JUNE'S MEETING UPDATE

June's meeting was held on Tuesday 11th in Llanarth Village Hall. Our President Isabel introduced and welcomed Eleri Davies who gave the group a very interesting talk on old remedies, many of which go back to the 13th century and the works of the Myddygion Myddfai/Physicians of Myddfai. Most of the recipes for old remedies have disappeared as

they were handed down in an oral tradition from mothers to the youngest daughter and were kept secret - these wise women were often thought of as being witches.
There are different recipes for remedies in different areas. An old remedy for 'keeping fit' was:-

Get up early and do not stay up late. Wash in cold water and dry off with a coarse towel. Drink water and no alcohol. Eat early in the evening. Walk 10 miles a day. Eat plain food. One treat at a time i.e. bread and butter or bread and jam or bread and cheese but never put bread, butter and jam. Eat slowly. Stay in the open air. Go to work with a smile on your face.

One of the stories Eleri told us about was of a boy from this area that had bad psoriasis - the boy helped his father with a cow that was calving and while this was happening some of the placenta from the cow fell on his arm that had the psoriasis, which helped his condition get

better.


Some other old remedies were:-
Colds - soak feet in hot water with mustard.
Bad chest - goose fat and a red flannel.
Sore throat - take off your woollen sock, fill it with bacon fat and wrap it around the throat.
Hooping cough - drink more milk or go down a tunnel after a train (would no longer work now - very few steam trains these days!).
Worms - wear a necklace of garlic.
Arthritis - eat two sticks of celery every day.
Dust in the eyes -  lick the dust out with tongue.
Bleeding profusely from a wound - wrap cobwebs around the wound.

If you had a toothache and there was no local dentist, you would go and visit the local smithy and he would extract the tooth for you - ouch! 
A good tip for a cream for aftersun, cuts, dry skin and wounds - pick as many elderflower blossoms without the stalks as you can - in an old saucepan melt petroleum jelly but do not boil and add two big handfuls of the elderflowers to the melted petroleum jelly - leave to infuse for some time and then strain the mixture back into the jar. A similar cream for back or neck pain uses melted petroleum jelly with comfrey leaves.

We all found Eleri's talk most interesting and informative - Margaret V gave the vote of thanks. The competition for an old remedy for a cold was won by Denise and the raffle was won by Margaret V. Refreshments were provided by Isabel and Dianne.