Elderflower cordial

Have you ever smelled elderflowers? They smell delicious! Imagine if you could bottle this smell… you can, and it’s very easy.

Elder identification:

Elder (Sambucus nigra) is a common tree of hedgerows around the country and can be found in some parks as well. The leaves are compound, meaning each leaf has 5 to 7 opposite leaflets which are oval and longer than they are wide with toothed edges. There is a bad smell to the leaves.

Elder

Elder leaves

Elder

In May and June the tree is covered in large creamy, scented, flat heads of flowers. The individual flowers have 5 petals. The flower heads are usually between 10-30cm wide. If you only use the leaves for identification you might confuse it with Rowan/Mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia), which has compound leaves and cream flowers as well. However, you can tell it apart easily as rowan has 5-8 PAIRS of leaflets, whereas elder has 5-7 leaflets and rowan leaves are not smelly. Rowan flower heads are less flat and more cloud-like, more cream coloured than elder, with 5 petalled flowers. The bark on elder is also very distinctive: a grey-brown, corky, furrowed bark with corky raised bumps.

Elder flower in bud

Elder in flower

Elder out of flower

The cordial making process:

The process of making the cordial is easy, if you have read the gorse cordial recipe it is basically the same process.

Before you start you will need to have the following:

• A basket or bag for gathering the flowers.
• A sunny day. Elder need to be picked on a bright day. This is because the pollen and nectar is what gives the flower its scent, on a damp day this will have rained away or is locked away by the plant. Also, elder is very prone to mould, by picking it fresh, you will have a lesser chance of your cordial going mouldy.
• A secateurs or scissors to cut the flowers from the tree
• A lovely assistant (in this case, my mum) to help you pick the flowers, while you hold the branches down.
• You might need wellies if picking it from a hedgerow, like we did.
• A large pan to soak the flowers in
• Sterilised bottles for your cordial. Make sure to take any plastic labels off before putting them in the oven, they will melt!
• A funnel

Ingredients:

• 1.7 litres of water
• 2kg sugar
• 90g citric acid (from my local pharmacy)
• 30 Elderflower heads (no leaves)
• 3 lemons, sliced

Method:

• Boil the water and add the sugar.
• Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
• Add citric acid, lemons and elderflowers
• Cover the bowl and stand at room temperature for 24 hours
• Strain the liquid using a very clean sieve and a teatowel (I ran both under boiling water to clean them).
• Pour into a few sterilised bottles and cap.
• Store in a cool place.

Dilute to taste, usually 1 part cordial to 4 parts water. Enjoy!

Plants on the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk

It is midway through February and it looks like spring has nearly arrived, or at least the worst of the winter has passed. I walked the Bray to Greystones cliff walk last week for the first time and made a list of interesting plants I came across. On the walk there are various habitats, from beach, to cliff faces, walls, peatland and farmland. I mainly  took note of the plants on the cliff edges and any plants that were flowering.

The start of the walk in Bray

As I climbed halfway up Bray head, I came across my first flowering plant this year, Lesser Celandine. This flowers from December onwards so it is not unusual to be flowering now. It can be recognised by its bright yellow flowers and heart-shaped nearly variegated leaves.

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) flowers just opening

Just across from the lesser celandine I found the very recognisable glossy, arrow-shaped Lords-and-ladies leaves coming up.

Lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum)

The walk passes underneath steep rock faces. One of the plants that loves growing on cliffs is Navelwort. It has distinct leathery round leaves with a dip or ‘navel’ in the middle, where the leaf stalk attaches to the leaf. You can see the old flower-heads still attached above the plant.

Navelwort (Umbilicus rupestris)

 The first seaside plant I came across was Sea Campion. It is a species that likes to grow on cliffs and usually flowers between June and August, so it was unexpected to see it flowering at this time of year. Like many seaside plants, it has grey-green, fleshy leaves to prevent dehydration from the salty sea air. The flowers are pure white with a swollen petal-tube with reddish veins.

