Elm Bank event: A toast to herbal libations

Members and guests of the New England Unit of the Herb Society of America imbibed all day last Friday when they met in the Hunnewell Carriage House at the Elm Bank reservation in Wellesley, home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Gathering there for an all-day program, attendees enjoyed drinking shrubs, bitters, beer and more during a program titled "Let's drink to That! A History of Herbal Libations."

According to their literature, the Herb Society of America was founded in 1933 for the purpose of expanding the knowledge of herbs and their uses and for contributing the results of research and the practical experience of its members to the records of horticulture, science, literature, history, the arts and economics. The organization's motto is "For Use and For Delight," taken from herbalist John Parkinson.

The Herb Society is an educational organization concerned with the cultivation of herbs, the study of their history and their uses, both past and present. They maintain a library at their headquarters in Ohio and offer educational programs. The New England Unit maintains an herb garden at the Gardens at Elm Bank in Wellesley.

Member of the New England Unit's board, Jane O'Sullivan, got the day going with a welcome to the event, which included lectures, lunch and a silent auction as well as a copious array of herbal libations to sample. The registrants' packets even contained two quizzes, and O'Sullivan promised them, "You will not need the answer sheet by the end of the day."

A silent auction offered something for everyone's taste. "Bid as much as you want. Put your name on [the bid sheets] 20 times if you want," encouraged O'Sullivan.

Dr. Judith Sumner, a botanist, who specializes in flowering plants, plant adaptations, garden history, economic botany and ethnobotany, presented "Potables, Potions, and Poisons: A Botanical History of Herb-Based Beverages." Sumner has appeared on the Martha Stewart Living television show, the PBS program "Cultivating Life" with Sean Conway and various other PBS and educational programs. She has also serves as a National Public Radio STEM mentor.

Sumner's lecture included information about herbs, spices and alcohol – all ingredients that since ancient times have been combined into desirable beverages. She traced the common threads that link the use of alcohol and herbal plants, both in the sickroom and parlor – and spoke about their having longstanding significance in diet, desire, disease and even death.

Sumner said that herbs in a low dose are good, but could be poisonous in a higher dose, referring to Paracelsus' remark that, "The dose makes the poison."

Page 2 of 5 - When talking about how fermentation begins – when yeast gets into the flesh of fruit – Sumner said that some animals have been observed to get drunk from fermented fruit. She referred to hamster cages being used as drunk tanks for birds that got drunk in the Yukon – cedar waxwings, for example.

Sumner had more than 50 slides to illustrate her lecture. She spoke about Catharine Beecher's recommendation of using wine whey (wine mixed with milk) for invalids back in the 1860s. Beecher also recommended mulled wine for them.

Sumner displayed a sense of humor throughout her lecture, saying, for example, that she rather liked the idea of sitting in bed in the sickroom drinking wine. Of course compared to water, wine was considered safe and clean back in the day.

She talked about Colonial women pulling out the pure essential oils of herbs and putting them into wine; about tinctures, concentrated herbal extracts made using alcohol and chopped herbs; about laudanum and paregoric being derived from opium poppies.

Paragoric, a tincture of opium, was often recommended for teething children, as it was in Lydia Child's "The Family Nurse," written in 1837, she said.

Sumner spoke of ethanol in nature as a beverage, an antiseptic an antibiotic, a solvent for herbs. It is also a toxin. Vinegar, also a beverage for the sickroom, comes about through one more chemical step beyond fermentation, she added.

Of the combination of tea, alcohol and herbs, Sumner quipped, "they all meet in punch," a beverage which goes back, she said, to 1632.

She said that even today the intertwined chemistry of herbs and alcohol has a role in diet and disease.

"Shrub, Switchel, or Beveridge: The Art of Healthy Fruit Vinegars" was the topic of Susan Belsinger's first lecture of the day.

A teacher, lecturer, writer, editor and photographer, Belsinger has written and edited more than 25 books and hundreds of articles. Recently referred to as a "flavor artist," she is a kitchen alchemist, blending harmonious foods, herbs and spices to create delicious food and libations.

Belsinger not only spoke about but demonstrated the art of making shrubs – a syrup made from fruit, vinegar and sweetener, believed to be of Turkish origin, with its first recorded use in the 1600s. It was not only enjoyed to quench thirst but also to keep scurvy away from sailors at sea.

She said she loved the topic of the day's seminar, "Let's Drink to That."

A fruited vinegar, before sugar was available honey and molasses were used to sweeten it to make the shrub.

Page 3 of 5 - Belsinger, who said she's been making shrubs for 20 years, calls the elderberry shrub her favorite. She mixes apple cider vinegar (organic) with fresh elderberries, and uses honey to sweeten it. Belsinger said that elderberries are all the rage for colds, flu and sore throats right now, and mixologists are using various shrubs in local bars now.

Belsinger said she likes to mix half shrub with half sparkling water. Shrubs last a long time, she said, and she keeps them in a dark pantry.

During the lecture, Belsinger made a shrub using persimmons. Asking for a show of hands if people were familiar with the fruit there wasn't much acknowledgement "You girls need a wild foods walk," she said.

Belsinger, who uses shrubs as beverages and also medicinally, said, "I am a chili head." She made a hot pepper shrub at the event, noting that the habanera shrub is her drink of choice when she feels a cold coming on. She referred to consuming them as "running with the big dogs."

