What I did on my summer vacation

Does the time get away from you like it does for me? People say "what have you been up to?" and I never know what to answer - just puttering around, in my own little universe, would be the proper answer I suppose. I guess I could say I became fascinated by tincturing bitters last year after a herb walk led by Jim McDonald last fall at the Ecology Center in Oxford. Then I could tell about how I made a large herbal wall hanging after Robin Mickiewicz demonstrated the craft at Crossroads Village this summer. I made a nice wreath from Silver King Artemisia and Costmary blossoms which was sold at the GCHS tea. And how I began collecting and gluing together junque glass into garden totems after seeing some at a craft show. I need to post a few more photos of them.
But as to what I've been up to? I dunno ... puttering around, as usual. How about You?

I'm posting the following overly long list of my 2010 herbal adventures which I began keeping track of as of June 22, although some of it was remembered and added from earlier this year (and which I may add to as the year goes on, just to keep it all in one place):

Over the summer I made 2 versions herbal tea, which I like to drink sweetened with a little of my home grown stevia or some local honey from the farmers' market:
1. "summer" blossoms:
red clover, german chamomile, primrose, thyme, oregano, savory, ironweed, Baikal scullcap
2. Lemon herbs and flowers for digestive, sedative, headache relief, tonic and nervine
rose petals, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon basil, lemon thyme, calendula, rosemary, mint

I made a bug repellent  tincture which I'll dilute with witch hazel:
Catnip (fresh) flowers and leaves, pennyroyal (fresh) tops, a few (fresh) tansy leaves, and dry yarrow leaves.
This, after reading the label of a verry expensive ($9.00 for 2 ounces) "natural" insect repellent that Herb bought for golfing. Its list of ingredients: lemongrass, patchouli, peppermint, catnip, and Neem, in witch hazel.

I've been harvesting like crazy:
dandelion roots and crowns (screen dry and zipbagged)
kale leaves (dehydrated and zipbagged)
hawthorn leaves (May) and fruit (Sept-Oct) (screen dry, zipbagged leaves)
mugwort leaves (screen dry) (made sleep pillow with hops) (may still make tincture, oil, moxa floss)
hops "cones" (screen dry) (see mugwort)
monarda flowers and top leaves (hang dry and zipbagged)
Greek oregano leaves (hang dry, screened and bottled)
sage leaves (hang dry and bottled)
thyme leaves (screen dry and bottled)
bay leaves (screen dry)
lavender stems with blossoms (hang dry, zipbagged and bundled)
blue vervain "Simpler's Joy" tops (hang dry and zipbagged)
oenothera (evening primrose) (hang drying whole plant)
lythrum (loosestrife) tops (hang dry)
calendula tops and petals (screen dry)
veronica tops (hang dry)
motherwort leaves (screen dry)
heal-all leaves and flowers (screen dry)
borage leaves and flowers (screen dry, bottled)
southernwood branches, Silver King artemisia tops (hang dry)
red clover flowers (screen dry)
goldenrod tops (hang dry)
purple aster tops (screen dry)
sweet annie (Artemisia annua) branches, hang dry
sassafras leaves (from Ludington), hang dry, zipbagged
castor beans
pineapple sage leaves
mullein root and leaves from first year plant dug in October, hang dry
violet jelly (picked flowers with Aubrey) (gave some to Theresa, Ashley on Mother's Day, and Lois M. )

rose petal jelly (Tuscany and Mme Isaac Periere? check FB) (gave some to Tree and Ash on Father's Day) (gave some to Norma, Ulrike, and Lois)
rose petal honey (some for me, and tiny jars with Kayla and Aubrey) Red/Pinks Tuscany, Mundi, and Mme. I.P.
rose petal elixir ( a.k.a.preFB "rose petal cordial") Red/Pinks
rose petal infused oil - Red/Pinks - Mundi and Mme IP
rose petal vinegar - Reds/Pinks - in homemade organic cider vinegar
rose petal beads - You can use pale pink and white blossoms - it will turn black anyways! (still in progress)
rose petals (screen dry and bottled) for tea and other uses

(March) honey sweetened rose hip tincture with ginger honey from '09 dried rose hips, and (September '10) rose hip tincture from R. eglantina
and tinctured purchased dried elderberries with honey to make cough syrup

elderflowers (4 from my 3 2 yr old plants), fresh, tinctured
StJW tops, fresh, tinctured (began collecting on summer Solstice)
St. J's Wort tops, fresh, oil
holy basil tops, fresh, tinctured
Solomon's seal root, fresh, tinctured
purple aster tops, fresh, tinctured
juniper berries (from beach lot), fresh, tinctured in gin (what the heck?)
quince fruit, fresh. tinctured (for "ratatifa"?)

meadowsweet - dried 2 flower heads in full color (they dry out in the yard as the beetles attack them and they go to seed) as an experiment. Next year I will fresh tincture some.
peonies and sea oats -dried for arrangements

FRESH USE:
mixed flower bouquets, of course!
dandelion greens - cooked
rhubarb
asparagus
strawberries and alpine strawberries
chives
mixed lettuce salads spring and fall
basil leaves fresh as sandwich greens, cooked in pasta sauce, in tomato salad, in bruschetta, in pesto, froze pesto cubes (trying to be more conservative this year, I planted Genovese, regular sweet, lemon, holy, and 'Siam Queen' Thai)
parsley, part of my pesto recipe
dillweed in dill sauce on fish
lemon balm, purple aster herbal teas
garlic scapes - green dip
rosemary, oregano, marjoram, used cooked in pasta sauce, chili, oven roasted veggies, and so on
tomatoes, peppers (Herb made lots of fresh salsa),the freezer is full
garlic and shallots: dug on July 26 (big this year), replanted 30 cloves on September 30
Jerusalem artichokes to roast with a roast beef

