One thing that I am attempting to ascertain is what medical knowledge would be accessible to my persona in the 14th century.  Reading up on the history of medicine in England, has given me a rapidly growing list of works or authors to track down to read and to start compiling data for use with the herbs I am collecting and those which I also plan to grow.

One such author is John Mirfield, who authored the Breviarium Bartholomei, in the late 14th century.  The most readily available translation of his work is the volume on surgery, which would be a bit removed from my primary interest in building out an apothecary.  Fortunately, Part 13 of his work covers compound drugs and describes the processes for making varies things such as syrups, electuaries, pills, powders, waters, oils, ointments and plasters.  This is key information that I need for my planned projects.  (Yes, I understand how to many many of these with modern methods and ideas, but to be able to view them as someone did in the 1300s?  That is the very goal of all of this!)

Unfortunately, I could not find a translation of this work readily available anywhere.  This section is however, contained in Popular Medicine in the Thirteenth-Century England, by Tony Hunt, in Latin.  The text was pulled from a Latin copy owned by John Dee.  More information on the manuscript can be found HERE.   There is one additional copy of this work in existence and it can be seen in full HERE. 

So what did I spend the entire day doing?  Translating the first of the items - Syrups.  I hope to finish the rest over the course of the next week.  Items in parentheses that are headers are part of T. Hunt's categories in his book.  Items in parentheses within the copy are my notes or additional information.

Of course, now that I have spent the time on this, I am sure I will find a better translation elsewhere ;-)
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(Syrups)
 
Of Syrups in General and Drinks
 
There are many syrups, electuaries, and other confections in the Antidotario of Nicholai and elsewhere, sufficiently noted by many, which I know it would be a very long occupation, as well as tedious, to insert them all here, especially since many of them are seldom compounded by physicians, but are almost always found ready at the apothecaries and pigmenters.  Therefore, I will begin to say something briefly about the most important and two seemingly unknown ones, helping the master.
 
(General Principals)
 
Therefore, in the first place, there is much to be noted about the preparation of syrups
 
1 - One rule is that all syrup made with sugar must be boiled more than that made with honey.
2 - Another rule: every syrup must be made either with honey or with sugar.
3 - Also a rule: the less cooked all honey is, the more laxative it is, and the more cooked it is, the more nutritious it is, and the more constrictive it is.
4 - Also a rule: any syrup made with honey lasts longer than made with sugar.
5 - Likewise, the rule is that all laxatives should be boiled a little, but astringents should be boiled a lot.
6 - Another rule: no laxative should be added to the syrup except at the end of the decoction.
7 - Also, the rule: in every syrup, the decoction must be made until the consumption of half of the liquid or two parts, so that a third part remains - for otherwise it is of no use.
8 - Also: note that all the dust on the cloth must be boiled in the already clarified syrup. And in the oxymello, which is never clarified, it is placed tied in a cloth from the beginning of the decoction.  (Oxymello is vinegar and honey)
 
Moreover, keep in mind that if you put psyllium, or dragagantum (gum-tragacanth- natural gum from the sap several species of plant originating in the Middle East) , or anything of that kind, in the syrup, it must be boiled for a long time so that the syrup seems to burn. But if you pay attention to the sign of the complete boiling of the syrup in these, it would not be valid, because at the beginning of the boiling it forms a thread due to its viscosity and also adheres to the caccia itself.

(Ingredients in Composition)

(Flowers)
If you want to make a syrup from the flowers, first boil clean water well. Then the water should be boiled and well filtered. Let it be thrown over the flowers in some vessel and the vessel be sealed. Then heat the same water again, and let it be similarly thrown over the same flowers a second time, and afterwards over others, if there are many flowers. And let this be done as long as that water has the color of flowers. Then heat this water and make a syrup from the flowers.

(Roots)
The syrup must be made from the roots as follows: The roots must first be crushed and then boiled in water or vinegar according to the requirement of the syrup. And the roots of this kind must then be boiled, and afterwards they must be removed from the fire and cooled a little, and afterwards well squeezed. And from that decoction make a syrup.

