Faith, Folklore, and Friends

It was the mid-seventies when I started preserving food. We lived on a five-acre plot in the country, so there was room for a large garden, and I had an abundance of things to can and freeze. There was a huge brush pile on the property that had been there a while, and there were elderberry bushes growing all around it. I watched those elderberries bloom and become berries, gorgeous purple-black berries that looked scrumptious. My mom, nor anyone close to me, had ever canned any juice or jelly from it. The library offered books on preserving wild berries, and I made some jelly that year, and many years since then. In the early years of our country, pioneers and Indians referred to elderberries as 'the medicine chest of the common people.' The tiny berries contain more vitamin C than any other herbaceous plant except for black currants and rose hips. The jelly is eaten anytime one of us has a cold or flu-like symptoms. Last week, Hub visited his brother out in the country, and c...

Anything posted here is for education and entertainment. I am not a doctor, just someone who loves folklore and learning about how people coped before modern medicine. You are entirely on your own if you want to experiment. Those of you who have studied folk medicine will have heard about the Doctrine of Signatures. It is a philosophy that says the shape and colors of some plants look like the body parts that their medicinal properties could treat or cure. For example, liverwort has liver-shaped leaves and is used for liver ailments. Bloodroot, a beautiful green plant with white blossoms, has red roots that look like blood. Native Americans used the roots for blood related maladies, but internal use is discouraged now; it appears to be highly toxic. Lungwort is so named because its spotted, oval leaves resemble diseased or ulcerated lungs. The list goes on and on. One of the oldest known herbalists, Galen of Pergamun, used this philosophy during the 2nd and 3rd century. ...