Calendula officinalis (Pot Marigold or Poet's Marigold)

If you don't have this wonderful herb growing in your garden, I highly advise you plant some seeds in your garden next year. It tolerates poor soil and will come back every year because it reseeds like crazy. The petals and stems are edible; they make a pretty garnish to a salad but taste a tad bitter. We grow calendula not because it's edible but because of its medicinal value. Herbalists use it for many ailments, too many to list here, but my favorite use of calendula is for the skin. You can use it as a local topical application to boost the healing rate and prevent infection on a wound or other skin conditions. Calendula is also fantastic for chapped and dry skin.

How to make a calendula infusion:

Fauna, my little apprentice, made this calendula infusion. She "popped the tops" from the calendula plants in the garden, put them in a glass jar, and poured grapeseed oil in the jar until all of the tops were submerged. Should you not have grapeseed oil on hand, almond, sesame and olive oil are all good carriers for infusions.

She locked up the lid and admired her calendula infusion. Now to let it steep for 1-2 weeks. Give it a shake periodically; when it starts getting really cloudy it is time to strain out the flowers.

After straining Fauna will have a wonderful healing oil ready to do its healing magic . She can mix the oil with lotion for dry skin or make an ointment or salve using beeswax.

From Shakespeare's Winter's Tale:
'The Marigold that goes to bed wi' th' sun,
And with him rises weeping.'

Herbs! Herbs! So Many Herbs!!

A little obsession of mine............lavender, thyme, calendula, rosemary, mint, and any other herb I can get my hands on!!! I can't help myself, I love learning all I can about the many different herbs on this Earth. I have been studying herbs for about 12 years now and am finally feeling as though I'm just starting to get to know them! There is so much to learn; there are so many plants that have real value to humans (and other animals). This summer my herbal focus is on those nasty viruses which hit us hard come winter. I'm learning about herbs and their energies; for example, cayenne has a hot energy, seems obvious, while dandelion has a cool energy. Knowing their energies helps you choose the right herb to treat a hot illness or a cold illness (did you know there are hot illnesses and cold illnesses?). I find this so fascinating!

Here is our living room table right now (my hubby calls it the witchy room). Baskets of freshly picked lavender, sage, clover, basil and mint; trays of chamomile, thyme, red clover, rose petals and calendula. The lavender is bundled and ready to be dried. I have to set up the lavender drying screens tomorrow.

The olive can holds rubber bands; it stays in the harvesting basket so I can bundle as I harvest.

calendula, feverfew, lemon verbena and oregano

I use rubber bands to bundle my herbs for drying, then attach a clothespin for hanging. I had to wire pipecleaners onto my "drying rack" in order for the clothespins to have a place to grip. I also have a trundle bed in the shed leaning against a wall with herbs clinging to it. I have found myself being very inventive when it comes to drying my herbs!

Once dry, the herbs go into thrifted glass jars, recycled jars or canning jars. So far I have a large amount of mint (peppermint, grapefruit, pineapple, lime, catnip, chocolate and spearmint). I also have lemon verbena, lemonbalm, lavender, calendula, chive blossoms, feverfew, rose petals, chamomile, linden tree blossoms, beebalm, dandelion and plantain leaves. These will most likely be used for teas, cooking or anything else calling for dried herbs.

Some herbs don't make it to the drying stage. I use them for medicinal oils, vinegars or hair rinse. I immediately put some chamomile in an apple cider infusion to make a cider rinse for my red hair and Araina's blonde hair. The chamomile adds highlights to your hair. Rosemary cider rinse is good for Fauna's brunette hair.

My little black kitty, Pixie Vixen, likes to watch over the herbs when I am working in this room. I have to hang the catnip high or she will eat it all up. As soon as I bring fresh catnip into the house the cats all come running! We are drying some of the catnip for them, the girls like to make catnip toys.


Soon I will be gathering elderberry for an elderberry/honey syrup that's great for the immune system come flu season. I would LOVE to hear from other "home herbalists" out there; what's your favorite herb and what do you use it for?

Ugh, not liking the lighting in the photos, but this is in a dark area of the house and I really dislike using my flash! I'm such a perfectionist in the need to make this silly statement!

