Our sustainable living department’s coordinator, Luke, offers to our volunteers to join him every week for a plant walk around our gardens to know more about plants’ properties and benefits. The 6th of April, we had a really interesting walk aimed to collect chamomile and borage flowers. While the firsts have anti-inflammatory properties, the seconds are known to be an incredible source of omega 3, 6 and 9 and be a powerful anti-depression.
Borage
We started our walk at the olive tree nearby Sunseed buildings where Luke explained us more about the virtue of this mythic tree. Starting from the historical myths created around this tree, he came to reveal us the antibiotic and antifungal properties of the “Olea Europaea”. Luke’s advice to benefit the most of this antic tree’s properties is to grab a handful of its leaves in order to prepare an infusion of it. This infusion will then need to remain in the boiling the water during 10-15 minutes. This plant is perfect to boost our immune system and tend to be a good preventive for flue.
Poppins
On our way to collect the borage and the chamomile flowers, we had a look on the other plants of our garden which offer other interesting properties. For example the malva which can be cooked or used to take out stings, was originally used to make marshmallow with its roots. The parietaria and the chenopodium are both really nutritious plants but need to be boiled first in order to get them more digestible. Poppins which were originally used to prepare opium can also make good infusion with their leaves. The white mustard, by its “firy” aspect, indicates us that it is both an anti-inflammatory and aphrodisiac plant. The goosegrass that grow in our garden, is not only sticky, but can also be directly used as a deodorant for our bodies.
Stickywilly
Last advice if you want to collect flowers in your garden; try to do it in the early morning, when the sun rises and the flower open up, it is the moment of the day when they have the most energy.