. The natural history of the farm; a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature. Natural history. 248 THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM been the earliest of these. Gerard reports PHny as having said that "The smell of mint doth stir up the minde and the taste to a greedy desire of meat"; and for himself he adds, "Mint is marvellous wholesome for the stomacke". (Herbal, p. 681). To the modem cook or confectioner, the herbs themselves are hardly known, tho their essences are used to excess. But our great grandmothers knew them, grew them, cut them,
. The natural history of the farm; a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature. Natural history. 248 THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE FARM been the earliest of these. Gerard reports PHny as having said that "The smell of mint doth stir up the minde and the taste to a greedy desire of meat"; and for himself he adds, "Mint is marvellous wholesome for the stomacke". (Herbal, p. 681). To the modem cook or confectioner, the herbs themselves are hardly known, tho their essences are used to excess. But our great grandmothers knew them, grew them, cut them, cured them and then seasoned with them. The plants were gathered about the time when their first flowers were opening, dried rapidly to preserve their essential oils, and put away for winter use. Then they were used with discrimination. It was experience, not chemical analysis, that settled upon sage and summer savory as proper seasoning for sau- sage and roasts; upon parsley and thyme as suitable for stews and soups. Our grandmothers made tea from sage, mint, horehound, balm, catnip, pennyroyal, etc. It was a com- mon practice to steep a quarter of an ounce of the dried leaves in a half pint of boiling water, and then strain and sweeten to taste. Such teas were at once beverages and "simple home ; Pennyroyal tea was used to promote perspiration. Hore- hound was good for colds. Each herb had its virtues, and all of them had the great merit of being rather harmless when so prepared and admiriistered. If one had a cold, a pleasant cup of horehound tea (happily supplemented by good hygienic. Fig. 95. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Needham, James G. (James George), 1868-1956. Ithaca, N. Y. , The Comstock Publishing Company
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
