Chamomile, my new friend

Everyone knows chamomile. It is probably the only tea non-herb lovers recognise. Other herbalists rave about this member of the daisy family. I knew many of its uses but it has only been in the past three months I have truly bonded with this plant.

There are several different forms of chamomile growing wild across the country but two are most commonly used, the former being preferred as it is less bitter.  Matricaria chamomilla (also known as chamomila recutita) is the German or wild chamomile, a native of Europe and Asia. Roman chamomile (anthemis nobilis) is a native of Europe.

The name, chamomile, comes from two Greek words, khamae, meaning “on the ground” and melon meaning “apple”.  The plant has been used medicinally for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians dedicated it to Ra, the sun god, because it could be used against agues and fevers. The Greek physician, Dioscorides, recommended it for fevers in 800BC.

It was also well known in Anglo-Saxon times when it went by the name, Maythe. It is one of the herbs to appear in the Nine Herb Charm recorded in the Lacnunga manuscript.

“Be mindful now, maythe, of what you made known,

Of what you finished at the alder-tree ford

So that he never should give up his life for disease

Once maythe was prepared for his food.”

Anne McIntyre writes that chamomile was highly valued as a strewing herb in the Middle Ages, it’s pungent odour released through incense burning to keep foul smells and infection at bay. She says “It was hung in bunches over babies’ cots to protect them and keep them healthy.”   This reflects modern use of chamomile with babies and young children to ease colic, fevers, digestive upsets and to calm over-tired infants.  The tea can be added to a child’s bath, ensuring a good night’s sleep.

Beatrix Potter may not have had children of her own, but she knew her plantlore when she wrote “Peter Rabbit was sent to bed with chamomile tea” to ease his stomach ache from eating all the lettuces while Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail enjoyed the fruits of their blackberry picking with cream!

Anne McIntyre also tells us that chamomile was traditionally used in love potions and weddings. Apparently you should wash your face and hair with chamomile to attract your beloved. Its effects cover all ages as historically chamomile has been used as a grave plant, to ease the passage of the dead into the world to come.

The use of chamomile continued along the centuries. Culpepper wrote that “Camomile takes away weariness, eases pains, to what part of the body soever they be applied.”  We now know that chamomile has the ability to relax smooth muscle throughout the body, so whether you have stomach ache, period pains or any other muscular discomfort, chamomile can ease this whether it is drunk as a tea or applied as a fomentation to the affected area.

To apply a fomentation

Make a strong chamomile tea. Place in a bowl and soak a clean length of cloth in the liquid. (A piece of old, clean sheet is ideal.) Wring out the cloth gently so not all the liquid is expelled and place over the affected area, making sure it is not too hot. Cover with a towel and keep in place until the cloth is cold. Replace regularly or, if possible, sleep in it overnight.

When Gabrielle Hatfield was researching folk uses of chamomile, a woman in Suffolk told her that an infusion of the flowers drunk cold, night and morning, was used to treat gallstones.  This ties in with Pechey’s story, published in 1694, where a man cured himself of the stone using a strong decoction of chamomile flowers and then went on to successfully treat several other sufferers in the same way.

The seventeenth century herbalist, Salmon, listed similar properties of chamomile. He noted that as well as provoking “Urine and the Terms, [chamomile] facilitates the Birth and brings away the dead Child and After-birth.”

In 1914, W T Fernie called chamomile a physician for the garden. He wrote, “It is remarkable that each chamomile is a plant physician, since nothing contributes so much to the health of a garden as a number of chamomile herbs dispersed about it. Singularly enough, if another plant is drooping and apparently dying, in nine cases out of ten it will recover if you place a herb of chamomile near it.” Chamomile tea poured over newly transplanted plants will help their transition into their new home.

