Phytotherapy

Formentera, May 2022

Deborah had come to stay for 12 days on the island, during a gap between her work in Berlin and Poland whilst preparing the upcoming Garbizc Festival and various health retreats. I have taken time off work too and we seize the little time together in getting up early to do yoga, go swimming and eat well because the times of partying around during pandemic are totally over.

Luckily, Clara Castelloti is doing her phytotherapy workshop again, after a pause of two years, and Deborah and I are super excited to be able to join.

Since little girls, we remember Clara with her knowledge on medical plants producing health and beauty products on Formentera. Originally from an italian mountain region, she arrived in the 80ties just for a week of vacation, fell in love and stayed. Married to Nacho, the other architect on the island and business partner of Bill, my chosen father.

Most of the workshop participants are women who gather around a table with pencil and sketch book, listening carefully to Clara‘s words of wisdom on healing with plants on the porch of her beautiful big house. All these herbs, flowers and cactus growing around us bare an amazing power of putting our body back into balance, if we want to.

We go for a walk towards the beach, collecting the yellow flowers of Elicriso in a big jar to be stored in a sunny place for the next 40 days, after filling it up with lots of cold pressed virgin olive oil. Later we destille an essence of salvia tincture, to add to green fine clay, in order to gain a tooth paste which is good against periodontosis. On another day we would learn how to do cremes against allergies, pains and other. Clara has studied the chinese, the ayurvedic and the north american indigenous medicine and answers to our never ending questions. I am especially interested in everything concerning neurological issues and find out that rosemary is absolutely my plant! And it grows here in masses the whole year through! Instinctively, I had been using it already quiet a lot doing teas and inhalations. Now come the oils and tinctures.

A quick and heavy spring rain interferes our flower hunt. Good for them!