All About Thyme: May 2024
Finding a little more green in your life
May’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 May: Lily of the Valley
May is National Salad Month
Week 1
May 5. Today is Cinco de Mayo, a festival honoring Mexican-American culture. And yesterday was Kentucky Derby Day! (Did you enjoy your mint julep?)
May 6. The first week in May is always National Herb Week, celebrating the plants that have contributed so much to human lives.
Week 2
May 12. Mother’s Day. Give your mom a hug. If you're not with her, virtual hugs are sweet. So are flowers. (Just sayin'.)
May 13. At the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, sassafras-flavored Hires Root Beer was introduced to a thirsty nation.
May 16. About this time, England celebrates Be Nice to Nettles Week, helping introduce modern folk to a plant they usually meet--unpleasantly--only on picnics
Week 3
May 20. Victoria Day. Canadians celebrate the Sovereign’s birthday. Victoria Day (first designated when she was queen) is also the unofficial beginning of the warm season north of the border. Canadian gardeners, raise your trowels! And get out those eggs for a Victoria Sponge (recipe link below).
May 22. This week in 1810, Dolley Madison is said to have served the first ice cream at the White House. Alas, not true: Thomas Jefferson beat her to it. For the real scoop, check out this post.
May 23. The birthday of Carl Linnaeus (1707). A Swedish botanist, Linnaeus figured out how to keep plants straight with his binomial naming system. But some scientists say it’s time for a change.
Week 4
May 27. Memorial Day (called Decoration Day when it was first marked in 1868) is observed on the last Monday in May. Remembrance is symbolized by the red poppy.
May 28. Yesterday was the birthday of Rachel Carson (1907), writer, ecologist, and marine biologist. Her courageous 1962 book Silent Spring alerted the world to the dangers of pesticide poisoning.
The Notorious Nettle
I have eaten nettles, I have slept in nettle sheets, and I have dined off a nettle tablecloth . . . I have heard my mother say that she thought nettle cloth more durable than any other. —Thomas Campbell, 1803
If you’ve been stung by a nettle (Urtica dioica), you probably haven’t forgotten the experience, and you may have avoided this notorious "weed" ever since. But over the centuries, this prickly plant has been a valuable wild herb.
The Edible Nettle. The nettle is an excellent source of magnesium, iron, vitamins--and calcium (481 mg in a half-cup, nearly 3x the calcium in milk). The young plants have been used in soups, stews, and as a spinach-like side dish. In Scotland, oats and nettles are baked in a griddle cake and nettles can be used to flavor and color cheese.
The Medicinal Nettle. Nettles have been used for centuries to treat osteoarthritis, eczema, prostate problems, and dandruff. The leaves contain formic acid, the same chemical that’s in ant bites. And yes, it’s true that the leaves of the dock, which often grows companionably with nettle, contain chemicals that neutralize nettle sting and cool the skin. Nettle in, dock out, as the old saying goes.
The Cosmetic Nettle. Nettle is said to make your hair shine and feel thicker and smoother. To make a hair rinse, collect 2-3 cups of nettle leaves (wear gloves!). Cover with water in a non-reactive saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain and cool for use as a rinse after washing your hair.
The Fiber Nettle. The nettle contains long, pliable fibers that can be spun and woven to make smooth, supple nettle cloth, or cooked and processed as paper. The leaves are used to make a green dye; a yellow dye is made from the roots.
The Garden Nettle. As liquid compost, nettles make a great fertilizer. Pick them in spring and pack them into a bucket with a lid, adding one-half gallon of water to each pound of nettles. Let sit for 2-3 weeks, stirring occasionally. Strain out the nettles and put them on the compost heap. Use the liquid as a fertilizer (1 cup nettle liquid to 10 cups water), on container and garden plants. In a stronger mixture (1 cup to 5 cups water), you can use it to spray aphids and black fly. The nettle itself is a food plant for butterflies.
