I guess I should have posted about this already, but I took my A&S project "Plantain Oil" to its second event - Midwinter A&S, last month. I had worked on some things to improve it since Magna Faire. I realized several more things I should work on, in preparation for its next event. There were some things which I had wanted to do yet didn't have time! But, I will have these things all done before Gulf Wars. :)

YIKES - Gulf Wars is almost here!!!!!

So after that, hopefully I will feel well prepared to do any further work to the entry and then take it on to... gulp... Kingdom A&S!  Well, that is the goal, anyway. :)

I hate that I missed out on the distillation class at Gulf Wars last year. I've been waiting until this year (almost here!!!!) to get the chance again. Well as luck would have it I found myself with something to distill so I had to grab a crash course courtesy of Google. Yes, I could have just frozen the rose petals and tried it later, but what fun would that be? It seemed like the most interesting thing to do with the petals so I went for it.

So I set up a kitchen-equipment method and tried it. But then I read that roses are hard to distill due to the heat damaging the delicate oil, plus you would need a TON of petals to actually extract an amount of any significance, I decided to go with a rose water instead. It's actually quite easy to do and I'm sure I'll be scooping up petals by the handfuls this summer from the front yard to continue making rosewater! The main difference is I added some water so that the petals would not be burned. The result is of course that there is water mixed in with the oil.


There isn't too terribly much of the liquid, as I just used the roses I had on hand.  And these were the last of the batch that Master Garreth gave out to all of the ladies on Valentine's day (wasn't that sweet!). 


As I was pouring out the liquid, I noticed a lovely reddish pink tint in the bottom of the pan and just knew I couldn't let that lump of petals go to the trash can. What else could I do with them?  Well, Google my friend once again helped me out. I could not really do a dye without some alum. But I sure could make Rose Beads! In fact, due to the heat and the liquid, the process is already underway quite nicely, from the sounds of it.

So yes, I took the lump and threw it in the blender. It smells like potpourri and it looks like a smoothie! Flower blend, anyone? No? Okay then, on with the next step. It has to hang out like this for 3 days so I'll have to revisit this topic later.

How did medieval people cover jars and bottles? I hear it's even better than saran wrap: waxed linen cloth.

How did they make it? --from a handy post from this forum:

A damp piece of cloth placed over a plate of food keeps flies off and what's underneath it nice all day.

Melt a small amount of beeswax in an old skillet. Dredge a piece of thin linen through the wax until soaked through, then lay out on kitchen foil or waxed paper to cool. The waxed linen makes a fantastic cover for just about anything from paint to food. I have a bunch of different sizes to cover pitchers, bowls of food, spices, condiments, etc.

Hold the cover over a heat source (careful, remember you're heating what amounts to a large wick) until softened, then use to cover anything you want. The wax sticks to the container and makes a nice seal. This is a great way to cover things like poached pears and blancmenger that are made early and eaten later in the day. Apparently, waxed covers were used in rural areas until the early years of the 1900s.

Tonight I taught the Barony a class on making herbal lip balms. It was my first class, so thanks for taking it easy on me, you all!  I do hope that the balms all got solid. What I brought home looks good, at least.

I mentioned that I would share some links to the resources I used for my supplies.  Here they are.

First, the plastic jars and lids (food grade safe!):
Jars.  17 cents each.  http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=64706
Lids. 8 cents each. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=33684&catid=683
Of course there's shipping, but those are pretty darned cheap!

If you want to get fancy, these metal tins are darned cute.
http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin7.html Again, food safe! This is important with cosmetics. Lip balm goes on the mouth so it needs to be in a safe container, especially with metal.
Pricing varies, bulk is naturally cheaper, but for just 12 you're looking at $1.31 each. You want 144 of them? Great!  Only 35 cents then, but who really wants THAT many?

These slide top tins are excellent for healing salves and other such ointments!
http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin7k.html
Similar pricing here. 1.10 each for 12 of them but bulk pricing is better.

