Lotions and Potions at Grampian Opportunities
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LOTIONS and potions were on the 'menu' at a talk given by Kemnay author, herbalist and Reiki practitioner Fairley Taylor at Grampian Opportunties (GO), West High Street, Inverurie on Saturday.
She began with the advice to only cut herbs after noon and to pick your vegetables in the evening by which time all the goodness has gone back to the roots.
Fairley offered recipes for various teas,tinctures and toners, infused cold and hot oils, creams, soaps and salves, cough syrups, herbal hair rinse, hard skin remover and shower gels to name just a few.
She has remedies for fading skin blemishes, eczema, gardeners hand cream, trainer tamers, puffiness and cellulite.
Most flowers and herbs if we just kept our eyes open and know what to look for we could find in our woods and hedgerows.
She has been studying our native flora for many years and has carried out meticulous research to define their medicinal properties.
Many of them were well-known to our ancestors and wrongly dubbed as old wives tales.
There is a wonderful poetry in the names in her concoctions - chamomile and comfrey, lavender, liquorice and linseed, Motherwort and Lady's mantle.
Fairley finished with a 'cookery' session showing her pupils how to make and simmer up simple remedies in their own kitchens.
Her infusion varieties include sleepy tea, soothing tea, restorative tea revitalising tea and a most effective winter blues tea.
On a different subject her soon-to-be published latest book is on the hidden history of Scotand in which she has unearthed some startling facts
