​Disclaimer: I am an amateur at woodscraft and herblore.  Nothing below should be taken as advice or recommendations.  I am merely experimenting.  Please do your own research before consuming or using any plant for medicinal purposes.
 
When I was young we called the fruit of this plant Hitchhikers because they would hitch a ride on your pant legs. This plant has also been called Goosegrass, Cleaverwort and Catchweed.  Another term for it is Bedstraw and it is related to both Lady’s Bedstraw and Madder which produce red dyes.

The plant is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia, and has been naturalized in North America and elsewhere.  

I can honestly say, that despite being very familiar with Lady’s Bedstraw as a dyeing agent, I never actually made the connection between the name and the historic use of using these plants as stuffing in mattresses and cushions.  But while walking in part of the yard that was completely full of this plant, I realized that the loftiness that it creates when locked together would be pretty brilliant for that purpose.  I read in a few online sources that it was believed that the Virgin Mary used this plant as bedding for her son in the manger.  I cannot find anything to verify how long people have believed that, but did discover that the plant is native to that region so I guess it is plausible?  I have already gathered a fair amount of this from the yard and coiled it into small nests as I pulled it and plan to stuff a cushion with it once they have died out.
 
Peterson’s Guide to Edible plants states that this plant is edible, preferably the young shoots added to salads or boiled for 10-15 minutes. (p50)  The most impressive part though is that this plant is related to coffee.  Those pesky seeds (once they are dry on the stem) can apparently be roasted and ground to create a very coffee-like brew that even has some caffeine.  While I have found nothing to suggest that that is period at all, I do plan to test it out later this summer once the seeds have matured.  The guide for medicinal use (p50) states that among other things, it was historically used for kidney inflammation and stones and that it was used for scurvy as well (which makes sense given that there is citric acid in it).

​The warnings I most often see for this one is that some individuals can get contact dermatitis from this juice of the plant.

​The Old English Herbarium (10-11th Century) recommends mixing the juice from this plant with wine to cure spider or snake bites and to drip the juice in the ear for an earache. 

Turner’s Herbal (1551CE) as well as other sources mention this plant’s use as a strainer for milk in the country, to clear it of straw or other items that might fall into it.  THAT has a very viable possibility as a future project as well. 
 
Knowing that this comes from the madder family, and seeing the numerous sources online that claim the older roots do indeed serve as a source of red dye, I immediately thought that that could become another project for this plant.  Sadly, as I was pulling this plant in the yard I discovered that not a single one brought up the roots when pulled.  The base of the stem is thin and weak and just pulled off.  To obtain roots one would have to dig for them and I don’t know that really would make it a reasonably period source for the dye given that it is supposed to be much weaker than Lady’s Bedstraw.  If I can collect some, I might still try it, but I am no longer eyeing that up as a possibility.
 
Despite the numerous historic or modern uses, I am convinced that this plant actually only serves one purpose in the universe, and that is for me to spend over half the year pulling those hitchhikers off of this guy’s undercarriage.

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, potentially used in pottages and the like
• It is possible that home goods such as cushions or mattresses could have been stuffed with this plant matter

Projects:

• Dry the plant and stuff a cushion with it to test out (Completed and can be seen HERE )
• Add the greens to a pottage
• Craft a sieve for straining liquids
• Roast the seeds when dry to make ‘coffee’ (modern, but I have to try it, lol)

​List of Resources can be found HERE

My list of resources for plants, plantlore and medicine for this project is below.  I will keep this sheet updated, and add the link to each blog post as needed. (UPDATED: September 19, 2022.)

Abu-Asab, Mones and Hakima Amri. Avicenna’s Medicine: A New Translation, Healing Arts Press, 2013.

Abu-Arab, Mones.  Avicenna’s Single Drugs, Healing Arts Press, 2020.

Anglo-Norman Dictionary, University of Aberystwyth. https://anglo-norman.net/anglo-norman.net/
 
Arsdall, Anne Van. Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine, Routledge, 2010.

Backx-de Groot, Githa. "Historical overview of herbal medicine from ancient to modern times", Utrecht University, 2013.

Biggam, Carole. "Magic and Medicine - Early Medieval Plant-Name Studies", Leeds Studies in English, University of Leeds, 2013.
 
Black, Maggie. The Medieval Cookbook, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012.

Blunt, Wilfrid and Sandra Raphael. The Illustrated Herbal (Manuscripts), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.
 
Bremness, Lesley. Herbs, Dorling Kindersley, 1994.

