Fw: HERB - potpourri

[Lynette K LaFontaine]

As I said the method not the recipe is period.
Actually my source for this original method has long been lost.  The recipe
I recounted from memory.  I don't remember  exactly everything I used and I
included some things as suggestions.  The essential things are the salt,
some form of alcohol, brown sugar, a fixative( I prefer orris root but this
is a allergen for many people.  So  you may want to use something else if
you have allergies), and very fragrant plant material.  Actually you may add
essential or perfumed oil after the aging if it need some.  essential and
fragrant oils are not the same thing.  Essential oils are more concentrated
and are from one plant source, very expensive depending on the sent.
perfumed oils are often mistaken for essential oils, are less potent, and
may be a blend .  (rose madder is the most expensive and precious of the
essential.  Only the tiniest amounts are used in manufacturing the most
expensive perfumes.)
other fixatives are the root of sweetflag;  I have heard of moss (oak moss I
think) being used, corn cob, and even cat litter.  If it is absorbent you
might want to try what ever comes to mind, but I'd test it for efficacy,
before I invested a lot of plant material and energy.  I don't put much
stock in wood chips, though this is usual the fixative in commercial mixes.
I just don't think it hold the sent well enough.
Oh, just remembered I was growing rosemary at the time I might have slipped
some in this.  God only knows.  Anyway have fun If it smells good and you
like it use it.  I hardly ever follow a recipe for anything exactly.
Oh, just remembered a recipe I do follow; watch your mail for a heavenly
dish using sage!  Sound awful it isn't.
----- Original Message -----
From: Roberta R Comstock <froggestow at juno.com>
To: <herbalist at Ansteorra.ORG>
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 1999 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: HERB - potpourri


> Lynette,
>
> Don't worry too much about the occasional redundancy.
>
> Welcome to the Herbalist.
>
> Thanks for posting your potpourri recipe.  Is this your original
> concoction or someone else's or from a book?  I'd like to be able to give
> proper credit for it when I make some.
>
> Tonka beans are from a tropical leguminous South American tree (Dipteryx
> spp. or Coumarouna spp.), not sure availability in period, but I believe
> the scent in them is coumarin (which is also in woodruff and sweet
> clover).  Allspice (Pimenta officinalis) is also tropical and New World,
> but was available in Europe late in period.
>
> Your recipe looks to me like what a potpourri Should be like.  I've never
> been much interested in the dry ones, especially since they have been
> sold in  so many places with vast quatities of essential oils added.
> (Not good for asthmatics).
>
> Hertha
>
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