(Spices)
A syrup of aromatics [f.241rb] is made as follows: First, water and sugar are boiled. Then the powdered species should be placed in a bag with a thin line (?? ‘lineo’) and thus they should be placed in the syrup and boiled a little. And when the bag is removed, it must be well squeezed.

(Juices)
The syrup must be made from the juices in this way: The juice must be extracted and then it must be boiled in a moderate amount and then cooled. And then it is well cultivated and after it is boiled with honey or sugar until thick.

(Variety of above)
Sometimes a syrup is made from the flowers, roots, and seeds of diuretic and aromatic species. In this way, the roots must be slightly shaken and cooked well. Afterwards, the diuretic seeds should be cooked moderately. Next, they should be given flowers. And the aromatics are placed in the syrup as if it had already been made.

(Preparation)
Therefore, the instruction for making syrups should be as follows: Boil flowers or seeds or the like together with a little bit in water up to a third part. Then filter, and filter and add sugar in such a measure that to one ounce of flowers or root or powder is added one pound of sugar. And in whatever liquid you wish to make the syrup, put just enough of that liquid to cover the sugar.

(Judging the Consistency)
A sign of boiling syrup is when it is taken with a spatula and it drips continuously like oil.

Another sign is when it sticks to the spatula.

Likewise, it is another sign if a drop of boiling syrup is placed on a fingernail or a marble or a knife, if it then adheres to the finger and does not drip here or there, the syrup is cooked.
The general dose of syrup is one ounce, or so: the syrup is either much cooked or not. If, however, it is cooked a lot, two parts of water and a third of syrup must be mixed; but if it is not much cooked, half of water and half of syrup should be added. And so it should be presented. And note that all syrups must be given far from food, and with hot water in winter ('yeme' clarified as 'winter' in the Middle English Dictionary) and with cold in summer.

(Selection of ingredients)
Also, the general rule is that when any medicine is given, it must be given with a decoction of some herbs or medicines that are effective for this purpose and strengthen the patient's member. And note that if you want to make a syrup against some disease, consider in the antidote the medicine against that disease, and, with the same species crushed and boiled in water, make a syrup. Consider, however, which species should bubble a lot and which should not. For which it is necessary to know that aromatics need little cooking. Indeed, if they were boiled a lot, they would lose all their power, and for this reason such aromatics must be powdered and put in a bag. And when the syrup is clarified, then they are added.

(Clarification)
1. Furthermore, when you make a syrup from the juices and want to have a very clear one, first separate the juice and allow the bubble to settle a little. And that which seems to be starchy or has gone to the bottom, carefully remove it. And in the residue that is as clear as water make a syrup. And so it will be brighter, but not so effectively. And yet you will not be able to do this with the juice of certain cold herbs, unless it has first had an astringent power.

2. Or when this kind of juice has been boiled by itself and afterwards settles, then that which is starchy will settle at the bottom, but that which is clear will float to the top. Then strain gently through a cloth, but do not squeeze so as not to disturb the juice. And from that filtration, which appears to be like water, with the addition of sugar, a clear syrup is made.

3. If you wish to make it more clear when it has been removed from the fire, allow it to cool a little, then take five or six whites of eggs and beat them well and put them in the syrup. And then again [put] it on the fire and let it boil a little. For the albumen (protein in egg whites), by reason of its viscosity, draws with it all the impurities of the honey or of the sugar and of the herbs, and carries it by floating to the surface of the syrup. Carefully remove and deposit any impurities with a pen or the like, and if this is not sufficiently clarified, it is well cultivated again. And let the albumen be laid down as before.

4. Likewise, the clarified syrup and strained through a cloth where there are crocus and licorice powder will be more clarified and purified. And it must be known that the syrup is clarified so that it is less repulsive. And although it is clarified, it is not more effective because of this, but less. And note that it will never happen that a clear syrup is made from vinegar and sugar unless it is the purest vinegar and white sugar.

