Week 9 - Thinking Tree Art & Nature Program

Week 9 - Thinking Tree Art & Nature Program

Weather: snow is here!  a light layer, but still enough for a snowball fight

Soup made by the kids: Sweet potato leek


Art lessons today:

• sketching pinecones (not as easy as it sounds!)
• trying out white charcoal on black paper, for sketching our outdoor wintery scene

Herbal project today:

• pine needle-rosehip tea brewed over the fire
• wood block postcard holders (sanded and coated with beeswax polish)
  

Other highlights:

• a snowball fight during free time (for those who wishes to participate!)
• back by popular demand, honey-baked apples for lunchtime dessert
•  doll making continued (and some completed!)
• fire-building with the kids

Plant-inspired Solstice lanterns!

Happy soon-to-be longest night everyone! 

We are preparing for the winter Solstice with our herbal mother-daughter group this week, by making plant-inspired lanterns.  The simplest form is leaf and flower shapes punched into tin cans; the next is pressed leaves modge-podged onto glass mason jars - lovely!  The last is seen here, a slightly more elaborate lantern made with a twig frame (in our case grape vine) and pressed leaf "window" panes to let the candlelight through.  So beautiful!  There are many easy DIY lantern ideas out there, the best I think is using materials you already have around the garden or home.  Happy Solstice!

Mother-daughter herbal immersion

We've been having a great time each week meeting as a small group of mother-daughters, for an 11week herbal immersion!  Each week we "meet" a new herb, and through story, art, interactive games, and hands-on remedy making we become a little more familiar with these wonderful healing plants.  We are loosely using the wonderful Herb Fairies book series, and adjusting the order of the herbs to correspond with what is blooming and available for us here each week.  This group will be offered again in the fall, here at Little City Farm.

Our weeks have so far included:
Chamomile (making chamomile-infused honey, and chamomile sun tea)
Marshmallow (making marshmallow root pastilles, and tasting "real" marshmallows)
Violets (making flower fairy salad, and candied violets)
Calendula (making calendula lipbalm, and eating calendula muffins)
Dandelion (making dandelion pesto, and tasting dandelion cookies, and root mocha)
Chickweed (making chickweed super soothing salve, and chickweed super smoothie)


Chickweed Super Soothing Salve
1 cup olive oil infused with chickweed*
1/4 cup organic beeswax
5 drops lavender essential oil per 2 oz tin

Method:
Warm olive oil and beeswax in small saucepan until was has melted.
Take off heat, add essential oil and mix well.  Pour into tins, let cool.  Label.
Keeps about 1 year.
For soothing itching, dry skin and skin rashes, minor cuts and scrapes.

Yields: aprox. 10 oz salve

* To make the infused chickweed oil:
a) solar method - fill a 1 litre jar with fresh chickweed, and top up with olive oil to about 1 inch above the herbs.  Let infuse in a bright sunny window for at least 4 weeks, shaking every few days.  Top up with more oil as needed, so herbs always stay submerged.  When it has steeped, strain out herbs and reserve the oil.

b) double boiler method - add a large handful of chickweed to a small saucepan, cover with olive oil so herbs are covered by about 1 inch.  Warm in a double boiler on low (i.e. have another pot of water below this saucepan), for about 2 hours (do not let the herbs heat too much, the oil should not be cooking the herbs).  Oil should be a deeper colour, and smell herby (not smell fried).  Strain, and use in recipe above.

Practical Home Herbalist classes

We are currently running our Practical Home Herbalist series again.  This is a four-part series of herbal classes for those who want to delve deeper into their relationship with healing herbs and remedy-making for home use.  We have a wonderful group of ten women taking part this time around, and also a local photographer who is going to document our classes for us.  Classes offer hands-on remedy making with samples to take home, harvesting and tasting herbs, plants to take home for creating their own herbal garden, learning about four focus plants each week, learning through artwork (each participant creates a traditional "herbarium" or herbal botanical journal as part of this series).  The hope is to provide participants with practical skills and knowledge for making simple safe remedies for their own friends and families, as well as building deeper understandings of the beautiful healing plants that are our allies.  This series is so much fun to create, host and offer to our community!  I look forward to sharing more - for now here are a few photos from our first session in which we featured: plantain, dandelion, nettle and lemon balm.  With these herbs we enjoyed making herbal shampoo (nettle, lemon-balm), herbal pesto (dandelion-plantain), herbal vinegar (nettle), and drinking deep dark green herbal nettle infusions.  Read more about the Practical Home Herbalist series here. 

