Wild Herbs

Last night I went to the grocery store to get some medicine for my daughter. She started experiencing symptoms of seasonal allergies last week, so I started giving her an over-the-counter antihistamine. More recently, she’s been experiencing sinus pressure, a runny nose and an upset stomach. My guess is she has a mild sinus infection. So I was in search of an expectorant and nasal decongestant without an antihistamine because we had already been using one and wanted to avoid using more than the recommended amount or an analgesic like acetaminophen because she had never had a fever. After about 20 minutes of scanning and comparing labels, I finally settled on a medication that worked as an expectorant, nasal decongestant and cough suppressant, knowing the medicine included to suppress...

What if you were surrounded by tea and didn’t know it? In an age where tea is the most consumed drink on the planet after water and is expected to become an $81.6bn global industry by 2026, the possibility of living among an endless supply of ready-to-be-picked, wild tea might seem like a far-fetched dream. But across large swaths of the southern United States, such a reality exists. For those who know what to look for, what was once the most widely consumed caffeinated beverage in the Americas comes from a plant growing in plain sight, ignored by most, but deeply rooted deep in history and intrigue. Yaupon (pronounced yō-pon), is a holly bush indigenous to the south-east United States and happens to be North America's only known native caffeinated plant. Keep reading at BBC.

Paul Cunningham, head chef and joint owner of Brunel’s award winning restaurant in Newcastle, is keen on foraging for edible seaweed and wild herbs. He’s been acclaimed the best chef in Ireland and featured on BBC’s popular Great British Menu series. Now Paul Cunningham, head chef and joint owner of the award winning Brunel’s Restaurant in Newcastle, is combining his role at the successful eatery with Mourne Larder, a small food enterprise he’s set up recently to specialise in dried sea vegetables and wild herbs as healthy ingredients for home cooks and other professional chefs. A native of Dundrum, Paul (34), a father of two young children, has just launched three natural and original products based on his longstanding love of foraging the Co Down coastline for healthy seaweed an...

Zhang Youwen, a 60-year-old farmer in Wuzhai county, Shanxi province, used to grow potatoes and corn on his small patch of land, just as his parents and grandparents had done. Although farmwork kept him busy for most of the year, he only earned a meager income that was barely enough to take care of his family. However, Zhang's life changed in 2017 when he decided to grow huangqi, or astragalus root, a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine, which helped increase his income to more than 10,000 yuan ($1,520), over triple what he earned before. Other farmers in the county have also turned to growing traditional Chinese herbs in recent years to lift themselves out of poverty. Wuzhai, at an altitude of over 1,200 meters, has a cold climate, contributing to smaller crop yields than lower ar...

Juru and Kanaka man Gerald Power often hears from people that food eaten by First Nations people in the tens of thousands of years before colonisation did not have much seasoning. It is a myth he is keen to correct. He offered up saltbush as an example, saying many people thought of it as livestock feed. But it was also delicious ground up and rubbed on meat. Mr Power cultivates many edible native plants, including bush basil, curry myrtle and river mint, in a community garden in Orange, in central-western NSW. One of his favourite products is a drink made with lemon myrtle and ironbark honey, but he also spoke highly of warrigal greens, which he loved for their versatility. "It's a thing you can use in stews. I make warrigal pesto out of it," Mr Power said. "It's just so...