Furthermore, it should be noted that syrups, if competently prepared, can be kept for three or four years. And this should be a general rule that every time you give a syrup for digestion or division, it must always be given with warm {water}, whether it is a diuretic or not.

(Comparative virtues of sugar and honey)
Likewise, if sugar syrups are bought from apothecaries, it is to be feared that they are made from red sugar. Therefore, it is better for the doctor and the doctor to make them and buy them from the apothecaries. For red sugar is hotter than honey, and therefore honey is better than it.

But John of Saint Amando says that syrup made with honey is better than syrup made with sugar, and the reason is fourfold:
1 - First, because honey, being viscous, better preserves medicines placed in syrup than sugar, which is a rare composition.
2 - The second is because honey covers the awfulness of medicine better than sugar because honey is sweeter than anything else.
3 - The third is because honey is more purifying than sugar since honey is warm and thus common in the second step and sugar at the end.
4 - The fourth reason is that honey digests better than sugar.
But although syrup made with honey is better for digestion, yet syrup made with sugar is more effective for strengthening and cooling than with honey. But when a syrup is to be made with honey, it is necessary first to purify the new white honey very thoroughly, to which the same amount of water or of some other distilled liquid must be carefully mixed and strained, and the syrup is made. And it must boil less than a syrup made with sugar until it thickens a little.




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Typically I fall in love with a material culture (usually clothing) and learn about the garments, build a wardrobe and then start to learn other information to more fulling try to build out a persona.  This approach rarely gets me very far into the persona building, but I have a great time with what I do craft and learn.

With my SCA Forestry/14th Century project I made an outfit just to get started, and dove right in on the herbs.  Before I go further I am really diving into reading to build a better framework from the ground up.  

To be fair, this is also much easier to research with an aim towards persona building than anything I have done before.  The materials are readily available and mostly in English.  This is entirely unheard of for me, and it is rather refreshing.  

You can view most of my library for this subject matter HERE, though I still do have a few more books to add. 

Below I am going to review two of the items that read this past month that immensely helped me set the stage for the work I plan to keep doing.
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I have three books I am tackling next.  Two are based on the works of the ancient physician Galen (129-216BCE), as this knowledge was still studied and in use in the Middle Ages.  The first is The Alphabet of Galen and the other is Galen: SelectedWorks.  The other book that is currently sitting next to me, just waiting to be picked up is Popular Medicine in the Thirteenth Century England by Tony Hunt.  I hope to review these as I read them as well.  

A Wandering Elf participates in the Amazon Associates program and a small commission is earned on qualifying purchases. This commission allows the purchase of more books!

Before you read the entry below, understand that I am NOT recommending any use of plants with out further research on your part.  I assume no responsibility for what ever dumb mistakes someone else might make.  I know that I can safely consume all items mentioned below because I have researched them (and compared to my own list of allergies, as well as drug allergies) and have safely consumed all items in the past.  Please read this entry on safety HERE.

In my entry here on Mullein, I noted that I wanted to test out Hildegard's cure for soar throats "with pain in the chest".  After harvesting mullein leaves over the last several days, I decided to go ahead and play around with this.

The problem here is that I am fairly certain now that the intention is to use fennel seeds and dried mullein leaves.  My leaves are not yet dry and I did not have seeds here but was able to procure fresh fennel so I figured "what the heck".  

It called for equal measure of the two plant items to be cooked in "good wine" and consumed often.  It does not, however give quantities for any of those items.  I also wondered, when I first read this, if measure for apothecaries in period was more commonly by weight or volume.  Eventually came across some recipes that called for spoonfuls of various things and that at least let me know that in some cases it was by volume.

