Herb
I come to write about my current favourite weed. No, i don't mean indica vs. sativa, jerks. :)
My first close acquaintance with Daucus carota--Queen Anne's lace, AKA wild carrot--came when i was studying contraceptive herbs last summer, having quit the Pill but entered a relationship that was going to last longer than our condom tolerance. This particular herb seems to have the effect of--either or both, i'm not sure--stimulating uterine contractions (and thus the menses) and/or hindering the release of progesterone, which is what fosters the cozy-homemaking of a uterus every month in the first place. Queen Anne's lace is a gorgeous plant when in bloom, tall with a flat plane of tiny white flowers, sometimes with an itty-bitty red spot in the center--symbolically enough. It grows absolutely everywhere in these hills during a certain phase of summer. I get a kick out of driving around and witnessing such an abundance of wild birth control. I made a tincture of blossoms and seeds for "morning after" use, which i think is the generally indicated method.
Yesterday i got acquainted with the carrot aspect of the wild carrot plant when i'd begun to clear an extension of my garden. This herb's roots were so chunky and carroty-smelling that i allowed myself to be distracted from the task at hand in order to rinse off an armful of these kids and sauté them with fresh ginger. The result looked like a bird's nest in my bowl--reminding me of some of the more exotic Asian food i've been served--and it tasted like spring, too. Turns out, i discover just now from Fernald & Kinsey, that "bird's-nest" is actually another name for this herb, though more likely because of the shape of the structure supporting its lovely flowers. Other names, according to Arnold & Connie Krochmal, include "bee's nest plant" and "devil's plague." Devil's plague? Does that mean that Daucus carota is a plague to the devil, or is it a tool of?
My spry little old lady neighbour gave me some old books of hers a while back--"it's all gotta go before i die or after!" she said, hahaha. Apparently in her 40s she was enrolled in the natural resources program at the school i presently attend, and so knowledgeable was she about wild plants that, at the end of her identification tests in the field, her own answer sheets always served as the key for the class. She is amazing. Anyway, it's sweet to have these out-of-print titles from the 1950s and 70s as i do my research for herb school and otherwise--they have beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and considerably broaden my perspective beyond more recent publications. I'm particularly enjoying this postwar edition of Fernald & Kinsey's Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America, which quotes liberally from botanical, culinary, geographical, anthropological, poetic, and other texts of the 18th, 19th, & early 20th centuries; uses terms i often cannot translate to modern lingo, probably because they refer to items and processes no longer in currency; and includes such delightful passages as the following, from page 162, regarding Cannabis sativa:
The HEMP is an occasional weed about rubbish of towns. In eastern and southern Europe its seeds are much eaten after being parched or, according to some authors, they are made into cakes and fried. The seeds contain much oil and are nutritious or even stimulating. A famous oriental intoxicant is derived from the resin of the plant, the dangerous narcotic and deadly marijuana, which, like all evil, has rapidly spread to the New World. See p. 52.
Page 52 reads:
The tall annual weed of rubbish-heaps, railroad-yards, etc., HEMP, should be known to all, for it is the source of the narcotic and deadly drug, marijuana. The plant contains a number of poisonous alkaloids. Its most legitimate use is as a source of strong fiber. After the fiber is removed the waste is used in packing bottled goods. Consequently, waste, carrying seeds, is swept into the back-yards and waste lots, or from freight-cars to the freight-yards. Its presence about cities often causes consternation in police-forces, who build up hypothetical problems concerning drug-rackets. See p. 162.
My god, i just happened upon all that; let's consider my day made.
The Kochmals' Guide to the Medicinal Plants of the United States, printed a generation later, has a rather different take on the uses of the wicked hempweed (AKA cherry, gunjok, loco weed, neckweed). Highlights:
In India, thugs would give their victims one form of the plant (hashish) so as to drug them before robbing them. The plant has been used medically to treat nervous disorders, tetanus, gonorrhea, depression, and bladder inflammation. One old family medical guide recommended it for discouraging masturbation. In Kentucky, a friend told us that when he was a youngster his neighbors who were too poor to buy bourbon would smoke a 'reefer' of marijuana instead.
