Still Room Books

I have a Still Room Book. It is a book filled with the recipes, notes, outcomes of my healing recipes. It also includes the best times to plant and harvest, where to locate certain herbs, flowers and trees. It includes spells and wishes and quotes that support my work.

It is said that Still Rooms became popular in the 16th Century, but I think that they have been around long before that. In the Still Room, so named for the Still kept there, used to distill various liquids, was kept a book with all the receipts (recipes) and so on. This was the Still Room Book. The Still Room was a sort of medicine pantry. The lady of the house was in charge of healing and keeping everyone healthy, it was necessary to have everything organized and accessible. Depending on the size of her Castle, manor or cottage, she could've been providing medical relief for miles around and this also dictated the size of her Still Room. It would've been part of her home, or even a separate building.

Her receipts would've included preparations for seasonings, cosmetics, decoration or aroma, like potpourris, and especially medical preparations. She often had a Still Room maid, or several, and her daughters were also taught, to help with this. In this room, they crafted teas, linaments, and poultices. Syrups, treacles and tinctures. Posies, amulets, pomanders and wands. They look their responsibilities as surgeon, doctor, chef, beauty expert, veterinarian and druggist very seriously, there was no other option.

Herbs hung from the ceilings and were also dried on racks. Shelves were filled with crocks, bottles and jars filled with sweet and, not so fragrant, mixtures. The household relied on everything they created, and some of it took weeks to prepare, the Still Room buzzed, busier at times, than at others, as the plants were brought in from the fields, at various times of the year.

Everything was recorded in the Still Room book and then handed down through the generations. Special recipes were marked and highlighted. The books were unorganized, and unclassified, without a table of contents or index. Handwriting and spelling changed with in a few pages of each other, due to the various authors. It was a treasure trove of information, including the best way to do laundry, treat infection, poultry raising, preparation of meat, shearing, lambing and preparation of cloth and yarn. Even eggs collected were noted in the margins and in some cases the information was indecipherable due to bad handwriting. The miscellany included next to a recipe for candying rose petals, the information for setting a broken bone.

A recipe from a Still Room book includes taking a pound of Damask Rose petals and putting them in a stone jar, covering them with a pint of boiling water and leaving it for 12 hours. Then straining and adding 5 pounds of honey. The concoction is boiled down to a syrup

If you want some historical examples, go here. It is where I gained most of the information for my Still Room Book. Now which daughter will it be handed to?

Conjunctivitis

I got conjunctivitis from something or other and I have found that the best cure is Chamomile tea bags, let the juice get in them too. I make a cup of Chamomile tea, using two tea bags. I drink the tea and then squeeze some of the juice out of the bags. You want them a bit wet, so that the tea can get into your eyes. Leave them in place for about 10 minutes and do it twice a day. But, don't miss a soak and do it for a couple of days after they seem cured. Just to make sure.

Be sure and throw away your mascara, and any other contaminated make up, so that you don't recontaminate yourself or any body that uses the makeup, like your daughter.

Soothing baby bath

I use one of my stockpots to bathe the babies. The smaller the baby, the smaller the stockpot. The sink is too low for me... and the deeper water covers their shoulders, keeping them warm and getting the scent of the herbs up close to their noses.

To hot water I add, a sprig of fresh Thyme, a Sage leaf, a two inch piece of Rosemary and three drops of Lavender. It calms a cranky baby down and they go right to sleep.

This is Frederick James Haxby, almost 5 months old and adorable.

Remember never to leave babies alone, even for an instant, seconds later Freddie wanted to suck his toes and could've slipped down in the deep water.

Cold Remedies

This will kick your cold out the door.

8 oz of V8
2 Tblsp of chopped garlic
2 Tblsp of Lemon juice
As much Tabasco as you can handle

Mix, heat, drink as warm as you can handle. Drink at least twice a day.

Also, a dropperfull of Echinacea twice a day and rub Vicks Mentholatum under your feet and go to bed with socks on.

Beautiful Mint

Today, my husband and I took a canoe ride down the river looking for herbs. I found an island covered in Wild Mint (Mentha canadensis). Very powerful tasting and after a leaf of that and the flower off a Chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla) plant, I felt very grateful to be a gatherer and a healer. Butter and eggs (Linaria vulgaris) covered a meadow and the miraculous Stinging Nettle (Urtica Dioica) clung to the banks. Try Stinging nettle tea for an energy drink instead of the usual colas. I use my sissors and never touch the plant. from picking to cooking, cutting it into smaller pieces till I have a big pot full. Cover it will water and then bring it to a boil. Once it has boiled for a few minutes, shut it off and let it cool till you can strain it. If you don't like the taste, add honey and drink it like hot tea, or as an iced tea.

The Meadow

In the spring, the Meadow is covered in Camas and sweet new grass, and as the weeks pass others take their turn, Northern Bedstraw and Forget-me-not, to name a few. Then the horses move in to roll in the dust of a high desert summer. Scraggles remind me that the bulbs and seeds remain, a promise that they will return after the deep winter snows have buried the earth for it's rest.

The Meadow changes constantly. Change is the one thing we can count on, we choose the direction, but change we must. Change can be graceful, a learning, an emergence. Change, and the growth that results, can be welcomed or resented. Intuition can ease the path ahead or ego can run over it, running roughshod, and paving it unevenly and potentially causing harm to those that follow.

Our aging is a gift. We should be grateful for gifts.