Foraging for edible weeds is an accessible and inclusive healthcare practice, and a skill our grandparents and great-grandparents were well acquainted with. It's a way of enjoying nutrient-dense food and land-based medicine that does not require the degree of privilege that buying a $15 superfood smoothie does. Pat Collins is a highly experienced herbalist, natural health practitioner and bush craftswoman with a passion for sharing her foraging know-how and instilling in people a deep appreciation of edible and medicinal weeds: nature's gifts.
In this episode:
Links:
About Pat:
Pat Collins is an experienced herbalist and owner of the Total Health & Education Centre in Muswellbrook, NSW Australia. She grew up in the bush and on dairy farms, and when her children were young she completed her diploma of herbal medicine, the first of many natural health qualifications. She has a passion for teaching - Pat has taught herbal medicine in multiple settings from wise woman gatherings to tertiary level, and she written several books including the latest, The Wondrous World of Weeds, a beautiful full colour book and guide to foraging edible and medicinal weeds in Australia. When she’s not seeing clients she is teaching herbal workshops and bush tucker camps and formulating her own herbal products for clients.
- How being able to support her children’s health by making at home remedies motivated Pat into studying herbal medicine formally
- Why familiarity with the abundance of edible foods around us - and how to harvest and use them - is so valuable, especially at this time in history
- Why Pat published her book The Wondrous World of Weeds (it wasn’t because writing books pays well!)
- “Once upon a time we were all wise women” – the need to take back our power by reclaiming our knowledge of foraging
- The many uses of Chickweed (Stellaria media) and Paddy’s Lucerne (Sida rhombifolia)
- Weeds grow where the soil is right for them, and will tell you what is wrong with your soil
- Herbs in the time of COVID-19: Some of Pat’s favourite weed allies and ways to use them, to support immune and respiratory health, and to calm our nerves when “it all gets too much”
- Which native Australian bush foods are in season right now, how can to use it – think, lemon myrtle cheesecake and bunya nut curry (!)
- Pat’s views on MLM essential oil companies doTerra and Young Living, concerns about the safety of ingesting essential oils, and more affordable, practitioner grade alternatives to these brands
- The beauty of using whole herbs
- Menopause: How Pat views this powerful life stage, helpful plant allies (Withania!), organ systems to take extra special care of, and how St John’s Wort helped Pat through her surprisingly tumultuous peri-menopausal years
- “If we as a culture respected our elders, we’d have far fewer problems with menopause”
- The call for wise, old women
Links:
- Pat's Website & Facebook
- High quality, affordable alternatives to MLM essential oil companies: New Directions, Sydney Essential Oil Company, Essential Therapeutics
- Funky Forest Apothecary
- Casey's blogs:
About Pat:
Pat Collins is an experienced herbalist and owner of the Total Health & Education Centre in Muswellbrook, NSW Australia. She grew up in the bush and on dairy farms, and when her children were young she completed her diploma of herbal medicine, the first of many natural health qualifications. She has a passion for teaching - Pat has taught herbal medicine in multiple settings from wise woman gatherings to tertiary level, and she written several books including the latest, The Wondrous World of Weeds, a beautiful full colour book and guide to foraging edible and medicinal weeds in Australia. When she’s not seeing clients she is teaching herbal workshops and bush tucker camps and formulating her own herbal products for clients.
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