Make Homemade Rosewater

I have always wanted to make my own rosewater, didn't think I'd be able to without owning a fancy still. But my hero, Rosemary Gladstar, explains two simple methods for making rosewater in her book, Herbs for Natural Beauty. Our roses are blooming like mad right now so the ladies and I took full advantage of the opportunity. Today I will show you method #1.

You must first gather:

a lot of roses, 2- 3 quarts of fresh roses to be exact.

Now, to make your home still you need:

a large pot (I used my black and speckled canning pot, the ideal pot for a still)

a round inverted lid that fits the pot

a brick

water

a glass quart bowl

ice cubes

Steps:

1. In the center of the pan, place the brick and sprinkle the roses around the brick. This is how your pot should look.

2. Pour in just enough water to cover the roses and the brick. Then put the glass bowl on top of the brick. Turn the stove on high, place the inverted lid on top of the pot and bring to a boil.

3. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, place your ice on top of the inverted lid, lower the heat to a simmer. Tah Dah! You now have a homemade still! As the water boils, the steam rises, clings to the cold lid and condenses. The water droplets slide down to the center of the lid and fall into your glass bowl. Genius! What a GREAT science experiment!

4. Let your still cook for 20 minutes. Then carefully lift the lid, taste and smell the rosewater in the bowl. It should have a strong rosey taste and smell. If it's to your liking turn off the heat, replace the lid and let your rosewater cool down. You can cook this a little longer, but be careful, if the roses cook too long you will simmer away the essential oils and be left with plain ol' water. It's time to stop cooking when you have between a pint and a quart of rosewater sitting in your bowl. I got exactly a pint from this cooking.


Fauna and Araina wanted me to point out that you must clean and check your roses for any little critters that might be living in the roses before you turn on that stove. We found this chubby green caterpillar (which we are still trying to identify, think it's a moth of some kind) amongst the pretty pink and purple petals. The ladies were happy to find a new friend, they don't even mind the poop!

Method #2 doesn't require cooking, but I will leave that for another day when we have more roses to use. The girls and I picked the plants bare! For a little history and some ideas to use your rosewater visit my post on Rosewater (there is even a recipe for rosewater cookies). Enjoy!

Dandelion Syrup

We made dandelion syrup this week for a pick me up to a very rainy day. It is very easy to make, but a little time consuming. You need to put at least 12 hours aside to let the dandelion tops steep and then need 2 hours to simmer the syrup. Perfect activity for a chilly and rainy spring day.


For dandelion syrup you need about 250 dandelion tops (give or take a few),1 lemon, 4 C water, and 2 pounds of sugar (I love organic cane sugar for this).

Put the dandelion tops in 4 C water, bring the water to a boil then cover and simmer for an hour. Let cool and place in the refrigerator overnight for the dandelions to continue to steep in the water.

The next day strain the tops from the water. Mix the water with 2 lbs of sugar and the freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon. Simmer for about 2 hours, until the water evaporates. This is how the water looks when the lemon and sugar have been added.

After 2 hours, a froth should form on the surface of the syrup (see photo below). Take the syrup off of the heat and let cool. It should thicken as it cools.

After cooling, your syrup should look like this. Cane sugar tends to create a pretty amber color when made into a syrup, I've never tried it with processed sugar, the color may be different.

The Little Ladies could eat it by the spoonfuls! It has a very earthy sweet taste.


Araina licked her spoon clean. Tomorrow we will put the dandelion syrup on homemade waffles for breakfast.

You could follow this same recipe but replace the dandelions with violets or mint or any other herb you have handy. Ohhhh, rose petal syrup would be tasty too. For more dandelion fun visit dandelion octopus, beautiful pollinators, and dandelion prints.

Periodic Table- Gold Au

"A! U! Give Me Back My Gold!!!!!"

This statement is the one thing I learned in high school chemistry and have never forgotten! I thought gold was the appropriate element to focus on this week with St. Patrick's Day right around the corner and you never know, you could catch a leprechaun that will lead you to his gold! Today I focused on map reading and learning some American history about gold.



Hunt for the Leprechaun's Gold

A little prep work goes into this one; painting rocks gold...................

And drawing a map of the area where your hunt will take place, I glittered the spots where the gold was hidden.

The girls studied the map............


Then they were on the hunt for the leprechaun's gold...............

