It has been a busy few months for our Wester Hailes Community Herbal Clinic with plenty of change and growth underfoot. Our lovely herbalist Kathryn MacArthur is soon to go on maternity leave next month and so we are welcoming in Audrey Marchbank who will be working here instead while Kathryn is away. We have also welcomed in Susi O Donnell our new volunteer dispenser who makes up medicines for us each week and works on the reception bringing in plenty of new patients.
We’ve had funding confirmed now to bring some financial support to the clinic as well as to begin our Communitea project which will see medicinal herbs grown all over the Wester Hailes estate and then brought back together to process into herbal teas for the clinic and local residents. Amongst some common and popular herbs for teas like Chamomile and Peppermint, we are very excitedly and lovingly growing some native and non-native endangered species like Pasque Flower (Anemone pulsatilla), Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), and Black Cohosh (Aceta racemosa). These are plants which are threatened or endangered in the wild due to overharvesting due to their popularity as medicines, or in the case of Pasque Flower because of habitat loss due to human activities and climate change. As part of our attempts at being as ecologically sensitive and responsible as possible we are beginning to steward some of these plants and propagate them around Edinburgh for their beauty and use as medicines once well established.
