Brigit Anna McNeill - Bloom & Thrive

Brigit Anna McNeill is a foraging teacher, herbalist, ecotherapist and wild plant medicine expert.

You can find her on instagram @brigitannamcneill.

TO OSCAR, JASPAR, RAGNAR AND THE WILD

Bloom & Thrive is for anyone who notices the plants on their way to work and sees hope in their potential to brighten our daily lives. It is for the person yearning for a connection with the power of nature and a different way to care for themselves that is more at one with the natural world. It is for anyone who wants to learn about plants and reclaim knowledge lost from our modern, electronic world.

If you are tired of the electronic hum invading all aspects of your life, working with herbs and flowers will help you to rediscover your place in nature and our ecosystem. Plant medicine offers not only gentle remedies for everyday ills, but also a means of nurturing yourself, bringing a powerful element of self-care to your life that will inspire and awaken your senses from smell and taste to sight and touch and loop you back into the wonderfully nurturing cycle of food and flowers, healing and health.

This book is an invitation to see again the beauty of the wild. To reconnect with the plants that once were our medicines and to notice the weeds and the tiny flowers growing so strongly yet tenderly in the hedgerows, gardens, forests and riversides, from the cracks in the concrete, beside the roads; growing, blooming and thriving, offering remedy and recovery.

The herbs and flowers listed in this book are the plants that have brought the most joy and healing into my own life; many are wild forgotten weeds, household names and garden friends. I want to inspire you to revive the medicine of the common people, to embrace the way of folk medicine for health, for fun and for life.

Herbal medicine is already present in most peoples lives, whether they realise it or not. Its the warming cinnamon in your apple crumble, the comforting nutmeg in your oat milk, the aromatic rosemary in stews, the fiery cayenne in guacamole, the vibrant basil in tomato sauce, the sustaining turmeric in dals and the soothing mint in the teapot.

Instinctively we reach for honey and lemon for a sore throat or cough, use mint to refresh and revive or chew parsley to freshen our breath. Sage and horseradish have been partnered with meat for longer than we can remember because they help the body to break down the fats in meat and ease its digestion. A warming mix of ginger and chilli are used to help sweat out a cold and fire up the immune system.

Its not to be forgotten that food is our greatest medicine and preventer of disease. Herbal medicine predates written history and is indigenous to all communities around the world. Where there are people, there has always been plant medicine. Plants have helped us not just to survive but to thrive. We have evolved alongside plants and have depended on them for food, clothes, shelter, medicine and well-being. Food has been our first go-to for centuries as a way of healing or making changes inside and outside of ourselves.

The Latin word vulgaris, for example, is often found in the botanical name for plants, such as Thymus vulgaris, and is used to mean of the common people, signifying that this herb was beloved and well used by the people (the sense has changed over time, coming to mean what we now know as vulgar). The word wort is similarly often attached to a herbs name, as in St Johns Wort, and means useful plant or medicine herb.

Since time began, cultures around the globe have developed their own herbal traditions; all over the world, plant stories have been whispered and spoken from heart to ear to heart, and used to support, care and comfort. Many of these herbal traditions and practices are still influential and widely used today, for example, in Ayurvedic, Western and Chinese herbal medicine.

But this knowledge has faded, no longer being passed on through families and generations. I believe, however, that more and more people are searching for simple, natural ways to care for and support their well-being, both physically and mentally. And that is where this book comes in.

Learning about plant medicine is a powerfully radical yet simple act in these times. It gives us the ability to become more self-reliant, and offers us greater choices in how we care for ourselves and our families. Making remedies from the herbs and flowers you have nurtured, foraged or discovered is so satisfying and inspiring. Using these simple cures helps to ground you in the natural world. Listening to your body and becoming your own healer is incredibly empowering.

Plant medicine is also relatively cheap and easy to access, and it can tend to those conditions that are sometimes more difficult to treat with conventional medicine, such as insomnia, stress or skin blemishes, and promote a sense of calm or happiness to help deal with tricky emotions. Think about how you already include herbal medicine in your life, whether knowingly or unknowingly from running your fingers through a patch of lavender, adding a sprig of mint to freshen your glass of water or finding joy in a vase of flowers.

Go slowly, get to know one plant at a time and let the wisdom grow in you over time. This is the safest and wisest way to move forward in the way of the herbalist. How wonderful it is that we live in a world surrounded by such potent allies as these.

Bloom & Thrive is a guide to some of your herbal helpers and plant allies, a gateway into the wonderful wild world that surrounds you. It aims to connect you to herbs and flowers, open your senses and give you confidence in the plant world.

This book will show you some new ways in which to enjoy herbs, whether in the kitchen through teas and infusions, honeys and vinegars, or by creating your own home apothecary through making (or buying) tinctures, balms, sprays and compresses. The sections in the chapter Herbs and Flowers offer easy herbal remedies, which will help you to treat everyday conditions and illnesses. The sections To Get Well Soon and For First Aid are organised by ailment, for ease of use.

The last part of this book lists power plants and their properties; I hope it will give you useful background information and suggest more avenues to explore if you want to take this practice further.

I dearly hope you enjoy this book and that you find joy in meeting some of these plant allies; and that in tasting and using them, you will find this knowledge of the natural world empowering and heart-warming.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please consult your doctor or a qualified professional before changing your diet or introducing new substances to your daily routine, particularly if you are on any medication or have any existing health conditions. Some remedies should not be taken if you are pregnant or have certain medical conditions see the Safety Notes in recipes and in the chapter Power Plants and their Properties for more information.

Bringing plants into your life doesnt have to take a lot of work, nor do you need a botanical degree. Depending on the season, many leaves, roots, seeds and flowers can be eaten raw, introduced into salads, sandwiches and smoothies. Lots of herbs can be thrown into a variety of dishes to make your food more interesting, nutritious and delicious. A brew or infusion of flowers or herbs is both nurturing and natural. Im sure that you already use many of these in your everyday life, whether consciously or subconsciously looking for the good they can bring you. Practising herbal medicine is simply the next step, an acknowledgement of the health and vitality that plants can bring to your life.