A Visit to Weleda HQ & Gardens #WeledaInsightDay
Last week I had the wonderful pleasure of attending the Weleda Gardens Insight Day, accompanied by three other fabulous bloggers and the team from Wizard Publicity. Being a lover of all things natural I knew that I would enjoy every second of this day, and of course, I just had to capture all the best bits on camera so that I could share my experience with you guys too.
The Weleda Gardens can be found in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and these particular gardens are where Weleda grow plants, herbs and flowers for medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes. To give you an idea of what goes on here, Weleda makes over 25,000 different medicines in tablet, ointment and drop form. There are over 13 acres of land where you can find bio-dynamic farmed herbs which are all super-organic.
Weleda was founded in 1921 to make Anthroposophic medicine, a type of practice that runs alongside conventional medicine. A great example of this would be discussing the instance you use conventional medicine; taking a tablet to get rid of a throbbing headache. Your headache may disappear, but the cause, the root, of that headache will still exist. Anthroposophic medicine looks into the reason you got the headache and will find you something to actually get rid of the cause. It will get to the root of the problem. This form of medicine can be used in anything from teething of young children right the way through to arthritis, rheumatism or even cancer.
So, what happened whilst we were at this #InsightDay?
Myself, Kat from Tales of a Pale Face, Jen from Beauty Junkie London and Bettina from Beauty Swot wandered around the Original Garden, before setting off to The Field – the actual working gardens of Weleda. We were greeted by some absolute characters Michael, the now retired Head Gardener of 30 years and his assistant Claire. Between them the knowledge of plants and medicine was awe-inspiring and you can see them featured in these photographs somewhere.
As we walked between rows and rows of plants and herbs, we soon realised just how full of life these gardens were. Teeming with wildlife, the squirrels and rabbits scampered about, whilst bumble bees and other pesky insects buzzed around all enjoying the flowers. Camomile, calendula, poppies, foxglove, primrose, Valerian, and wild strawberries were just a few of the delightful plants we spotted.
It was so utterly interesting, learning about all of the different uses and properties of these plants. We were shown to simply observe and study a plant, to then try to understand how it could be used in medicine to improve your health. If you think of a plant, and then think of a human upside down – our head would be the roots and the legs the head of the plant. Everything in relation to that plant makes sense in healing our body. We were shown an area of birch trees. Birch trees sway easily in the wind, are strong, and flexible and always have a youthful appearance thanks to it’s ever shedding bark. Birch juice is great to help rejuvenate your body and for those with rheumatism it is highly recommended.
I felt like a human sponge soaking up all of the information we were being thrown left, right and centre. I would be here all day long if I were to write every scrap of it down. I am definitely going to buy a few books on plants now, as I am dying to learn more. I find it so fascinating and I truly believe more of us should take an interest in this kind of thing. Any book recommendations would be awesome!
We had a beautiful lunch, including possibly the nicest coleslaw I have ever tasted, and a scrumptious slice of banana and date bread. This was followed by another interesting presentation relaying information about the skincare that Weleda produce.
We finished the day off by making our own soap! I have never made soap before but found it very therapeutic. All we had to do was mush up some soap flakes, add a dash of water and a dash of oil. This was the “base” soap, to which we could then add essential oils such as peppermint or grapefruit, and also for decoration some lavender buds. Myself and Kat made some rather dashing heart shaped soaps that I am pretty proud of.
I will soon be blogging and reviewing the many products that we were so generously given at the end of the day. Including some alternative toothpastes such as Salt Water and Calendula toothpaste.
A huge thank you to Nina and Tina from Wizard Publicity, and to Weleda. I had the best time with you all and I am so glad I got the opportunity to go on this trip.
What are your thoughts on natural products? Are you a fan of the organic brands?
P.S There will be an Open Day for all the public to check out these gardens and this will be in July some time. I will get the exact date and update this blog accordingly.
09 Comments
Jennie May
Sounds like the most brilliant day, super sad I couldn’t come! xx
Annabel
I would of absolutely loved this, talk about a perfect day. I could take photos of flowers and it be totally socially acceptable!
Annabel ♥
Mascara & Maltesers
Mademoiselle nature
Would love to go one day! I love Weleda and have been using their products lots!
Audrey / http://www.mademoisellenature.com
Karis
Sounds like such a lovely day, I would love to go. KBxx
http://beautybykaris.com
wonderful.you
This looks so lovely 🙂 glad you had fun Zo!x
Shona Macdonald
So glad you enjoyed your day at Weleda FYI The gardens are open as part of the National Garden Scheme open for charity on Sun 12th July 1-5 admission £3 and visitors are welcome by arrangement May to July for groups of 10+ Shona xx
Amber
Lovely to hear you had a nice time too! It’s such a relaxing place to visit, I definitely want to go again next year. I was in my element with all the bees flying around!
Pip Divall
This place is right by my parents’ house, I helped out on one of their open days once and it was a great day. We got given the best bag of goodies too!
I use nothing but Weleda Calendula nappy cream on my kids, it’s the most amazing thing for instant redness curing.
Sophie Wynne
Sounds lovely. I’m a huge fan of organic and natural products 🙂 Lush being my favorite xx
http://www.increasedpresence.com