Winter Herb Shares NOW AVAILABLE - order by Dec 1

NEW!  This season's Winter Herb Share CSA (or Community Supported Apothecary) is now available.  We have limited shares left, please order by December 1.  One-time pick up of your share by mid-December at Little City Farm (or by another arrangement).   

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN YOUR WINTER HERB SHARE

Give the gift of health & wellness to yourself or your loved ones!

Herbal CSA's are modeled after farm Community Supported Agriculture programs, where members purchase a "share" in the season's harvest and receive regular installments of farm goodies throughout the season. Our seasonal herb shares features locally grown and wild-harvested medicinal plants, tended and harvested by us in small-batches. We wish to promote health through preventative care, using "medicine as food" in daily life. Our herbal CSA will include hand-crafted items such as: herbal loose-leaf teas, herbal salts, medicinal honey, syrups, tonics, herbal vinegars, as well as soaps and body care items.

By participating in our Winter Herb Share project you are:

• SAVING 20% off from our regular prices by buying this share instead of individual items
• allowing us to continue to promote wellness in our local community through the use of and education about locally adapted plants
• learning about using locally grown plants for your own food and health
• minimizing waste (all products come in recycleable/reusable containers)
• supporting our local small business venture
• enjoying plants that are grown, harvested and prepared with the utmost respect

The Winter Herb Share includes 8 full-sized products. Find loose-leaf teas, elderberry syrup, fire cider tonic, winter salve, and winter lipbalm.

Other Herb Share member benefits: Also included is a short newsletter describing featured herbs, product descriptions and usage, herbal folklore, plant profiles, and additional recipes to try at home.

READ MORE & ORDER DETAILS HERE

Practical Home Herbalist wrap-up

A few weeks ago we had our last session of the 4-part Practical Home Herbalist series.  For this spring series, we had  a great time meeting with 10 wonderful participants, to learn about home herbalism in a hands-on small-group learning environment right here at Little City Farm.  Each class we tried to use herbs from the garden, or wildharvest from nearby, then turn these seasonal herbs into remedies to last all year round (salves, tinctures, syrups, infusions, decoctions, sprays, liniments, and more).

For our last session we tackled remedies for winter care, including making tinctures and glycerites, elderberry syrup and throat lozenges (pastilles).  To end the final session of the Practical Home Herbalist we always share a potluck lunch, with a beautiful spread of herbal-inspired goodies featuring herbs we talked about in the classes.  This time participants made dandelion pesto, lavender-infused cupcakes, nettle dukkah, lemon-thyme scones, mint-chocolate flourless cake, nettle-kopita...mmmmm!  Thanks to all of you who participated in this spring series, and thanks to Natalie Nunn for the amazing photography.

FALL 2017 SERIES - PRACTICAL HOME HERBALIST: For those who want to learn more or enroll in our upcoming Fall series of the Practical Home Herbalist please visit the Little City Farm website here.  There is limited space as we want to keep this a small-group learning environment.

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.

Simple herbal throat lozenges

The freeze and thaw of this year's unusually warm January seems to bring about more colds, as our bodies are having trouble adjusting to the weather properly.  Here is a quick herbal throat lozenge recipe that we love to make, perfect for treating those sore aching throats with soothing, healing herbs.  These lozenges are so delicious, and very simple to make.  They are a soft lozenge which does not require heating (hard lozenges are made like candy, heating the liquid and honey/sugar up to a high temperature so they harden properly).  These soft lozenges are simply rolled by hand, and kids love to help with this sticky process of making homemade folk medicine.  They are best stored in the freezer, so their shelf life is prolonged - and popping an icy cold herbal lozenge into a sore throat is intensely soothing.

Simple herbal throat lozenges

You will need:
2 Tbsp raw honey
2-6 Tbsp powdered slippery elm
1-2 Tbsp powdered herbs such as fennel seed, marshmallow root, or licorice root (or a combination)

1) Mix raw honey and half the powdered slippery elm on a small plate.  Mix well until you have a paste-like "dough".  Add enough powdered slippery elm to make this a consistency that can be rolled into balls.  Depending on the consistency of the honey you will need more or less slippery elm powder.  Work with your hands (or small spoons), but you may need to wash your hands occasionally if the honey gets too sticky.

2) Roll this "dough" into small balls.  This recipe yields about 15-20 small lozenge sized balls.  Then roll the balls in powdered fennel seed, marshmallow root, or licorice root to coat the balls.  Place on parchment paper. 

3) Place the parchment paper with the lozenges in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  Once frozen, the balls can be stored in a glass mason jar with lid, and left in the freezer until you need them.  Label and date the jar.  These keep almost indefinitely in the freezer (at room temperature they will not hold their shape for long).

4) Use 1-2 lozenges at a time, as needed.  Please note that children under the age of 2 should not be given raw honey.

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).

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.

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.

Flower Essence workshop

The summer blossoms are in full beauty - all around the garden, though it's very dry from this heat wave, the flowers are gorgeous.  It was the perfect timing for hosting a Flower Essence workshop here.  Local plant spirit healing practitioner Heather Cain was here to lead this class, guiding participants through the understandings of how to approach plants (listening, asking permission to harvest, gratitude, and hearing what the plant is offering us) when looking for suitable blooms for a flower essence, then the how-to of making the essence, as well as how to choose the right essence to use for ourselves.  This fascinating herbal topic brings us into the realm of plant communication, plant spirit healing, and plant vibrational medicine or energy healing.  It brought a wonderful counterpoint to the practical hands-on herbal classes that I teach at Little City Farm.

First, after mindfully choosing blossoms that are vibrant, the blossoms are harvested very carefully, then placed into filtered or distilled water in a glass bowl and set in the sun for several hours.  The plant essence water is then carefully drained, and bottled into a "mother" essence (in a ration of 50:50 with brandy).  From this a stock essence is made by diluting the mother, and then a dosage essence can be made.  Read more about making flower essences here and here.

Here are some scenes from the workshop: