NOTE: Non-SCA Site Links Below
TEAS - Get some little containers, put herbal tea mixture inside, and add a muslin tea bag. Tie together with ribbon in baronial colors. A mint/chamomille mix is usually a safe blend for most people.
Bath teas are also an option! You can make them for various intended purposes, such as relaxation, sore muscles, etc.
BATH OILS - Get almond oil (or other, but this is considered best by some, and it's period) and about 15 drops of desired essential oil to each cup of base oil. Mix and put in a pretty bottle.
BATH SALTS -
Salt - Make the salt yourself if you live by the coast. Get a bucket of seawater, strain through cheesecloth to filter out misc. stuff. Put it in a pot on the stove and boil. Skim off the green stuff that rises to the top. Let it boil until it is almost dry and makes a "popping" sound. Take it off the heat and let it cool. Then spread the moist sandy stuff you have left onto cookie sheets or any flat surface and let it dry the rest of the way in the sun. Now you have sea salt.
Foot soak.
Bath salts Salt infused with essential oils for various purposes, such as relaxation, sore muscles, etc.
INFUSED OILS
Massage Oils - Infuse oil and put in a small jar. Good suggestions for oils to use: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/massage/a/massage_oil.htm
Lamp Oil - herbal-infused olive oil. Burn in a jar with a wick. Use a wire to hold the wick up. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Make-Olive-Oil-Lamp.aspx
Olive oil - for cooking. Use dried herbs only because moisture could turn to botulism.
This is NOT the best thing to give unless it is a personal Largess to someone you know and want to do this for. This is because the product has need for refrigeration to keep it fresh, and it should be used within 1-3 months of making.
http://mountainroseblog.com/herbal-culinary-infusions/
SYRUPS - Give out syrups, and add instructions so the recipient will know the intended use for it.
Sekanjabin is a good one. http://www.3owls.org/sca/cook/oxymel.htm
"Dilute syrup to taste with ice water (5 to 10 parts water to 1 part syrup). The syrup stores without refrigeration."
Idea: make an herbal simple syrup to add to alcohol like vodka for drinking.
CORDIALS
OTHER CULINARY PROJECTS
Prepare a mustard from the seeds of mustard. Link for basic recipe: http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/mustard.html
SALVES/BALMS - A salve using beeswax, olive oil, tincture of cloves, and oil of comfrey root (decocted). Provides immediate pain relief (from the clove tincture) and longer term healing (comfrey) of fighter bruises, pinches, and general sore muscles.
Another idea for fighters - create a deodorizing plus portable product out of fighter balm by adding more beeswax and less oil to the mix, and form them into balls. Tell him/her to hang up in armor bag, in a netted drawstring bag. It will make the bag smell better, and it can be used on painful spots after the fight. Just be sure to tell them not to let it hang out in the heat! That could be messy.
Lip balms. These might be a nice gift to Musicians!
SACHETS -
headache and dream/sleep pillows.
Moth repellant.
Wraps - Make up some flaxseed/rice mixture combined with Lavender/chamomile/rosemary and store in jar until ready to use. Place in polar fleece to make microwave heated wraps for the neck or shoulder, etc.
Pomanders - Make pomanders using teaballs (refillable). Fill and decorate them. You can fill them with herbal beads, scented herbs, or scented wax balls.
If it's in the fall, you can make mini pomanders using kumquats or key limes, studded with cloves, and dusted with spice powder: cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground clove. Also put in a couple drops of sandalwood oil, or use orris root powder though some people may have an allergy to this. Add the spices to a bag, drop the studded fruit in, and shake to coat. Tie a ribbon around it and it can be hung up.
DRIED HERBS
Herbal Beads. Dried herbs can be mixed with gum powder and water to make herbal beads. You can string these up on a pretty ribbon.
Perhaps you can string the beads up into a Rosary. Please note -- Crosses and rosaries are a very Period gift, but avoid them unless you are certain that they are appropriate to both the persona and the modern person you're giving the largess to. :)
Dried herbs. Single dried herbs can be placed in a container, labelled, and given out.
Spice blends. Put in jars or containers. For a crown who likes to cook, for example, you can put a cooking spice blend inside, paint the lids, place their initials on top, and they can give these out.
Or make a set of "Spices of the Orient" and put in tiny glass jars with corks.
Long pepper, cubebs, saunders, grains of paradise... those "different" spices that many people can't find readily, and may need for period cooking recipes.
HERBAL SALTS
Herbal Salts - Salt infused with dried herbs to be used for culinary purposes.
http://mountainroseblog.com/herbal-culinary-infusions/
HERBAL VINEGARS
Herbal Vinegars - Vinegars infused with dried herbs.
This is NOT the best thing to give unless it is a personal Largess to someone you know and want to do this for. This is because the product has a timeframe; it should be used within 4-6 months of making. This is perhaps better for largess than infused oils, however, which for safety's sake has half the lifespan.
http://mountainroseblog.com/herbal-culinary-infusions/
HERBAL SOAPS
Herbal Soaps - Soaps made with herbs.
Cold pressed soaps can be made with herbs.
Castille soaps can be remilled, adding herbal ingredients.
A less period way to do this is to use melt and pour glycerine soap and add herbal ingredients. This is still fine to use, though you wouldn't want to enter these in an A&S competition! :)
CANDLES
Botanical candles
Infuse the candle wax with the herbs and use the wax to make the candle. http://www.motherearthliving.com/garden-projects/light-up-your-life.aspx Add some essential oil, too.
Adding whole dried herbs or flowers can be a fire hazard if not done properly. Here are some other tips http://voices.yahoo.com/diy-own-botanical-candles-flowers-851909.html?cat=24
A different approach is to use dried, crushed herb powder in the candle. Press dried flowers or herbs onto the outside for decoration only, using a bit of melted wax. http://www.ehow.com/how_2358359_make-candles-herbs.html
Another candle project idea is to use herbal-infused oil to burn in an oil-burning candle.
PRESSED HERBS
Make a notebook cover by making paper, and including herbs and flowers. You can use the limpbound method to stitch together a booklet from this cover.
Want to do something that is Herbal related, but not quite up to an herbal project?
Do you embroider? Put an herbal themed embroidery design on hankerchiefs. These can be painted, too!
Do you knit or etc? A lap shawl for chilly wintertime court, with an herbal design on it perhaps?
What about some other herbal related beads for a necklace or bracelet or pin? Perhaps it has a charm of something from the herbal family as the main focus.
Recipes. Giving someone who is just starting to learn how to work with herbs a small booklet containing a few recipes, for example.