Anytime I can just pick some weed in my back yard and turn it into something useful, it intrigues me. I have long been a fan of making dandelion wine, in spite of the fact that it is an incredibly time consuming task.

But there is another backyard weed that I find can be put to good use with far less trouble. It is Chamomile. You can actually make tea from the flowers. In fact it is thought to have a soothing effect, so it is great as a bedtime tea. I have also plucked raspberry leaves for the same purpose.

With chamomile all you have to do is pluck the flowers and dry them out. The next step is to steep them in hot water. Without going into detail, you can believe me when I say that it is much easier than dandelion wine. But then it is not quite as satisfying as dandelion wine either.

The other fact I found interesting about chamomile, after putting together a folio on the subject, was that the vikings used to put it in their shampoo to make their long braided locks shiny and lustrous! It is a comical image until you think of those braids protruding from a horned helmet on top of the head of an axe-wielding berserker!