Every summer I read through Władysław Reymont’s Nobel Prize winning book The Peasants: Summer
and enjoy the descriptions of the landscape. Here is one excerpt:

"All the landscape was given over to an inundation of wild flowers. Along every pathway there reigned a wonderful profusion of soft white and gold and violet hues. 

Field bindweed                                        Cornflower (Wikipedia)                         Forget-me-not

“The larkspur and convolvulus (field bindweed) put their perfumed heads forth from their hiding places in the cornfields; bluebells and cornflowers were seen in every patch, and the hollows where water had been now teemed with forget-me-nots, making the dells look like bits of blue, fallen from the sky.
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Close up of purple vetch                   Buttercup                                          Dandelion

 "There were clumps of vetches without end, buttercups and dandelions innumerable;

Thistle                                                                                      Purple Clover

"and the purple flowers of thistle and clover"

Daisies                                                                                 Chamomile


 "and daisies with chamomiles-and countless others, of which only our Lord knows the names, since they were blooming for Him alone.”

Except for cornflower all images taken by author

​The Feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for "Body of Christ") is the day on which the Catholic Church commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, it is celebrated annually on the church calendar on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, this year falling on June 8.

Holy Eucharist in monstrance carried in procession in Kadzidło, Poland. Author photo.

     The feast day, called Boże Ciało in Polish, has been widely and solemnly celebrated in Poland since the 16th century and continues to this day. The Holy Eucharist is carried through the streets in a monstrance and stops at four different altars where it is venerated and adored. 

     An important custom of the Feast of Corpus Christi was the weaving of wreaths as small as the palm of the hand made of different herbs. This was especially true in rural, agricultural villages and areas where herbs and plants could be grown in home gardens or found in nearby fields and meadows.

​     In the Podlasie region, an area which runs along the Narew River in northeast Poland, the women wove nine small wreaths, each made from a different herb: thyme, hazelwort, stonecrop, lady's mantle, sundew, mint, rue, daisy, and periwinkle. Other plants which could also be used included lovage, sage and linden.

Lady's Mantle in author's garden. 

Weaving a wreath made from Lady's Mantle for Corpus Christi. Images from Muzeum Rolnicztwa im. Ks. Krzysztofa Kluka in Ciechanowiec.

     The wreaths were hung on the 4 different altars and then taken to church where they stayed for the week following Corpus Christi. The wreathes were believed to gain strength and power due to their proximity to the Holy Eucharist.

      When the eight-day celebration of Corpus Christi was over, the blessed wreaths were taken home and served a variety of purposes.  Healing infusions were prepared from the dry herbs of sage or linden for coughs, colds and sore throats.  Some wreathes were placed under the foundation of a newly-built house to ward off evil spirits and protect the inhabitants who lived within. In Polish folklore it was said that when Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) called przywrotnik was thrown into the home fire, the smoke would disperse storm clouds that threatened the destruction of crops.

 


​ ​Wreathes of Lady’s Mantle were hung above the entrance to the house, near windows and on the walls above holy pictures, believing that it protected the house against fire, storm and lightning strikes. 

​Wreaths of Lady’s Mantle were also burned on hot coals, incensing sick people as well as ailing animals. 

     Lady’s Mantle can easily be grown in the garden.  As a perennial, it does well in shady areas and is quite hardy in cold temperature regions.  If you just want to add the yellow-chartreuse flowers to a dry arrangement for your home altar perhaps, they hold up pretty well after hanging the stems upside down in an airy space for a few weeks.

For more on the flowers and plants once essential to the people of Poland available in: Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine, Hippocrene Books, Inc.

For more images on the making of Corpus Christi wreaths:                                     muzeumrolnictwa.pl/aktualnosci/archiwum/rok-2018/wianki-w-oktawe-bozego-ciala

​It’s always such a treat to walk your garden after a long, hash winter and discover that a plant has survived and is flowering. Hello there! You made it! So happy to see you!  I was genuinely pleased to see the tiny rose- colored flower of lungwort. 

Lungwort in my garden in early May.

​Lungwort’s scientific name, Pulmonaria officinalis, comes from the Latin pulmo which means lung, hence the common name: lungwort. It was the name used by herbalists in medieval times who believed that the plant was effective in the treatment of lung diseases. In 1649, the noted English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, wrote that it was good for coughs and shortness of breath – all lung related illnesses. The plant was also known in Poland and utilized in much the same way:

"This is a plant found throughout all of Poland in woods and thickets that are somewhat damp and one of the first harbingers of spring, flowering as soon as March or April and recognized by its flower which begins rose-colored and later bluish-violet" says Sebastian Kneipp in his Zielnik czyli Atlas roślin leczniczych Domowa Apteka (Herbal or Atlas of healing plants for Home Pharmacy).  He recommended using the large leaves that develop after it flowers to make a tea for those suffering lung and throat ailments, laryngitis, and hoarseness.

The flower of lungwort does change color as the flower ages.  Opening pink, it changes to a rose-violet color over time and at maturity will be blue due to a changing pH value within the flower.
It's Polish name miodunka, meaning honey, also indicates that it was a source of early flowering source of nectar for bees.

Illustration from Kneipp's Zielnik (Herbal of Healing Plants for Home Pharmacy)
 
For more on plants and flowers and Polish gardens: POLISH HERBS, FLOWERS AND FOLK MEDICINE. Hippocrene Books, Inc.

​Driving along a country road last August, I caught sight of a patch of bright yellow flowers out of the corner of my eye. I pulled over and turned the car around to take a better look. I had to climb through a ditch to get close and realized I was looking at a beautiful stand of the Jerusalem artichoke flower. The sight of them on that sunny Saturday morning was uplifting. 

Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke at all but belongs to the sunflower family (hence it’s Polish name, słonecznik which means sunflower) but with a flower that is much smaller.  It does, however, have that tall stature in its lineage along with many lush green leaves along it’s stem. 

Besides the flower which gladdens the eye and heart, the plant produces roundish and oblong tubers on the underground shoots that are edible as a root vegetable. The plant was at one time plentiful in Polish gardens, the tubers a food staple until it was replaced by the potato as a common dish on the tables of the wealthy and poor alike.  Polish gardeners advised:   "Once planted, they always persist, planted one elbow length from one another... Tubers for winter left in the ground will become a great delicacy in the spring."

Flower of Jerusalem artichoke. Author photo.

​Wikipedia photo.

Historians say that Jerusalem artichoke first appeared in France in 1607, supposedly by way of Canada, and then appeared in Poland in the 17th century. Recipes for its use can be found in the first Polish cookbook titled Compendium Feculorum published in 1682. When it stopped being food for the table, the tubers were used as fodder to feed the barnyard animals.

Why hadn’t I planted it in my garden? It attracts birds.  It’s hardy in winter climates. It tolerates damp places fairly well, is ideal for the back of a perennial garden and apparently a prolific grower and spreader. It only downside seems to be that it can become invasive. This latter fact would be a feat, indeed, in the clay soil of my garden. But if it can grow along roadway ditches and neglected empty fields maybe it has a fighting chance. Another plus is that it can give continuous bloom from August to November when my garden is really waning.

I’m ordering the tubers for this year's “something new” to try in the garden.
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Common Name: Artichoke, Jerusalem
Species: Helianthus tuberosus
Polish name: Słonecznik bulwiasty
 
Happy National Gardening Day!
 
For more on plants and herbs in Polish gardens: Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine, Hippocrene Books, Inc.

     ​I’ve always been interested in knowing the names of plants whenever I see them flowering along a roadside or path. While walking along a marshy area at our state park recently I was looking over at the dark pink Joe pye-weed (wondering what it’s Polish name could be)

​and the lovely pale lavender color of wild bee balm (Monarda fistulosa also known as wild bergamot) when I saw this other tall plant rising above them with an unusual pinkish-purple flower head. 

​     I hadn’t noticed this particular plant before.  If I don’t recognize a plant, I take a picture and then browse through books of wild plants specific to my region to try and discover their names.  I know there are apps for this now that will tell you almost instantly the name of the plant but I haven’t moved on from my old-fashioned ways. I have lots of nice full color books that I like to pull out and browse through on a summer evening. 

​     Its name is Verbena hastata or blue vervain, also known as swamp weed and its color can vary from blue to purple. True to the name it grows in soggy, sunny areas and is indigenous to North America but I don’t think it deserves the name swamp weed, as if it were some trashy old thing rising up out of the muck. I thought it rather lovely with its erect posture and its eye-catching cluster of flowers at the top.

