Category Archives: Blog

365 Frankendael day 153

365 Frankendael, Foraging, , ,

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I bought a few more lovely storage Kilner bottles, from a shop around the corner if my house today. On the way from it, I found a street full of well tended hollyhock plants, with this years flower stems removed and the first year plants, which should flower next summer, taking over the plots. Such a useful city herb.

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Here is another wonderful herb, seen less often in the city, Hops (Humulus lupulus), growing up and over the front fence of the NH Tropen Hotel. What a wonderful choice of herb. Perfect for a good night’s sleep. Now is a good time to gather the seed heads, they are used to stuff dream pillows and make numerous remedies.

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At the bases of the same fence other plants have crept in. this one looks like Hazel. I didn’t notice any nuts.

Throat lozenges are child’s play

Potions, , , , , ,

A perfect herbal activity for a drizzly morning when you have to stay inside for some reason – making Honey and Slippery Elm Throat Lozenges! My daughter and I, really love eating these first thing in the morning, or at any time when we have signs of a cold, sore throat or any other excuse.

Here she is, happily making her own lozenges. Not sure if it was the end result she was most happy about, or being able to eat the mixture…

We covered this recipe during the Herbs and Honey Workshop in August. They are super-simple to make. You’ll need to obtain slippery elm powder (Ulmus fulva) from a herbal supplier. I beleive that Jacob Hooy sell it in town, otherwise it can be ordered online. Or if you are desperate for just a cup or it and you live in Amsterdam, I’ll sell you some of my stock. Slippery Elm is a useful food supplement which is very soothing to the intestines and can be made into a nourishing and easily digested gruel, especially good for those recovering from illness. I often add a heaped teaspoon of the powder to my porridge in the morning.

Here’s a brief method of how to make
Honey and Slippery Elm Throat Lozenges

1. Place 1 cup Slippery Elm powder in a large mixing bowl and if desired, add a teaspoon of extra herb powders (marshmallow root and horehound are my favorites) or of licquorice tincture, to enhance the throat soothing action.
2. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to work in about 6 dripping tablespoons of good quality runny honey. You are looking for a very thick paste/dough consistency. It’s easier to add more honey to get this right, than to add more powder if you make it too runny at first.
3. Roll out the dough on a Slippery Elm powdered surface.
4. Cut the dough into tiny shapes or roll it into fine sausages and then nip off small lozenge shapes or the dough. I like to make tiny pyramids from the dough, my daughter prefers the shapes.
5. Place in an airtight container and toss them in a little more slippery elm powder, to prevent them sticking together.
6. Store in the container, in a cool and dry place for up to ten years. They are unlikely to remain uneaten for that long.

365 Frankendael day 152

365 Frankendael, ,

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Today has been quite wet, will at least when I have had any free time. So I didn’t take many photos. Something that caught my eye was a row of Horse Chestnut trees, in front of Amstel station, with no conkers forming. This struck me as I’d because the enormous Horse Chestnut in the middle of my school is loaded with apple sized young Conkers. Not that they are edible, they do make useful medicine though. Will have to check whether there are male and females…

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And here’s a photo of the enduring nettles and lime tree leaves at the front of Huis Frankendael.

365 Frankendael day 151

365 Frankendael,

A beautiful double rainbow, formed over Amsterdam this evening. Not that you can eat it but the sight certainly can feed the soul.

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As for todays herbs; an update really, on how the pavement garden Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) is getting along. Here it is today, exploding with tiny flowers onto the pavement – it needs a trim.

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And here is one of it’s offspring, planted in the nearby treepit. I hope that the main plant manages to set seed, all down the street again next year.

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Wormwood is useful for many things. I included it in a cooling and healing skin ointment this week.

365 Frankendael day 150

365 Frankendael, Alchemy, Fibre dying, Foraging, Lotions, Potions, Shrubs, Trees, , ,

Thank you to the group of Urban Herbies who joined me For the Elder Workshop today. We harvested Elderberries, Elder leaves and Elder branches. We learned about and concocted Elderberry syrup and numerous other Elder based remedies. I had a lot of fun with you all, and the plants!

