HERBY CHRISTMAS

Jasper packed a large bunch of Artemisia Afra for his Christmas holiday in Johannesburg. He and his daughter Shashi repacked into the resulting Christmas gifts:

Artemesia Afra

Jasper stripped leaves from stems and packed them into (recycled nut butter) bottles, while Shashi hand wrote labels and pasted them onto the bottles. So, for the cost of harvesting the Wilde Als (Atemisia Afra), plus the cost of a page of sticky labels and some ink, seven gifts were hand made, and a pleasant, “crafty” afternoon was spent.

As “One Straw Revolution” Masanobu Fukuoka said

Food and medicine are the front and back of the same plant

Hanglip staff have known about the healing properties of Wilde Als for generations. Sarah Allens brews it twigs and all, while Jasper uses leaves only to make a tea. Sarah also sometimes adds a twig of “bitterhout”. We’ll find out more about that for another post.

Does Wilde Als work? Maeder and Lesley went down with the virus for a few scary weeks. They recovered. Tough people!

Shortly before his symptoms manifested, Maeder rode with Jasper in a car to Middelburg - a two hour trip, to a dentist - then, the return trip, for a total of four hours in a confined space. We didn’t know it then, but Maeder was already infected. Jasper did not (knowingly) pick up the Corona virus from Meader, who then survived a harrowing few weeks ending in hospital in Bloem before he got strong enough to return home.

Jasper may have been saved by the herb, or his blood group, or “something”. He tends to score this as …

Wilde Als (1), Covid–19 (0)

… but, who can be sure?