The Artistic Farmer

Agropyron repens. Poaceae                                                                      

Found on wasteland and in pastures and gardens, couch grass or twitch grass is considered a most troublesome weed. Its leaves are long, coarse and very tough; its roots are runner-form, white and fleshy and jointed; flower spikes are brownish, Dogs eat this grass with relish to cleanse themselves through mouth and bowels, so called “ Dog Grass.” Cats also eat it.

Use, internal:

Known for many beneficial effects, also a good spring tonic. For all urinary ailments, including inflammation of kidneys and bladder, bladder or kidney stones, gravel, bladder infections, cystitis. Also jaundice, gallstones, constipation.

Dose:

The leaves can be boiled quickly ( like spinach ) and eaten; they will have to be well chewed, as they are tough. Or a strong brew made from the root for a lighter brew use the leaves, a heaped tablespoonful of roots or leaves( cut in small pieces ) in one half cups of water. Bring the cold water to a boil, simmer for three minutes, allow to steep well, and take cupfuls, sweetened with honey or molasses, one cup in the morning and night.

Tussilago farfara. Compositae                                                                  

Found on sunny banks and in waste-places. One of the earliest flowers in springtime. The flowers appear before the leaves. The leaves, almost round, are grey-green, paler on the underside and with thick downy “web”” on the upper surface. They are rather fragrant and retain their scent after drying. The flowers are wheel-form of bright yellow and richly honey-scented. The stems are scaly. The name is derived from tussis (a cough ) and ago ( to banish ) and refers to the power of this plants to banish coughs. The whole plant is medicinal.

Use, internal:

One of the supreme pectoral herbs. Cure of coughs, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, tuberculosis. Coltsfoot gives relief in whooping cough and spasmodic cough. Will expel mucus from throat and lungs. It is also a useful fever herb; the peasants say that it comes in time for the spring fevers.

Use, external:

The pounded leaves make a good poultice; apply to swellings and inflammations. The leaves can also be applied to the lung area as an external pack thusly: Soak cotton in a Standard Brew of the leaves and apply hot to the pulmonary region. The dried leaves are popular amongst the Gypsies as a smoking “tobacco”. Use the dried, powdered leaves as you would use snuff, sniffing up the nostrils to remove obstructions of the nasal passages and to relieve sinus infections.

Dose:

Make a Standard Brew and take a wineglassful three times a daily. In coughs, take spoonfuls of this brew sweetened with honey every few hours.

Stellariamedia.Caryophyllaceae 

                                                                                                               Found in fields and plowed land. Usually indicates rich soil. Leaves are small, soft rather yellowish. Flowers are tiny and held with green bracts. It has a good taste and therefore can be eaten freely in salads when it is still young, before it turns stringy. This is one of the few herbs rich in copper and iron which is palatable. This small herb, often classed as a troublesome weed; is one of the supreme healers of the herbal kingdom and has given me wonderful results. It is equally beneficial used externally and internally, and fortunately is almost evergreen, growing well in mid-winter and continuing into the late summer.

Use, internal:

As a soothing and healing demulcent agent for the whole digestive system; cures ulcers of stomach and elsewhere. For all internal inflammation, from bowels to lungs. For colitis. This small herb possesses many of the healing properties of that famed remedy of the American Indians, slippery elm tree bark. Eaten as a salad, chickweed improves the eyesight.

Use, external:

Chickweed possesses remarkable drawing powers, absorbing quantities of I purities when applied to the skin. For irritations of the genitals. For cure of all types of skin sores, including erysipelas. For such eye ailments as ulcers, styes.

Dose:

A handful eaten raw twice a daily, chopped fine into a salad. Or, of a Standard Brew, a small cupful three times a daily. Before meals. Externally the herb can be applied as a lotion, but the best skin application is the fresh herb, washed, and then applied directly on the wound, sore, ulcer stye, or other infection. Hold it in place by covering with larger washed leaves, such as cabbage, lettuce or geranium, and then binding with cotton bandages. Change the chickweed every three hours or so, applying fresh. The spent chickweed will be very hot and drenched with impurities it has drawn out from the skin.

