All About Thyme: January 2024

Happy New Year Edition!

January's Special Days: A Potpourri of Celebrations

Herb of the Year for 2024:  Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). Named by the International Herb Association
Flower of the Month for January: Carnation, symbolizing love, fascination, distinction
January is Hot Tea Month
January Feature: How Our Foremothers Coped with Sore Throats

Week 1
January 1. Here we are again, top of the year. Happy 2024! Hope it brings you everything you’re looking for.
January 4. National Spaghetti Day. Easy-peasy one-pot meal, welcome after those elaborate holiday dinners.
January 5-6. Twelfth Night and Twelfth Day. Time to take down those holiday decorations.

Week 2
January 10. Look for Episode 1 of “The Rosemary Caper,” a new Pecan Springs short story, dropping into your inbox.
January 12. What’s in a name? On this day in 1943, the U.S. government announced that “Victory Sausages’ would replace “frankfurters” for the duration of the war against Germany—and that meat would be replaced by soybean meal.
January 13. In pre-Christian Ireland, the Feast of Brewing was celebrated about this time.

Week 3
January 17. In the English West Country, this is the traditional Wassail Night—time to wassail your apple tree. (Invite the neighbors, so they don’t get suspicious and call the police.)
January 21. The Celtic Month of the Rowan begins today. (Read about it in China Bayles' always-thymely Book of Days).

Week 4
January 23. National Handwriting Day. (Wondering what this has to do with plants? See the To-Do List below.)
January 25. Today is  National Irish Coffee Day. (Yes, coffee is indisputably an herb!)
January 27. National Chocolate Cake Day. (And so is chocolate. An herb, that is.)

How Our Foremothers Coped with Sore Throats

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

From The Kalendar of Shepheardes 1604:

Honey and sugar are good for the throat, also butter with a little salt, liquorice, to sup soft eggs, hyssop, a mean [moderate] manner of eating and drinking, and sugar candy. Evil for the throat: Mustard, much lying on the breast, pepper, anger, things roasted, lechery, much working, too much rest, much drink, smoke of incense, old cheese and all sour things are naughty for the throat.

Sore throats have been high on the list of family illnesses for eons, and every home medical manual offers several herbal remedies. Here are a few of Great-Grandmother's nineteenth-century prescriptions for curing a nagging sore throat. These also illustrate the wide variety of ways herbs could be used.

Apply a poultice: The pulp of a roasted apple, mixed with an ounce of tobacco, the whole wet with spirits of wine, or any other high spirits, spread on a linen rag, and bound upon the throat at any period of the disorder.—The American Frugal Housewife, by Mrs. Child, 1833

Simmer a syrup: Take of poplar bark and bethroot [lamb’s quarters, Trillium pendulum], each 1 lb.; water, 9 quarts; boil gently in a covered vessel 15 or 20 minutes; strain through a coarse cloth; add 7 lbs. loaf sugar, and simmer till the scum ceases to rise.—Family Hand Book, 1855

Suck on a candy: Horehound lozenges are good for a sore throat. A Dictionary of Every-Day Wants, by A. E. Youman, M.D. 1878

Deploy a funnel: Take rosemary tops, about a handful, put them into a basin, and pour a pint of boiling hot ver-juice upon it; then cover it over with a tin funnel, the broad side downwards, and the steam will come through the nozzle of the funnel; then hold your mouth over the steam till it is gone down your throat.--Family Receipt Book, 1819 [Verjuice is a highly acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes, crab-apples or other sour fruit. Vinegar is an acceptable substitute.]

Try a few onions: Water-gruel [a thin oatmeal porridge], with three or four onions simmered in it, prepared with a lump of butter, pepper, and salt, eaten just before one goes to bed, is said to be a cure for a hoarse cold.—The American Frugal Housewife, by Mrs. Child, 1833

If all else fails, indulge in a hot toddy and a cuddle: Before retiring soak the feet in mustard water as hot as can be endured . . . . On getting into bed take a hot camphor sling. [A hot toddy made with brandy or rum, honey, and tincture of camphor.] Rub the bridge of the nose between the eyes with a little oil. Cuddle in bed and sleep it off.—Healthy Living, 1850-1870, compiled by Katie F. Hamilton

And for an up-to-date review of science-supported herbal remedies, go here.

Your January To-Do List

Christmas isn’t over quite yet. If you feel like feasting on Twelfth Day, check out the Duke of Buckingham's 1508 shopping list and a 19th-century recipe for Twelfth Cake. You'll need nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, mace, ginger, and coriander. Oh, and a bottle of brandy. (Thanks to the Old Foodie, Janet Clarkson, for her wonderful blog!)

To celebrate Hot Tea Month, read a good book on the remarkable universe of tea:

• A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World, by Erika Rappaport;

• The Tea Lover’s Bible: The Complete Guide to Exploring the World of Tea and Its Health Benefits, by Lydia Merrill;

• Healing Herbal Teas, by Sarah Farr.

Enjoy the latest China-and-Ruby short mystery, “The Rosemary Caper.” Free for all Substack subscribers, with extra bonus material (recipes, herb lore, growing tips) for supporters.

Make your own Victory Sausages. These sausages were not much liked in the 1940s, not even when the newfangled hot dogs bore the flag-raising slogan, "less meat and more patriotism." These days, given the plight of our planet and concern for our health, your homemade meatless, gluten-free soy-free sausages are more likely to be cheered.

Wassail (a cider drink) would pair well with those Victory Sausages. Here's how to make it, spiked or booze-free. (Yes, you can also use this to wassail your apple tree. Share with the neighbors.)

Did you ever wonder what people used for ink before the ballpoint pen was invented? You’d be correct if you suggested berry juice or chimney soot. But the most important ink in Western history was made from oak galls, of all things! Leonardo da Vinci invented with it; Van Gogh and Rembrandt drew with it; Bach made music with it; and the framers of our Constitution made history with it. This famous seventeenth-century recipe certainly involved a great deal of preparation.

Oak galls on a leaf, by Steve Richey on Unsplash

 Oak Gall-Iron Ink

To make good ink. Take 5 ounces of the best Nutt galls, 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 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.

 Celebrate Irish Coffee and Chocolate Cake Days by baking an amazing Irish Coffee Chocolate Cake. (Your two favorite herbs plus a spicy secret: black pepper, cloves, and—of course—whiskey.)

Journal your journey with Substacker/author Kate Ferrell. Tap into age-old myths of the heroine’s journey, explore their current meanings in your world, and discover how they relate to your life story. Kate’s Story Circle class starts very soon so check it out today

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