[Opal Temple] Another thing about herbs

[Kiska]

15th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

Four small pots of plants sat on the desk in front of the herbalist, two of each kind, along with a very small bowl of what appeared to be cinnamon and another full of a clear yellowish liquid. Two wooden cups, a pitcher of water, two small knives and wooden spoons, and a pot lay on the desk beside them. "Miss?" Kiska said questioningly as she approached. "Are we cooking something today?" she said, eyeing the cups and cinnamon. Drae smiled and looked up at her student. "In a way. We're making tea today! Such a tasty thing to make, and what better to spend class doing than having tea?" She pulled her mortar and pestle out of the desk, followed by the one Kiska was to use, which she pushed across the desk. "Come closer girl, we're going to learn how to harvest Chicory and Ginseng root first," she said as she picked up a knife and a spoon and slid them across the desk to Kiska's usual spot. She separated two of the potted plants from the others and slid them across the desk as well. "It's a fairly simple process," she stated as Kiska took her seat, "we'll harvest them like any other root plant really, careful not to cut any part off or leave it in the dirt. The leaves can be useful too, but we won't be using them today, so you can just set those aside so I can use them elsewhere." "Yes miss, shall I begin then?" Kiska said, already readying her small knife for the roots. "It's like the other's we've done right? Just loosen the soil around the plant until I can get it up in one piece, no stabbing or cutting?" She was already working on the soil surrounding the root, churning her knife this way and that to avoid cutting the root. "Very good, you're getting good at this. Be careful though, don't want to harm the root, or the leaves," Drae said to her student, doing the same, if only more profficiently, with her root. They were working on the ginseng first, though it wouldn't have mattered either way. Drae hummed a tune as she worked. "Oh, before I forget. These herbs are useful too you know. Ginseng is a very nice herb. It helps with stress, and overall health. And it also helps with other things," she said, giggling. "It's very good for relationships, is all I have to say. Chicory is good for what goes on inside. It helps your heart and digestive processes." Kiska was beginning to see a pattern in the effects of herbs, but didn't say anything. It took about one minute before Kiska managed to pull her ginseng root from the pot, it was a small brownish lumpy mass with hair-like structures sprouting from various places on the root. Drae had gotten hers out a bit before Kiska, and had pulled the pitcher of water over. "We'll need to rinse it off before using them. Just do it over the pot you got it from, don't use too much water though, we'll need that for the tea." She rinsed hers off and handed the pitcher to Kiska, who did the same. Kiska immediately began to collect the root of the blue flower called Chicory from the other pot. The Chicory came up quite a bit easier than the ginseng had, taking about half a minute to get it all out. "You're a natural, Kiska. Soon you may even be better than me," said her teacher with praise. Kiska knew it wouldn't be true, but she liked the compliments. Kiska blushed, "Thank you miss, it's a very interesting subject to me, being able to use what you have available to you in nature. It seems like a very useful skill to me." She rinsed her Chicory root after setting the leaves aside where she had put those of the Ginseng and handed the pitcher back to Drae. Drae rinsed hers and sat it down next to her Ginseng root. Drae stood up and walked over to the small heating station near the wall, carrying the pitcher of water and the small pot with her. "Here child," she said, calling to Kiska. "Put some water on to boil, about half a pot of it should do." She was already lighting the small pile of wood in the miniature pit. Kiska hurried over, taking the pot and the pitcher from her teacher. She hung the pot over the fire and began to pour the water in. The water rushed out of the pitcher, a bit too fast, and splashed back up at Kiska, leaving her hand wet. Kiska frowned and finished pouring the water in the pot before wiping her hand dry on her dress. "That should do," said Drae, watching Kiska dry herself. "Try to be a bit more cautious when pouring water, especially over flames. Only so much time a bunch of wet wood can burn." She was walking back