Calendula

Sunny Ladies

Calendula likes to reseed itself and it's really good at it, yet over the years I have heard that it's good to re-plant new seed to strengthen the flowers.
I resisted for years because I figured the seed was just perfect, having grown right there and replanted itself. A small miracle, really.
But last year I did buy new seed and replanted my garden and lo and behold if they aren't the most lovely early bloomers!
This is their first year of reseeding and some of the plants even survived the winter.
I have grand plans for more production this year which, lucky for me, means being in the garden with my plant lovelies more.

Happy May Day - May Wine

I have often been called the Queen of Cups and yet I'm more recently thinking of myself as the Queen of Spring Tonics.
Spring tonics make my heart sing.
I like them as simple as can be.

May Wine
-how to make-
On or near May Day (May 1) harvest tops (all that is above ground) of Sweet Woodruff Gallium odorata.
Buy a bottle of white wine.
Open the wine, sort the less than lovely parts of the Sweet Woodruff from the lovely and put the lovely parts into the wine.
Let sit for 30 minutes or so, then pour little sips and toast to May, the May Queen and springtime. Make another toast for yourself and for what you wish for in the coming spring season of new growth and wonder.Sweet Woodruff is a modest May Queen. Perhaps a May Princess.
Realted closely to Cleavers Gallium aparine.

The remainder of the May Wine can be stored in the refrigerator and sipped as your heart desires. The tiny bit you have sipped can be replaced by more white wine. It can be topped off as often as you like, depending on how much herb you have in the bottle. It's a bit like making tea in that the first steeping is fragrant and delicate and as the tea steeps longer it becomes full and imparts the deeper notes of a tea, sometimes bringing out the bitter notes. If you add more water to the same tea, it can be lovely still, but different.
This May Wine is like that.
The first day, right after I made it, the taste was delicate and flowery. Now, 3 days later the taste is richer, more full and has a distinct vanilla aroma.
I will sip it strong like it is until the weeks end and then top it with more wine and put it in the fridge. Of course I will offer some up to the May Queen.
Do what you like and trust your instincts.

There are a bit more complicated recipes for May Wine, but I like simplicity.
Try multiple recipes if you like, and let me know what you think.

This is a favorite spring tonic for making the heart joyful.
What could be better.
Enjoy!

Spring Tonic Bath

Long hot baths are traditionally for me more of a winter thing, but lately, I cannot get enough of being submerged in my own bathtub. I will forgo many things in lieu of the long steamy time in the tub. I've been potion making and straining oils from herbs so that I have several bags & jars of leftover herbs to indulge in.
Most people have an excess of condiments or preserves in their fridge, where I have elixirs, tonics and many mysterious treasures.
The container of herbs that I took from the fridge last week was a mystery to me as well. I emptied it under the running hot water tap and realized it was the leftover herbs from Botany with Grade 5 from last May or June. The roses, calendula, clover & chickweed were all harvested by the children and made into a healing balm that was made outside the same day. We also made a sun tea from many of the same kinds of herbs for them to drink later in the afternoon. It was nice to remember that day from last spring and to be able to still benefit from the healing of those same herbs. They had the added benefit of having been steeped in oil, so that I had a super emollient bath as well.



If you want to make your own spring tonic bath, find some unsprayed flowers & leaves and throw them in the tub with you.
Some good choices are roses (flowers & leaves) hawthorne (flwrs & lvs, be careful of thorns), raspberry leaves, calendula flowers & leaves as well as the kitchen herbs; sage, marjoram, rosemary, thyme & fennel.
You can also use some dried herbs like lavender or chamomile.
Here's a link to a fall/winter bath.

Spring Flower Tonic

I love Oregon Grape.
I love harvesting the roots and scraping the bark down to a smooth magical twig.
I love finding a patch of bushes on a hike in the woods.
I love to eat the flowers this time of year and I love the berries in the summer and the tiny new leaves in the springtime.
But for today we are focusing on the flowers.
The taste of the flowers is strongly bitter and yet sweet somehow with a bit of a floral note.
What I didn't know until today is that they smell like heaven.
I've never cut the flowers except to pinch a few to eat on the trail, but when I brought them into my house and they came to room temperature, I couldn't believe the smell. Pure heaven. The smell is a bit like tiny magical daffodil, which is what the flowers look like up close.

