It is the time of the final harvest of the year, a time of gleaming conkers and glittering spiders’ webs in the morning. The last warmth of summer is gentle and nostalgic, the berries have ripened and the last of the herbs have been gathered for winter.
Even if we are not farmers or herbalists, all of us can still look at the hedgerows, noticing the abundance of fruits and nuts, and take some time to give thanks for our personal year’s harvest. This is a natural time for us to express our gratitude and reflect on the blessings of the year. And a nice way to celebrate the autumn is to make jam from hedgerow berries, or bird cakes for the little creatures who will have to spend winter out in the cold. This is the time for collecting, stirring and gratitude.
An old name for the long thorny canes of brambles is “lawyers” because of the difficulty we have in extricating ourselves from their grasp! Nonetheless, despite a few scratches, one of the great joys of the late English summer is spending a warm Sunday afternoon meandering along the hedgerows, popping blackberries into our mouths and baskets. This annual ritual is one of the last vestiges of foraging for food in Britain, yet what a treat it is to come home with a basketful of berries and turn them into blackberry crumble to be savoured after dinner with double cream or, a guilty pleasure, for breakfast next day.
These berries are packed with vitamin C. A lovely way to boost your immune system naturally ahead of winter is to collect the berries, rinse them and, once dried, pop them straight into the freezer. Then every morning you can blend a handful of frozen blackberries and a teaspoon of elderberries with rice milk and a banana into a delicious and healthy purple smoothie. Alternatively, dry them in a cool oven then grind them into a powder to be added to a smoothie or sprinkled over porridge.
The blackberry bush demonstrates Mother Nature’s abundant generosity. Enormous quantities of fruit are produced, more than enough for everyone to enjoy crumbles, tarts, jams and jellies, with plenty left over to fatten the birds and mice for the coming winter.
Also at this time of year, the rowan displays clusters of vibrant orange-red berries. This tree has a strong association in folklore with protection, particularly against witches and all such evils! In the past, it was common to find rowan trees (also known as mountain ash) planted outside the front doors of country cottages. Their twigs would be fashioned into talismans, such as crosses tied with red wool and hung over the doorways of houses, in barns, on horses’ headbands and even woven into the tails of cows. In Scotland it was said that faeries live in the rowan tree and that these trees protect the stone circles where faeries love to dance.
Rowan berries are still used for protection, but nowadays more against sore throats than witches. The berry, rich in vitamin C, was traditionally used to treat scurvy, and now to ease sore throats and tonsillitis. It is particularly good for soothing hoarseness, making rowan berry syrup highly valued by singers. But please be aware that the seeds are poisonous, so make sure they are strained from the warm syrup before bottling. The fruit itself is safe to eat and has a lovely wild flavour with a sharp tartness.
Hops are often to be found tangled in the hedgerows as escapees from the hops fields that are now long gone. For the herbalist, hops offer many opportunities for rebalancing and comforting our patients. This herb is wonderful for women who have reached an age when their oestrogen levels start to decline and sleep is badly disrupted by hot flushes and drenching sweats. Hops not only supplement the declining oestrogens, it is also a hypnotic herb, meaning that it deeply relaxes the mind and promotes sleep. This lovely herb does a marvellous double job of reducing flushes to barely none and, if a woman does wake in the night, she will drop off to sleep again very easily.
Hops offers another wonderful service to modern people by relaxing the gut, where so many of us feel stress and discomfort. We can make a simple infusion with the leaves, somewhat bitter to taste, but it stimulates the stomach to secrete digestive enzymes. The herb’s relaxing action also allows gut muscles to unclench so we feel relaxed and irritable bowel symptoms melt away.
Autumn is the most magical season of the year, a time of mists sinking to the land, golden leaves flashing as they spiral downward, squirrels going about their business and spiders weaving. In my kitchen, there is the stirring and bottling of gathered fruits and the gathering together of good people to share the abundance of nature!
Jo Dunbar is a professional medical herbalist.
Her national prize-winning book The Spirit of the Hedgerow
is fully illustrated in colour and published by Local Legend.
