Hildegard von Bingen was a visionary medieval abbess with strong opinions about how to live life to the fullest, in deep connection with nature, inside and out.
Start your weekend with intention, step out to breathe in the sweet spring air and join Tamara for a nourishing morning ritual inspired by Hildegard’s monastic practices, favourite herbs and holistic approach to self-care.
We will share Hildegard stories, activate our senses by foraging for Hildegard herbs in the garden, prepare a wholesome communal breakfast, eat together in mindful silence and clean up after ourselves, ready to continue the day with a joyful bounce in our steps.
Participants should bring: a bowl and a spoon to eat with, a mug to drink from, a paper bag for foraged herbs.
About the guide Tamara Last Tamara Last’s emerging herbology practice is motivated by a desire to (re)connect adults with the wild and to nurture in children a profound and gentle connection with the natural world. Plants are the golden thread that help her integrate her work as a birth doula, a gardener, a cook, a craft-maker, a mother, a community organiser and an interdisciplinary social scientist.
Location: Anna’s Tuin & Ruigte (Science park, Amsterdam)
Cost € 10–25 (pay what you feel like)
Sign up by sending an email to info@annastuinenruigte.nl
City Herb Foraging for Children Sunday 7th April and Sunday 21st April Park Frankendael Foraging Gardens 10:30-12:00
These are small group sessions for children aged 7+ and their parents.
An introduction to some common Amsterdam herbs that grow in parks, streets, and gardens. A handout with information and recipes will be provided. We will make herb tea and some herbal concoctions after foraging the herbs.
Learn how to:
Identify, forage, and use key plants safely & ethically
Identify (and avoid) look-a-likes and common poisonous plants
Create simple foods, lotions, and potions using local herbs.
Each session will be led by Livvy de Graaf and assisted by Lynn Shore. Lynn is a professional foraging teacher (member Association of Foragers) and consulting herbalist. Livvy, is Dutch-British and has been harvesting and eating wild food for longer than she can remember. She is Lynn’s daughter.
We will be mainly in the River of Herbs foraging gardens, behind Huize Frankendael, which Lynn has run as a community project for the past 10 years.
Price per session 1 child – €15 1 child + 1 parent – € 25 [8 spaces available in total – no spaces available for adults alone]
Sugar and rain As the beautiful Dutch saying goes, we are not made of sugar. So our events go ahead come rain or shine. We will postpone (and refund) if severe weather is forecast, such as a storm, because that could make the outdoor event unsafe. Otherwise, as the other saying goes – There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing..
To Book Please Email stating your preferred date of event and how many children/adults. To secure your place, payment must be received by bank transfer. We will send you the payment details when you email to book. Please look out for that reply as without payment, your booking is not complete and only a small number of places are available for Livvy’s events.
Refund Policy – Fully refundable up to 24 hours before the event. If you need to cancel after that time (so less than 24 hours before the event start time) a refund can only be made if we can fill your place with someone else.
Each year, I get approached by a small handful of inspiring students who want to spend some internship time with me. Learning about their studies is always enlightening but usually, I need to say no to their requests. Not because of their ideas and motivation, but because I lack the time these enthusiastic students deserve.
Last year, Neleah Moureau, from HAS green academy of Den Bosch, contacted me. She wanted to conduct herb-related research as part of her Horticulture and Business Management course. Aeroponics, an innovative growing system where nutrient-rich water is sprayed onto plant roots, was the topic of Neleah’s research. With the right setup, and without soil, aeroponics can offer optimal light, temperature, moisture, and micronutrients to a wide variety of interesting plants. Neleah wanted to know if aeroponics could be a viable solution for the lack of prime herb growing space in urban settings. I was intrigued. Perhaps this could be an energy-efficient way to grow herbs in tiny urban spaces. Could aeroponics reduce the need for soil, transport, and the heavy water tanks of hydroponics I have seen in Amsterdam? Maybe this type of system could improve the life of city pot plants, by replacing some of that depleted store-bought compost I see them struggling in. And just possibly, aeroponics could provide an alternative for what most urban herbalists lack and long for; a fertile garden in which to grow their supplies.