"When I'm doing it for the cold I shoot it straight," Belsinger said about the habanera shrub. She also said she uses it for adding to slaw.

She also made a chocolate shrub and handed out samples of several different flavors.

Lunch, provided by Stockbridge Farm of South Deerfield, followed the lecture. Owners and sisters Mary Ellen Warchol and Denise Lemay gave a brief talk about the food they had prepared, which included a butternut squash soup topped with a hint of St. Germaine elderflower liquor; quinoa and rice salad filled with fall vegetables and herbs, dressed with herb vinegar and oil and served over local greens, topped with lemon-herb chicken or herb-marinated portabella mushroom and accompanied with whole grain bread and herb-infused butter; an apple accompanied by lemon-tea-flavored shortbread, accompanied by a ginger-basil shrub and citrus and herb infused water to quench everyone's thirst.

After lunch John Forti, presented "Cordials, Gruits, and Tinctures & Teas: A Gardener's History of Herbal Integration." Forti is a nationally recognized lecturer, garden historian, ethnobotanist and garden writer. He is the director of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and was curator/director of the Historic Landscapes at Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, N.H. He previously served as the Director of Horticulture at Plimoth Plantation. He has thousands of Facebook followers where he blogs as The Heirloom Gardener.

Forti said that herbalism is enjoying a renaissance thanks to farmers' markets and stronger local economies. He says that throughout history herbs have served as the flavor, medicine, preservative and life essence behind our favorite beverages.

Herbs, he said, have been used for a long time to settle an upset stomach – chamomile tea and ginger ale, for examples. Whiskey, lemon and honey have been imbibed for a long time for colds and sore throats, while garlic has been used to boost the immune system.

Page 4 of 5 - "We all grew up knowing much more about herbs than we knew," he told the audience, adding that throughout history, most people, especially women, were raised to be household botanists – knowing when to put up, preserve and eat food fresh.

"The best things come from your yard," harvested ripe," he said. With a new generation of herbalists, people know how together with the phases of the moon, preserving seasonal herbs for flavor, savor, healthy and hydration.

Forti encouraged the audience to be playful in the garden. He likes to play with herbs in tea, he said. He spoke about Liberty Teas, made when Colonial people, after the 1773 Tea Rebellion, made their own herbal and fruit blends to put in their teapots from fruit and herbs gathered from their gardens. Forti called Liberty Teas "one of the first "Buy Local" campaigns in the country.

In addition to tea, Forti spoke about decoctions – seasonal tonics and root beers. He also addressed tinctures, which added to a cocktail quickly gets into the bloodstream.

When speaking about making vinegar and oils, he called the process getting "a summer dose of your backyard in the winter."

He touched on gruits, as well – fruit beers with no hops. And when it comes to cordials, Forti said that, "in the middle of winter a cordial makes you cordial."

Belsinger presented again with "The Bitters Truth – An Aromatic Adventure." Bitters are composed of the bittering agent, the flavor and the solution.

Long used for their digestive benefits, they have become very popular in bars today. In addition to well-known Angostura and Peychauds' bitters, there are over 25 small-batch bitters makers as well as those who are making them at home. Belsinger is an enthusiast both of drinking bitters and making them.

The bittering agent is the ingredient that adds the bitterness. The flavoring agents are used alone or in combination to create a distinct flavor, and the solution is the liquid used in making the bitters and it is most often alcohol.

Belsinger said she likes to put bitters into sparkling water. And she said she also adds bitters to beans, sauces, gravies, soups and mayonnaise – anywhere from five to 10 drops, she said.

Belsinger provided both commercial and homemade bitters for tasting, including her Aphrodite #9, which got rave reviews.

For more information about the New England Unit of The Herb Society of America visit www.neuhsa.org; facebook.com/NewEnglandUnit

RECIPES

Page 5 of 5 - Stockbridge Farm's Lemon-Thyme Chicken (printed with permission)

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast

½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon each salt & pepper

¼ cup fresh chopped lemon thyme

Clean and trim chicken breasts. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over chicken. Cover and refrigerate. Let chicken marinate overnight. Drain chicken and grill over a medium-hot grill for 10 minutes per side. Don't overcook! The chicken will "cook" a little in the refrigerator while it's marinating, due to the lemon juice. Remove the chicken from the grill and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Susan Belsinger's Basic Fruit or Vegetable Shrub (printed with permission)

Use whatever fruits or vegetables are in season – as well as your imagination – add herbs to complement the produce. Strawberries, fresh peaches and nectarines with lemon herbs are sublime; roasted beets are sweet and earthy; cranberry with cloves is tangy; rosehip shrub is packed with vitamin C, as are fruited vinegars made with citrus.

Makes about 2 quarts

2 cups ripe fruit or vegetables

1 quart apple cider vinegar

About 2 to 3 cups local honey

Wash, peel if necessary and cut fruit or veg into large bite-sized pieces; stem berries. Put the produce into a clean, canning jar and pour the vinegar in and fill jar, leaving ½-inch headspace; cap with a lid. Let stand two to four weeks; shake shrub daily.

Mash the fruit vinegar and strain through cheesecloth or muslin. Add the honey and blend well. Bottle in clean, glass jars with non-metal lids. Label contents on bottle; keep out of reach of children. Store in a cool, dark place.

I have never known a shrub to go bad in storage, however, it will do the body more good if it is used rather than stored. Use it within a year.

Source: Elm Bank event: A toast to herbal libations