Burnett, John. "The Giustiani Medicine Chest", Medical History, Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Cholmely, H. P. John of Gaddesden, Clarendon Press, 1912.
 
Collins, Minta. Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Tradtions, The British Library, 2000.

Cogliati Arano, Luisa. The Medieval Health Handbook – Tacuinum Sanitatis, George Brazukker, Inc, 1976.

Dauncey, Elizabeth A. and Sonny Larsson. Plants that Kill, Princeton University Press, 2016.
 
Dave’s Garden, Plant Files, davesgarden.com
 
Dictionary of Old English Plant Names, 2007-2022. http://oldenglish-plantnames.org/preface
 
Dean, Jenny. A Heritage of Color, Search Press, 2014.
 
Dendle, Peter and Alain Touwaide. Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden, The Boydell Press, 2008.

De Vos, Paula. "European Materia Medica in Historical Texts: Longevity of a Tradition and Implications for Future Use", Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2010.
 
Everett, Nicholas. The Alphabet of Galen, University of Toronto Press, 2012.

Fitch, John G. On Simples, Attributed to Dioscorides, Brill, 2022.
 
Frantzen, Allen J. Food, Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England, The Boydell Press, 2014.

Getz, Faye M. Healing and Society in Medieval England, University of Wisconsin Press, 2010.
 
Hoffman, David.  The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal, Element, 1996.
 
Kiple, Kenneth F. The Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
 
Kiple, Kenneth F. The Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Galen (translation by P.N. Singer). Galen, Selected Works, Oxford University Press, 1997.

Getz, Faye. Healing and Society in Medieval England: A Middle English translation of the pharmaceutical writings of Gilbertus Anglicanus, University of Wisconsin Press, 2010.
 
Greco, Gina L and Christine M. Rose. The Good Wife’s Guide, Cornell University Press, 2009.

Green, Monica H. The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 2001.

Hall, Alaric. "Madness, Medication - and Self-Induced Hallucination? Elleborous (and Woody Nightshare) in Anglo-Saxon England, 700-900", Magic and Medicine: Early Medieval Plant-Name Studies, University of Leeds, 2013.
 
Henisch, Bridget A. The Medieval Cook, The Boydell Press, 2009.

Henslow, G. Medical Works of the 14th Century, London, Chapman & Hall, 1899.
 
Hoffman, David.  The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal, Element, 1996.
 
Hozeski, Bruce W.  Hildegarde’s Healing Plants from her Medieval Classic Physica, Beacon Press Books, 2001.

Hunt, Tony.  Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England,  Boydell & Brewer, 1990.

Hunt, Tony. Plant Names of Medieval England, D.S. Brewer, 1989.

Hunt, Tony. Three Receptaria from Medieval England, The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages at Oxford, 2001.

Landsberg, Sylvia. The Medieval Garden, University of Toronto Press, 2003.

Lang, S. J. "The 'Philomena' of John Bradmore and its Middle English Derivative: A Perspecitve on Surgery in Late Medieval England", University of St. Andrews, 1998.

Luft, Diana. Medieval Welsh Medical Texts, University of Wales Press, 2020.

Loen-Marshall, Maria Helena. An Edition of English Texts in the British Library MS Sloane 3285, University of Glasgow, 2005.
 
Lonicer, Adam. Kreuterbuch, kunstliche Conterfeytunge der Bäume, Stauden, Kreuter, Getreyde, Gewürtze, was printed in Franfort by Christian Engenolph, 1587.  (Additional versions of this book were still being printed into the 18th century.)
 
Mabey, Richard and Michael McIntyre. The New Age Herbalist, Collier Books, 1998.

Mäkinen, Martii. "Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals", University of Helsinki, 2006.
 
Matterer, James L. Tacuinum Sanitatis in “Gode Cookery”, 2009.  http://www.godecookery.com/tacuin/tacuin.htm
 
McKerracher, Anglo-Saxon Crops and Weeds, Archaeopress Publishing, 2019
 
Meyer, J. E. The Herbalist, Meyer, 1960.

Middle English Compendium, University of Michigan, 2022. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary

Mirrione, Claudia. "Theory and Terminology of Mixture in Galen", University of Berlin, 2017
 
Mount, Toni. Medieval Medicine, Amberley Publishing, 2016.
 
Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, Touchstone, 2008.
 
National Audubon Society.  National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Knopf, 2001.

Niles, John and Maria A. D'Aronoco. Medical Writings from Early Medieval England, Harvard University Press, 2023.

