Stinging Nettle Teaches
Homeschooled teenager learns why people like to shop
by Kimberly
Gallagher
I had been working with Annika for about three years when
I suggested we use our time together to go harvest stinging
nettles. Annika is a thirteen-year-old homeschooled young
woman, and she was pretty tentative about my idea.
“Stinging nettle?” she asked me, with the idea
implied, “you want to go and pick stinging nettle leaves,
on purpose??”
Now, she knew I had been studying herbalism, and we had done
some other projects together such as making dandelion flower
cookies and fritters, so she did agree to go, just reluctantly.
I think my enthusiasm carried her along.
We drove a ways to my favorite nettle collecting spot –
an open meadow in a forest of beautiful, old maple trees.
She was enthralled by the beauty and magic of the place, and
astounded by the number of nettle plants stretching out before
us – a blanket of them beneath the trees. We’d
worn our long pants and long sleeved shirts, and now we put
on our gardening gloves and began to pick, I with my baby
in a pack on my back.
After picking the first leaf without getting stung, Annika
gained confidence and was soon picking happily. I told her
how I had drunk nettle tea all through my pregnancies and
to help with my milk flow in the early years of my babies’
lives. I raved about nettle soup and how I put nettle leaves
in all my recipes that called for greens in the early spring.
I talked about how they were full of vitamins and minerals,
and especially high in iron. And, mostly we were quiet, just
picking nettle leaves together in this special, secret place.
After a time, I had to stop picking and nurse my baby. Annika,
however, didn’t stop as I thought she would. She kept
picking. She was actually enjoying it! My heart leapt.
I talked to her about how this is something women have been
doing for centuries, how gathering is in our blood. Yes, I
could see she felt it too, the rightness of it. She gathered
and talked to me while I nursed Hailey. “Hey,”
she said, “maybe that’s why women today like to
shop so much. It reminds them of this.”
What an amazing thought. I had never put that together before,
but it did indeed make sense. This experience with Annika
is only one of the magical experiences I have had doing herbal
projects with kids.
I find that homeschooling and herbalism are very natural
partners. Herbal projects form an experiential base for in
depth studies in the areas of science, math, social studies,
and on a fundamental level, basic life skills. Beyond this,
herbal projects help connect children with the natural world
in powerful, empowering ways.
After we had gathered those nettles, I sent Annika home with
a recipe for cream of nettle soup. The soup provided a very
simple way for her to use and taste what she had gathered
right away. This is the place to begin with your homeschool
student. Pick something to gather and a project you can do
to immediately use what you bring home. This kind of experiential
education will then provide a basis for all kinds of deeper
studies. I suggest sticking with the experiential level for
quite some time.
My son, Rowan, has grown up in our herbal family. Like Hailey
he has gone on harvesting missions from his earliest days
outside the womb (and even quite a few when he was still in
the womb!). I have a picture of us picking red clover in a
field when he was just a month old and riding in a sling on
my front.
Now, at six, Rowan can identify the plants we pick often
– red clover, stinging nettle, all of the edible berries
around here (and there are many in the northwest), and many
more. He is also a help when we go harvesting now, pulling
on his gloves and happily filling his nettle bag or blackberry
basket.
Rowan and my latest adventure together was digging burdock
root. We tried to dig all the way down to the end of the root
without breaking it. He had his own child sized shovel and
I had my full sized one and we dug and dug, carefully, far
from the root. We dug so deep that I had to reach my whole
arm and head into the hole to reach the bottom and dig with
my little hand trowel. Still we didn’t get to the root
tip. I kept asking Rowan, “Should I just break it? Are
you tired of this?” “NO!” was his firm answer
again and again.
He wanted to get to the bottom of the root. He became my
cheerleader since he could no longer reach the bottom of the
hole. Finally, anti-climatically, I broke the root off by
accident. We were disappointed, but also astounded by how
deep we had dug. This root was taller than 15-month-old Hailey!
