Herblore 3

by **Gemma Parker** on February 27th, 2019, 12:55 am

Summer 51st, 512 AV

It was another day, but Gemma's dad wanted to review poultices quickly before moving on to the next topic. He held a large leaf in his hand and they stood outside.

"All right, so there's one more method, super quick and easy, that you can use to make a poultice. It's perfect for little cuts and stings and such." He said.

"So you take the leaf and you just roll it up like this." He showed her, and she took another leaf and followed his lead.

"So once it's rolled, gently bruise the leaf with your fingers and hands until the whole thing is bruised. If you break some of it that's fine." He said.

Gemma did her best not to break the leaf, but it was hard to get the level of finesse she needed not to do so. "Why not just use a mortar and pestle?" She asked.

"You might not always have a mortar and pestle!" She knew he was going to say that. He had more experience, and he had traveled. She had never been out of the direct surroundings of the city, so it was hard to imagine being stuck somewhere without her tools.

"So once you bruise it, yes, that's good." He said, checking her work. "Once you're done, unroll it gently and apply it to the wound flat." He said, doing so for her to see. She tried to imitate him, but it was hard. The leaf stuck to itself. Finally though, she got an uglier version of what her dad showed her.

"Good! Now spread that on the wound flat. Just lay it over the wound like a blanket. Yes, that's it." He said, offering his own arm as before. She laid the leaf over the arm and let it stick to his skin.

"Good, now leave that there and wrap the wound in a bandage like normal, but be careful not to break the leaf." He said.

Gemma got out the practice bandage they used so they wouldn't keep wasting more bandages. She gently laid one end of the bandage over a piece of mullin and pressed both against her dad's arm.

"There you go, now wrap gently." He said. She followed his instructions, tying the bandage by tucking it under itself at the end and securing it in place.

"Boom. Simple and easy! What do you think?" Her dad asked, holding out his arm to inspect it before giving it back to her to unwrap.

"I don't know, I thought it would be easier. I prefer my toolkit." She admitted.

"Oh, never mind that! That's what practice is for!" Her dad nudged her as she unwrapped his arm and dusted the leaf parts from the bandage before laying it out to try. She took the leaf off of his arm and tossed it on the ground near the flowers to decompose and become part of the circle of life again.

"I guess." She said. She had to admit, this was still better than having her dad cut himself, but it was hard for her to think of it that way. Every time she thought she was getting good at herbalism, some new little challenge stood in her way and she had to practice a mundane task until mastering it. She had a long way to go.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 27th, 2019, 3:28 am

Summer 53rd, 512 AV

"Gemma!" Miles called to her.

"Here, dad!" She came into the room with her notebook under her arm.

"Hey girl! I hope you're ready, because today we'll be working on the closest herbalism comes to Philtering without being Philtering. It's pretty cool stuff. We'll be making pills! Well they're pill shaped, but you get the idea. They're good to take with water to get the medicinal benefits without all the bad taste that sometimes comes with herbs. They do take a bit of time to prepare, but they also keep for a while if they're kept dry. This lets you sell them or keep them for later use, and also give them to patients to keep at home so they can take the doses as needed." He explained.

"Sounds good. How's it made?" She asked.

"Well, first we have to create powder, and this is something you and I haven't worked on yet together, so we'll do that first. So let's go out to the garden and find the first plant we'll need. They need to be dried, so we won't be cutting the plants, but we'll be reviewing their uses and then using the dried herbs I have set aside to make the pills." He said.

"So for this particular pill, we'll need several herbs ground into powder. We need eleuthero root first, so let's find that. The plant has these dark blue, almost black pods on the top of green leaves. See how they cluster like this?" He asked, pointing it out to her. She nodded and took a quick note so she wouldn't forget. "Eleuthero, black pods." She wrote.

"So let's go back inside and grind the root into powder." He said, returning inside.

