I bought two betony plants from Vesey's last year, and put them in a nice, sunny place in my garden, thinking that herbs like sun. Obviously. Unfortunately, I nearly killed the poor plants through lack of education. Betony is a forest plant that enjoys shade. When I realized that the plants were looking beaten down, and just weren't thriving I finally did the research on them that I should have done in the first place.
Ah, well. They survived.
And this year they're looking extremely perky already, and much more like the illustrations of the plant that I've seen in medieval herbals. The next plan is to be my own guinea pig and make some tea. From everything I've read there doesn't seem to be any toxicity problems, unlike angelica which you apparently really shouldn't eat if you're pregnant because it might possibly cause uterine contractions, so it's not allowed to be in any commercially sold food in Canada... Who knew?
In the SCA my current persona is sort of nebulously Anglo-Saxon/Norse, and about the year 900-ish. Really, I just like the comfy clothing, the bling styles, and the history is interesting. Also, I am very interested in the history of medicine and gardening. It's a fascinating period where information of all kinds was becoming much more freely available through the networks of the monasteries and increasing trade. The Anglo-Saxon (Old English) herbals are an interesting mixture of fact and folklore.
I just hope that this herb tastes better than horehound...
http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/2011/06/24/beneficent-betony/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stachys_officinalis
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