Foraging the Autumn Olive (back in October)...

Decanting

Decanted tinctures and one oil today!

Fresh dandelion leaf tincture : liver & digestive tonic

Fresh cleaver tincture : my fav remedy for swollen glands

Dried passionflower tincture: the BEST for anxiety, racing mind, headaches, & insomnia

Glowing fresh calendula flower oil : wonderful oil for the skin in salves, lotions, & just by itself

Summer Class

Details soon...

Recently harvested herbs...

Calendula, Pot or Garden Marigold (Calendula officinalis)
Planted in our garden this year. I've been harvesting the flowers and drying them as well as making fresh calendula flower oil.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
Growing wild around our garden. Tincturing the flower and possibly harvesting some roots to roast?

St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum)
The little plant in our garden is started to flower.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

The back pasture is covered in alfalfa.

Elder flowers (Sambucus)

Ecstatic to have access to elderberries this year.

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
Growing around the yard. I just made a fresh motherwort tincture two days ago.

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
Red Clover is everywhere sharing the fields with alfalfa right now.
Picking and drying, picking and drying, picking and drying...

Skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis)
Once our skullcap plant is in full bloom we'll made a fresh tincture of it.

Queen Anne's Lace, Wild Carrot (Daucus carota)
Wild abundance everywhere. My old friend.

Salve.
My own salve, made with fresh herbal oils made early this spring.

Summer Solstice

I love the summer solstice! It means the fields and woods are filled with plants in bloom just begging to be harvested. They actually call you to collect them (it's true--ask any herbalist/plant-lover). 

We've been busy communing with some of our favorites: red clover, st. john's wort, nettle, yarrow, and plantain. All are abundant in this area at this time of the year. 

We celebrated the power of the sun on the solstice by collecting St. John's Wort (we go to the same spot every year), making hibiscus-rosehip sun tea, and making various tinctures with fresh herbs that we had collected that day.

 sun tea & st. john's wort tincture

left to right: 

red clover, ground ivy, chickweed, yarrow, indian pipe, & st john's wort tinctures

We have never harvested indian pipe before. 

Last summer we saw it in abundance and wanted to collect it, but never did. 

On the solstice we were taking a walk through the woods and saw a bunch of indian pipe. We crouched down to take a closer look and found the ground was almost covered with clusters of indian pipe popping up out of the dead leaves. We felt it was the right time and took one little stalk home with us. 

The tincture is beautiful looking...it is turning an eerie purple-blue. 

I will have to do some reading/research as I don't know a ton about indian pipe. I believe it looks scarier than it is and if I'm not mistaken my memory tells me that this plant was used as a sedative and nervine. I will have to look more into it though when I have time. 

Happy Summer Solstice everyone!

Recently...

 

 

 

Spring!

 First harvest of edible, young stinging nettle tops!

This small batch went into soup. 

We will continue to harvest for our yearly supply of tinctures, vinegar, & dried for tea.

I can't wait to go...