Sea campion (Silene uniflora)

Bray head is covered in gorse flowers in early spring, there is so much of it that patches of Bray Head look yellow from Bray town during the summer. However, the past few summers Bray Head has seen some large gorse fires, which have left many patches of Bray Head bare. Gorse is very resilient and usually recovers the next year. It can be seen flowering nearly all year round, with flowering peaking in spring and summer, when the pea-shaped-flowers fill the air with a vanilla-coconut fragrance that always reminds me of Bounty bars. The flowers make a lovely cordial.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

There aren’t many trees on Bray head. One of the few I came across was this Scots Pine. It has been shaped by many years of sea wind. Scots Pine can be found on bog-land and many exposed sites around the country. The needles are blue-green, with longer needles on younger trees than older trees. The bark on older trees is reddish-brown. You can see the black burnt soil on the hill behind the tree where the gorse fires happened.

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)

As I came to the Greystones side of the walk the scenery changed and the land levelled out with less cliffs and more farmland. On one of the stone walls I found an unexpected plant; Barren Strawberry. It usually grows on woodland floors or grassy areas, but this stone wall had many Barren Strawberry plants growing on it. The Barren Strawberry looks similar to the Wild Strawberry, but it has the following characteristics to tell it apart; its leaves are quiet hairy, with the end tooth on the middle leaflet being shorter than the ones on either side; as the name suggests, the fruits never grow into a red berry, but grows into a dry brown inedible berry instead. The white flowers can be seen from March to May, with petals with wide gaps between them.

Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis)

 

The second last plant I noted was Alexanders. Unlike the previously mentioned plants, which are all natives, this plant was introduced into Ireland and is mainly found around the East Coast. However, it has been in Ireland for such a long time that it is considered to be native. It was introduce before the 16th century and grown in monasteries as a vegetable until it was replaced by celery. If you crush the leaf, you get a strong smell of celery from it. The young stems are edible when cooked (you can find great recipes online), but I haven’t tried them yet. The shiny, pale green leaves appear in late winter, followed by green-yellow flower heads in early spring.

Alexanders (Smynium olusatrum

The last plant I noted on the walk was Colt’s-Foot, a relative of the dandelion, which can be easily distinguished by its little sheaths or bracts which can be seen along the stem, whereas dandelion has smooth stems.

Colt’s foot (Tussilago farfara)

I will end with a few photos of the scenery along the Bray-Greystones cliff walk. It is well worth walking it, whether it is to see the plants along the way or to enjoy the breath-taking scenery. If you have any photos or additions to this list, let me know. I hope to write an updated summer or autumn list in the near future.

 

Small teasel (Dipsacus pilosus)

The thing I like about plants and about science in general is, you never stop learning and you never know what you might discover.

I went for an evening stroll along the West pier in Dunlaoire and came across a plant I hadn’t seen before. I guessed which family it was in from the flower arrangement and the seedheads. A quick search showed it was Small Teasel, a plant I hadn’t even heard of before. It’s related to the Wild Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), which is locally common around parts of Ireland, mainly along the East coast. After some more reading I only found one record of small teasel in Ireland, on Zoë Devlin’s website. The books I used show no record of it in Ireland.  It is local, scattered in England and Wales only and not found anywhere else in the British Isles according to all sources I checked. I suspect seeds from the UK arrived in Dunlaoire Harbour with the ferry and germinated on the pier. Once I noticed the plant, I kept an eye out for more, and found about 5-10 plants along a stretch of the pier. I’m hoping it will spread a bit more and people will notice it.

Flower head with black stamen

Small teasel has white flowers in a round-topped cluster on hairy, slightly spiky stems up to 1.2m. The ‘pilosus‘ part of the name means ‘soft hairs’ referring to the spikes/hairs found on the stems. The flower heads are spherical, 15-20mm across with spiny bracts and can be seen July-September. Each little flower has 4 black stamen protruding from it. From far away these look like lots of tiny insects resting on the flower. The basal leaves are oval and long-stalked, toothed and form a rosette. The stem leaves have 2 basal lobes that are not joined around the stem. Small teasel is a biennial, meaning it will form a rosette of leaves the first year, flower in the second year, set seed and then dies. It is usually found along woodland margins and on hedge banks, usually on limy soil. The pier does not seem the ideal environment for small teasel, but it seems happy growing there.

