Publishing progress

New book!

New book cover image

One of the reasons that our medical herbalist, Anne, has been so short of time to spend at Holt Wood is her involvement in recent years in preparing a book for publication.  The book is based on Anne's research into seventeenth-century household medicine and draws on original household recipes, accounts and letters. At last, the book is nearly ready and is called Household Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England. Although not specifically about 'herbs', there are chapters in the book which consider recipe ingredients and medicinal preparations as well as detailed views of 'self-help' activities in the seventeenth century. The book will be published by Bloomsbury Academic later in 2016. More details on the book can be found at the Bloomsbury  web site.

Meanwhile...

Back at Holt Wood, we are gearing up for an Open Day, 1–4 pm on Saturday 21st May 2016. The open day session in the afternoon provides an opportunity to find out why we started the project and how things are progressing. 

Our draft programme

1300: Welcome and introductions

1315: Background to Holt Wood Medicinal Tree and Shrub Project

1345: Walkabout to see trees and shrubs

1515: Harvesting medicinal barks and examples of herbal medicines

1600: End

View across the valley from Holt Wood

The afternoon is suitable for people of all ages and experience. If you would like to come then get in touch to book your free place and we can send travel directions. For background information on Holt Wood see the website.

Updating the Holt Wood website

We are aware that the web site needs updating for Holt Wood. This will be a huge learning process! It is an opportunity to bring together news about Holt Wood and an online shop for some of the produce as well as links to permaculture and other projects. So, hopefully, we will be working on this in the next few months and then announce any updates. 

Witch hazel just beginning to open leaves

Back to the harvest

At last, some space in the diary to get the blog going again. Last year, 2014, the blog was left behind for a while due to lots of other things, hope to catch up during 2015.

Harvest of witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

The witch hazel shrubs are doing well, both on the edge of woodland and in the understorey where they tend to reach up higher, to over 6 ft. The shrub throws out long twigs with lovely fresh shiny and smooth leaves (Hazel nut leaf is furry). So, each spring the witch hazels get a 'haircut' to take off most of the twiggy sprouts. This young leaf and twig distils to produce a delightful floral water which seems to reduce inflammation in sprains, bites and suchlike. We sell it in small amounts of 50 ml (Herbaid shop). It is more expensive than distilled witch hazel from a chemist, but it is a locally produced in Devon, seasonal, sustainable product which has never been near any pesticides. A bit like artisanal production of fine wines! The provenance of this distilled water is carefully logged and linked to a barcode label. Every batch of witch hazel is recorded by weight with the date and location of harvest, and a sample of the plant and product kept - see the image of the specimen of the most recent harvest.

Other developments

The Sweet Chestnuts (Castanea sativa) are flowering so we must keep an eye on them to see if they produce nuts.

Meanwhile we have noticed that bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) is spreading, and needs to be controlled. Although we have strimmed frequently in grassy rides, the bracken still comes up. Our approach probably needs to be more vigorous and consistent to beat this. And we can use the leaves on the compost heap, to make a mulch for young plants. A good way to knock it back is trampling, so we will soon be asking visitors if they could trample a few square feet of bracken before they leave!

New Year News from Holt Wood

Time is flying again, my efforts to keep up to date are just not good enough so this year I have a resolution to do better! At least we have details of our Holt Wood Programme in 2014 arranged. Our first visit to Holt Wood in 2014 coincided with brilliant blue skies between fierce squalls of wind and rain. The River Torridge nearby was within inches of the top of the bank and, by now, is probably washing over the neighbouring meadow. It has been even higher as we can see by the debris which has collected on the deer fence. There is plenty of standing water around so clearing away blockages in water channels and courses becomes important as not many of the trees (perhaps the exception is Alder) like to stand too long in water. A ditch runs all the way downhill along one border of Holt Wood and this needs regular checking to make sure it is feeding down to a stream and into the river.

Standing water at field level in Holt Wood, 2nd January 2014

Saving water!

