China Bayles' Book of Days (6 page)

SOME HERBS OF AQUARIUS

• Skullcap. Skullcap has a long history of use in the Orient as a sedative and a treatment for Mercury-ruled nervous disorders, such as convulsions. Modern herbalists suggest it for nervous tension and PMS.

• Lemon balm. Lemon balm makes a delicious tea that contains plant chemicals that gently relieve tension and stress and lighten depression. It is thought to lower blood pressure by causing a mild dilation of the blood vessels.

• Lavender. Lavender provides a gentle strengthening of the entire nervous system. It soothes the nerves, eases headache, promotes healthy sleep, and relieves depression.

• Other Aquarius herbs: hops, lady’s slipper, valerian, and passionflower, all of which have been traditionally used as sedatives and nervines.

Read more about astrological herbalism:

Culpeper’s Complete Herbal
, by Nicholas Culpeper

JANUARY 21

According to some sources, the Celtic Month of the Rowan (January 21-February 17) begins today.

Rowan-tree and red thread
Hold the witches all in dread.
—OLD ENGLISH SAYING

The Magical Rowan

Each of the thirteen months in the Druids’ lunar calendar was represented by a sacred tree with a traditional symbolic significance. This month, the tree is the rowan tree (
Sorbus aucuparia
), known as the European Mountain Ash. The gods were said to feed on its red berries, and it was thought to protect against enchantment. The name
rowan
is related to the Norse “runa,” or charm, used for divination. Runes were inscribed on pieces of rowan, and the wood was used for magical wands.

Traditional uses of the rowan tree persist through Europe even into modern times. In England, as recently as fifty years ago, farmers hung rowan wreaths on their cattle sheds to protect the animals from harm. Sprigs were hung over the doors of houses and worn around the neck to protect against evil enchantments (the “evil eye”). In Wales and in Ireland, rowan trees were planted in graveyards. In Yorkshire and Lancashire, divining rods were made from rowan, and in Cornwall, people carried rowan in their pockets to ward off ill-luck. In Cumbria, butter was churned with a rowan staff.

The rowan’s dense, hard wood is useful in crafts, as well, especially for fashioning bowls, platters, tool handles, and cart wheels. The orange berries are made into a tart, sweet jelly especially good with game, and into pies and wine. Medicinally, a decoction of the bark was considered a blood cleanser and was used to treat diarrhea, nausea, and upset stomach.

The rowan tree has been naturalized from Canada through the northern United States. In the language of flowers, it symbolizes beauty, hospitality, and protection.

For more about the rowan and other magical trees:

Tree Wisdom: The Definitive Guidebook to the Myth, Folklore, and Healing Power of Trees
, by Jacqueline Memory Paterson

Rowan in Ireland keeps the dead from rising. For the same good purpose it was planted in graveyards in Yorkshire and in Wales; and in the Highlands it was built into coffins and biers.

—GEOFFREY GRIGSON, THE ENGLISHMAN’S FLORA

JANUARY 22

St. Vincent’s Day: St. Vincent is the patron of vintners.

Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, OTHELLO

Natural Partners

Wine and herbs have been paired since the beginning of human history. So on this day that celebrates the patron saint of vintners, let’s try a bit of herbal magic: turning a bottle of ordinary wine into a savory herbal wine. It’s as easy as making an herb vinegar! Here are three recipes to help you get started; after that, let your creative imagination play. Viva St. Vincent!

CHARDONNAY WITH ROSEMARY, BASIL, AND GARLIC

3 sprigs rosemary
2 large basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, peeled, quartered
1½ cups Chardonnay

Wash herbs and place them into a clean pint jar. Add wine and cover. Store in a cool, dark place for at least a week, or until the flavor suits you. Remove herbs. Use to marinate fish or chicken, wine sauce, or as part of the cooking liquid for rice or beans.

BURGUNDY WITH THYME, MARJORAM, AND PARSLEY

4 sprigs thyme
4 sprigs marjoram
4 sprigs parsley
1 ½ cups burgundy

Wash herbs and place them in a clean pint jar. Add wine and cover. Store in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks, or until the flavor is full and mellow. Use to marinate beef and ham, in making beef stew, vegetable soup, and tomato sauce.

Read more about herbs and wine:

Herbed-Wine Cuisine: Creating & Cooking with Herb-Infused Wines
, by Janice Therese Mancuso

Remember on St. Vincent’s Day
If that the Sun his beams display
For ’tis a token, bright and clear
Of prosperous weather all the year.
—TRADITIONAL WEATHER LORE

JANUARY 23

Today is National Handwriting Day.

Think Herbal Inks

Did you ever wonder what people used for ink before the ballpoint pen was invented? You’d be correct if you suggested berry juice (blueberries, cherries, poke-berries, strawberries) or chimney soot—the sort of thing that would definitely intrigue a forensic analyst. But the most important ink in Western history was made from oak galls and iron. Leonardo da Vinci invented with it; Van Gogh and Rembrandt drew with it; Bach made music with it; and the framers of the Constitution of the United States made history with it. This famous seventeenth-century recipe certainly involves a great deal of preparation.

