China Bayles' Book of Days (45 page)

• Harvest tarragon or lavender flowers in early summer, then cut the plants to half their height to encourage fall flowering.

• Harvest herb seeds (mustard, fennel) as the seed pods darken and dry, but before they burst. Secure a paper bag over the seed head to complete ripening, then cut the stem and hang the bag for further drying.

• Harvest herb roots (bloodroot, chicory, ginseng, goldenseal, horseradish) after the foliage fades.

AUGUST 4

Your Herbal Harvest: Part II

For centuries, drying was the only means of preserving the herbal harvest. It still remains a reliable way of keeping herbs on hand through the winter months. Now, however, we have other means available. Here are options:

•
Freezing
. This method best preserves flavor. Rinse the herbs and chop coarsely. Place about one or two teaspoons in each ice cube tray compartment, cover with chicken or vegetable stock, olive oil, or plain water, and freeze. Transfer frozen cubes to plastic bags. Alternatively, spread herbs loosely on a cookie sheet and freeze. Transfer frozen herbs into a plastic bag and seal. Thawed herbs are suitable for cooking.

•
Air Drying
. Remove dead or damaged foliage. Rinse only if necessary and shake. Spread out to dry until surface moisture has evaporated. Make small bundles, secure the stems with twine or twist ties, and hang in a warm, dry, shaded place, allowing for good air circulation. Alternatively, spread herbs on window screens resting on sawhorses or chair backs. Stir often to ensure even drying. When leaves are crumbly-dry, separate from the stems without crushing. Store in glass or plastic bottles in a cool, dry place away from sunlight, moisture, and heat.

•
Drying with Heat.
Air drying (which retains better flavor and color) may be difficult in some high-humidity situations. Your food dehydrator does a good job of drying herbs; follow the manufacturer’s directions. For oven drying, spread the herbs on cookie sheets and dry with the pilot light, or at the lowest possible temperature setting. For microwave drying, layer clean, dry leaves between dry paper towels and microwave on high power for 1 to 2 minutes. Cool. If the leaves are not brittle, microwave for 30 seconds and retest. Repeat if necessary.

Read more about harvesting the herbs in your garden:

The Rodale Herb Book,
edited by William H. Hylton

Gather Herbs in the Full to keep dry; they keep and retain their vertue and sweet smell, provided you take the same care as you do in Hay, that you expose them not in too thin, but competent Heaps, which you may turn and move till they be reasonable dry, not brittle; and the sooner it be dispatch’d, the better. For there is very great difference in the Vertue of Plants, according as they are dried.

—JOHN EVELYN, ELYSIUM BRITANNICUM, 1660

AUGUST 5

According to some, the Celtic month of the Hazel Tree begins today (August 5-September 1).

I went out to the hazelwood,
Because a fire was in my head . . .
—W. B. YEATS, THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS

The Sacred Hazel

The hazel tree (
Corylus avellana
) was revered as a sacred tree, the Celtic tree of knowledge, growing at the heart of the Otherworld, over the Well of Wisdom. The hazel was associated with poetry and magic, and those who ate the nuts might be rewarded with poetic, prophetic, and divinatory power. (Or perhaps it was the highly intoxicating hazel-mead, frequently mentioned in early Irish literature, that did it.)

THE MAGICAL HAZEL

Hazel’s magic was usually connected with its divinatory powers. Druid priests wielded hazel rods, and dowsers preferred forked hazel sticks to indicate where underground water might be found. As late as the nineteenth century in the south of England, young brides were given a bundle of hazel sticks to ensure fertility, and a fine show of catkins in the spring predicted a fine crop of babies: “A plenty of catkins, a plenty of prams.”

Hazel was considered a protective herb. A wattle fence made of hazel kept witches out. Cattle were driven through the smoke of Midsummer Night’s hazel bonfires, and hazel wands passed through the flames were used as protection against disease and witches’ spells. In East Anglia, hazel wands were gathered on Palm Sunday (see March 27) and blessed for protection the rest of the year. In some places, however, the hazel was thought to bring bad luck. Gathering hazelnuts on Sunday, for instance, would attract the devil’s attention. In one ballad, a “foolish young maid” went nutting on Sunday, encountered a “Gentleman all in black who laid her on her back” (no gentleman, he), with the predictable outcome: a babe with horns and a tail.

THE USEFUL HAZEL

Only a few medicinal uses of hazel are recorded: the nuts, mixed with honey, were used to treat coughs; mixed with pepper, they cleared the head. The wood itself, however, found many uses. The tree was coppiced to produce pliable wands for basket-making, hoops and hurdles, wattles and hedge-stakes, fishing rods and walking sticks. Like willow, hazel was used to make light, one-man boats called coracles and temporary woodland shelters.

Read more about the folklore of hazel:

The Oxford Dictionary of Plant-Lore,
by Roy Vickery

The sun shines on both sides of the hedge.

—TRADITIONAL

AUGUST 6

The Shakers arrived in New York Harbor on this day in 1774, on a ship called
Mariah
.

Behold the Flowers that deck the Field,
The Gentle breeze perfuming,
and Tender Herbs their Fragrance Yield
Are Health and Life Diffusing
—HARVARD SHAKER COMMUNITY HERB CATALOG, 1843

Shaker Medicinal Herbs

The Shakers were the among the first commercial purveyors of herb seeds and dried herbs in America. At first, they gathered the plants in the areas where they settled—eleven Shaker communities had been established in the northeastern states by 1800—but they quickly began to exploit the potential of the pharmaceutical market. Even as late as 1889, when the industry was waning, the community in Enfield, New Hampshire, reported shipping some 44,000 pounds of dried dock root, in one season, to a single pharmaceutical firm.

