Forage Yourself Happy

This spikey little bu**er doesn’t just scratch your arse when you walk past it… 🌿😂

I didn’t bloody know holly had been used medicinally for centuries.

Traditionally, the leaves were used for fevers, coughs, chest complaints and rheumatic pain, and were valued for their diuretic and pain-relieving properties.

And then I started looking into the research…

Holly extracts have shown antioxidant activity, including activity against free radicals, as well as effects linked with inflammation.

Researchers have also found a fascinating mix of naturally occurring plant compounds, including flavonoids, polyphenols and triterpenes, which are being studied for their biological activity.

So that plant we see everywhere at Christmas?

Yep. It has a medicinal history too.

Honestly, I had no bloody idea. 🌿

Nature really does hide some cracking stuff in plain sight.

🌲 What if the forest is doing far more to your body than simply helping you relax?

Dr Qing Li, a Japanese physician and leading researcher in forest bathing (Shinrin-Yoku), has spent years studying what happens inside our bodies when we spend time among trees.

His research found that forest bathing increases natural killer (NK) cell activity and increases the number of NK cells and anti-cancer proteins such as perforin, granulysin and granzymes. 🌿

One of the fascinating reasons? Trees release aromatic compounds called phytoncides, including alpha-pinene and beta-pinene, which are present in forest air. Research found that exposure to these compounds can increase NK activity too. (PubMed)

And this is why I find the science behind Shinrin-Yoku so fascinating.

The forest isn’t just somewhere beautiful to walk.

It’s an environment your body can respond to. 🌲🫁🧠

Want to learn more about how the forest can support your wellbeing and how to practise the art of forest bathing?

Follow along and discover the healing power of the forest. 🌿

THE TREE THAT GIVES YOU FIRE, FOOD, MEDICINE AND MUSHROOMS. 🌳🔥🍄

Silver birch is one of those trees that keeps giving.

It’s a pioneer species, one of the first trees to move into open ground and help create the conditions for woodland to follow.

On this one I found birch polypore and a fly agaric.

I didn’t find Chaga, but birch is one of the trees you’ll find it growing on, so I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled.

The bark makes excellent tinder, the sap can be collected in spring, and birch polypore has a long history of being used as a wound dressing.

And then there’s the woodland itself.

Sylvotherapy, or forest bathing, is about slowing down and spending proper time among the trees. No rushing through. Just being there.

There’s something about standing beside a birch and knowing how much this one tree has given people for thousands of years.

Fire. Sap. Fungi. Shelter. Medicine. And a reason to slow down.

What have you found growing on birch? 👀🍄

🌿 You’ve probably walked past the main ingredient for this homemade ketchup without even noticing…

HAWTHORN KETCHUP! 🍂

Tart, fruity, warming and absolutely delicious with cheese, sausages, roast dinners or anything that needs a little sharp kick.

Here’s how I made it 👇

🌿 Cook the haws (hawthorn berries) until soft, then sift well to remove the stones and skins.

🧅 In a separate pan, gently cook 1 small red onion in 250ml apple c***r vinegar until softened.

Mix the sifted hawthorn with the onion and vinegar, then add 1 spoonful of cinnamon and 1 spoonful of brown sugar.

Simmer until thick and ketchup-like, then bottle up.

A proper little hedgerow transformation! 🌿

Would you try hawthorn ketchup? 👀 Save this recipe and follow for more wild food and hedgerow recipes.

Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Try this before you do anything else. 🫶

Take 40 seconds with me.

Breathe in for 4
Hold for 4
Breathe out for 4
Hold for 4

And repeat.

This simple box breathing technique can give you something steady to focus on when your thoughts feel loud and everything feels a little too much.

You don’t have to solve everything right now.

Just come back to your breath. 🤍

How do you feel?

Rowan berries have been used in traditional medicine for generations.

They were used for digestive complaints, coughs and sore throats, and the berries were also valued for their vitamin C.

They’re intensely bitter when fresh, though, so they were generally cooked or preserved before being used.

It’s always worth looking a little closer at the plants growing around us. Some have a much longer history of use than you might expect.

