In her latest book “Secret Medicines from your Garden: Plants for Healing, Spirituality and Magic,” herbalist Ellen Evert Hopman of Belchertown has provided a do-it-yourself medicine cookbook using backyard plants to make everything from healing drinks, salves and mouthwash to dips, breads and cookies.
She even tells how to make flea, tick and mosquito repellent.
Hopman, who teaches classes on herbs at her home, lives in an oak forest where she gathers wild roots, barks, leaves, flowers and berries for her own herbal concoctions. In this guide, she provides detailed descriptions of the hundreds of plants and how they can be used to heal or enhance well-being. In a note at the beginning, however, she cautions readers to consult a health professional concerning a medical problem or when combining herbs with other medicines.
As a Druid priestess, who also holds a degree in mental health counseling from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Hopman uses her knowledge of nature and ancient lore, including Native American, Celtic and Egyptian traditions, to instruct readers on making teas, tinctures and salves.
Hopman, who has written 13 other books, both fiction and non-fiction, on herbalism and paganism, weaves plant spirits, herbal astrology and animal spirit medicine into her recipes and formulas.
The book also provides an explanation of the “triangle” formula-making system, an 18-part process for building an herbal regimen developed by the late William LeSassier, a renowned herbalist who mentored Hopman.
While LeSassier’s work is often cited as an influence by herbalists, Hopman says making his formula more widely available was a motivation for writing the book.
“When I realized I was one of the only people teaching (LeSassier’s) formula, I had to get it down on paper,” she said.
In “Secret Medicines from your Garden,” Hopman says she hopes to help readers understand the power of plants and change the way they use and interact with their own backyards as well as nearby fields and wooded areas.
She explains the power that exists within hundreds of organisms — trees, weeds and bees — and teaches how to harness it for healing.
Among her collection of recipes, for instance, are instructions for using yellow dock root, an herb that grows throughout North America, for making a tea which can be used to cure acne and relieve constipation, anemia and jaundice. She also includes a recipe for English Ivy leaf tea, which she says treats bronchitis, rheumatism, gout and fevers and tells how to use mullein flower oil for treating ear infections.
But then, in sections on kitchen medicines and enjoying nature’s bounty, she offers recipes for Garlic Scapes and White Bean Dip and White Pine Cookies with icing.
Most of the plants Hopman discusses can be found in western Massachusetts, though to give the book a broader appeal, she has included some non-native species, like eucalyptus and redwood trees.
Her descriptions, along with colorful botanical illustrations, help the reader identify plants using location, color, smell and shape, known as the plant’s signature. She shows how healing properties of certain plants are easy to deduce based on certain environmental factors. For example, plants that need lots of sun, like sunflowers, she says, bring dryness and heat to the body. Plants that grow in or around clear ponds, such as mint and horsetail, are diuretic and clean the urinary tract.
In four chapters, organized by seasons, Hopman also provides a long list of common plants that can be used throughout the year to cure cuts, colds, cramps and more. For instance, in the spring, dandelion root tea can be harvested and used to heal acne, eczema and liver problems. In the summer, red raspberry leaf tea can be used to normalize menstruation and is used to prevent nausea during pregnancy. In the fall, Burdock root tea can be used as an external wash for sores, acne and rashes. For the winter, Hopman names herbs that boost the immune system, like garlic, ginger and turmeric, and at-home recipes that will ease flu symptoms, like herbal cough syrup, antibiotic tea for children, and even a Make-Your-Own Vicks VapoRub salve.
In the book’s introduction, Hopman tells the story of how she first became enchanted by herbalism. She was in Rome studying art history when she set out to learn more about Saint Francis of Assisi, a Catholic saint dedicated to simplicity, who talked to animals. Her interest led her to San Masseo, she says, where she wandered in the wilderness and fell in love with the flowers, trees and grasses. One day, a storm hit while she was alone atop Mount Subasio, she says, Terrified, she took comfort — in hindsight she says foolishly — by wrapping herself around a pine tree. She left feeling exhilarated and later, as she reflected on her experience, she says she realized that her career path was wrong; she needed to work with plants. That led her to the New Age Findhorn community in Scotland and, eventually, she came back to the United States for her herbal apprenticeship with LeSassier in New York City.
Hopman says that as she gets older, she realizes the importance of getting her medicinal recipes and tips — which she has been collecting for decades — on paper as well as the “triangle” formula-making system William LeSassier passed on to her.
Hopman says she studied with LeSassier in the 1980s when herbalism was not an easy path. “You were up against everything; it was a different culture. There was no Internet. It was very esoteric.”
Now, Hopman says, she writes and teaches to make herbalism accessible to lay people in the same way that LeSassier made his knowledge available to her. She says she hopes her book will help people incorporate basic herbs into their everyday lives.
“The only reason these medicines are secret,” Hopman said, “is because most people don’t have the time or energy to read all of the books.” This book puts all the elementary steps in one place, so any person curious about the medicinal, spiritual and magical properties of herbs may begin their journey.
“Secret Medicines from your Garden: Plants for Healing, Spirituality and Magic,” can be ordered from any local bookstore or through Ellen E. Hopman PO box 219, Amherst, MA 01004
McKenzie Armstrong, a Gazette intern, attends Hampshire College in Amherst.