In the garden, August 28

School (double school: work & graduate classes) begin very soon for both my husband & I...and so our time in the garden begins to dwindle. If one day we become a homesteading family with only one of us working it will be possible to tend and care for a garden into the fall, but alas, we are not there yet and will have very little time to devote to this space that needs much attention and care.

I will miss the carefree, warm afternoons with dirt between my toes and Alice playing with mud and buckets of water. Not having to check the time or worry about the next meal or getting ready for the next day. 

Ah, summer, I miss you already.

In the garden, August 23

In the Garden, June 29

So many weeds! And a sun tent set up today.

Beautiful chicory 

Motherwort adorned with bees

See our first zucchini?!

Sunflower hat

Nasturtium flowers

Cilantro, kale, chard, then tomatoes in this row 

Broccoli ready for eating

 

Airing out our tent

An afternoon in the woods...

Yarrow

Goldenrod

Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot

Wood Sorrel

Some fun in the mud & stream

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.

Wortcunning

Wortcunning is the knowledge of the magical or hidden properties of plants and herbs. It is an old word meaning literally "herbal wisdom".

Tinctures, herbal oils, and various dried/drying herbs in our kitchen

Beautiful calendula flowers harvested right from our garden

When I sort of tripped and fell into my profession I had not discovered my OTHER passion...plants and herbal medicine. It's funny how in retrospect everything happened for a reason...without this career I would not have been able to discover in myself nor had the physical time to develop a love for plants . My career allows me to spend two whole months planting, foraging, harvesting, drying, making oils, syrups, salves, tinctures, etc. I feel blessed and excited that summer is here.

Summer Solstice

"If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god."  --Napoleon Bonaparte

Our Summer Solstice tradition: Harvesting St. John's Wort in our secret spot.

A few small gifts, a celebratory breakfast, and our summer nature table

It wouldn't be summer without a trip to the beach.

Summer flowers...

"Every breath is a giveaway dance between you and the plants." - Susun Weed

Wild Carrot--Daucus carota

Encountering a very tall Wild Carrot/Queen Anne's Lace plant on our walk.

There has been an abundance of QAL this year.

Read more about this amazing plant here:

http://www.missouriplants.com/Whitealt/Daucus_carota_page.html

http://robinrosebennett.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=28&Itemid=11

http://aradicle.blogspot.com/2007/10/wild-carrot-seed.html

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!