I have Plans for:
comfrey - oil? dry some

marshmallow root and maybe the leaves
always more thyme!
anise hyssop - just planted a new one after having been without for a few years
feverfew? angelica? (there weren't as many seedlings this year as usual)

southernwood, absinthe (wormwood)
ginkgo leaves
Solomon's seal root, and false solomon's seal
rose hips

European betony (Stachys betonica or Stachys officinalis)
Baikal skullcap (the Chinese plant, not the native that all the herbalists are talking about)

and, when the plants are ready:
gogi berries (or wolfberry) from the plant I started from seed last year
elderberries from the plants I started last year
New Jersey  tea from the seedling I transplanted this year.


What I missed so far and will try to use/make next year:
hawthorn flowers, lily of the valley flowers, lilac flowers, dianthus and apple blossoms, meadowsweet blossoms, and chamomile (pick with Aubrey to make Peter Rabbit Tea)
Rosa englatina leaf for tinctures
chervil, sweet cicely, valerian blossoms

quote

"Yon hanging woods, that touched by Autumn seem

As they were blossoming hues of fire and gold;

The flower-like woods, most lovely in decay..."

- Samuel Taylor coleridge

quote

"The calmest thoughts come round us; as of leaves

Budding - fruit ripening in stillness - Autumn suns

Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves."

- John Keats

quote

"Best I love September's yellow,

Morns of dew strung gossamer;

Thoughtful days without a stir"

- Alexander Smith

quote

"Oh for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of flora and the country green,

Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!"

- John Keats

quote paradise

" What was Paradise?
But a Garden,
An orchard of trees,
and Herbs
Full of pleasure, and
Nothing there but Delights."
- William Lawson

quote dragonflies

And forth on floating gauze, no jewelled queen,

So rich the green-eyed dragonflies would break

And hover on the flowers - aerial things;

With little rainbows flickering on their wings

- Jean Ingelow

quote August

"A spell lies on the garden. Summer sits

With finger on her lips as if she heard

The steps of Autumn echo on the hill.

A hush lies on the Garden. Summer dreams

Of timid crocus thrust through drifted snow."

- Gertrude H. McGiffert, from The Garden In August

First flower for my Baikal Scullcap

As long as I posted this on Facebook, I thought, why not post it here on the old, long-neglected blog? Sorry I've been away so long - life has taken me on another turn of the path, and I have needed to recollect some parts of myself, so to speak.
I know, I speak in metaphors only I understand. Wish it was easier :\

Well, on to the plant story... I was cutting back my germander this morning and suddenly thought to check out how the single scullcap seedling I planted this spring was doing. There she was, blooming under the angelica!

Pretty flower, eh? It's just bloomed :)
The root is what is used in Chinese medicine ... but, but this baby is too pretty to dig up!

Only this variety is the one FBF herbalists don't (apparently from the conversation) enthuse about, Scutellaria baicalensis. Coincidentally while looking up any reference to it I read in Tierra's The Herbs of Life that germander is a common adulterant in commercially sold scullcap.
I do love coincidences.

glass totems

I've been gluing scavenged glass from yard sales, gifts, and the resale shops into yard art! Check 'em out:

quote flowers

"For myself, I like having flowers to smell when I walk in the garden, flowers to cut for the house, flowers to share with friends. Having these in abundance proves the methods of my madness to be working well, and well worthwhile."
- Susan Urshel

quote cottage garden

"Some people call this a cottage garden, but it's just a good messy garden. There's no plan. It's not like a painting - I just stick the plants in. I like large quantities of blooms all jumbled together."
- Tasha Tudor

quote

"Come, let us stray our gladsome way

And view the charms of Nature,

The rustling corn; the fruited thorn,

And every happy creature."

- Robert Burns

quote August

"The eighth was August, being rich arrayed

The garment all of gold, down to the ground;

Yet rode he not, but led a lovely maid

Forth by the lily hand, which was crowned

With ears of corn."

- Edmund Spenser

quote August

"Fairest of months! ripe Summer's Queen

The hey-day of the year

With robes that gleam with sunny sheen,

Sweet August doth appear."

- R. Combe Miller

quote Summer

Now summer's in flower, and nature's hum

is never silent 'round her bounteous bloom,

Insects as small as dust, have never done

With glitt'ring dance, and reeling in the sun.

- John Clare

quote

"Someone once said of a beautiful public garden, "It just shows what God could do if he had the money." But even the grubbiest garden, abounding with weeds, shows what we can do without money just because God is so good."
- Monica Moran Brandies

quote night

In puffs of balm the night air blows

The perfume which the day foregoes,

And on the pure horizon far,

See, pulsing with the firstborn star.

- Matthew Arnold, from The Liquid Sky

Plant and Pest Hotline, may I help you?

"Why did your plant die?

You walked too close, you trod on it,

You dropped a piece of sod on it.

You hoed it down, you weeded it.

You planted it the wrong way up,

you grew it in a yogurt cup.

But you forgot to make the hole;

The soggy compost took its toll.

September storm, November drought.

It heaved in March, the roots popped out.

You watered it with herbicide.

You scattered bonemeal fr and wide.

You walked too close, you trod on it.

You dropped a piece of sod on it."

- David Godine, from A Gardener Obsessed

quote sun

"The sun is coming down to earth, and the fields

and the waters shout to him golden shouts."

George Meredith