Sandalwood, Cedar, and Spice: A Canadian Tradition of Crafting

“Recipes would be exchanged over a cup of herbal tea and people who could cut a fine quill for writing were much in demand.”
- Dorothy Banks

With summer’s labours over, in autumn Canadian settlers looked forward to craft-making, when they finally had a little time to take pleasure in the fragrant leaves and petals which they had so carefully collected from their gardens and fields.

Crafting with herbs and spices has long been a tradition of cultures around the world - one with both decorative and practical uses, but little is recorded about pot pourri and pomander-making by early Canadian settlers.

However, thanks to the writings of folklorists such as the late Dorothy Banks, we do know that they took pleasure in these crafts each autumn when the hanging bunches of roses, peonies, and oregano were crispy-dry and the muslin drying trays of chamomile and calendula blossoms were almost overflowing in the attic.

Dorothy Banks, of Peterborough, Ontario, compiled many of these recipes and traditions into a booklet series, Love Spoon, published in 1979 for the nearby Lang Pioneer Village, which still uses this valuable and seemingly timeless information for educating visitors. This series of hand-written booklets contains information on haybox cookery, making a rabbit stew, cleaning a straw bonnet, natural skin care, herbal teas from the wild, and how to build a proper mud oven, alongside Banks’ traditional fragrance crafting ideas for pot pourri and pomanders.

The Bryde Spoon Ladled Knowledge from One Generation Down to the Next

Each Love Spoon booklet opens with this introduction from the author, “Once upon a time, a Viking girl was given a Bryde spoon, or Love spoon when she married. This was not only a love gift, but a sign of authority and knowledge of all things needed for the well being of a household, whether it was castle or cottage.” This knowledge is handed down once more within these booklets which are hand illustrated by the author in a similar fashion to the original recipes. The drawings were necessary, “since few people could read or write well,” as Banks explains.

The passages on pot pourri and pomanders, which are reproduced below, come from information collected by Banks from notes her grandmother kept in a family book in the stillroom, along with letters that also contained precious tidbits of information. Banks tells us, “There is a sense of continuity in using it today ... reaching across the Atlantic and with a few alterations due to differences in herbal and animal life, the basics still hold good.”

Much of the information (in particular the following recipes) is far older than the period of 1820 to 1900 which is portrayed by the village, as Banks tells her readers. Many of the recipes and much of the knowledge that Banks has recorded in her informal memoirs have been passed down through the ages, now preserved through the existing copies of this series.

Dorothy Banks drew pleasure from recording these time-honoured recipes. This autumn, why not bring these history-steeped recipes back to life as you enjoy anew the Canadian tradition of fragrance-crafting?

Pot Pourri and Pomanders
By Dorothy Banks

Pot pourri often recalls only roses and lavender. Ideally, one should collect material all summer,storing each variety by itself. Later blend and mix to your taste for floral, oriental or fresh woodsy perfume. The mixture must look attractive, too, so petals and small whole blossoms must be included for colour and texture, as well as scent. Covered jars or bowls keep the finished pot pourri from fading too quickly and glass displays the beauty of the colours.

To about 4 cups of assorted petals add 1 tablespoon spices, 1 tablespoon or more of a fixative. A drop or two of essential oil is good. Stir gently with a wooden spoon.

That is the basic recipe. The fun part is in mixing and sniffing and coming up with a fragrance based on your own taste. This is good for sachets, too.

A fixative is usually orris powder, but can be benzoin, calamus, clary, frankincense, musk, myrrh or the lichen from oak trees. Calamus is the sweet sedge and the root is ground.

This is a Very Good Recipe

• Take 4 oz. rosebuds
• 2 oz. cornflowers,
• 2 oz. calendulas,
• 1 oz. orange blossoms or mock orange,
• 1 oz. oregano,
• 1 oz. lemon balm,
• 1 oz. bay leaves broken
• 1 oz. peppermint leaves
• 1 oz orris or calamus
• Add jasmine flowers if possible.

It was taken for granted by ladies exchanging recipes that the amounts were for dried flowers. Heliotrope was another favourite and the Clipper ships would often bring patchouli as well as the cargo of tea.

“Pomander” comes from the old French words pomme d’ambre, meaning “Apple of Amber.” Originally, cloves were stuck into an apple and it was rolled in ambergris to preserve the scent.

Ambergris is a secretion of the Sperm whale and is highly valued as a fixative of perfume.

There are evidences that the ancient Egyptians used pomanders and there are references in the Bible to balls of scent. They were worn as ornaments in the Middle Ages and Henry VIII gave one to his daughter Mary; it was encased in gold and jewels. Oranges have since replaced apples and orris-root powder the ambergris but the sensuous fragrance is much the same.

Orris root may be purchased from the chemists. It is the root of Iris florentina which likes short winters.

Take a ripe healthy fruit. Small oranges and apples are usual but lemons and limes can be used if available.

Stick the fruit full of cloves, using approximately 2 oz. per fruit. This is a preservative so do not stint.

Roll in a mixture of orris powder and spices. Coat well and hang up to dry. When completely dried, tie with a ribbon. The traditional coating mix is orris, allspice, cinnamon and cardamon. Orris, anise, ginger, fennel, cinnamon and sassafras bark and leaves is a mix that was used by the Canadian settlers.

A very lovely recipe came from one of my ancestral aunts who came to England to escape the French Revolution. She used sandalwood, cedar and musk together with ambergris. My grandmother altered the recipe to orris.

These pomanders make excellent gifts and their fragrance is long lasting.

- Dorothy Banks Love Spoon 1979

(Reproduced with the permission of Lang Pioneer Village, Peterborough, Ontario)