Books I have read, recommend, or want
Will everyone who is interested in homestead gardening, worms, sustainable agriculture, rural Britticisms, good-hearted silliness, and chocolate ratings* please go listen to Wiggly Wiggler’s podcasts? I give them a Milka. *Chocolate ratings1 (low) = Hershey’s2 = Nestle3 = Cadbury’s4 = Galaxy5 = Milka. Continue reading Wiggly Wigglers
Somehow, I made it into my adult life with no books on medieval life. All right, I have ONE – an excerpt of Bocaccio’s Decameron, which I bought fairly recently. None of the retellings of Arthurian tales, of folktales, Maculay’s Castle and Cathedral, none of those are in my house. I have no idea how this happened. But it’s getting Fixed, right now. I got some Amazon gelt as a Yuletide present (thanks, Mom!) and the following are on their way to my door: Renaissance Fashions (Dover Pictorial Archives)Medieval Costumes Paper Dolls (History of Costume)A Weaver’s Garden: Growing Plants for … Continue reading Books!
From the Yahoo! Group SCA-Herbalist: Gather the acorns and shell them. Our ancestors would put the acorns in a basket in a fast moving stream and leave them for a few days. This allowed the tannins to leach out effortlessly. Most of us don’t have a stream handy to use. Cover the acorns with water and boil. The water will turn dark from tannins. Throw out this water and repeat the process as many times as necessary to get out all the tannins. (This will vary by species.) They say that you’ll usually need to boil the acorns 2-3 hours … Continue reading How to Eat Acorns Even If You’re Not Piglet
I stumbled across this book today at the paperback exchange place. The History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers. I quote from the Spanish Bayonet entry (family Agave, Yucca filimentosa), because I have one by the front porch steps: In Virgina Thomas Harriot (1590) reported, "Here is a kind of grasse in the countrey uppon the blades whereof there groweth very good silke in forme of a thin glittering sking to bee stript off." In 1610, Sir Thomas Gates, governor of Virginia, described some Indian "womens girdles of silke of the Grassesilke, not without art, and much neatnesse finely wrought". … Continue reading New Book on Wildflower Lore
Courtesy of Yahoo!’s SCA-Herbalist Group: Here’s an article from the January 2007 issue of the Herb Companion on how to to make an Herbal First Aid Kit http://www.herbcomp anion.com/ articles/ 12_01_07- healing-herbs Continue reading Herbalist’s First Aid Kit
I think the only truly medieval book I have is an excerpt from Bocaccio’s Decameron. This should probably change. While poking around the official SCA site, looking for the herbalist’s guild, and checking on what paperwork is required to pay membership dues, I found the SCA Marketplace, featuring a series of monographs called the Compleat Anachronist. Several of these would be very much appreciated cough**Christmas**cough: (can we tell I’m trying not to be so hard to buy for? And they’re only 4.50 each!) CA0016 – A Compleat Herbal: Herbs as condiments and medicines, scents and dyes, their use and cultivation. … Continue reading Greet’s Bookshelf