#preservative

PLS FORGIVE CAPS, SIGHT ISSUES.

“ Bogs are Ireland’s original refrigerators. And they are pretty good—even 3,000 year-old bog butter is edible. We know this because archeologists tended to eat it. But is refrigeration the only reason that people threw dairy products into the soggy, marshy, peatland known as bogs? “

WHOLE ARTICLE HERE:https://daily.jstor.org/irelands-3000-year-old-refrigerators/

I’ve made this Distilled Geranium Water, particularly good for combination to oily skins, with the flowers of the geraniums I’ve grown and tended to for a couple of years, and I’m quite happy with its scent and its soothing effect.

Ingredients (makes about 500 millilitres/2 cups):

2 cups geranium flowers* (a mix of fresh and dried flowers)

1.5 litre/6 cups filtered water

a few dozen ice cubes

1 1/2 teaspoon Leucidal (natural preservative, made from radish root)

*not treated

Rinse geranium flowers and place into a large, deep, low (preferably enamel) pot. Place a metal or heat-proof glass bowl or dish in the centre of the pot. Pour filtered water over the geranium flowers, and cover with a large well-fitting lid.

Place pot on the stove, and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, you can carefully upturn the lid, and fill it with ice cubes, to help condensation form. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer, about half an hour. Once the ice cubes have melted, scoop out the water, and place new ice cubes.

Remove from the heat, and let cool completely.

Black goo! Not the same black goo as what was in the Ptolemaic sarcophagus, sadly. This was used in a mistaken attempt to preserve the mummy and its sarcophagus. It was quite common to add this kind of ‘preservative’ with the more expensive mummifications.