Cows fed on nettle give much milk and yellow butter. Makes horses smart and frisky. Stimulates fowls to lay many eggs.—Constantine Rafinesque (1830)
The seede of Nettle stirreth up lust, especially when drunk with wine.—John Gerard, Herbal, 1633
May’s To-Do List
Fiesta time! Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a traditional mole poblano. (The word mole comes from the Náhuatl molli, sauce or mixture.) Here's the whole story and authentic recipe for this interesting sauce. There are many complex recipes (with many intriguing ingredients.) If you're short on time and patience, here's one that's simpler and just as tasty.
Derby Day is history but you’re still thirsty? Here's a mint-julep how-to. Make a syrup by boiling 2 cups sugar and 2 cups water together for five minutes. Refrigerate overnight with 6-8 sprigs of fresh mint. Make one julep at a time by filling a julep cup or glass with crushed ice, 1 tablespoon mint syrup, and 2 two ounces bourbon. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint. Indulge.
Or for something nonalcoholic . . . The first recipe for Hires Root Beer was very like this one from 1869:
For each gallon of water take ½ oz each of hops, burdock, yellow dock, sarsaparilla [Smilax regelii], dandelion and spikenard roots [Aralia racemosa], bruised. Boil about 20 minutes, and strain while hot. Add 8-10 drops of oils of spruce and sassafras mixed in equal proportions. When cooled to a warm temp add 2-3 tbsp. yeast, molasses 2/3 pint, or white sugar ½ lb. Put the mix into a jar, with a cloth covering it, let it work for 2-3 hrs, then bottle and set in a cool place.
Note: this recipe uses sarsaparilla, which has a taste similar to that of sassafras, a small tree. The FDA banned the use of sassafras after research linking it to cancer. For another opinion on its toxicity, read this post (and the recipe for root beer syrup).
Observe Victoria Day with a classic Victoria Sponge. Here’s a recipe. Did you know that this cake celebrated Alfred Bird’s 1843 invention of baking powder?
Celebrate Be Nice to Nettles Week by listening to Susan's podcast on this much-maligned "weed" or reading about 101 surprising ways you can use nettles.
Learn more about Rachel Carson’s life and work from the website of Linda Lear, Carson’s acclaimed biographer. Lear has also written the highly-praised biography, Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature. Dual portraits of a pair of outstanding women whose environmental vision changed the way we view the world.
One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, what if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?—Rachel Carson
Everyone, thanks for reading! And please, tie a string around your finger, reminding yourself to ask your librarian to put you on the waiting list for the upcoming China Bayles mystery, Forget Me Never. Available in print, digital, audio.
I tried to establish nettle on our property when we first lived here. I now suspect that since all our trees were babies we didn't provide enough shade for the plant. The orchard is much closer to a mature stand of trees now, and your feature article is inspiring me to try again. Do any other readers have suggestions for successfully establishing it? Location, transplant vs seed, and care? I do know where some wild ones grow that I could access; I've harvested there in the past.
Nettle quiche is one of my favorite spring dishes.
After a couple of years' absence, I spotted St. John's Wort in my yard about a week ago. Welcome back!
During a college 400 level Botany course, I collected nettles in a field and then, caught Poison Oak rash. So, went back to the field with gloves on and collected the poison oak to dry and press as well. I sealed all 50 plants of my collection between plastic, to use as a Naturalist after college. Thankfully, I had sealed not only had the common and botanical name of plant, but also my full name with month and year collected. The professor tried to fail me, as I got only a C on final exam and he said I never turned in a Collection. Since, my Lab Teacher heard my story of getting Poison Oak and saw the sealed in plastic collection, he went looking and found the entire Collection in the professor files! He got my grade changed, then asked to keep the collection for teaching tool. I agreed. It was a tough, but good lesson to learn, as I went on to work in a mostly male organization even bigger than Oregon State—the USDA Forest Service.