Buckthorn berries at Gullane Beach, East Lothian
As part of the Diploma in Herbology course, we get to go out on forays wild-gathering herbs. On Tuesday afternoon, we were lucky enough to experience the first such outing. Catherine Conway-Payne, our lovely tutor, escorted the seven of us out to the beaches of East Lothian, around 20 miles outside Edinburgh. Our mission: to identify and retrieve buckthorn berries (pictured).
The buckthorn bushes were easy enough to spot, once Catherine identified one, with their spiky silver-grey leaves and orange berries. Less easy: gathering the berries. The branches proved much thornier than expected, jabbing into people's hands. Andrea had sensibly come armed with secateurs, while the rest of us brought plastic bags (for storing the berries) and gloves.
Berries to make tonic
We trudged along Gullane beach, enjoying the fresh air, looking for bushes with a good supply of fruit. To me, being a first-timer, it looked like we had an abundance of orange berries. But Catherine noticed that this year's berries were less plentiful than in previous years - possibly not unconnected with this summer's poor weather. By the end of the afternoon, after much cutting and trimming, we had bags and jars (pictured) full of the berries. Catherine kindly took them back to Laboratory Room 2 - Herbology HQ - at the Botanics and stored the berries in the freezer. We plan to use them for making Buck Up tonic at a later class - the fruits are packed with Vitamin C.
We explore the coastline
We met other plants besides buckthorn as we explored the coastline. We also glimpsed hawthorn bushes dotted along the road. And Catherine showed us Dulc amara or bittersweet growing close to the ground underneath an ubiquitous buckthorn bush. I was taken aback to discover I'd never even noticed buckthorn up until our outing - despite growing up in the area. Yet it virtually covers the sand dunes on this part of the coast.
Keith and the aconite
Keith (pictured) and George, two of my fellow students, braved stinging nettles and brambles to climb up a bank to retrieve specimens of poisonous blue aconite (also known as monkshood, wolfsbane and devil's helmet). Catherine introduced us to another plant new to many of us - archangel. At first it looked like Catherine was very bravely - and without complaining one bit - grabbing a stinging nettle.
Catherine explained that archangel is quite different to nettle and, most importantly, does not sting. It's also known as white dead nettle (the flowers are white), blind nettle (for reasons I expect will be obvious) and deaf nettle (ditto). We found a few rosehips too, although not as many as hoped. Again, possibly the result of mixed weather earlier in the year. Catherine cautioned against gathering any of them, pointing out that the plants and birds probably needed them more than we did. Some of us also went home with pieces of chickweed and flowering yarrow for pressing.
A great afternoon out.