Double headed flower

Basal leaves of one year old plants

I find it interesting to watch people walk by (like I probably would have done years ago) without even looking at this rare plant. They are not even aware that this might be the only specimen in Ireland. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council spray the pier regularly and might not even be aware that there are rare plants to be found there. They are just spraying anything that looks green.

Whenever you are walking, I hope you keep an eye out for plants that look unfamiliar and try to identify them. If you are unsure, feel free to ask me and I’ll try my best to help you. You never know what you might come across.

 

 

A native carnivorous plant

My parents own a farm in Clare with various habitats: open grassland, a river, woodland area, a bog… When I go down to visit them I always try and make time to go on a little excursion to see what I can find. My favourite part of the farm at the moment is the bog land. So you can expect a few blog post about plants growing in the bog in the coming few weeks. The first of which is:

Round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)

I love this tiny plant as it seems so exotic to me, even though it is a native plant. This sundew is one of the few carnivorous plants in Ireland. The soil they grow on is usually lacking in nutrients, therefore they trap and digest little insects to supplement their diet. Incidentally, boglands are usually full of midges which get stuck to the plant.

The round-leaved sundew is locally common and  found on boggy ground all around Ireland. It is declining in numbers due to habitat loss, especially due to peat/turf cutting and drainage of bogs. It grows a rosette of reddish-green round leaves with long horizontal stalks. The leaf edges are covered in hairs which have sticky gluey liquid on the end in which insects get trapped. The leaf then rolls up and digests the insect.

Round-leaved sundew leaves

Flower buds just about to open

Close up of the leaves with my finger for scale

 

The  flowers are creamy white, up to 20cm in height but often they don’t open fully. In the past sundew was recommended for treating asthma and as a cough medicine. And it is still used in the preparation of cough medicines.

When you go to look for this plant, look in the wet, open parts of the bogs, look down and stare at the ground for a while. You will find one eventually. Once you see one, you are likely to see many more around the area. And don’t forget to wear your wellies!

Wild garlic pesto

This is the second of a series of foraging recipes me and my friend Molly are trying out. We try two different recipes and let you be the judge of which you think is better. This recipe is very easy, there is not even any cooking involved.

Wild garlic or ramsons (Allium ursinum) is a native perennial and is mainly found in damp woodlands. It can be found around the country. You will usually smell it before you see it. In early spring you will see long, wide, shiny leaves which smell of garlic forming large patches on the woodland floor. The leaves can get up to 30cm in length and over 5cm in width.

A large patch of ramsons.

Ramsons (Allium ursinum)

From this moment on you can start picking the leaves. In late April early May you will see the flower heads appearing: white balls of star-like flowers. The whole plant is edible; the leaf, bulb and flower. It takes a lot of energy to produce the bulb, so you are better off leaving the bulb in the ground, plus you will need to get the landowner’s permission if harvesting the bulb- it is just not worth the hassle- there is plenty of leaves to go around. To make sure you have identified the plant correctly, pick a piece. If it has a very strong garlic smell, you have picked the right plant. Other plants some people might confuse this with are Lords-and-ladies (this has an arrow-shaped leave and is very poisonous) or Lily-of-the-valley (it is only rarely found in the wild). If it doesn’t smell of garlic, it’s not wild garlic.

Flowers of ramsons

Before you go out and pick any plant, remember the rules of foraging: Make sure you are 100% confident you have identified the plant correctly; if you are not on public land, make sure you have the land owners permission to pick the plant; only pick what you need that day, don’t over pick; pick only if you are sure the plants have not been contaminated with anything like pesticides, herbicides or by dogs urinating.

I tried a recipe from a book called ‘Wild food’ by Biddy White Lennon and Evan Doyle. You can also find their recipes online here.

I picked my wild garlic together with Molly in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny after one of my Wildflower Walks.

Picking the leaves

Ingredients:

• 50g  wild garlic leaves
• 25g hazelnuts
• 200ml olive oil
• 40g grated parmesan

Method:

Step 1: Crush the nuts and half the oil in a blender, then add the grated parmesan.

Step 2: Wash the wild garlic and discard any bad looking leaves.