"So this time, we actually won't be able to use the mortar and pestle, because that's more for bruising the herb, not so much for grinding it into a powder. Instead, we'll use these two rocks to grind the root." He revealed the grinding stones. "This is a new tool for you, so be careful with its use." He said.

"Basically you put the root between the two coarse rocks and rotate until it's a fine powder. But then you'll need to sift that powder further to ensure the fine grinding quality." He said.

"So go ahead and put the Eleuthero root on the rock, and I'll put the grinding stone on top." He did so, and they worked together to grind down the root until it was a powder with some flecks of skin still visible.

"Awesome, good job!" He said. "So now grab the siv and we'll sift this through into a bowl." He said. She did so, and before long they were tapping the resulted ground powder through the siv until only the finest particles came through, leaving the detritus above collected.

"So that's the powder?" She asked.

"That's the powder. We'll need two spoonfuls of that powder to make the pills, so measure it to make sure and put it aside." Her dad said.

She measured it and set it aside, and they were ready for the next herb.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 27th, 2019, 3:29 am

"Great, so the next herb is dried Astralagus root." He said, leading her once more out to the garden. This root is used for lots of things like heart health, allergies, stress reduction, sleep issues, general well-being, resistance to sickness, and also slowing the aging process. It's a neat little herb." He said, smiling down at the plant with pride in his eyes.

"So you can tell it's Astralagus because it has these little bell flowers near the leaves, and the leaves are ovular and jagged. Again, I already have the root drying inside, so let's head back in." He said.

Inside, they took the dried Astralagus root and once more put it on the grinding stone. They didn't worry about cleaning off the previous herb since they would all be mixed together anyway, and the measurements didn't have to be that exact.

Gemma made sure the root was in place and got to work grinding down the dried herbal root into the fine powder that she had made previously with the other plant.

"So the Eleuthero root powder will also help with stress adaptation and keep you from getting sick. So these two work together really well. The Eleuthero root also helps with lung cancer, chest congestion, energy, and muscle and bone growth and strength. These two work very well together, and we'll also add more into the mix." He said.

Once the stone was done grinding the dried herb, Miles removed the stone so Gemma could scrape the dust into a bowl. She then poured that powder into the siv again and tapped the particles through into a separate bowl, once more throwing away any extra particles that were too big to fit through the small holes.

Gemma looked through the holes to make sure she'd gotten all she needed, and also sifted through the resulting fine powder in the bowl to see if anything too big got through. She was worried for nothing, because the siv had done its job wonderfully.

"Right, so it's one to one with these, so since we got the two spoonfuls of the Eleuthero root, we need the same quantity of the Astralagus. So go ahead and measure that out and dump it into a separate small bowl just so we can control when we dump it all together. I guess you could just measure and dump it all into one big bowl at first, but then if you do something wrong you're up the creek without a paddle." He said.

"Something I learned back when I made drugs for young kids, I learned a valuable saying. 'Measure twice, cut once." Keep that in mind until you're so good that you don't need to worry about trivial things like measurements." He nudged her playfully.

She grinned and nudged him back. "Ok, so what's next?" She asked.

"Next we go get the next root!" He said, laughing. "But take a second to take those notes, because I think you missed that last root." Gemma realized that he was right, and opened her book to take the notes just so she could come back later. "Astralagus root, yellow bells, jagged leaves. Keeps you strong, fights sickness, fights aging." She wrote. And then she was out in the yard looking for the next herb.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 27th, 2019, 3:30 am

"All right, so the next herb we're looking for is licorice root." He said.

"Licorice? Like the candy?" She asked.

"Yes, but this is just the root which gives the candy its consistency. The rest is sugar and flavoring." Her dad explained.

"So Licorice is a little harder to find, because it doesn't have flowers. But if you look here, you can see that the leaves are kind of velvety and blueish." He said. "That's what we're looking for." He said.

"Got it. So this is the root too?" She clarified.

"That's right! It's good for stomach problems, poison, ulcers, heartburn, and other similar things." He explained. "So let's get back inside and grind this up!" He said, his exuberance never faltering.

