Ginger Nettle foraging

29/08/2026

To take part, DM Soul of the Junction SCIO, WhatsApp 07888 331919 or email [email protected].

🌿 WEEK TWO BEGINS WITH SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL

FREE Workshop - BUILD YOUR OWN HERBAL FIRST AID brought to you by Ginger Nettle Ginger Nettle foraging Make & Keep. FREE Lunch provided.

Half day session with a break for lunch 11am - 3:30pm

Climate Action Lanarkshire

We’re beginning Week Two of the Carstairs Junction Climate Festival with one of our biggest hands-on workshops of the entire programme.

On Monday 14 September, Ginger Nettle Herbal Education & Remedies will be joining us for a four-hour Build Your Own Herbal First Aid Kit workshop exploring traditional herbal preparations and practical ways of working with plants.

And this is very much a make, learn and take home session.

During the workshop, you’ll make a selection of preparations including infused oil, salves, lotion and your own rescue remedy dose bottle. There will also be a tincture demonstration, nettle infusion and tea, and everyone will receive a full remedy manual with recipes, preparation methods, plant profiles and safety guidance so the learning can continue at home.

You won’t just watch — you’ll leave with the things you’ve made.

📅 Monday 14 September 2026
⏰ 11am–3:30pm, including a short lunch break
📍 Wooden Hut, Carstairs Junction
🥗 Lunch provided
🎟️ Completely FREE
🌱 Children P1 and above and adults welcome

No previous experience is needed. With four hours of learning, making and connecting, this should be a really special day.

Because materials and lunch are being provided, registration is essential. Please let us know about any dietary or access requirements when booking.

Part of Heart of the Junction CIC’s Carstairs Junction Climate Festival, within the wider Lanarkshire Climate Action Festival and funded by Lanarkshire Climate Action Hub.

To take part, DM us, WhatsApp 07888 331919 or email [email protected].

29/08/2026

Sat up till 3:33 and beyond waiting on the lunar eclipse.

Clouds had other ideas. Enough of them to hide the bloody eclipse, but not enough rain to even get a skiddle of moonwater.

Then she shows her face rhe night after …

Scottish weather! Ruining both astronomy and witchcraft in one go.

28/08/2026

Always believe in the fairies.

I’d been out wandering and gathering some eyebright along the path. I’d already walked this particular stretch and was making my way home when I found a wee bunch of eyebright lying there.

Already cut. Gathered together. Sitting right on the path waiting for me.

A wee gift from the daoine sìthe — the Good People — or perhaps the spirits of the meadow.

For me, foraging has never just been about identifying plants and learning what we can eat or use as medicine. It’s also about our relationship with the land, the old folklore and the unseen things our ancestors knew to treat with a bit of respect.

So I took the gift, said my thanks to the daoine sìthe, and carried on home.

Keep wandering. Keep wondering. And always believe in the fairies.

27/08/2026

A couple of wee brown birch boletes (Leccinum scabrum) popping up at just the right time of the season.

A simple 30 seconds of autumn foraging, fungi and being out amongst the birches.

21/08/2026

Limited spaces available get in touch to book your space

There's an incredible amount of food and medicine growing in ordinary parks, paths and urban green spaces once you learn how to recognise it.

On 30th August we'll spend the first part of the day exploring Whinhall Park, getting properly acquainted with some of those plants and learning how to identify them with confidence.

Then we'll head back indoors and turn our attention to another traditional skill: how to preserve the abundance of the growing season for later in the year.

It's five hours of plants, practical skills and hands-on herbal knowledge — with a full workshop manual included to take home.

Saturday 30th August | 12pm | Blue Butterfly Centre, Airdrie | £45

Limited spaces available get in touch to book your space

21/08/2026

A simple wild food breakfast: wild chanterelle mushrooms, creamy scrambled eggs, and a fermented sourdough starter pancake. Seasonal cooking from Scotland.

18/08/2026

Do animals know which herbs they need?

I was visiting a wee farm where my pal was going to be shearing the farmer's sheep, and naturally I ended up wandering over to the cows with a handful of cleavers (Galium aparine).

What I found particularly interesting was that not all the cows wanted them. Some weren't especially interested, while one black Angus cross absolutely loved them and kept coming back for more.

It reminded me of something I witnessed with my friend's sheep a few years ago. After some of the ewes had their big lambs taken away, I noticed them specifically browsing raspberry and bramble leaves.

At the time it caught my attention because these are both plants traditionally associated with astringency and tissue tone, and the ewes were at a stage where udder health was particularly relevant.

Of course, I can't say that this cow was eating cleavers because she "knew" she medicinally needed them. There could be much simpler explanations.

But the idea of animals selectively browsing plants — sometimes described in discussions of zoopharmacognosy — is fascinating.

Sometimes it's worth just watching what animals choose for themselves.

AnimalBehaviour WildPlants Foraging ForagingUK ScottishForaging TraditionalHerbalism Ethnobotany FarmLife Cattle Scotland

17/08/2026

NEVER ! ........Jail me.

17/08/2026

A molehill caused a three-minute waffle about biodiversity, cattle and Alan Savory.

I was having a wander through this wee meadow when a molehill caught my eye. There were seedlings establishing themselves in the freshly disturbed earth, surrounded by established grasses, rushes and buttercups.

It got me thinking about how disturbance isn’t necessarily a negative thing.

A wee patch of opened ground can give seeds already present in the soil a chance to germinate and plants an opportunity to get established without immediately having to outcompete everything around them.

Then, naturally, my brain went from one molehill to imagining the whole area as pasture.

I started thinking about goats and cattle and the principles behind Alan Savory’s holistic planned grazing — livestock moving through an area for a relatively short period, creating grazing, trampling and disturbance, before moving on and allowing the land time to recover.

So aye. I went for a walk, found a molehill and ended up mentally putting a regenerative grazing system into a bit of Scottish meadow.

And of course there were nettles.

16/08/2026

“POV: Gandalf finds a moth

Isengard Orthanc Gwaihir TheGreatEagles LOTRMemes LOTRFans LordOfTheRingsMemes Tolkien TolkienFans Moth MothsOfInstagram NatureHumour NatureComedy ScottishHumour Scotland