I opted to make a single cup of wine with a tablespoon each of the two plants.  I chose these proportions based on modern recipes for mullein tea that make use of fresh, rather than dried, plants.  I simmered the chopped fennel and leaves for 15 minutes and let continue to steep as it cooled for another ten.  I strained it through a damp linen cloth into a cup.  In the photos I show it in a clear cup so that the color can be seen as well.

Regarding wine, when I first started looking into these things and noticed that so many recipes called for wine (yay!) I was wondering out loud on Facebook about what type of wine was available.  Some folks chimed in that old wine was used for medicinal concoctions, but I notice that many recipes specifically call for "good wine".  Further research also showed me that depending on the resources that someone in 14th century England had, there was a wide variety of wine available, both white and red, in many types.  English produced wine was white, imported could be either, and I saw that sweet wines were also imported from Greece and elsewhere.

The wine was still clear after the addition of the herbs and only had a slight herbal smell.  The taste was not unpleasant, and as you swallowed it you got a better sense of the herbs in it.  I think, lol, that my wine was starting to turn as it was more sour than it should be and that only increased with cooking.  The concoction was interesting, and I wish I had thought of making this two weeks ago when I did, in fact, have a sore throat.  

I will be procuring fennel seed soon and can repeat this experiment with the dried plant matter as I believe was intended in period.

​The Old English Herbarium has Mullien having such properties as rendering someone carrying it fearless in face of terror or if approached by wild beasts (Medieval Herbal Remedies, p181).  Another use is as a cure for gout that is rendered by bruising the leaves and placing the plant on the sore spot whereafter the patient will be able to walk in a few hours.  


This leads me to something I have been wondering since the outset of this project.  Often there is nothing to distinguish whether a plant might be needed fresh or dried for it to be deemed useful. This has led me to wonder if some remedies were only available in the summer.  For this example, that the leaves need to be bruised is key.  That indicates a fresh plant.  Fortunately for medieval people, the leaves of the first year plants often remain green in the winter (second year will dry up after flowering).

n her work, Hildegard notes that Mullien cooked with meat and “no other seasoning” and eaten often will strengthen the heart and make one happy.  For a hoarse voice or soar throat with pain in the chest, cook the Mullien with an equal amount of fennel in good wine, straining through a cloth and drinking often. (p115)

As mentioned before, the book Leechcraft discusses possible confusion with this plan an a variety of others.  It notes that an early English plant named “molin” is another item that could be our modern Mullien, and that this plant had sedative properties and was used widely for centuries for coughs and diarrhea and as lamp wicks.  (P142)

That last is one thing that I have read over and over in folklore or entries online for this plant.  This fascinates me.  I have seen references to it being used by miners in the US as torches, by ancient Roman’s to light the way in funeral processions and it being supposedly used by witches.  None of these sources were particularly academic, but I still am very intrigued.  I have seen it mentioned that they are dipped in tallow, wax or oil to produce the Mullien torch.  I have collected some stalks and plan to test them with both beeswax and olive oil.  The hope is to test these out at some point this week.

I also have gathered some leaves and will be drying them to add to the apothecary that I am building.
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Persona Summary:

• This plant existed in 14th Century England, though the English sources are ambiguous as to which plant is which where this is concerned.  It was used and noted elsewhere so it is quite possibly something that would have been known
• Plausible foraged or cultivated medicinal source (add to my personal apothecary)

Projects:

• Test out how well the flower stalks work as torches
• Test out Hildegard's recipes for both sore throat and as an additive to meat merely to see how the concoctions taste: COMPLETE.  You can see the post about this HERE. 

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List of Resources can be found HERE

I am continuing to build out my Forester kit.  As I read more about the 14th Century, I am fleshing out bits of the persona, and have chosen 1450ish as my time period.  Initially I thought I would go a little earlier, but I didn’t want the first round of the Great Plague to land on me (given that I am still living the current plague), so am opting for just past that catastrophe.

