intangible cultural heritage

Herbalism

area : Srce Slowenije
category : practices concerning nature
Herbalism is the practice, knowledge and skill of harvesting, cultivating and using various plants and their extracts for medicinal purposes. In the area of Ivančna Gorica, vast knowledge from the past has been developed and preserved to this day on the basis of the knowledge and operation of the Cistercian monastery located in the village of Stična.
The tradition is based on the practices of the renowned friar Simon Ašič (1906–1992) who obtained his herbalism-related knowledge by studying and supplemented it by his own experience. Since 2000, products per friar Ašič’s formulas have been produced in the monastery and sold under their own brand. It is to the expert Jože Kukman, who used to work with friar Ašič, that the merit for this can be ascribed. The influence of the friar was strong over the local inhabitants who were aware of the importance of the plants for medicinal purposes. Consequently, many of them have focused on this activity in their free time, some of them even so seriously that they perform the activity professionally.

Andrej Majes works and lives with his family at the ecological farm called Bioplavica in Zagradec; he makes herbal tea mixtures under the brand Plavica (cornflower; translator\'s note). They grow many medicinal herbs; the work is mainly done by hand and in a manner that was known by our grand-mothers and grand-fathers. Among other things Andrej is a renowned therapist of Maharishi ayurveda. Andrej was made enthusiastic for the work by his father Jože Majes who had obtained a lot of theoretical knowledge in the Stična Monastery. In addition, he designed the herb farm Plavica with about 450 species of medicinal plants in the surroundings of Dolenjske Toplice.

In Šentvid near Stična, Meta Maček creates and transfers knowledge in the workshops on her home farm with a permacultural garden. The motto of her operation is the preservation of nature and heritage through biological cultivation and processing of medicinal plants and herbs. She has been involved plants since she was a child. She says that “some people have a talent for music, I have a talent for working with plants”. At the beginning she did not need training, but later, when she decided she was going to transfer her knowledge, she had to reinforce her practical experience with theory. She calls attention to the fact that in herbalism there is a very thin line between a medicinal effect and poisoning. She has many plants in her garden, she only harvests in nature what is surplus since we have to preserve nature the way it is.

In the surroundings of Ivančna Gorica, Otilija Grad Barle cultivates and harvests medicinal herbs in the village of Temenica. The speciality of her farm is a forest garden according to the principles of permaculture. She has vast knowledge on farming without chemical agents. She sows and seeds together the plants which tolerate each other and are useful to each other. Thus the plants do not get affected by diseases and also pests are fewer. In the ecological market in Ljubljana she offers strong herbal liquors, dried herbs, ointments, herbal vinegar, pillows filled with grain husks…

In the municipality of Ivančna Gorica, Jasna Zajc from Zagradec, retired, and is engaged in herb-related activities on her farm; located at the bottom of a nearby sinkhole she has created a field with vegetables and herbs. She lets her plants in symbiosis, she neither kills weeds nor uses chemical fertilisers. She keeps her medicinal plants on the fringes of the sinkhole and among fruit trees; she harvests many of them in the nearby forest. In addition to the mixtures of teas she makes marmalades, spreads and herbal rolls. Her main crops are peppermint (Mentha x piperita), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis ) and scarlet monarda (Monarda dydima). When she was a child her father made her enthusiastic about plants: he took her on trips in the countryside and showed her medicinal flowers.
The knowledge and experience of the people who are engaged in herbs are intertwined with the tradition of their ancestors, the heritage of fair Simon Ašič and his own experience in this field. The knowledge preserved through workshops is superbly transferred to the older and the younger generation. Linking actively herbalism within the framework of tourism and entrepreneurship as a good practice deserves to be emphasized.

links

The Heart of Slovenia
Development Centre Litija
Company Sitik, Ivančna Gorica
Eco farm Bioplavica, Zagradec
Metka Maček, herbalist
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