Now we brought that root home and washed it and cut it up
and stir-fried some of it for dinner. Rowan was able to taste
it that very night. We poured vinegar over some, and will
strain and taste it in a few weeks. We also made burdock pickles,
which Rowan doesn’t care for, but John (my husband)
and I think are divine.
Rowan is growing in the sophistication of his learning with
each herbal experience. Now he is learning to identify plants,
asking questions like are the leaves opposite or alternate
branching? What colors are the stems, the flowers, and the
underside of the leaves? How many petals do the flowers have?
When do they bloom?
He is taking a more and more active role in the gathering
process and in the processing of the plants once they are
back at home. I imagine that, in a traditional society, these
are the kinds of experiences young people would have on a
daily basis as a very natural part of life. This is how they
would learn “science.” So please, don’t
underestimate the learning that is occurring through these
experiences.
I’m working with another young teen-age girl right
now, too. We had dug burdock together a week before Rowan
and I went and I sent her home with the pickle recipe. She
loved them! Then, the next time we met, we made root beer
together from dried roots – burdock, sassafras, and
licorice. How amazing is that, for a young person to learn
that root beer is actually made from roots, and that it was
originally a medicinal, tonic sort of beverage, rather than
junk food. Not only did Rachel learn about the origin of a
product she was used to buying in the store, she became empowered
to make it herself from common plants she was coming to know.
Now, once homeschooling students have had some experiences
seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, even listening to the
plants, they are going to be inspired to learn more. Just
look for those moments when their curiosity is peaked and
begin offering them resources.
These experiences open the doorway for deeper studies in
botany, in ecosystems…
Where do the plants grow and why? Where can we find the
plants we want to gather?
and in chemistry…
What are the constituents of the plants that make them effective
as medicine or for nourishment? What makes some plants poisonous?
How do we prepare the plants for our various uses?
Processing the plants through cooking opens the doorway for
practical applications of math.
Then, as we learn about how people have used the plants historically
we move into the realm of social studies.
Each of these subjects can be studied in whatever depth is
appropriate for your child.
So, how do you get started?
Well, I suggest, come spring, you gather some dandelion flower
petals and add them to your favorite sugar cookie recipe.
It really is as easy as that.
Other beginning herbal projects:
Dandelion fritters or pancakes
Violet syrup
Gathering plants for a wild salad (especially including edible
flowers)
Plantain or burdock leaf band-aids
Cream of nettle soup
Rose petal honey
Digging roots for stir-fry
Gathering herbs for tea.
If you get hooked after trying those dandelion flower cookies,
please do take the time to learn about sustainable harvesting
methods and remember to always give thanks for the plants
you’re gathering and the gifts they’re bringing
to your lives.
The Herbal
Medicine Making Kit
(http://www.wisewomanbookshop.com/)
will be an invaluable resource to help you gain confidence
in your own herbal skills so that you can pass them on to
your children.
The free Roots
and Branches
course that comes with the kit even covers sustainable harvesting
methods, and the activities in the kit can easily be done
with your children.
Future projects to consider after gaining a little confidence
and experience are practically endless.
Slightly More Advanced Projects:
Making your own:
Lip balm
Soda pop
Healing salve or cream
Tinctures
Beauty products
House cleaning products
Plant an edible flower and herb garden in your yard
For me, herbalism has become a way of life. It is at the
heart of our family’s life together. The passion that
John and I have for herbalism makes it a natural homeschooling
activity for our children.
Perhaps you will not take it as far as we have, perhaps you
will just learn a couple of plants and do some fun projects
with your children. At whatever level you and your children
engage with the plants, I promise you surprising and richly
fulfilling experiences that deepen your connections to each
other and the natural world.
Resources:
1. LearningHerbs
and FamilyHerbalRemedies
2. Herbal
Medicine Making Kit (everything you need to make your
own salve and tincture and a free herbal medicine making home
study course)
3. Healing Wise by Susun Weed. Wonderful, entertaining, and
detailed descriptions of a few common plants and many simple
recipes.