How can such a seemingly fragile, delicately flowered plant achieve so much? When Anne McIntyre talked about chamomile during my first herb festival in 2010, she appeared both reverent and excited. She spoke about the uses as a digestive tonic and that rang a bell for me. The first time I grew chamomile, I brewed a tea from my dried flowers and looked forward to a taste similar to commercial tea bags.  It was so bitter I couldn’t drink it!

When I complained to a herbalist friend of mine she laughed at me, “Don’t you know chamomile is a bitter?” This was several years ago and I felt duly chastened for expecting home grown to taste anything like a commercial brand. It also put me off chamomile for a long time.

The good thing my friend gave me was the use of chamomile water on red, hot, angry eczema.  I complained to her that I’d been using a salve on my sore finger and nothing was working.  “Don’t put oil on any hot skin,” she told me, “It will only keep the heat in and make things worse. You need something cooling to take the heat away.”

She gave me some chamomile water in a dropper bottle. I have to admit I was sceptical but it worked. For a long time, I thought a floral water must be something highly specialised and distilled until I found a recipe by Gail Faith Edwards. I made elderflower water first  which is also extremely cooling and then made chamomile water the following year when I grew a new plant crop from seed. I gave some to a friend who suffers with whole body eczema when he is severely stressed. He washed the affected area with the water and reported it took the heat away and soothed the skin in a way he’d not achieved before.

Chamomile water

Place fresh or dry chamomile aerial parts in a stainless steel or enamel saucepan and cover with water. Cover and slowly heat to just below a simmer. Turn the heat as low as it will go and continue heating for about ten minutes tightly covered. Turn off the heat and allow all to sit, covered, overnight. The next morning, strain the infusion through muslin or kitchen towel to remove all the floating debris. Add a quarter of the volume in alcohol as a preservative. Bottle and keep in a cool dark place. This should retain its value for a year or more if not frequently opened. If you are using medicinally, place in a small dropper bottle and administer as required.

Chamomile is not just a relaxant, febrifuge or anti-viral, it is also an effective anti-fungal. It was Non Shaw and Christopher Hedley who first brought this use to my attention in their HerbSociety article.  Their recipe for making chamomile vinegar was to add a handful of chamomile flowers to 570ml of cider vinegar. This is then steeped for 2 weeks before straining and bottling.

The dosage they recommend is to use 1 teaspoon to a cupful of water as a regular wash for the genitals, to restore skin pH, and discourage fungal infections. They also suggest using 2 teaspoons to a cup of water as a douche, or a wash, for vaginal or penile thrush or other itchy conditions in the area. 

I tried to use this remedy when my daughter suffered with a bout of under-arm thrush as a teenager. Unfortunately I forgot the vinegar should be diluted and the pain of putting it onto sore skin was too much for her to continue the treament. (I'll know better if there is a next time!)

Non and Chris' chamomile wash for travellers

To prepare lint wipes for travelling, use 3 teaspoons of the chamomile/cider vinegar wash to a cup of water. Cut pieces of lint to just fit and airtight tin and sprinkle enough of the mixture onto each piece to just dampen it. 

Despite all these wonderful uses, I still didn’t believe chamomile was as good as everyone said until last October. The plant has been very patient with me. Luckily, I did plant a new crop from seed last spring and was surprised how well it grew over the sodden summer. As it was there, I harvested the aerial parts whenever the flowers started to bloom and was delighted how much I’d gathered when I came to put it all into a glass jar from the various paper bags in which it had been drying. I divided the flower heads from the stems, intending to try making tea just from the flowers.

Then came the night in October when I suffered from the worst stomach ache I have ever experienced. No vomiting, no diarrhoea just unmitigating pain.  After several hours of clutching a hot water bottle, I dragged myself out of bed and down to the kitchen where I retrieved the large jar of dried chamomile stems and made a mugful of chamomile tea. It tasted delicious and as I laid myself down again on the bed I could feel my whole body relaxing and I slept. The effect lasted for about four hours before the pain woke me again but this time I asked Chris to make the chamomile tea. It worked and I slept again, waking a further four hours later without the pain which didn’t return.