Seeing the potential in this concept, and wanting to know the answer to her research question, I said yes and Neleah promptly joined me as a regular volunteer. We met at the foraging orchards in Amsterdam Oost. Hidden within an Amsterdam park, the herb orchards are rich in local edible and medicinal herbs; a place where those in the know learn about herbs, and forage without being disturbed. I have run the orchards for the past ten years, in a way that supports local wildlife, people, and plants. Neleah took part in our low-intervention herb-growing, helped catalog the plants, and worked on her main research question back at the college campus.
So how do aeroponics work? The plants are set up in “plugs” which stabilize the plants in the absence of soil. Their roots hang naked beneath, periodically sprayed with aeroponics substrate. That is water enriched with organic fertilizer. The composition is fine-tuned to satisfy the known needs of the target plants. Because the spraying happens in a sealed system both evaporation of water, and fertilizer run-off don’t happen. The system can be made from repurposed materials and root spraying can be timed and controlled using solar-powered apparatus.
Neleah chose an easy-to-grow popular medicinal herb – Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis). She found that it has significant commercial value here in Europe and of course, has many therapeutic uses. She wanted to compare how Calendula performed in pots of soil or an aeroponics system. Lighting, CO2, and temperature were kept the same for both sets of plants. By the end of Neleah’s research, the outcome was clear (and little surprise to the volunteer gardeners); although everything these plants are thought to need can be provided by aeroponics, the Pot Marigold plants did far better in soil. Plants grown with aeroponics, at least in this experiment, were a poor version of what they could have been. The soil-grown plants had more flowers, bigger flowers, more foliage, and richer colour, and were more appealing to herbalists and wildlife.
Soil So what exactly was lacking from the aeroponic setup, to cause such a difference? I am sure that it was the ecosystem of the soil itself. Most plant roots have not evolved unclothed, dangling in a nutrient-rich mist (although air plants such as Tillandsia spp. have). In nature, roots spread out to anchor the plant and to capture watery resources. The plugs in Neleah’s system took over the anchorage role, and the spray delivered nutrient-rich water but what else is in soil?
Naturally, plant roots are surrounded by and penetrated by an almost invisible ecosystem. It lives on, in, and between the non-living particles of soil. Soil is a complex living community. When examined with a lens, grains of sand, clay, and stone are visible in the soil. Those grains are the inorganic components of soil, they are not living but lifeforms and water in the soil, gradually break them down. Within tiny pores in the grains and on their surface, life cycles relentlessly. Fragments of decaying plants, tiny bugs, and maybe even the fungi and bacteria which connect it all up, can be found. With the bare eye, worms, ants and beetles can be seen, all helping move things around and shake things up.
Soil is not simply a mix of NPK a few trace elements and water, it is a complex ecosystem that we can hardly begin to understand. Soil is magical, a place of constant transformation, alchemy beneath our feet! For me, there is no substitute for real soil, that stuff made from molehills, compost, leaf litter, and more; that stuff teaming with lifeforms. That is what plant roots need to be surrounded by. Without it, I don’t see how the magic of plant growth can occur. And what use is a herb if not a magical plant?
I wonder how far aeroponics will go. Solutions for small urban growing spaces are certainly needed and I hope that in time, aeroponics will incorporate plant pro- and pre-biotics, as well as the usual nutrients. Neleah’s work has opened my eyes to the soil-less growing of herbs, and I look forward to seeing where it goes. But in the necessary striving for solutions, I hope we don’t lose sight of the life of the soil.
May plant roots of the future be stylishly clothed in the ecosystem they belong to, one of cycling life, death, microbes, and magic.
It is nettle time! Learn how to identify, ethically harvest, craft, eat, grow, use and generally make the most of locally growing nettles, so Stinging nettles (Urtica species) and several Deadnettles (some of the Lamiaceae family), with Livvy de Graaf, assisted by Lynn Shore. Lynn is a professional foraging teacher (member Association of Foragers) and consulting herbalist. Livvy, is Dutch-British and has been harvesting and eating wild food for longer than she can remember. She is Lynn’s daughter and certainly knows her way around the woods and foraging orchards, where this event will take place. She looks forward to sharing some of her skills with you. The walk will be primarily in English.
