KETCHUM — Sagebrush often gets a short shrift. But DarcyWilliamson begs to differ.

She rolls sagebrush in her hand when she wants a hand sanitizer.She shows others how the Shoshoni Indians made a salve out of thesilvery green lobed leaves for chafing and diaper rash. And sheeven makes a sagebrush deodorant.

Never mind that the very scent may be worse than body odor tothose who have a sneezing frenzy whenever they get a whiff ofIdaho’s ubiquitous plant.

“Sagebrush has strong antifungal properties — it’s good forathlete’s foot. And it’s useful as an antiseptic for cuts. You canjust rub some sagebrush leaves under your arms if you don’t want togo to the trouble of making an ointment,” Williamson said.

Williamson is an herbalist. The outdoors is her pharmacy. Andthe 600-some plants she collects end up as medicines in a wovenbasket, eliminating her need for a cabinet full of pills in plasticbottles.

Her online business — From the Forest in McCall — dispersesancient remedies for modern ailments, such as ear infections, toclients throughout the world.

“As an herbalist, I don’t purport to be a healer. The plants dothe healing. I just bring the plants and people together,” shesaid. “It gives me peace of mind to know the plants are there. Iremember realizing I was getting strep throat as I came off a rivertrip. I found some gum weed along a fence in Salmon and I was finethe next day.”

On occasion, Williamson conducts a class on identifying usefulplants and making herbal salves and ointments at Ketchum’s SawtoothBotanical Garden.

“From what I can tell, she’s pretty much the expert in Idaho,”said Allison Kennedy, education director for the Sawtooth BotanicalGarden.

Williamson has also taken students as far afield as the Amazonand the Soviet Union in her 30 years of teaching. But she’s becomeincreasingly convinced that everything we need is in ourbackyard.

“We don’t need herbs from China or the Amazon. Every ecosystemhas the plants we need in it,” she said. “Echinacea, for instance,doesn’t grow on our side of the Rockies. But we have arrowleafbalsamroot, which offers the same properties.”

Williamson is quick to caution those who want to doctorthemselves with plants to know what they’re doing — some plants canbe toxic in large amounts. Plants that are pampered in backyardgardens can lose some of their essential properties. And evennature can sometimes throw a curve. This year, for instance, wasnot a good year for yellow dock because it’s been so wet-you’d needto double the dosage to get what you need.

“If you learn only one plant, make it yarrow,” she said. “Youcan use it in a tea for hot flashes, rub its leaves in a wound tosterilize the wound. You can even sanitize the water in a streamwith yarrow by rolling a leaf and dropping its essential oil intowater. It will be bitter but it will kill the microbes.”

Williamson can’t move through Idaho’s pine forests and sagebrushplateaus without sniffing and munching the plants around her.

The red osier dogwood is the Tylenol of the forest, she says.Indians would strip its red bark, even though it often tastes likethe backside of a skunk.

A tea made of scarlet gilia can treat toenail fungus.Elderberries can help ward off the flu. Goldenrod can be used forallergies. Sweet clover can alleviate varicose veins, eye swelling,pink eye and bags under the eyes.

A tea made from hounds tongue can aid the healing of crackedribs and a tincture from it is wonderful for scrapes and abrasions.And one can sustain themselves on lodgepole pine needles given itsVitamin C and D.

“It’s the most nutritious tree in the woods,” Williamsonsaid.

There’s often a trick to using plants, she said. St. John’sWort, which some have used to treat anti-depression, for instance,is not water-soluble so it must be dissolved in vinegar or vodka.Mullein leaves can be made into a tea to treat incontinence orcolds. But it must be filtered through an unbleached coffee filterif you don’t want to hack up hairs.

“It’s not good toilet paper because of those hairs. But ifyou’re having an asthma attack and you don’t have inhalant, roll upa leaf, tie it with grass, let it dry, light the end, take a hitand your bronchial tubes will open right up,” she said.

Williamson has written more than two dozen books on everythingfrom wild foods and healing plants to North American Indians andmountain men of Idaho. Her research has taught her about theChinese who brought burdock here to remove heavy metals from theirblood when working the mines. And how dandelions were imported tocure a hepatitis outbreak in New York

Today the much maligned spotted knapweed is being researched forthe way it seems to stop the spread of cancer cells in the colon,she said.

Williamson and her apprentices gather their wild medicines yearround. Even in winter they don snowshoes and gather the bark fromchokecherry when it has a bitter almond flavor. When the willowsstart smelling like a skunk in March, they know the sap is risingand the willow is ready to harvest.

They harvest sustainably, picking only the top part of aflowering plant or little snippets of bark.

Among those who took Williamson’s most recent class at theSawtooth Botanical Garden was Carrie Norton, who works for PowerEngineers in Hailey.

“I’m overwhelmed. There’s so much to think about,” she said.“But you’ve got to start somewhere. I think I’ll try to learn oneor two plants a year and go from there.”

Living off the land

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