Around Home : Making Potpourri
MAKING POTPOURRI is a little like tossing a salad: Ingredients are combined, a fixative is added, all are mixed. The only thing left to do is breathe deeply of all those wonderful smells.
Back in the very old days, when bathing was deemed unhealthy, unpleasant odors were masked by fragrant herbs and flowers. In the Middle Ages, castle floors were strewn with herbs that, when mashed underfoot, released potent but pleasant smells. In the Victorian era, ladies disguised the stink of unsanitary city streets by holding fragrant little bouquets to their delicate noses.
These days, even with improved sanitation and frequent bathing, potpourris are everywhere--in department-store cosmetic sections, country-style boutiques and discount drugstores; they are packaged in lace sachets, pillows and in pots to be filled with water and simmered over candles. There is a potpourri for any taste (or smell): spicy, citrusy, flowery, woodsy--or various combinations. Potpourris are immensely popular gifts because they transcend differences of income, sex, life style. They have something for everybody--and a modest price tag.
Although creating a potpourri can be as simple as throwing some flower petals and herbs into a bowl, the mixtures last longer and smell stronger if certain special ingredients--essential oils and fixatives--are included. The oils are distilled concentrations that help intensify the scent of the basic ingredients; fixatives such as orris root and gum benzoin stabilize and prolong the perfume. Large batches of potpourri can be stored in airtight jars or cans to replenish the quantities on view. Helpful household hint: After the potpourri has been sitting in its bowl or basket for a few weeks (or even months), it will lose some of its potency and gain quite a lot of dust; just give it a gentle toss so the bottom pieces come to the top. For more serious improvement, add more essential oil.
Piecemakers Country Store in Costa Mesa sells supplies and offers potpourri-making classes. Contact the store for class dates and times: (714) 641-3112. Potpourri ingredients and recipes are available also at Herb Products Co. in North Hollywood and from Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 N. Pacific Highway, Albany, Oregon 97321. Dody Lyness publishes a newsletter, “Potpourri Party-Line,” for dried floral and fragrance designers and also offers a 56-page potpourri handbook, “Potpourri: Easy as One, Two, Three,” for $7.28. Write to Berry Hill Press, 7336 Berry Hill, Palos Verdes Peninsula 90274, or telephone (213) 377-7040.
Many excellent books devote chapters to potpourris, including “Herbs,” by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead (Clarkson N. Potter Inc.); “The Complete Book of Herbs,” by Lesley Bremness (Viking Studio Books; “The Pleasure of Herbs,” by Phyllis Shaudys (Storey Communications Inc./Garden Way Publishing ), and “The Scented Room,” by Barbara Milo Ohrbach (Clarkson N. Potter Inc.).
