Just some pictures...

I made these up for our facebook page.  If you need to enlarge them to read, just click on the picture and it will pop up. 

Women Herbalists (Series): Lydia Pinkham

Women Herbalists:  Lydia Pinkham

The Essential Herbal (www.essentialherbal.com) Mar/Apr ‘12

While Lydia Pinkham might not be at the top of the list as a famous female herbalist, I think she appeals to me so much because of business savvy and because her business began as a family enterprise.  Her Vegetable Compound continues to be produced today.

   

Lydia Pinkham lived from 1819-1883 in Lynn, MA.  To better understand her success it helps to have a little bit of background on the medical history of that time.   The beginning of the century medicine was in a “heroic phase” of purging, bloodletting, and blistering.  This was the common treatment form everything from pneumonia, hernia, to amenorrhea.  Emetics, leeches, lancets, harsh purgatives were all used with a free hand for any ailment.   And then in addition was calomel (chloride of mercury) a powerful cathartic.  Therapeutically useless calomel broke down the intestines into a virulent mercurial poison.  It produced a violent laxative effect and profuse salivation as the body continued to rid itself of the drug.   Continued use lead to softening of the gums and mucus membranes and loss of teeth.  These treatments continued through to the middle of the century and into the end of the century by older docs.

 

In addition to purging, puking and bleeding, Doctors of the time were creating an anxiety within women of the weakness of their sex.   The concept of the delicate wife or the woman taking to her couch with the vapors was played upon. Menstruation was seen as an infirmity.   In addition physician’s odd treatments of prolapsed uterus, leucorrhea, menstrual pains or menopause lead women to feel they had little to gain with a visit to the regular doctor. 

As people were gaining a mistrust of “regular” doctors, other medical theories were being developed.  Samuel Graham (of Graham bread and crackers) was lecturing on diet. Thompson studied with a local yarb and root doctor and learned of Lobelia inflata, Indian tobacco, leading to his theories of disease “heat is life, cold is death” and his Thomsonian School of medicine.  Then Hahnemann came with his theories of “infinitesimal dose” and his homeopathy school.  

 

 Lydia Pinkham began selling her compound in an era marked by medical controversy, public dissatisfaction with the medical profession and an obsessive concern with woman’s weakness.    Lydia Pinkham had been making her compound for years and giving it to friends and neighbors.   Her family had the idea to sell the Vegetable Compound when her husband a speculative business man hit financial ruin in the “Panic of 1873”.  It was a true family business sons working on promotion and advertising, daughter turning over her paycheck to underwrite the business, Lydia did the manufacturing and so the business of  “Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound” began.

Promotions began with circulating flyers door to door in small towns and larger cities.  The return on the investment of the printing and time spent circulating was not worthwhile so the Mrs. Pinkham bravely took out a four page ad in the Boston Herald for close to $900.00.    Sales soared!  The company continued to print advertising in newspapers and magazines, hiring agents and eventually having an in house advertising agent for over 60 years. The advertising expenditures for 1900 were over $770,000!   The company also produced a variety of booklets on such topics as Home Dressmaking or War time Cook and Health Book as cleverly camouflaged advertising.  In 1920, 11 million booklets were printed and the company built their own printing press to do so.  Part of the advertising campaign encouraged woman to write for help with their health.  Advertising that “Mrs. Pinkham regards every letter as a Sacred Message” and that “No man will ever see your letter”, thousands upon thousands of letters were received and a bevy of young women hired to write standardized responses.

from my collection

 The company certainly went through its share of problems through its 100 year history.  By 1905 a steady barrage of criticisms were being leveled at patent medicines hurt business.  Major magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and Colliers were printing articles with such titles as “The Great American Fraud”.  Patent Medicine Counterfeiters were fairly common to the industry.  The Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1911, whose slogan “Let the Label Tell” required proprietary medicines to list ingredients which cut down on quackery.  While the Vegetable Compound needed to change its labeling and its healing claims, this led to an era of prosperity for the company.  Family squabbles occurred and in the 1930’s-1940’s, with all of the original family deceased, there were numerous court battles among the cousins for control of the company.   The 1940’s changes were brought on by the Federal Trade Commission, American Medical Association and the FDA, the company adapted and complied. 