Oh yeah. If you are really going for bulk, then these are another option. The lid screws on for these metal tins.
http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin7d.html
$62 for 100 so again you'd have to be doing a pretty big project for these.

Whatever container you choose, you don't want it to be more than about a half ounce. Otherwise it starts getting pretty big.

I am so sad that the source I bought the beeswax from is apparently no longer in business. But finding cosmetic grade beeswax should not be too difficult. Heck, finding some nice natural ORGANIC beeswax around the barony should not be too difficult, in fact!  ;-)

For the essential oils: choose something that is a real actual essential oil, not a flavoring. You'll know it's the right one if it's expensive. Unfortunately they're not super cheap!  But, you don't have to buy a huge container, or a large variety. Best choices are peppermint, and citrus ones - orange, lemon, grapefruit. I'm certain there are others but these are my best finds so far.

Extra virgin olive oil is what I used.

Have a peek at this. It's a herbal skin product being sold for $10 and it's almost just like what we made tonight!http://www.massageandskincaresolutions.com/Products.html
So as I mentioned, you can see how versatile this basic formula can really be.  Salves, ointments, balms, so many possibilities.

Hope these links will be useful, and ask me anything about it - if I don't know I'll sure seek for the answer!

~Aranwen
Aranwen@thewillowford.com
https://www.facebook.com/crowshade

Alright!  So I decided I was ready to enter my first A&S project entry at Magna Faire. The project? Plantain oil. It's something I had done, and felt I could document. Now the better way around, as Magdalena pointed out, is the other way around that, and afterwards I totally see why and agree.  In fact I ended up re-doing the project after I started documenting it, just to do some things right.  :-)

So I did pretty good I think for my first! My Laurel, Mistress Alianore, did of course also check it over and give me some pointers which really helped me finish things up right, as well as help me think of direction for next Faire. That combined with my judging commentary will definitely help me carry this project into another entry.

I figured I may as well enter it in both the Magna Faire as well as the regional Faire since I had some good sources documented and I came out with a 24.8/30 and 16/20 :D  I can live with that!

I've spotted a few nifty SCA related ideas I thought I'd wrote down to remember. :D

Fun group + recruiting holiday opportunities:
- Get together in garb and sing traditional carols in outdoor malls or other areas that might encourage such.
- Get together in garb and volunteer to wrap packages at stores.

Nifty gift idea for those with herbal/gardening interest:
Seed cards. Inside it tells all about it.
These could easily be self made.

With the knowledge learned from William Ismead's class, and using the measurement guidelines I found from Jadwiga Zajaczkowa's Making Herbal Preparations, I have successfully put together 3 different flavors of lip balms, and also some healing salves.

Lip Balms
The balms are simple: olive oil, beeswax, and something to flavor it. The oil could be infused, but the flavor comes from essential oil which provides benefits as well as the flavor.

Grapefruit - it's refreshing, stimulating, and even protects damaged skin.
It can cause skin irritation if exposed to constant sunlight after application. There are no other conflicts to note.

Peppermint - freshens breath, relieves painful skin; also nourishes and cools.
The aroma can help alleviate headaches, stress, congestion, athsma, and coughs.

Healing Salves
The salves were also really simple. I decided upon a mix of my infused plantain oil, vitamin E oil, some dried chamomile, and lavender essential oil.
It would be ideal if I had allowed the dried herbs to simmer slowly in the oil for some hours then discard the powdered herb material after all the oil was poured off the top; however I took a different route. I did allow the crushed herb particles several minutes in the warm oil to ensure they were completely saturated. But then I went ahead and stirred them directly into the mixture. This won't hurt a bit but might leave a bit of sediment at the bottom. This is the only real downfall. I did try stirring two of them up after the mixture was cooling but it did not look smooth, pretty, and attractive like the rest so I left well enough alone! ;)  I believe that if the mixture could be slightly cooler before pouring up, the crushed herb particles could be stirred in and they would suspend properly.
So using the dried herbs straight is still a bit of a work in progress.  But I am still pleased with the salves.