Healthy Cleaning !

                                                                                                        

Thst's not me ! but I was impressed by this girl and her laundry . It's at a public resort in Mols Bjerge so she is used to tourists!

Well maybe  it's time to do some extra cleaning in the house after summer ? I saw this below advice in my weekly magazine. I think most of us know these advice from out mothers, don't we? But we forget them. They are so easy - besides they are good for people who suffer from allergies and they are good for the climate indoors. 

Maybe I don't need to go and buy all those cleaners, although I buy them green. I've got lemon, vinegar, baking powder, salt and maize starch in the house. That's enough - and then there'll be money for something else. Maybe chocolate or a delicious cake for the afternoon coffee - or do you prefer something more healthy? 


1) Lemon.
Use it for making chrome and brass shine. (Mix the lemon juice with a little olive oil.  This is the perfect solution for wooden surfaces. ) Lemon can also remove the calcium scale in the bathroom.

2) Vinegar
Use it to desinfect and clean your bathroom: sink,toilet, floor etc. Can salso be added to water in order to clean windows  (you don't need fine cloths to clean windows, old newspapers are fantastic). Vinegar is also fine as a fabric softener because it removes calcium in the laundry and leaves it soft and without vinegar smell.

3) Baking Powder
Effective and simple cleaner of surface. It is good if you want to remove difficult spots. It is also a fine remedy in order to absorb bad odor.

4) Salt
Mixed with lime juice it can be used to remove rust. It can also be used as a peeling on the skin.

5) Maize Starrch
Functions as a means for cleaning windows, polishing furniture and cleaning carpets.

Have fun!

Danish & Italian Ginger/Dansk & Italiensk Ingefær

Arum maculatum/Arum italicum
Arum maculatum = Arum cylandraceum 

 



Arum maculatum is a common woodland plant species of the Aracae family. It is widespread across temperate northern Europe and origins from Europe and the western Asia. It is known by common names including Wild arum, Lords and Ladies, Jack in the Pulpit, Devils and Angels, Cows and Bulls, Cuckoo-Pint, Adam and Eve, Bobbins, Naked Boys, Starch-Root and Wake Robin. Danish names include Aron's Staff, Deer berries, Calf Foot, the Devil's Berries and Wild Kalla. In Scandinavia the plant only grows in Denmark, except in North and West Jutland.

Maculatum means spottet and refers to the irregular brownish or violet spots on the green leaves of the Danish ginger. The Italicum originally comes from Italy. The Italian ginger has green leaves with white veins. The name ginger is due to that it gives a burning taste in the mouth if you taste a root or a leaf, like if you bite in the fresh spice ginger. The Danish name arum origins according to old sources from Aron, who might be the high-priest, mentioned in the fourth Pentateuch, the Numbers.

Folk Medicine
The plant was known from ancient times, where it was used as an expectorant means and as a laxative. In the Middle Ages it was used against the plague and abscesses and also against diseases in lungs and intestines. In the old herbal books is this ginger recommended for rheumatic illness and for treating wounds or bites from poisonous animals.

Superstition
According to Plinius the bear eats the root after his winter-sleep to wake up the crumpled bowels.

Description
Arum has a bulb-like rhizome, from which come long-stalked , arrow-shaped leaves. The leaves are vigorous and develop best in the shadow under trees. The leaves might be uniform green, covered in brown spots or white stripes. The flower-stalk is a 30-50 cm high shaft, which ends in a spadix, where the flower inflorescence is hidden in a large cone-shaped case-leave. After blooming the red, shining berries are developed.

Garden:
If cultivated in a garden ginger thrives best in the "forest floor" of the garden, evt. among Bishop's Hat, Golden Death Nettle, Sweet Grass etc. Recommended sorts: Arum maculatum ssp. danicum (Danish ginger); Arum italicum (Italian ginger) and Arum pictum (Corsican ginger).


Other Informations:
The shining red berries were once used as a rouge, but they can give blisters.
NB: The ginger mentioned here has nothing in common with the exotic spice of the same name. The dried root is eatable since the poisonous substances disappear in the drying process. The root is rich in starch and was among other things used as a face powder. The plant is cultivated in gardens for the decorative value of the fine red berries. Warning: The red berries are tempting to children, but they are very poisonous.

General warning: Although it is said that the dried root is eatable, then there are warnings against the plant in other sources saying: No  parts of the plant can be used as a replacement for the spice ginger, since they are very poisonous. But the roots might have a scent like the ginger spice.

Last news about the plant:
There are various informations about the plant and a new scientific name.  But as said before the plant with the name Danish ginger has nothing in common with the spice ginger, except the confusing name-community. The official Danish name is now Danish arum, and the scientific name is Arum cylindraceum. It was earlier known as Arum alpinum ssp. danicum. Danish ginger is poisonous, and the pretty berries might be tempting for small children, but this plant smells a little like urine, which might be not so tempting. Danish ginger is much alike Italian ginger Arum italicum, which is known on the light stripes on the leaves. This plant is also poisonous.


