The Springfield Sanctuary Apprenticeship 2013 is now open for enquiries and will close on Wednesday 12 December 2012.
You don't have to be an apprentice to attend any of the monthly workshops or triannual workdays at Springfield Sanctuary. You can get in touch via blog comments or by emailing sarah at headology dot co dot uk.
Saturday 20 October 2012
Thursday 18 October 2012
Autumn Recipes
As days become shorter and rain keeps falling during the
night, it seems a good time to review some seasonal recipes. I had to smile
last week when chef, Nigel Slater, went to his local green grocer to buy
blackberries as part of his “Simple Cookery” series. I don’t understand people who are fit and
healthy buying blackberries from a shop when they are freely available from
hedgerows. Even in the largest city, no-one is too far away from a canal or
other open space where such fruit should abound.
Over the past month we’ve spent many hours picking
blackberries and last weekend even the rosehips were finally ripe. I’ve
discovered that blackberries cooked with sugar and cinnamon with a little water
make the most wonderful sauce to add to natural yoghurt or eaten with other
fruit and covered in cream. I’ve also made a hedgerow jelly using mainly
blackberries.
Friary Jelly
Put whatever hedgerow fruits you have gathered and washed into a large saucepan and just cover with
water. (I had picked elderberries, blackberries, apples and sloes. I chopped the apples into quarters/small
chunks leaving the peel and pips.) Add a couple of sticks of cinnamon or cassia
bark broken up or 2 tsps powdered cinnamon plus half a grated nutmeg.
Bring the fruit to the boil and simmer for half an hour
until everything is very soft. Mash everything with a potato masher, then pour
everything into a muslin strainer or jelly bag and leave to strain overnight.
If you want a really clear jelly, don’t squeeze the bag but if you’re not
bothered about having something cloudy (and because the jelly is going to be
purple anyway), then squeeze the last drops of juice out and measure the volume.
Wash the saucepan and return the liquid into the pan. For
every pint of liquid add 1lb sugar. Heat the mixture slowly until the sugar dissolves
then bring it to a rolling boil for ten minutes or until the jelly has set.
(Drop a tablespoon of hot jelly onto a pyrex saucer and put it in the freezer.
Take another sample after 5 more minutes. If the first sample has a skin on it
when you press the back of your forefinger nail through it, it has set. If it
hasn’t, keep repeating every five minutes until it does.)
I had 2pints of liquid and it made 6 1/2lb jars of very tasty
jelly.
I’ve also been adding blackberries to elderberry syrup and
was interested to learn that one of the US Herb suppliers adds fresh
blackberries to their St John’s wort tinctures macerated in grain alcohol and water to improve flavour and
increase anti-oxidant levels.
One of my apprentices recently sent me some autumn recipes
which I shall be trying out soon. I may use some of the elderberries frozen
from last year to make this recipe for Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar from Eat
Weeds.
If you don’t already know the Eat Weeds website, it has some very interesting
recipes including one for hawthorn jelly. I also like the sound of the BoxingDay chutney recipe which is available on Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas site from
Chanel 4.
After our busy weekend at the farm, the last four days have
been spent processing all the herbs I picked or dug. Solomons Seal Root is
macerating in a jar of Overproof Rum (£24 from Tesco’s, ouch!). Dandelion roots
are either tincturing or making Jim Macdonald’s bitter with cardamom and orange
peel while the remainder dry in the cupboard. Photos from the weekend can be found on
Facebook
All the aerial plant parts (marshmallow, ashwagandha, white
horehound, New England Aster, chamomile and Calendula) are drying, along with
some rosehips. The wild bergamot went into a tincture. This morning it was the turn of the ashwagandha roots to be
vigorously scrubbed and are now air drying on the patio table in the warm wind
and sunshine. The large bag of nettle roots, horseradish and the single
Himalayan poke root are still waiting their turn which will probably come
tomorrow.
I’ve also discovered another favourite soup recipe I thought
I would share – very simple, hearty and frugal. es, it can take 2 days to cook, but it costs
very little and tastes wonderful!
Pea and Ham Soup (for vegetarian and vegans, omit the ham)
1 pkt of green or yellow split peas
2 bay leaves
2 onions
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
(Or 1 carrot, 2 parsnips and half a celeriac root)
4 ozs of chopped ham
Tip the packet of split peas into a large bowl and cover
with lots of water. (I usually fill a
mixing bowl to the brim.) Leave to soak overnight. The next day, peel and chop
the onions and sauté in a large saucepan (at least 5 pints) until soft. Peel
and chop all the vegetables and add to the onions along with the bay leaves and
strained split peas. Cover with around 3-4 pints of cold water. Season. Bring
to the boil and either simmer for about 1hr until the split peas are soft or
pour contents of saucepan into a cookpot and cook on high for one hour or so
then on low for several hours until peas are soft. (Don’t remove lid from
cookpot/slow cooker during cooking or you will increase the time by an hour or
so.) Remove bay leaves. Return soup to the large saucepan and whizz using your
favourite utensil until smooth. Add your diced ham and bring back to the boil.
Serve with fresh bread. (Feeds 8-10 people).
The original recipe for this soup comes from the Good Housekeeping
Cookbook. They use a smoked ham bone to make stock before you add the
vegetables, but I haven’t been able to obtain a ham bone yet and if you did
this, you couldn’t offer it to any non-carnivores.
Autumn is a busy time, but I’m looking forward to snuggling
up with my many potions when winter comes.
Labels:
ashwagandha,
dandelion,
hedgerow jellies,
himalayan poke,
pea and ham soup,
roots
Monday 8 October 2012
Autumn Root Harvest
Next weekend I shall be running a roots workshop at the
Sanctuary to dig up Himalayan pokeweed, nettle, dandelion, elecampane, solomon’s
seal and ashwagandha roots. I may send someone off to search for a first year
burdock root, but I’m not entirely hopeful.