Norri, Juhani. Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary in English, 1375-1550, Ashgate, 2016. 

Obaldeston, Tess Ann (Editor), Pedanius Dioscorides (Author), Dioscorides: De Materia Medica, Ibidus Press, 2000.

Paavilainen, Helena M. Medieval Pharmacotherapy: Continuity and Change, Brill, 2009.
 
Pavord, Anna. The Naming of Names, Bloomsbury USA, 2005. 

Peterson, Lee and Roger Tory Peterson.  A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America, Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
 
Petrides, George A. and Janet Wehr.  Peterson Guides - A Field Guide to Eastern Trees: Eastern United States and Canada, Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
 
Pettit, Edward Thomas.  A critical edition of the Old English Lacnunga in BL MS Harley 585, King’s College London, 1996.
 
Plantnet.org.  Plant identification application.
 
Pollington, Stephen.  Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healting, Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011.
 
Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus (4th Century CE), 1428-1500, Publisher - Johannes Philippus de Lignamine, 1428-1500.  Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/365881
 
Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus (4th Century CE), Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1431, 1070-1100, Canterbury, Digital Bodleian. https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/98127ed0-4bde-41e0-a93a-98a185b01de8/surfaces/3ec57965-769e-4ed2-8573-16fe862c7d49/ 

​Redon, et. al. The Medieval Kitchen – Recipes from France and Italy, University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Reed, Zsuzsanna Papp. "'Other Plants I Can't Name for You in English': The Plant Composition of Monastic Herb Gardens in Late Medieval England".

Singer, P.N. and Philip J. van der Eijk. Galen: Works on Human Nature - Volume 1 - Mixtures, Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Di Gennaro Splendore, B. (2021). The Triumph of Theriac, Nuncius, 36(2), 431-470, Brill.

Storm Hindley, Katherine. Textual Magic, University of Chicago Press, 2023. 
 
Sullivan, Karen. The Complete Family Guide to Natural Home Remedies, Element, 1997.
 
Touwaide, Alain and Peter Dendle. Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden, 2008.

Trease, G. E. and J. H. Hodson. "The inventory of John Hexham, a 15th Century Apothecary", Medical History, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
 
The Tudor Pattern Book, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1504.
 
Wagner, Charles, et al. "Celtic Provenance in Traditional Herbal Medicine of Medieval Wales and Classical Antiquity", Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2020.

Weil, Martha S. Magiferous Plants in Medieval English Herbalism, University of Michigan, 1972

Wildflower.org. Plant Database, The University of Texas at Austin.

Zupko, Ronald Edward. "Medieval Apothecary Weights and Measures: The Principal Units of England and France", Pharmacy in History, Volume 32, Number 2, University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. JStore Link.

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Salve is complete and setting up!  I cannot wait to test it out.

I was impatient so instead of soaking it in oil for days, I chopped the vegetable matter rather fine and added it to double boiler and brought it up to 100-110 degrees F for several hours (several times over the course of a day).  I then strained the weeds out and added beeswax until it melted.  I have not yet explored far enough to know if heat was a viable method for extractions or not, but it seems reasonable that a container could be placed near a cooking fire to work in a similar fashion.

​Apparently I now also have a use for some of the terrible pottery I made last spring!

Note that various publications warn that both of these items can cause contact dermatitis in some individuals so testing use before liberal application is advised.

​Disclaimer: I am an amateur at woodscraft and herblore.  Nothing below should be taken as advice or recommendations.  I am merely experimenting.  Please do your own research before consuming or using any plant for medicinal purposes.
 
When I was talking about chickweed last week a friend who is an avid hiker and who has decades of experience with natural remedies and body products pointed out that Broadleaf Plantain is an even better way to remove the itch from chigger bites. 

I remember this plant from when I was a kid.  We would pull the seed laden stems and use our thumbnails up the stem to fling the beads off of it.  I did not have to go far here (literally, right out the back door) to find it some here.
 
To start, yes, this plant is native to Europe and existed in England in period.  This is even listed in several SCA-period manuscritps, including The Tudor Pattern Book (Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1504) and in several versions of the Herbarium of Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus.

​Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Herbs and Plants (p102) lists a variety of uses for this weed (which was brought to the US from Europe) and confirms other things I have read or been told about it being useful for minor cuts and insect bites.  The note that I found interesting is that it is confirmed as being anti-microbial as well. 

Historically, this was also thought to be a cute for snakebites but alas, that is unfounded.

