Wild Ways

Most of us eat sausages and black puddings for breakfast and we relish a good stew enhanced by titillating flavours. Even our puddings and drinks are made tasteful. Many of these flavours are imported, usually from warmer climes but there must be hundreds that we can grow ourselves.

Herbs are not only flavour enhancers but they can contain essences that help life. Indeed, many of us when we were younger experienced the wonderful cures or at least knew of local healers of anything from warts to impetigo. I have seldom, if ever, heard of herbal healers not having healed those who went to them for help.
Perhaps we should do much more to recall the fact that of this earth “we are and shall be”, for our souls inhabit living beings made up of what we absorb from the earth. The meat we eat is only available because the animals it is created from eat plants in their different forms, which in themselves survive on mucky soil, which is really processed rock. Homeopathy has been in existence for thousands of years, as have herbalists. The former occasionally, and the latter mostly, use herbs. Indeed, if one reads the lists of ingredients in many modern remedies, one will usually find the names of quite common plants.
Just about every kitchen has its little pots of dried herbs, such as coriander, sage, marjoram, peppers and tarragon. A combination of the most useful can be purchased as Herbes de Provence. As their name indicates, they are imported from the south-east of France. However, I think the ingredients contained in this mixture are growable by any of us here in Ireland. I am sure many of my readers will recall those little bags of lavender that were placed amongst one’s clothes so that they may smell good. Some people had pot-pourri containing dried rose petals and other strongly scented flowers.
In the days when drains were open and there was an awful stench in our streets, even around people’s homes, from rotten carcasses and excrement, herbs were used that were strong enough to outwit the other smells. One of these was camomile, which was grown where it could be trampled and the little amount of oil in the cells of its leaves released. That, of course, is how the scent that ladies use came about as they once carried little bottles of the stuff around with them. Lavender water was often used to revive those who had fainted.
The great scent makers have been, and still are, French and use herbs mainly from the Grasse area. Clare, though, has put Irish scents on the map with Brian Mooney’s founding of the Burren perfumery, which is still extant, although under different ownership. Throughout Ireland there are other producers of perfumes.
However, there are still plenty of opportunities for those with initiative to create lucrative employment in the production of herbs. A major disadvantage, though, is that for preservation and use throughout the year, the culinary or kitchen herbs have to be dried and the little cells of oils preserved. As we haven’t a suitable climate for doing this naturally, it has to be done artificially, which can add to production costs.
As regards perfumes, once the quite complicated techniques are mastered, there should be few major problems. An advantage could be that the famous name products have exorbitant prices. They are often merely selling a name but that takes time. Anybody suffering from a lack of employment due to the current recession should at least consider herb production.
Black spot: People who fail to secure their rubbish when taking it to the dump or to recycling depots. Too often, one notices black plastic bags with the contents spewed over the roadside.
Good mark: Public servants who are thoughtful, helpful and polite. They are great, especially when they are also efficient.
Week’s tip: Consider the possibility of growing your own herbs, at least the more common ones such as basil, thyme, chives or lavender.