Location We will be working mainly in the River of Herbs foraging gardens, which Lynn has run for over 10 years, so unusually will be able to dig up some of the stinging nettle roots, to plant elsewhere or for you to cook/preserve/process at home. Meeting at main entrance of Park Frankendael, closest to Middenweg 72, Amsterdam (Restaurant Merkelbach / Huize Frankendael).
Handout Written info and recipes will be provided. You will learn about and try different preparations made from the focus plants (including a cup of tea). You will then be able to make your own potions/creations at home, using what we forage together and the handout.
Who is Stinging nettle’s sister?Yellow deadnettleStinging nettle
The plants Different “nettles” are up and forageable in Amsterdam all through the year, but at this time the Stinging nettles are growing strongly, and different Deadnettles begin to flower. This is the best time to start using them in simple remedies and to enrich food. As you learn about Stinging nettles and Deadnettles, you will also meet some other amazing wild herbs that are around at the same time. For instance, wild garlic is also in full growth at this time, so you will be able to dig some of those bulbs up, from legal places, if you want that and have uses for them.
Please bring along cup/mug paper bag (grocery small bag to take the harvest home) pen/pencil to add to the notes. hand trowel / handschep (we will have a few to share if you don’t have one).
Booking €15 per person, paid in advance Please email to reserve your place and receive the bank details for pre-payment. Your place is secured when your payment has been received.
Cancellation policy 100% refund if cancellation more than 24 hours before event start time. Cancellation after that time (so less than 24 hours before the start time) can only be refunded if we can fill your place with another person.
Extra Date: Saturday17th February, 10.00 – 11.30, Park Frankendael. Amsterdam
This is an event for wild garlic lovers!
Learn how to identify, ethically harvest, craft, eat, grow, use and generally make the most of wild garlic (Allium ursinum) or Daslook, with Livvy de Graaf, assisted by Lynn Shore, professional foraging teacher and herbalist. Livvy, is Dutch-British and has been harvesting and eating wild food for longer than she can remember. She is Lynn’s daughter and certainly knows her way around the woods of Park Frankendael, where this walk will take place. She looks forward to sharing some of her skills with you.
We will be working mainly in the River of Herbs foraging gardens, so unusually, will be able to dig up some of the fresh wild garlic bulbs, to plant elsewhere or for you to cook/preserve at home.
Handout with wild garlic info. and recipes, and a cup of herb tea will be provided. You will learn about and try different preparations from sweet, sour, savoury to medicinal. And will be able to make your own potions/creations at home, using what we forage together and the handout.
Wild garlic emerging from the early spring soil, heralds the start of the main foraging season. As you learn about wild garlic, you will also learn to recognise other amazing wild herbs which are around at the same time.
Please bring along: drinking cup Paper bag (grocery small bag to take the harvest home) pen/pencil to add to the notes. hand trowel / handschep (I will have a couple to share if you forget or don’t have one).
Cost: 15 Euro per person – Payable in advance Please email urban.herbology.lynn@gmail.com and you will receive the bank details for payment. When payment is received your place is booked.
Cancellation Policy: If canceling, for any reason, 24 hours or more before the start of the event – Full refund. If canceling after that time (so less than 24 hours before the start time of the event) you will be refunded only if we have a replacement.
Do you sometimes suffer from empty-headedness, unwilling forgetfulness, melancholy, or wrath? If so we have something marvellously medieval for you!
The next Urban Herbology Hildegard von Bingen’s Herbs of Joy workshops will be: Sunday 3rd December 3pm – 5.30pm (full) Saturday 2nd March 3pm – 5.30pm Venue: Mediamaticin central Amsterdam. Tamara Last, one of my wonderful apprentices will be leading these workshops.
Medieval abbess Hildegard von Bingen was way ahead of her time. She was an esteemed advocate for scientific research, specifically the use of herbal medicines to treat ailments, thought that raw onions were dangerous and understood how to live in harmony with nature. What’s not to love?
During the workshops, the Urban Herbology Team will share 12th-century recipes to bring a little more joy into the world.
During the workshops, you will recreate the recipes of Hildegard using local plants and kitchen herbs to improve mental health. You will take home both knowledge on how to softly treat your body using natural remedies and a deep herbal concoction made out of foraged herbs. Curious about what these ancient recipes can offer our modern minds?
