Well, I seem to have a lot to say about spring herbs, so here is some more about them.

Going back to the shy wild violet I mentioned last time month, we have a local walk just above Goring and Streatley, which is a haven for wild violets, or viola (zi hua di ding, in Chinese).

This, like dandelion, is a fire toxin herb, not much used in Jing Fang by Dr Feng, but all the same useful for fire toxin in the skin. I remember, in my 30s when I had what was most likely pneumonia plus a horrible skin rash after a terrible break-up with a partner, that I found a Chinese herbalist in London called Dr Li just in the nick of time. She gave me zi hua di ding (wild violet) among other herbs, and it totally turned the situation around.

What a blessing Chinese herbs are.

These blogs are making it seem like I’m always ill, which is absolutely not the case! However, I did get Covid in November 2021 – the delta variant and it was not nice; both Mark and I got it. I can tell you that Chinese herbs were amazing. Now I’m going to talk shop for a moment: at first, I gave us Ban xia hou po tang variants, as there didn’t seem to be much shaoyang, but of course it is almost impossible to treat yourself, especially when you are ill and have brain fog! It wasn’t until I spoke to a colleague – thank you so much Martin! – who said that he found shaoyang formulas really good for Covid, that I realised that OF COURSE! I had chest involvement, of course it was shaoyang! The moment I switched to xiao chai hu tang plus san ren tang, I started to get better. I have to say, the onion compress was also amazingly useful.

I have used these formulas and their variants to help many patients and apprentices with all sorts of chesty things including Covid, with extremely good results. The thing is, we are treating the person and not the disease – we are helping the body to heal itself. This is of paramount importance.

Ok, back to the spring herbs again, there’s another one I wanted to mention, which is chrysanthemum flowers, ju hua. This is a lovely tea for everyday use. It is cleansing and thirst quenching, and you can put some gou ji berries in it, which gives it a bit more body, since the gou qi zi nourishes the blood. No need to boil, just steep as a herbal tea. Ju hua is great to remove heat from the eyes and help us have better vision.

Here are Ju hua and gou qi zi being used as part of a herbal formula at the Jing Fang Apprenticeship.