Herbs

Kilgeverin, Co. Galway

Long ago when the people would have the measles they would boil the nettles and drink the soup of them. They used also feed young turkeys in the summer time with boiled nettles. Water-cress- it usually grows near wells. People pull it, wash it and clean it and eat it with salt. Carrageenmoss is got out in the sea and people dry it well before using it. On rich land herbs grow mostly. Smearmeant [sic] is the most common herb around here. Long ago people used to pull it and hang it over the fire until it would be dry and hard. Then they would mix it with linseed meal and water and make a plaster of it and put it on a boil and it would immediately burst.

There is another herb in the field which poison cattle for from once they eat it they would die. The goat is the only animal that does no harm to the land. A lot of farmers that has big farms of land usually keep a goat to eat the herbs. On poor land a lot of chicken-weed and sloctane grow. The people use the sloctane for feeding pigs.

Collector: Bina Kennedy

Informant: Stephen Kennedy

Place: Kilgeverin

Footnote: Duchas, http://www.duchas.ie

This page was added on 26/05/2017.

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