WORKSHOP 2 // HERBS

On the morning of the 3rd of October we got together to talk about herbs. We started by trying to define what a herb is, which surprisingly proved to be quite difficult! As a group we came to the agreement that herbs were something that either perfumed or added flavour. However, in terms of botany, a herb is still strictly defined as any seed-bearing plant that does not have a woody stem and dies down to the ground after flowering.

Throughout the day, some fantastic stories and vast traditional knowledge was shared. Notably, our relationship with sage and lavender proved to be quite important to a lot of us, and together we found several uses for them linked to their medicinal, aesthetical and aromatical properties. For example, in one culture, Sage is considered vitally important to women during child birth, as it was commonly used as a herbal painkiller during labor. However, in other cultures it has been readily used as incense for meditation, and even decoration in ones home during Christmas.

Something else that stood out during the workshop was the number of times references were made to Frenċ tal-Għarb, Gozo's most famous healer. Despite not having a formal education in medicine, Frenċ tal-Għarb treated thousands of people with his herbs and was hugely popular because of how effective and efficient his medicines were. Interestingly, all of his prescribed herbal medicines were always accompanied by prayers, as he believed in spiritual healing being key to recovery.

All of these stories and experiences have a purpose and value, which we hope to document and preserve in a publication at the end of our project. Before we start work on doing just that, we have one more workshop on flowers left before things can get a little more creative. So far, we have found herbs and spices to play a crucial role in the medicinal and culinary worlds. It is going to be so interesting to see what comes out of our workshop on flowers!

Thanks all that participated in the workshop.

Thanks and credit to Kasia Zmokla for the beautiful photographs.