As noted before, my location will the the Forest of Galtres in Yorkshire.  My persona is educated and had studied with an uncle in London to be an apothecary before opening a shop in York.  He was recalled to the family manor in the forest to take up the work of Forester there as the other male members of the family were taken by the plague.  The family is not noble, but has a well-to-do estate and also owns an apothecary in York.

So far for my kit I have created wool tunic and undertunic which you can read more about HERE.  Because I was originally planning to be a little earlier, I am now going to bring up the hemline just a touch on this tunic, as well as the cobalt linen one that I made for warmer weather.

As you can see here the Chausses are finished and I have made two pairs of braies and purchased third.  I am not entirely happy with the two I made, so will need to revise those.  

After wearing the chausses for an evening, the thick stretched out immensely, so I want to alter those and properly add eyelets for the points.

I made a linen hood as a prototype and have wool to make another that will be lined with linen.  I dyed some additional cloth to make a Bocksten cloak as well.

The next tunic will have set-in sleeves, but will otherwise be very similar.  I want another set of chausses as well, and I might pattern them a bit differently too. 

At Pennsic I purchased 14th century boots that you can see here.  Next up will be a belt (I am wearing my Viking one here), for which I have already purchased the hardware.  Eventually a pouch will be made or purchased.  And I need to research proper garters.  These are merely wool twill tape.  I do love the red against the green though, so might stick with that color for this item.

I also have a passable drinking cup.  I am going to start collecting some appropriate cookware as well, and am working on building out a period fire-starting kit.

And yes, still more herbs!  I have projects planned and the research is ongoing and I have to say that I am immensely enjoying all of this!

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Bramble shoots and leaves can produce yellow, tan and light olive dyes, with there is enough tannin to use them without alum as a mordant (or they can be used as a source of tannin for mordant).  Supposedly, using alum will yield a more yellow dye.  (Heritage of color, 124). I think I might want to test dyeing with brambles (and also checking for colorfastness).
 
Black berries appear in a recipe for Pears in a Greek-Wine Syrup in The Medieval Kitchen as a recipe from Italy.  I wish I had seen this earlier when I still had plenty here, but I might opt to get some frozen ones to test this out!


The Old English Herbarium lists a tea of blackberry leaves to stop diarrhea.  In addition to that, it recommends pounding the plant (when soft) and pound it, then drip juice into the ear to heal it and lessen pain.  Another recipe is for taking 3 times 7 ripe berries and simmer it down in water by 2/3rds and give it to a woman to drink on an empty stomach for three days to help her menstrual flow.  There is also a rather interesting one for heart pain, where one takes the leaves and pounds them and yes, lay them on the left nipple to relieve pain. (It’s no wonder that mortality rates were so high!).  Flowers could be used on fresh wounds to allow them to heal.  Joint pain is soothed by simmering the plant down in wine by 2/3rds and bathing the joints.  And because we always need to know how to cure snakebites, pound the leaves and lay them on the bite.  (Medieval Herbal Remedies, 187)

Hildegarde (p146) has a rather interesting cure for a ulcer of the tongue, where one lances it with a bramble to let the bile flow out.  This also was believed to work by lanching the gums near a sore tooth.  If worms are eating the flesh, brambles can be pulverized and placed where the worms are active.
 
More exciting, I read that Hildegard had a recipe for chest cough or pain of the lungs.  “take feverfew, a little less bramble, less hyssop than bramble, and even less oregano add honey and cook in good strong wine, strain and drink moderately after eating.  After they are full of food, drink more.  Do this often to carry mucus away from the chest.”  These plants are safe enough that I plan to brew up this concoction to see how it tastes.  She also notes that they berry does no harm, but has no medicine. 
 