I was so busy enjoying the time that I forgot to take an Elder photo so here’s one of the syrup that we made together, from freshly pressed Elderberry juice and honey… It’s a clean but scrappy looking jam jar. That doesn’t matter as my portion of the syrup will be wolfed down very quickly!

As well as Elderberries, there are heaps of ripe Hawthorn berries in the city hedgerows at present. I did remember to take a photo of one such tree. It’s time to try out the Hawthorn recipes, kindly sent to me by one of the Amstel walkers earlier this year.

Here’s a link to the recipe for the Banana bread I baked for the workshop. I added a finely chopped 20cm Ginger plant leaf and I forgot to add the dates. All fine though!

Here’s a link to that information about recent scientific research supporting the use of Ghee and Honey impregnated wound dressings for serious wound recovery.

Thanks Nathaniel and Jade for sharing with us how the Native Americans revere their local Elder species. Here’s a link with a little information about that (at the end). Here’s a link with lots of information about Elder, particularly the US growing species. Not much about the indigenous people but lots of useful stuff.

Here’s a link to one of my mentors: Glennie Kindred in Britain. She wrote the hand sewn books I showed you today. We looked at the one called Sacred Tree in which Glennie lays out her interpretation of the Tree Ogham.

As we talked about honey, Katja shared her latest concoction – fresh ginger infused honey with lemon juice. Yum! I’ll be trying that very soon and will post some photos to brighten up the autumn. Maybe Katja has a photo of hers already?

Cindy, I don’t think you took your portion of ointment and certainly not the syrup. I also forgot to give you the Kombucha so let me know when you have time to collect them.

Thanks again everyone. See you again soon! xx

365 Frankendael day 149

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Lotions, Wild herbs, , , ,

I’ve been busy preparing for the Elder workshop tomorrow and enjoyed a little walk in the park looking for ingredients for ghee based Elder ointment.  Elder leaves are very medicinal but contain a chemical which, when digested by the human body, turns into cyanide so it’s obviously not a good idea to eat it.  The ripe berries and flowers don’t contain this chemical although the seeds within the berries do.  Here are the herbs in my ointment, plus a couple of other plants which are also looking and tasting great at the moment…

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Elder (Sambucus nigra) growing close to the base of an old Cedar. Here’s a lovely Elderberry syrup recipe, from Mountain rose herbs, which uses honey for sweetness but doesn’t heat the honey – good news and unusual!

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis agg.)  making a stand for itself in a field of Plantain (Plantago major)

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacaea)

365 Frankendael day 148

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Urban Herb Walks, Wild herbs, , , , ,

I had a great time today, taking two group on street herb walks, from the OTOPIA festival on the Overtoom. We found lots of herbs in pavement cracks, in intended pavement gardens, tended ones and in curbs. A few plants were around which I didn’t know the names of. Here they are:

Heath speedwell (Veronica officinalis) was creeping around a large grassland area halfway up Willeminastraat and Eerste Helmersstraat.
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Gallant soldier (Galinsoga parviflora).
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The plant that looked like Fat Hen (Chenopodium album) but had so many flowers on some examples that it was hard to tell, definitely was edible Fat Hen.

I didn’t take a photo of the Fat Hen today but here’s one of poisonous
Black nightshade. We found heaps of it on today’s walks.

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The Wild Rocket that was growing at the entrance of OT301 appears to be the perennial species so I hope Cathy will be in luck with the sample she took home.
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The nettle which the second group found, which wasn’t the regular Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) was Small nettle, an annual, as suspected and both edible and medicinal.

There were two others which I’m still looking up. Will post an update, when I find the names. Here they are, maybe you can help me out with the names?
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Thanks to everyone who joined the walks and thank you to Femke and Tarje for organising today’s festival and inviting me to take part in this way.