From that moment, I finally understood chamomile. It worked. It really worked and it didn’t taste dreadful! I was sold and chamomile was my new best friend. You still have to be respectful. Too much of the plant in your tea and its powerful astringency will turn your mouth so dry you can’t finish your drink. This is a problem at 4am when you need to sleep!

Chamomile can help with both constipation and diarrhoea because it helps to regulate peristalsis. When a nurse manager friend of mine was suffering with a recurrent upset stomach following a visit to Pakistan, I recommended she try chamomile and raspberry leaf as no pharmaceutical intervention was helping. She reported the two plants stopped all her discomfort within a few days.

Anne McIntyre explained how chamomile can be useful in strengthening the immune system. “Everything starts with a well-balanced digestive system. If you have that, your immune system will flourish.” She calls chamomile the flower of equilibrium, keeping us in balance throughout our lives. Now that I have finally opened myself to chamomile, I can agree with her.  To me, it feels as if she wraps me up in a caring hug, holding me safe until my body can heal itself once more.

References

Hadfield, G Hadfield’s Herbal : The Secret History of British Plants 2007 Penguin Books

Isbn 978 0 140 51577 0

McIntyre, A The Complete Floral Healer 1996 Gaia Books Ltd ISBN 08069 8689 1

McIntyre, A The Complete Herbal Tutor  2010 Gaia Books Ltd ISBN 9781856753180

Pollington, S Leechcraft 2000 Anglo-Saxon Books ISBN 1 989281 238

Wood, M The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants 2008 North Atlantic Books ISBN 9 781556 436925

Festive recipes

As the holiday season draws ever closer, I thought I would share some of the simple recipes I use for family get-togethers.  Some are from the Good Housekeeping book of 1976 and some have been gifted to me by friends and family members. None are complicated nor do they involve expensive ingredients.

Smoked mackerel pate

1 tub of cream cheese

3 fillets/1pkt of  smoked mackerel

Lemon juice

Empty the tub of creamed cheese into a mixer and add the skinned and flaked fillets of mackerel. Mix together. Add the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon and mix again. Taste. Add more lemon juice if necessary to give a fresh flavour. Place in a ceramic tub and serve with cruditees, toast or as part of a cold spread. Store in the fridge. The mixture will freeze if you make too much and have to use it another time.

Liver terrine

1lb of pig’s liver

1/4lb fat bacon

4 eggs beaten

1 clove garlic skinned and crushed

1/4pint thick white sauce

Salt and pepper

12 rashers streaky rindless bacon

Mince the liver and fat bacon finely then sieve it to ensure a really smooth result. Mix it with the beaten eggs, crushed garlic, sauce and seasongin to taste. Line a 2pint terrine with bacon rashers (I’ve always used a 1lb loaf tin), fill up with the liver mixture and place in a dish containing enough cold water to come halfway up the sides of the terrine. Bake in the oven at 170degreesC/Mark 3 for two hours. Cover the top of the liver mixture with greaseproof paper or foil. Press evenly and leave for 24 hours in a cold place before serving. Serve cold and sliced with toast and butter and a crisp salad.

Smoked haddock chowder

1 onion, skinned and sliced

2 rashers of bacon, rinded and chopped

Knob of butter

3 potatoes peeled and cubed

1lb smoked haddock, skinned and cubed

15oz can of tomatoes

1pt fish stock

Salt and pepper

1 bayleaf

2 cloves

Chopped parsley to garnish

Lightly fry the onion and bacon in the butter for about 5 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the potatoes and the fish. Sieve the tomatoes with their juice, add them to the fish stock, combine with the fish mixture and add seasoning and flavourings. Cover and simmer for ½ hour, until all the fish is soft but still in shape. Remove the bayleaf and cloves and sprinkle with parsley before serving. Serve with freshly made bread.