Washed wild garlic leaves

Step 3: Add the wild garlic and the rest of the oil, blend until it is the right consistency.

Step 4: Taste and adjust the recipe…The result was a lovely pesto, but it was too runny for my liking, so I decided to add a bit of grated cheddar and some cashew nuts and blended again, I repeated the grated cheddar step until I got the consistency I was happy with.

Liquid version before adjusting the recipe

After adding extra cheese and cashew nuts it is less runny.

Step 5: Pour into a sterilised jar with a tight fitting lid. Cover with some oil, store in the fridge and use within 3 weeks.

I made three jars. One large one for myself. One for sharing and comparing and one for Molly.

When we comparing our recipes using  my parents as blind tasters, opinions were divided. My recipe was more like a traditional pesto in consistency and had a very strong flavour. Molly’s pesto was more of a paste and had a milder flavour, probably because she used cheddar rather than parmesan, cashews rather than hazelnuts and rapeseed oil instead of olive oil. All in all I was happy with the results. Next time I might try it with different nuts and perhaps going half and half on the cheddar and parmesan.

You can find Molly’s recipe here. Did I mention it is completely Zero Waste?

I’d love to hear what you think of either recipe. Do you have a recipe or trick of your own? Do you think it can be improved in any way, let me know.

Gorse flower cordial

Over the last few months I decided I wanted to start foraging. I have the knowledge to identify the plants correctly (which is a very important part of foraging), so I had no reason not to try it. My best friend Molly, who some of you might have met on my walks, is trying to live more sustainably and I am her guinea pig when it comes to new recipes and ideas. She’s the better cook and has a better imagination when it comes to recipes, I know how to identify the plant we need. It’s a win-win. From that we came up with the idea of comparing foraging recipes over the next couple of weeks and putting them on our blogs. So we decided to start with something easy- gorse flower cordial.

When picking any wild food there are a few things to keep in mind: it is important to identify the plant correctly, if you are not 100% sure, don’t use it. The second point is to ask the land owners permission to pick the plant (if it is not on public land). Thirdly, make sure that the plant has not been contaminated with anything especially herbicides or for example if it is near a footpath, that a dog has not peed on it or people have walked on it.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus) (also called furze or whin in some part of the country) can be found growing in many places around the country, usually in upland, scrubland and peatland areas. It is a native Irish shrub and can sometimes be found planted in gardens or found in many hedgerows along fields.  Gorse has some flowers most of the year, but the main flowering period is February to May. It has bright yellow pea-like flowers which are about 2cm long and smell of vanilla and coconut. They always remind me of Bounty bars. Its leaves are blue/green spikes with little grooves in them. This is to prevent them from losing water from its leaves in harsh, windy winters.

Gorse flowers close up

I live on the outskirts of Dublin and found some growing along the coast. It is best to pick gorse flowers on a sunny day, so the flavour is at its strongest. I picked them on a very wet day, but it still worked fine, the flavour was just not as strong. The best time of year to pick the flowers is when the most flowers are available (February to May). At this time of year, the new leaves are unfolding and haven’t hardened into spikes yet, making it easier to pick the flowers.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

I found the recipe below on this great foraging website. They suggested using lemon juice, but I only had an orange in the house, so this is the result…

For the cordial you will need:

• 4 handfuls of gorse flowers
• 600ml cold water
• 250g sugar (I used granulated white sugar)
• Zest of 1 orange
• Juice of 1 orange

 

Step 1:

Mix the water and sugar in a pot and bring it to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes and remove from the heat.

Step 2:

Add the orange juice, gorse flowers and orange zest to the sugar water. Cover and leave to soak overnight (about 10-12 hours).

Step 3:

Strain the liquid through muslin (if you don’t have this you can use a fine meshed sieve and then sieve it through a clean tea towel) into a clean jug.

Step 4:

Pour the liquid into a sterilised bottle and cap (you can Google how to sterilise bottles, it’s easy). You should have about 500-600ml of gorse cordial.

Ready to enjoy!

Step 5:

To make a lovely drink out of this, dilute it 10:1 water:gorse cordial.

Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

When comparing my recipe to Molly’s recipe, mine won in a blind taste test. Woohoo!! That being said, mine was said to be very sweet (it might just need to be diluted more) and Molly’s tasted better with rum. For Molly’s recipe and how to serve it with alcohol, check out her recipe here. Why not try both recipes and let us know which one you prefer?

Easily identifiable spring flowers

Spring has sprung and it is time to properly venture outside again. Whether this involves going for an evening walk in your local park or for long hikes on the mountains or in woodlands, you will always come across some flowers. This is why I decided to give you a little summary of plants that are starting to flower and are easily identified.

The plant that signals spring to me is Lesser Celandine. It starts flowering as early as December and lets me know the worst of the winter is over. I love its yellow star-like flowers. If you look closely at its flowers, which have 8-12 petals, you will see they are darker yellow in the centre and reflect light. This is due to the presence of starch grains underneath the surface reflecting light. Its leaves are dark green, fleshy and heart-shaped. This plant can be found mainly in woodlands, but I have found it underneath trees at the side of a road and in many park around Dublin.

Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna)

In the last two weeks a lot of tree buds are starting to burst into leaf. Horse chestnuts are one of the earliest to leaf and the earliest to lose their leaves. As the leaves unfold, you can also see the flower stem and buds emerging. To me they look a little like baby birds emerging from their eggs, stretching their wings. Just when the leaves have fully expanded, the tree starts to flower. They are like little candelabras and are usually white with a hint of pink. Usually they are in full flower around May, but I’ve already seen one starting to flower.

Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) buds

Buds starting to open

Leaves unfolding

Buds appearing

Flowers visible

Another tree that is starting to show signs of spring is Blackthorn. It flowers on bare branches, before the leaves, which are oval and toothed, come out. This tree can be seen all around the country. The whole tree is a mass of white flowers. Once you look close up, you can see the brilliant white five petalled flowers with many stamen protruding from the centre of the flowers.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) flowers

Wood sorrel has white, bell-shaped flowers with pink, nearly see-through veins and a golden centre. Its leaves are a classic shamrock shape: three heart-shaped leaflets which fold at night. They are usually found in old woodlands. I found this plant in flower on both Killiney Hill and in Cabinteely Park.

Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)

Gorse flowers almost all year round, but February to May is its peak flowering period. The spiky shrubs are covered in yellow pea flowers which smell like bounty bars to me (some people say it smells of coconut or vanilla). A good place to see gorse is on Rochestown Hill.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

Gorse flowers close up

Primroses can be found in ditches and damp woodlands. They have crinkled leaves and pale yellow flowers with 5 petals and a darker centre; each flower emerging from the base of the plant on its own stalk. They can have two different types of flowers, thrum eyed or pin eyed. Thrum eyed flowers have their stamen above the stigma, whereas in pin eyed flowers this is the other way around.  This picture shows the difference perfectly. Photo credit.

Pin eyed

Thrum eyed

Ramsons- These are sometimes called wild garlic. They are only showing long broad leaves at the moment. In the next week or so they will start flowering in globular clusters of white, star-shaped flowers. Ramsons are usually found in patches in deciduous woods and can be identified by the smell of garlic when you pass them or if in doubt, crush or pick a leaf; the garlic smell will give you a good idea it is wild garlic. It can be used in cooking and especially wild garlic pesto. You have to be 100% sure you have identified it correctly though, as lily of the valley also has similar leaves (without the garlic scent) which are highly toxic if eaten. Another plant that looks a little like it, and grows in the same habitat, is the poisonous lords-and-ladies, which has arrow-shaped leaves, but the young leaves can look similar enough to ramsons. To tell them apart, look at the vein pattern on the leaves; ramsons have parallel veins, lords-and-ladies have a net of veins. And smell the leaves, if its garlicky, it is more than likely ramsons. There is lots of ramsons in Shanganagh Park.

Ramsons (Allium ursinum)

Three cornered garlic is another plant in the garlic family. Unlike ramsons, three-cornered-garlic isn’t native, it was introduced about 300 years ago. It is edible and adds a lovely garlic flavour to any dish. It has long three-sided leaves, hence the name. Its white flowers are bell shaped with with a green line running down the tepals. It can be found in many parks including Marlay Park and Killiney Hill.

