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HSA Board of Directors Rae McKimm President Drinking Vinegars: Shrubs, Switchels & Oxymels 4 Nicoll Brinley Vice President Rie Sluder Secretary By Susan Belsinger and Tina Marie Wilcox Janie Plummer Treasurer/Finance Pat Greathead Central District Membership Delegate The Magic of Mugworts 10 Bonnie Great Lakes District By Jane Knaapen Cole Porterfield Membership Delegate Cindy Meier Mid-Atlantic District Membership Delegate Crataegus Our Native Hawthorns 16 Jen Munson Northeast District Membership Delegate By Jennifer Geib Mary Doebbeling South Central District Membership Delegate P.J. Stamps- Southeast District Wildlife in the Garden 20 Kitchen Membership Delegate By Rickie Wilson Jody Lacey West District Membership Delegate Jackie Johnson Publications Chair A Scarborough Fair Tea Party 25 Karen O’Brien Botany & Horticulture Chair Carol Schmidt Development Chair By Barbara Blackburn Dava Stravinsky Education Chair Gloria Hunter Membership Chair Susan Liechty Nominating Chair/ The Floral Art of Jersey Jo 30 Past President By Jo Ann Gardner P. Allen Smith Honorary President Katrinka Morgan Executive Director The Power of a Garden Visit: A Personal Journey 34 Administrative Staff Katrinka Morgan Executive Director By Bath Haebel Laurie Alexander Membership Coordinator Christina Wilkinson Librarian/Archivist Karen Kennedy Education Coordinator Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) 36 Amy Rogers Office Administrator By Carol Ann Harlos Karen Frandanisa Accountant Brent DeWitt Editor/Designer Growing Herbs on Rooftops 40 The Herbarist By Michael Olszewski, Ph.D., Brent DeWitt Editor/Designer SP Mount Printing Printer Louise D. Clarke and Impel Creative Publication Design Sasha W. Eisenman, Ph.D. The Herbarist Committee Jackie Johnson Publications Chair Virgil, Moretum & Pesto 44 Lois Sutton, Ph.D. Chair Jean Berry By Katherine Schlosser Shirley Hercules Pat Larson Gayle Southerland Bloodroot: A Childhood and Adult Favorite! 48 Barbara Williams By Lois Sutton, PhD. The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of The Society. Manuscripts, advertisements, comments and letters to the editor may be sent to: The Herbarist, The Herb Society of America 9019 Kirtland-Chardon Rd. It is the policy of The Herb Society of America not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal Kirtland, Ohio 44094 or health use. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be 440.256.0514 www.herbsociety.org considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. The Herbarist, No. 82 What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered. – Ralph Waldo Emerson In the 2015 issue we highlighted gardens supported or maintained by The Society and many of its units This issue reminds us of the herbal diversity that drew us into those gardens: herbs of magic and memory, herbs of history, herbs of artistry and herbs partnering with nature’s supporting cast, the pollinators Alexander Smith wrote “In my garden I spend my days; in my library I spend my nights My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books With the flower I am in the present; with the book I am in the past ” Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country, 1863 We hope you take The Herbarist 2016 into your library and find a new herb or new interest before you return to the garden! Shrubs, Drinking Switchels Vinegars & Oxymels Susan Belsinger and The first shrub that we tasted was an Tina Marie Wilcox elderberry shrub We drank it straight up and immediately were intrigued by the delicious and stimulating flavor When elderberries came into season that year, we gathered and made our first shrubs We have been devotees ever since, researching shrubs and creating many variations on the beverages made from berries infused in apple cider vinegar and sweetened with honey Shrub Shrub is basically a fruited vinegar— a syrup made from fruit, vinegar and sweetener Shrubs can be just that simple, or they can contain alcohol This age-old beverage, both tangy and sour, is believed to be of Turkish origin Its first recorded use was in the 1600s Travelers and trade ships carried the drink across land and ocean, keeping scurvy away from sailors at sea “Fruit vinegar” quenched the thirst of Europeans as well as farmers in colonial America The following is an entry in The Ark of Taste as published by the Slow Food Foundation: “Shrub is a colonial-day drink whose name is derived from the Arabic word sharab, to drink It is a concentrated syrup made from fruit, vinegar and sugar that is traditionally mixed with water to create a refreshing drink that is simultaneously tart and sweet In the nineteenth century, the drink was often spiked with brandy or rum ” ost folks look at us oddly when we talk about Recipes for shrubs