In 1950, sales hit below the two million dollar mark for the first time in a decade.  Lydia Pinkham was now an old woman in old fashioned clothes.   Druggist’s described the consumer of the Vegetable Compound as well over 30, mature, less educated and in the south or cities often Black.  The company created a fictitious and modern Ann Pinkham but in the end did not respond astutely enough to changing times.  In 1968 the company was sold to Cooper Labs and moved out of the country.

from my collection

  In 1980, when I first began giving garden tours in the herb gardens of The Rosemary House, when I spoke of pleurisy root as one of the ingredients in Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound invariably there would be a woman say “a baby in every bottle” a carry over from one of their stronger advertising campaigns.  Now, at the mention of Lydia Pinkham I am faced with blank stares.  While today it seems easier to find a bottle of her Vegetable Compound in an antique store then in a pharmacy, I still admire the woman behind the compound for her shrew business sense and for her willingness to talk about female issues honestly and forthrightly.

The original formula of Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound   was based on John King’s American Dispensary.

For 100 pints:

8 oz Unicorn Root (Aletris farinose)

6 oz Life Root (Senecio aureus)

6 oz Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa)

12 oz Pluerisy Root (Asclepias tuerosa)

12 oz Fenugreek Seed (Foenum graceum)

Suspended in alcohol

 

Susanna Reppert Brill, The Rosemary House, Mechanicsburg PA

 www.TheRosemaryHouse.com

January 11, 2017 Just The Essentials Newsletter's Recipe

Hey all!

For those of you that are haven't subscribed to our magazine here is what you missed in our email newsletter!

That's right, bath bombs!

Here is what you will need:

Ice cube tray (or mold)
Two bowls
Whisk
Spoon
Measuring cups

Ingredients:

1/4 C Citric acid
1/2 C Baking soda
1/4 C Epsom salt
1/4 C Flour
3-4 t Coconut oil
1 t Water
1 t Essential oil

Optional:
Lavender buds
Chocolate mint leaves

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately excluding herbs. Stir both until mixed well.

2.Add the wet and dry using a spray bottle and begin whisking until it is light and well mixed.

3. Form into balls and put into ice cube tray molds.

4. Sprinkle herbs onto the top of the bath bombs and let dry overnight.

5. Take bath bombs out of the molds and let them continue to dry until completely dry.

6. Enjoy!

Please let us know how this worked for you and what you think. Happy sudsing!

Booking a Speaker

It's kind of uncomfortable to write this post, because although I'm no longer the scrappy, enthusiastic herbie I was 25 years ago who was thrilled to speak to or teach any group who would have us, nor do I want to seem like I'm too big for my britches.  It's just that life is BUSY.
Let me just frame it this way...
I run a successful business with some sparse part-time help.  My sister runs a successful business next door, and I pitch in with that.  We are very busy women - and we're not kids.  We have spoken to thousands and thousands of people over the years.  Pick an herbal topic, a type of group, a kind of venue - and we've probably done it.  We've been around the block.

It occurs to me that I might be able to give a little advice on how to book a speaker or teacher for an event. I just had an unpleasant experience full of "don'ts" that might be helpful to share.

During the very height of the holiday shopping season, I was contacted about teaching "some kind of hands-on class to a group of about 12" locally.  I was given a date (one month out) that didn't work, but she was willing to change it.  She mentioned that they weren't that knowledgeable, because they all "had lives."  Yes, I filed that comment away.  You betcha.

I asked if there was payment.  The answer was, "yes."  That was helpful (no it really wasn't - that was sarcasm).
I asked how it would work for materials used, and there was no helpful answer to that, either.
There was no indication of whether it should be medicinal, culinary, decorative.
Further volleys were put off because it was just too busy here to fool around.

