HERB - citing, ahem, newage materials in handouts...

[Jenne Heise]

> About the newage book, I'd leave it out.  As one who tries
> for authenticity when reasonable, I'd prefer 1 or 2 good
> sources.  

Hm.. This is a different subject, really.  I have literally never taught a
hands-on class in the SCA. My impression from taking them is that the
amount of authenticity varies from subject to subject. In this case, if
people want to branch out into making their own, they are going to have to
have some notion about what is likely to work well together, or they will
waste a ot of time and materials. (It's like cordial making, really-- we
have very few period sweetened cordial recipes, but everyone wants to go
out and do it.)

When I teach classses I tend to list period, secondary, and method sources
in my bibliographies.

> If someone in the class says they're interested in modern
> perfumery, then I'd mention it.  It's too easy to get
> side-tracked wen you're learning something new.  I've made a
> few mistakes like that with music books.  When I take a SCA
> class, I like to know of the best sources for period
> whatever it is.  Just my tuppence.

Again, here I'm struggling with a subject that has few 'best sources' but
I'm considering teachng the subject because so few people work withit and
there's a lot of misinformation out there.

> <<
> it is illegal in
> the US to
> make sweet waters by distillation
> (because of the alcohol
> component),
> >>
> ?  People can brew their own mead, wine, etc. for their own
> use, so why not this?  Please enlighten me.

Distillation of alcohol wihtout a tax stamp (which is basically
unavailable to the home producerr) is illegal in this country-- that's why
'moonshine' is illegal. This is partly due to tradition (the law has been
around about 200 years, and the founding fathers had to deal with the
Whisky Rebellion because of it) and partly due to the dangers associated
with making and consuming home-distilled hooch.

Because of the prohibition on distilling alcohol, the preferred recipes
for making period sweet waters can't be used since they all call for using
alcohol-- beer, wine, or aqua vitae-- along with the plant material in the
distillation. (Most sources mention water distillation but consider it
completely inferior-- partly because of the way their equipment work,
which made it very difficult to pull off a good product by water/steam
distillation.)

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
	"Oh it's all too much, too grim, too lovely, too -- how should 
	I put this? It's general chaos." -- Edward Gorey

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.