Sunday December 3rd 15:00-17:30, Saturday 2nd March 3pm – 5.30pm at Mediamatic.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit mediamatic website. #mediamatic #herbsofjoy #urbanherbology #herbsformelancholy #hildegardvonbingen
I adore scrolling through fungi foraging photos, always, but especially at this time of year. However, something bothers me about some of the fungi fever photos and I think we can do something about it.
All foragers worth their salt are delicate in their work; they respect and take care with the plants, just harvesting a bit, leaving the patch looking untouched afterward etc etc. They want the plants to survive, thrive and multiply. If for no other reason, this helps ensure that there is plenty to forage next time. That’s great, that’s part of how I teach on my urban herbology walks and courses but I’m seeing a very different impression in many fungi trophy photos.
Are the fungi foragers (who are often experiened and wonderfully ecologically minded plant foragers too) doing the same and being subtle in their work?
I guess so and hope that many fungi trophies that I see posted, simply show happy hunters taking home whole huge polyphores and the like, which have been gathered with great respect for the environment and awareness of how those fungi fit into the delicate ecosystem.
Oysters
Some polyphores can weight several kilos, taste mouthwateringly awesome, can cover a lot of meals, or be prepped and store well over-winter. With such virtues, I completely understand why we want to take the whole thing home. But we also know that fungi spread through hyphae and spores. These fruiting bodies in which we so delight, and may harvest, help ensure that the fungus can proliferate and reach new uncharted territory. They help ensure their survival. And we are wrapped up in their survival. Put simply, fungi make the world go round. Yes they can spread to new territories by stretching their hyphael networks in soil but they fruit for a reason. They fruit to spread far and wide. Just as foragers are guardians of the wild plants, we are also guardians of the fungi
Early stage Giant polyphore fruiting body on Beech.
When I’m lucky enough to find a Giant Polyphore or Chicken Of The Woods developing in a clean enough and accessible spot in Amsterdam, I like to harvest a little when I need it before leaving the polyphore looking untouched so casual foragers don’t copy. When I harvest this way I get fresh mushroom for my family meals for weeks on end. Maybe being able to revisit the spot is a rare privilege and that’s how I can do it this way.
Before today’s harvest.
The beauty in three of today’s photos is one such Giant Polyphore, at different stages of development. I’ve been carefully snapping off a frond from this one, for two or three weeks now, returning every few days when I feel the urge. And with fungi fever in the air, the urge is pretty much a constant! Can you see where I’ve harvested? Hopefully not too easily.
After today’s harvest.
During these weeks, no one has sliced at or whipped the whole thing off the tree, which happens.. So I’m pleased that this fungal fruiting body can ripen and will spread heaps of spores quite soon.
This is the amount harvested today. Plenty for two meals. Teaspoon as scale element.
Maybe we can encourage other fungi foragers to at least comment in their social posts on how they took just a tiny proportion of what was on offer. How about some before and after shots of what and where we harvest? I’m not one to show the precise location of my best finds, I live in Amsterdam so there wouldn’t be much left if I did, but I think it’s possible to make it clear to social media foraging fans that the foraged area (and fungus) looks great after harvesting and that only a little was taken.
I’d love to know what you think about this. Am I being a bit penickety and over-sensitive or do other people feel something similar? Maybe new knowledge that I’m unaware of shows that fungi fruit purely for the pleasure of our human tastebuds and immune systems, and are no longer necessary for their own survival?
Let me know your thoughts and especially tips you may have for reducing the impact of foraging on fungal populations.
Could you add more foraged food to your diet? Years ago, I set myself a challenge to find wild growing edible plants in Amsterdam, every day for a year. It was fun and it was possible, the posts are in this blog listed under 365 Frankendael. I have set myself a new challenge, to have one complete day a week, for a year, where I eat only foraged foods and drinks made from foraged finds. For the other six days a week I will eat as I usually do, some foraged food, mostly shop-bought food, but with some adjustments.
On the foraged-only days, I will drink herb teas made with plants that I have foraged, and eat only foods made from plants that I have foraged myself, or other foragers have given me. Or, the meals could include meat or fish which has lived wild and is caught or culled locally to Amsterdam or places where I travel. My foraged-only meals will not include purchased grains, seeds, powders, tubers, spices, herbs, eggs etc. If food is not foraged, I will not eat it that day and if I do not have enough foraged foods to make a hearty meal on that day, then so be it; I will have a light eating day. This is not a great problem for me as I generally overeat and I see this challenge as a way to embrace intermittent fasting more than I usually do. I love food and derive great enjoyment from creating meals from foraged finds, so If I do have enough for a hearty foraged-only day, I will be delighted!
