Preserving Herbal Traditions: A Plant Walk in Corfu
This visit was part of a project that was made possible by a grant from the Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities initiative of the Society for Classical Studies, New York University.
Eleni Christoforatou
Eleni Christoforatou is an extraordinarily active and dedicated herbalist who lives on the verdant Greek island of Corfu. Her vast knowledge of the Greek landscape is a combination of her commitment to the environment and her in-depth studies with well-known herbal teachers in the U.S. Eleni is also the author of Plants and People on the Island of Corfu – An Ongoing Relationship, a book that aims to preserve the historical and therapeutic uses of plants on the island.
In early summer, I visited the island to meet Eleni and learn more about her work as an herbalist. Eleni’s work is impressively wide-ranging and includes making herbal medicines, offering consultations, leading plants walks, and building an herbal library accessible throughout public libraries in Greece. In recent years, she also led the Herbalists Without Borders, Corfu chapter, for which she volunteered her time teaching herbal workshops, working with refugees, and creating a strong community of herbalists on the island.
One of the easiest ways to learn about plants is to visit them where they grow. Fortunately, Corfu is known for its lush countryside, which attract millions of visitors every year. The mountains offer breathtaking views and are home to an abundance of medicinal plants. I joined Eleni on a plant walk in the village of Kyprianades, located in the northern mountain range of the island. Despite the foreboding sky, our adventure revealed a plethora of medicinal plants right at our feet. This hike is known for a stunning waterfall, but unfortunately the weather had been too dry for too long and there was no waterfall to be seen. Our hike was approximately 1 hour of a leisurely stroll as we stopped often to examine the familiar plants around us.
Some of our plant sightings included:
As a seasoned herbalist deeply familiar with the landscape, Eleni understands each plant’s medicinal properties and harvest season. She responsibly wildcrafts small amounts of plant material when she needs to make salves, syrups, tinctures, and other kinds of herbal preparations in response to a client’s specific health request. There is a growing and worrisome trend in Greece to harvest wild plants without a deep knowledge of their harvest seasons or how to responsibly harvest to maintain the life of the plant and its population. There is also widespread use of pesticides for market crops, including in olive groves, where farmers spray the ground beneath the trees to eliminate the inconvenience of wild grasses.
Understanding the role of plants for both ecological and human health is paramount in the practice of herbal medicine. It was a joy to spend time with Eleni in the stillness of the forest and to be surrounded by so many medicinal plants that have been used since antiquity for all ailments of the body.
For your own herbal adventure in Corfu, join Eleni and I for a Greek Herbal Medicine Tour, where we will wander the mountainsides and make our own treasured herbal remedies.