What an idiot!! It completely slipped my mind! Unbelievable…. Normally my life is pretty busy, but the last few weeks have been filled with pain! Wisdom tooth pain! I was down and out for a few days – I even had a trip to the hospital. My busy world full of so many “have to do’s” was suddenly on hold creating a few “have to wait’s.” In my time off, I realised how easy it is to get caught up in the whirlwind of our busy lives and lose touch with what is important for our body and soul. While I don’t normally make it a habit of bringing up my own personal conditions in my column, there is a point to this story. It’s amazing how one event, one thought, one feeling can change ALL of your priorities and then help to reset a positive focus. Just imagine how productive we could be if we slowed down and consciously made those changes we “know” we should be making without (in my case) such painful, disruptive prompting.

But why was I an idiot? What slipped my mind? I had forgotten to call on the healing power of herbs until I received an email from a reader and realised tarragon is the perfect herb for toothaches. So my offering from the Druid’s Garden is tarragon, otherwise known as Dragon’s Wort or Little Dragon (artemisia dracunculus L.)

When most people refer to tarragon, in most cases they are referring specifically to French tarragon.

This plant really does have some amazing properties! The leaves can be chewed to numb the mouth – in my case relieving my tooth pain, and can even be drunk as a tea to aide in digestion. It does this by stimulating the liver to produce bile which not only aides in digestion but also hurries up the process of eliminating toxins and wastes from the body. It was historically used to rid the body of parasites including icky intestinal worms!

While we are discussing its traditional uses, the earliest use of tarragon was for treating bites from venomous creatures and mad dogs. Ancient travelers also knew the benefits of tarragon, believing that a few leaves in their shoes would prevent fatigue on long journeys.

The ancients knew it had healing properties, but they also knew that tarragon was the “cloak of invisibility” of the herbal world! It has long been used to hide the flavour of other less palatable herbs!

Tarragon is one of the four fine herbs of French cooking. It has a flavour similar to fennel or licorice, yet it’s much milder. Great for use with salmon, pork and to add to white sauce that’s poured over corned beef - yum! Why not bring boring normal mayonnaise to life with a little tarragon, or infuse it to make tarragon vinegar! I even found a great and easy way to make tarragon salad dressing that I’ll put on the Druid’s Garden Website!

Ahh yes… I love the smell of fresh cut hay. Hold on aren’t we talking about tarragon? It’s an odd herb in a way, after it’s harvested, it kind of smells like fresh cut hay! It grows happily to two or three feet tall, and adores well drained soils. Here is a hint, if you’re growing it in a pot, add a layer of gravel in the bottom before you add the rich potting mix and plant. It will help with better drainage and a happier tarragon plant!

As I alluded to before, rich loamy soils, that retains moisture but drains well, moderate sun, and a bit of shade during the hot parts of the day are a recipe for success when growing tarragon. It’s best propagated from root division; although you can get seeds but they can be tricky. Oh and another thing, be careful weeding, as tarragon has a rather shallow root system too!

And in closing, tarragon is not a character from Lord of the Rings but an exciting and useful herb from times of old – rediscover it today!

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