Women's Herbal Retreat June 17 at Little City Farm - Registration OPEN!

Announcing!

WOMEN'S HERBAL RETREAT AT LITTLE CITY FARM - SAT JUNE 17.

Relax in a supportive small group learning environment.   Reconnect to the earth through relationship to healing plant allies.  Find inspiration through beauty, celebration & hands-on herbal remedy making during this retreat.

This one day retreat includes four hands-on workshops by local herbalists and holistic health practitioners.  Learn to make flower essences, how to add wild nutrient-dense foods into our meals, herbal-kitchen alchemy, and making healing remedies for summer skincare.

Also, we will be nourished throughout the retreat day with wholesome delicious teas, snacks & lunch foods inspired by herbal and wild foraged fare, time for journal writing and plant herbarium creation, sketching, and photography, and participate in a plant & food swap to end our day together.

Workshop facilitators:

• Heather Cain - Flower Essences & Plant Spirit Healing
  
• Jackie McMillan - How to Dress a Wild Salad
  
• Jassie Bhuee - Herbal Kitchen Alchemy
  
• Karin Kliewer - Healing Summer Skincare Remedies
  

Food catered by Seed of Life Foods and Little City Farm (including vegan and gluten-free, organic nutrient-dense foods).

More details to follow once you have registered.

Limited to 15 wonderful participants!

Cost: $152.55 (includes HST, lunch, snacks, recipes, hand-out notes, take-home samples from workshops, and more surprises!)
 
Payment required to reserve your spot.
Contact Karin at info@littlecityfarm.ca for any questions.

OR Register here online.

Herbal Hair Care workshop

As part of our herbal workshop series we recently had a class on herbal hair care - making herbal shampoos, rinses, and conditioning oils using simple herbs like peppermint, sage, lavender, chamomile, calendula, nettle, thyme, yarrow, rosemary, rose petals and evening primrose, harvested from the garden at Little City Farm.

We started the class by talking about what to avoid in any commercial cosmetics (organic/natural or not) such as phthalates, formeldahyde, parabens, SLS, fragrances and more.  The Environmental Working Group offers loads of useful information on their SkinDeep Database, and David Suzuki Foundation offers information about DIY projects to make at home (see Queen of Green).

Here is the shampoo we made:

Simple Herbal Shampoo
Ingredients:
4 cups water
1 cup dried herbs (e.g. sage-nettle for dark hair, calendula-chamomile for light hair)
2 tsp sea salt

1 cup castille soap (unscented)
4 Tbsp witch hazel

20-40 drops pure essential oil (e.g. lavender, ylang, rose, peppermint combo)

1) Bring water to a boil in a small pot.  Take off the heat and add herbs and sea salt. 
2) Stir to combine and dissolve salt.  Let herbs steep until water has cooled (or overnight for stronger infusion).

3) When tea has cooled, strain out the herbs. 
4) Add 1 cup castille soap and 4 Tbsp witch hazel and stir gently to combine.
5) Now add choice of pure essential oils (be aware some essential oils should be used with caution if you are pregnant or have other medical conditions).

6) Store your finished shampoo in a reused plastic bottle, or mason jar.  Label with ingredients and date.  Keeps for about 1 year. 
7) To use: put small amount of shampoo on your hand, then lather over hair and rinse off.  Follow with an apple cider vinegar rinse (optional) once a month or as needed.

Herbal Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse
This simple hair rinse is very effective at rinsing off any build-up and residue on hair.  Use about once a month or it can be drying on hair.  Only use apple cider vinegar, not other types of vinegar.

1) Fill mason jar about 1/3-1/2 full with dried herbs (your choice for your hair - e.g. nettle, mint, sage, thyme, lavender, calendula).
2) Fill mason jar with apple cider vinegar, covering herbs completely and leaving about 1/2 inch headspace at top of your jar.  Cap jar tightly.
3) Set jar on a plate, and let jar steep in a sunny window for about 2-4 weeks (or longer) to infuse the vinegar with the herbs.  Shake jar every few days to fully combine the herbs and avoid them from clumping together.
4) When done steeping, strain the vinegar and compost herbs.  Pour vinegar back into the jar, and store either in fridge (for longer storage) or bathroom cupboard.  Label and date the jar.
5) To use: this rinse can be used after shampooing hair, as a conditioner.  It should only be used about once a month.  Fill a cup 3/4 full with warm water, and add 1/4 apple cider vinegar rinse.  Pour slowly over hair.  Rinse out after 10 minutes, or leave on hair without rinsing (if you don't mind the apple cider vinegar smell).