Spring 2nd, 519av, 14 Bells
Ah, spring, glorious spring! It was a new year, a new day, and everything was just a little bit more special. It was also her birth season, and she was ready to be a year older. Sadly, she was a bit sick, and her shoulder was still in a sling from her time in the cave.
Gemma was working on philtering today, combining the less known skill with her much better skill, herbalism. Today she would be making essential oils. The process was anything but straight forward, but her dad had given her a quick class on how to do this, and she had taken notes that she would be following now.
Before her was a complex series of beakers and tubes and clamps and fire. She had yet to memorize what everything was called, but she knew everything had some fancy name. It was like learning another language. But at least the idea of essential oils was not so foreign to her.
To extract essential oils, she needed to load the various components. She looked in her notes and began following the instructions.
"First, load the herb." Her father said. "You want to pack in as much as you can into this glass bulb here. Once you do that, fill up this other phial here with water and put it over the flame. Be sure your cold water over here is replenished frequently and test its temperature so you don't lose potency." He explained, pointing to each part as he did so. Gemma wrote furiously.
Looking at her chicken scratch writing, Gemma squinted to understand something she'd written. She really hoped she was right about what it said.
She took the herbs and put them in the indicated section, filling the other part with water. She then put the water over the fire and the herb over the water, and connected the two via a little screw valve thing. She really needed to learn what these things were called.
She set the water to boil and waited while adding cold water over on the other end. That would apparently help the steam to turn back into water and liquid. She made sure the valve at the end was sealed and waited for the water to boil. While she did that, she took the same herb that she had been using in the essential oil and began mashing it in her mortar and pestle. She had a while to wait, so she was going to multitask and make a tincture at the same time, using the traditional folk methods. She took the herb and mashed it up before putting it in a jar and covering it with 3 parts alcohol, one part water. She pushed the flowers down into the jar to make sure they were covered, and sealed the jar with a lid, shaking it once or twice before closing the jar and moving on to the next one. She stretched her shoulder by rolling it to try and get the stiffness out. She was still not used to limiting herself like this.
She took a moment to check on her philtering setup and saw that the steam was already lifting through the bulb of leaves, turning it into a misty green color. Everything looked good so far!
Gemma was working on philtering today, combining the less known skill with her much better skill, herbalism. Today she would be making essential oils. The process was anything but straight forward, but her dad had given her a quick class on how to do this, and she had taken notes that she would be following now.
Before her was a complex series of beakers and tubes and clamps and fire. She had yet to memorize what everything was called, but she knew everything had some fancy name. It was like learning another language. But at least the idea of essential oils was not so foreign to her.
To extract essential oils, she needed to load the various components. She looked in her notes and began following the instructions.
"First, load the herb." Her father said. "You want to pack in as much as you can into this glass bulb here. Once you do that, fill up this other phial here with water and put it over the flame. Be sure your cold water over here is replenished frequently and test its temperature so you don't lose potency." He explained, pointing to each part as he did so. Gemma wrote furiously.
Looking at her chicken scratch writing, Gemma squinted to understand something she'd written. She really hoped she was right about what it said.
She took the herbs and put them in the indicated section, filling the other part with water. She then put the water over the fire and the herb over the water, and connected the two via a little screw valve thing. She really needed to learn what these things were called.
She set the water to boil and waited while adding cold water over on the other end. That would apparently help the steam to turn back into water and liquid. She made sure the valve at the end was sealed and waited for the water to boil. While she did that, she took the same herb that she had been using in the essential oil and began mashing it in her mortar and pestle. She had a while to wait, so she was going to multitask and make a tincture at the same time, using the traditional folk methods. She took the herb and mashed it up before putting it in a jar and covering it with 3 parts alcohol, one part water. She pushed the flowers down into the jar to make sure they were covered, and sealed the jar with a lid, shaking it once or twice before closing the jar and moving on to the next one. She stretched her shoulder by rolling it to try and get the stiffness out. She was still not used to limiting herself like this.
She took a moment to check on her philtering setup and saw that the steam was already lifting through the bulb of leaves, turning it into a misty green color. Everything looked good so far!