I would never have thought three years have passed since I
last wrote about working with roots. It seems such a natural thing to do and I
still feel you don’t know the entirety of a plant until you have worked with
its roots as well as its aerial parts. Even yarrow roots have medicinal
properties when I’ve always considered the parts above ground to be the most
useful.
It has to be said that some roots are more difficult to work
with. US herbalists talk of taking their axes and other heavy equipment to dig
up plants such as Oregon Grape root (which apparently must be worked before it
dries out otherwise you will destroy whatever grinder you are trying to use!).
I’ve also seen pictures of poke root which seem to wind at least three times the
length of the person holding it.
Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana) is one of the indigenous east
coast North American plants about which people argue. The seeds are poisonous so the whole plant is
often listed that way. The ripe seeds are used to dye the most beautiful purple
colour and the root is tinctured and used in drop doses to help move the
lymphatic system or anything which needs “poking”.
I’ve been fascinated by the plant for several years. It was
one of the first herbs I bought but it soon disappeared from my parents’
garden. Last autumn we saw it growing wild in the Native American village at
Plimouth Plantation and marvelled at the subtle colours it produced on
headdresses and matting.
I ordered some pokeweed seeds from Poyntzfield Herb nursery last year but what came was Himalayan poke, (Phytolacca acinosa). According to the literature they are medicinally interchangeable, being used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for various ailments and in Japan as a diuretic. The roots of the Himalayan poke appear to be nowhere near as thick and long as the p.americana, but it may be the growing conditions are not exactly what they would be used to in a tropical climate!
I ordered some pokeweed seeds from Poyntzfield Herb nursery last year but what came was Himalayan poke, (Phytolacca acinosa). According to the literature they are medicinally interchangeable, being used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for various ailments and in Japan as a diuretic. The roots of the Himalayan poke appear to be nowhere near as thick and long as the p.americana, but it may be the growing conditions are not exactly what they would be used to in a tropical climate!
The seeds germinated well last spring and the majority were
planted at the Sanctuary. I thought I’d lost them all as there was no sign of
any plants when Jo and I dug over the new bed in March. Much later in the year
I noticed several plants coming up amongst the prolific strawberries and they
have continued to thrive during the year. We shall discover what size the roots
have got to next weekend.
I have three plants which overwintered in the summer house
last year but only one has survived the horrendous summer producing the most
beautiful dark purple flower stalk. Debs Cook is growing American pokeweed in
her greenhouse, so we are talking about trading seeds next spring.
Nettle root tincture is a staple in my medicinal arsenal.
Many herbalists in the UK prefer it for prostate health and management to the
more publicised saw palmetto. The latter can only be found in North America and
the tincture is one of the casualties from the European debacle which means you
can’t buy it any more. I have made my own from dried seeds purchased from
Baldwins, but I’ve always made Chris’s tonic with a mixture of both herbs. I’ve
also made some willowherb tincture from weeds in the garden this year, so shall
be adding that to his daily dose.
Back in the spring, I talked about making a dandelion bed. I
think the plants in the Sanctuary heard me. I have never seen such strong and
energetic specimens as those which have grown this year. I am excited to see
what their roots are like and am looking forward to tincturing, drying them and
making Jim MacDonald’s dandelion bitter. It is always a surprising favourite
when people taste it for the first time. (Surprising as in, “Goodness, that
doesn’t taste as bad as I was expecting!”)
I love elecampane root. It is so spicy and makes a really
delicious infused honey. I usually slice the root into thin segments after
washing thoroughly and then put half into runny honey and dry the other half.
You can then make the dried root into a useful child’s cough syrup when the
need arises. We made one at a workshop last winter using thyme and marshmallow
leaves. You could also add some dried Echinacea seed heads if you want to add
an immune stimulating effect.
General syrup
recipe from Non Shaw and Christopher Hedley's Herbal Remedies
1 l (2 pints) water
40 g (1 1/2 oz) dried
herb or 100g (4oz) fresh chopped herb (I’d use equal amounts of elecampane
root, thyme and marshmallow leaves)
450 g (1 lb) sugar
Put herb in water,
bring to a boil, let simmer 20-30 minutes, strain.
Clean out pan, pour liquid
back into it, let sit on minimum heat until you only have 2 dl (7 fl.oz) left.
Add sugar, simmer until sugar has dissolved, pour into jars, label. (This takes
time. 1 fluid ounce evaporates about every hour.) If making a syrup with more
liquid, the general rule of thumb is add 1lb sugar or honey to every 1pint of
liquid.
Solomon’s seal root is
going to be infused in strong rum this year to see what difference it makes
extracting in a higher alcohol content.
The Ashwagandha plants
have struggled with this year’s weather. Most of the tiny plants have
disappeared, probably succumbing to an invasion of slugs, but there are still
some large plants which have flourished next to the calendula patch. They will
be harvested for both roots and leaves, the latter being used to make a double
infused oil.
The roots are normally
ground into a powder once they are dried, but I have kept all mine whole.
During a tonic workshop, we experimented with a rose/ashwagandha milk by doing
a cold water overnight extraction first before heating the roots in milk with
rose petals.
The cold maceration
produced a really viscous liquid and this was added to the pint of milk along
with the roots and a handful of dried apothecary’s rose petals. The mixture was
then brought to the boil and simmered gently for 15-30 minutes before straining
and drinking. It produced a flavourful nourishing drink which everyone enjoyed.
I’m looking forward to
the weekend when we can celebrate another harvest with a wide variety of herbs.
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