“Women and Plants in Polish Folklore” | wLiterature Circle | discussion

There are stories that smell of dried chamomile, sound like creaking wooden floors in old cottages and touch us like the tender hands of women who knew what to gather to help, soothe, save.

Sara Orzechowska spent years collecting women’s stories, their gestures, rituals, and relationships with plants. Stories about those they planted, picked, dreamed of were often passed on only orally – to their daughters and granddaughters. The result of this research is the book “Women and Plants in Polish Folklore”. – an intimate, scholarly and engaging story about a world that still lives on in memory, traditions and songs.

It is about these unusual relationships and the interpenetration of the world of women and plants that we will talk during the next meeting of “wKoło literatury” on June 27. Our guest will be Dr. Sara Orzechowska, author of the book “Women and Plants in Polish Folklore.” Ethnobotanist, herbalist and anthropologist – she penetrates deeply into the cultural-ecological network of relations between women and the plant world. She shows that what grows around us was not just background – it had meaning, power, symbolism. And each plant had its own gender, its own fate and its own place in the cycle of life – just like humans.

In the series “wCircle of literature” we discuss various literary texts during an open discussion. A free conversation with male and female authors from the region is an excellent opportunity to share their insights, interpretations and reflections on their books.

Dr. Sara Orzechowska – has been studying ethnobotany, herbalism and folklore for nine years. She graduated with a degree in cultural and natural heritage from the University of Warmia and Mazury, where she studied biology and anthropology, writing her bachelor’s thesis on “Plants of immortality in the myths and legends of Indo-European cultures.” She continued her studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University, earning a master’s degree in folklore studies and anthropology, and recently defended her doctorate in ethnobotany on the topic “Thou shalt not plant me here, thou shalt not pluck me. Women’s Relationships with Plants in Polish Folklore,” which was published as the book Women and Plants in Polish Folklore. Sara conducted her research at the Ethnobotanical Laboratory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is also an herbalist-phytotherapist by training and a certified herbal commodity expert. She completed university courses in pharmaceutical botany, phytochemistry and plant physiology at Nicolaus Copernicus University. She is the author of numerous scientific and popular science publications. She was the originator and coordinator of such educational projects as “For flax! On hemp! Slavic plant festivals“, ”Ethnospirography of Dobrzyń Land“ or ”Anna Wazówna’s Herbarium”. She is the founder of the Linnum Foundation, more widely known as “Weeds”.

The meeting in the Circle of Literature will be chaired by Dr. Monika Dejnecka.