Yea! The happy treasure hunters found all the gold!

Panning for Gold

We learned all about the American Gold Rush today and drew the different routes the 49er's could have taken to get to California.


Then we did our own panning for gold. To make the gold nuggets I made a glue, glitter and gold acrylic paint concoction; then added orange lentils and rice to the mix. I let it dry overnight and found pretty realistic looking gold nuggets in the morning!


I added the gold nuggets to potting soil, added water and the ladies were now ready to.....

Pan for Gold!!!

They continued to pan for gold all afternoon and reinacted the Gold Rush! I even heard them talking about supply and demand! Click here to visit a FANTASTIC site about the gold rush. I found the information regarding the women of that time especially fascinating. Click here to get the map outline we used to draw the different routes the 49ers could travel.

Putting it Down on Paper

The ladies found gold on their PTOE and colored it in. Then they wrote and illustrated the different things they learned on a piece of paper to put in their PTOE notebooks.

Tomorrow we will visit this site Click here to learn more about the history and geology of gold. We will make some gold jewlery and paint with gold. Visit here and here for more PTOE activities.

8 Things to do With Onions

Onions aren't made only for cooking!

1. Make natural dyes. You can dye natural cloth or eggs with onions. Visit here to learn how to make marbled easter eggs using onion peels.

2. Mosquitoes hate onions! Keep an onion plant on your windowsill or eat a lot of onions to keep these bloodsuckers from terrorizing you and the family.

3. Sooth Athlete's Foot. Rub a small amount of the onion juice onto the affected area, your foot will stink but will heal faster.

4. Faint preventer. You know about fainting salts, how about fainting onions? If someone feels faint pull out an onion, chop it and put it under their nose. They should feel better in no time!

5. Brass polish. If you have dirty old brass, boil some onions in a couple inches of water for a couple of hours. Use this water to polish the brass, it should clean it right up!

6. Wart remover. Get an onion, dip it in salt, then rub the wart with the salty onion. You may need to apply this more than once. This method even removes those stubborn warts.

7. Sting soother. If you get stung by a bee or bit by a mosquito, take an onion, cut it in half and rub it onto the sting. This should take the pain or itch away quickly.

8. Onion syrup for problems with the ear, nose or throat....or the common cold. (I know a lot of you could use this recipe right now!) Honey draws out the intercellular fluid of the onion, including a sulfur compound, which is antiviral and antibacterial! :)

To prepare the onion and honey syrup:

1. Chop an onion into cubes.

2. Add three full tablespoons of honey.

3. Leave the mixture overnight.

4. In the morning, filter out the onion cubes and retain the fluid.

*Ingest a full tablespoon every two hours.

We have been SKUNKED!!! AGAIN!!!

We have two incredibly loyal members of the family....Denali (the Husky, 8yo) and Sophie (the German Sheperd, 2yo).




They are both the best family dogs! They are loving, playful and very protective!

However, they are also quite the trouble and mischief makers!!!!!!! They love messing with the wildlife that enters our yard.....especially chipmunks and SKUNKS!!!!!! I guess some dogs learn from their first experiences with skunks, but other dogs (ours included) seem to think, "bring it on skunky!" Our dogs always end up losing the battle and are quite humbled by the experience.

Here is Sophie, a smelly, muddy and humble mess after her brawl last night with a skunk!

Skunk smell is one of the most difficult smells to get out, especially if your dogs have extra thick hair. We have tried a lot of kitchen chemistry to dissipate the smell....tomato juice, vinegar, beer and hydorgen peroxide. The following recipe is the only one that has really helped:

Clear the Air Skunk Stink Remover

1 quart 3% hydrogen peroxide

1/4 cup baking soda

2 T liquid dish detergent (not the dishwasher type)

Mix the ingredients in a large bucket. The ingredients cause a really cool (and messy) chemical reaction so make sure the bucket is large! Wash the dog while the mixture is still foaming. This mixture creates oxygen which reacts with the thiols in the skunk smell to neutralize the odor. It really does help, but might take a couple washings.

Now I really doubt Sophie has learned her lesson, nor Denali! I know this will happen numerous more times as our Ohio weather becomes warmer this year. I just wish they'd stick to brawling with each other and not Mother Nature's other creatures! =)