4. The Wild, Wild Cookbook: A Guide for Young Wild-Food Foragers
by Jean Craighead George. Descriptions and habitats of common,
useful plants and great recipes.
5. Shanleya’s Quest by Tom Elpel: Fun story that teaches
basic botany to children.
6. Botany in a Day by Tom Elpel: More in depth, simple botany
learning guide. Both of Elpel’s books are available
at hollowtop.com.
Kimberly Gallagher, M.Ed. homeschools her
budding herbalists, Rowan (6) and Hailey Wren (16 months).
Kimberly is a certified teacher and formerly worked in alternative
schools in Washington State. She is currently apprenticing
in the Wise Woman Tradition at Ravencroft Garden in Monroe,
WA. Kimberly is co-creator of the Herbal
Medicine Making Kit.
http://www.wisewomanbookshop.com/
She and her husband John started LearningHerbs
and FamilyHerbalRemedies.
Herbal Medicine Making Kit
Wouldn’t it be great if you could make your own herbal
remedies…immediately?!? Herbal Medicine Making Kit includes
everything you need to make your own healing herbal salve
and Echinacea tincture. Get your first herbal creations going
in minutes!
Includes the Roots and Branches Herbal Home Study Course
for free. The course take a couple weeks and uses Susun Weed’s
Healing Wise as a required text!
The Herbal
Medicine Making Kit
http://www.wisewomanbookshop.com/
is an awesome place to start if you’re thinking about
more serious herbal study or you simply always wanted to make
an herbal remedy.
About the creators of the Herbal Medicine Making Kit:
We are the Gallagher
family: John, Kimberly, Rowan and Hailey.
We live in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific
Northwest.
We recommend in this kit only remedies and recipes we use
ourselves. We believe it is so important for families to be
in control of their day-to-day healthcare. We want to spread
knowledge that will help people stay healthy and empower them
with skills to treat common illnesses naturally.
John Gallagher is a Community Centered Herbalist, trained
at RavenCroft Garden, and workes at Wilderness Awareness School,
where he teaches herbal medicine with the Wilderness Awareness
Residential Program and teaches about wild plants in the Puget
Sound region via the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, a
home study program that has reached thousands worldwide.
The Gallaghers combined their knowledge of how to learn herbal
medicine along with expertise in distance learning to create
The Herbal
Medicine Making Kit and the Roots and Branches Herbal
Home Study Course. This is a family run, handcrafted business.
We all take part in the fun, even baby Hailey. She cheers
us on while we put together the herbal kits. Come and learn
with us!
What you will make…
I. Echinacea Tincture. (4 bottles)
The kit includes:
Dried Echinacea root
4 colbolt blue dropper bottles
Labels for your finished tinctures
A labeled jar to make your tincture in
Cheesecloth to strain your tincture when completed
A tincture is an extract of an herb in an alcohol base. Echinacea
is a great immune system stimulant for when you feel a cold
coming on and an excellent anti-bacterial for first aid situations.
II. Herbal healing salve. (4 tins & 2 jars)
The kit includes:
Salve herbs (a mix of comfrey, calendula, St. John’s
wort, and plantain)
4 metal salve tins
2 salve jars
Lavender essential oil
Beeswax
Labels for your finished tins and jars
Cheesecloth to strain your salve when completed
This salve is excellent for cuts, scrapes, bumps, bruises,
itches, inflammations, diaper rash, chapped lips and more.
It’s my FAVORITE recipe and it works great!
III. The kit also includes a CD-ROM containing a beautiful
full color manual that walks you through home medicine making
step by step. There is a photo to accompany EVERY STEP of
the tincture and salve making process.
We are with you through the entire experience.
The manual also introduces you to how to begin learning
herbal medicine. It includes information on all the herbs
in the kit and how to use your remedies.
CLICK
HERE TO LEARN MORE
http://www.wisewomanbookshop.com/