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Whenever I go into the kitchen to mix another batch of ointment I am conscious that I'm repeating a simple act that has been played out over the millennia by people in all cultures. It is a simple, time honoured process of putting the healing essences of everyday plants cultivated in my garden into a readily usable form. Tinctures, unguents, tisanes were all ways to transfer the vital forces of plants to our bodies.

I am fascinated by the fact that everything we need for tending everyday ailments once grew naturally around our homes. The very commonness of these plants was their downfall. Somehow we lost our connection with plants and our knowledge of their powers to heal.
In the garden

Growing plants became a fashionable, aesthetic hobby. The kitchen garden, once the source of food and medicine, was gone. Suddenly the plants welcomed for centuries at our doorstep, the daisy, dandelion, buttercup, even the thistle were declared weeds and we waged war on them with fork and spray. We had relinquished the herbal lore that was our birthright.

My balms have been first-aid standbys for my friends and family for more that 14 years. They came about as a natural pairing of my twin obsessions - growing old-fashioned plants organically on my Puhoi farmlet and homoeopathy.

When I began my homoeopathic studies I was astonished to find many of the remedies were already well-established members of my garden. I added to my garden as my knowledge grew. It became irresistible to use these plants healing virtues and beeswax was the obvious medium.

My first batch was brewed in high summer, I was aiming for a sunburn salve, so aloe was an obvious addition. I gave it to my family and friends who soon reported new applications for its use: healing varicose ulcers, nappy rash, sores, cracked heels and a host of other things.

"Trisha's ointments, the indispensable item if you are stranded on a desert island, under the All Blacks' pack or fending off dragons from your Sunday barbecue. In other words: "They work for everything."

Patricia Maché Registered Nurse, Silverdale