The Medieval Garden lists this plant as an edible weed that could be used in pottages (p31) and this plant was in a list of medicinal plants (p81) listed by Jon Gardner’s The Feate of Gardening (c. 1350 or 1450 depending on source) as being commonly grown for medicinal purposes. 
 
The Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants confirms edibility, and recommends also that the plant be cooked completely unless the plant is very young (p46).  It notes that as the plant ages that it gets stringy.  This is of interest because I noticed when pulling the leaves that the larger ones had fibres in the core that had some stretch to them.  A couple of online sources noted that these could be extracted and spun for cordage.  Because of the squat size of these plants I feel that would be more than a fair bit of work, but it might not stop me from trying to process these fibres once the plants are more fully grown.
 
Most exciting is the number of items listed for Plantain in the translation of the Old English Herbarium in Medieval Herbal Remedies (p142-144).  This includes bandaging the roots to the head to relieve headache, drinking juice of the plant for stomachache, rid intestinal parasires or to stop rectal bleeding, cure for several types of fever, eating it to relieve swelling of the abdomen, ground seeds applied to wounds, crushed into wine it is a remedy for snakebite or scorpion and a poultice can apparently cure “hard lumps” on the body.  And there are more, including mixing it in wine then drinking the wine and eating the leaves to cure any type of internal infirmity.
 
One that is of particular interest to me as it could possibly be applicable to a Forester’s work is that plantain mixed into vinegar and smeared on the feet will relieve swelling from a journey.

At this moment, I have on the stove chickweed and plantain leaves in olive oil that I am working into a salve for itches and bites.  Hopefully I will have photos of this to share tomorrow.

​Note that various publications warn that this plant can cause contact dermatitis in some individuals so testing use before liberal application is advised.

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, potentially used in pottages and the like

Projects:

• Test the plant as a poultice on bites
  • Completed - effective at relieving the itching for 30-40 minutes
• Add the greens to a pottage
• Create a salve with chickweed to use on scrapes or bites
  • Completed - Further information HERE

​​
​
​List of Resources can be found HERE

​Disclaimer: I am an amateur at woodscraft and herblore.  Nothing below should be taken as advice or recommendations.  I am merely experimenting.  Please do your own research before consuming or using any plant for medicinal purposes.
 
The plague, and working from home, has given me a unique opportunity to watch the land around me change from year to year.  Several years ago, the invasive Japanese Stiltgrass was the dominant ground cover here, especially near my garden.  Last year, it was Cleavers (which I will talk more about soon).  This year, it is Chickweed.  There is a thick carpet of it everywhere on the top of this hill and I do not ever recall seeing it in this location before.

Research tells me that this will die off as soon as summer rolls in, but I pulled most of it from around the garden now, and will be pulling more for some experiments over the next few days.
 
The name comes from the fact that apparently chickens love to eat this plant, and the Old English form of the name is ‘cicene mete’ (chicken meat).  The plant is found in association with archaeological digs from the Saxon period in England (McKerracher, Anglo-Saxon Crops and Weeds, 2019).  I will note that the internet states that it initially flourished in Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere over time, but I am not going that deep into the ultimate origins for these things.  There is evidence of the plant from the Coppergate site at York. (Leechcraft, 107) I am looking mainly to see if they would be period for my Forester persona (14th Century England), and clearly it is.

​As I mentioned in my last post, I am very diligent about safety with plants that I am only working with for the first time.  Several sources recommended that you can identify by the flowers (five petals split so deeply that it looks like 10), a broken stem does NOT have milky sap and looking for a line of fine hairs running up the stem on one side (and it shifts position between sets of leaves).  This plant matched numerous photos in books and online and all of the criteria above.

So Chickweed is edible (not recommended for pregnant women) both raw or cooked and supposedly is rather nutritious (and high in iron).  Tonight I incorporated it into my salad, and also plan to eventually sautee a bit in butter to sample.
 
Another relevant thing that I learned this week is that chiggers (Trombicula alfreddugesi), the menace of the region where I am in the US, apparently have a close relative that lives in England that has the common name Harvest Mite (Neotrombicula autumnalis).  Chigggers eat me alive in the late spring/summer, and I am starting to see the wisdom of hosen and braies for my forestry project.  Yes, it is May 17 and I have my first three bites already.

These bites will be a weeks-long-pain but, they also give me the opportunity to try out a medical application of Chickweed!  Supposedly it can be chewed a few times and placed on an itchy bite to relieve the itch.  This would be exceptionally practical in the field if the pests managed to skirt the well-covering clothing of the 14th century.  Additionally, a poultice can be made with oil and I might attempt a salve later this week if I can track down my beeswax.
 