As spring comes I change. Yes, I know we all change everyday but springtime completely undoes me.
I need spring tonics like some folks need meds.
I look for my spring tonic to do a couple of things.
First off the tonic should shed any winteriness in you. body/mind/spirit.
A tonic should bring vigor.
A spring tonic for me is a way to balance the transition between the winter me and the burgeoning summer me.
When I visioned for the perfect plant for me this season I kept seeing in my mind's eye, Oregon Grape's vivid yellow flowers.
Partly I wonder if it isn't Elizabeth from the English Dept. and all her fabulous yellows passing by me each day that is part of the vision, who knows.

I keep thinking about the cold energy of oregon grape and then I become concerned that it's not going to be stimulating enough to be a good tonic and then I am reminded of it's power to shift and change and yes, cool, the liver. I know that for me it's ok because I run hot, eat spicy foods, tend to get flushed cheeks, etc. but if you're a cold type with poor circulation this may not be the tonic for you. However, if you want make this work for you, just put a couple of slices of fresh ginger root or a cinnamon stick into the jar while making the tonic to warm it and you up.

Here are some pictures of one of the patches I harvested from.
From this big patch I took only 3 bunches of flowers.
It's hard to explain without being in person with you and the plants about the finer points of ethical wildcrafting. I've been thinking of the analogy of a jewelry box that someone has offered for you to take something from.
How do you choose what to take and what to leave?
Partly that depends on what is available. If in this case there are 40 jewels (blooms) I would take and did take one pristine beautiful flower and 2 other very nice but modest and out of the way blooms.
I went to another patch and did the same.
The most important thing to remember when offered something in the plant world just like anywhere else is to use your manners, then you'll be just fine.

The flowers have many of the same properties as the root and berries, but flowers are what I want and need right now.
Something light and fluffy and pretty and bright.
Oregon Grape is a superior liver tonic, is anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. It is also a great blood purifier and a digestive tonic.
Always remember that anything that is good for your liver is good for your skin.


I made this spring tonic exactly like last years spring tonic. (follow the link to the recipe) It really is so simple.
The only difference between the recipes is that the cleavers were snipped with scissors and the oregon grape needs a little garbling.
Garbling is something we herbalists do, and it's a word that really means sorting this from that.
In fairy tales they're always garbling. Poppy seeds from dirt, moldy this from fresh that, the good apples from the rotten.
The word garbling I find annoying, but the process itself is incredibly calming and satisfying.
So here is a bit of the sorting. The flowers on the right will go into the jar, the green parts on the left go into the compost or to the chickens.

We always do garbling at Herb Camp with the kids.
It's a good life lesson.
I think if we could sort this from that on a daily basis with our papers, our burdens, our visions, our desires, we would move along our path of destiny at a much smoother clip.
xo

Spring Tonic

Gallium aparine-Cleavers
Spring Tonic Extraordinaire

What are the plants that spring up by your front step?

If it grows near to where you live or walk it is a reminder that it is calling to you.

For me it's Cleavers. gallium aparine.

Here is an beautiful old drawing

and the quintessential herbal info site

It's a powerful little weed. Bright green and reaching towards you, this is to me the signature of a spring tonic.

A troublesome weed to many gardeners, you'll recognize it as a plant that is long and stringy and sticks to you like velcro.

It's great for making garlands to add flowers to because it will stay on your head when everything else tends to fall awkwardly to one side.

I walked by a flower bed today and I could see some cleavers reaching up to wrap themselves around the spent tulips toward the sun. I picked the tops (about 8 inches) of four or five stalks. I put them in my purse and brought them to work. I simply placed them as they were in a heat-proof pint glass and poured boiling water over them. I let it steep for about ten minutes and have drunk about half of it and I will add more water to it throughout the day until there is no more flavor. You could also just drink it the once and compost the herb, but I like the never-ending cup of tea. It's beautiful in the glass and so alive and vital. The taste is clean, light, green and slightly sweet and mineral-y.

Cleavers are traditionally used as a purifying spring tonic, nourishing in particular to the glandular system.
tonic: An invigorating, refreshing, or restorative agent or influence.

I also make a tincture of cleavers that I reach for throughout the winter when my glands are swollen. The first time I drank my cleavers brew from the previous spring's harvest, I could feel the cool drainage down the sides of my neck within an hour.

Amazing.