over to the desk. Kiska followed. "What do you suppose we do now, Kiska?" Drae asked. She often preferred to teach by self-example. She thought the student learned better by figuring out what to do for themselves, and for Kiska at least, it seemed to work. "I suppose we should probably grind the roots up?" She said, remembering back to all of her other lessons. They had always ground roots up. She placed a root in her mortar and looked back to her teacher, unsure of whether or not she should put both in at once. "Just one, you're right. We'll add the other when we get done with this one." she was putting her own root in her mortar now as Kiska ground hers up. The root was somewhat tough, but after a little working, it easily ground up. The two added the other root to the mortar when they had finished, mixing the two roots together. "Put them in the cup now, along with a spoon full of cinnamon," Drae said, scraping her ground up root from the mortar with a spoon. The other spoon she had put in the cinammon. Kiska took the spoon from the cinammon and measured a full spoon out and dumped it into one of the wooden cups. She took the other spoon as Drae offered it to her and scraped her root material out into the cup. She assumed the water would be ready by now, and stood up to check on it. It was boiling now, and probably had been for a few minutes. "Should I bring it back here?" She asked. "Yup, careful though, it's hot." She said, remembering a time Kiska had nearly burned herself. She was measuring out a spoonful of cinammon now, sniffing the contents of the cup. It was evident that this lady was a nut when it came to plants. Kiska picked up a small piece of cloth and used it to carry the hot pot over to the desk. She set it down and stood, waiting for Drae to make a move. Kiska sometimes worried about this woman, she was a bit strange compared to anyone Kiska had ever met, but Kiska liked her. It made her sad to think that she wouldn't be here for very long. "Now fill the glass full of water, don't spill it please," she said, eyes full of laughter. Kiska was clumsy sometimes, but in a graceful way. The girl was often too serious to not be funny. Kiska poured the water into her glass, filling it all the way, then did the same for Drae's before setting the empty pot down. The water in her cup was already beginning to turn a swirling, dull brown color. Drae offered her a spoon, which Kiska took and began to stir the tea with it. "We'll need to let it sit for a few moments before it's good to drink, then we can add honey to it for sweetness." Drae had set her spoon down on the desk and pulled out a book on herbalism to read. Kiska would pass the time thinking, mostly about herbs and herbalism, but some about her new friend Ero. She wondered if Ero may like for her to make some tea sometime. Ten minutes or so had passed before Kiska looked up from her daydreaming. Drae was looking at her, and had obviously been trying to get her attention for a while now. "Oh, sorry miss, I must have dozed off while we were waiting," she said, sitting up straight. She took her spoon from the desk. "Do we need to drain these out of here before we can drink it?" The herbs were small crushed up particles a the bottom of the cup, but she was sure once she stirred the honey in they would be floating all around the liquid. "If you want, dear. There's another cup over there if you'd like. I prefer to keep mine as is though, it's better for you." She was adding and stirring the honey into her tea now, intently watching the steaming cup as it swirled around in the cup. "I think I'll drain mine," Kiska said, walking over to grab the other cup. She brought it back to the desk and set it down, picking up her own glass and the spoon. She poured the brown liquid into the other cup, using the spoon to keep the plant particles in the first cup. Little bits got into the new cup, but it didn't bother her. She left a small bit of the liquid in the other cup and set it aside. She was sure Drae would use it for something. Sure enough, Drae picked up the cup and poured it into hers. Kiska shivered, that couldn't have been the most tasteful thing to drink, or at least not one of a pleasant feeling. Kiska poured some honey into her cup and stirred it in before setting the spoon aside again. She took a sip from the cup and smiled. It was delicious. "This is probably my favorite of our lessons so far, miss Drae. We should make tea more often," Kiska said, and drank more of her tea. Another fulfilling lesson in herbalism.