I know without a doubt that charging the amount required to develop a class specifically for this small group, negotiate every bit along the way, figure out what the costs and payments would be; all of those things would be considered over the top.  I'm not even doing this thing, and I've already spent an hour or two trying to figure out what was being requested! We've turned down large groups that weren't clear in their requests.  After all these years we've learned that the more you go out of your way or bend to please strangers that pop up asking for things outside the norm, the more you will eventually regret it.  That's not snark, it's just fact, and we've learned it over and over and over.

It was wrong of me not to get back to the person.  I said I would.  We're still busy with orders (because herbies get to shop for themselves after the holidays!) and dove into the Mar/Apr issue on the 2nd, but I did say I would get back to her. I didn't in any way expect that she would be counting on me to show up.  Never agreed to that.  Didn't expect snippy, and really don't appreciate that.

So HERE'S MY ADVICE

Have all the information available in the initial contact.
~ Payment or honorarium.
~ Length of time to be filled.
~ Date, time, approximate number of attendees.
~ Subject matter you're looking for.
~ Location of venue or home.

Learn a little about the person you're contacting and what they do.
Realize that they may have a life too.
Just tell them the details up front.  Most of us really don't have time to hem and haw around.

If it hadn't been so crazy around here (see my previous post about how rough that last issue was), it wouldn't have gone beyond the first email.  If I had been focused it would have been a quick "no."  Instead, there are some hard feelings that were completely unnecessary if just a small amount of preparation had been done.

OR approach new businesses who really need to get their names out there.  They will be much more flexible than a crotchety woman who has been around this particular block a few too many times :-P

Citrus Obsession, Year 3

I am only half joking.  Those closest to me know.  It's a problem.  Maybe.  Probably.

A few years ago it started innocently enough with a bag of those little mandarins.  What a delicious little snack, right?  Before I knew it, there was a serious addiction happening.  I would eat them all day long, and barely bother with other foods.  Eventually I was eating one of those ginger chew candies (VERY sticky) and pulled a crown right off without feeling a thing.  That should have been a tip off, but it was another few months before I had dental xrays and learned that eating citrus all day had given me 2 nasty cavities - something I hadn't dealt with in at least a decade.  The dentist said that one in the morning is no big deal, but if you eat them, you must rinse (or brush).

Moving on...
I switched to navels, because they are more difficult to peel and eat.  Still satisfying, but not quite as mindless.  When navels go out of season, we eat a lot of grapefruit segments. 

This year, a friend brought a new fruit along to the Thanksgiving meal.  She brought a pummelo (Citrus maximus) along with her, all the way from Florida, telling us that it grew on her neighbor's tree.

Wow!  How had I ignored these for so long? 

Well, for one thing, I probably would have eaten them wrong.  Still might be, I suppose, but we opened the stiff/tough membranes between the segments and pulled just the jewel-like juice filled bits.  They are sturdier than in smaller citrus fruits, so they don't break in your fingers.

An added bonus (for me) is that sitting in the evening and enjoying one of these beauties can take well over 1/2 hour.  If you are an emotional eater, or you eat because you're bored, this is a great choice.  First you have to work at it, and second, it isn't terribly high in calories.  72 calories per cup - so about 150 for the whole fruit.

There are lots of health benefits, not the least of which are more than twice the RDA of vitamin C and a boatload of fiber.

I wanted to share this fruit with you while it is in season.  I don't think they'll be around too much longer, so go get some!

Sore Muscle Soak (Nov/Dec issue)

In the Nov/Dec issue, Marcy Lautanen Raleigh wrote about pine.  This recipe was part of that article.  Since lots of people are doing things like taking down decorations, shoveling, and slipping on ice, it seemed like something to have on hand!
Sore Muscle Soak

This is a blend of herbs and pine I have been making since early in my business.  It is great for relieving aches and pains, especially those from decorating the house!

1/3 C Epsom salts

1/3 C baking soda

1 T  Lemon balm

1 T Pine needles

1 T Chamomile

1 T peppermint

5 to 10 drops peppermint essential oil

Combine all the herbs and salts, then add the essential oil.  Place the materials in a muslin bag or a square of cloth tied with string. 

To use: Hang the bag below the tap and allow water to run through and dissolve the salts, releasing the herbal oils. Soak until the water cools and you begin to feel the healing.