Lacununga has a recipe that involves the leaves of the bramble in curing of black blain (a blain being some sort of infection or pustule).  From Leechcraft (p101):
 
“If the black blain ails a man, then coarse salt shall be taken; burn it on a linen cloth, as much as an eff, then grind the salt very small; then take three eggs’s yolk; whip it strongly together and lay it on for six nights; then take earthnavel, and groundsel, and cabbage leaf, and old fat; pound it all together and lay it on for three nights; then take yarrow and groundself and bramble leaf and clean bacon; pound them together and lay them on; it shall soon be better for him, until he be healthy; and no liquid must come to it, except that from those plants themselves.” (p217)
 
This work also gives us a recipe involving the berries:
“The illness when one sweats greatly is called cardiacus: for that one must make purgative drinks, and make poultices on the front of the head and on his chest: take rue’s green leaves, shred them small and pound them greatly; and sift barley meal and add to it, and sweetened vinegar, make it into a poultice and put it in a thick cloth and bind it on {the patient} for three nights and three days; then put a fresh one on; and let the sick man drink often of the crushed bramble berries.” (p185) 

Of course, I ate many examples of these berries this summer.  There is some overlap in season so at one point I was able to grab three types all at once.

I also experimented with a plausible medievalish "pancake" that I made for a vigil at Pennsic.  This was an oat and barley honey pancake, topped with honeyed yogurt (I could not get plain skyr at War), and for my test batch I made a reduction of mixed berries with wine.  At Pennsic I served cloudberry jam on the pancakes for a more Scandinavian style of dessert.  Cloudberries are another type of lobed berries that grow further north that are quite wonderful!
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Persona Summary:

• Some types of brambles and berries would very likely be known to a 14th Century Forester in England
• The understood properties in period might have been something that person had come across
• Plausible foraged food source, could be gathered for cooking or just to eat as one comes across them

Projects:

• Consume on sight (ongoing while they last)
• Test out Hildegard's recipe for cough medication

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List of Resources can be found HERE

This year I finally managed to attend the Weed Walk!  It was lovely and very informative.  I knew many of the plants but got to learn about many new ones as well.  The tour of Pennsic plants included several types of clover, bird's foot trefoil, soapwort, broadleaf plaintain, wood sorrel, poke berry, crown vetch, thistle, golden rod, milkweed, coltsfoot, creeping charlie, elderberry, red dock, jewelweed, swamp vervain, boneset, white clover, iron weed, yarrow, golden rod, horsetail, heal all, skunk cabbage, Indian pipe and a few I am likely forgetting.

I love learning how to better identify plants in the wild, and hope over this next year to learn more about their uses in the Middle Ages.  I want to see these bits of nature as a 14th century person would have viewed them and better understand their value from that respect.  Hoping to start building out my own database of information from various sources that my persona might have studied in period.

I am trying to approach my Forestry project not just as "here is how to build a fire", but "how would this forester have lived in period".  What was this person's life like?  What was their day?  What did they live in and eat?

I am, of course, learning all sorts of things along the way, particularly regarding local plants (and how they were used in period).  One thing that has really struck home is the very narrow window of availability of many things.  

Weeks ago I envisioned crafting a pottage with young broadleaf plantain leaves, the last of the wild garlic mustard and turnips.  What I did not realize then is how quickly the garlic mustard would disappear.  Likewise with the cleavers.

I would have made this earlier, but I had intended to do it over a fire in a lovely clay pot I purchased for that purpose, and there simply has been no time.  I realized that the turnips are still sitting here, so I went out tonight and gathered young plantain leaves. Many of the plants have already developed their seed stalks, but there are still much younger ones a plenty.  You can see my documentation for use of this plant in this fashion HERE. 

So I gathered those leaves, a few leaves of kale from my garden as well as parsley and cooked up a pottage.  I started with a bit of butter and a shallot.  Onions and shallots could be stored and were available for use at times other than "in season". I started this way because I am allergic to undercooked onion and I wanted to be dead certain this was fully cooked.  

Turnips also could be stored, and early spring turnips could be available at this time of year as well.  I parboiled these as mentioned in Forme of Cury and drained them. 

I used a store bought chicken stock as my base.  My goal here is not peasant food, but rather, less formal food, and I feel stock would not be unreasonable if a chicken formed part of a former meal.

