professor smellie sprout

August 23, 2019August 24, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

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I have several nicknames, my husband endearingly calls me the Septic Ferret, this has nothing to do with my personal hygiene but was a result of his response to me calling him a lazy old goat at precisely the moment during an episode of Blackadder in which Baldrick had clearly done something unspeakable. Such billet doux as we send each other (please remember to feed the dog/electrician arrives at midday/we are out of milk) are invariably signed off sfx or luvlog. Beat that Cyrano de Bergerac.

However, it is my most recently acquired nickname that is relevant today. Professor Smellie Sprout. Again this has nothing to do with overcooked Christmas vegetables. This name was given to me by my knitting group on hearing that I had recently completed a certificate course in Herbology at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. .

[Oh and I got a distinction by the way]

Much mirth ensued until I cured a very swollen ankle with my sore muscle salve , and offers of beatification followed. Sainthood is not my thing, I couldn’t keep up the good behaviour for a start, but herbs most certainly are.

[Did I tell you I got a distinction?]

So in October 2020 I start fours years of training to become a fully fledged, officially registered Smellie Sprout at the School of Plant Medicine in Cork. In the meantime I need to keep my hand in so I have been writing up my Materia Medica. I imagine most people write up theirs electronically. I don’t, not least, because come the apocalypse when the internet is but a dimly lit memory my Materia Medica will still be going strong.

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Even its box is a thing of beauty, and apparently an office appliance no less.

On one of the first mornings when I could wander around the garden without the need for wellies and waterproofs I began to take photographs to attach to the notes. It’s surprising how much medicine you can plant in your garden.

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Verbena officinalis Vervain. The subject of my first monograph. One of the oldest sacred herbs for the Romans, Greeks and Druids. Useful for tension headaches, migraine and may also have a role, in conjunction with some antibiotics, in the control of MRSA.

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Hypericum perforatum St John’s Wort. Well known as an antidepressant it is also an important external wound healer.

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Tanacetum parthenium Feverfew. Best known for the treatment of migraine (and its ability to self seed with gay abandon) it is also an anti-inflammatory and is used in the alleviation of arthritis pain.

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Borago officinalis Borage. One of my favourite garden herbs, so pretty and a delicious addition to summer drinks. A cooling herb it was once called “cool-tankard”. “Borage for courage” is an oft-quoted expression indicating its ability to restore life and vitality to the downhearted and those weighed down by mental exhaustion.

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Artemisia verlotiorum Chinese Mugwort. One of the many medicinal Artemisia, one of the digestive bitters and strongly linked to the female reproductive system.

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Artemisia absinthium Wormwood. Forever to be linked to the era of Toulouse Lautrec and the apparent hallucinations brought on drinking copious amounts of absinthe. The hallucinations were believed to be the result of the high levels of thujone in the plant, although that has now been debunked. Today its extreme bitterness makes it a valuable member of the digestive bitters group of herbs and may also help the body cope with infection and fever.

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Verbascum thapsus Mullien. Unsurprisingly also known as Aaron’s rod, it provides dramatic structure in the garden both when flowering and as a dry autumnal stem. Primarily a respiratory remedy, reducing inflammation and increasing fluid production. During a long and nasty viral infection this summer I drank mullein tea every day and can confirm that it is an excellent expectorant and soothing plant.

2019-08-23 08.45.08 Leonurus cardiaca Motherwort. A member of the mint family, the clue is in the common name, motherwort has a long association with the female reproductive system and motherhood. Its Latin name indicates its use as a cardiac tonic.

2019-08-23 08.45.30 Foeniculum vulgare Fennel. Almost ready to harvest the seeds. A carminative, aiding digestion, antispasmodic and often used to relieve colic.

2019-08-23 08.41.17 Matricaria chamomilla Roman Chamomile. This isn’t doing quite as well this year since the husband “weeded” my original plants earlier this summer. These are the replacements and with only two flowers thus far my harvest will be very low this year!

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Lavendula sp Lavender complete with friend. I’ve been cutting and drying all summer, we have about six bushes which have been very productive this year.

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And here it is drying in the kitchen.

Time to write up all the notes now.

