Melissa Ronaldson’s herbal barge, moored in Tottenham, North London. All photos by the author.
“Do you need some help getting down? Be careful, make sure you don’t fall in the water. Would you like a cup of tea?”
I’ve just clambered aboard Stormvogel, a barge that traverses the River Lea in London and is manned by Melissa Ronaldson, a practicing herbalist who treats patients using plants and spices.
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“People come bringing anything that they might take to the GP—from coughs, colds, and flu to menopause to mental health,” says Ronaldson.
I settle into the barge, which functions as a kitchen, herbal remedy practice, and I’m told, an occasional cocktail bar, too. Ronaldson hands me a soothingly aromatic cup of tea and gets straight to explaining how she ended up running a floating apothecary.
The medicinal mixture for Calais refugees.
“The continuum of food and medicine is the future. It’s looking at our kitchen ingredients and going, ‘Yes they’re food, but actually they’re medicine if we learn to use them differently and concentrate them.’”
Ronaldson’s background is in mental health and after a degree in herbal medicine, she began practicing and selling medicines from her barge and an accompanying workshop space. That was around 20 years ago.
“I think 20 years ago, herbal medicine was seen as a thing for ‘worried well’ and what I’m saying now is, ‘It’s much more of an everyday solution to acute infections and problems, as well as useful for preventing infections,’” she explains. “But there are some people who are really poorly and it might be something to do with their immune system, in which case, it would be helpful to see a GP.”
Inside Ronaldson’s barge.
I mention the recent press attention surrounding the United Nation’s announcement on the “fundamental threat” of antibiotic-resistant infections, a warning that has also been echoed by the World Health Organization and food industry bodies. Does Ronaldson think that herbs could be the answer to failing antibiotics?
“We’ve got to do two things,” she says. “One, we’ve got to stop using [antibiotics] and two, we’ve got to find alternatives for infections and know that when we really, really need the antibiotics, we know there’ll be some that are still available.”
Ronaldson continues: “I don’t have an ideological position of natural being better, it’s really pragmatic and we have to come at it from all directions. And we can come at it from a herbal medicine perspective.”
She’s not wrong. Many studies have found links between medicinal properties and ingredients you might have hiding at the back of your cupboard, from immune-boosting chili peppers and ginger to anti-bacterial manuka honey and flu-relieving turmeric.
Ronaldson puts it down to the complexity of plant compounds: “With antibiotics, you have a few compounds and bacteria change their shape and adapt quickly to develop resistance.”
Ronaldson looking for plants.
She adds: “But with plants, you’ve got many more [compounds] so it’s a moving target. As far as I know, no bacteria has developed resistance to a plant’s anti-microbial compound. Maybe a particular compound, but not the whole plant.”
Ronaldson pauses and I jump in to ask about the pot on the stove behind her, which has been bubbling away and emitting a cinnamon-y smell since I arrived.
She lifts the lid and I peer inside. It’s full to the brim with cardamon pods, cinnamon bark, and star anise in a brownish liquid. It smells divine.
“This is something I’m making for the refugee camps in Calais to help with infections,” explains Ronaldson. “There’s cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, and star anise, which all have anti-microbial properties, in cider vinegar. I’ve done that over about three days and I’ll strain it and it will become like a medicine.”
This is also where the link between food and medicine comes in.
“You can water it down and use it on a salad, or you can have a tablespoon with hot water and honey and it’s a medicine,” she says.
Looking around at the jars of tinctures and tonics on the barge, I ask Ronaldson where she sources her ingredients from.
“I sometimes buy my medicines because if someone’s really poorly and on a lot of medication, you might want to be really precise about the dosage,” she says. “But there are some things I forage like elderberries, which coat the lining of your throat to protect against infections latching onto the mucus membrane.”
Ronaldson is quick to add: “I don’t pick anything from next to the road but it’s interesting how much medicine there is around. Come on, let’s go outside and have a look around.”
And she’s right. After a few minutes exploring the patch of land around the barge (which I’ll be honest, just looks like a bit of scrubland to me), Ronaldson finds a whole host of medicinal plants.
She points to a nettle bush. “I’d use nettles for an iron tonic in the spring because it contains vitamin C which helps with iron absorption. This time of year, I’d use the nettle seeds because they’re really good for your kidneys.”
Medicinal plants along the towpath.
Moving along the towpath, Ronaldson stops and says: “I noticed there’s some mugwort which is related to tarragon and in the same family as wormwood and absinthe. I would use that for the liver. And this is horsetail which I might use in a remedy for connective tissue issues because it’s got silicone in it.”
Back on the barge, Ronaldson tells me about her frustrations with attitudes towards herbal medicine.
“People think there’s a secret, cure-all compound in plants that they will be able to turn into a pill but it’s much more than finding the active compound,” she explains. “Sometimes, it’s the interaction between them, sometimes it’s all the things together.”
She continues: “I think we can get back to a place where people are much more holistic at integrating different systems of medicine.”
Coming back to the future of food and medicine, Ronaldson emphasizes the value of tradition.
Tonics on the barge.
“We’ve nearly chucked the baby out with the bathwater and just in time, we’re pulling it back and thinking maybe we have to do things more traditionally.”
Later that evening, when my flatmate complains that she feels a cold coming on, I automatically offer my grandma’s advice of downing a mug of hot water with honey and lemon. Maybe tradition isn’t totally dead, after all.
Every day this week, MUNCHIES is exploring the future of food on planet Earth, from lab-grown meat and biohacking to GMOs and the precarious state of our oceans. Find out more here.