    There are lots of species of verbena world-wide and it is somewhat similar in appearance to Verbena officinalis which I’d read about it old Polish herbals.  In Polish, Verbena officinalis is Werbena pospolita. Its folk name is koszyczki Najswiętszej Marii Panny meaning, baskets of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. A single petal appears as if it could be a tiny goblet or bowl or, to someone at some time in centuries past in Poland, a basket. This species of verbena is native to Europe and can be found in Germany (Hildegard of Bingen was familiar with it) England, France and most commonly along the Carpathian mountain range of southern Poland.  Its flowers are pale pink instead of blue or purple and it tends to grow in dry places. Medicinally, however, they carry the same beneficial properties of boosting lactation in nursing mothers, in treating headaches, and combating fevers and coughs. In Poland, the leaves were steeped in boiling water and ingested as a tea or by teaspoonful when soaked in vodka or whiskey.

So satisfying to learn of two plants of the same species, continents apart, with a long history as a medicinal herb across many different cultures.

P.S.   Joe pye-weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is known in Poland as Sadiec purpurowy

Photo of  Verbena officinalis: Wikipedia.
Photos of Verbena hastata, Monarda fistulosa and Joe pye-weed by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab

If you'd like to read more about the plants once essential to the people of Poland utilized in their customs and traditions as well as medicinally  I suggest my book: Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine.
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A Polish country cottage garden was a mix of decorative and useful herbs, vegetables, flowers and shrubs such as roses, raspberry, gooseberry, or currant bushes. It served as a flower garden and as an herb and kitchen garden, useful in a way that brought edible food, as one Polish garden writer stated, " directly into the pot."  There was no specific garden plan.  Flowers and herbs were usually grown in clumps near the fence or in beds beneath the windows of the house according to the preferences of the housewife.  Vegetables were occasionally mixed in.  The walkways were made of tamped soil and wide enough for a person to walk through.  If a bit of decoration was wanted, large rocks were gathered, painted white and fashioned in a circle.  Inside, a special flower or herb was planted.

The housewife grew flowers to brighten the outside of the house, to adorn the altars at church on Sundays and holy days, and to decorate the roadside shrines that were located within the village boundaries.  The unmarried girls of the house tended lilies, rosemary and rue for bridal wreathes as well as lavender to place between the linens in her marriage chest.  For cooking and to spice the daily fare, some culinary herbs were planted.  There was marjoram for sausage, dill for pickling cucumbers, and parsley, sage and fennel for enhancing soups and stews.  Many Polish housewives made their own herb vinegars from water and sliced apples that were allowed to ferment for a few months.  The mixture was strained, crushed herbs added, sealed in bottles and stored in a cool pantry or larder.  Herb butters were also made and packed down into crocks to use in the middle of winter or to give as a Christmas gift. (Photo :Foxglove)
Interspersed among the flowers were vegetables such as cucumbers, radishes, water cress, horseradish and lettuce.  Sometimes there were beets, carrots, garlic or onions depending on the needs and tastes of the owner.  It was Queen Bona Sforza who introduced various green vegetables to Poland including beans, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, celery, parsnip, cumin, coriander, caraway, hemp, asparagus, artichoke, tomato and nasturtium.  Spinach also traveled to Poland from Italy, brought by monks who followed Bona in her marriage to Zygmunt.  From nearby Germany came horseradish and pumpkin, which also made its appearance in Polish cottage gardens.

Excerpted from: Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine. Revised edition. Hippocrene Books.2020
 

This is just an excerpt and color photo from one of the new entries in my revised and updated edition of Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine: Allspice.  It is with much happiness that I can say that I have finished editing the new and revised edition of Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine. There are still some tasks to be completed such as preparing the index and finalizing the front and back design of the book before being sent to print. Originally slated to be released in October, Hippocrene Books, Inc. has worked really hard to overcome time lost due to Covid and to make sure the book will be available by the middle of November. Thank you Hippocrene Books! 

​ The custom of taking the earth's  bounty and offering it up in a sacred place has gone on for millenniums.  And I shall do the same today.

I have gathered roses and black-eyed Susan's from my garden because I have nourished them  and helped them grow. 

I don't have an orchard  but I do have a crab apple tree, a thing of joy that lifts the spirit when it blossoms in the spring and then yields  berries than can sustain the body in the form of jellies and preserves in the summer.

 I walked through fields  this morning,  aware that what at first glance appears to be a weed, is truly a gift, an offering from Mother Earth. I picked Queen Anne's Lace ( wild carrot)  because the root can be eaten  and my  ancestors knew the root  was high in vitamins. I cut down chickory.  What looks like  a pretty blue wild flower  has a root that can be converted into a drink.  At the beginning of the 18th century Polish agronomist Krzysztof Kluk wrote: "The roots are kept over the winter by burying in sand in the cellars. The roots were cut into chunks, dried in the oven and used in place of coffee....the roots of this plant are a much respected medicine: it opens, cleanses, loosens phlegm and fortifies the stomach and lungs. The most common way of ingesting it is through an alcoholic beverage.  For the lungs, it is taken with sugar."