They went inside and got the Licorice root from storage. It had already been dried, like the others, so once more Gemma put it on the grinding stone.

"Now this and other roots are more like wood than the plants you've worked with so far. It's very chewy if you try, and it's easiest to work with in strong measures like this grinding, or with decoctions like I've explained before. You do remember about decoctions, right Gems?" He asked.

"I do! That's when you put a root in boiling water- or well, you boil the root in water, and then let it sit and make a super strong tea." She explained. "It's better for roots and barks and tough stuff." She finished.

"There you go! See? You can memorize things." He smiled.

"So once the Licorice root is done, you can put it through the same process, but don't measure it yet because the ratio is different." He said. She did as he said. She ground the stone around and around, noting how tired her arms were getting. She would have to start exercising if she was going to become an herbalist and make pills all day. This was exhausting! Maybe she could take some of that powder that made her muscles work harder. But she didn't want to ask if that would work for fear of her dad making fun of her. She would think more on that later, maybe try it on her own.

She ground the Licorice root into powder and when her dad removed the top stone, she scraped the smaller amount of powder into another bowl and repeated the process of sifting the bigger pieces out of the smaller powder. In the end, she threw away the garbage and kept what was left, which was finely ground Licorice root powder, just what they needed.

"This one is going to be two to one compared to the others, so just one spoonful." She measured the quantity that was required and put the resulting bowl of powder to the side.

"Great! Do you have any questions so far? How're your arms?" He asked the young girl.

"Tired, but I think I can keep going." She said.

"I'm sure you can." He smiled widely and they went out for the next herb.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 27th, 2019, 3:35 am

"So the next plant we're looking for it dandelion. Do you think you can find that for me?" He asked with a grin. She lit up at this, and jumped at the chance to show off her botanical knowledge. She went to the yard and held up one of the plants she had been using a few days earlier for poultices. It had started to flower, but that only made it easier to find.

"Good girl. But we don't need the leaves, we need the roots. And for this, you might need more than one plant's worth, depending on the size. But like I said, I already have what we need inside, so let's go on in." He said, waving her inside.

"So dandelion. You know how to find it, but do you know what it's used for? Specifically the root part?" He quizzed her.

"Mmm, I'm not sure." She said, admitting the gaps in her young knowledge.

"That's fine, so dandelion root is used for a bunch of things like stomach problems, gas, stones, joint pain, muscle aches, skin problems, and bruises." he explained. "It also helps you go to the bathroom, so it's good for old people." He whispered the last part, making Gemma giggle.

"Dad, that's gross!" She said through the laughing.

"It's true! Hey, one day I'll be old and needing you to make me a dandelion root decoction, and I expect you not to ask why." He said, pouting playfully.

Gemma put the roots onto the stone and ground once more. They were smaller, so this was a bit easier than before. She put her back into it, stretching and shifting her force to avoid the discomfort.

"It gets hard, right?" Her dad asked.

"Yeah, a little. We can take a break after this." She declared. Her dad laughed and agree.

"All right, so the powdering is the same as always. You're getting even faster at it, but just make sure you don't lose any of the precious powder. One ml of powder might be enough for its part of a single dose, which is health and wellness for your patients." He said in a surprisingly serious tone.

"Got it." She said, slowing the grinding down a little bit.

Once she was done with that, her dad lifted the big top stone again, and she swept the resulting powder and chaff into a bowl. She was getting used to this and it was becoming a habit. She put the siv over another clean bowl and dumped the powder into the siv, and tapping until the powder on the other side was nice and fine.

"So this one is only half a spoonful, so be careful but just estimate. Do your best." He said.

She took the spoon and did her best to get as close as she could to the half way mark.

"Like this?" She asked.

"Looks good!" He said with approval. She put the powder into another clean bowl. They now had several bowls of powder, and they were almost done with all that they needed, but it was nap time now.

"Go get some rest. We'll come back in two bells for round two!"