Happy Friday,

Every winter folk cut back the willow, and the prunings go on the bonfire or into the green bin.

For centuries, that pile would have been the start of a medicine cabinet. Willow, birch, oak, cherry and buckthorn bark were staples of herbal medicine, and herbalists were once called root diggers because so much of their work happened below ground or under bark.

Most of us never learn that side of plant medicine. We start with leaves and flowers because they’re easy to pick, and the books give bark and roots a line or two. They tell you what a plant is for and skip how to get the remedy out of it, which with bark and roots is most of the work.

Pour boiling water over a strip of bark as you would for a leaf tea and much of what you want stays in the bark; it has to be simmered. Dig a root at the wrong time of year and you miss what you were after.

So I’ve asked my friend and colleague Anne Stobart to teach two evenings on bark and roots.

Anne co-founded Holt Wood Herbs, a medicinal forest garden here in Devon, and grew and harvested everything she’ll be talking about.

She also directed the clinical herbal practitioner programme at Middlesex University. She puts traditional use alongside the research. Every remedy comes with its dose and how it interacts with other medicines, and she’ll tell you when something needs a practitioner.

The first session, on Monday 9 November, is about medicinal bark. Anne covers when to harvest, which tools to use and whether inner or outer bark matters, working through oak, willow, birch, witch hazel and prickly ash.

You’ll learn to make decoctions from fresh bark, to dry, powder and fill your own capsules, and to get bark from the same trees every year by pruning, coppicing and pollarding.

The second, on Monday 16 November, is about roots. That means when to dig them, how to dry them so they keep, and how to identify plants accurately so you avoid toxic ones.

She’ll go through burdock and dock, elecampane, horseradish and marshmallow, what the research says about valerian for sleep, and how to make syrups and tinctures that keep for several years.

Both sessions run 6.30 to 7.30pm UK time on Zoom, with time for your questions.

If you can’t make the live dates, you’ll get the recordings with the Q&A included, along with PDF notes and two years’ access.

👉 Book your place​

The first session is this Monday.

Best,