[Kiska]

20th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

"Today, Kiska, we shall get into the harder parts of herbalism. These lessons we've had before, they were merely...introductions, if you will. Yes, I've shown you how to utilize some herbs you may find in the wilderness for medicinal or cooking purposes, but today, we learn how to produce our first poultice." The herbalism teacher was standing next to the window today. The sun was low on the horizon, the sun near setting. Candles flickered about the room casting a faint glow about the surfaces. Kiska was uncertain of herself now. Though she was excited to learn as always, she had an ominous feeling of oncoming failure, as if she knew something bad were going to happen that night. Surely not though, Drae was a smart woman. She wouldn't let anything bad happen, especially when it involved herbs, or her students. Noticing Kiska's grim face, Drae laughed. "Oh, don't worry Kiska, poultices are one of the easiest applications of herbalism. We'll be using Mullein tonight. I believe I've mentioned it sometime before here or there. If you don't remember though, Mullein has many uses, but as a poultice, it's most commonly used for bruises, rheumatic pains, tumors, and hemorrhoids," she said, her face twisting in a slight grimace at the last word. "I'll not be showing you how to apply that one though." There was a small stack of the herb on the desk. It had already been dried. The mortars and pestles were on the desk as usual and a bundle of cloth scraps sat off to the side. "Tonight I'll be teaching you how to take care of yourself in the wilderness, kind of. I mean, if you get hurt and you need something. But this will only helf for bruises, for cuts or something else you may use some other herb, like Calendula. It's good for skin problems, irritation, inflammation, cuts, scrapes, all that nice stuff. Anyway," Said the herbalist, "on to business. Take a few of these leaves and grind them up." Kiska did as she was told, taking three or so of the shriveled leaves from the pile and placing them in her mortar. She began to grind them up into a powder as Drae watched. Generally Drae would be doing the activity along with Kiska, but that was only if Kiska needed an example. Kiska had begun to get the hang of all the simple things in herbalism now, and could do things on her own. Grinding herbs was the first step to any herbalists work, other than picking the herbs or gathering them. An extra set of materials was always handy though, just in case. "Very good, now go get the water. I put it on to boil before you got here," she said, motioning for Kiska to get the pot of water from the small fire pit by the wall. Kiska set her mortar and pestle down on the desk again, dried herbs heaped in a powder at the bottom. She wove through the scattered chairs and tables of the room and picked up the small cloth that sat next to the pit at all times. This was for handling the pot when it was hot, as Kiska had learned in previous experiences. She always made sure to use the cloth so she wouldn't burn herself. She carefully picked up the pot and brought it back to the desk. "What now, miss?" Kiska thought she was pretty sure she already knew what to do, being as this had started just as any other lesson had. Grind the herbs up, add the water, mix again. "Add the water, but not too much of it, then mix the two togther," said Drae, confirming Kiska's prediction. She sat back in her chair now, watching Kiska intently. She seemed pretty confident in her student. Kiska added the water to the mortar and pestle, a little at a time. "How do I know when it's too much?" she asked. Drae hadn't specified this. She wasn't sure if her mixture was to be soupy or creamy or more like a paste. "Poultices are generally going to need a paste like substance on them, maybe a bit thinner. With dried herbs we grind the herbs and add enough water to make a paste. We don't need it too thick though, but also not too thin." Said the herbalist, still taking a hands-off approach to this lesson. Kiska continued to pour the hot water into the dried herbs and stirred them together. It didn't take much water for the mixture to thicken into a paste-like substance. Kiska returned the pot to the fire and waited for instruction from her teacher. Drae now sat forward in her chair and grabbed a scrap of cloth from the pile sitting off to the side. "Here, take this," she said, tossing it toward Kiska. Kiska hurried to grab the cloth from the air, but her hands fumbled against each other and the cloth fell to the ground before her. She bent down to pick up the cloth, scowling. She really didn't think that was necessary, but she was still getting used to the quirks of her teacher. Kiska set the cloth down on the desk in front of her and sat down again. "Now, usually you'd want to clean the area before you applied a poultice, but seeing as we're not really in need of one, it doesn't matter. Pour the mixture over the cloth now." Kiska did so. There wasn't much of the mixture, but it created a pretty good sized blob on the cloth in front of her. She wasn't exactly excited about putting in on her skin. "Now, take the cloth, and place it on the section of skin that is wounded. In this case, since there isn't a wound, just pretend. Wrap it around your arm and tie it," she watched as Kiska did as she instructed. "And that's all there really is to a poultice. You can use one of those to clean it off if you want," she said, pointing to the pile of cloth. Kiska wrinkled her nose at the feeling of a warm pasty substance on her skin. It felt very strange to her, and somehow uncomfortable. She removed the cloth from her arm and used another to clean the herb paste from herself. "You can do this with almost any healing herb, fresh or dry. To make poultices from fresh herbs you just need to put a half a cup of herbs and a cup of water and simmer if over a fire for two or three minutes. Now how about some tea?" she said, pulling two cups from her desk. It was something they had learned in a previous class. Kiska smiled and agreed, despite her mothers failed attempts at herbal tea, those they made here were very good.

[Kiska]