OAK GALL-IRON INK

To make good ink. Take 5 ounces of the best Nuttgalls, break them in a mortar but not in small pieces, then put the galls into one quart of clear rain water or soft spring water, let them stand 4 or 5 days shaking them often, then take 2 ounces of white gum arabick, 1 ounce of double refined sugar, 1 piece of indigo and put in the same container and shake them well and let them stand 4 or 5 days more. Then take 2 ounces of good green copperis, the larger the better, and having first washed off the filth, put in to the rest and also a piece of clear gum, about as big as a walnut to set the colour and it will be fit for use.

WALNUT HULL INK

Try this easier Colonial American ink with your children.

12 walnut hulls
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon vinegar

(This is smelly. Open your kitchen window before you begin!) Put the hulls into an old sock, tie securely, and hammer to break up the hulls. Empty into an old saucepan, add water and vinegar, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Pour into a small lidded jar and store in the refrigerator.

LAVENDER INK

When Victorian ladies wrote to friends, they often used scented ink. Lavender was a favorite.

¼ cup lavender blossoms
1 bottle ink
cup water

Crush herbs and place with water in a nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes, watching to be sure that the water does not completely boil away. The scent is ready when the liquid is brown. Strain, and discard the leaves. Add 4 teaspoons to a bottle of ink.

JANUARY 24

January is National Soup Month

My plate of flautas arrived, sizzling hot, with a pottery bowl of beans on the side, redolent with comino and the slightly resinous epazote, a traditional Mexican herb used to reduce flatulence. It makes the enthusiastic bean-eater more socially acceptable.

—INDIGO DYING: A CHINA BAYLES MYSTERY

Black Bean Soup

There’s nothing heartier and healthier than a hot soup for lunch or supper. This recipe for
Frijoles de Olla
(Beans in a Pot) comes from Carl, who owns the café in the small town of Indigo. You can meet him in
Indigo Dying
.

Carl’s soup features black beans, garlic, and epazote (
Chenopodium ambrosioides
), a Mexican herb with carminative properties. (This is a polite way of saying that it reduces flatulence.) Epazote also has a resinous flavor, and can be omitted. You’ll find the fresh herb in Mexican food stores, and the dried herb in large supermarkets, or you can easily grow your own. If you are lucky enough to have Mexican oregano (
Poliomintha long
i
flora
) in your garden, substitute it for regular oregano.

FRIJOLES DE OLLA FROM THE INDIGO CAFÉ

4 quarts water
1 pound black beans, washed, picked, and soaked
overnight
2 onions, sliced
12 whole cloves garlic
salt to taste
2 teaspoons fresh minced oregano, or 1 teaspoon dried
1 ½ teaspoons cumin
2 sprigs fresh epazote, minced, or 1 teaspoon dried
Garnish: chopped cilantro, chopped tomato, sliced green
onion, chopped jalapeño pepper, sour cream, grated
Monterey Jack cheese

In a large pot, bring the water to a boil. Add soaked beans, onion, and garlic. After an hour of cooking, add salt, oregano, cumin, and epazote. Cook for another half hour, or until beans are done. (Beans are cooked when you can easily mash one against the roof of your mouth with your tongue.) Puree about 1 cup of the beans (use your blender); return pureed beans to the beans in the pot. Serve in pottery bowls, garnished with sour cream and grated Monterey Jack cheese. Serve other garnishes in small bowls.

Read more about soups, including bean soup:

Book of Soups: More Than 100 Recipes for Perfect Soups
, by Mary D. Donovan

JANUARY 25

Today is the birthday of Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scotland’s most loved poet.

O, my luve is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June.
O, my luve is like a melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
—ROBERT BURNS

Celebrating Robert Burns

On Burns’ birthday, of course, the most suitable dish is a haggis. This large, round sausage was traditionally made of deer heart and liver and sheep’s blood, boiled in a sheep’s stomach, and served in thick, hot slices. If your family would not appreciate this delicacy, you could honor this day with traditional Scottish oatmeal gingerbread, rich in spices. Oats were among the basic Scottish food staples; oat was used medicinally (as a nerve and uterine tonic) and as a softening poultice.

OATMEAL GINGERBREAD

½ cup butter or margarine
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons black treacle (molasses)
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup oatmeal (make this by whirring rolled oats in your
blender)
½ cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon powdered ginger
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 7-inch baking pan with wax paper and spray with a nonstick spray or grease with margarine. Heat the butter, granulated sugar, and treacle together in a saucepan until the butter has melted. Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl and add the oatmeal, brown sugar, and spice. Add the melted butter mixture and the milk, then stir in the egg. Stir until blended. Pour into the lined pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire tray.