Herbal remedies
Interesting article about the herbal remedy tradition in Great Britain:
"Any British household with a scrap of land has always grown herbs for the kitchen. From the superb monastic herb gardens down to the humblest cottage, a supply of fresh herbs would have been considered essential. The list of long-standing British herbs might surprise a modern cook who associates herbs principally with the Mediterranean. The Saxons, for example, were hugely sophisticated in their use of herbs for both the kitchen and as medicinal plants. Indeed, as in modern-day Chinese medicine, the division between the two uses was scarcely acknowledged and they apparently recognised at least 500 plants that could be used for taste and health. Many of the Mediterranean herbs were introduced by the Romans, although a vigorous trade in herbs and spices from Europe and the Middle East was in operation by Saxon times. Later, this intense intimacy with plants, which also included spells and an almost magical belief in the power of herbs, such as watercress (which was regarded as a sacred plant), camomile, chervil, fennel and mugwort, came to be viewed as evidence of witchcraft and was thus discouraged and has arguably never been recovered to this day.The modern gardener and cook has, by historical standards, a very restricted concept of what a herb might be. In the monastic or castle garden, every plant that was not listed as a fruit tree was a herb. As far as the medieval and Tudor kitchen went, herbs covered what we might call salad leaves as well as being the province of the apothecary. In this area, along the Welsh borders, until very recently it was normal to source most of your own raw materials for ointments, lotions and infusions to deal with common health problems. Until the Nineties, the woman who farmed our land before us used to collect elderflowers to make an infusion to wash her hair with and her mother regarded the hedgerow outside the kitchen window as 'her chemist'. This is wholly in the spirit of the medieval herbalist, who saw plants providing an almost limitless source of good health and good flavour. There is no reason why we cannot tap into that in a modest way in any garden that has room for a few pots"
"Any British household with a scrap of land has always grown herbs for the kitchen. From the superb monastic herb gardens down to the humblest cottage, a supply of fresh herbs would have been considered essential. The list of long-standing British herbs might surprise a modern cook who associates herbs principally with the Mediterranean. The Saxons, for example, were hugely sophisticated in their use of herbs for both the kitchen and as medicinal plants. Indeed, as in modern-day Chinese medicine, the division between the two uses was scarcely acknowledged and they apparently recognised at least 500 plants that could be used for taste and health. Many of the Mediterranean herbs were introduced by the Romans, although a vigorous trade in herbs and spices from Europe and the Middle East was in operation by Saxon times. Later, this intense intimacy with plants, which also included spells and an almost magical belief in the power of herbs, such as watercress (which was regarded as a sacred plant), camomile, chervil, fennel and mugwort, came to be viewed as evidence of witchcraft and was thus discouraged and has arguably never been recovered to this day.The modern gardener and cook has, by historical standards, a very restricted concept of what a herb might be. In the monastic or castle garden, every plant that was not listed as a fruit tree was a herb. As far as the medieval and Tudor kitchen went, herbs covered what we might call salad leaves as well as being the province of the apothecary. In this area, along the Welsh borders, until very recently it was normal to source most of your own raw materials for ointments, lotions and infusions to deal with common health problems. Until the Nineties, the woman who farmed our land before us used to collect elderflowers to make an infusion to wash her hair with and her mother regarded the hedgerow outside the kitchen window as 'her chemist'. This is wholly in the spirit of the medieval herbalist, who saw plants providing an almost limitless source of good health and good flavour. There is no reason why we cannot tap into that in a modest way in any garden that has room for a few pots"
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