Mistress Bradstreet by Charlotte Gordon

Author:Charlotte Gordon [GORDON, CHARLOTTE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO007000
ISBN: 9780316028684
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2007-09-03T04:00:00+00:00

Take Balm leaves and stalks, Burnet leaves and flowers, rosemary, red sage, taragon, tormentil leaves, Rossolis, red Roses, Carnation, hyssop, Thyme, red strings that grow upon Savory, red Fennel leaves and roots, red Mints, of each one handful; bruise these herbs and put them in a great earthen pot and pour on them as much white wine as will cover them, stop them close, and let them steep for eight or nine days, then put to it cinnamon, ginger, angelica seeds, cloves and nutmegs, of each one ounce, a little saffron, sugar one pound, raisins . . . one pound, dates stoned and sliced, half a pound, the joints and legs of an old Coney, fleshy running Capon, the red flesh of the sinews of a leg of mutton, four young chickens, twelve larks, the yolks of twelve eggs, a loaf of white bread cut in sops, and two or three ounces of Mithridate or Treacle, and as much . . . Muscadine as will cover them all.16

Such a recipe necessitated community involvement. What if you had run out of fennel or couldn’t afford to buy saffron or cinnamon off the boats from the West Indies? It was easy to lack essentials or to be unable to purchase what was needed. Wealthy, organized, and knowledgeable as they were, Anne and her family must often have played the role of town apothecary, supplying the needy with medicine and medical counsel.

But faced with the unpredictable growing conditions in America and the many unfamiliar plants, everyone had to try new concoctions and experiment with strange new roots and leaves. The risks were high. Using the wrong herb or too much of a dangerous plant could literally kill one’s patient. Still, some brave souls desperately scoured the countryside for plants that might hold within the secrets of a cure.

Puritans like Anne believed that those who were truly close to God had a better chance than others at this task because they would be better able to detect God’s presence in the universe. According to the seventeenth-century theory of “signatures,” God had left His “handwriting,” or clues to the uses of all the herbs, in telltale markings on their leaves, flowers, roots, and juice. For example, the liver-shaped leaves of liverwort meant that it would help with disorders of the liver. The bright red of poppies indicated that they were useful for diseases of the blood, or to stanch bleeding. Puritans also assumed that the cures for most afflictions lay close to home; for instance, if a man suffered from rheumatism because of “living in a damp and swampy” area, his nurse should make a tincture from the willow bark that grew nearby.17

Each housewife, then, had to be a detective seeking out the advice of experienced foragers and a chemist experimenting with new ingredients, at the same time that she prayed fiercely over her creations. But if preparing medical tinctures could be a confounding and even dangerous enterprise, cooking was no simple matter either.

Fireplaces were the command centers of the colonial home.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.