Today’s finds in Amsterdam
Meals on the partly-foraged days will involve some foraged foods mixed with my regular foods, purchased from local shops. These purchased foods include rice, oats, meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. The dietary adjustments that I plan are firstly, adding more foraged foods daily than I usually do and secondly, to make far more effort to buy and eat seasonally appropriate foods.
The photo shows what I foraged in Amsterdam east today. This is a little more than I would usually forage weekly because an annoying edible weed (Pennsylvania pellitory) is in great shape at the moment so I took more than I ususally would. These finds will add foraged goodness to my family’s diet. This will be my main forage for this week because I have a busy schedule the coming days. Some of this plant material will be eaten this week (it keeps well in my fridge), some will be preserved (in salt, alcohol, dried in paper bags etc) which will make it available to me throughout the year. That will become especially useful during the winter/early spring “hungry gap”, where the nuts and berries have gone and wild spring greens are yet to show themselves above soil. I will keep to the ethical foraging rules which I created many years. So, no root harvesting, unless I have permission from the landowner, and of course being highly attentive to light, safe, clean and environmentally sustainable harvesting.
This feels a great time of year to start a foraging challenge, for several reasons; 1. Nuts, berries and other fruit are foragable late summer into autumn, so it is a perfect time for stocking up on those. 2. There are still plenty of leafy green vegetable type plants, growing locally as weeds. So time to make the most of them directly and presevere as much as possible before the days shorten and those plants fade underground. 3. This will give me something green, wholesome and enriching to focus on as the days become shorter. Foraging is great for mental health! 4. I am a year round forager, but tend to forage tiny amounts of wild herbs alone during the winter and I stick to my favourite others throughout the year. This challenge will encourage me to use a wider range of foraged food, especially through the winter. 5. I love mushrooms. I don’t teach others how to forage them as my expertise is in plant foraging but I safetly forage about 8 common local species myself. The main mushroom season is fast approaching.. nuff said. 6. I want to find out more about local sources of wild caught fish and locally culled meat (such as venison). I shop organically (especially for dairy, meat and fish) but I do not like the physical and psycological distance between consumer and food source (especially animals).
Inspiration for this challenge The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde, is an excellent book which I now highly recommend to anyone interested in foraging and food sovereignty. Mo is also a professional forager and herbalist. She lives in the Scottish countryside. Her book documents how she lived completely off wild food (foraged, caught or hunted) for a year. From the first page, it is inspiring! The book also includes lots of ideas for how to eat the diverse foraged foods which Mo found. The information is beautifully woven into diary entries. It also contains useful tables at the back, to help readers build their plant knowledge. I have been teaching people to forage in Amsterdam for well over a decade, and almost never recommend foraging books. Many regurgitate the same information, others contain quite dubious recipes and advice, but, I am thoroughly excited by Mo Wilde’s book and won’t be lending this one out to any freinds for a long time!
As much as I would love to live off the land year-round, and probably could in the right setting, I live in Amsterdam, surrounded by built up streets and well-used public spaces. Added to this, I work most of the week and foraging is not legal in the Netherlands. So, I decided to challenge myself to a lighter version of the Wilderness Cure. Hence one foraged-only day per week and a boost to my other part-foraged days. I can manage that, and I am sure it will be fun and enriching. I hope that my doing this will encourage at least a few other people, especially those towns and citys, to get out and ethically forage in their neighbourhoods. Foraging is such a wonderful way to connect with your local envirnment and get you out in more fresh air. Maybe you don’t live in much fresh air, but I see that all the more reason to get outside and realise that change is needed. In my experience, people who live in urban environments tend to be the ones who think that foraging is impossible for them, but it is not, I really see it as a birthright. We need to forage very carefully and ethically in urban spaces, but shouldn’t everyone, wherever they go? I think that every one could include at least a touch of foraged food to their lives. And in doing so, green magic can start to evolve in their lives.
