This Gingko tree grows outside of the Muiderkerk on Linneausstraat and is much younger than those I’ve found in Oud Zuid. It’s also not loaded with ripe orange fruit so is most likely a male tree. The leaves of both male and female Ginkgo can be used to make a tea. The plant, including it’s leaves and especially the fruit, does contain some chemicals which are harmful so if using them, read up carefully on how to harvest, how much to use and whether it will interact unfavourably with your body.
One herb photo today – Chickweed (Stellaria media), taken in a tree pit of Lavender around a Pine tree, in Christian Huygensplein. Chickweed is a delicious peppery salad plant that is full of nutrients which can help us through the winter and can soothe skin which suffers from heated complaints (such as some forms of eczema). Chickweed is
powerful against itching and cysts. It makes a good juice, tea, straight raw or cooked food and is very useful in ointments.
Respectfully grab a handful when you see it invading a clean spot, give it a good wash, gently shake it dry and use as you wish! One super use if to infuse it in apple cider vinegar, perhaps along with Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).
This little beauty of the herb world will be around through the depths of the Dutch winter, even if under snow, and is only really absent from the reach of urban foragers in the fight of summer, when it dries out and sets seed.
Look for the minute line of hairs down one single edge of the stem and the tiny white star like flowers.
Here’s a link to some historical uses and a link to a Susun weed post about this wonderful herb.
Here’s one of the beautiful Ginkgo street trees that I’ve been harvesting fruit from again today. There are still hundreds beneath the female trees in parts of the city.
Also a windswept Calendula officinalis flower with a little Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) foliage behind – both in a tree pit.
Today a quick pavement garden photo, taken along the Middenweg this morning. Featuring some drought and cold tolerant herbs; Lavender, Rosemary and Chickweed.
Today a photo of a pretty herb meadow, deliberately grown in the grassland beside Hugo de Vreislaan. As you can see, many of the plants are still in flower and many have gone to seed. At the front of the photo is Calendula in flower and seed, beside Shepherds purse in seed. Such useful and easily grown herbs.
Calendula is particularly useful as an edible plant which makes an interesting bitter addition to casseroles and salads. It’s very easy to make an infused oil from the flowers and they can also be dried or preserved for later use.
After lots of rain yesterday, lots of fallen ripe Ginkgo fruits beneath female trees. The nuts within are edible when cooked but they take some careful preparation as the flesh surrounding the nuts is very unpleasant – to skin and nose! I posted recently about how to prepare them.
Thank you to everyone who braved the autumnal weather and joined me this evening for the Witch’s Dozen herb walk through the woods of Park Frankendael and the gathering afterwards in Merkelbach. Ten weatherproof women and two mini foragers, joined me for a seasonal walk through the woods as day turned to dusk then night. Merkelbach was a lovely place to end the full moon day.
Here’s my photo of the day, a little shaky and wet after the Witch’s dozen walk. I hope it gives the idea anyway.
Flying ointment recipes were mentioned. I found many different recipes whilst researching for the walk but the one written here, seemed the best without being full of plants which we all know are highly toxic. Traditional recipes seem to have included herbs such as belladonna, datura, mandrake, opium poppy, water hemlock, monkshood, foxglove, Balm of Giliad (balsam of poplar trees), calamus root, cannabis, clary sage, dittany of Crete, mugwort, tansy, wormwood, and yarrow.
If you’d like to seriously look into the magical tradition of flying then perhaps take a look at this blog entry by The Witch of Forest Grove. It is nicely detailed.
I’m not one for the seriously toxic ingredients so kept hunting until I found the following recipe. It was posted on the wisewomanforum by a woman called Lady Belladonna in 2004 and she seemed to have had fun with it. All the ingredients grow locally although vervain probably resides indoors at this time of year in Amsterdam. I can’t recall where she said that she got the recipe from or if she concocted it herself, so I’m calling it…
Lady Belladonna’s Flying Ointment
1/4 cup grated beeswax
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp. of each of the following herbs, dried:
cinquefoil
vervain
mugwort
thistle
1 tsp ash (recipe called for chimney soot – LB used her own mix of ash from a marijuana joint mixed with a dried leaf of Diviner’s Sage – “more fun getting this together than cleaning out a chimney!”)
1/2 tsp of benzoin powder
1/2 tsp of clove oil
Combine the beeswax and olive oil in a double boiler and melt over low heat. Finely powder the herbs in your mortar and pestle. When beeswax and oil is melted, add in the herbs, benzoin and clove oil. Stir clockwise, empowering with your intent or saying whatever charm or spell you wish. LB also added a couple drops of sandalwood oil for the fragrance. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes, strain through cheesecloth into a heatproof jar, and let cool.
Apply and Fly!
Another lovely photo, kindly sent to me by Joop Eisenberger.
This is the current foliage of poisonous Birthwort (NL: Pijpbloem, Aristolochia clematis). Lots of historical use of this interesting herb but not one that is generally recommended these days due to the toxic effect it has on the kidneys.
Today more beautiful photographs, sent to me by Joop Eisenberger.
Above is Water mint (Mentha aquatica).
Pennsylvania pelitory.
Michaelmas Daisy. This plant is edible and very pretty at this time of year. See link above for tips on how to prepare it.
Type of Purple flowering Dead nettle (Lamium maculatum), currently also in flower.
Thank you to Dana who kindly sent me photos of herbs she found on Prinseneiland yesterday. They look beautiful! It’s years since I went for a wander around that neighbourhood, one of the prettiest in Amsterdam. Must do it again sometime soon.
Sea Buckthorn (Duindorn), makes a fabulous honey syrup as Katja, one of my apprentices showed me recently.
Nasturtium, peppery, delicious and abundant!
Gallant soldiers, potatoes combine well with this little herbal beauty.
Fat hen (yum!) and Greater Celandine (external use with caution, toxic internally).
This one looked like Lady’s mantle at first glance of the photo but I see that Dana labelled it Common Mallow, which looks like the correct id. Both edible, one (LM) glimmers when water hits it, as the Latin name explains and it tastes terrifically bitter. The other, mallow, tastes gooey finally and has leaves that are not so spectacular when wetted by dew or rain.
Thank you Dana!
Urban Herbology 