It’s back-to-school season in our household, and a return to the classroom resulted in COVID coming home. This exposure and illness serendipitously came at the same time as the annual elderberry harvest.

Over the years our family has slowly expanded our elderberry grove (which is becoming a thicket) through additional plantings and natural root suckering, so there is enough for us and the birds. It is the birds who tell me it is harvest time and they love the berries for good reason, it is medicine from the earth. I can hear Job saying, “Ask the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you” (Job 12:8-9, NIV).

The elderberry is well known for its medicinal qualities. Hippocrates, dubbed the “Father of Medicine,” called the elder tree his ‘medicine chest.’ Elderberry is taken most commonly to lessen cold and flu symptoms because studies have been done that show people may have reduced length and severity of illness when taking elderberry. Some reasons may relate to elderberries being a high vitamin C fruit and rich in antioxidants which are immune-boosting and anti-inflammatory. We’ve also learned, by lived experience, the fruit can have a mild laxative effect for some.

My watery eyed, drippy-nose, sneezy self got out my copy of Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide and turned to the elderberry section this week. The elderberry syrup recipe boils down juiced elderberry with ginger and cloves, and then mixes in local honey. Typically we store jars of this for sick seasons to come, but this year we spooned the first batch right from the cooking pot into our mouths. 

My basil was also primed for picking and processing, so I made up a double batch of pesto, of which some promptly went on top of a pizza. Pesto is another recipe in Rosemary’s book that is touted as medicinal. All plants contain phyto (plant) nutrients that can be powerful healing agents that protect our bodies from the inside out. That’s one compelling reason in my mind for eating a plant-based diet. 

Putting my dietitian hat on for a minute, I want to be clear that what I endorse is eating nourishing foods. Our bodies are designed to digest and absorb nutrients best in their food forms. Supplements are largely an unregulated market (no guarantee of product quality, purity or dosing) and can be expensive.

Based on what we know right now, dietary guidelines recommend a diverse, plant-based diet with a variety of food groups for proactive, preventative health care. What makes food medicine is the dose, duration and preparation, such as my having a spoonful or two of elderberry syrup a couple times a day when my cold symptoms start. I also took ibuprofen for relief of fevers and headaches, embracing both Western and complementary medicine in my recovery.

It amazes me that there is a whole pharmacy outside in the edible landscape surrounding us that we didn’t have anything to do with creating. God provided for our needs, including plants with healing properties that indigenous peoples and non-human beings around the world have known and used for many thousands of years.

In fact, many of our medicines today are derived by first studying plants. As we in the Western world start to awaken to this ancient knowledge, my hope is we can increasingly open ourselves to seeing what is beneficial and the universal truths across all wisdom traditions. Food as medicine feels like one of those truths that the earth teaches and  the birds tell. As I dabble, there is a lot I don’t know, but I do offer my praise with each bite of pesto and sip of syrup: Wow! Thanks! Yum!

Basil Pesto

A concentrated source of plant-based nutrients, this bright green sauce was traditionally made using mortar and pestle, and the word pesto means ‘to crush.’ There are many ways to enjoy pesto — try it as a base for pizza, mixed into pasta, stirred into soups, spread on bread or served with tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups washed, packed basil leaves
• ¼ cup toasted walnuts or pine nuts
• ¼ cup grated Paremesan cheese or nutritional yeast
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon water
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Place all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until fully combined, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.