As Mo Wilde did, I will chart a few personal health markers, at the start of the challenge and periodically as I move through the year. It will be interesting to see if this diluted version of the Wilderness Cure will have much impact on my body and mind. I will share updates on this blog periodically, less on the health markers, more about the food and finds.
Something for you? If you are interesting in taking up the foraged-only challenge, and getting some moral support by sharing your successes and difficulties with me and others, please follow my blog or insta posts, reply to this post, or send me an email. I think that a foraged-only day a week, or simply challenging yourself to eat some foraged finds, can bring great rewards on many levels.
For about 15 years, generations of ants have been successfully maintaining a helpful aphid population on herb plants, in a couple of my roof terrace pots. I grow Chamomile and Valerian in the pots which the ants prefer; they seem less impressed with the other herbs that I grow.
At first, I battled the aphids, rehoming Ladybird larvae to the aphid-struck plants (ladybird larvae feed ferociously well on aphids) because I feared that they would suck my Chamomile and Valerian lovelies dry. But now we’re freinds and here’s why: Because those aphids and their ant farmers keep the little ecosystem in the plant pots just right. Just right, because the aphids poke and suck the Camomile and Valerian just enough to stay alive themselves and keep their 6-legged offspring healthy, whilst provoking the herbs to produce high levels of phytochemicals in an attempt to keep the insect population manageable. The protective phytochemicals make the flowers even more medicinal for me too. Btw, plants which don’t have to work to survive become soft in my opinion and far less robust and medicinal than I’d like. The ants protect the aphids by keeping them nestled under the flowers, and away from me when I dare to handle the plants for too long. That’s the only time they nip me. I find them very relaxed otherwise. Ants like to keep themselves to themselves. So the ants give the aphids shelter and protection and stop them from over harvesting the plants. Not sure exactly how, I guess by eating them or killing some aphid larvae (need to study this further).
If the aphids overharvested the herb sap, their own population would explode temporarily but the host plants would then whither from too much sap removal, the aphids would need to fly elsewhere and the ants would not get their food. How unfortunate. And I wouldn’t get my Chamomile or Valerian harvest.
So what do the ants get out of all this? Well they sup on aphid honeydew, aka aphid excrement. Can’t get enough of it but actually they are quite restrained. Honeydew is sweet and tasty stuff (like me, you may occasionally enjoy it on Lime tree leaves) packed with plant sugars and no doubt also herbal wonderfulness, from the aphids’ diet. And what do the Chamomile and Valerian plants gain from all these shenanigans? Well they thrive well enough to produce thousands of seeds each summer; hundreds of which land in my other plant pots, dozens of which make it to becoming new plants – Plants which are tough, medicinal and can be friends with aphids, ants and me.
I guess that was a long way of saying, when you next see a cluster of aphids under a flower, along with an ant wandering over them, take a closer look. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have insect farmers working magic in your plant pots or garden. Please don’t just squish them away; watch what’s happening and perhaps you’ll have better herbs and a more balanced garden ecosystem by just letting them do their thing.
A few photos today, to help celebrate Midsummer’s day with you. I met a group of apprentices at my volkstuin and enjoyed learning about some lovely herbs with them. Didn’t take any photos at the workshop because we were busy with the plants so here are some others from today and last week.
The fragrant rambling rose in my garden. I made a tincture from the fresh flowers today.
Lavender in full bloom outside of local shops today.
Unscented red roses from my garden. They were part of the volkstuin garden when I took it on. I can’t really see the point in roses without fragrance; aren’t they supposed to transport us somewhere magical with their scent? I think so and am sorry that I can’t make medicinal preparations with these but am happy to see the beautiful flowers, none the less!
Last week, had another treat, visiting nature reserves in the Vondel Park for the annual bee walk. Here is their sun hive which is a more apicentric way of housing honey bees. Lovely!
An update on my Japanese knotweed babies – They are doing well; growing steadily until last week when something started to eat the leaves. So the certainly is a natural predator of JKW in my street.
I’ve been growing lots of herb seeds this summer. Here are a few (so far successes): Milk thistle (Carduus marinus)
I think that this last one is Mandrake. I muddled up a few seeds in a tray. Trying to grow Belladonna, Sweet Annie, Henbane and more. It looks and smells like Mandrake so far. Let’s see!
Urban Herbology 