Cannabis sativa from antiquity to the Middle Ages

I wrote this as a bit of a giggle for my local SCA newsletter. I am not advocating for the use of Cannabis sativa for psychotropic purposes, but I do believe that we should be using the fibre in place of wood. It also makes pretty good shirts.

Easy homemade gifts

1. Homemade peppermint extract

Take clean, fresh mint leaves, fill a mason jar, crush with the handle of a wooden spoon to release the oils, fill to the top with a clear liquor of your choice, and put on the lid. Let it sit for a month or two (two is better). Strain into gift jars. Give to your favourite baker.

Fall herb harvest

 Chives and parsley. They're hard to air dry so I'm going to put them into the freezer. I have a dehydrator somewhere... I suspect it got put in the crawl space when we moved in, and I hate going in there. Freezer it is!

Herbs, magic, and some other stuff that I found interesting

Obligatory Hallowe'en post...



Online Open Courses-
Magic in the Middle Ages
(I took this and it's quite interesting)


Videos-
 Science, Magic and Religion- From Antiquity to Today


Blogs, Encyclopedia Entries and Articles-
How Witch's Brews Helped Bring Modern Drugs to Market- Smithsonian Mag
Astrology and medicine in the Middle Ages
John Dee's Crystal
Herbalism in the Middle Ages- Wikipedia
Medieval magical plants from the Cloisters Gardens, NYC

Linden trees are extra-ordinarily useful

This tree is also commonly called basswood and lime wood (possible corruption of the Old English and Proto-Indo-European word lind (flexible). It is not related to citrus trees). The N. American version (Tilia americana) can be found from Mexico to Alaska, and there are two genus in Europe (little leaf- Tilia cordata, and large leaf- Tilia platyphyllos), which can be found in southern Norway and Sweden, down into Italy and as far east as the Black Sea. The little leaf genus is far more widespread, and can be found up into Russia and North-eastern Turkey as well as Spain.

Betony- the 'detoxing cure' of the middle ages

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

Yet more on horehound

Since the horehound seemed to be effective I decided to start looking up *why*. There's been a lot of work lately on ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology and whether traditional folk cures actually work or not. Unsurprisingly, some of them actually are effective to a certain degree. Horehound was amongst some of the best that I have researched so far.

In the study referenced below the essential oil was distilled from the 'aerial parts' (ie. the leaves and stems) of Marrubium vulgare (horehound) and that was tested on various types of bacteria and fungi in vitro (ie. dropped onto culture plates of the bacteria, etc. and then studied). To distill it down to a sound-byte- Yes. It's very effective against two kinds of bacteria that make your throat sore, plus one kind of fungus that makes people feel sick. Plus, it slows down a few other kinds of bacteria. So, without knowledge of the scientific causes of sickness it would have been useful in quite a few instances to alleviate sore throats. I don't know how technical people want me to get with this... I could go into more detail, but I don't want to bore anyone. Basically, horehound was much more effective against gram+ bacteria than gram-. Also, it's a pretty good source of anti-oxidants, and it reduces inflammation and swelling.

Further updates on the horehound

So, I got to test it on myself, too, a little while ago. My daughter and co-worker both gave it positive reviews, and so do I. It definitely does help a bit. I wouldn't recommend it for something serious like bronchitis or pneumonia, but for the regular, run-of-the-mill cold with chest congestion... Yes. Horehound is effective.

NB: This is a very small trial of only three people. Don't get mad at me if you try it and it doesn't do all that you were expecting :) Everyone is different and has different immune systems.

Herbal cold and flu syrup

I'm a big fan of The Nerdy Farm Wife, and this recipe sounded like something good to pass along as everyone seems to be sick right now-

Ginger and lemon balm cold and flu syrup

I won't say 'enjoy', because if you're using it you're not feeling very well...

Use it in good health, perhaps?

Update on the horehound

So, I've had a chance to use human guinea pigs due to the tenacious cough that's going around this month. My daughter says that putting a sprig of horehound into her favourite herbal tea (with lots of honey to help with the 'funny' taste) did help her a bit with her cough. I have a couple co-workers who have had a cough for about a month now, so I'm giving them some snippings from my plant to try. I've asked them to give me feedback on whether they think it helped or not.

Since horehound has been recommended for the same thing for about 2,000 years now I suspected it was probably useful at least a little bit for coughs and chest congestion. My daughter says yes, and we'll have two other opinions soon. It's cheaper than cough drops to keep a pot of this plant on your windowsill...

Planning for the spring

All the seed catalogs have started coming in already, but there's still a month and a half before I can start planting anything. This is the long, dark teatime of the gardener's soul.

But, on the up-side, my horehound and marshmallow are surviving in their pots, and my Meyer lemon tree is getting leaves again. It looked quite strange for a while with three green lemons and no leaves. It needs a better location, but that's the best window in the house. It also needs to be re-potted. Maybe in the spring when I can do that all outside. Our living room is much too small to deal with all that dirt. I'll have to wait until we get our new house to plant out the horehound. Or, maybe I could start a new plant and give this one away. It's a perennial, so it would make a pretty, low shrub in someone's garden. I don't want to leave it here, as the people who buy the place are 99.99999% unlikely to appreciate it.

I've found a whole new genre of YouTube channels- British people who vlog about their allotments. It's adorable, and makes me yearn for a milder climate. Putting in potatoes on the first of April? That would be insanity in Southern Ontario. I also learned a better method for growing leeks- use a dibber to make a 6" hole and place the small plant inside with the first leaves poking out the top. Don't fill it in, just water it. The hole will gradually fill in on its own and leave room for the stem to get nice and big. I'll have to try that this year.

Herbs for digestion for Lucia

Here is a listing of herbs from the Old English Herbal which deal with anything related to digestion and the abdomen. At the start of each herb I will list the plant as it is in the book- modern name, scientific name, Latin or Greek name, and then Anglo-Saxon.

Just an FYI- I have not looked into the toxicity of most of these plants, and I do not recommend them at all for the conditions described. And some of them, I know for a fact, are deadly poisonous and have no medical qualities at all.

This is offered as a historical curiosity, not for medical use.

Growing horehound

I have to say that horehound is now one of my favourite garden herbs. I'm a sucker for fuzzy leaves... fuzzy things in general, I guess. It's not very tall, or elegant, but it is a pretty silvery-green, and it has a lovely, herbal smell when you crush a leaf between your fingers.

If you're growing it in a pot it needs a fairly deep one for the root system, and it likes to be fertilized about once per month or the smaller leaves start to turn yellow and fall off. It likes to be well-watered, but not wet, and it needs full sun to part-shade. The seeds that I bought didn't germinate very well, but I'm not sure if it was due to age or a general difficulty with germination.

I'll post a picture later when I'm home and can get one uploaded.


I found this online
http://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hn-2109003

Anglo-Saxon Herbal Remedies- class notes

A class given by Muirenn ingen Morgair at War of the Trillium, A.S. 50

 

Egypt, Greece, and the Classical Tradition of Medicine In Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia 

 

Illness was seen as a manifestation of a god’s anger or possession by demons or ghosts, as shown by the Ebers and Hearst papyri. The goal of the healer was to appease the god through sacrifices or drive out the possessing demon by applying or getting the patient to ingest substances which the demon found repugnant (like feces).