Love Gillie x

herbal loose ends

July 8, 2019July 14, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

At this time of year you can usually find me either grubbing around in the garden and hedgerows collecting herbs or in the kitchen infusing, decocting and generally making remedies for the year ahead.

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Today was a catch up day. I have several tinctures that are ready to be bottled up. A tincture is a simple method to harvest the medicinal qualities of a herb. All you need is the herb itself and base solvent. The most common solvent is alcohol as it has the ability to dissolve almost all the constituents of most plants and acts as a preservative at the same time. If you prefer not to use alcohol then vinegar or glycerine can be substituted. Vodka is my preferred tincture solvent, a minimum of 37-40% proof. I have bought much stronger vodka in Romania and Latvia where is was quite reasonably priced compared to the UK.

The common home method for making a tincture is to fill a small jar with the chopped herb and cover with the solvent liquid. There are guidelines for different ratios of herb to solvent (see Hoffmann or Bartram for details). I tend to use the common method but I do make a note of the strength of alcohol used.

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Earlier this summer I had put aside :

Turmeric
Ginger
Chilli
Chickweed
Lemon balm
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
Hawthorn leaves
Motherwort
Dandelion leaf and root
Lemon balm and basil in witchazel

So much of this morning was spent bottling up and labelling. I add the plant (Latin name if there is a risk of confusion), date of bottling, solvent and place the plant was harvested.

The first three (turmeric, ginger and chilli) are part of my personal treatment for muscular strain in my upper arms/shoulders as a result of hypermobility. I’ve made a very effective salve using these three ingredients and was interested to see if the tincture taken internally was as effective. I’ll do a post on the salve later this month.

Chickweed and lemon balm are both exceptionally good for skin irritations. Mugwort is bitter tonic and helps with digestive disorders, stimulating bile production whilst also providing a carminative action reducing gas in the digestive system. Hawthorn (more commonly the berries but also the leaves, I shall harvest the berries later in the year) and Motherwort are both cardiac tonics and whilst everyone knows dandelion as a diuretic few also know that it is an excellent source of potassium thus negating the need for potassium supplements required when synthetic diuretics are prescribed. (See Bartram or Hoffmann for detailed information on the herbs listed). Finally some of you will remember the lemon balm and basil witchazel tincture as the basis of my first attempt at home made insect repellent. I’ll let you know how it works!

The lemon balm infusion was ready to be turned into a salve.

60 ml Lemon balm infused oil
6 mg beeswax granules

Add both ingredients to a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and stir until the beeswax is melted. Pour into clean jar and leave with the lid off until the salve is solid.

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Now, I have to bottle up the rest of the tinctures and get out in the garden and do some more harvesting, the sage and verbascum are vast and the mint needs my attention!

Love Gillie x

albanian chai

June 16, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

I don’t drink coffee. I used to, lots of it, strong and without milk or sugar. But about 15 or years ago I fell out of love with it and hardly touch it now. Occasionally, maybe once a month I may have a mid morning coffee with friends, but certainly no more than one and it is a notable event.

However, tea is another matter altogether. I start the day like this. One pot of English breakfast tea (also without milk or sugar). Always in my chicken pot and always with my chicken cup and saucer. I am a creature of habit. I do vary the tea cosy! morning tea

However, on or around 10.00 am I switch to this.

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On our recent visit to Albania I saw somebody drinking a proper herb tea (i.e. the full plant not dried up bits in a tea bag – I HATE tea bags, but that’s another story). Curious, I asked what it was and ordered a pot with my lunch. Actually I did that the other way around and drank it first and discovered what it was afterwards!

Sideritis raeseri (not to be confused with Sideritis scardica or any of the other wild Sideritis many of which are at risk of extinction and should not be picked or indeed purchased), also known as ironwort, mountain tea, shepherd’s tea is the only Sideritis which is cultivated and has been drunk as a decoction for thousands of years (even mentioned by Dioscorides). It has a pleasant taste and I had it with breakfast every day and frequently during the day as well. It is a habit I have continued since I returned home. I brought plenty of the dried herb home with me and though I can replenish my supply through various well known internet sales sites it is not clear that I can be sure that it is the raeseri I am buying rather than one of the endangered species. So I am trying to track down some seeds. Unfortunately all I can find from a reputable (i.e. I know that the seeds will be what they say they are) supplier is Sideritis syricia. So I’ll have to try that out instead.