Allergy and Rodents:
All parts of the plant can produce allergic reactions in many people and the plant should be handled with care. Many small rodents appear to find the spadix particularly attractive and it is common to find examples of the plant with much of the spadix eaten away. The spadix produces heat and probably scent as the flowers mature and it may be this that attracts the rodents.


Arum maculatum is also known as the cuckoo print in the British Isles and is named thus in Nicholas Culpepers' famous 16th Century herbal. This is a name it shares with  Arum italicum (Italian Lords-and-Ladies) - the other native British Arum.


Source: Anemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, 2001

photo: august 2006 & 2010: grethe bachmann

Common Chicory/Almindelig Cikorie

Cichorium intybus



Common chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a bushperennial plant with blue, lavender, or occasionally white flowers.It grows as a wild plant on roadsides in its native Europe and in North America and Australia where it has become naturalized. Common chicory is also known as Blue Daisy, Blue Sailors, Coffee Weed, France endive etc. The cultivated forms are grown for their leaves , or for the roots , which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. Some beer brewers use roasted chicory to add flavor to their stouts.

Chicory is also the common name in the US and in France for curly endive (Cichorium endivia). There is considerable confusion between Cichorium endivia and Cichorium intybus.

Culinary: Chicory was used as a salad plant since ancient times, first by the Egyptians, then by the Greeks and the Romans, and it was imported to Denmark by the monks; in Denmark is only found the imported medicinal herb Cichorium intybus, common chicory. Chicorium intybus is not common in Danish kitchen gardens, but it is considered an indispensable salad plant to Italy and France. The flowers are eatable and decorative in a salad with their fine blue colour. Shots of Common chicory, which has grown in darkness, are in Denmark sold in late autumn as Julesalat (Christmas salad).

Medicinal: Since ancient times chicory was used against liver, kidney and bilious diseases, dropsy, consumption, bubonic plague, gout, haemorrhoids, indigestion, melancholy and hypochondria. Already Plinius recommended it as a means against indigestion. A dekokt of the flowers was used as an eyewash.The medieval physician Henrik Smid recommended the herb to treat the eyebrows or else they could fall off. Chicory was also considered an aphrodisiac and used against poisoning.

Medicine today: Tea of flowers and dried leaves are good in stomach, liver and spleen problems and for haemorrhoids. Chicory root extract is high in inulin and used as a high-fiber dietary supplement. Dekokt of the herb is appetizing, good for the stomach and the bile.

Caution: If allergic to ragweed or other members of the Compositae family approach use of chickory with caution. In rare cases contact with the fresh plant can cause allergic skin reactions.

Coffee substitute: In the Napoleonic Era in France, chicory frequently appeared as either an adulterant in coffee or a coffee substitute; this practice also became common in the United States and the United Kingdom, in England (and Denmark) during the second world war and in Camp coffee, a coffee and chicory essence, which has been on sale since 1885. In the United States chicory root has long been used as a substitute for coffee in prisons.

Superstition: A young girl was sitting by the road, crying because her lover had disappeared, and where her tears fell, the chicory grew up. If a girl (Eastern Europe) had chicory in her boots and put the chicory in a pair of man's trousers under her pillow, she would see her husband-to- be. A legend tells about a girl ,who denied to give Christ something to drink, and as a punishment she had to stand by the road in the shape of a chicory. A variation of the legend: The pretty blue flowers of Chicory turn and follow the sun - and a German legend tells that Chicory is a transformed virgin, who was left by her boyfriend. She is now standing in the roadside looking for her lover, turning her head in order to look for him. The plant's German name wegwarte means 'she who waits by the road.' Chicory was believed to be able to open locked doors, according to European folklore.

Literature: The chicory flower is often seen as inspiration for the Romantic concept of the Blue flower. The chicory plant is one of the earliest cited in recorded literature. Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, memalvae" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance")Lord Monboddo describes the plant in 1779 as the "chicoree", which the French cultivate as a pot herb.
Fodder: Chicory is well known for its toxicity to internal parasites. Studies indicate that ingestion of chicory by farm animals results in reduction of worm burdens,which has prompted its widespread use as a forage supplement. Research results from 2005 also showed that the taste and smell of boar disappears in the slaughtered pigs, if they had chicory in their fodder before slaughtering.

