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| Sometimes I miss living in Seattle. I used to teach at a converted building dedicated to nonprofit orgs and low-income artist housing. There are similar endeavors in many cities, but in Seattle it’s everywhere and at the Good Shepherd Center, located a mile away from my former home, one of the tenants, Seattle Tilth, inspires and educates people to garden organically and consider urban chicken coops and beehives. My neighbors upstairs turned half our yard into a garden. Last week it held a workshop in Herbal Tea Gardening and on the 23rd it gives one on Composting for Apartment Dwellers. Take a look at the tenants inside this one building. Shouldn’t every city have one? |
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| The government illegally approved a genetically modified, herbicide-resistant strain of sugar beets without adequately considering the chance they will contaminate other beet crops, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White rejected the U.S. Department of Agriculture's decision in 2005 to allow Monsanto Co. to sell the sugar beets, known as "Roundup-Ready" because they are engineered to coexist with Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. |
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| I'm crazy for Rosemary |
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| Written by Bud Green |
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Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean. Legend has it that the Virgin Mary spread her cloak over a rosemary bush while she rested and as a result of this the flowers turned blue like her cloak. From then on, the bush was called ‘Rose of Mary.” Rosemary is also known as ‘Sea rose, Herb of Crowns, Mary’s Tree, Guardrobe, Incensier, Elf Leaf, Sea Dew, Dew of the Sea, Polar Plant, Mary’s Cloak, Libanotis, Stella Maria, Star of The Sea, Compass Weed and Compass Plant’. The word ‘Rosmarinus’ comes from the Latin word ‘rosmaris’ which means ‘dew of the sea’, which is a reference to rosemary’s refreshing effects on the spirit and the fact that rosemary’s habitat in the Mediterranean is usually along the coastal regions. The ancients knew well of rosemary’s refreshing effects- ancient Greek students would wear garlands of rosemary to increase their memory and this is how rosemary became to be called the ‘Herb of Crowns.’ Rosemary has long been recognised as a symbol of remembrance, and an example of its symbolic use today is seen at funerals where guests wear a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of rosemary is also cast onto the coffin of the deceased. The ancients also used rosemary as a respiratory ailment treatment and as sacred incense in some religious ceremonies. Sprigs of rosemary have been found in Egyptian Tombs (3000 BC.) It was the Arabs who first extracted the essential oil of Rosemary. The Romans used rosemary to decorate statues of their household Gods as rosemary symbolised stability. In 1235, The Queen of Hungary became paralysed and legend has it that a hermit soaked a pound of rosemary in a gallon of wine for several days and then rubbed it on her limbs. This treatment cured the Queen Elizabeth of Hungary of her paralysis, and the rosemary-wine combination became known as ‘Queen of Hungary’s Water.’ This concoction was used for centuries to treat dandruff, gout, skin problems and to prevent baldness. Rosemary was also one of the ingredients in the ‘Vinegar of Four Thieves,” which was a potion used by grave robbers for protection against the plague. In the middle ages, rosemary was associated with wedding ceremonies-the bride would wear a rosemary headpiece and the groom and wedding guests would all wear a sprig of rosemary, and from this association with weddings rosemary evolved into a love charm. Newly wed couples would plant a branch of rosemary on their wedding day. If the branch grew it was a good omen for the union and family. In ‘A Modern Herbal’, Mrs Grieves says “A rosemary branch, richly gilded and tied with silken ribands of all colours, was also presented to wedding guests, as a symbol of love and loyalty.” Another example of rosemary’s use as a love charm was that a young person would tap another with a rosemary sprig and if the sprig contained an open flower, it was said that the couple would fall in love. Rosemary was used as a divinatory herb-several types of herbs were grown in pots and assigned the name of a potential lover. Then they were left to grow and the plant that grew the strongest and fastest gave the answer. Rosemary was also stuffed into poppets (cloth dolls) in order to attract a lover or attract curative vibrations for illness. It was believed that placing a sprig of rosemary under a pillow before sleep would repel nightmares, and if placed outside the home it would repel witches. Somehow, the use of rosemary in the garden to repel witches turned into signification that the woman ruled the household in homes and gardens where rosemary grew abundantly. By the 16th century this practise became a bone of contention and men where known to rip up rosemary bushes to show that they-not their wives, ruled the roost. The French hung rosemary in hospitals and sickrooms as healing incense. It was referred to as ‘incensier.’ Rosemary was the favourite scent of Napoleon Bonaparte. In Spain and Italy, rosemary is considered a protector against evil spirits. Some of the many uses for rosemary are as follows:
So, there it is rosemary in all her glory - go out, plant some.... |
Rosemary, Rosemary - a scent so sweet- - Not only is rosemary a popular and attractive herb - It has a history which is far more entertaining than most television shows these days-Farm Aid
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