To advertise here, please contact Cathy@villagerpublications.com Since plants do not charge for what they have to offer – Welwyn determined that neither would she! “I don’t want to put a dollar value on my ability to help people get over the many ailments that are not being looked after well by our system of modern medicine,” she says. “Since ancient times, plants have given themselves freely to people who needed them for medicine. Often, they were the underprivileged – mothers of more than a dozen children, serfs, laundresses, slaves, factory workers, seamstresses, and others who knew a handful of good plants to turn to for medical help when doctors were few and far between and likely unaffordable. And there were ‘wise women’ Welwyn graduated in less than two years from a three-year diploma course at the Herbal Academy in herbalism, attends lectures and has spent thousands of hours studying plants, deciphering scientific articles and “pouring over enough books on the subject to fill a couple of bookcases”. She spends many hours each week maintaining her own herb garden “so that my clients get herbs that are safe and fresh.” Gaea’s Heart in the Heart of Wortley: Healing with Herbs When Welwyn Katz was eight years old, she helped her mother rebuild a ravine lot that had been ravaged by a home builder who had dumped subsoil down it. “I filled sand pails of clay muck, taking them up the hill and heaping them on a big pile that eventually a truck took away. It took more than a year. A few of the plants came back after the clay was gone, but there were many sad, bare spots. Mom knew we could never make the place right again unless we replanted the same kind of native plants that had been there before. They were not available in stores in those days, and so in our second year at making the ravine beautiful again, we went into the forest together, day after day, and dug up mayflowers and anemones, jack-in-the- pulpits and ferns and wild trilliums, oh my, so many plants! Then we planted them in the ravine. I learned what Mom knew about each plant. They all have healing properties, not safe to use if you don’t know how, but really quite remarkable. I saw then the power of life because by the time I was a teenager, the ravine was as wildly beautiful as it had been before. At the time, it never occurred to me that I might actually become an herbalist. I taught Math at South Secondary and wrote novels for young adults, but my gardens were always the place I breathed more deeply and where my creativity was renewed.” When Welwyn and her husband Greg Yarrow moved into their Askin Street home in January 2011, the property was overgrown with bushes and weeds. That spring, Welwyn started a garden and transformed the basement into a workshop/greenhouse. Having chosen to be car-less, they erected raised beds in the driveway that now grow vegetables. A small fish pond in the back anchors 120 different varieties of healing herbs and the front yard is styled as an English country garden.
and professional men who studied herbs. As payment for their knowledge, people gave what they could: a few carrots, a yard of fabric, an hour’s labour, a future favour. That system is no more, but the need for it is no less.” “My time is my own and my knowledge is my passion. I love working with herbs. When you have a passion for what you do, you can lose the joy of it very quickly if you are forced to try to earn a living at it.” She does ask to be reimbursed for her out-of-pocket expenses, such as for any dried herbs she had to purchase (maybe because they don’t grow in this climate or because her own home-grown stock has run out), alcohol for tinctures, olive oil and beeswax for salves, honey and glycerin for syrups. “That, and the required HST, is all I charge. No markup. No profit. Just, people pay me back, dollar for dollar, for what I have paid for the medicine to help them. Because, really, except for the need in this life to make enough money to pay for basic necessities, everything that matters comes without a price tag – think love, compassion, laughter, courage...” Learn more at gaeas-heart.com
Welwyn’s Sleepy Tea This recipe to help adults fall asleep, is safe for children over age 5, says Welwyn, if you use one-third of the quantity of each herb. 1.5 tsp skullcap leaves and flowers; 1.5 tsp passionflower leaves and flowers; 1.5 tsp chamomile flowers; all cut up. Put in a large tea ball or strainer in a cup. Pour boiling water over. Cover. Let steep for 15 minutes. Add sweetener to taste. Drink half an hour before bed.
Wortley Villager April 2025 • Page 7
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