Food for Thought: Healing Herbs with Lesley Crystal
Food for Thought is an ongoing series of Q&A interviews with knowledgeable locals who share their wisdom to promote community food security.
Images by Brette Little
“My favourite way to have a relationship with these plants is by spending a lot of time with them.”
-Lesley Crystal
Local herbalist Lesley Crystal is passionate about healing plants, and introduced us to the miraculous healer Plantain which is currently abundant across the island. Read on for her recipe to soothe digestive inflammation.
Q+A with Lesley Crystal
Tell us a little about you; what brought you to Salt Spring Island?
14 years ago I was living in Whistler and came to SSI for the weekend. I fell in love with the people and nature. I then went back to grab my stuff and never looked back.
How did you become interested in gathering and using local herbs?
It is hard to remember the exact point in time when I began a relationship with herbs as healers but I think it was Nettle that really made me fall in love. I remember a friend taking me into the forest and introducing me to Nettle and I haven’t gone a spring without them.
What are your favourite resources for learning about herbalism?
My favourite way to have a relationship with these plants is by spending a lot of time with them. Meditating with them, eating them fresh and asking them to become friends is how the knowledge becomes so ingrained in me. There are some great books; the author and herbalist Susun Weed is amazing at capturing the essence of the plants. I would also recommend reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. As most of us don’t have elders to teach us how to communicate with the natural world we need help to be in harmony and relationship with these plant healers. She very clearly and compassionately explains how to harvest and communicate with the herbs so graciously presenting themselves to us.
Do you have any advice for islanders about harvesting and working with herbs on Salt Spring?
I would recommend finding a teacher on Salt Spring. There are many. My teacher, Seraphina Capranos is amazing and really fosters her students to have very intimate and personal relationships with these healing plants in relationship to their own health.
Lesley’s Healing Herb: Plantain
The reason I love Plantain so much is because it is everywhere for most of the spring and summer. It is like the friend that you meet and suddenly you begin seeing them everywhere. It particularly likes to populate newly cleared land and the cracks in parking lots. It is not specific about soil type and requires very little water; it is a dream for reluctant gardeners. But you don’t need to put effort into growing it in your garden as it will probably already be in your driveway.
One only needs to know how to identify Plantain to begin using it as a first aid tool. Just grab a leaf, chew it up and place it on any burn or scrape and it will begin its healing work. It has an impressive tendency to pull out any toxins or foreign materials that are harmful to the body, removes stubborn wood splinters and pulls out bee stingers. Similarly, it has a soothing effect on our stomach and digestive tract if taken as a tea or juice. One variety of Plantain, Plantago ovata is the source of Psyllium seed which is a top seller in health food stores for clearing the digestive tract.
Plantain became ubiquitous when it traveled to the Americas on the coattails of our European ancestors, fell to the ground and made a new home. It is for that reason Indigenous folks called it, “White Man's Footsteps.” It was a settler here, and it settled in the most noble of ways. In my opinion it can be a lesson to any of us that feel a little ungrounded in a land that we aren’t indigenous to. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer beautifully talks about Plantain’s relationship with the land:
"Plantain represents a better path forward, a way for those of us descended from the European settlers, from those who trampled their way across the continent, leaving our ancestors scattered across the prairies like Plantain seeds, to embrace our status as naturalized residents of this land. Like Plantain, we don’t have to elbow anyone else out in order to find our place. We can walk gently. We can dedicate ourselves to protecting the land, nurturing it and restoring it as we are able to do so. We can learn to honor Mother Earth and to listen to the lessons from the plants growing in our own backyards."
Recipe: Plantain Tummy Soother
This remedy really works well if I wake up feeling sluggish from eating poorly the day before, or you could use it for any digestive inflammation.
A handful of Plantain leaves
A few sprigs of mint or 1-2 drops of mint essential oil
A small slice of ginger or two
Water (you could also replace this with cooled mint tea if you don’t have any other kind of mint)
Lemon juice (optional)
Throw all the herbs in a blender. Pour enough water in to cover it all and blend until the mixture is pulpy. Then strain through a strainer. If you own a juicer, you can put all the herbs into a juicer then add water to taste.
