Briar Patch Medicine

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Recipes:

• Rose Hip Jam
• Blackberry Syrup
• Summer Punch 
• Fattoush 

I had just completed my sophomore year of college, and my nerves were stinging from the stress of final exams. As I steered my car onto the freeway that would take me to my home in Bellingham, Washington, a rich cloud of wild rose perfume drifted through my open window from an embankment hedge. Tension immediately evaporated from my body, as if I had taken a powerful tranquilizer, and I nearly closed my eyes. Such was my first inkling of the power of peripheral herbs.

Whether they stand as a garden hedge, a living fence around a pasture, or unkempt brush growing beyond a manicured yard, “peripherals” (plants that function as borders) often labor in obscurity. But some of these plants are more useful as food and medicine than the pampered crops they protect.

Genera Rosa, Rubus, Ribes, and Rhus—the “four Rs” of the peripheral fraternity—divide most of the world’s perimeter work among them. They contain high levels of vitamin C and are widely enlisted in the war against the common cold. They also contain tannin, an astringent used to treat diarrhea, skin disorders, and sunburn, as well as to tan hides and set dyes.

Hedges have marked European property lines for millennia. When ­installing such partitions, peasants ­favored plants whose medicinal and culinary value equaled their merit as a boundary. Today, Europe’s venerable hedges rival the tropical rain forest in biodiversity per yard. Although only a few feet wide, these impenetrable tangles (Normandy’s hedgerows halted tanks in their tracks during World War II) are refuge to several endangered species in an ever-urbanized ­environment.

Many North Americans might chafe against such permanent boundaries, where land changes hands almost as readily as coins. Yet, the abundance of unmanaged land in this part of the world supports a wealth of “peripherals without portfolio”, scrappy plants that thrive uninvited on roadsides, railroad embankments, and vacant lots.

Rosa, queen of flowers

The creamy scent that nearly sent me into the ditch that day on the freeway has been a favorite of many since ancient times. Oil from roses, especially from the cabbage rose (Rosa centifolia), is known as “Rose de Mai” in the perfumery trade and is culti­vated commercially only in the south of France.

In addition, rose oil is valued for its astringent properties and is used as an ingredient in ointments and lotions. But because genus Rosa is so ubiquitous in folklore, it can be difficult to separate fact from fancy regarding its medicinal uses. For example, the dog rose (R. canina) owes its name to the Romans’ belief that the plant cured rabies, and medieval healers dabbed rose water on the temples and brow to break fevers and calm the insane. Although modern science has debunked these applications, it does endorse Rosa as an important pharmacological resource. Rose oil contains about 300 chemical components, two-thirds of which have yet to be isolated.

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