Oh the lore! I love it.
My first close acquaintance with Daucus carota--Queen Anne's lace, AKA wild carrot--came when i was studying contraceptive herbs last summer, having quit the Pill but entered a relationship that was going to last longer than our condom tolerance. This particular herb seems to have the effect of--either or both, i'm not sure--stimulating uterine contractions (and thus the menses) and/or hindering the release of progesterone, which is what fosters the cozy-homemaking of a uterus every month in the first place. Queen Anne's lace is a gorgeous plant when in bloom, tall with a flat plane of tiny white flowers, sometimes with an itty-bitty red spot in the center--symbolically enough. It grows absolutely everywhere in these hills during a certain phase of summer. I get a kick out of driving around and witnessing such an abundance of wild birth control. I made a tincture of blossoms and seeds for "morning after" use, which i think is the generally indicated method.
Yesterday i got acquainted with the carrot aspect of the wild carrot plant when i'd begun to clear an extension of my garden. This herb's roots were so chunky and carroty-smelling that i allowed myself to be distracted from the task at hand in order to rinse off an armful of these kids and sauté them with fresh ginger. The result looked like a bird's nest in my bowl--reminding me of some of the more exotic Asian food i've been served--and it tasted like spring, too. Turns out, i discover just now from Fernald & Kinsey, that "bird's-nest" is actually another name for this herb, though more likely because of the shape of the structure supporting its lovely flowers. Other names, according to Arnold & Connie Krochmal, include "bee's nest plant" and "devil's plague." Devil's plague? Does that mean that Daucus carota is a plague to the devil, or is it a tool of?
My spry little old lady neighbour gave me some old books of hers a while back--"it's all gotta go before i die or after!" she said, hahaha. Apparently in her 40s she was enrolled in the natural resources program at the school i presently attend, and so knowledgeable was she about wild plants that, at the end of her identification tests in the field, her own answer sheets always served as the key for the class. She is amazing. Anyway, it's sweet to have these out-of-print titles from the 1950s and 70s as i do my research for herb school and otherwise--they have beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and considerably broaden my perspective beyond more recent publications. I'm particularly enjoying this postwar edition of Fernald & Kinsey's Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America, which quotes liberally from botanical, culinary, geographical, anthropological, poetic, and other texts of the 18th, 19th, & early 20th centuries; uses terms i often cannot translate to modern lingo, probably because they refer to items and processes no longer in currency; and includes such delightful passages as the following, from page 162, regarding Cannabis sativa:
The HEMP is an occasional weed about rubbish of towns. In eastern and southern Europe its seeds are much eaten after being parched or, according to some authors, they are made into cakes and fried. The seeds contain much oil and are nutritious or even stimulating. A famous oriental intoxicant is derived from the resin of the plant, the dangerous narcotic and deadly marijuana, which, like all evil, has rapidly spread to the New World. See p. 52.
Page 52 reads:
The tall annual weed of rubbish-heaps, railroad-yards, etc., HEMP, should be known to all, for it is the source of the narcotic and deadly drug, marijuana. The plant contains a number of poisonous alkaloids. Its most legitimate use is as a source of strong fiber. After the fiber is removed the waste is used in packing bottled goods. Consequently, waste, carrying seeds, is swept into the back-yards and waste lots, or from freight-cars to the freight-yards. Its presence about cities often causes consternation in police-forces, who build up hypothetical problems concerning drug-rackets. See p. 162.
My god, i just happened upon all that; let's consider my day made.
The Kochmals' Guide to the Medicinal Plants of the United States, printed a generation later, has a rather different take on the uses of the wicked hempweed (AKA cherry, gunjok, loco weed, neckweed). Highlights:
In India, thugs would give their victims one form of the plant (hashish) so as to drug them before robbing them. The plant has been used medically to treat nervous disorders, tetanus, gonorrhea, depression, and bladder inflammation. One old family medical guide recommended it for discouraging masturbation. In Kentucky, a friend told us that when he was a youngster his neighbors who were too poor to buy bourbon would smoke a 'reefer' of marijuana instead.
Oh the lore! I love it.