Anthriscus cerefolium. Umbelliferae                                                                                                                     Found in hedgerows and around gardens, chervil has delicate, feathery leaves which emit an agreeable scent when bruised. The name chervil comes from the Greek “ to rejoice,” and alludes to the fragrance of the plant. The umbels of the flowers are small and colorless. The fruit has a long beak which gives this plant and alternative name of “garden beaked parsley.” If you grow it, make frequent small sowing rows, as you would for parsley.

Use, internal:

This is an old-fashioned pot-herb, once much used in cooking. Its medicinal properties are also useful as it tones up the whole body, especially the brain, and is a good digestive remedy. Use as a tonic tea to tone up the body and nerves. Good for poor memory and mental depression. Sweetens the entire digestive system. Well known as a flavoring for salads, and used in butter sauces and omelets.

Dose:

Eat a few sprigs daily in a salad, and add finely grated, to sauces, mayonnaise, omelets. Gives a good flavor when mixed in bread dough and baked in loaves of bread-sometimes used in this way in Provence, France.

Chamaemelum nobile. Compositae                                                                                                                Found in waste-places, and as a garden weed. Leaves are feathery, flowers are small, white, and daisy-like, with yellow centers. Chamomile is a fragrant herb, of sweet apple scent. The flowers yield an oil much used by Arab Herbalists. It is recognized by the orthodox medical profession as a valuable medicine for the young, especially in France and Spain where numerous doctors prescribe it. One of the best remedies for infants’ ailments.

Incidentally, Chamomile may be planted to replace grass seed on turf where drought conditions prevent a lawn from growing normally and keeping green. When bruised by treading, the chamomile lawn yields a fresh aroma. Although such a lawn will keep green without watering, it cannot stand such hard wear as can grass.

Use, internal:

The most popular use is tea for its soothing, cleansing, and tonic properties. Used as a treatment of ulcers, tumors, lassitude due to congestion and poor body tone. Equally useful for female ailments. The brew of dried or fresh flowers is particularly useful as a febrifuge. As a cure for insomnia and depression.

Use, external:

A well-known brightener for hair is a lotion of the flower heads. It is one of the best of all eye lotions. Soothes and heals inflamed gums. To make a poultice to relieve pain and reduce tumors: Mix one handful of Chamomile with one handful linseed and a handful of poppy seed ; crush or powder the herbs, mix with boiling water, spread on a flannel and apply.

Dose:

An infusion of the dried leaves can be used , but a Standard Brew of fresh leaves and flower heads is preferable when these are obtained. T o be taken by the cupful, like any other tea, and as the pungent oils yield their flavor readily, it is best to dilute and sweeten with a teaspoon of honey per cup when the patient is young.

The year is 1100. The date is August 1. The monks in the abbey at Gloucester are celebrating the holy-day of St. Peter in Chains. One of the monks wakes from a strange dream in which God promises to strike down the wicked King who has abused the Holy Church. His superior, Abbot Serlo, on hearing of the dreams sends a warning to the King, William the Red, who has oppressed all of England with taxes and disgusted many with his licentiousness and blasphemy. Red, as he is called, receives the message the following day while preparing to indulge in one of his favorite sports, hunting, in the New Forest. Although there are no longer any people dwelling in the New Forest — they were all cleared out by Red's father, William the Conqueror — there are rumors that it's a hotbed of pagan activity.                                                                                              

And August 2 is an important pagan holy-day. The Saxons call it Lammas, the Loaf-Mass. William the Red laughs at the warning from the monks and goes out hunting. A short time later, he is dead, struck in the chest by a stray arrow, and his brother, Henry, who was in the hunting party is riding hot-foot for Winchester and the crown. Now some people say that William the Red was a Lammas sacrifice, that having made a wasteland of his kingdom, he was killed by the people (or the Gods) as a sacrifice to bring new life to the land. And some people say his brother Henry has him assassinated. And some people say that both versions are true. This story comes to my mind when I think of Lammas because I spent ten years researching a medieval novel set in the time of William the Red and Henry. But this tale of sacrifice and hunting, a dying King and a wasted land, embodies many of the dominant themes of Lammas, one of the four seasonal quarter-days, and perhaps the least well-known.                                 