Molly Attempts Potato Soup

So the boy and I have been sick pretty much since Christmas. It's been an achey, gross, sniffly cold that has been very contagious and well, exhausting. While we have both been drinking elderberry syrup and licorice tea like chocolate milk we need some comfort food. So I decided to make one of his favorites, potato soup.

I used:

6 Potatoes
1 Onion
1 C Carrots
1 C Corn
1 Green pepper
3 1/2 C Milk
1/4 C Flour
Parsley
Garlic
Roastmary
Black cracked pepper

Trying to cook in my tiny kitchen is... challenging.

I have to say this recipe became way more intense than I would have expected. First I had to boil the potatoes until soft. While they were boiling I sautéed the onion and chopping the green pepper.

Sauteeing onions is kind of my favorite. The smell is amazing!

Once that was done I began mixing the milk and flour on the stove. Once all the pieces were set the I whipped the potatoes with my new (thanks Didi!) mixer. I didn't want to puree them but simply thicken the soup a bit. Once it got to the consistency I liked I added the veggies, milk mixture and spices and let it sit on the stove.

Here's the finished product!

How do you think I did? Do you have any ideas or advice? Please let us know!

Just The Essentials Newsletter Recipes for December 27, 2016

For this issue we did a bit of a throwback with our herbal candy and Molly added a recipe for her homemade linen spray. Let us know what you think!

All-Natural Linen Spray
You'll need:
A clean spray bottle
1 C hydrogen peroxide
Essential oils of your choice (I like lavender and lemon for this recipe)

To make the linen spray add five to ten drops of the essential oil of your choice to the cup of hydrogen peroxide. Add more if necessary. Then place in the clean spray bottle. Mix before use. Once you have mixed and bottled your spray be sure to label it with ingredients and date! That way you will know what to add when you run out.

Note: Some people suggest using this spray on light fabrics and linens only but I haven't had any discoloration yet. If you are worried about ruining a part of your furniture you may want to spray an unseen patch and see how it reacts before using it on your entire couch or bedroom set.

TEH Jan/Feb '17 Issue, page 19, continued...

Some day, perhaps on my deathbed, I will tell the tale of this issue.  I'll have to start early, because there's a lot to tell.  I'm knocking wood right now as I type this, because even though it seemed that  everything that could go wrong did, you just don't want to tempt the fates.  There were even things that we didn't think COULD go wrong - and they did.  As a matter of fact, it is mailed the next town over, and 14 days later (with 2 major holidays), I still haven't gotten my test copy.  Other people half a continent away did, so I know it's in transit.
Notice how calm I am?  It's almost humorous.  Almost.  It will be, when I tell the tale.
So last night when a reader wrote to ask where the rest of the recipe from page 19 was, I barely broke a sweat.  Heck, we've already started on the next issue.  (insert maniacal laughter)
So here's the whole recipe.
We pulled something we loved from each of the previous 15 Jan/Feb issues, and made a really great article.  This is part of it.

Here's the missing part of our Retrospective 15 Winters article - Kimberly Gallagher's Wintertime Shrub in its entirety:

Wintertime Shrub

Kimberly Gallagher of LearningHerbs.com
When I think of the winter holidays, images of warmth and coziness and tasty treats always come to mind. Can’t you just smell the peppermint and cinnamon? Well, here’s a warming winter drink that will fill your kitchen with the smells of the holidays. It’s a Wintertime Cinnamon Shrub, and the recipe comes from a book called Homemade Root Beer and Soda Pop by Stephen Cresswell.
A shrub is a fruit drink with added vinegar or brandy to give it a bit of a tang. We’re going to add vinegar to this one, and that along with the cinnamon will help to warm up our insides when we drink our brew.
To make the shrub you will need:
½ cup raisins, coarsely chopped
3 cups dried apples, chopped
5 sticks cinnamon, each 3” long
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
3 to 4 quarts water
1/8 teaspoon granulated ale yeast (and ¼ cup lukewarm water)

(NOTE: We have a local "homebrew" store where we purchase a generic ale yeast. Any kind will do. It is a lot nicer than regular bread yeast. You can also find ale yeast online. I googled it and a lot of options came up)
Start by chopping your apples and raisins. Then put them in a large saucepan with 2 quarts of water, the cinnamon sticks, vinegar, and sugar. Bring the water to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This is the part where your kitchen gets filled with beautiful smells!)