Three cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum)

Alexanders are one of the first umbelifers to flower and easily distinguished from the rest. Apart from the flowering time, you can identify it by its glossy green leaves and yellow, nearly green flowers, which smell like wild celery. This is not a native plant and was believed to be introduced into Ireland by Alexander the Great, hence the name. It is now naturalised and can be found along many beaches and coastal areas.

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)

Colt’s foot flowers look like dandelion flowers when you initially see them. They are in the same family (the daisy family). If you look closely you can see a difference in flower structure: Dandelions only have ray florets, whereas colt’s foot has ray florets (outer ones) and disc florets (inner ones). They are easily distinguished from dandelions by looking at the flower stem; Colt’s foot flowers have pinkish brackets, like little triangular sheaths, on the flower stem. If you look carefully you might see the shield shaped leaves starting to appear. These usually appear after the flowers open.

Colt’s foot (Tussilago farfara)

Colt’s foot, with buttercup leaves on the left

Wood anemone is a very delicate little woodland flower. There are various anemones which can be found in woodlands around Ireland, but this is the only native one. It has 6-7 white petal-like sepals, making it easy to tell apart from the non-native White Anemone (Anemone appenina var. albiflora) which has 9-15 sepals and is found in the same habitat. The leaves of wood anemone are deeply lobed and a whorl of three leaves can often be found on the flowering stem. I found this example in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny.

Wood anemone (Anemone appenina var. albiflora)

If you want to know more about any of these flowers, feel free to send me any questions or even pictures of plants you would like help identifying. You can also come on one of my walks to learn more or ask me questions in person.

Love charms, potions and aphrodisiacs

For the day that is in it, I thought I would provide a list of plants that have been used for love charms, potions or as aphrodisiacs, both in Ireland and abroad.

Early dog violet- Viola reichenbachiana

Plants that had a nice scent e.g. mint were thought have some power in love charms. These love charms were often used to predict who the person was going to marry. Here are some examples of how plants were used in the past:

• If a girl placed nine yarrow leaves under her pillow while saying a charm she would dream of her husband that night.
• Shamrocks (Trifolium species) with four leaves are said to bring good luck, but in some areas of the UK, finding one meant that you would meet your true love.
• Honeysuckle brought into the house was thought to be a sure sign that a wedding would soon follow. And if it was brought into a girl’s bedroom she would dream of her true love. But in other parts of the UK and Ireland it is considered bad luck to bring  honeysuckle inside.
• If a boy saw you with St. John’s Wort in your hand, he was sure to fall in love with you.
• If a woman put a leaf of bracken in a man’s left shoe on St. John’s Eve, she would make him fall in love with her.
• Ivy had many uses in love charms, one of them being, if a man picked 10 ivy leaves, threw 1 away and slept with the rest under his pillow, he would see his future love.
• When blowing dandelion clocks (seed heads), the number of puffs it took to blow away all the seeds was the amount of years it was until you would be married.
• Violets are dedicated to St. Valentine and it is a symbol for fidelity. It was also used in love charms.
• In England girls would wear thyme, mint and lavender to attract men. This is probably because of the attractive scent.
• A dangerous love charm involved the poisonous hemlock. Dried hemlock was mixed with food, the one who ate this would fall in love with you in return… Do not try this one at home, as it is deadly poisonous.
• Field scabious was used in love divinations. A girl picked a few flowers of field scabious and gave each the name of a boy she fancied. The flower which opened the best would predict the name of her husband-to-be.

Some plants were believed to have the power to make a person fall in love, these were called love potions. Some examples of uses of plants in these potions include:

• Witches used creeping-cinquefoil in love potions and spells.
• Vervain and root of bracken were used in love potions in UK.
• Tubers of the purple orchid made a very powerful love potion. The person who drinks the drink would fall head over heels in love with the maker of the potion.

Aphrodisiacs are substances that increase sexual desire. Many of the plants thought to be aphrodisiacs are deadly poisonous. They include Deadly Nightshade and Hemlock. Other less deadly aphrodisiacs include garlic, horse-radish, wormwood, mustard, opium-poppy and parsley.