The Celts celebrate this festival from sunset August 1 until sunset August 2 and call it Lughnasad after the God Lugh. It is the wake of Lugh, the Sun-King, whose light begins to dwindle after the summer solstice. The Saxon holiday of Lammas celebrates the harvesting of the grain. The first sheaf of wheat is ceremonially reaped, threshed, milled and baked into a loaf. The grain dies so that the people might live. Eating this bread, the bread of the Gods, gives us life. If all this sounds vaguely Christian, it is. In the sacrament of Communion, bread is blessed, becomes the body of God and is eaten to nourish the faithful. This Christian Mystery echoes the pagan Mystery of the Grain God. Grain has always been associated with Gods who are killed and dismembered and then resurrected from the Underworld by the Goddess-Gods like Tammuz, Osiris and Adonis. The story of Demeter and Persephone is a story about the cycle of death and rebirth associated with grain. Demeter, the fertility Goddess, will not allow anything to grow until she finds her daughter who has been carried off to the Underworld.

The Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated around the Autumn Equinox, culminated in the revelation of a single ear of corn, a symbol to the initiate of the cyclical nature of life, for the corn is both seed and fruit, promise and fulfillment.

  You can adapt the themes of Lughnasad and Lammas to create your own ceremony for honoring the passing of the light and the reaping of the grain. Honoring the Grain God or Goddess Bake a loaf of bread on Lammas. If you've never made bread before, this is a good time to start.

Honor the source of the flour as you work with it: remember it was once a plant growing on the mother Earth. If you have a garden, add something you've harvested--herbs or onion or corn--to your bread. If you don't feel up to making wheat bread, make corn bread. Or gingerbread people. Or popcorn.

 What's most important is intention.

All that is necessary to enter sacred time is an awareness of the meaning of your actions.

  Food for Thought Lammas is a festival of regrets and farewells, of harvest and preserves. Reflect on these topics alone in the privacy of your journal or share them with others around a fire.

Lughnasad is one of the great Celtic fire-festivals, so if at all possible, have your feast around a bonfire. While you're sitting around the fire, you might want to tell stories. Look up the myths of any of the grain Gods and Goddesses mentioned above and try re-telling them in your own words.

Regrets: Think of the things you meant to do this summer or this year that are not coming to fruition. You can project your regrets onto natural objects like pine cones and throw them into the fire, releasing them. Or you can write them on dried corn husks (as suggested by Nancy Brady Cunningham in Feeding the Spirit) or on a piece of paper and burn them.

Farewells: What is passing from your life? What is over? Say good-bye to it. As with regrets, you can find visual symbols and throw them into the fire, the lake or the ocean. You can also bury them in the ground, perhaps in the form of bulbs which will manifest in a new form in spring.

Harvest: What have you harvested this year? What seeds have your planted that are sprouting? Find a visual way to represent these, perhaps creating a decoration in your house or altar which represents the harvest to you. Or you could make a corn dolly or learn to weave wheat. Look for classes in your area which can teach you how to weave wheat into wall pieces, which were made by early grain farmers as a resting place for the harvest spirits.

Preserves: This is also a good time for making preserves, either literally or symbolically. As you turn the summer's fruit into jams, jellies and chutneys for winter, think about the fruits that you have gathered this year and how you can hold onto them. How can you keep them sweet in the store of your memory?

Erythraea centaurium or Centaurea umbellatum or C. vulgare. Compositae                                                                                                                         Found in fields and hilly places, and on sea cliffs. Leaves are tiny and narrow, slender and smooth, the lower ones in a rosette; flowers are in panicles, star-shaped and pale pink, occasionally red. The whole plant is very bitter.

Use, internal:

Treatment for jaundice, enlarged liver, biliousness. Blood impurities, eczema. It is one of the best of the bitter tonics, sharing the fame of Gentian, and is highly prized by the American Indians. A remedy for all ailments of blood and liver, Centaury is also famed as a female remedy in all faintness following birth or birth infections. A vermifuge, including a liver fluke remedy.

Use, external:

As a lotion for all types of sores and wounds, and to cleanse sore mouths and to cool inflamed gums. Externally it is used for wound treatment and to deter mosquitoes. Dose: Of a standard brew of the whole herb, two tablespoons before meals, for liver flukes, make pills of one ounce Centaury minced into balls with fat and flour. As a birth remedy, make pills the same way but use honey instead of fat.

Externally: Use the brew freely, pouring onto wounds, and as a rinse for mouth and gums.

