunflower cooking oil – this is to help the spray to stick, and smother the insects. Mix in briskly and pour into spritz-spray bottles. Shake the bottle occasionally as you spray. If watering the spray on to the ground (i.e not on to leaves), then omit the liquid down ant holes, onto the lawn for crickets and between paving stones and bricks to keep ants away.

You will find many uses for this exceptionally potent and useful spray, even wiping down shelves in garden sheds and garages and watering it in deeply around the outside of the house to keep creepy-crawlies at bay. Coriander and rue spray is wonderfully effective watered behind nesting boxes and in the corners of chicken runs and aviaries.

Celery salt for a salt-free diet

1 cup celery leaves, finely chopped

½ cup celery seeds

½ cup fresh thyme leaves stripped of their stems

½ cup crushed coriander seeds

½ cup fennel seeds

½ cup oreganum leaves

½ cup crushed mustard seeds

Dry all the ingredients on brown paper in the shade. Mix together and store in a screw-top jar near the stove. Fill a pepper grinder with it and use it lavishly as a flavouring to replace salt.

Note: Seeds, leaves and stems relieve chest ailments such as asthma and bronchitis, lower high blood pressure, and act as a superb diuretic, urinary antiseptic, antispasmodic and sedative. Celery’s cleansing action on both the kidneys and bladder is much respected and it is an effective treatment for cystitis. It will improve circulation to the muscles and joints, and in the case of gout, rheumatism and arthritis, celery can help relieve stiffness and pain, as well as reduce acidity throughout the body. To make celery seed tea, use one teaspoon of organically grown seeds to a cup of boiling water. Allow the tea to stand for five minutes, stir well and sip slowly, chewing the seeds. Celery had anti-convulsant properties and the Chinese eat a celery salad daily as a tonic, a cleanser and to lower high blood pressure.

Do not take celery or celery seeds for medicinal purposes if you are pregnant or suffering from a kidney disorder. Check with your doctor first. Seeds bought for sowing are not suitable for medical treatments – only use your own reaped seeds that are organically grown.

Carnation deodoriser

1 cup cloves

3-4 tsp clove oil

2 cups dried carnation petals

Soak the cloves in the clove oil overnight. Add the carnation petals and store in an airtight bottle for a week. Give the bottle a daily shake and add more clove oil as the mixture matures. Sew into sachets, or fill small bowls with the heady mixture and place in drawers, cupboards or the bathroom. The mixture will sweeten the dankest, mustiest cupboard, even at the coast, and keep fish moths away. Revive it with fresh clove oil from time to time. - The Mercury

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