Let’s pause here for a note about vinegar. You can use plain apple cider vinegar, but if you happen to have an herbally infused vinegar, that’s even better. I used dandelion infused vinegar that I made this spring. If I’d had some available I might have chosen burdock or fall dandelion root vinegar. They seem even better for this time of year, but really just use what you have.
Also, I did as this recipe said and added the vinegar to the simmering brew, but upon reflection, I think next time I will add it after the simmering is complete, since I think it will add more flavor at that time.
After 30 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool, covered but with the lid ajar, for about 25 minutes.
While it’s cooling, prepare the yeast. I’ve been having mixed experiences with my yeast brews and recently have had the best success using the directions on the back of the yeast package, rather than the ones from the book. So I encourage you to read the instructions on the yeast you buy. Here’s what I ended up doing this time:
Put 4 ounces of lukewarm water (86-92 degrees) into a measuring cup. I did measure the temperature, since I’ve had such varied success.
Add 1/8 tsp. of yeast and do not stir. Let stand for 15 minutes, then stir gently.
Pour 2 quarts of cool water into a 1 gallon glass jug.
Strain the cooled, sweet liquid into the jug.
Check the temperature, then top off the jug, leaving about 2 inches of headspace for the yeast water.
Aim for an overall temperature of lukewarm (86-92 degrees).
If the brew and the yeast water are significantly different temperatures, add a little to the yeast water every 5 minutes until the temperatures are the same. (This is another precaution that may help your yeast to survive, since temperature shock can kill it.)
Add the yeast water to the brew, cap, and invert several times to mix.
Bottle, and store in a dark place. (I put mine in my pantry.)
Check the carbonation after 48 hours by opening and tasting the brew in one of your bottles. If it does not seem fizzy enough to you can let it sit for another day. I chose to let mine sit another 24 hours, and when I opened the bottle, it fizzed over the top and all over my floor. So, you might want to open yours over the sink.
Also, please know that whenever you’re making a carbonated beverage there is a risk that the bottles may explode if you leave them out of the refrigerator too long. So, don’t tuck them into too dark of place and forget about them, or leave one behind when you move them to the fridge. You will regret it. Heavy glass bottles with non-threaded tops are the least likely to explode, but you can get away with lighter glass or plastic bottles if you are diligent about checking the carbonation.
When you are satisfied with the level of carbonation of your drink, refrigerate your bottles to stop the action of yeast and enjoy your shrub over the next few days.

Why no more foreign print subscriptions?

As of yesterday, I removed the option for any print subscription outside the US.  It was a tough call, but it gives me an opportunity to give a bit of an explanation.
Let's say that the profit margin on a subscription is 50%.  Printing and mailing costs take more than half, but then with some advertising revenue, it brings us back to 50% (or $14.50).
Okay. Remember that number.

Several years ago, we stopped shipping to all countries other than the US and Canada. 
We can't ship bulk outside the US, so other countries were about $4 per issue - just to mail, and we charged the additional shipping.  I don't know how much they are now, but am certain that some of them are at least double that.
At this time, Canada is somewhere around $3.25 (but I was somehow not aware of it increasing the last buck and a half or $9/year).

Now here's the thing...
Magazine returns for any reason cost about 2.5 X the First Class rate.  US magazines FC rate is $1.57, and if returned, that fee is $3.88.

For a Canadian magazine to come back, it is close to $8.  Other countries?  I don't even want to think about it.

It takes a long time to get a return, so very often we've sent a second issue to the bad address.  Now we're deeply in the hole, and there is absolutely nothing we could do about it.

Unfortunately, being a tiny company, it happened often enough to hurt.

So PDF's will be available.  I am sorry, and know that this will disappoint some of our Canadian readers.  We just aren't big enough to absorb that kind of expense.  We'll finish out the Canadian print  subscriptions that we have, and then it will just be PDF's.