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.

Scaling up my gardening

I've had a veggie garden of some kind since I moved out of my parent's place when I was 19, but it's never been a very big garden. We were always temporary. We moved a LOT. Except when we lived at the housing co-op while Abby was young. My community garden plot there was larger and much more productive. I gave away a LOT of tomatoes. I never supported myself from it.
I've been reading these how-to market gardening books, and dreaming, and thinking, and planning... but never doing. This year my plan is to grow as many veggies as I can and try to grow all of our produce for the months of July and August. Fruit isn't possible yet, so that can be a plan for next year. Herbs are completely possible. I'm going to be able to grow all of my mint tea for the year, and hopefully a good portion of my chamomile.

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!

Roman award scroll for Gaius

The scroll on the right is something I did for a Roman soldier persona in the SCA. The script is the kind used by Emperors on down to school kids in the late Roman empire, and nobody bothered to write neatly on paper (or papyrus, which was what was available then). The two bracelets are supposed to be armillae, a military honour which is vaguely cognate to an Award of Arms in the SCA. Apparently Gaius was extremely happy. He tracked me down online to offer me a bottle of mead, which I would never turn down! But it really isn't necessary. Knowing that he was so extremely happy is everything I needed. (And sincere thanks to Nicolaa de Bracton for fixing up my Latin boo-boos).
Green tea-dyed Arches hot press watercolour paper dry-brushed with thinned Sienna gouache to look like papyrus.

Alcohol isn't usually my thing, but...

This really appealed to me somehow. This recipe makes one glass. Expand if you want to make more.


Earl Grey Tea and Lavender Cocktail

• 3/4 cup earl grey tea (cold)
• 2Tbsp gin
• 2Tbsp honey simple syrup
• 1Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 sprigs of lavender ( +1 to garnish)

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

Two thrifty gift ideas with minimal/no sewing

Here are some great craft ideas that involve minimal to no sewing. Making gifts at home is a thrifty way to reduce waste, help the environment, and don't take forever to make and a PhD in engineering.

1.

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.

Eggless tea cake (literally- tea)

Another British recipe from WWII. I love that this one uses tea, although since it also uses wheat flour I'll never be eating it. I may try to find a way to substitute in for the wheat somehow. Kitchen experiment time.

Eggless Fruit Cake

• 1.5 cups self raising flour (or plain flour with 3 teaspoons of baking powder added)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup of black tea (cold)
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup dried fruit