So, the Chickweed smells and tastes like fresh mown grass.  It is not unpleasant, but I would not want to eat mouthfuls by itself.  A bit in a salad is pleasant and adds a crunch like sprouts do.  I rough chopped some and ground with a mortar and pestle and it produces a very stringy mass and a rich green liquid.  In the future, I would more finely chop this up (or use a food processor but I am pretty sure that is not period, lol).  I pressed some onto the first bite and it was very cooling and by the time it fell off a minute or so later, the itch had subsided.  Now to see how long the effect lasts.  (ETA, it lasts about 40 minutes.  I only get an hour of relief from Benedryl gel, so that is not bad!)

​I added a bit of vinegar (apple cider because it was the closest thing at that moment) and ground it a bit longer and added that to the second bite.  It held on a bit longer than the first application and had a similar, and possibly slightly better, effect.  Finally, I chewed a bit of the plant and applied that to the third bite.  It held the best and had a similar effect to the first application.

I also heated some water, soaked the plants for about 5 minutes and then ground them up with the mortar and pestle. This concoction was much more sticky and very easily stayed on the bite for a good 5 minutes.  Adding a bit of olive oil (my choices here for fats are butter, olive oil and canola oil and cats would be licking off the butter so I went with the olive) made it cling even more so.  The initial result was that these also stopped the itching but the results did not seem to last nearly as long as the unheated version.
 
I have some more books on the way and am hoping to better learn if any of these plants are mentioned, along with their period uses, in historic sources.  I read from a very tertiary source that this particular plant was also part of medieval gardens, but do not have enough knowledge in that field to know yet if that is true or not.  An article from 2014 in The Telegraph mentions that the book The Medieval Garden (S. Landsberg) references chickweed being added to the cooking pot.  I have a copy coming so look forward to seeing what all is included in that work.

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 food source, potentially used in pottages and the like

Projects:

• Test the plant as a poultice on bites
  • Completed - effective at relieving the itching for 30-40 minutes
• Add the greens to a pottage
• Add greens to a salad
  • ​Completed - tastes like grass but adds nice texture
• Create a salve with chickweed to use on scrapes or bites
  • Completed - Further information HERE

​List of Resources can be found HERE 

30+ years ago I was very, very into herblore and medicinal uses for plants.  This had nothing to do with the SCA at the time (as I had not even joined yet), but my Granny had a couple of ancient pamphlets about uses for herbs and that got me rolling.  A trip with my family to a massive craft fair in Ohio led me to a Mennonite booth that sold herbs of all sorts (medicinal and culinary) and I bought up all of the things that I had read about and for the next five or so years maintained a nice collection.  Admittedly, I collected more than I used any of it, but I loved learning about it all.

My approach then was to learn about herbs and then source them from suppliers.  For my SCA Forestry project, I am going to focus, at this time, on local plants that I can see growing in the wild, learning to identify and then discover the uses (both modern and historic) if I do not already know them. 

One thing that always has fascinated me in the SCA is learning about things I find to be utterly common (such as the poison ivy mentioned earlier in this blog or common, and deeply loved, foods like potatoes) would have been unheard of for my persona in period.  So a large part of this, for me, will involve comparing my world to that of my 14th Century Forester persona's.

I will note that I am overly cautious about plants that I did not deliberately grow myself.  When I am identifying a plant, I make use of several books that I already own (and have ordered a few more) and a number of websites to make absolutely sure that what I think I have is what I actually have.  I never check with less than 5 sources and prefer those that point out very clear identifiers to help confirm a plant.  I also look to see if there are look-a-likes that are harmful and triple check to make sure I didn't stumble on that weed instead.  

Safety has to come first.

I am fortunate that I have very few allergies to contend with in this field.  This makes wild edibles a somewhat safe game for me.  If you are unfortunately enough to have a number of plant allergies (or drug allergies), I highly recommend that you learn what wild plants might be related to those items before testing anything yourself.

And safety is even more important when talking about herbal remedies.  There is more to it than knowing about whether a plant is poison or not (or in what quantities it becomes harmful).  Herbal medicines can interact with your modern drugs (or each other) in negative ways, and can create harmful side effects or lessen the functionality of your prescribed medication.  If you have drug allergies, you need to verify that a plant does not have the same or similar components to those things you cannot take.  I have a great personal example of this in that I am allergic to NSAIDS.  All of them.  They crash out my kidney function if I take even the smallest dose of the least of them (baby aspirin).  I would be rich if I had $10 for every time I said "I cannot take NSAIDS" and some utter idiot (yes, I said it) recommended White Willow to me for arthritis.