I make my cleavers tincture in wine, because it is easily extracted, there is no need for anything stronger.
To make your own:

Simply snip cleavers into any size clean jar. Fill to the top with the herb then fill to the top with wine. You can use any wine, but I prefer to use a white wine so I can watch the color changes. I generally do a triple tincture with cleavers, which is to let the first infusion sit in the fridge for a week or two, then strain out and compost the herb adding more to the same jar of wine, increasing its potency.

Now I just wait until I feel a bit sluggish or my glands feel swollen. I'll either just nip off the top of this or I'll strain and rebottle.
I keep this in the fridge due to the low alcohol content.
The dose I take is a couple tablespoons in a beautiful cordial glass or a small jelly jar and I find it tastes better if you let it warm to room temperature. It tastes a bit like beets if it is a strong infusion. To make a stronger brew just strain the herb from the wine and to the same wine add more herb and let it set for two weeks with each batch of herb.

Don't wait on this one, it really is a Spring herb.

xoxo

Hawthorne

Generally speaking, I recommend harvesting Hawthorne flowers on May Day. By the calender May Day is May 1, Lunar May Day was May 5 and astrologically it was another day completely, so I figure that I have some space to expand my original intentions.
Yesterday I found a window of time and I took advantage of it.























a super close up with my fab new camera
amazing flowers, aren't they?











can you see the thorns? (haw-thorn)









I went to a favorite spot just on the outskirts of town, slipped on my sneakers and had a nice walk with the Hawthornes.






Here are the trees that grew the flowers that will be in this years Love Potion.
There were birds singing, sun shining, the scent of the flowers and their beauty, seems like May Day to me.



























sweet caterpillar


In Tracks by Louise Erdrich there is a woman whose name translates from Ojibwe
to mean something like "the place where a deer sleeps"
this picture below is one of those places.
It was under the canopy of the largest of the Hawthornes. very cool.
I had to make a choice between disturbing this beautiful place and getting
scratched to bits by last years fallen hawthorne branches.
Of course, it was an easy choice. And besides, I have plenty of healing balm.
xoxo

Purification & Protection Potion for Spring Cleaning:

The weather this week has gone from sunny to cloudy to hailstorm to rainbows then drizzle and cycling around in enough variations for anyone to see that it’s spring in Portland.

Today was a rare sunny and dry day for a May Day festival complete with ribboned May pole dancing.

I decided it must be time to do some spring cleaning.

My intention was to actually clean the floors but also to purify and protect the space in a deep cleaning spring cleaning sort of way.

I began by making a strong tea with

Rosemary for protection, for remembering what is good and for clarity

Hawthorne, very strongly protective, because of the thorns and it’s especially powerful this time of year, it is the “branch of May” from fairy tales and the scent of the flowers is old and wise, (a lot of people think it stinks)

and a bit of

Sea salt for good measure. Sea salt is the ultimate purifier.

Oh yeah, I used red roses

Roses invoke love, that’s what we want, love is all you need.

After I gathered the herbs, I brought them to a simmer in a big pot of water, then turned off the heat, covered and steeped for twenty minutes.

In the meantime, I filled a bucket with a couple tablespoons of dish soap, I use Ecover, but whatever you have will do.

If you want to try this and you don’t have all the ingredients listed, just wing it and trust your instincts.

There are a few things we say again and again in classes and especially in Herb Camp and “Wing It” is one of them. You often just have to make due with what you have. Think of it as a creative process.

Life is complicated enough, don’t stress just use some salt, parsley and rosemary from your kitchen, a blackberry leaf from the alley and some of your will.

You get the idea.

So, the recipe:

Equal parts (I used a big handful. You could use a teaspoon if you like):

hawthorne leaves and flowers

rosemary leaves

roses

and a pinch or two of salt

Put it all in a big pot of water, bring to a boil, turn off heat, cover and steep 20 minutes or longer

strain the herb mixture into your mop bucket (you can use a colander if you made a lot)

add

2 tablespoons dish soap in a bucket

Fill with warm water, set your intentions and get to work

As you mop, either old-school on your hands and knees the way my grandma taught me or the modern way, think of all that you want to be released (washed away) and all that you want to invite in.

Hum, sing, say your prayers, whatever feels right, but stay in the moment. Take your time.

Perhaps the most important thing is to dispose of the dirty water as soon as your work is done.

Pour the dirty water down the sink or in the toilet then rinse the mop & bucket and wash your hands twice. Once for the dirt and once for letting go of any last things.

Taking a shower would even be better.

Good job.

xoxo

*do a patch test to make sure this won’t stain your floors