We always had in our garde-manger some medicinal herb my mother used to harvest in the meadow or in the bushes at the edge of the forest. I don’t remember we have ever used infusion bags to prepare a chamomile tea or other herbal teas, like lime or rose hip tea. My mother used to cook various dishes with first young spring herbs and she still does it, she knows very well when to collect different herbs and wild plants and how to dry them and preserve them in the best way. Our family loves the nature and every time we went somewhere for a picnic, we returned home with paper bags full of plants, fruits and flowers. If you picnic in the wild nature, you need to be well equipped, we never went picnicking without the pruning shears or the knife, or without the basket and paper bags. At that time plastic bags were not so common as they are today. Think about it, there was not all that dirt around and our land was not so polluted. Sometimes we got the baskets as present from my uncle, he used to do basketwork at home using the elastic willow branches he gathered from the trees that were growing between different lands and properties. Other times some neighbor brought us nice baskets as present. In all these years we have gathered a small collection of baskets. Once upon a time there were many people able to create these simple woody wonders...