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The dried Sideritis raeseri

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Ready for the boiling water.

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Brewing.

It is traditionally taken as an aid to digestion and to strengthen the immune system. Considerable research has been undertaken on this unassuming plant and it has been proven to have anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant action. As we were travelling I restricted my tinctures to just digestive bitters and left the echinacea I usually take at home. Whilst we were away Stuart developed a monster of a cold which went straight to his chest. I drank my Albanian chai every day and remained entirely cold free despite all his coughing and sneezing 🙂

Love Gillie x

herb oil

November 15, 2017 ~ Gillie ~ 1 Comment

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Yup it’s that time of year again. Now we all know that a cute little baby elf will die every time somebody puts up a decoration or sings a carol before the beginning of December? What you didn’t know that? Shame about all those poor little elves.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t plan, in fact you need to plan, unless of course you a bloke with a woman who does all the planning for you. Massive generalisation I know, but if the cap fits …

Rather smugly I can say that present wise I am pretty much sorted. Well, I still have to finish a pair of socks and start a cardigan but the rest is pretty much sorted. Today was hamper day. Some exceptionally lucky people are getting a little hamper of home made goodies. What do you mean “poor sods I hope she doesn’t give them botulism”?!

Today was herb oil. The lovely bottles originally contained a rather lovely Rosé from Provence. For reasons of which I am unsure we only drank four bottles. I may have to purchase some more. Anyway, I originally bought the wine because I loved the bottle and I loved the glass stopper. The wine was a pleasant bonus!

Wash and dry bottles and add herbs of your choice. I tend to use stronger woody ones that can survive in the oil without curling up and looking manky! A whizz round the garden produced:

Rosemary
Bay leaves
Lemon thyme

To which I added:

Sliced garlic
Red peppercorns
Long peppercorns (also known as Indonesian peppercorns)
Penja black peppercorns
Juniper berry

Topped up with olive oil and sealed. I’ll tie a pourer around the neck and they are all ready for the little hampers.

Love Gillie x

autumnal herbs

September 6, 2017 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

When I wake in the morning I can no longer hear the dawn chorus, when I sit outside in the evening even I need a jumper and we lit the stove for the first time last night. I can no longer pretend that summer isn’t coming towards its end. I had never really thought of myself as a summer girl, but as I have got older I have become aware that summer is the time that I truly come alive. I am more productive and my creativity ups several notches. Getting dressed in the morning takes seconds and I live in my Birkenstocks all day and every day. The garden is full to bursting and we have fresh flowers in every room of the house.

However the is a reason for every season and as autumn begins to take the upper hand I can start to gather in. Our vegetable garden, along with much of the house, was being rebuilt this year so we didn’t have as big a harvest this year. However, the winter veg are in, the greenhouse has brought forth a bumper offering and the herbs have been as abundant as ever.

I do have a dehydrator, but I prefer to use that for roots and fruits. For leaves I leave them to hang in the boiler house.

Parsley, lavender and marjaram.

The mint, lemon balm and sage have been hanging for a few weeks and are now ready to put away in jars.

We have also made our own bacon, salt beef and lox. Today I shall be picking the rosehips for syrup, shrub (sweet vinegar), jelly, ketchup and elderberry and reship tonic.

What are you drying and preserving this autumn?

love Gillie x

food glorious food

March 29, 2017 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

Family Smellie is very keen on its food and Thailand has not let us down once. So we thought it was time that we did a little hands on cooking. Rather than just stuffing our faces with the delicious food cooked by others, we would do some of the preliminary work ourselves.

Enter Toi, chef extraordinaire at Sea Dance. She was chosen to bravely steer Family Smellie through the cooking process. This is what awaited us when we arrived for our lesson.

Even if we didn’t cook it but just feasted with our eyes and noses that would have been a sensual journey in itself. But Family Smellie needed to fill its bellies so onwards and upwards.

First up, as in any good project of any kind, is the preparation. I was put on chopping duty and managed to impress Toi not only with my knowledge of nam pla but also my prowess with a mini machete!

We began with seafood salad and followed with chicken green curry and chicken and ginger stir fry. The Travellerwas not impressed by having to skin and scour the squid, but she did an excellent job.

The seafood was left to marinade in soy sauce, nampla, chopped chilli, chopped garlic and palm sugar. The Boss was in charge of chicken prep.

First up was the green curry. The curry paste was added to hot oil and the coconut cream added spoon by spoon. I am used to chucking the tin in all at once, but this way the sauce remained thick and cooked more slowly, it was thinned with water or chicken stock later.

Chicken first and finally vegetables.

The volunteer took notes.

Stir fry was down to the Traveller and she was not convinced she could do the flip so expertly demonstrated by Toi, convinced that instead she would cover the Boss with a selection of chicken and vegetables.

But she got the wrist action and managed a perfect stir fry flip with no stray veg at all.

And the finished products.

And time to eat.

A few days later I bumped into Toi in the gardens and she showed me around her kitchen garden. Many of the vegetables used in the kitchen are grown on site and Toi is an excellent gardener as well as chef. I also managed to impress her again with my knowledge of Holy Basil, there are hidden depths to me yet! She not only grows a huge range of vegetables, salad leaves and herbs for the kitchen but also a comprehensive range of herbs for the spa as well. And I can testify that the spa is as good as the kitchen!

Love Gillie x

Wear the Wild

November 28, 2016November 28, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

Regular readers will know I am huge fans of Chris and Rose Bax of Taste the Wild. I have been on plenty of their courses from Herbal Medicine (where my recently macerated knee provided a live demonstration of how to make a poultice) two and a half days foraging in Staithes. We have also been mushroom foraging with them and Stuart learned how to butcher a deer. So you can imagine my glee on my birthday when I discovered I had a morning with Rose making cosmetics.

I make a lot of my own cosmetics and potions etc, but there is nothing more fun than doing it with other people and there is always more to learn. So last Tuesday I got up early, scraped the ice off the car and headed down to North Yorkshire. Boy was it cold so the cup of tea on arrival was most welcome.

Cop a look at this.

Infused oils and dried herbs and flowers all ready to be played with. First we made shampoo. Rose gave us comprehensive tables with the properties of the various herbs and flowers. She had already made a birch decoction which we would all include in our shampoo as birch is a wonderful all rounder for hair, then we chose three other ingredients.

We steeped our additional ingredients in the hot decoction and added it to pure castile soap.

And there you go. I don’t even use conditioner now, though do be careful not to get castile soap in your eyes!

Next up was a healing balm.

Melt pure beeswax into the infused oils of your choice. Note the clever homemade bain marie. When slightly cool add an essential oil of your choice.

Pour into clean pots and leave to set. Wait until it is almost set before putting on the lid so avoid contamination with condensation.

Next was lip balm, made in much the same way but this time with peppermint essential oil. We finished up with a bath bomb and some wonderful herbal bath salts which I used when I got home that evening and there were just the ticket.

Finally, as I was in the area I popped into Ripon for lunch on the way home!

Love Gillie x

potagers, physic gardens and whirling topiary

May 26, 2016May 26, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday I got up exceptionally early (actually an hour earlier than I needed to because I couldn’t read the clock) to head down to London for the Chelsea Flower Show. Despite an hour of extra time to get ready I managed to leave my phone at home so all the photos here are courtesy of the lovely Caroline who acted as my official snapper.

I was rather disappointed with the show gardens. I appreciate that everything comes in cycles and that fashions change, but I got rather bored of endless firs, sparse plantings and large blocks of concrete and metal. I mean, I took one look at the metal slabs in the Best in Show Telegraph garden and the first thing I thought was “of course, mountains”?? Meanwhile I rather liked the comment I overheard at the L’Occitane garden “I might like it when it’s finished”! Indeed, it was an excellent reproduction of a pretty and arid scene somewhere in the south of France. But it wasn’t a a garden. Certainly there were precious few that I would say, “oh yes, I’d like to sit out in that.” But then I suspect I am rather old fashioned.

This came to be proven when we came across the Harrods Garden. Plentiful and stunning planting, we weren’t the only ones to think so, it was one of the most crowded gardens I have seen in Chelsea for years.

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It was rather eccentric as every 15 minutes the topiary began to whirl and bob, the garden spun around the folly, and the window boxes rose up to the second floor (I rather liked the idea of being able to take your window boxes to bed with you). But the planting, it was a dream.

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The other garden I loved, was similar in style, the RHS Greening the Gray garden, again plentiful planting (I particularly liked the idea of planting roses amongst the annuals, so often they are made to stand alone). This was unusual as you could walk through it and enjoy it as a garden rather than merely spectate. Vegetables in pots on the roof of the sheds, traditional mixing of veg and flowers and plenty of bee friendly plants. In both gardens I was so impressed by the lupins, delphiniums and foxgloves so tall and straight!

We are fortunate enough to have enough space to grow pretty much what we want, north of England weather and chickens permitting. I am very keen to build a physic garden and really want to do the Foundation Course at Dilston Physic Garden. I wanted to do it this year, but I can’t make the dates so have blocked out the dates for next year already!

In the meantime I need to start to plan the plants and compare to what I already have and where I have them. At Chelsea I saw these by Bacsac

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They are lovely, but more than I can afford. So this bank holiday weekend the Boss and I are going into design mode. Actually the design is less of a problem it’s the material, but we have an idea. Watch this space to see if it works.

Love Gillie

the hanging gardens of Brancepeth

May 15, 2016May 15, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ 4 Comments

I cannot take credit for these. I first saw them on a friend’s blog, it wasn’t her idea either! But now I pass them on to you, let there be hanging gardens around the world.

Quick diversion, anyone reading this who went to a PNEU school will have had a class called From Ur to Rome. It was based on a book of the same name and was tolerably interesting. However, the sections on the ziggurats and on the hanging gardens of Babylon transfixed me. I was frequently in trouble for flicking back to them and thus having no idea what the rest of the class was discussing!

You will need LOTS of plastic milk bottles (2l) or detergent bottles (the bulk 3l ones). Unless you are a family of 20 who each drink a litre of milk a day collecting these will be the hardest part. You need to raid your friends’ recycling bins.

Place the bottle in front of you sideways on with the handle on the left then cut out a square shape from the opening at the top down about 4-6 inches depending on the size of your bottle. Next attach some two by two to your chosen wall. The number you will need will depend on how long you plan on making your garden. You will need a new support every 3ft or so.

Now insert a large round hook in each support. Thread the appropriate length of dowling through the handle of each milk bottle, rest the dowling in the hook and hey presto your very own hanging garden.

We have planted salad greens, summer herbs, carrots, strawberries, nasturtiums

greenery – drying herbs

June 13, 2014 ~ Gillie ~ 10 Comments

Back in the garden the greenery is doing greenery types of things. Essentially it’s growing. The Boss goes out with a frown and starts to remove the greenery which is growing where he has plans for other greenery. I run behind him and rescue his victims.

Then when he has had enough of killing off the greenery I want to keep he goes for a kip and I go and pinch (sorry forage) for more greenery in the fields and woods.

So far I have collected:

Chickweed
Cleavers
Nettles
Elderflowers
Plantain
Horsetail

From the garden I garnered:

Mint
Apple mint
Raspberry leaves
Sage
English Mace
Bay
Tarragon
Celery leaves
Comfrey

A particularly lovely and refreshing tea is nettle and mint. At this time of year you can use the fresh leaves (don’t forget your gloves!). But I’m stocking up for the winter months. You can dry leaves and flowers in a cool (50 centigrade maximum) oven, bottom of the aga or with a dehydrator. Alternatively if you want to be completely carbon neutral tie them in bunches and hang in a warm airy room. If you are drying flowers like elderflower which may drop off then place a paper bag around the bunch, but make sure to make several holes in the paper to ensure airflow. Our aga is off for the summer and I like the speed and convenience of the dehydrator. I dry a lot of plants and it is the easiest way to bulk dry without turning on the oven.

Plenty more to forage and garner but I have had enough for today and am going to settle down with a banana, strawberry, applemint smoothie thinned down with the whey from the cheese.