This hedgerow tree has been used as heart medicine for centuries… and scientists are still studying it today. ❤️🌿

This is hawthorn.

You might walk past it all the time without giving it a second thought, but this little hedgerow tree has a seriously interesting relationship with the heart.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 6 clinical trials involving 428 people found hawthorn preparations significantly reduced systolic blood pressure.

And that’s not the only research.

Hawthorn has been studied for cardiovascular health, including blood pressure, heart failure symptoms, exercise capacity and circulation.

But I love that this tree has another connection to the heart too.

In sylvotherapy, hawthorn is associated with love, fertility and the heart, while in traditional folklore it’s deeply connected with May Day, protection and fertility.

And you don’t have to go looking for it.

It’s growing in hedgerows all over the UK.

The young leaves can be eaten, traditionally known as “bread and cheese”, and the red haws can be cooked into jellies and preserves.

Heart medicine. Love. Folklore. Food.

All from a tree you might have walked past a hundred times.

Have you got hawthorn growing near you? 🌿❤️

What is something we ALL do every single day?

Something we literally cannot live without...

But most of us never stop to think about how we’re doing it.

Changing the way we breathe can help:

• Lower blood pressure
• Lower resting heart rate
• Increase HRV
• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Improve sleep
• Help with chronic pain
• Reduce breathlessness
• Improve asthma-related quality of life
• Improve exercise capacity
• Improve respiratory muscle function
• Influence cortisol
• Influence inflammatory markers
• Reduce oxidative stress
• Increase antioxidant activity
• Influence immune responses
• Regulate the nervous system
• Help dysfunctional breathing
• Reduce menopausal hot flushes

And what is it?

Your breath.

I’ve just completed my breathwork training and I’m now going to be incorporating breathwork into my forest therapy sessions. 🌲🌬️

I’ll also be sharing different breathwork techniques for you to try at home, because there is SO much more to this than simply taking a deep breath.

Which one of these surprised you most? Tell me below 👇

Fed up of spending a fortune on shampoo at the supermarket that’s full of crap?

Well, let me introduce you to the humble conker. 🌰

I’ve known for years that you can use conkers to make a natural shampoo, so today I’m finally making some.

And here’s the thing...

Horse chestnut extracts are already used in shampoos and other personal care products.

Conkers contain saponins, which are natural soap-like compounds that help lift oil and dirt from your hair and scalp.

I used 80g of conkers with 500ml of water.

I just cracked the skins rather than peeling and chopping them properly because I’m all for saving time 😂

I simmered them, strained the liquid and let it cool completely before adding egg white.

The conkers are doing the cleansing, while the egg white adds protein and can leave the hair feeling smoother and fuller.

So instead of spending £5, £10 or more on another bottle of shampoo, I’m giving something I’ve picked up off the ground a go.

Less plastic. Less money. Fewer ingredients. And a bloody interesting experiment.

Now let’s see what it does to my hair...

Would you wash your hair with conkers? 🌰

Who wants me to try making soap from conkers? 👀

Because these things are so much more interesting than I ever realised.

Most of us know them as the shiny brown things we used to smash against each other at school.

But conkers contain natural compounds called saponins, which can produce a soapy effect when mixed with water.

They’ve been used traditionally for washing and cleaning, and horse chestnut extracts have even been studied for use in cosmetics.

But here’s where the conker story gets properly weird...

During the First World War, British schoolchildren were encouraged to collect hundreds of tons of conkers.

Why?

Because Britain needed acetone, which was used in the manufacture of cordite, the propellant used in am******on.

The starch in conkers could be fermented to produce acetone, so children were sent out collecting them as part of the war effort.

They weren’t even told exactly what they were collecting them for.

Imagine going out collecting conkers at school and not knowing you were taking part in wartime industry. 🤯

And it doesn’t stop there.

Horse chestnut extracts have also been researched for their effects on inflammation and circulation.

So this childhood playground game takes us from natural soap, to medicine, to WWI and am******on.

And now I really want to know...

Should I actually make the conker soap and see if it works? 👇