That this Polish custom of taking plants to church to be blessed has is its roots in pagan times does not disturb me. Instead,  I feel a sense of continuity, a part of something that has been going on for as long as man has roamed the earth. There's a feeling of gratefulness.  

Everything is gift.

     
      A long, long time ago in Poland there was a shrub that was considered to be magical and secretive.  It was often seen at burial and internment sites. Bouquets  were made of it and placed on graves and tombs. It  protected the living from powerful spirits looking to do wrong and also gave peace to the deceased.

Besides Poland, European bladdernut (Staphylea pinnata),  was also a familiar shrub among other ancient Slavs, Celts and Germanic tribes. The Polish name for it,  kłokoczka, is derived from word  klekotania, from the characteristic klek, klek  noise made from the seed pods of the plant rattling in the wind, the sound of which in those early  pagan years  was connected with frightening  away evil powers. This feature caused it to be planted on burial graves and mounds, a place always connected with the spirit world. It was believed to protect against evil powers, vampires, demons, water spirits.   It was also used during exorcisms, magical practices and occultism. 

The meaning and practices associated with bladdernut changed considerably with the influence of the church  and the growth of Christianity but many of the very early  pagan beliefs remained alive in the form of folk customs and traditions. The  shrub, seen growing near a home or a within the boundaries of a farmyard, guaranteeing the absence of dangerous spirits, remained  in folk belief for a very long time but also became intermingled with the new Christian faith.

The shrub became known as a holy shrub. Christians began to carve religious figures  out of the thicker branches to adorn churches and roadside shrines. The branches with leaves and flowers were was added to Easter palms and became part of the wreathes made on the feast of Corpus Christi. Bouquets of bladdernut were also brought to church  Our Lady of the Herbs(Feast of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary-August 15) to be blessed. The blessed and dried plant was scattered on fields of growing crops to ensure the harvest and protect the land from natural disasters.

Crosses  carved from branches of bladdernut were nailed above the door of a home or inserted at the various corners of fields. These were generally made before Easter and the crosses nailed near the door of the house after the Resurrection mass. These customs existed in the regions around  Kraków, Rzeszów and Low Beskid (Beskid Niski) region. The thicker branches were crafted into  pipes, recorders, cigarette holders and wooden plungers for butter churns, believing that plungers made out of bladdernut made good butter. The Hucul (western Ukraine and Romania) maidens made bracelets and necklaces out of it.  Oil was produced from the seeds and used in primitive lighting devices to illuminate a room.  It's most important use, however, came from the clusters of drooping white flowers that developed into bladder-like pods that held shiny brown seeds.  A hole was made on two sides of the roundish  seeds  and  threaded together with  thin wire or twine to make rosaries.    Hence, it's other name, kłokoczka paciorkowa, i.e., bladdernut, the rosary plant. The shrub was cultivated in monastery gardens  where monks made rosaries for personal and public use, and where the leaves were burnt as a form of incense.

The rosary shrub is found in southern and eastern Poland as well as in Slovakia. It likes shady places among clumps of trees. It flowers from May to June and can grow 15 feet high and taller. It is currently  on the list of protected plant species in Poland. It can be bought in various nurseries in the U.S. and UK.

More details about the feast of Corpus Christi or the Feast of Our Lady of the Herbs can be found in my book Polish Customs, Traditions and Folklore.

Wikipedia images.

There were many important feast days when it came to gathering herbs and flowers in Poland but the single most important date occurred on the church celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15. So vital was this day that it was, and still is, called  Matka Boska Zielna, Our Lady of the Herbs. On this special feast day, every village woman brought a bouquet of flowers, plants and herbs to church in order to be blessed by the priest.  

In the Pomorze area, the northwest section of Poland, they have a saying on this day: "Każdy kwiat woła, weź mnie do koscioła!" (Every flower calls, take me to church!)