Sunspurge and nettles were used externally to enhance sexual pleasure, but they can also cause pain when they come in contact with skin.

Kissing under the mistletoe is usually reserved for Christmas, but why not try it on Valentine’s day for a change… the only downside being that it might be hard to find in the wild.

There is no scientific evidence that love charms or potions work, but it often seems to work if the person using it believes that it will work. A little bit like a placebo effect.

I’m not recommending you go out and try any of these love potions or charms potions this Valentine’s Day, but if ever you do so, please bear in mind that some of these plants can be very poisonous and deadly if handled or ingested, so please do some research beforehand.

Above all, have fun and enjoy your love of plants.

 

 

 

A visit to Biddy Early’s cottage

Most of you will probably be wondering, ‘Who is Biddy Early?’. I hadn’t heard of her myself until a few months ago. I did some research and found out she was a ‘wise woman’ and herbalist in the early 19th Century. Her old cottage is for sale and happened to be about a 20 minute drive from my parents’ house in County Clare, between the towns of Feakle and Tulla. So I decided to pay it a visit.

The cottage is accessed by a muddy path from the main road leading up to the house, which is on the side of a hill in an area with lots of trees. The house is in ruins, the only thing still standing is four ivy-clad walls and some of the window frames. The cottage was restored in 1970’s by a local man Dr. Bill Loughnane T.D., but due to lack of funding, it fell into disrepair again. Apparently nothing but misfortune followed him after restoring the cottage.

Biddy Early’s cottage

The most striking thing is the fact that still, people leave little tokens or gifts in the cottage. They ranged from tiny bottles of alcohol, a sleeping bag, coins, stones, candles, a metal box, a few blue bottles (more on these later) and even a little Darth Vader statue (I’m not sure why this was here).

Outside the cottage was a mount of freshly disturbed earth. I’m not sure where this came from, but there were coins on top and possibly mixed in with the soil too, as well as a few burnt out tealights. Also outside the cottage beside the path was a large broken blue bottle.

A lot of wild plants were growing in, on and around the cottage. Elder, which keeps away evil spirits and witches;

Elder

Ivy, a symbol of life and an ingredient in many folk cures

Hart’s tongue fern, which was used to cure burns and warts

Blackthorn; a symbol of strength and protection; hawthorn, the tree of the fairies and of magical and protective powers; beech, brambles, used to cure many ailments including skin complaints;

Scaly male fern

Honeysuckle, gorse and Lords-and-ladies. These are all plants that you would expect to see around any derelict house. I expect there to be many more plants which have not appeared yet, at this time of year.

 

Biddy’s history

She was born in 1798, and both her parents died when she was 16. She was married four times, including her son in law. Most of her husbands died of drink related illnesses. This was probably because there was always drink in the house. Due to Biddy never accepting payment for her cures, she mainly received alcohol and food.

In 1865 she was charged with witchcraft and brought before a court in Ennis. The case was dropped as witnesses refused to testify against her.

In April 1873 Biddy Early died in her two roomed cottage, aged 75.

Blue bottle history

Biddy came into possession of a glass blue bottle at some stage in her life, some say the fairies gave it to her other people say her mother, who she got her gift from, gave it to her by coming back from the dead. Whatever way she came to possess it, she could predict people’s future and see what ailed them. She poured liquid from another bottle to cure people. No-one ever knew what was in this, but it cured most illnesses of both people and their livestock (mostly cattle). However, She would only cure people that she knew were meant to be cured. Before her death, she asked a local priest to throw her blue bottle into the nearby lake, which he apparently did. People have searched for it, but it has never been found.

Biddy had a well at the side of her house, the water from which is said to have magical powers, and if given with her consent could cure a person of any affliction

The curse of Biddy Early

There is a story that Biddy Early cursed the Clare hurling team. The curse was supposed to stop the team from winning the All-Ireland for more that eighty years. However, Bill Loughnane, who later bought Biddy’s cottage, wrote to the Irish Times after Clare ‘broke’ the curse by winning the 1995 championship.