Source: Annemette Olesen, Danske Klosterurter, 2001

Snaps:
Use the root or the flowers, fresh or dried. Pour with neutral snaps and let it draw for some weeks. Filter and thin according to taste.

photo ⓒ Gl. Rye August 2007: grethe bachmann

Parsnip/Almindelig Pastinak

Pastinaca sativa var. sativa


In Denmark: Parsnip/Almindelig Pastinak (Pastinaca sativa var. sativa) is common in the glacial land. In the heath and sanded land it is mostly found along roads and more sparsely.

Wild parsnip/Vild Pastinak (Pastinaca sativa ssp. sylvestris) has a vigorous hairy stem, and it might be found in Denmark, but not yet for certain.

Like carrot, celery, parsley etc. parsnip belongs to the Umbelliferae. It origins from wild parsnip in Central and southern Europe. It is not for certain described as a cultivated plant until the 1600s. In the 1700s an attempt was made to have it imported to Denmark as a fodder for cattle, sheep and fat pigs, and in Italy it is still used as a fodder plant. The parsnip is richer in vitamins and minerals than its close relative, the carrot, and it is also a good source of dietary fiber.

The name comes from Latin pastinum, a kind of fork, whose ending was changed to -nip by analogy with turnip because it was assumed to be a kind of turnip. Greek and Roman literary sources are a major source about its early use, but there are some difficulties in distinguishing between parsnip and carrot in classical writings, since both vegetables seem to have been sometimes called pastinaca. In Roman times, parsnips were believed to be an aphrodisiac. When the Roman Empire expanded north through Europe, the Romans brought the parsnip with them. They found that the parsnip grew bigger the farther north they went.Parsnips are not grown in warm climates, since frost is necessary to develop their flavor. The parsnip is a favorite with gardeners in areas with short growing seasons.

Until the potato arrived from the New World, its place in dishes was occupied by the parsnip and other root vegetables such as the turnip. Parsnips can be boiled, roasted, microwaved or used in stews, soups and casseroles. Roasted parsnip is considered an essential part of Christmas dinner in some parts of the English-speaking world and frequently features in the traditional Sunday Roast.In the United States, this plant was introduced fairly early in history by British colonists as a root vegetable. In the mid-19th century, it was replaced in popularity by the potato and consequently escaped from cultivation. Today, most states have wild parsnip on their list of noxious weeds or invasive species.

Parsnip is a biennial, which develops the eatable root in the first year. If it is allowed to stay, it will in the second year develop into a plant as tall as a man with large yellow-green flower umbels in July-august. They are very decorative and are visited by hoverflies. Parsnip is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species.

Parsnip/Almindelig pastinak is found wild in the nature and is considered unwanted. The sap of the plant combined with sunlight can give burns and sores on the skin, but in a milder degree than hogweed.

NB: When picking wild vegetables it is easy to mistake poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) for parsnip. This can have deadly consequences since all parts of hemlock are poisonous. Poison hemlock contains volatile alkaloids that have been used as poisons since ancient times, notably in the death of Socrates. A reliable source should be consulted to differentiate the two.


photo ⓒ Rebild 30. July 2007: grethe bachmann

Common Tansy/Rejnfan
Tanacetum vulgare

Common Tansy has got many names, Bitter Buttons, Cow Bitter, Mugwort, Golden Buttons. The flowers look like small golden buttons, a fine name for it. The whole plant has a bitter taste and a strong spicy smell. Tansy is native to Eurasia, but is found in almost all parts of mainland Europe. It is common along roads, in field boundaries, banks, but also at the beach.

Common Tansy has a long history of many uses. The ancient Greeks may have been the first to cultivate it as a medicinal herb; the Benedictine monks at St. Gall in Switzerland considered common tansy a cure for many health problems. Because of its repellent abilities it was also used as a vermifuge. Only Tanacetum vulgare is used for medicinal purpose; all species of tansy are toxic.

Common tansy has been cultivated and used for its bug repellent and preservative effects. It was placed on window sills to repell flies, sprigs were placed in bed linen to drive away pests, and it was also useful in gardens as an ant repellent. Common tansy was plant alongside the potatoes to repel the Colorado potato bug. Some insects, notably the tansy beetle, have evolved resistance to tansy and live almost exclusively on it. Bee-keepers have used the dried leaves in order to calm the bees.

In the kitchen it was a flavouring for puddings and omelets, and as a spice in lamb and venison. In Yorkshire tansy and caraway seeds were traditionally in biscuits served at funerals. Meat was rubbed with tansy which kept it from rot for a time, or maybe the strong smell of the herb drowned the stench of meat, which was a bit off! Flowers and leaves are fine for spicing a snaps.

The dried yellow flowers are pretty in floral arrangements. The flowers dye various yellow or green shades.

NB: The plant can provoke contact-allergy. The leaves and flowers are said to be poisonous if consumed in large quantities. The plant's volatile oil is high in thujone, a substance found in absinthe that can cause convulsions.

photo : Skern Ådal, August 2006: grethe bachmann