51st Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

Kiska stepped into the familiar classroom she had visited every afternoon since her arrival in Mura. "Good afternoon Miss Drae," she said, approaching the desk they usually worked at. She set her mortar and pestle on the desk and pulled a small jar from her pack. "I've got something for you," she said, handing the jar to her teacher. "It's a cough syrup I made from Thyme and honey, it should be useful for the winter." "Oh! Thank you!" Said the herbalist in surprise. She smiled and opened the jar, sniffing its contents. "This should work well, thank you, Kiska." She placed the jar in the drawer of her desk. "Today, we'll be making a tisane of honeybush and catnip. This tisane is somewhat common among those familiar with herbs. It's used for a stress reliever or otherwise a sedative. Tisanes are very much like herbal teas, which we've learned of before. In fact, they're basically the same." She pulled the usual tea materials out, two cups, two spoons, some honey, and two jars of plant material. The pitcher of water was already on the desk, as was the small metal pot they used for heating things up. "This," said the herbalist, pointing to the small jar of yellow petal-like leaves in a jar, "is honeybush, or at least the leaves of it. And this is catnip," she said, indicating the small green leaves in the other jar. "Now, show me how you think it's done, Kiska." Kiska was familiar with this process, for the most part. She picked up the jar of the yellow leaves and brought it closer to herself. "Do we...grind these up?" She asked, unsure. She had made tea before, but she had never heard of this word, tisane. "No Kiska, not this time, they're small enough as they are," said the herbalist, amusement in her eyes. She loved seeing her students learn new things, especially on their own. She was obviously eager to get on with the lesson. "Go on now, make a tisane for me." Kiska frowned, she was used to her teacher by now, but she would never be used to being told to learn something new on her own. Though Drae always helped her out when she needed it, Kiska was still nervous that she would mess up. Kiska poured a portion of both kinds of the leaves into the pot, taking up about a third of the pot. She filled another half of the pot or so with water from the pitcher and looked to her teacher, who nodded. Kiska stood up and took the pot to the small fire in the pit by the wall and placed it on over the fire. "I let it stay here until it boils and changes colors, right?" She asked her teacher. In previous lessons, they had done it two ways. The first was to boil the water and pour it over the herbs to make tea, the second was to boil the herbs in the water. Kiska preferred the latter, though she couldn't tell as easily when it was done. "This is the case in a lot of situations, but some herbs to not change the color of the water very much. Such is the case with these two, you will only see a slightly yellow-green coloration of the water when it is done. Leave it there for approximately five minutes after it starts boiling. Stir it occasionally with that spoon," she said, pointing to a spoon hanging from the pit table. Kiska took the spoon and stirred the mixture. The water hadn't yet started boiling and the leaves floated around in the water aimlessly. Within a few minutes the water began to boil and Kiska watched it intently, noting the very slight color changes as the essence of the leaves poured into the water. "Always so serious, Kiska. Tell me, isn't there anything you wish to talk about? A man perhaps? Maybe a future?" Asked the herbalist in a sudden burst of curiousity. Kiska looked back at her in surprise. She wasn't quite used to being asked such questions, and a blush rose to her cheeks. "Oh, no miss, no men for me. Not right now anyway. My parents, they were looking for a husband for me for a while, but they...I, and I'm in Mura now, so they had to stop searching. I'm not looking for anyone myself, I prefer to further my studies and to help those in need with what little skill in medicine I have." She turned back to the pot and stirred it again. "I don't mind talking. I'm not very good at it, most of what I do goes on in my head and not on my lips. Or possibly from my quill. I'm very sorry if this disturbs you, my quietness. I've never been one so open as to form true relationships." The blush had not faded as she spoke. "I don't know about the future. One once told me how it would be, but things have changed since. Maybe I will stay in Mura for a while longer and continue to study here at the temple." The mixture had been boiling for about five minutes when Kiska picked up the cloth used to transport the hot pot. She brought it back to the desk and set it down. "Here, use this. We need to strain this before we can drink it." Drae set a small piece of wire mesh in front of Kiska. It was in the shape of the pot, circular, and just the right size. "Just strain it right into the cups," she said, urging Kiska on. Kiska picked up the wire mesh and place it over the pan, using the small handle attached to the metal that framed the wire. She poured the greenish liquid into the two cups, dividing it up as evenly as possible. She managed to get most of it in the cups, though some of it spilled out onto the desk. "Sorry," She said, wiping it up with the cloth. She placed the wire and the pot off to the side and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. Drae had already begun sweetening hers with the honey. Kiska placed her mortar and pestle back in her pack, it seemed as if she hadn't needed it for this lesson after all. Kiska took the jar of honey once Drae had finished with it and poured some into her cup. She stirred the liquid and honey together and placed the spoon off to the side. The tea was soothing and made Kiska feel much less stressed. maybe it had been Drae's goal to make Kiska stressed, so that she could demonstrate the effects of the tisane. Kiska was starting to grow used to the teaching methods of the herbalist, there was much to learn from what she didn't say. Kiska sighed, a sigh of relief. None of that could really bother her right now.

