An Ancient Herb for the 21st Century

Hello everyone. Welcome. We've had amazing, beautiful, warm summer weather lately. Today it's incredibly windy again, so it's a good job I got the cat when I did. And before I go into this week's film, I just want to say a really huge thank you for the really lovely, heartwarming comments. People are so kind and I feel so honoured and so humble to read all these fantastic comments. They really do touch my heart, so I just want to say thank you so much. And thank you also for the little gifts that I've received recently. I really appreciate them as well. But today I'm out doing a bit of weeding. It's too windy, it's driving me mad, so I'm not going to stay out for too long. But I've bumped into this old friend, Herb Robert. So I thought I would tell you a little bit about this often forgotten herb, because even though it's an old-fashioned herb, people have forgotten about it in the main. I think it's very relevant for us today in the 21st century. So I'm going to go to a less windy spot and tell you all about it. So down here in this little woodland, we're protected from the wind. And there's two lovely stands of Herb Robert, one here and one just here behind me. So Herb Robert is an old-fashioned plant and I'll tell you shortly why it's so relevant to us in the 21st century. But first I just want to introduce you to him. So Herb Robert is Geranium Robertianum and he's in the Cranesbill family. He's very closely related to American Cranesbill, which is Geranium Masculatum. He's just a smaller version, but they're kind of interchangeable. So if you don't have Herb Robert, maybe you have the American Cranesbill and you can use it the same, in the same way. So I mentioned that sometimes the flowers and the stems will turn red. You can see it beginning to happen here. So that's indicating that it's something to do with blood. It has a connection to our blood and indeed it does because Herb Robert is a wonderful vulnerary. So it's a wound healer. So if you get a wound and it's bleeding, you can use Herb Robert. But if you're also experiencing a heavy menstrual bleeding or any kind of internal bleeding, you can also use Herb Robert for that. But more than that, any old wounds that might be separating or green or any ulcerations, Herb Robert is wonderful for healing those as well. As well as pretty much all skin irritations, including ulcers and eczema, Herb Robert will help. So it's a beautiful, delicate, lacy little plant. And he's got these lovely five petaled, pinky, sometimes purpley flowers and these beautiful lacy leaves. But Herb Robert is very high in tannin content, very, very astringent, very drying, which is why he's used, you know, to stop bleeding, but also infections for women that women experience, such as Leukorrhoea. You can make a douche with Herb Robert for things like that. But he also, you know, every plant is very flexible and different people use plants for different, the same plant for different reasons. So Herb Robert is also known to help with sore throats, sore gums. You can have a mouthwash of Herb Robert. You can use Herb Robert for kidney issues. He breaks down the stones. If you end up with kidney stones, Herb Robert can break the stones. And that's what Culpeper refers to mostly when Culpeper is talking about Herb Robert, is that he breaks the stones. He's mildly diuretic, very cooling. So, you know, obviously if you have a stone in your kidneys, there's probably inflammation there. And so Herb Robert will cool that down and make you feel better. So as I said, Culpeper refers to Herb Robert, but not many herbalists today do. You won't find him in most modern herbal books. Juliette de Barclay Levi refers to Herb Robert and Julia Bruton Seal mentions him in Wayside Medicine, but they're the only places that I've really come across him. But he's not generally found today in modern herbals, which is surprising because of how he can help us in the 21st century. You know, we're living in this very modern technological age. We're constantly being bombarded with radiation through EMFs all over the place. We're very much tied to our computers and other devices. So we're experiencing that EMF radiation and he's been shown to be very beneficial following x-rays or dental work. So I'm putting two and two together and I'm assuming he's going to benefit us from that exposure to EMFs as well, because that is a form of radiation. And so he's a lovely plant to use as a tea, as a tincture. He's normally used fresh because he's very moisture, he's very rich in moisture, difficult to dry. So make a tincture, always leave some to go to seed because it is only an annual plant. And you could also, you can use the whole plant. So you could dig it up if you have a lot of Herb Roberts around, you could dig one of the plants up and include the roots in your tincture. And you could also make a foot bath because then you're using the herb in the water to create an osmosis where he will replace the antioxidants that would be lost after exposure to radiation. So very, very beneficial and helpful to people in the 21st century. But I just might like to point out as well that, you know, when we look back at Culpeper, who is one of my favourite heroes through the ages, Culpeper was a herbalist of the people. He believed we should tell people how they can use the gifts of Mother Nature, plants such as Herb Robert. And he wrote his book to give to the ordinary people so that they could heal themselves, so that they would be empowered to know which herbs to use for what problem. And he came under a huge attack from the Royal College of Physicians who didn't like him doing this because they wanted to have complete control over people's health very much as we know certain aspects of medicine want to do to us today. So in the spirit of Culpeper, I'd just like to say to you that this is a plant which can be found in many places, it can be found in ditches and waste ground, highways and byways, as long as you leave it as Scotus seed, you'll have plenty of it if it turns up in your garden. And I suggest, you know, one or two cups of tea per week at least if you're using a computer very often, or if you're on the phone very often, or if you have to go for x-rays or anything of that nature, just to protect yourself and to prevent the loss of antioxidants in the blood. So here is a little bit of Herb Robert that has actually self-seeded here into the herb garden. So I feel comfortable harvesting this, it's almost offering itself to me and I'll leave the rest of the wild stuff to just keep self-seeding. But another name for Herb Robert is Stinking Bob, because if you crush the leaves you get a very unpleasant smell and it's been known to repel lice, fleas and to kill off the lice eggs, that's how it would have been used back in Culpeper's time. So I find that really fascinating, it doesn't smell very nice, that's true, so I'm going to take this and I'm going to make an insect repellent from it. Not a very nice smell at all, I've got the whole plant here, oh there's a bit of root there as well look, you can see how the stems have turned red which indicates it can be beneficial to the blood. So I'm going to take this into the house and make a really strong infusion and then I'll make an insect repellent from that and I'll let you know how it turns out. I think I might make a cup of tea as well because I'm always on the computer doing work and hopefully I'll get some, I don't know, feel a little bit more energized and less drained. So there you go, so if you have this which is Geranium Robertianum or if you have Geranium Masculatum which is the American Cranesbill, remember they're interchangeable you can use them both for the same purposes and I just think we're really blessed to have a plant that has, I don't know, has it adapted to help us or to help the planet because it's growing everywhere at the moment very very profusely and either way it's just good to know that we have yet another herbal ally. So thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week and let you know how we got on with this, so bye-bye. I hope you enjoyed today's film, if you did subscribe and hit the bell for notifications and have a look at the website danewsirisherbgarden.com for more information about us and about the herbal medicine courses I offer and the Wise Woman Way training and if you go to the shop you can find the books, the weed handbooks and other herbal goodies and remember we put a new film out every Sunday, so looking forward to seeing you next week.