Capsicum annuum. Solanaceae                                                                                                                                     Except in Africa and South America where it grows wild, cayenne is found only as a garden plant. Its name comes from the Greek word kapto “I bite”, for it is a biting herb with fire in its pods. It has oval, shiny green leaves and drooping small white flowers which form green pods, which turn red when ripe. Cayenne has been used by American and Mexican Indians and African natives throughout their histories, and is still used today. Use, internal: As a supreme and harmless internal disinfectant. Mexican Indians, who use cayenne pepper as an internal disinfectant to overcome the dangers of impure foods . The Indians, often having to eat unclean food, suffer no ill effects because they sprinkle powdered cayenne peppers freely as a condiment on most of their eatables. There is no exact measurements, as pepper plants differ in strength, so add as much pepper as the person can tolerate without the mouth and throat burning too fiercely. The burning sensation of cayenne is beneficial, never harmful, and soon passes off. I learnt to use the dried powdered peppers as fumigation against pests, and rodents when living in primitive places where such things are found in human dwellings. Cayenne pepper, because it is antispasmodic as well as intensely stimulating, has earned a reputation for giving relief in heart attacks. An ancient cure for all types of fevers. Treats rheumatism, arthritis, jaundice, and Berger’s paresthesia. Sprinkled freely inside socks, will warm chilled feet; likewise used against frostbite. To expel worms. A tonic for all organs of the body, including the heart. Said to increase fertility and defer senility.

Use external:

  For severe wounds, seriously infected wounds, old sores, disinfect by covering the place with the powdered cayenne. It will burn and smart for a brief time in the way lemon juice does when applied to wounds, but this is harmless and highly curative. For fumigation, sprinkle several tablespoonfuls of the powdered pepper on a tin lid, place it over a slow flame, seal up the shed or room, and allow the pepper to fume until all burnt up. Renew several times if necessary. Cayenne is a pungent fumigator detested by vermin, but it is not poisonous in any way, and any place can be treated with cayenne can be used very soon after fumigation. In ancient times fumigation was considered a protection against vapires and werewolves.

Dose:

A half teaspoon or more in a large cupful of tepid water. Take as much as can be tolerated, morning and night, at least an hour before or after a meal. At one time, and I have no record of the degree of success achieved, a large pinch was sprinkled frequently on the tongue during a heart attack. I cannot emphasize too often the point I have already made: that while modern medicine has made some of these ancient remedies sound not only futile but almost cynically dangerous, it is still worth mentioning them for the sake of the germ of truth contained. It is as foolish to contend that no advance has been made on old herbal lore as it is to turn a blind eye on those herbs which no synthetic product can fully replace.

Nepeta cataria. Labiatae                                                                             

Found in hedges and on waste-places. Greyish, strongly scented. Flowers white or pale lavender, hooded. Cats eat the leaves for their medicinal properties and like to roll in this plant – hence the name. It is an ancient herbal remedy, especially good for babies and young children, but it is excellent for the old as well.

Use, internal: Pain relief – pains of all kinds, but especially those associated with digestion, menstruation . To cure spasm colic, whooping cough. To expel wind and intestinal gas, cure hiccups and ease stomach spasms. Catnip is very soothing to the nerves.

Dose: Of a standard brew of the leaf sprays and flowers, a wineglass morning and night. Children: a teaspoon of the standard brew, before meals, sweetened with honey. (Honey is not recommended for children less than one year old.)

Arctium lappa, Compositae                                                                                                                     Found on wastelands and by roadsides. Burdock has large rhubarb-like leaves and thistle-like pale purple flowers which form barbed burrs, which adhere to clothing and to the bodies of animals. It is much disliked as a pasture weed, since it clings to wool and spoils the quality (“Good for nothing “, the farmer said, as he made a sweep at the burdock’s head.) All parts are medicinal: roots leaves and burs. Burdock is one of the most valued plants in herbal medicine.

Use, internal: Remedy for all blood disorders, including chronic ones: gout, rheumatism, arthritis, sciatica. Burdock rapidly increases the flow of urine.

Use, external: For treatment of burns, scalds, skin irritation, boils, carbuncles, and skin parasites, apply a strong standard brew as a lotion. For burns, lay on the bruised leaves and bind in place. The bruised leaves are also a remedy against ringworm.

