Flower Birthday

And then someone turned 8!  The birthday theme was flowers & fairies (or flower fairies), and the cake was decorated by our (not-so-little anymore) budding herbalist herself...

Our homestead was transformed into "Bergamot Hollow".  There were flower crowns, fairy wings, a garden scavenger hunt, wood-fired pizza from the outdoor oven, and this lovely flower topped cake.  All befitting an 8 year old with a dreamy imagination and love of the earth.

Practical Herbalist series - session 2

Last week we had our second gathering here with our current Practical Herbalist students.  The theme this month was summer blossoms, and it was a chance to work with flowers as our healing allies.

In the first session the students were introduced to methods of ethical wild harvesting, basic plant identification, and making herbal infusions, herbal oils and herbal salves.  This month we worked on several new methods for extracting herbal properties - including using witch hazel in a liniment, and making first aid poultices. We shared a delicious Summer Blossom tea (see recipe below), then made sore muscle liniment (using arnica blossoms), and healing oil (with lavender blossoms).  Together the students made plantain salve using the oil that had been steeping since the end of June. 

We also talked about various other methods for preserving herbal flowers, which each have their place depending on intended final product, use and length of storage:
- drying (e.g. lavender), to use in oil or water infusions at a later time
- honeys (e.g. chamomile), can be added later into infusions, foods, cough syrups, etc
- pestos (e.g. basil flowers, oregano or mint flowers) - for eating food as medicine
- candied (e.g. violet petals) - this only has a few weeks shelf life
- carrier oils (e.g. red clover, mullein, st johns wort flowers) to use in massage or salves
- alcohol tincturing (e.g. calendula flowers - where alcohol extracts the resins well)
- liniments (e.g. arnica blossoms) using witch hazel or rubbing alcohol (for external use only!)
- flower essences (e.g. feverfew, rose, comfrey flowers) - very subtle extraction of the vibration and essence of the flowers
- hydrosols (e.g. lavender) using a distillation method

The day also included flower herb mandalas to inspire us and remember the beauty, grace and spiritual element of our herbal allies.

Summer Blossoms Tea
1 handful fresh calendula blossoms (1 part)
1/4 handful fresh lavender (1/4 part)
2 handfuls fresh chamomile (2 parts)

1) Place flowers into a large tea pot or 1 gallon heat proof mason jar.
2) Cover with water that has just boiled, and fill the jar/tea pot with water.
3) Let steep for at least 20 minutes.  Longer steeping time extracts more goodness from the herbs.
4) Add honey or maple syrup to sweeten if you like.

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). 

Calendula Harvest & Salve Recipe

It's calendula harvest time in the garden.  One of my favourite herbs, a general go-to (along with lavender) for all purpose gentle healing benefits - such as skin rashes, baby diaper changes, sun burn, as lipbalm, for  scrapes and minor irritations on the skin.  Calendula is a very easy to grow annual, that readily self-seeds (the seeds are large and obvious, so scatter well in the fall in preparation for next spring's garden).  Calendula officinalis comes in many shades of yellow to orange - but one of my favourite medicinal varieties is the Resina, which has a high resin content making it perfect for oils, salves and tinctures.  Calendula is also an edible flower, the petals are lovely in salads or for garnishing cakes.
 
Here is a very simple calendula salve recipe to try for your own first aid cupboard:

Simple Calendula Salve

You will need:
3 cups olive oil, in which 6 oz wilted (or 4 oz dried) calendula petals have been infused
3 oz shaved pure beeswax (or more)
3 oz cocoa butter (or more)
4 tsp vit E oil
1/2 tsp each pure essential oils lavender (at time of bottling)

Method:
1) Make herbal oil infusion by adding 6 oz calendula petals to the 3 cups olive oil in a clean dry glass mason jar with tight fitting lid.  It's absolutely important that jar and lid are dry so herbal oil does not risk becoming moldy.  Steep in a sunny window for 4-6 weeks shaking jar every few days (this is called a solar infusion).  Or, for a quicker method, steep in a crock pot on lowest setting for about 12 hours.

2) Strain oil, compost herbs and reserve the infused herbal oil.  It should be a darker richer colour than when you started.

3) Add oil to stainless steel saucepan, warm slowly on low heat.  Add beeswax and cocoa butter and vitamin E oil.  Stir gently until all is melted and fully combined.

4) Take off heat, and test with a spoon for proper consistency (i.e. drip a few drops of the hot salve onto metal spoon and when it cools you know what the thickness will be like).  Add more oil to soften salve, or more beeswax to firm it up as needed.

5) Add pure essential oil (we suggest lavender for added healing benefit).  Stir well, then pour into your containers and let firm up.  It will be nice and firm when salve is cooled.  Finished salve can be stored in the fridge (for a really firm salve) or at room temperature.  It's best to use dark glass containers or keep containers out of direct sunlight to preserve salve.  Salve should keep at least 1-2 years if stored properly.

Flowers in the garden

Here's an idea of what our August garden looks like - bursting with colour, the flowers are in full force, tucked into every corner, every border, every garden bed, springing up in every bare spot of ground in the yard.  I'm loving all the colour in this early August garden!  And flowers now in our house everywhere, picked for bouquets in mason jars on every table, and included into every meal to top our fresh greens, made into salad dressings, transformed into drinks (lavender kombucha anyone? blueberry sage water kefir?), or to garnish our desserts.   Our favourite edible flowers include lavender, sage, oregano and mint blossoms, borage, nasturtiums, calendula, day lilies, violas, and bergamot. (please note that not all flowers pictured below are edible)

Wild edible spring flowers - wild violets!

There have been lots of spring showers (and snow, and sleet) lately - but the spring flowers have finally arrived.  We've been picking lots of wild edibles to add to our salad mixes from the greenhouse - dandelion greens, fresh nettles, wild garlic, and these delicate violets. 

Here is a great article from the website of renowned herbalist Susun Weed about the medicinal and health benefits of eating wild violets.  The flowers and young greens are edible, and are a great blood purifier for a spring body detox.  They stimulate the immune system and the lymph glands to help the body get rid of toxins.  Wild violets are loaded with minerals, vitamins A and C, and add beautiful bold colour into salads.

We'll be hosting one more Wild Spring Edibles Workshop here on May 16 for those who are interested in learning more about gleaning the nutrient-dense delicious wild foods that are all around us! 

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy. 

The healing ways of violets

Now that spring has fully arrived, it's time for the harvest of various early season wild herbs such as dandelion, young burdock root, stinging nettle, comfrey, motherwort, and this week's favourite around here, violets.  Violets are beautiful, abundant, fragrant and healing.  Their long list of healing properties has been part of medicinal folklore for centuries, to aid in skin conditions, liver cleanses, inflammation, even cancer prevention.  They can be eaten fresh in salads, taken as a tonic/infusion or preserved as a tincture.  One of the common names for violet is "heartsease", which speaks to it's calming and grounding influence when taken during times of stress and anxiety.    Harvest flowers in the mid morning, after all dew has evaporated and before the hotter sun of afternoon wilts the flowers.  Use immediately to gain the most potent medicinal value of these gentle flowers.