[Herbalist] Literal Snips

[Corwyn and Carowyn]

Greetings!

Two things happened to me in the past two weeks, and I wanted to share so
others can [laugh at my mistake] (ahem) learn from my experiences:

1)  I've been working on Ye Olde Fyrste Aide Kitt again, and I realized
Gennevote's lovely container of chafing powder was just not going to fit,
with all the other bottles I've shoved in there recently!  So I
transferred her powder to two film canisters...the hard way.  Using a
piece of paper, then plastic, then whatever I could find, as a
half-funnel, half-wedge thingie.  Egad.  And, not sitting three feet from
me, were the two spice spoons from my chatelaine!!!  Sheesh.  Some days,
I'm the nimrod who just doesn't get it.....

2)  This one is from another shire member, and not as silly.  We've been
doing perfume testers recently, with all the extra rose petals floating
around.  Isabel is doing a rose water, loosely based on John French's
"Art of Distillation" (1651):

"Take...flowers gathered fresh, and at noon in a fair day, let them not
at all be bruised.  Infuse a handful of them in two quarts of white wine
(which must be very good, or else you labor in vain) for the space of
half an hour, then take them forth and infuse in the same wine the same
quantity of fresh flowers, do this 8 or 10 times, but still remember that
they be not infused above half an hour...  Note that in defect of Wine,
Aqua vitae will serve."

Our version:  take the cheapest, nastiest, vodka you can find, and stuff
it full of as many fresh rose petals as you can stand as long as all the
petals are covered with vodka.  Let sit for about a week, strain, throw
out petals, put liquid back in bottle, repeat till the vodka smells as
strongly of roses as you wish.

Now, Isabel learned a thing: there's a reason French put a time limit to
the petals!  Strain & throw the petals when they turn clear.  Don't let
them sit.  If you do, your tincture will turn somewhat brownish, not
pink-red.  You can even toss them when they're half-clear (the centers
stay opaque for a while).  As far as we know, it doesn't affect the
actual tincture, but it *does* affect the color.

What they did on period, I don't know - perhaps the discerning housewife
knew a batch was bad just by looking at the color?  If so, was there a
way to "doctor" the color to sell bad a good?

Oooh, the questions!

-Caro
"I do the very best I know how - The very best I can; and I mean to keep
doing so
until the end.  If the end brings me out all right, what is said against
me won't
amount to anything.  If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing
I was
right would make no difference."                               -Abraham
Lincoln


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