[Kiska]

75th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV, evening

"Today we're going to be making balm. Lemon verbene balm. For this you'll need two cups of oil and about this much of the herb you'll be using, about a cup." Drae said, pointing to a small bowl full of dried herb. "We're going to be using sunflower oil, because it's easily harvested and made, and lemon verbena for it's soothing properties. it can be used to treat small skin break outs, but mostly it's just used for moisturizing. you'll also need beeswax and essential oil. You remember making essential oils before, right?" She asked Kiska, who was looking over the materials on the small desk. There was a pot, a large spoon, two short jars, and what appeared to be a grater and a block of beeswax, a small bottle of essential oil, and a larger bottle of sunflower oil, along with the bowl of dried lemon verbena. "Measure the oil into the pot, Kiska, then the herb." She said, handing Kiska a small measuring cup. Kiska did so, being careful not to spill anything. "I'm guessing I need to put this on the fire now?" She asked, taking the pot from the desk. "Correct," said Drae. "Take the spoon with you too, you'll need it." Kiska took the spoon from the desk and headed over to the fire pit by the wall. There were more tools on the table, a bowl and a strainer. Kiska hung the pot on the pit and stirred it. "Keep it there for fifteen minutes or so while it heats up, then drain it into that bowl and bring it back over here." Kiska waited and watched the oil as it heated up, stirring occasionally. She was beginning to get bored and somewhat sleepy by the time the fifteen minutes had passed with her standing there watching the pot. She took the mixture from the fire and poured it through the strainer into the small bowl, then brought both the bowl and the pot back to the desk. "Don't fall asleep dear, we still have work to do. Now, grate up this block of beeswax, it should turn out to be about a cup when packed in. I hope you have some muscles, girl, becasue you'll need them." Kiska picked up the grater and the block of beeswax, which was somewhat heavy for its size, and began grating. It was tough, but she could do it. It took a while for her to get it all grated. Once it was done she rested her arm for a few minutes, then began packing it into the small cup. There werea few scraps of the beeswax left when she finished filling the cup up. "Now, rinse the herbs out of the pot," she said, "and pour the oil back in." Kiska rinsed the pot out, discarding the herbs. She then poured the oil back in as her teacher had told her and waited for further instructions. "Now use this dropper," she handed Kiska a small dropper, "and put twenty drops of the lemon verbana essential oil into the infused oil we just made." Kiska did this, carefully measuring out twenty drops. She winced as she accidentally got one extra drop in there and looked to Drae. "One too many won't hurt will it?" She was slightly embarassed, she hated messing up. "No child, twenty one works just as fine. Now go heat it up again, take the cup of beeswax with you and stir it in a few minutes after it heats up. Then all you need to do is let it melt in, stir it, and bring it back here so we can pour it in these jars." She sat back and pulled a book from her desk to read as Kiska worked. The oil reheated quickly and Kiska added the wax to it. It took only a minute or so for the wax to melt into the oil, but it showed no signs of thickening up. "Is it supposed to thicken while I stir it?" She asked after a few minutes had passed. "Nope, just heat it up and bring it back." The teacher said passively. Kiska took the pot from the fire again and brought it back over to the desk. "Pour it into those small jars there now. We'll let it sit overnight, but you don't have to let it sit here. Take one home with you, use it this winter when your lips get chapped." Kiska poured the mixture carefully into the jars, it smelled sweet, almost like a perfume. Kiska tightened the lids onto the jars and handed one to Drae. "Good job Kiska, you're getting very good at doing things on your own. tomorrow be ready to begin the preparations for making salves." Kiska walked back to her room after a short class, holding her newly made balm. She loved making things in her herbalism class, not only was it fun, but it definitely saved her a lot of mizas and effort in getting medicines, balms, teas, and all other sorts of things to use.

[Kiska]

90th Day of Fall of the year 510 AV

Kiska walked into the reception area of the Opal Temple. "Hello Merida," Kiska said to the blind receptionist. "I'm here to register for another term of herbalism." She approached the small desk, already getting out the eight gold mizas needed for the class. She had loved the herbalism class, and while she found that medicine was useful to learn, she didn't think that learning it in a formal class setting was best for her. She preferred a hands on approach to medicine rather than taking classes. "No medicine this semester?" She asked, taking the offered gold mizas. She placed the mizas in the drawer of the desk. "Okay, since you're a returning student that's all I require. Just go tell Drae that you'll be in her class for another semester." Kiska walked through the halls of the temple happily to announce to her teacher that she would be staying for a season longer. She didn't particularly want to travel in the winter anyway.

[Alice]

Kiska Experience: 5 Herbalism Lores: Harvesting and Uses of Ginseng, Harvesting and Uses of Chicory, Making Tea, Uses of Mullein as Poultice, Making Poultices, Making and Effects of Tisane, Chit-Chatting with a Teacher, Getting Stressed, Drae’s Teaching Methods, Making and Uses of Lemon Verbene Balm, Making a Minor Mistake, Waiting Items: 1 Jar Lemon Verbene Balm Comments This is a beautiful thread. It’s amazing how much information you can store in that simple and cozy class setting. I also enjoy watching Kiska’s relationship with Drae develop. I’m glad you’ll be staying in Mura next season too.