And you, Waybread, mother of plants,

open to the east, mighty within,

carts ran over you, ladies rode over you,

brides cried over you, bulls snorted over you,

you withstood them all and you were crushed,

so may you withstand the poison and infection

and the evil that travels round the land.

Pollington’s translation of the old Saxon Lacnunga, or Charm of the Nine Sacred Herbs.

Plantain, aka Waybread in this Saxon poem, has been well esteemed for its healing powers for millenia. Pliny opined that it was so good at mending wounds, were some leaves put in a pot of boiling water with rag tag scraps of flesh, the flesh would adhere. Chew a leaf to loosen the juices, then place the mass on a cut or mosquito bite and try the effects yourself.

We have two sorts of plantain growing on Lonely Worm Farm. Ribwort, with long slender leaves, and Common Plantain, which you have surely seen popping up through the pavement on city streets. Plantain is called White Man’s Foot as it spread throughout the world on the heels of English colonizers