Of course we do not want to lose all of the water arriving at Holt Wood and it is wonderful to see our newly dug pond filling up steadily. It has been puddled with clay found on site and, once this has firmed up, it should hold water. It is called 'Anne's last pond' because for years I have been digging small 'ponds' or holes in various places in the Wood to try to work out the best location. We finally realised that the best place is near the shed where we can appreciate the ensuing wildlife, ensure that some water is piped in and out, use as an emergency water source, and readily rake out leaves and blanket weed.

Anne's last pond, 2nd January 2014

What is sprouting

It does not feel like winter has truly arrived here, and many plants are still green if not growing - there are leaf buds already sprouting on the elder (Sambucus nigra) trees. It is interesting to see the seed pods that have formed on the Virginian Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), after flowering these stay on for a full year and then they dehisce or burst open to eject the seeds.

Seed pod of Virginian Witch Hazel at Holt Wood

Herbal Harvest Weekend Course

This course is planned for Saturday 7–Sunday 8 June 2014. Ideal if you want to immerse yourself in a herbal haven in beautiful Devon. You will spend several days learning about growing herbs sustainably, harvesting herbs and preparing herbal products for health and beauty uses. The weekend is based at Holt Wood near Great Torrington in Devon, our project on cultivating and harvesting medicinal trees and shrubs sustainably. Your guide will be Anne Stobart, MNIMH, PhD, an experienced medical herbalist, herbal lecturer, herb grower and researcher.

The cost of this weekend is £120.00. This covers daytime refreshments at Holt Wood, all talks and demonstrations, course materials and handouts. Places are limited and must be booked in advance. For further details, download the course description or email herbaid@herbaid.co.uk.

Visitors to Holt Wood

Holt Wood view, August 2013

Visitors to Holt Wood

Visitors are benefiting from the picnic tables which were donated last year which provide a good focus for a group.  We welcomed a group of people from Morchard Bishop Garden Club who came to visit in June. Altogether they spent several hours with us which included hearing about the background to the project and then taking a walkabout. The end of the visit was an opportunity for interesting discussion about how to develop markets for UK-grown herbal produce (thanks to Colin for the photo!). Visitors took away a sample of Distilled Witch Hazel. We have more dates planned in 2014 for visitors.

Holt Wood visitors, June 2013

Green Fair in Exeter

Look out for the Green Fair by the Cathedral in Exeter on Saturday 7th September 2013, from 10 am to 4 pm. We will be there on a stall for the Medicinal Forest Garden Trust. This is a new organisation dedicated to education and research to encourage sustainable harvesting and use of medicinal trees and shrubs. There will be information about a range of related projects and a raffle to raise funds with free samples of Herbal Insect Repellent.

Prickly Ash Bark (Zanthoxylum americanum)

Also called the 'toothache tree' as the bark and other parts such as the berries can be chewed (mind the thorns) to provide an analgesic remedy for toothache. The berries turn black as they ripen. We have planted Prickly Ash in one of the wide rides at Holt Wood and it is growing well, a bit like an over-sized gooseberry bush in habit. The whole plant contains coumarins and alkaloids, and the leaves are rich in essential oils (we find it is very aromatic) some of which are antispasmodic. Prickly Ash is known for its stimulating effects on peripheral circulation, sometimes given for leg cramps, but could have other applications.

Prickly Ash berries, August 2013

New Medicinal Forest Garden Trust

The Medicinal Forest Garden Trust, was launched on 11th July 2012. This new voluntary organisation has charitable aims of promoting and supporting education and research relating to the sustainable cultivation and harvesting of medicinal trees and shrubs. The constitution allows for activities of courses, demonstrations, research projects, alongside promoting suitable accreditation and linking projects together.

Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) at Holt Wood

This is a great development as, when searching for information ourselves, we have found a lack of organisations with specific expertise in medicinal trees and shrubs. This new organisation will be a focus for developing links and sharing information. Contributions are most welcome, if interested then do get in touch with Anne at herbaid@herbaid.co.uk.