Category Archives: Alchemy

365 Frankendael day 143

365 Frankendael, Potions, Wild herbs, , ,

Today, more Rose hip harvesting. Without trying to sound corny, this really does seem to be a good year for the roses! I’m making the most of it by topping up my Rose hip honey infusion jar.

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There are lots of Rose shrubs with green or very pale yellow orange hips at the moment. This shows that the Rose hip season should be around for a while yet.

I’m setting up a jar of Hawthorn berry elixir today, so also picked some more of those heart warming and toning berries to add to the mix.

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To make an elixir, which is simply a preserve made of herbs in some sort of alcohol and sugar, all you need do is the following:

1. Place enough berries (clean, ripe and dry) to fill your jar, into a bowl. 2. Pour over enough honey so that,  with a little stirring, every berry can be coated in sweet goodness.
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3. Now pour that sticky berry-honey mix into your sterile glass jam jar.
4. Put your chosen strong alcoholic spirit, Brandy and Vodka being the classic choices, into the jar.
5. Poke around a little, with a chop stick or clean knitting needle, to dislodge any trapped air bubbles. Make sure it’s filled right to the top of the jar.
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6. Leave to sit and infuse, with a tight fitting lid on, in a quiet spot and out of direct sunlight, at room temperature, for about 6 Weeks, or as long as you can bear to wait.

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7. When it comes to maturity, you simply take off a teaspoon of tasty elixir at a time and slurp it down, or you may like to strain off the berries (save and use them for fabulous desert topings although the stones need to be removed before eating) and store the elixir in a suitable sterile bottle (e.g. a used flip top Grolsch bottle or similar, is perfect).

Hawthorn is a renowned heart tonic.

Processing Rose hips

Foraging, Potions, Wild herbs, ,

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Rose hips are plentiful at the moment. They are nutritious and medicinal. All clean, unsprayed and legally obtained rose hips can be used to make immune boosting preparations. But this is often easier said than done. They are full of itchy, hair covered seeds. These need to be removed before the Rose hips can be ingested.

One way to do this is to make your syrup, or whatever else you choose, and then strain out the seeds and hairs before the final storage.

Another way, is to remove them at the start. It is fiddly but it works and is worth the effort, especially if you’d like to make a cold uncooked preparation, such as Rose hip honey. I also think it makes the harvester/forager quietly aware of each hip and that is a good thing, on many levels.

Here’s how I do it.

1. Cut a hip in half. Out is best to harvest them before they become soft and pulpy, but when they are fully coloured.
2. Scoop out all of the seeds and most of the hairs, using a strong thumb nail or a blunt ended knife. Quirk through all your hip harvest in this way. Place seeds in a container to return to the harvesting location and the deseeded hips in another.

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3. When all of the hips are deseeded, place them in a bowl and fill it with water. Swill them around a little, to release the hairs and other unwanted particles.
4. Strain in a colander, whilst swilling around in more water.
5. Lay the washed hips out on a clean dry tea towel (or a dehydrator) and allow them to surface dry. I like to use another teatowel to dry of the tops and then I tumble them around now and again, on dry sections off the teatowel, to speed up the process.

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6. Wash your hands, arms and wherever else three hairs contacted you, with cold water. They come off easily but may tickle for a long time if you miss an area.
7.Use as described in your chosen recipe. I simply pack mine into a jar and pour in honey, at this point.

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365 Frankendael day 136

365 Frankendael, Apprenticeship, Foraging, Potions, Wild herbs, , , ,

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red clover

Today I harvested a few handfuls of Red Clover blossoms to make a small jar of tincture, three large leaves of Ground elder, to chop finely and add to our dinner and sat quietly in a beautiful, tiny grove, within the woodland part of park Frankendael.