Ham and sweetcorn soup

8oz leftover ham

1 large onion peeled and chopped

1 large red pepper, deseeded and chopped

2ozs flour (2or 3 level tblsps)

¾ pt milk

¾ pt stock (can be made from ham bone)

2 tblsps Worcestershire sauce

1lb potatoes peeled and diced

1 large can sweetcorn, drained (11.5oz)

Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a large saucepan, add onion and pepper abd frt gently for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in flour and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and gradually stir in milk and stock. Return to heat and slowly bring to the boil; stirring. Add remaining ingredients, lower heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until potato is cooked. Stir regularly as this soup will catch on the bottom and can burn if left unattended. Season to taste and serve with crusty bread.

Almond Tartelines

1 pkt shortcrust or sweet pastry

4oz butter

4oz castor sugar

2 eggs

4oz ground almonds

1oz  flour

1 tsp Vanilla essence

2oz flaked almonds

Apricot, redcurrant or quince jelly/jam to glaze

Mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs gradually, add vanilla essence then stir in the almonds and flour. This is the frangipane mixture. Roll out pastry and cut sufficient rounds to fill around 2 doz. cupcake trays (the same ones you use for mince pies). Place 1 tsp frangipane mixture in each pastry case then sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 12-15 minutes in pre-heated oven at 180degrees C, Gas mark 5. As soon as the tartlets are cooked, remove them from the moulds, brush the tops with hot jam to glaze. For extra decoration, you can sprinkle a thin line of ground almonds around the edges, but I’ve never bothered.

Krakalot (family name for flapjack)

4oz margarine or butter

1 dessertspoon golden syrup

1 tblsp hot water

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Melt all these ingredients together in a pan or microwave, mixing the bicarb with the hot water before adding to the pan.

4oz porridge oats

3 ½ oz sugar

2 ½ oz flour

Mix these dry ingredients together then pour over the melted margarine or butter and mix together. Place in well- greased baking trays and cook in oven at 180degress C, Gas Mark 5 for 15 minutes until brown. When cooked, remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then score. If you leave scoring until fully cool, the flapjack pieces will break up. I usually cook double quantities for a normal amount of flapjack. You can add diced dried apricot, dried fruit and/or grated apple to this recipe. If adding dried fruit remove 2oz sugar from the ingredients and if adding grated apple, allow longer to cook.

I’ve been surprised how many people have enjoyed my hedgerow cordial this year. I served it at the Solihull Healer Christmas party we hosted on Monday and as we were away in Newcastle on Wednesday when Solihull Writer’s Workshop had their Christmas meeting, I had to send bottles along to be served without me. The remaining cordial were returned to me tonight along with the news that I won the short story competition!!! I’ve won the poetry and article writing competition before but never the short story one in all the sixteen years I've been a member, so I was very pleased!

I wish all my readers a happy and peaceful holiday season with lots of good thoughts for the coming year.

2012 Herbal Ally Roundup: Rose

Rose has been with me all through the year, from the sun-kissed days of winter to the rain and gales of summer and beyond. She has brought great happiness, not just to me but to everyone who has stooped to smell her perfume or breathed in the scent of her many products before tasting. Everyone she has touched has stopped, smiled and complimented her. She has been a wonderful ally.

I have two major rose varieties in my gardens. The apothecary’s rose, rosa gallica and the David Austin old English rose, WilliamShakespeare. While the former has been used medicinally since the dawn of time, to use the latter is probably a surprise to most rose growers who don’t automatically gather their roses for culinary, cosmetic and medicinal purposes. 

Roses have always been a harvested garden crop. In medieval times, three major roses would have been grown – apothecary’s rose, also known as the Red Rose of Lancaster, the white rose (rosa alba semi-plena -the white rose of York) and the damask rose (rosa damascena).  Their ruling planets were Jupiter (red rose), the moon (white rose) and Venus (damask rose).

