I've been posting *lots* of beautiful photos lately of my time learning at Goldthread Herb Farm & Apothecary. Won't you join me in the facebook community? It's a nice way to stay connected.
https://www.facebook.com/ThePlantWhisperer
Green Love,
a
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Join me on Facebook?
I've been posting *lots* of beautiful photos lately of my time learning at Goldthread Herb Farm & Apothecary. Won't you join me in the facebook community? It's a nice way to stay connected.
https://www.facebook.com/ThePlantWhisperer
Green Love,
a
Monday, July 2, 2012
Calendula at Peak, Lavender Distillation, and Summer Lush
In 5 days I will be turning a sun's cycle again, and will enter into my 37th year on this glorious, mysterious, wild earth.
It's this time in the year that I feel the best. It's summer, the plants are exploding in joy and fragrance, the bees hum as the bury their little faces into flowers over and over, and the rivers gush and dance along the rocks, glinting reflections of sun and moon and magic. The air is brand new in the morning; cool and dewy and pregnant with promise, yet it rolls like tumbleweed into the day, bringing sultry humidity and fierce heat like a giant sky God pounding his chest in glory.
This is the time of fruition, bounty, heat, and full presence, and I've been feeling it for sure. I've been busy learning, observing, getting dirty, getting hot, dunking in the river to cool off, and working all the in-between times that I'm home.
Here are some highlights from my recent herbal adventures:
It's this time in the year that I feel the best. It's summer, the plants are exploding in joy and fragrance, the bees hum as the bury their little faces into flowers over and over, and the rivers gush and dance along the rocks, glinting reflections of sun and moon and magic. The air is brand new in the morning; cool and dewy and pregnant with promise, yet it rolls like tumbleweed into the day, bringing sultry humidity and fierce heat like a giant sky God pounding his chest in glory.
This is the time of fruition, bounty, heat, and full presence, and I've been feeling it for sure. I've been busy learning, observing, getting dirty, getting hot, dunking in the river to cool off, and working all the in-between times that I'm home.
Here are some highlights from my recent herbal adventures:
Calendula:
~~~~
Lavender Distillation:
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| Inner drum, filled with Lavender blossoms |
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| Outer drum, with water being boiled to generate steam |
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| Lavender Essential oil, collecting at the surface |
~~~~~
Sage Harvesting
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| <3 My friend Dena |
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| Sweet feet playing in the Sage |
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| Goldthread students bringing in the harvest. Lemon Balm I think. |
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| Lavender Flower Hydrosol |
~~~~
River & Forest:
Enjoy the beauty of this Earth we call home.
xoxoxo
Ananda
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The Very Picky Herbalist
So,
maybe I'm pitta-vata aggravated today. Perhaps. I've been in the sun a lot more lately, and there's not running river water near enough to the farm area, though it is near enough to visit for lunch, thank heavens.
I've begun week 3 of the Farm to Pharmacy program at the Goldthread Herb Farm and Apothecary, (which, for the most part, is going amazingly well, just to preface) but after being a bit too sun-blazed I have earned myself a spell to rant. Here goes.
I'm learning a lot about myself even though I'm only in week 3, and I think I do not like some of it. I do not like weeding, (how can I "weed" chamomile out of mint? Or sweet annie out of echinacea? or ...) nor much of the physical movements of gardening. My mind likes, it, but my body not. I do not like harvesting with a bunch of chatty people. I do not like eating tepid lunches, and I don't like drinking cold demulcents in the morning. I do not like tincture ratios because I never understand them, and I don't like it when people tease me.
I DO like quiet, rhythmic, intimate harvesting. I like to touch, taste, feel and listen to the resin, the yellow ray flowers, and to a new plant friend introducing themselves to me for the first time. I like to listen wholly. I like the enormous fragrant peach tree branches I got to bring home. I like the new plants I'm getting to know, and being outside more. I like eating slowly by the water, with my feet in the current, and I still love harvesting plants and making medicine more than anything. I like the brain input on the body systems too, that rocks. I love listening to people make herb honey for the first time. I love taking all the extra garlic scapes home to pickle them.
So there is my version of Kiva's what herbalists really want (and don't want) post ;) entitled: The Very Picky Herbalist.
I probably could find more things I'm feeling pissed off about - but that would just be the heat talking :) I'll let it be, and instead, take you on a tour of my new plant friends, and some medicine making miscellany ...........
Love,
Ananda
maybe I'm pitta-vata aggravated today. Perhaps. I've been in the sun a lot more lately, and there's not running river water near enough to the farm area, though it is near enough to visit for lunch, thank heavens.
I've begun week 3 of the Farm to Pharmacy program at the Goldthread Herb Farm and Apothecary, (which, for the most part, is going amazingly well, just to preface) but after being a bit too sun-blazed I have earned myself a spell to rant. Here goes.
I'm learning a lot about myself even though I'm only in week 3, and I think I do not like some of it. I do not like weeding, (how can I "weed" chamomile out of mint? Or sweet annie out of echinacea? or ...) nor much of the physical movements of gardening. My mind likes, it, but my body not. I do not like harvesting with a bunch of chatty people. I do not like eating tepid lunches, and I don't like drinking cold demulcents in the morning. I do not like tincture ratios because I never understand them, and I don't like it when people tease me.
I DO like quiet, rhythmic, intimate harvesting. I like to touch, taste, feel and listen to the resin, the yellow ray flowers, and to a new plant friend introducing themselves to me for the first time. I like to listen wholly. I like the enormous fragrant peach tree branches I got to bring home. I like the new plants I'm getting to know, and being outside more. I like eating slowly by the water, with my feet in the current, and I still love harvesting plants and making medicine more than anything. I like the brain input on the body systems too, that rocks. I love listening to people make herb honey for the first time. I love taking all the extra garlic scapes home to pickle them.
So there is my version of Kiva's what herbalists really want (and don't want) post ;) entitled: The Very Picky Herbalist.
I probably could find more things I'm feeling pissed off about - but that would just be the heat talking :) I'll let it be, and instead, take you on a tour of my new plant friends, and some medicine making miscellany ...........
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| Inula |
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| Lavender and Echinacea |
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| Clary Sage |
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| Grindelia |
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| Yerba mansa |
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| Yarrow flower medicine |
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| Reishi mushroom |
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| Herbal infused ghee |
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| Lady's Slipper Ring treasures |
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| ready to go |
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| ready to nourish |
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| Shatawari |
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| Licorice |
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| German Chamomile & Chocolate Mint |
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| Lavender |
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| Lavender, more and more |
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| Little leaf Linden tree |
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| Poppy |
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| California Poppy |
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| A finale of Chamomile.... |
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| Wormwood punctuations. |
Ananda
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