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Ground elder

The grove is somewhere I’ve walked by many times, have harvested little from and yet it drew me completely within itself today. This place has a wonderful energy about it, filled with sounds of the city and yet, cool, shaded, green, earthy, nurturing and sheltering. Sounds of birds chattering around me, branches crack as squirrels and other small animals climb around. Just the place to launch the apprenticeship course, I think. To sit on the ground here is a beautiful experience. I smell Ivy all around me and feel supportive earth beneath me. It is a magical place.

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Grove in Frankendael park

I feel delighted that I will have an opportunity to take several people there, to share my love of this place and of the plants which choose to live in the city.

Herbs & Honey Workshop

Lotions, Potions

I’m running one more workshop this summer. It’s about ways to use honey with herbs, in simple, unusual and delicious ways.

There are two spaces left and as ever, the maximum number of participants is small.

Cost €15, upon booking (but fully refundable upto 24 hours before)
Tuesday 14th August,
Oost Watergraafsmeer
14:00-16:00

If you would like to book a place, please do so through the meetup group.

365 Frankendael day 109

365 Frankendael, Perennial herbs, Potions

Today was the Comfrey workshop. We harvested from a lovely patch of Russian Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) in a quiet corner of  Park Frankendael. After torrential rain before the workshop, the sun shone and the plants looked even more verdant than usual. After meeting the plants, off home to drink some 8 hour Comfrey infusion that I set up last night, make some Comfrey ointment (from infused oil), Comfrey Witchhazel gel and to prepare for making a Comfrey leaf tincture. The Tincture and gel instructions are on the workshop handout and will also be in my forthcoming Urban Herbology Essentials book.

So much more can be done with this wonderful herb. Another time! In cities I always harvest leaves alone, so no digging up Comfrey roots today, but plenty of healing unctuous goodness in the leaves. Also a reminder that Russian Comfrey doesn’t contain the much feared liver toxin in it’s leaves.

Thanks everyone for coming along, I really enjoyed it and hope you have further fun and healing using your preparations at home and in setting up your tincture jars. Any problems, just let me know. The next workshop is fully booked. I’m thinking of running a winter warmer lotions and potions 3 hour workshop later this year. If that sounds interesting then let me know.

Herb by Herb part 4 – Elder

Lotions, Potions, Shrubs


My favourite herb, it grows as happily in cities as it does in the country. Generally overlooked, this herbal treasure chest is steeped in ancient folklore and has a long long history of use. You can use parts of it, harvested at certain times, to make simple safe remedies for the whole family.

This workshop is timed to (hopefully) coincide with the Elderberry harvest time in Amsterdam. Elderberry syrup will be on the remedy making menu, as will other useful concoctions. Sambucus  nigra is a herbal gem!

Monday 17th September 2012
Frankendael (bus stop Hugo de Vrieslaan)
10-11.30
€10 each, 5 max
(Fully booked (6/8/12) – waiting list available)

Herb by Herb – Part 3 – Comfrey

Alchemy, Perennial herbs,

Once a month a chance to learn in detail about a different common urban herb from either Jennie (who I run the meetup group with) or me, Lynn.

Part three is about Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum, S. officinalis). A deep healing plant growing all over town, with many uses and a confusing recent reputation. It’s an easy herb to find, identify, process and use. I will take this session in Park Frankendael on Tuesday 7th August 2012. 10.00 – 11.30.

In this short and sweet field workshop, you will learn how to make an infusion, poultice, infused oil and herb gel and about the properties, habitat, folk and medicinal history and current uses of the plant. You will take home a bag full of little herbal preparations and knowledge of how to do it time and time again with everyday materials.

We will try to run each monthly Herb by Herb workshop near the New Moon and the days of the week will vary. The August workshop is earlier than usual, due to the summer holiday. You are welcome to attend all, some or none of the series! Most materials will be provided. You’ll need to bring along a small pair of scissors, perhaps a flask of hot water and 2 small and clean glass jars (such as 90ml pesto jars).
Cost of the workshop is €10. Maximum 5 participants. Cost includes materials and a handout with plant details and preparation instructions.

As we will also make a gel during this workshop, you may like to bring a small used plastic tub.

