August Garden Flowers - the Yellow & Orange Edition

The garden is awash in orange and yellow blooms!  I counted more than 25 types of orange and yellow flowers, including herbs, veggies and wild flowering plants.  Here's a sampling of what is in bloom in our garden right now (mid August)...after a long drought this season, these vibrant flowers are still blooming surprisingly well.

Rose Water - with local organic roses

We got a bouquet of lovely deeply scented roses from our local organic fruit & flower buying club (check out The Good Peach if you live in our area!).  We don't usually buy cut flowers, for many reasons - they are expensive, they are usually not organic and fair traded, and we grow many flowers in our own garden to supply summer bouquets. 

However, these roses were gorgeous and from a local organic farm, so to have them in vases around the house during a birthday week was a treat.  But once the blooms were open it seemed a shame to simply compost these blossoms, which were still incredibly vibrant in colour and scent.  I separated all the petals and dried them on old window screens.  Then steeped them in witch hazel to make a rose water, to be used as rose water toner or added into a facial lotion.   After only a day the witch hazel was already glowing with a vibrant deep pink colour.  Simple, lovely, great way to quickly preserve roses before they neared their end.

I large bouquet (12 roses) made 1 full litre of rose water.

Rose water is a beneficial facial cleanse and skin toner that has been used for centuries.  Rose water has anti-inflammatory properties, aids in healing skin irritations, eczema, dermatitis, hydrates dry skin and also tones oily skin, helps reduce the signs of aging on the skin, and so much more.  It also helps with gently healing cuts, scrapes, scars and scratches.  It's cooling on a hot day as a facial mist and leaves you feeling refreshed.  Rose water is so simple to make and great for any skin type.

Making Rose Water

You will need:
1 litre mason jar, lid and ring
1 dozen fresh roses
witch hazel (1 litre)

1) Separate rose petals from the stalks (ideally when flower blooms have just opened).  Let wilt or dry slightly. 
2) Gently pack into clean mason jar, cover with witch hazel by about 1-2 inches.
3) Shake jar gently to infuse and distribute.  Add more witch hazel as needed to cover petals.
4) Let stand on kitchen counter (out of direct sunlight) for at least 2 weeks.  Shake jar every few days.
5) When infused, strain witch hazel and compost flowers.
6) Store in dark glass bottle with mister top (to use as rose water).  Or add rose water to lotions.
7) Keeps indefinitely.  Label your jars FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY.

Herbal oils (solar infusion) Summer Medicine Making

These gorgeous medicinal herbal oils have been infusing for just over a month.  Instead of infusing them in our sunny kitchen window as usual, I decided to set them into the sunny greenhouse and see what the difference would be.  Such incredibly vibrant colours!  Luscious vibrant oils, making potent medicine here.  Pictured are calendula (orange oil), mullein flowers (yellow oil), and st johns wort (the red oil).

Solar Herbal Oil - Medicine Making Method
You will need:

• clean glass mason jar with lid and ring
• herbal flowers (organic dried, or freshly picked but slightly wilted) to fill jar by half
• olive oil to cover flowers by 1-2 inches

1) Place flowers in clean mason jar.  Fill jar about half way full.  If using fresh flowers, let wilt slightly first.
2) Cover flowers with olive oil by about 1-2 inches.  Let oil settle, then top up as needed.  Flowers need to be covered to avoid mold growth during steeping time.
3) Shake jar gently to disperse oil throughout flowers, and dislodge any air pockets.
4) Set on a tray (to catch oil drips) and into sunny window.
5) Let infuse for at least 4 weeks.  Shake jar every few days so herbs don't settle on the bottom.
6) When infused, oil should be a rich vibrant colour.  Strain oil, compost herbs.
7) Store finished oil in dark glass bottles in a closed cupboard (cool, dry dark location).
8) Use in making herbal massage oils or medicinal salves.

Early June garden blossoms!

It seems like blossoms are ahead this year - it has been so hot and dry, and everything has leaped ahead with some plants already bolting (like spinach).  I am loving the blossoms everywhere, and although our early lilac, forsythia, apple, mulberry, cherry and currant blossoms are already done, there are still plenty more!  I spent a morning searching out all the other blossoms in the garden.  Here are a few of the early June blossoms I spotted - blossoms are so hopeful, in that they show us the potential for providing us with veggies, berries, fruit, herbs and medicine in the coming weeks and months...(thank you pollinators).