A Heritage of Medicinals
Image by Frauke Riether, Pixabay.com
Cookbooks and Journal Notes
As far as I can tell both sides of my family were making all sorts of medicinal materials as far back as 1790s. Of course, they were! That was EMT preparation in the early 1800s. Really, how many people today have heard of spider webs used to stanch a severe cut? Cobwebs were frequently used to clean and pack open cuts to stop bleeding and prevent infection. As late as 1940 this remedy was applied to my mother’s shin when a stunt of ‘jump-on-the-seesaw-and-flip-your-sister-over-the-barbed-wire-fence’ went awry. Today we recognize the anti-fungal and natural antiseptic qualities of the spider’s web, but the notion to use the ’real McCoy’ in an emergency is no longer an option.
Medicinal information was communicated orally among family at the time of preparation. Neighbors and/or employees who assisted in the medicinal manufacturing process updated their information, labored and labeled, contributed to the ingredients, and returned to their homes with their portions of the products made. In our home, the recipes and manufacturing practices were kept with the meal preparation instructions, i.e., cookbooks and recipe boxes. I had no idea what treasures there were in my great-grandmother’s trunk as she was the keeper of the information. After her death in 1939, my grandmother inherited the trunk along with the mystical journals. I know this because I see her writing on notes and scraps of paper revising and updating ingredients. The trunk traveled with me since 1975.
It was from this collection I began revising the formulation for the liniments, tinctures, poultices, and balms which I have used for over 30 years. Full spectrum CBD, hemp-derived distillate is used as a principal ingredient in these recipes. The hemp is organically grown in Maryland and processed locally by a GMP facility.
Turtle Balm receives its name from the Algonquin totem for wellness among the Manokin band who once inhabited our farm on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.
More later. . .
Live Well and Turtle On,
K.