Here are five of the herbs offered in the Shakers’ 1837 catalog, with their descriptions:

• Bugle (
Lycopus virginicus
). In spitting of blood and similar diseases, it is, perhaps, the best remedy known. It is a sedative, and tonic, and appears to equalize the circulation of the blood.

• Button Snake-Root (
Liatris spicata
). A powerful diuretic.

• Golden Seal (
Hydrastis canadensis
) Tonic and gently laxative. Promotes the biliary [gallbladder] secretions and removes jaundice.

• Gravel Plant (
Epigaea repens
) Diuretic. . . . Has often cured where the catheter had to be habitually used.

• Pleurisy Root (
Asclepias tuberosa
) In all inflammations of the chest this is an invaluable medicine. It is sudorific, anodyne, and expectorant.

In addition to growing and selling dried herbs, the Shakers also produced and marketed a variety of medicinal preparations, and by the 1880s, some eighty different proprietary medicines were being sold. The herbal medicine business declined steadily after the Civil War, however, as did the appeal of the Shaker religion. But because the Shakers kept careful records—community journals were required by rule, and business documents were rigorously maintained—we can still see and marvel at their wide-ranging efforts to build a better life, not only for themselves but for others.

Read more about Shaker gardens:

Shaker Medicinal Herbs: A Compendium of History, Lore, and Uses
, by Amy Bess Miller

’Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free
’Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right
’Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
—SHAKER HYMN

AUGUST 7

In some years, today is National Mustard Day.

A tale without love is like beef without mustard, an insipid dish.

—ANATOLE FRANCE

Pass the Mustard Homer Mayo, the seventysomething geezer who won the Adams County mustard competition last year (his story is told in “Mustard Madness,” in
An Unthymely Death and Other Garden Mysteries
), insists that there’s nothing like mustard to turn on your taste buds—and he’s right. Whether you prefer the yellow ballpark-and-hot-dog mustard, a gourmet Dijon, or the fiery kick of Chinese mustard, you can’t go wrong.

It’s not hard to make your own from mustard seeds or powder. (Check out the recipes on pages 149-141 of
Unthymely Death.
) But if you want to experiment with herbal mustards, here’s an easy way to get started.

MAKE-IT-YOURSELF GOURMET MUSTARD

1 cup of Dijon-style mustard
¼ cup dried herbs (or about one-half cup finely chopped
fresh herbs)
1 ½ tablespoons dry white wine

Combine all ingredients in a lidded jar and refrigerate for a week before using, so that the flavors mellow and mingle. Keep for up to three months. Some zesty combinations:

• Minced thyme, parsley, and marjoram, with one clove garlic

• Minced tarragon with basil and thyme

• 1-2 tablespoons prepared or freshly grated horseradish, one clove garlic, ¼ cup grated fresh ginger root, 2 tablespoons honey

MEDICINAL MUSTARD

Like pepper, mustard stimulates appetite and digestion. It also stimulates blood circulation, and is traditionally used in chest poultices to ease lung congestion and as a rub to warm chilly hands and feet. Native Americans found the herb useful for headaches and colds (they sniffed the powdered seeds as an inhalant); and as a poultice to ease back pain.

MAGICAL MUSTARD

Mustard had its magical qualities, too. In northern Europe, mothers sewed mustard seeds into their daughters’ wedding dresses to encourage the groom’s passion. In India, mustard seeds were spread on doorsteps to repel evil spirits. In Denmark, mustard was sown around barns to keep fairies and spirits away from the animals.

Read more about mustard:

The Good Cook’s Book of Mustard,
by Michele Anna Jordan

AUGUST 8

The jelly—the jam and the marmalade,
And the cherry and quince “preserves” she made!
And the sweet-sour pickles of peach and pear,
With cinnamon in ’em, and all things rare!—
And the more we ate was the more to spare,
Out to old Aunt Mary’s! Ah!
—JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY, “OUT TO OLD AUNT MARY’S”

Sweet, Savory, Sparkling Herb Jellies

You might not think of jelly as a means of preserving your herb harvest, but that’s certainly one way to look at it. Pretty, too, all those sparkling jars of pale lavender or rich wine-colored jelly lined up on a shelf: savory jellies to be served with cheeses or meats, sweet jellies for desserts and treat. Nothing makes a nicer gift for a friend, either.

HOW TO MAKE HERB JELLY

Herb jelly begins with a strong herb infusion brewed with water, fruit juice, or wine. Fruit juice is nice for sweet jellies; wine for savory jellies. The tea is then added to the other ingredients: sugar for sweetening, vinegar or lemon juice for tartness, pectin to set the jelly.

1 cup chopped fresh herbs, or
¹
/
₃
cup dried (for ideas,
see below)
2½ cups boiling water, juice, or wine
¼ cup lemon juice or cider vinegar
4½ cups sugar food coloring (optional)
3 ounces liquid pectin

To make the infusion:
Pour boiling water, juice, or wine onto the herbs. Steep until cool. Strain infusion and measure 2 cups into a large nonreactive pot.

To make the jelly
: Add sugar and vinegar or lemon juice to the herb tea and cook over high heat, stirring constantly. When sugar is dissolved, add coloring (if desired). When mixture boils, add pectin. Return to a full rolling boil and continue boiling and stirring for 1 full minute. Remove from heat, skim off foam, and pour into half-pint sterile jars and seal. Store in refrigerator. For longer storage, process for five minutes in a boiling-water bath, and seal with a thin layer of melted paraffin.

Suggested combinations:

• For sweet jellies: Apple, orange, or pineapple juice with scented geraniums, rose petals (white heels removed), rosemary, lavender, pineapple sage, lemon balm, mint

• For savory jellies: White wine with dill, tarragon, lemongrass, lemon geranium, parsley; red wine with garlic, rosemary, thyme, savory, bay

Read more about preserving your herbal harvest: