dreaming of an herbarium

at judith's recommendation, i've been reading ellis peters' cadfael novels. they're set in 12th century england and the main character is brother cadfael, a monk who came to the cloth late in life after having been to the crusades. he solves murders and other mysteries and is an appealing character who is a bit of a rebel but no one ever really catches him at it. but most fascinating about him is that he uses all kinds of natural herbs and plants for healing. and he has a wonderful little herbarium in the abbey gardens. he uses it as a refuge and of course, a place to keep his stores and make his tinctures and medicines. i think i read the books as much for the descriptions of this magical place as anything else.

i told husband yesterday that i want an herbarium of my own in the garden. and you know with husband, it's never that far between talk and action and his eyes lit up at the idea. he was soon mumbling to himself about roofing materials and how much ventilation the building would require to keep the herbs dry.

the steps i can take towards this magical herbarium already now are lists of herbs to plant in my expanded herb garden. i've got the usual suspects, like parsley, 3 kinds of thyme, rosemary, sage, tarragon, coriander, oregano, lavender and marjoram. there's quite a lot of wild chamomile around the garden as well.  but i want to add some flowers - like echinacea. and i have a whole lot to learn, as i figure out what else to plant - both edible and medicinal.

so with learning in mind, i went looking for herb-related resources and found henriette's herbal homepage, which seems to be an absolute wealth of information. last year, i bought the amusingly-titled grow your own drugs, but will admit that i didn't do that much with it.

i love the notion of using less medicine and more natural remedies. i love the idea that some of it could be foraged. i've also found a great foraging resource in the first ways blog, which i also follow on facebook. (i'm increasingly finding facebook useful and not only social, are you?).

i can't wait for spring to come in earnest so i can get planting!

i'd love any suggestions you may have of useful sites or suggestions for what i should plant! please share!!

den klog kone

mushrooms

rowan berries

in the sixteenth century, danish villages often had a person they called "den klog kone" (literally, the clever wife). to be den klog kone was a positive thing - they knew about herbs and worked to heal people who were sick - these women were strong and capable and essential to a village. but there was a fine line between being den klog kone and being a witch - get on the wrong side of someone in the village and that line would be crossed and one would be persecuted (and maybe even killed) for being a witch.

i've been fascinated this year by foraging. the idea of finding food along the roadside, in the forest, or on the beach is very appealing. partly, it's about getting something for nothing, but even more, it's about that knowledge that den kloge kone had.  it's about knowing what plants are good for what. if they have medicinal qualities. are they edible? what flavors they have and what flavors they go with. how the plants can be used.

it strikes me sometimes that we've lost so much knowledge - so much that people once knew. so much about nature and how to really do things and make things. all those things that den kloge kone of the village once knew. or ma and pa in the laura ingalls wilder books.

for me, a big part of living more sustainably involves relearning some of those things. which mushrooms are edible, which of the plants growing in the ditch might be used to spice up some schnapps or make a tasty jelly or if those flowers would make a nice cordial.  i'd like to know just enough to be den kloge kone, but definitely not a witch.