He wrote, “Biddy Early is fondly remembered in Co Clare as an extraordinary woman who devoted her time to comforting and healing the sick. She is not known ever to have cursed anyone. She experienced some difficulty with one local clergyman of the day who, for reasons of his own, would have her labelled a ‘witch’ … Biddy Early died in 1875 before the foundation of the GAA and long before there was any inter-county competition!”

Some people say that they can still feel a good presence in the house. Whether this lingers from all the visitors, or from Biddy herself, I do not know. You might have to visit yourself to find out.

You can find a photo of the restored cottage in 1970 here: http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/feakles-biddy-early-a-victim-of-moral-panic/

To find the location, use the photos in the property page, which you can find here:

http://www.daft.ie/clare/houses-for-sale/feakle/dromore-feakle-clare-574749/

For further reading, see this website:

http://www.independent.ie/style/sex-relationships/biddy-early-witch-or-woman-ahead-of-her-time-26683760.html

There are also two books published on Biddy Early:

E. Lenihan, In search of Biddy Early (Cork, 1987).

M. Ryan, Biddy Early—wise woman of Clare (Cork, 1978).

 

 

Ivy- Hedera hibernica

Ivy was thought to prevent you getting drunk, predict death and love and treat various skin conditions. Read on to find out why and how this was done.

Ivy is a native evergreen climbing plant, which climbs using stem roots. It is mainly found on the forest floor, climbing up walls and trees. It has two types of leaves; The early leaves which are 3 or 5 lobed, shiny dark green with pale veins and as the plant grows up and is lit more, the leaves change into their ‘mature’ shape, which is heart-shaped.

Young ivy leaves

Ivy flowers and mature leaves

Ivy has yellow-green five-petalled flowers in clusters in September to October. These flowers are an important late source of nectar for many insects. After the flowers have been fertilised the berries ripen very slowly over winter, ripening from green to black in late winter. These are an important food source for birds when there is not much else for them to eat. It is also an important plant for nesting birds, and gives shelter for birds and the insects they feed on.

Every part of ivy is poisonous if eaten in large quantities, especially the berries which contains saponins to deter snails and slugs. The sap is also an irritant for many people. However, ivy was used as a winter fodder and had many traditional medicinal uses. These include a treatment for corns by applying a poultice of vinegar soaked leaves to the corns. Burns and scalds were treated with ivy leaves boiled in butter. Other uses include treatment of skin complaints, coughs, colds. And the leaves were also used to stop bleeding and reduce inflammation. A black dye was also made from the leaves to dye clothes.

Many myths, legends and customs surround ivy, this is possibly because is it such a common plant.

Ivy used to be hung in cattle sheds, as it was said to have protective powers, especially against witches and was this was also said to increase milk yields. At Christmas time it was made into garlands around windows, sometimes whitening the berries with starch for a more festive feel. It was thought to be unlucky to bring ivy in the house at any other time.

Ivy was dedicated to the Roman god of wine, Bacchus in Classical legend. Wearing an ivy wreath showed your devotion to Bacchus and also prevented intoxication. It was also thought that, as ivy could smother grape vines, ivy berries could cure the effects of alcohol. and poisoned wine drunk from an ivy cup was set to render the poison useless and wouldn’t get you drunk. This is why ivy shows up in a lot of pub names, especially around Britain.

Ivy is associated with enduring fertility and life, due to it being evergreen. Traditionally people laid ivy wreaths on graves on All Saints’ and All Souls’ day. Death divinations were carried out at Halloween by putting an unblemished ivy leaf for each member of the family, in a separate glass. If the leaf was still unblemished the next morning the person would live for another year. If it was blemished the person would die within a year.

On the other hand, due to its self-clinging nature, ivy is associated with fidelity and loyalty since ancient times. It is often found in bridal bouquets and Ancient Greek priests gave an  ivy wreath to newly weds. It is also a sacred plant in Egypt. Love divination are said be carried by placing ivy leaves under your pillow. In your dreams you will then see the man you are going to marry. This tradition was mainly carried out on New Year’s Eve.

I hope this makes you see ivy in a whole new light, and not just as another evergreen plant that climbs up trees and walls.