Start: Hurray Spring is here and although it is only early on in the season, with a slight chill still in the air, there’s plenty of life pushing up from the ground as nature’s bounty of plants begin to grow. Its two days after the Spring equinox, a good time to start gathering medicinal herbs. So off to the woods we go to see what offerings spring has for us. Plants are bursting with minerals and vitamins as well as with cleansing and purifying properties at this time of year. Just what’s needed for a good spring clean of the body after our winter diets and lifestyle. On an area of grass land we find sheeps sorrel (rumex acetosella), garden sorrel (rumex acetosa), which have blood cleansing, diuretic and cooling properties, along with land cress & dandelion leaves, these will go great in our spring salad. Down by a bubbling brook wild garlic (allium ursinum) grows. We pick some of the leaves to add to our salad bag. This a great spring tonic & blood purifier, along with its antibacterial, antifungal and balancing to intestinal gut flora properties. We find sweet violet (viola odorata) and daisy’s (bellis perennis) which we will add to our salad bag and also to make a refreshing tea with later. Daisy is a liver restorative, expectorant and sweet violet is also expectorant and anti-inflammatory. Then we have a look at a birch tree (betula alba) that is being tapped as well as look at the tree I tapped earlier, to show how to bung up the hole after tapping. We shall be having a glass of birch sap to drink when we get back from our walk. Birch sap is a cleansing tonic. Below are some photo’s of our results.