The Stillroom, or Snowed in and Loving it

From Grandma's Desk:
We have been house bound for the past 4 days. It started snowing Tuesday did not let up until this morning early. We have about 20 to 24" of snow. We spent the last 2 days shoveling, snow blowing, and plowing with the tractor. My husband and I took turns just to keep it from accumulating to the point we might never get out! I was hoping for a bit of snow to keep the lavender plants cozy, and Mother Nature provided. I didn't really have anything important to do so we are staying close to home, and keeping warm.

In between clearing snow and keeping warm I began looking through some old magazine. I came across an article in The Herb Quarterly from the winter 2009, titled, "Wisdom from the Stillroom". I thought it would be fun to share the highlights with you. This article inspired my own "stillroom" last summer when I added an addition on our home to house my tropical plants and where I create my balms and salves, distill my essential oils, do my canning, and run my business. This article explains that a stillroom is where women made and stored their homemade remedies to keep their families healthy. Women of the 17th century did not always have a doctor or apothecary nearby so they had to rely on their own recipes handed down from generation to generation to keep their families healthy. The stillroom was named for a small still that the women used to create medicinal waters of all kinds.

My own stillroom is where I keep my medicinal herbs, tinctures, hydrosols, essential oils, flower infused oils, herbal vinegars, fruit cordials, and the ingredients to make my own herbal medicines. I also keep my home canned salsas, jams & jellies, fruit sauces, spaghetti sauce, and all my dried culinary herbs. We also store our dried fruit, wines, and liquors. It is a cool dry room much like a pantry but with more medicinal purposes. I also have pantry shelves to store jars, canner, still, herb and fruit drier. There is lots of room for empty jars, sieves, scales, mortar & pestle, and other tools I use when canning or making medicinal remedies. The sights and smells are wonderful. Sometimes I just go into my stillroom to fill my senses.

Along with a stillroom a record book or diary must be kept to hold medicinal and everyday recipes. This is an essential to every stillroom to record your ideas, recipes, and information to pass down to your own children and friends. My Stillroom Book started out in a small journal. I soon realized the amount of information could not be contained in one small journal. I now have a 3 ring binder to put this information in. I can easily record my own recipes and have plenty of room for tips, articles from favorite herb magazines. It also becomes a diary of what worked best for which ailment or feedback on my latest salve or balm. This way I keep a record of various things I have tried over the years. I keep a similar book for my garden. What a treasure to leave our children and future generations. Now we might ad a small computer to keep notes on. I like the old fashioned Stillroom Book though, it is easier and appeals to my senses. I can see and smell the unfolding of the stillroom in its pages.