Dose: One ounce of bruised, sliced rood in three-quarters of a pint of water, simmer for and quarter of an hour and then steep for three hours. Take a small cupful, sweeten with honey, night and morning. In chronic blood disorders, take a cupful three times daily. To make a stronger brew, use more root and add some of the burs as well.

Borago officinalis. Boraginaceae

Found in fields and woods, likes dry ground. Leaves are rough, flowers of wheel form and brilliant blue shade.

Use, internal:

To strengthen the heart and limbs. Mildly laxative, it is good for ailments of the digestive system. A jaundice remedy. Tonic and nervine. Borage is said to cleanse all poisons from the blood. It is used by Arabs as a salad herb; the women eat it to increase their milk when nursing babies. Borage is always linked with courage ( “cor” is Latin for “ heart “).

Use, external:

Borage is said to have powers against the stings and bites of poisonous creatures such as snakes, scorpions, and rabid dogs. Such claims must of course be seen in their true perspective as indicators of the herb’s prophylactic or curative virtues. Externally, the standard brew makes an excellent eye lotion. For ringworm, pulp the leaves and squeeze the juice onto effective areas.

Dose:

 Eat small handfuls of the leaves and flowers, divided into several salad meals, or make a standard brew and drink morning and night, a small cupful at a time.

Eupatorium perfoliatu. Compositae

Found in damp places.

Has rough hairy stems. Leaves also rather hairy. Flowers are white and creamy, and very numerous. Named after King Eupator, king of Pontus, who discovered and extolled the medicinal uses of this plant. Its common name of boneset came from the success abtained with this plant in speeding setting of broken bones and soothing aching ones.

Use, internal: It is useful in all forms of fever and colds, and in all bone weekness from rickets to tender or aching bones.

Dose: A standard brew of the flowering tops or leaves, a half cupful morning and night.

Rubus fruticosus. Rosaceae                                                                       

Found in hedgerows, woodlands, and by stream sides, blackberry or bramble is well known and widespread.

It is distinguished by its prickly foliage and stems, white, rose –form flowers and big, juice black fruits.

 A plant rich in medicinal properties. Other species Rubus (such as raspberry, loganberry, and dewberry) share the same properties.

Use internal: To cool the body, tonify the nerves, relieve anemia, ease general debility, clear blood and skin disorders. A pregnancy tonic. An effective remedy for prolonged diarrhea.

  Use external: The brew, drunk daily and applied as a lotion, is a famed cure for eczema. Fresh leaves are warmed over a fire and applied by Gypsies to heal and soothe sores.

Dose: Eat as many of the raw, ripe berries as desired. For infants, make a juice from the berries. Or use a Standard Brew of the leaves, one cupful sweeten with honey.

(Archangelica officinalis. Umbelliferae)

Found in damp and woodland places, and cultivated in gardens. Angelica is a rather hairy plant with ferny leaves, and umbels of white flowers of most powerful and fragrant scent.

Use internal: For all digestive troubles, including colic, and heartburn. The leaves broad leaf stalks and roots are used. It is a cordial drink with honey. Candied angelica stalks are a popular sweetmeat in France and Spain, and candy is valued for its tonic properties and for fertility. The tea is a good eye tonic, strained carefully before use.

Dose: One teaspoon of Roots to one and a half cups of water, to bring up wind and to soothe disordered stomachs. It is important not to confuse this plant with hemlock, of the same family, which has a poisonous principle, conine.

Cleansing Aloe Powder ( Aloe barbadensis or A. vera. Aloaceae)

Found wild in dry, sandy and rocky regions, aloes are also much cultivated. The leaves grow in wands and are tall, fleshy and spike-toothed to protect them from grazing animals.

The Indians call them "Wand of Heaven" because of their wonderful medicinal powers.

Legend says that it is the only plant which came direct from the Garden of Eden.

The juice is pressed from the leaves, sun-dried, and used as a powerful laxative and blood cleanser.

Use-internal: Treatment of constipation, intestinal worms, indigestion, lack of appetite.

Use-external: To cure wounds, sores, ulcers in the mouth and to allay heat rash or poison ivy rash. Apply the fresh, cool gummy juice direct fro the fresh leaves, first shaving off the spiked borders and then cutting the leaves crosswise to release the juice. A famed mastitis cure.

Dose: It is the powdered juice which is most used in medicine. Two to four grains ( about one pinch), take in a half cupful of warm milk, sweeten with molasses or honey.