Don't listen to the idiots on the internet about these things.  Do your research, triple check everything, and take care when consuming wild plants or herbal medicines.  I am going to get off my soapbox now and go back to figuring out what is growing in my yard.

We were glamping this weekend so most of my SCA work was funneled into geeky conversations with friends and continuing to finish up the seams on the brown wool tunic.  I need to state here that I really hate running stitch.  I like earlier period where it is appropriate to pretty much avoid it entirely.

But, last week I also mostly finished my chausses that I dyed myself, got the cloth dyed for the hood and cut out the braies!  As I finalize things I will be adding them here.

Today I also continued to uproot more poison ivy and yet more garlic mustard.

​And I made a new friend.  Lol

Because this plant is damaging to the environment, I started pulling it up by the roots where ever I found it in the woods here last year.  I removed huge piles of it (and ate huge piles as well, usually sauteed with spinach or other greens from my garden).  My efforts did do at least some good, as I was able to cut the amount that sprang up this year in half.  Onward with this year's weeding!

I uprooted a fair bit of garlic mustard today, and also collected some to add to ingredients from my garden for some cheese and herb hand pies.  My thoughts are that a Forester who rode out to survey his territory every morning would be taking a meal with him so I thought I would both used this foraged item (which was available in medieval Europe) and incorporate it into a portable food source.  Note that this project today is less about redacting a truly medieval recipe, than it is about eradicating a plant that is damaging to the local environment (read more HERE), and making use of a foraged item (as well as random leftovers foraged from my fridge, lol).

So, to that end, I made hand pies that I might craft again when I have the opportunity to do a garbed woods walk with friends.  For the filling I used 6oz of cream cheese (softened), and chopped up two small fronds of parsley, a handful of large spinach leaves, a few chives and the leaves of quite a few Garlic Mustard plants.  I did not note quantities but you can see what I used in the provided image.  I mixed the chopped greens, salt and pepper as well as one egg into the cream cheese and added in a hefty tablespoon of freshly shaved parmesean.

For the pastry, I used 1.25 cups of flour (about half wheat, half white), 1/4 teaspoon of salt, a stick of butter at room temp, cut into small cubes, and 3T cold water.  I mix the flour and salt and then when I add the cubes of butter to the flour I mix them in with my hands, pressing the butter and flour together between my thumb and forefinger.  I work it until the flour and butter is a grainy mixture with some pea sized lumps. I also had a package with about a heaping tablespoon or so of commercially grated parmesean cheese in it that I needed to use up so I mixed that into dough as well.  I have no idea of anyone in the middle ages added hard cheese into crust but it makes a divine pie crust so I used it (sharp cheddar also works well in a crust).

At this point I added in the 3T of water, but I will note, it was almost too much, so I added in a little more flour and, well, pretty much spilled too much into the mix.  This left my dough a bit too dry, but I rolled with it anyways at this point.  I left this to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes while I mixed up the cheese and herb mix.

I rolled out the dough and used a plastic lid to cut circles that I filled with the cheese and greens mixture, rubbed a bit of water around the edges and folded in half, pressing the seam with a fork.  I had enough space on my pan for 5 or so pies so made that many and turned the remaining crust into a small tart.  I could have gotten about 7-8 4.5inch circles out of the dough I made had I done all hand pies.  I brushed the tops with an egg wash and I baked them at 375 degrees F until they were lightly browned.

The pastry is very light and flakey (almost going into puff pastry territory rather than like a denser pie crust).  I over stuffed the hand pies and did not well seal them so they were some what bursting while hot but hold their shape very well once they have cooled down.  They taste FANTASTIC and I will absolutely make these again in a month or so with whatever greens and herbs I have in the garden (or woodlands) at that time.

Persona Summary:

• This plant was likely known to a 14th Century Forester in England
• Plausible foraged or grown food source, potentially used in pottages or where greens are needed

Projects:

• Remove the weed as I see it due to its invasive nature in the US
  • ​Ongoing work
• Cook with the plant
  • ​Completed, see above​

​​
​
​List of Resources can be found HERE

The good folks who introduced me to SCA forestry have a very definite focus on things like survival skills or long 'survival' hikes (not literally survival, but carrying 50lbs for 20 miles and being cold or wet are not my idea of fun).  I assumed, mistakenly, that this was all of what the Forestry program was about.