Rose petals were used historically to treat diarrhoea, bronchial infections, coughs, colds, chest complaints, nervous tension and lethargy. The distilled water was prescribed for eye inflammations, to refresh the spirits and to strengthen the heart. Rose oil was applied to chapped skins and Gerard said that roses would “staunch bleeding in any part of the body”.

The scent of rose has been used to perfume everywhere from churches (using scented oil in incense burners before the altar) to rooms (in pot pourris) to individual bodies as part of a floral water, a lotion, cream or massage oil. The petals can also be eaten in salads, crystallised or made into syrups, jams, jellies or vinegars. Rose water (a distilled essence of rose) has been used to flavour confectionary (notably Turkish delight), jellies, sauces and both sweet and savoury dishes.

The Catholic rosary was originally named because the beads were made from rose petals. It is a long and somewhat tedious process according to Henriette Kress, who told me that she wouldn’t consider making another set after her original one, unless she really wanted to make one for a friend. Her method can be found here. She recommends taking out your rose beads when you need love, gentleness, courage or some prickliness.

Henriette believes rose petals to be calming and mood-lifting, helping with anger and frustration and giving you courage to defend your opinions and boundaries so that you can like yourself and others more. She recommends rose petals for menstrual irritability either in the form of a tea or a bath. The tea can also be used for menstrual cramps or irregular menses. This comes from rose’s decongestant action in the female reproductive system.  Rose has also been used to treat impotence in men and can ease heart palpitations.

Avicenna was the first person to make rose water in the 10^th century. He used rose jelly to cure anyone who spat blood (usually a sign of TB or other serious illnesses).  Anne MacIntyre gives a account of the many different myths about roses in her wonderful book, The Complete Floral Healer. She very kindly stepped in at the last minute to provide a herb walk during my festival in September and had everyone spellbound as she talked about the plants she encountered in the Sanctuary.

My favourite part of her talk was about the rose. I had not heard before that according to Eastern traditions, when a soul knocked at the door of the next world and all material things had to be left behind, only the red rose was allowed to accompany that soul over the threshold because it was considered to be part of the spiritual realms.

Annie fell in love with the scent of the William Shakespeare rose, telling us she often prescribed her patients to smell a rose three times a day to help improve their overall health.  This is such a simple and effective idea I have started using it with other heavily scented plants such as rosemary in an attempt to support others in helping themselves.

Annie also writes about the energetic properties of rose. She says, “The red rose increases confidence in those feeling insecure about their sexuality and who suffer from feelings of shame or timidity about their bodies. It help you to open up to love and bring your desires into action.

“The white rose is quietly inspiring and strengthening, renewing energy and joy in oyur life. The white rosebud can be given to infants and children to help them grow up, keeping a sense of heaven on earth.

“The wild rose is the remedy of independence. It is traditionally said to mean ‘pleasure and pain’ as it brings pleasure to the eyes and heart when found blooming in the wild, but pain from its sharp prickles if you try to pluck it. Wild rose warms the heart and softens the emotions, engendering an easy-going feeling to enhance sensuality.”

I really understand what she means about the wild rose. In my part of the world, this is the dog rose (rosa canina), although I have come across both the briar rose (rosa rubiginosa) and rosa rugosa growing wild in Northumberland; briar rose around a former children’s TB sanatorium near Morpeth and rosa rugosa on the coal-filled cliffs and sand dunes opposite St Mary’s lighthouse, Whitley Bay.

Gathering dog rose petals means time to be by myself, to study how the flower buds open, how the petals fall or are blown away by strong breezes and how the buds grow in clusters of up to eight or more. This is revealed more fully when bright red hips form in autumn, when I found some bushes by Olton canal only producing single berries, whereas those in my Sanctuary and surrounding fields had groups of between four and eight.

