The Medicine Walk

Spring’s Bounty, Now and in the Past

—by Jeff Monague

It is spring!

As we witness the new growth emerge from the tiny lairs of tree buds, we watch as leaves and blossoms tentatively make their way into the light for the first time. We also get to partake in the spectacle of newborn animals being paraded past us with new mothers proudly leading them, teaching them, about life.

It is a dizzying time of renewal and if you don’t pay attention, you can miss most of it. Missing any of it once meant that your chances of survival were lessened.

Our ancestors obviously paid greater attention to what was springing forth from the earth at this time of year than we do. For them, it was a necessity.

They would have ventured into the forest in early April to watch as ferns began probing skyward from beneath a blanket of decayed leaves. As their stalks rose and their petals curled before being unfurled, the ancestors would have picked them and ate them fresh as a main course or they would have become a part of a salad or boiled as a side dish.

Today, they are commonly referred to as fiddleheads and named for their appearance as they begin to unfurl. They are delicious and mixed with herbs, garlic, butter, and mushrooms, they are most enjoyable.

Around the same time, after the first rains, the morel mushroom was available for harvest. Only an expertly trained eye can properly forage a morel mushroom because they don’t look at all like a mushroom. They don’t wear a smooth cap like their cousins do. Their cap is more of a top hat, but it’s pocked with indentations and grooves. They come in three colours, black, brown, and yellow. The morel mushroom is not as attractive as its smooth capped cousin. But they are just as delicious. The ancestors also came to understand that the morel mushroom also possesses medicinal properties and are beneficial for heart health.

Spring was also a time when the ancestors began preparation and storage of medicinal concoctions created from various plants and trees. For example, immediately after the harvest of sweet water sap from the Maple tree, the Birch tree lets us have its sweet water as well. This sap contains an ingredient like aspirin and was used as an anti-inflammatory. The sap could also be boiled into a syrup which was used as a suppressant cough medicine.

Throughout the spring and into summer our ancestors were able to harvest more herbs and leaves that, when blended together, made up several types of super medicines that would assist in curing and keeping several ailments at bay.

It was necessary for them to familiarize themselves with the natural world so that they could learn of its bounty and how all of it could help to keep them in balance.

So, when you venture out this spring and summer, pay attention to what nature has provided for us. Harvest it, use it, protect it. Just as the ancestors did.