What I have learned since is that what folks choose to do in it is entirely up them.  One's path might encompass fishing, herblore, edible plants, cooking outdoors, thrown weapons, research... there are so many options.  Knowing that makes this all that much more appealing.

And also?  If I am to be honest, the idea of putting an SCA spin on things I plan to do here mean they are much more likely to actually get done.

While I learn more about the roles of actual Foresters in England in period, I am going to start testing some different paths from an SCA perspective.  One will involve local plants and I am starting that here!

Poison Ivy - Nemesis of the Forest

As a Forester, I would be maintaining the forest for Royal use.  While this particularly annoying plant did not exist in Medieval England, I am fairly certain that if it did it might well have been eradicated from royal presence.

I have been fighting the battle with this weed since before the pandemic.  At one point, the small side yard here was entirely full of it and it was growing as high as my hip.  Weekly battles that involved pulling up the entire root system now have that bit of yard fairly free of the plant, and my garden thrives there in its place.

I now am tackling the ivy in other locations here.  I confess that I get very little reaction to the plant myself.  I only breakout if it touches an open wound, such as a recent scratch.  I still handle the plant with care (and gloves) and make sure to wash any oils off of my skin and clothes because I live with someone who is highly allergic.

At lunch yesterday, I did go out and start to pull the plant from the area around the garage.  I was impressed that one root system that I extracted was nearly 30 feet long!  It is no wonder that this plant spreads as rapidly as it does.

I also did a very small bit of research on this monstrosity.  While the plant is native to North America and Asia, those who came to the New World were fascinated enough with it that they TOOK SOME BACK TO EUROPE AND DELIBERATELY GREW IT.  (Read more HERE )

So, I tackled the weed, and will be continuing to do so as the summer progresses.  Eventually the wood will be safe for his Lordship's wanderings. ;-)

I did start to think of other things as I was ripping up the vines, such as the fact that using gloves is necessary.  While they did not deal with this particular plant in period, there are other tasks that would involve gloves and that brought my mind to the rather cartoonish mittens from the Luttrell Psalter.

The mittens are often depicted as colorful, and below you can see a parti-colored pair and one that is striped, leading me to believe that could well have been crafted from wool in addition to possibly leather.  My next steps here will be to attempt some research on period two-finger mittens to see what I can find out and work towards crafting a set as part of my kit.  I can then test these out against the blistering ivy.

This project is a threefold project for me.  Firstly, I have joined the Æthelmearc Foresters’ Guild and part of that involvement is to create a kit for a forester persona.  Secondly, I signed up for the Atlantian Persona Development Challenge, which is sponsored by Their Majesties, to develop or expand your persona’s kit by creating 4 new items.  Despite missing the first deadline, I hope to continue to share my work towards this and am therefore combining items 1 & 2 in this document.  Finally, I am attempting a serious round of stash busting here and this kit will be largely comprised of stash items.

This documentation is somewhat sparse for me, but in order to meet the project deadline, I will be rolling with this and can update later as needed.
 
For the purpose of the Atlantian project the specifics are (this might alter over time as I do more general research on the profession and period):
Time: 1335 CE
Location: Forest of Galtres in Yorkshire, England
Persona: Forester (profession), male – More detailed information has not yet been determined
 
For the tunics, I looked first at existing items that could be used as a source.  None exist from Enland at all, so I had to range further for examples.  Many of the garments such as the Tunics from Kraglund, Moselund and the Guddal tunics all skew too early (none date later than 1165) and are from Scandinavia.  There are shirts that belonged to St. Louis (French, 13th c) and Francis of Assisi (Italy, 13th c), and others of similar provenance.  Many of the Greenland garments do fall into the correct time period, as does the Bocksten Tunic from Sweden.  Because I wanted to move forward with this project swiftly, I chose the simpler Bocksten garment as my base rather than the examples from Greenland which often exhibit more complex tailoring.
​

The Bocksten Tunic
This garment is dated to 1350-1370 from Varberg, Sweden.  The find consisted of a tunic, hood, hosen, cloak and accessories.  Details are as follows (based on information in Clothing the Past.