Please contact me by email (lynn.shore@gmail.com) or through the meetup group if you are interested in joining this workshop.

Aloe Omelette Shampoo

Lotions, , , ,

A little while ago Frida Ahrlin, who co-runs a good blog called Duurzaamjezelf.nl (literally, make yourself sustainable), joined one of my herb walks. I don’t usually take much notice of my walkers hair condition but Frida’s is quite wonderful and when the topic of Aloe vera arose in conversation and she told me that she makes a shampoo using it, I had to take notice. Frida kindly sent me the recipe that she uses once every week or so, for her thick wavy hair. Today my scalp was in great need of some TLC so I decided to give the recipe a try.

My little girl thought I was putting omellete on my hair and I had to agree that it looked very like it but the results were well worth it. I now have a calm scalp and clean, bouncy, shiny hair! My hair is nothing like Frida’s, it’s pretty fine and straight but the recipe worked none the less.

I used a nice fat Aloe leaf from my Aloe mama who lives on the roofterrace. I filetted out the gel as described below, discarding anything green or yellow, as this contains an acrid chemical that will irritate the skin. But then I chopped the gel with scissors as I was in a rush to try the recipe. I think I’ll blend it more thoroughly in future as I had big blobs of aloe gel filet falling into the bath as I rubbed the mixture in, but other than that I wouldn’t change a thing. Perhaps a vegetable masher would to the trick for the blending? Maybe there’s also scope for a single drop of a carefully chosen essential oil? Or even using a suitable herb infused oil rather than plain olive oil? I’m planning on a drop of Chamomile infused olive oil and a good session with the masher, next time I make this.

If you try this recipe please let us know and do have a look at Frida’s website as it has some very useful ideas and you can see her lovely hair!

Frida previously posted the recipe in Dutch on her website last year. Here is her message to me about the shampoo…

Frida’s shampoo recipe

1 egg
1 tablespoon oil (I often use sunflower oil or olive oil)
1 tablespoon vinegar
Aloe vera gel

My aloe vera leaves are usually quite small, around 15 cm long and one thumb wide. Mostly I only use one but sometimes two. I use a small sharp knife to open the leave and scrape out the gel. I just mix everything together in a cup and it’s ready to use.

After trying out different methods, bending over the shower/tub/sink works the best. I rinse the hair and scalp first and then add the egg-mix. First massage in at the scalp and then combing it with my fingers out in the lengths. The longer I leave it in, the softer my hair gets. Usually I leave it in (with a towel around my head)  around an hour. Then rinse it with COLD water. Warm water with egg is not a hit in this case. To give the hair a nice and fresh shine I do a last rinse with 1 cup water with another tablespoon vinegar. The vinegar smell goes away as the hair dries.

Thanks again Frida! I was so excited to try this that I forgot to photograph the omelette mixture, next time…

Mugwort Teabread

Food, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , ,

Here’s a basic outline of how to make the Mugwort Teabread from the late Maida Silverman’s book, “A City Herbal. Lore, Ledgend, & Uses of Common Weeds.” The book is available from the publishers; Ash Tree Publishing, Woodstock, NY. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in city foraging and herbs.

I posted Information about adding Mugwort to my usual bread recipe previously but I made this Teabread for the Mugwort Workshop today and some of the participants wanted the recipe. I have slightly changed the ingredients to match what I used today and am not reproducing the recipe exactly. To see it in full, have a look at the book from a library or perhaps purchase a copy, it is full of lovely and tasty ideas.

2 cups spelt flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
1 egg beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped Mugwort leaves
1/2 cup grated firm cheese (I used goat cheese)

Preheat oven to 180 C.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and spread evenly in a small or medium, greased bread tin.
Bake for about 30 – 40 minutes, until an inserted sharp knife comes out clean.
Turn out onto a rack and eat warm or cold.

This recipe is extremely easy and I like to make it regularly when Mugwort is plentiful. You could easily adapt the recipe to miss out the egg and or cheese, should you want to.