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Notes from the Apothecary
Notes from the Apothecary: The Orange Oranges: juicy, bright globes filled with vitamin C and sunshine. The orange is a citrus fruit that’s one of the most cultivated fruits in the world, and may have been cultivated by humans for around 2,500 years. The sweet orange as we know it today is a hybrid of mandarins and pomelos, and is very different from bitter oranges, the likes of which often line the streets of towns in Mediterranean countries. I once made the mistake of plucking and peeling a juicy looking orange while in Spain, only to have my mouth shrivelled by the intense bitterness! Sweet oranges, in comparison,…
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Gael Song
A Druid’s Garden, Edible Forestry, Year Two A year ago, I wrote an article on putting in an edible forest garden when I was so excited to finally have enough outdoor space to plant one after waiting lots of years for it. And someone requested a follow-up on that first article, so here it is. Just to recap the basics: an edible forest garden is made up of three layers, trees, shrubs, and ground covers, all perennial and all edible in some way. Most of the examples of EFGs I’ve seen look a lot like a jungle, masses of plants scrambling all over each other. But I’m a druid and…
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Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times
Celebrating the Old Ways in New Times for June 2020 (pic by AmberAvalona on pixabay.com) Bright Blessings! Believe it or not, it will be Summer Solstice before we know it! What warmer weather we are having that at this time a month ago! Many of us will be merrily working away at our gardens! For me, having pulled a raised bed, I won’t be planting as much- and I learned a very ugly truth meaning I might not plant hardly anything at all. I still live in the condos- truthfully, we may be stuck here as long as another year- if not longer. Long boring story- sigh. Normally,…
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Book Review – Herbs of the Southern Shaman by Steve Andrews
Book Review Herbs of the Southern Shaman by Steve Andrews 152 Pages Herbs of the Southern Shaman is Steve Andrew’s follow-up to Herbs of the Northern Shaman and makes an excellent companion to it. This is a well-researched overview guide to entheogenic plants which grow in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a small book, 152 pages, that contains a wealth of information about more than 50 “teacher” plants we commonly associate with altered consciousness, like peyote and ayahuasca, and those we are more likely to find in the kitchen, like nutmeg. There is a bit of overlap with the Herbs of the Northern Shaman that Andrews references, as plants like…
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Notes from the Apothecary
Notes from the Apothecary: Hyacinth The hyacinth is a flowering plant which grows from a bulb. It has beautiful clusters of fragrant flowers and is very popular during the holiday season and spring. This easy to grow plant has a wealth of history and mythology, and could bring a touch of magic into your home as well as a blast of floral colour and fragrance. The Kitchen Garden Hyacinths are poisonous so aren’t grown for culinary purposes. They contain oxalic acid, a compound that causes skin irritation externally. If taken internally it can cause: Damage to mucous membranes Damage to respiratory tract Wheezing Shortness of breath Laryngitis Inflammation…