Tag Archives: herbalism

A New Direction (this was planned before that last post gave me a whole new angle on my existing work)

The Arts and Sciences ADHD Inspiration Fairy has been absent for quite some time. I’ve been putting a lot more energy into my native plant garden, mostly because native plants are way less work once they establish. About a week ago it FINALLY hit me: I don’t have to focus on Europe/the Near East/North Africa. I can work on learning and documenting local Indigenous food plants, starting with what I have already growing! This will necessitate learning a LOT more about oral traditions. I’m starting by reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and looking at what public events the Duwamish Longhouse is putting on. Please enjoy photos of some of my native edibles:

Suncream a la Trotula – an evolving experiment in period solutions to modern problems

A few years ago I stumbled across two recipes in the Trotula (https://www.pennpress.org/9780812235890/the-trotula/) that are for treating sunburn/windburn, but at the end they say they are also good for prevention of the same. As a Translucent American with sensitive skin, I was intrigued by the idea of a period-appropriate sunscreen. My research and understanding have grown a lot over the last few years.

Here is a link to my first presentation: https://athenaeum.baronyofmadrone.net/exhibits/against-sunburn/


my paper for the 2024 Kingdom competition: AN 11TH CENTURY ITALIAN SUNSCREEN




Since then I have looked further into similar creams and discovered that tin oxide was often used interchangeably with white lead and zinc oxide – I acquired some white lead to do a test batch (yay toxins!) but it’s proving to be difficult to get tin oxide in less-than-industrial amounts.

In my totally non-modern-scientific experiments I can report that the cream as I made it is VERY effective at preventing sunburn. It is functional for about 24 hours in high heat (lots of sweat). I tried using coconut oil to make a vegan version and sadly the coconut smell was overpowering. Crisco did the job fairly well. I did a few batches with tallow I rendered myself but I have a hard time filtering the oil enough to get rid of the cow smell so I use commercially available lard when I make it for gifting.