Rosehips also reveal the different species of bush. Apothecary’s rosehips are so small as to be almost non-existant, leaving wild rosehips to be the one of choice for collecting, but even those are different shapes and sizes. The largest I have ever found were in the Friary field last winter and I’m looking forward to seeing if they grow to such size again. Cotswold rosehips seem the usual shape and size, but the canalside ones are small and round, leading me to wonder if they were rosehips at all if I hadn’t been sure of their identification through their leaves.

I throw rosehips into most syrups and cordials and quite a few other concoctions because of their high vitamin C content. Looking at some of their other properties – strengthens the lungs in fighting infections, wards against colds and coughs,  helps to fight infection in the digestive tract and helps re-establish normal bacterial population of the intestine when it has been disrupted by antibiotics or faulty diet – they seem the ideal support food or drink for winter.

My daughter has been suffering from recurring infections in her wisdom tooth which the dentist has suggested might come from a lack of fruit and vegetables in her diet, so I gave her one of the rosehip syrups to take home with her and take a spoonful every day.

My stocks of dried rosehips have all been used up so this autumn I have been gathering large basketfuls to replenish my empty larder jars and make some rosehip syrup for the first time. The bags of hips are still drying in my hot cupboard and although the syrup was made, it seemed to produce very little juice from a large number of hips, so I may try again later in the winter when the hips are softer and sweeter.

I have made many potions from rose this year as well as drying several bags of petals despite appalling weather conditions when harvesting. Tinctures, vinegars, tonics, syrups and elixirs have all graced my shelves along with a newcomer - the rose double infused oil.  I was also really pleased to be able to put up another batch of Kiva Rose Hardin’s, “Burns Honey” as my bergomot flowered again this year after restocking the plant last spring.

With the rose oil I made a simple rose cream with rose tincture and beeswax. The inspiration came from Leslie Postin’s blog and she, in turn, used Lucinda Warner’s recipe from her blog. We made it as part of last Saturday’s “Oils and Salves” workshop. I’d never had any success with creams before so I was somewhat anxious about the outcome, especially as I could not obtain either a rose hydrosol or any glycerine and when I went to look for my last piece of cocoa butter in the larder, it hid! 

Simple Rose Cream

8 fl ozs Apothecary’s rose petal double infused oil

1 fl oz Aloe vera gel scraped from the inside of three large leaves

5 fl ozs Apothecary’s rose petal tincture

1oz grated beeswax from the beekeeper who lives in the next road.

We measured out the oil and heated it in the top of a double boiler with the grated beeswax, stirring gently with a wooden spoon until it melted. This liquid was then poured into a large plastic bowl which was suspended inside another bowl of cold water and the oil was again stirred until it was almost cool. I used a stick blender to emulsify the cooling salve as the tincture and aloe vera gel were slowly poured into the mixture. The blending continued until the cream was thoroughly emulsified. It looked pale and fluffy and was very slightly pink in colour.

The scent was very subtle but I was very impressed with the result. If you wanted a stronger smelling cream you could add drops of rose essential oil or a fragrance which pleases you. We put the cream into some recycled jars my sister had gifted me the previous weekend.

What really delighted me was the fact that I had made and grown all the ingredients myself except the beeswax, which I had collected on foot.

The other great success this year has been rose elixir. When my daughter shut her finger in a door earlier this year and called for “Mother’s Emergency Service”, I dosed her with rose elixir while I bandaged her damaged digit. She was soon calm and sufficiently restored to go off to give her piano lesson followed by a shift in the hotel where she then worked.

At the beginning of September I was asked to provide a medicinal herb demonstration in the kitchen garden at Calke Abbey. Many of the volunteers on duty that day came to see me and waxed so poetical about the stress relieving effects of the rose elixir that the organiser came and sat down with me for a good twenty minutes.  She asked if she could take the elixir away with her as it made her feel so much better!

Rose has been a wonderful ally this year. She is a perfect companion teaching me close observation whilst providing a calm and unhurried world in which to inhabit. Although I shall choose another ally in the coming months, I know rose will always be at my side.