[Herbalist] (no subject)

[Kathleen H. Keeler]

Heavens, Jadwiga, you have plenty for a class in your web page headers!

>  I don't know where to look for uses that I haven't
> already found and put in Scents of the Middle Ages:
> http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/herbs/scents.html

Incenses and Fumitories * Strewing Herbs * Moth and insect repellents *
Clothing Scents * Potpourris, dry and
moist * Body Powders * Essential Oils * Soaps * Waters and splashes * Hair
Rinses * Pomanders * Rose and
Spice Beads * Nosegays or Tussie-mussies * Scented baths & Saunas * Insomnia
recipes * Mouthwashes

> I know about horsetails for scouring, but what other period non-scented
> uses of herbs for huswifery can anyone suggest?

obviously medicines and food flavors.
Hair colors and dyes.
Beyond repellents: poisons (scented or not)
If you define herb as plant, then furniture, tools, dishware, fibers (linen,
cotton).
Laquers, for example linseed oil
glues?
ropes, string, etc.
paper
toothbrush (stick), hairbrush (teasle)...

When you look around at a modern household, we have plastic and aluminum for
tasks that had to have been done by plants or other natural products.  They
had fewer things, but the same functions.

Sources...I've got some time suddenly, I could hunt for some of these.  Many
I find as the last line in the herbal...wrap cheese in mint leaves to
prevent curdling, for example.  Others, by reading books on household
activities and watching for the cute lines (Daily Life in the Middle Ages or
The House in Medieval England or...)

Agnes