Plácida Vidal, healer, has been living in Vilarnadal for ten years. Both herslef and her husband, originally from the area of Camprodon, came down from the mountains looking for another kind of life. From a family of peasants, with their cows, orchards and pastures, they always used plants and fruits from nature to heal human and animal ailments.
Plácida’s memory contains an inherited wisdom and, as a result of an accident that prevented her from continuing to work on the farm, she fully committed herself to the vocation of healing: selecting, gathering and making natural remedies from her plants. Her knowledge of both the Empordanese herbs and mountain plants is limitless, and her generosity and openmindedness leads her to share them with whoever is interested. Nevertheless, she thinks that many people do not believe in these things, not even the people from her village. Yet she carries on investigating and sharing knowledge with other healers in the area, who she meets occasionally. Also, in the social centre of the village, she organises talks and workshops with people who want to be acquainted with the variety of medicinal herbs and their properties, as well as recipes for remedies against all kinds of diseases. Interestingly, two of her grandchildren have studied biomedicine and biotechnology! And she would like to pass on her knowledge: she wants to leave a legacy to the world.
We are welcomed into her workshop, where she keeps in jars a host of dried herbs, ointments, creams, oils, and ratafía made using over forty herbs, which we are asked to taste early in the morning, and the truth is that it feels great!
Later, she shows us her greenhouse, where in addition to a small garden, she grows several varieties of plants for her recipes as well as new ones, as she has just found out about the existence of a plant that it is said to be life-extending, up to over a hundred years, which has come from further afield than India.
It is called jiaogulan, and it is used to eliminate toxins from the body. Interestingly, she has tobacco plants, as she claims that, when placed with tomato plants, it protects them from pests.
Absinthe, to scare the ants... And so we could go on and on, but we want to discover all the herbs on the spot, in the fields and the woods, so we go on one of the most pleasurable and educational strolls, discovering that the flowers, plants, leaves and seeds that we always see, when we walk around this region with a certain regularity, are treasures that can help minimise both minor and major diseases.
Melissa for the nerves; marjoram for earache; marigold for circulation, and many more. A plantain leaf, if placed on a wound, works as an antiseptic and heals; hypericum, verbena and arnica for pain; nettle for the memory; milk thistle for the liver; white rockrose, in a tea, is used against cough; St. John’s wort regulates the blood; thyme as an antiseptic... There will be a before and after in our way of observing nature, in being aware now of what it contains.
Next week, we will attend a meeting of well-known healers and learn how to make a recipe, our minds will be filled with the knowledge of the masters, we will share food, and for sure, that amazing ratafía of Plácida, who, friendly and affectionate, has introduced us to her group of friends of medicinal plants, nature and natural resources from the land.//