Parsley I have in abundance in my garden, and kale... well, I am pretty sure this stuff never dies and would survive a nuclear war and I have excess so chose to make use of it as part of this dish.  I opted for the older, tough leaves that would be less pleasant in a salad. 

The only other thing I added was a little salt.  I have to say that this is quite delicious, and very "comfort food" in a way.  I wish that I had a nice loaf of bread to consume with it (which I might go obtain for when I have this for lunch tomorrow).

When I did the research on Cleavers (awanderingelf.weebly.com/a-wandering-elf-in-the-woods/wild-plants-cleavers-galium-aparine), I noted that I had pulled plenty to dry to attempt to stuff a cushion for the wooden chair I use at events.  The plant is completely dry and I made the cushion from scrap linen in my stash last night.  Tonight I stuffed it and discovered that it takes quite a bit more than I expected and it only filled the pillow halfway.  The dried plant smells quite delightful, but I did spend a bit of time picking the little hitchhikers off my clothing after stuffing.

This was fine because I also have in my stash a bin of junk wool fibre.  This is wool that is the byproduct from combing and also some that felted too much when I washed it.  I added a layer of that on top of the cleavers and it seems about perfect (and Layla agrees).  I look forward to testing it out myself when she is finished.
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wood This one is always a favorite of mine in the spring and I have been consuming these delights since I was a kid so I needed no expert method of identification from a book.  Even The Herbalist note that it is “so well known in the United States it requires no description” (p138). Some years the yard here is blanketed with them that the grass appears to have a pattern of red dots.  When we first got this place there were so many that I saved and dried a number of them and when I made tea that winter I would add a spoonful of them to my black tea to add sweetness and spring flavor.

Wiki kindly supplied me with a link documenting this plant as far back as the Mesolithic period (LINK) and beyond (and also, incidentally documents it to the British Isles for me).  This is listed in Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs and the entry confirms that in addition to leaves and fruit, the roots are useful as well (p52).  One of the uses includes the root being used as a chewing stick (toothbrush), which is something I find fascinating and plan to look into further.  A tea of the plant can also be used as an external wash for sunburn.


At this point, I want to be clear that the point of this journal is not to collect information on modern usage for plants.  This project is directly related to the SCA and, more specifically, to a Forester persona I am developing.  Beyond that, I do not consider myself an expert and it is not, in my opinion, relevant to discuss modern medical usage to any great extent within the context of the SCA (in fact, this is wisely even forbidden at some events).  So while I am reading all of that information as I work through the weeds in my yard, I am only noting modern things that I find particularly interesting and will be focusing largely on historic uses that are applicable to my persona’s life.


I did not realize until today that there are two variants of this plant, the common strawberry and the wood strawberry.  The one that covers my yard is wood strawberry, based on the large central leaf tooth as described by the US Forest Service (LINK). 

There is a warning in the Lesley Bremness’s book, Herbs, notes that that leaves must first be dried before being brewed into a tea to avoid toxins, but I have not seen this elsewhere (p172).  If I were to save this plant for future use, it would be dried anyways, but I would still do further looking into this caution were I to do so.

Now regarding period usage, Hildegard noted that they grow too close to the ground and are not good for healthy or sick persons and that both the herb and fruit bring on mucus (p147).  Would someone living in an area where this amply grows have stopped using this useful, tasty and nutritious food source?  I think not given that it appears to have been known in the Tudor period as a delightful dessert.  (LINK)  Further, the Old English Herbarium lists the fruit as having laxative properties and an infusion of the leaves being a remedy for dysentery, which is a rather interesting paradox (p156).

Persona Summary:

• This plant was likely known to a 14th Century Forester in England
• The understood properties in period might have been something that person had come across
• Plausible foraged food source, could be gathered for cooking or just to eat as one comes across them

Projects:

• Consume on sight (ongoing while they last)
• Dig up a root to see how it can function as a 'chewing stick'
  

List of Resources can be found HERE