upthewitchypunx:

asksecularwitch:

thewatchfulwinterwitch:

upthewitchypunx:

Study your herbs, friends: A cautionary tale.

So, I have a friend who was visiting from out of town and I was afraid I was going to be out of the house when they left. I came back home to find a lovely note and this sitting on my dining room table. Right away I knew this was wrong. That’s not yarrow, that’s Queen Anne’s Lace.

Then my friend came back to the house right before leaving for the airport and I was like “um, thanks for the sweet gift. however, that’s not what you think it is.” She said she thought they were yarrow and she gathered them by the house and we talked it out. She really thought she was doing the right thing but she’s not from this region. Then we joked about how in the future we can laugh about how she tried to kill me.

A yarrow tincture could be good for reducing fevers or for colds in general. However, what she made me was  vat of birth control. Um, thanks!?

Seriously folks, double triple, quadruple check and cross reference your herbs, especially if you are going to giving them to other people.

Not only birth control –  I believe and can do all sorts of nasty shit in the wrong quantities, yikes!! 

Wait. I didn’t realize queen anne’s lace could be used for birth control!?!

All I know about that plant [I can recognize it] is that it’s good for dying and drying. It’ll retain colors very well, as long as you put the flowers down on a flat surface after dying them. 

Why do I know this?

Mom’s a dried flower arranger. Or at least she was. 

thewatchfulwinterwitch ya, I could have basically bleed my guts out if I didn’t know better. Herbs can be dangerous things.

asksecularwitch dying AND dying!  But seriously, dying them might be nice. I’ll have to look into that.