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British Farming - Christmas > .
Rosehips to herbals
1.
Collecting herbs (WW2 re-enactment)
collecting rosehips: https://youtu.be/CUsU5s0ofYo?t=34m19s
collecting goosegrass (cleavers): https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=21m5s
continue: drying sage, foxgloves: https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=31m21s continue:
Galium aparine, with many common names including cleavers, clivers, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, velcro weed, and grip grass, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae.
Poultices and washes made from cleavers were traditionally used to treat a variety of skin ailments, light wounds and burns. As a pulp, it has been used to relieve poisonous bites and stings. To make a poultice, the entire plant is used, and applied directly to the affected area
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine
Digitalis purpurea (foxglove, common foxglove, purple foxglove or lady's glove) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Digitalis, in the family Plantaginaceae, native and widespread throughout most of temperate Europe. It is also naturalised in parts of North America and some other temperate regions. The plants are well known as the original source of the heart medicine digoxin (also called digitalis or digitalin).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis_purpurea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis
Medicinal Plant Use in World War II
http://herbalacademyofne.com/2014/01/medicinal-plant-use-in-world-war-ii/
Medicinal Plants During World War II
http://www.judithsumner.com/#!the-blog/crwe
Herb Gatherers of World War Two
http://www.network54.com/Forum/217936/thread/1226236742/1/Herb+Gatherers+of+World+War+Two
List of plants used in herbalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plants_used_in_herbalism
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London, England, in 1673. (The word "Physic" here refers to the science of healing.) This physic garden is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, which was founded in 1621.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Physic_Garden
http://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/
http://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/the-garden/plant-collections/the-pharmaceutical-garden/
video: 3:37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FkiXPZUiw8
video 1:26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIvkqRQ4iIY
video 46:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAogM107dXw
Medicinal plant uses during World War II
By 1941, The Ministry of Health established a Vegetable Drugs Committee at Kew that published guides for herb collectors in the various rural counties. These provided specific instructions about what to collect and how to dry, bundle, and deliver the collections. Hedgerows, the dense natural hedges that define property boundaries, were particularly diverse habitats for both native and naturalized medicinal herbs. Women’s Institutes and Boy Scouts worked locally to provide reliable information on plant identification and collection.
The most essential plants included diuretics (broom, Cytisus scoparius, and foxglove, Digitalis purpurea), vermifuges (male fern, Dryopteris felix-mas), and treatments for gout (autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale) and influenza (elder, Sambucus nigra).
Among the most important herbs was foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), which was used to regulate heartbeat and save lives in cases of congestive heart failure. Of course, the cardiac glycosides in foxglove degrade if the plants are not handled with care; a pamphlet from Kew advised that collectors spread the plants on drying racks (lace curtains tacked to wooden frames) and then dry the plants in a coke-heated shed at 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Given the sustained attacks against England that began in September 1940, it is not surprising that the Vegetable Drug Committee included valerian (Valeriana officinalis), long valued for its sedative properties, on the list of most essential plants for collection and use.
Collectors also gathered deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna, the source of belladonna), autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale, a treatment for gout), and valerian (Valeriana officinalis, a sedative). Other useful plants included wild thyme (Thymus polytrichus, an antiseptic), burdock (Arctium spp., a diuretic), colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara, a demulcent), and black horehound (Ballota nigra, a treatment for spasms and worm infections). As in World War I, peat moss (Sphagnum spp.) was harvested from bogs to use as an absorbent sterile wound dressing; its naturally acidic pH inhibits bacterial growth and helps to prevent infection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicum_autumnale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_nigra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_(herb)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytisus_scoparius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryopteris_filix-mas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
Thymus praecox subsp. arcticus (sometimes classified as Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymus_praecox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tussilago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballota_nigra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagnum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_hip
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamiaceae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppermint
http://www.botanical-online.com/mint.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine
Vitamins were another wartime necessity; most of these metabolic compounds were discovered between 1920 and 1941, and they remained in the forefront of medical concern. Because home front shipments of citrus fruits were increasingly rare, research at Kew centered on rosehips as a rich source of vitamin C. Botanically speaking, a rosehip is the cup-shaped hypanthium that remains behind after a pollinated rose drops it petals. These are often red-pigmented, and they contain the small, seed-like fruit (achenes), which are dispersed by birds feeding on the hips.
For instance, various mints and tansy (all collected and used medicinally in England during the war) are antibiotic to pathogenic strains including Streptococcus and Staphylococcus. Why? The medicinal secondary compounds of plants often function against bacterial and fungal attack—especially in plant roots, where compounds tend to concentrate. I often wonder that if we continue to overuse antibiotics and antiseptics, we will again need medicinal herbs as pharmaceuticals—this time for their antibiotic properties.
http://herbalacademyofne.com/2014/01/medicinal-plant-use-in-world-war-ii/
http://www.judithsumner.com/#!the-blog/crwe
Judith Sumner: Exploring Victory Gardens - How A Nation of Vegetable Growers Helped to Win the War 55:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlz21efV8-U
4.
Sowing & "growing" & fertilizing flax & POWs & processingcontinue: flax does not like heavy rain and clay soils: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=4m16s continue: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=15m22s
continue: a better flax crop: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=31m49s
continue: drowned flax crop: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=41m3s
continue: simplified processing: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=41m3s
Next: https://youtu.be/pnkSPB-9BmQ?t=36m19s
6
Earlier skep & beekeeping (WW2 re-enactment)continue: https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=33m45s continue: https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=41m5s
8.
Makeshift grain dryercontinue: https://youtu.be/kwBD9gRZLTE?t=42m16s