vary greatly and date as far back as pre-colonial times Some of making and drinking shrubs. After all, we the first shrub-like beverages, which were gardeners know that a shrub is a woody carried even by the British Royal Navy, Mplant, usually smaller than a tree, producing numerous were made with vinegar and citrus to help to flavor foul-tasting water or rum Popular stems instead of a single trunk. However, we have been in England during the seventeenth and creating and imbibing shrubs (drinking vinegars) for eighteenth centuries, shrubs were made by combining citrus fruits with alcohol, most nearly 20 years. often rum, sometimes brandy DRINKING VINEGARS: SHRUBS, SWITCHELS & OXYMELS Benjamin Franklin made his shrub balm or a bit of sweet woodruff to enhance beverage in The Long Winter with rum and Martha Washington’s the berry flavor We also really like the kick “Ma had sent them ginger-water She had recipe included white wine and cognac of chile pepper shrub Sometimes we soften sweetened the cool well-water with sugar, During this time in history, the spirited its kick with fruit shrub, or even cocoa flavored it with vinegar, and put in plenty concoctions were simply referred to as powder for a mole effect of ginger to warm their stomachs so they shrub and the vinegar shrub was often could drink till they were not thirsty referred to as “fruit vinegar ” Switchel Ginger-water would not make them sick, In colonial times, vinegars were a way “I will give a traveler a cup of switchel, if as plain cold water would when they to preserve fruit, especially berries When he want it; but am I bound to supply him were so hot ” the fruit was eaten, the “drinking vinegar” with a sweet taste?” ---Herman Melville that remained was used as a beverage I and My Chimney Oxymel Sweeteners like sugar or honey might Switchel, also referred to as switzel, This term is rather antiquated and be added, or the vinegar might be diluted swizzle, switchy and haymaker’s punch, is translates to “acid honey ” It is an infusion with water or served over ice Shrubs were a water and vinegar based beverage, of vinegar, honey and herbs; the liquids sometimes referred to as beveridge, once a usually flavored with ginger It was extract the flavors from the herbs and synonym that is no longer used, and switchel, sometimes simply called ginger water also help preserve the oxymel We infuse which is a bit different from our oxymels at room a shrub as you will see in temperature We have the following definition seen recipes for boiling Generally shrubs are down the vinegar and sipped from a cordial glass, honey with the herbs to poured over ice or served make a thicker syrup with a bit of sparkling Our opinion is that water They are a wonderful heating the ingredients remedy for congestion causes a loss of their or sore throat, and an nutritional values excellent tonic for the body Once prepared, this Not only is vinegar thirst herbal drinking vinegar quenching, drinking can be used as a strong vinegar in the summer concentrate and taken causes one to perspire, straight, diluted with which cools the body a little water or juice, Shrub has been secretly or added to hot water savored for centuries by Emily Han, author herbalists across the of Wild Drinks and continent and is now a Cocktails, recommends popular ingredient used by mixologists in In the Caribbean, switchel’s place of origin, one tablespoon of an herbal oxymel as a both alcoholic and non-alcoholic libations the drink was sometimes prepared with typical dose Hippocrates prescribed this Shrubs can be made with sweetened fruit cane sugar, though more often with preparation to be used as an expectorant juice, fruit, vinegar, honey or sugar Today, molasses It eventually traveled north on the for coughs and other ailments Herbalists shrubs are being concocted with tropical trade ships and became a popular cooling have formulated oxymels for congestion, fruits, vegetables, herbs or combinations of beverage in Colonial America When it colds, fevers, flu, indigestion and as any and all arrived in the U S in the seventeenth restoratives and tonics Whether drinking vinegars are used century, it was sweetened with sugar (white medicinally or in cocktails, they add a lift or brown) or honey In New England, Elixir and tart zing to other ingredients We also maple syrup was used to sweeten the drink There are a few definitions for elixir: a like them in salad dressings and marinades and on occasion, oatmeal and/or lemon magical liquid that can cure one’s ills or We enjoy elderberry shrub, but you juice were used for added nutrition extend life; a substance, taken orally, may use other berries such as blueberries, In the nineteenth century, it was capable of prolonging life indefinitely; a raspberries,

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