Grasses are in full bloom here sending out great gouts of pollen in the still, early morning sun. Picked several choice items for later identification ... but after pausing with the dog to be absorbed by God's creation, I managed to leave them on a rock.
Herbs; for healing, for flavouring, for the senses
- Thread starter MaC
- Start date
Nice65
Explorer
MaC
Moderator
Buckfast, Marlboros, wizz, and you think paint is the problem?
Well he didn't say that he was taking any of the first three, only that the paint fumes were fresh.....
It's an old Coach-painter's trick to steady the hand for those long flowing lines.Buckfast, Marlboros, wizz, and you think paint is the problem?
Andylaser
Administrator
This looks like it would sort the senses out.
MaC
Moderator
MaC
Moderator
I said that years ago on t'other side and got roundly slated by a tree surgeon fellow who said that was nonsense, that his wife just washed his clothes in normal bio washing liquid and it comes off fine.
I've still got dark patches on a pair of trousers, but other things it did wash out of.
Might be worth a try while it's still fresh ?
I've still got dark patches on a pair of trousers, but other things it did wash out of.
Might be worth a try while it's still fresh ?
Nice65
Explorer
Swarfega gets it out, or white spirit.
Nice little cones, are these the ones going in honey?
Nice little cones, are these the ones going in honey?
Charming old Italian girl from across the road came over begging a handful of chamomile from the garden for an eyewash. She'd given us some rose petal flavoured marmalade last year - an uncooked one. So, I told her how nice it was and mentioned making some pine honey. She let me know a bunch of things about different things to pack into sugar for good effect .. turns out to be virtually anything. I palmed off some some of the runaway Oregano and Lemon Balm that I was in the process of hacking into.
Conversation turned to Acanthus, which doesn't really grow here. Nor does spinach. Not right here anyway. And then to the subject of the stately-looking umbellifers I'd let grow. I confidently called them Queen Anne's Lace, there being so much of it here. We agreed it was a weed, but not an ugly one. Turns out that when I pulled it up it was some of last years carrots that have bolted expansively. Fun fact - Queen Anne's Lace is also called wild carrot. More stuff I didn't know.
Conversation turned to Acanthus, which doesn't really grow here. Nor does spinach. Not right here anyway. And then to the subject of the stately-looking umbellifers I'd let grow. I confidently called them Queen Anne's Lace, there being so much of it here. We agreed it was a weed, but not an ugly one. Turns out that when I pulled it up it was some of last years carrots that have bolted expansively. Fun fact - Queen Anne's Lace is also called wild carrot. More stuff I didn't know.
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Saint-Just
Administrator
According to Professor Sprout,
MaC
Moderator
Mugwort is an old hearth herb.
If you dry it, rub it up into a kind of fluffy mass and then light it, it'll give off a very white, and pleasantly scented smoke. It's a traditional anti midge remedy, anti-moth in clothes, anti flea too.
It's a decent filler in herbal tobacco mixes, it's apparently fairly gentle on the throat (don't know, I've never smoked. My Mum died of cancer when I was 14, the connection is just too visceral) and as a tea it's supposed to be good for the digestive system.
It is used as the glowing ember under a piece of vermiculite to heat up and disperse resin, all the benefits without the burning kind of thing.
I grow it in the garden so that I have it to hand. It dries easily. I take off the froths of the flower clusters and dry them seperately, but the hands of leaves I just pull off from the stems, tie in bunches and hang on the washing line to dry.
Really, really good in tinder bundles
If you dry it, rub it up into a kind of fluffy mass and then light it, it'll give off a very white, and pleasantly scented smoke. It's a traditional anti midge remedy, anti-moth in clothes, anti flea too.
It's a decent filler in herbal tobacco mixes, it's apparently fairly gentle on the throat (don't know, I've never smoked. My Mum died of cancer when I was 14, the connection is just too visceral) and as a tea it's supposed to be good for the digestive system.
It is used as the glowing ember under a piece of vermiculite to heat up and disperse resin, all the benefits without the burning kind of thing.
I grow it in the garden so that I have it to hand. It dries easily. I take off the froths of the flower clusters and dry them seperately, but the hands of leaves I just pull off from the stems, tie in bunches and hang on the washing line to dry.
Really, really good in tinder bundles
Jaggededge
Explorer
What a good thing we're not still living in the middle ages eh.
MaC
Moderator
Do you no' play with stuff just because it's interesting ?
Try something, like burning the mugwort, just to see what I've written about ?
The Middle Ages were full of busy, active, capable people. The Sun still shone, the Winter's still came in cold, and they didn't have petrochemicals to make life easy. Seasonality ruled.
They were far from stupid, and they knew more about the realities of the natural world than i doubt we'd ever grasp.
Their lives for the majority were short and labour filled, we're incredibly lazy in comparison.
Try something, like burning the mugwort, just to see what I've written about ?
The Middle Ages were full of busy, active, capable people. The Sun still shone, the Winter's still came in cold, and they didn't have petrochemicals to make life easy. Seasonality ruled.
They were far from stupid, and they knew more about the realities of the natural world than i doubt we'd ever grasp.
Their lives for the majority were short and labour filled, we're incredibly lazy in comparison.
ElThomsono
VIP Member
So long as they'd reached the point where they were adding hops to beer I could accept it.
I have a big patch of tarragon growing in the front garden. But, this year, a bunch of garlic chives have started growing through it. It is a bit of a pest, but nothing like as much as trying to figure out how they got there.
MaC
Moderator
822 ce is the earliest date we have for that....well, written date. A French monk apparently
Lots of herbs were added to beers/ales and the like over the years.
As an aside, you can eat barley, or you can brew it. Brewing it even for just a day or two, ends up with 1 or 2% alcohol in it. That's enough to kill most waterbourne buggits, and is a healthy thing, especially at a time where wells and cesspits weren't always kept as far apart as they ought.
So, everybody drank beer, not water. Small ale it's usually called when talked about these days.
Quite tasty really, and the rescued/used barley makes great food for fattening pigs too.
So bacon butties (mind the best brewer was a good baker.....yeast.....) and beer, fed the medieval
M
ElThomsono
VIP Member
Two months ago I had a pint of mild, I felt like I'd gone back in time.
bushwacker
VIP Member
Alledgedly Its also saporific if you dry it and smoke it, It was used to get to sleep on board ships in tudor times until superceeded by 'old rope' (hemp flowers) This is why its common name is sailors tobacco. You are meant to cut and dry it before it flowers.
Just planted some turnips, spinach, chard and radishes. Also some lupin seeds I found in an envelope. Fat chance of growth. It is rather too late - though maybe some salad greens will arise. Forgot to put Okra in .. was going to be an experiment along with some carraway
MaC
Moderator
The flowers make good fluff for moxibustion though.
Didn't mention that earlier, but it's mugwort that used in Moxibustion.....heating up parts of the body to 'channel' healing.
