Check it out

Check it out, check it out….

The turnip on the left was created (or finished) in the year 512 C.E. and on the right, you see a photograph of the item taken in recent years.  

Evidence that we are still living in the same time — the same earth-era — as Dioscorides, a Greek physician who lived in the years 40 – 90 and was a very persistent documentarian of plants over a large area of the Mediterranean. It’s likely that he traveled with, and under the protection of, the Roman army, with the exclusive object of seeing the plants there were to see in the world.  He compiled a five volume work called De Materia Medica.  Below are blackberries.

The original book is lost to us but it was copied over and over and over, with additions and subtractions (but a solid core of the original persists), for over a thousand years.  The version you see above is called the Vienna Dioscorides since it’s in a Viennese library.  He was interested in plants for their medicinal properties primarily but the more you look at the different versions of his book, you see that he was just interested in them for interests sake.  He was always careful to acquire the local knowledge of the plants, to hear what people use them for.  But he also did his own careful observations. 

(Tangentially, for reasons I’ll never understand, it appears that everyone who created art in the medieval period was a genius.  I’ve never seen a bad medieval painting or drawing.  And I look at it constantly, for years.  How can we account for this universal talent?)

Herbal medicine is still employed in some corners of the world today — and Dioscoridies plays at least a minor role in all of the herbal medicine of the Western world.  One part of that world is Vermont.  We have a lot of herb–heads here.  And before you get annoyed by hippie nonsense, PLEASE OBSERVE TWO ITEMS:   I am NOT referring to homeopathy which is not related to herbal medicine and which I really don’t know anything about.  And number two, you probably currently take herbal medicine (in its enormously concentrated form).  What do you think aspirin is?  Where do you think opiates come from?  How about the powerful heart medicine digitalis (I dare you to look up the history of this one)?  To this day, 40 percent of our pharmaceuticals (feel free to google it) are derived from plants extracts. This is “herbal” medicine.  But herbal medicine (without quote marks) as it is commonly understood — the stuff that comes in small dropper bottles — is plant medicine in a much weaker form.  This makes it safer than pharmaceuticals but also less effective.  That doesn’t mean ineffective however, depending on many things.  It just means that if you are seriously ill, if your disease has progressed too much, herbals extracts are not going to help you.   If you are slightly ill — or if you want to take preventative measures — herbals might very well do something for you and there’s plenty of peer reviewed science about a huge range of what we call herbals.  

And you can grow your own medicine which is really why I bring it up.  So let me suggest just one: Thyme, because it has culinary uses as well.  If you have minor chest congestion, boiling some thyme and breathing the vapors can help.  You can also take it in extract form ( extracts are better than pills).  How do you make an extract?  Find the simple steps at the bottom of this post.  And lastly, if you want to distill it (you have to own a still, so forget it), you can create thyme oil, greatly dilute it with water (add a dispersant to make the oil and water come together), and spray it on things that need to be disinfected.  Be careful about spraying it on your skin though, because thyme oil causes a lot of irritation for some people.  There’s even evidence that it’s effective against the dreaded MRSA bacteria.  

Here’s another one: Elecampane.  You can read about it primarily as a food but also as an herbal med here: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/what-is-elecampane. 

And this one you don’t even have to grow.  It’s a weed.  We lost track of Elecampane and so many other plants over the centuries, because of standardization and the dominance of the “loud” species, but they’re still there, quiet, unnoticed.  They still have value.  Just don’t step on them and they’re yours.  Since we’re all much quieter these days, Elecampane would like to take the opportunity to say hi.  

(It’s also supposed to help you attract fairies, soooooo….. yeah….)

Which brings me to Comfrey.  Another common weed and I don’t know anything about its medicinal value, — though I think it has some — but it’s a great thing to add to your compost.  It’s an excellent fertilizer.  Which brings me one of only 2 sciency things you need to know about gardening.  Your plants need Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.  Those are the big three.  Abbreviated NPK.   If you buy concentrated fertilizer (rather than compost), you’ll see ratios like 10-10-10 printed on the bag.  Or 5-10-10.  These are ratios of NPK.  There are standard, all-purpose fertilizers that will probably be fine.  But you do have to be a little careful because some plants need more or less of one or the other.  Tomatoes for example, if they get too much nitrogen, will produce amazing huge green plants, and not many actual tomatoes.  You can read up on what kind of ratios your preferred veggies want, but if you have great soil with rich compost, you may get to avoid buying any fertilizer at all.  

Here’s a list of organic fertilizers for you to sit quietly and think about.

Finally, below you’ll find a late medieval classic.  One of the unicorn tapestries.  The Met website has high resolution pictures of all seven of the tapestries, but I’ve included one below. This depicts the hunters entering the woods.  These massive tapestries have remained somewhat of a mystery to interpreters.  They seem to tell a story about hunting a unicorn, but no one has established a clear meaning.  (Unicorns were widely assumed to be real creatures by the average 14th century European or Brit.  And in fact, powdered unicorn horn was prescribed to help relieve symptoms of plague.)  I can’t help but notice in this and a few of of the other tapestries in this grouping that what dominates are the carefully chosen, true to life, plants. Many of these plants have been identified, including blackberry.   Maybe the story they tell is about the plants and not about the men hunting.  With their giant clown shoes and scandalously short skirts.

*FROM RAILYARD APOTHECARY IN BURLINGTON , VT:

How to make herbal tinctures (“folk method”):

1. Gather your herb.

2. Fill it loosely into a jar with a screw top (i.e. mason jar).

3. Pour alcohol over your herb until it covers the herb about 1/2” or so. For dry herbs use 40-50% alcohol (80-100 proof), for fresh herbs use 60-95% alcohol (120-190 proof). Plants with a high water content (i.e. fresh roots) should use the higher alcohol percent (i.e. 95%). Vodka or grain alcohol are good choices because of their neutral flavor.

3.5. Optional step – blend the alcohol and herb together to increase surface area exposure for the herb.

4. Place the jar away from light (i.e. in a cupboard), in a cool, dry location for 4-6 weeks.

5. Shake or stir the tincture every day if possible.

6. If after a day or two the plant material expanded and is no longer submerged in the alcohol you may need to add more alcohol. Especially look for this with dry roots and fruits (may need to cover them with 1-2” or more alcohol from the beginning).

7. After 4-6 weeks strain out the herbal material and store your tincture for use!