• 2/1 twill wool that was fulled
• Currently yellow brown outside and reddish brown on the interior
• The original fabric was 21.6 inches wide
• The garment had no shoulder seams
• Lighter area at the waist shows that a leather belt was work with it
• There are gores in the front, back and sides
• There are triangular gussets under the arms
• Length is 90.5 inches
• Width at hem is 98.4 inches
• Sleeve lengths – 24 for the right sleeve, 23.4 for the left
• Wrist circumference is 8.6 inches
• Neck circumference is 32.2 inches
• There is no thread left, so the presumption is that is was linen
• One selvedge the length of the body was preserved

​Personal observations:  One thing that I noticed while looking at more detailed images of this tunic (something that has become a ubiquitous garment in the SCA) is that the sleeves, while having a straight edge where it meets the body panel (i.e. no curved sleeve cap), they appear to still be inset into the garment itself (we see this with very early tunics like Lendbreen as well).  This sent me out to look at how different the sleeves and the armscye can be even amongst samples from a similar time and place (for example, some of the Greenland garments have shaped sleeve heads, but the armscye itself is not cut away). 

Another observation had to do with the sleeves themselves.  I was taught nearly 30 years ago that a rectangular cut tunic had sleeves that look like the first diagram below when flattened out.  Over time, I altered that to have the square gusset sit flat against the sleeve body and taper from that point to the wrist (center image).  The Bocksten tunic does not taper until past the elbow.  This allows one to have a narrower sleeve in the upper while fitting well in the lower arm than my typical model does.
 
Another, slightly eerie, observation is that I am very similar in size to the Bocksten man.

 
The Textiles
While there are no existing tunics from England for this period, there are a range of textile fragments.  The following information on textiles come from Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450.

• Tabby is the most common wool weave through the 14th century – first half of the 15th
• Z/S (Z spun threads for the warp with S spun for the weft) are more common than use of Z or S in both systems (Z/S is more suitable for raising nap in the fulling process, which creates warmer cloth)
• 2/2 and 2/1 twill wool does show up in my chosen period and while not as prevalent is tabby, it was also not uncommon
• 2/2 twills were almost always Z spun yarn in both systems, with balanced weaves
• Wool textiles have a broad range in density of the weave
• Linen did not typically survive well but the existing fragments from the 2nd half of the 13th century show 56 threads to the inch in one system with an average of 50 in the other, those from the last quarter of the 14th century are 50 in one system and 48 in the other

 

Resources

Note that these are all resources that I have pulled to review for this ongoing project.  I last read some of them many years ago and plan to reread in their entirety as I work through this project.

Backhouse, Janet. Medieval Rural Life in the Luttrell Psalter (University of Toronto Press), 2000. https://amzn.to/43stevi 

Carlson, Marc. “Some Clothing of the Middle Ages”, 2006. http://lib.utulsa.edu/speccoll/marccarlson/cloth/bockhome.html
 
Coatsworth, Elizabeth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker. Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe (Brill), 2018. https://amzn.to/46VHkbx​
 
Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Pritchard and Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450 (Boydell Press), 2006. https://amzn.to/3Q3WMw3
 
Egan, Geoff and Frances Pritchard. Dress Accessories 1150-1450 (Boydell Press), 2008. https://amzn.to/3NZF2iC
 
Forest, Maggie. “The Bocksten Tunic”, 2003. http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/garments/bocksten/bocksten.html,
 
Fransen, Lilli, et al. Medieval Garments Reconstructed: Norse Clothing Patterns (Aarhus University Press), 2010.
 
Gutarp, Else Marie. Medieval Manner of Dress: Documents, Images, and Surviving Examples of Norther Europe, Emphasizing Gotland and the Baltic Sea (Gotlands Fornsal), 2001.
 
Houston, Mary G. Medieval Costume in England & France: The 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries (Dover Publications), 1996.
 
Newtown, Stella Mary. Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince (Boydell Press), 2016. https://amzn.to/3rwnoeY
 
Østergaard, Else. Woven into the Earth: Textile Finds in Norse Greenland (Aarhus University Press), 2004.
 
Thursfield, Sarah. Medieval Tailor’s Assistant, 2nd Edition (Crowood Press), 2015.  https://amzn.to/3NV2P3w
 
Vedeler, Marianne. “Klær og Formspråk i Norsk Middelalder” (Universitetet i Oslo), 2006.
 
“The Bocksten Man Find”, Hallands Kulturhistoriska Museum.  https://museumhalland.se/en/the-bocksten-man/
 
“The Luttrell Psalter”, British Library. http://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=a0f935d0-a678-11db-83e4-0050c2490048&type=book
 
“Men’s and Women’s Accessories of Medieval Romanesque Period - 11th - 15th Centuries Pattern” La Fleur De Lyse Patterns.