Two Degrees: Champagne and Cyanide

11-5pm. Free

A day with herbalist Melissa Ronaldson exploring the folklore, medicinal and practical applications of the Elder tree (Sambucus nigra), known as the 'poor man's pharmacy'.??

This is a hands-on medicine-making session that explores all parts of the plant through folklore and science: from the champagne-yielding flowers, the anti-viral and immunostimulating berries, to the leaves and bark that contain a cyanide-producing compound that may be responsible for its pain relieving properties.

Location: Secret location by the River Lea. ??Booking essential – limited numbers. Please contact mark@artsadmin.co.uk or on 0207 247 5102 for more information

This event is part of Rebecca Beinart's Potion project for the Two Degrees Festival. Investigating plants that occupy the edge between ‘medicine’ and ‘poison’, Potion explores the delicate balance between a substance that can support health and life, or cause illness and death, depending on dosage. Potion invites you to consider questions of potency, knowledge, power and healing; and the notion of a tipping point which depends fundamentally on a deeper understanding of the living world.

For more information and future events please see Potion.