Blog — Herbalist Monica Wilde

This tiny plant is full of surprises. Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis) is very modest, so much so that you may hardly notice her but is flowering now, so worth looking out for. She is found on undernourished soils in heathland, old quarries, railway tracks and gravelly places.  Add a freshly picked handful of eyebright to a cafetière and pour boiling water over to infuse. This tea is surprisingly sweet - like butterscotch. In fact so delicious that I’m not only drinking the tea hot but diluting it into my drinking water too. And I’m dreaming of infusing eyebright into milk and...

Bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) are a more classic Lughnasadh gift - in more ways than one. It’s easy to identify blaeberries (as we call them in Scotland) as after their flowers are pollinated by the bilberry bumblebee (Bombus monticola) they produce berries that look exactly like miniature blueberries! The taste is much more concentrated, no watery flavours here. So now the race is on to get your fill before the rabbits, the deer and even stoats, weasels and foxes, get them. Everyone is after a shot of potent antioxidants!  If you manage to collect enough you can make bilberry pie or bilberry jam...