365 Frankendael day 147

365 Frankendael,

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Here’s a beautiful patch of Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica, NL: Brandnetel) detouring at the front of Frankendael huis. If you like idea of harvesting to dry and store or to cook and freeze, then now is the time. Preferably choose nettle without flowering tops but both are edible.

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Here is a bundle of discarded dry Hollyhock flower spikes. These are in Oud Zuid, close to my workplace but you’ll probably spot a similar scene all over town. Each individual seed head is packed with about 20 seeds. It’s a great herb to grow in small spaces such as tree pits and outside of houses.

365 Frankendael day 146

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Trees, Wild herbs, ,

In case you haven’t noticed, city nut foraging season is upon us.

I passed by Oosterpark today and noticed a middle aged chap, ferreting around in the undergrowth at one corner of the park, with his young son calling directions to him from outside of the fence. Ah ha Hazelnuts!, I thought and I was so not disappointed when I dived into the same bushes!

During a five minute squirrel-style frenzy, in the soil and dry leaves, I managed to amass a few dozen prime city Hazelnuts (Nl: Hazelaar, Corylus avellana) Delighted, is an understatement! Spurred on by my success, i took a quick tram ride home and sped to a copse of Hazel and Beech at the bottom end of Pythagorasstraat. That spot is a local’s favourite; There is a well trodden path into the copse and a scarcity of nuts but none the less, I didn’t go home empty handed! Later today, I’ll probably toast them all, add some to a hor chocolate and add the rest to Frank’s muesli tub. They should last a couple of weeks in that.

If you’ve never toasted Hazelnuts yourself, and if you like the taste of chocolate, then I implore you to have a go. Buy some from Odin or your local grocery store or better still, get outside and forage a handful yourself. Lear how to identify the tree and get hunting beneath them and I the branches. Green and brown hazelnuts are just fine but the free ones need to be used almost instantly whereas the others should keep up to a year, if stored properly.

How to toast hazelnuts
1. Once dusted off a little, crack them open and discard the shells (return them to the forage spot if possible). Some shells may be empty – hedge blanks. It’s a pity if you find only those.
2. Spread the nuts on a baking tray and give them just a glance of olive oil. To do this you can pour a little into a corner of the tray and toss them all around until they glisten or brush them with a little oil.
3. Set in an oven which has been preheated to about 180°C, leave them to cook for about ten minutes.
3. Remove from the oven (as with all nuts, watch out for explosions, maybe cover with a clean tea-towel as you maneuver them from the oven. Let them cool before using or eating.

The smell in your kitchen should be sweetly, nuttily, mouthwatering after that short time and if you are anything like me, I doubt that many of the toasted nuts will actually make it to a muesli bowl. Lots of recipes make good use of Hazelnuts, both savory and sweet. I think that in combination with chocolate they are at there best. So for me that could mean simply smashing a toasted nut and crumbling it over a hot chocolate or to garnish a chocolate dessert. Or it could mean incorporating it into a dish. Nut roasts are a good way to use up heaps of nuts but I rarely have heaps and I like them to last a while rather than being wolfed down in one sitting. Sprinkled over a bowl of homemade pumpkin soup is another easy way to incorporate them.

You can also make Hazelnut milk for the fresh nuts, as described in the River Cottage Handbook no. 7 Hedgerow, by John Wright (see books page). Soak a handful of shelled fresh nuts in water overnight, rinse and blitz in a liquidiser with about 400ml water or skimmed milk. Strain through a cheesecloth or similar.

365 Frankendael day 145

365 Frankendael,

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Just an autumn photo of a Hugo de Vrieslaan today. Late to work, lots to do.. I just thought it looked nice to see the Lime leaves (Tilia spp.) beginning to fall. There’s still time to harvest a few fresh green leaves if you’d like a stock for winter infusions and other Lime medicine. Lots of the local Limes have enormous burrs on their lower trunks, each offers hundreds of leaves in an unusual location and making it easy to harvest a handful. So there’s no need to shin up a 50 foot tree trunk.