The women gathered whatever plants or greenery grew in their region, or the herbs and flowers they especially loved or needed. In the Mazowsze and Podlasie area took hyssop, southernwood, lavender, and mullein.  They also took lovage, branches of the  hazel tree, hemp and mint. Both herbs from the garden and the wild were gathered. These included poppy(Polish: mak), peony (Polish: piwonia, sage (Polish:szalwia), thyme (Polish: macierzanka), tansy (Polish: wrotycz), dill (Polish: koper), caraway (Polish: kminek), mugwort (Polish: bylica), chamomile (Polish: rumianek) (Kolberg Krakowskie I 1962: 227) Since the feast day coincided with the time of the harvest, it was also customary to take a few spikes of  various grains such as rye(Polish: żyto), wheat (Polish: pszenica) or oats (Polish: owies)

 The gathered and blessed herbs were used in endless ways: as part of wedding rituals, and death practices but mostly, medicinally. In  the country villages there were few practicing physicians. Isolated and often poverty stricken, they were usually left to their own devices to treat themselves as best they could, utilizing various herbs and plants. All the plants and herbs were felt to be stronger, more effective for having been blessed. The most popular, most well known medicinal plants, and frequently brought to church included:

Mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris) Polish: Bylica. Depending on their symptoms, mugwort was used to bathe a person back to health; used in poultices, it helped in pain along the spine or back as well as ease the pains of childbirth. If gathered from nine different areas helped women in situations where they were unable to conceive.
Southernwood (Artemesia abrotanum) Polish: Boze Drzewko. Universally used in treatment of bruises and contusion by application of poultices
Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) Polish: Piołun. Wormwood appears all over Poland in wastelands and roadsides as well as in established herb gardens. The old herbals advised that an infusion of the dried leaves as a tea as a treatment for bad breath arising from the stomach, dispelling stomach gas, improving digestive juices and at the same time can build appetite.
Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) Polish: Rumianek. An infusion of the flower was taken for a fever, stomach troubles or various women's issues such as infertility or overlong menstruation.  A compress of chamomile applied to the brow relieved headache, and was applied to wounds and to the eyes when suffering from a sty.
Mullein (Verbascum Thapsis) Polish: Dziewanna. A tea brewed from the dried or fresh flowers was used for illnesses of the chest and difficulty breathing.  Fried with butter it was used to gray pimples and other skin eruptions and burns.
Coltsfoot ( Tussilago farfara) Polish: Podbiał pospolity. Found in every home medicine cabinet it was used for skin rashes, scrapes and tears of the skin on the arms and legs; for a cough and difficulty breathing and as a tea for most respiratory complaints.
Comfrey(Symphytum officinale)Żywokost. This plant is one of the best loved of all healing herbs. This tall, hairy leaved plant was used to heal broken bones, tears of the flesh  and also for the aches of rheumatism. It was used both externally and internally. A deconcoction from the leaves, or flowers treatedrespiratory disorders. The root mashed together with an animal fat was used as a poultice for sprains and broken bones. 
Elderberry (Sambucus Nigra L) Polish: Dziki bez czarny. A common plant through all of Europe, elderberry was also called bez lekarski, i.e., medicinal elderberry, to indicate its medicinal properties. The juice from the berries was especially beneficial for coughs. It would pull away the inflammation from infected wounds when the leaves and the skin were mixed with chalk and applied to the wounds.
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) Polish: Skrzyp polny. This was also a much valued plant for its diuretic properties and as an infusion utilized for problems with the bladder or kidneys but must herbals caution that it must be on the weaker side as it is powerful and could weaken the individual.
Linden(Tilia cordata) Polish: Lipa drobnolista. From ancient times the linden was considered a sacred tree. It was so powerful that the fibers of the linden tree could tie up a devil. Branches of linden which had decorated an altar on the feast of Corpus Christi protected the house against lightning, when planted among a field of cabbage would protect it against bugs;  teas made from the flower of linden was used to treat chronic cough, mucous and phlegm in the chest and larynx, to make one sweat.
Nettle (Utica diocia L) Polish: Pokrzywa. A tea made from the leaves of nettle for respiratory troubles, chiefly coughs. The leaves  and stems were mashed and mixed with sugar which made a syrup within a few  days.
Plantain (Plantago maior L )Polish: Babka zwyczajna, the mashed leaves are applied to the skin for wounds and ulcers.
Thyme (Thymus Serphyllum) Polish: Macierzanka. Used in the treatment of rheumatism. When bathed in it, it treated skin ailments and added to teas to treat gastrointestinal ailments.
Yarrow (Achilla millefolium) Polish: Krwawnik. This plant was used in poultices for inflamed and pus filled cuts and wounds by mashing and applying it  to the wound. For the treatment of arthritis it is made into a liniment by soaking it in spirytus(alcohol) for 24 hours and applying to the limbs.
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Google Image.