Wednesday, June 7, 2017

herb bundles & band-aids


This is how June looks for me. I use something from the garden everyday, you never know what will happen out there. One day is cutting a swath of arugula before it bolts, the next is making tiny herbal smudge-type bundles to dry and burn on Summer Solstice and other holy-days. These are eucalyptus leaves, lavender stalks and roses but potential combinations are endless. Like mini smudge sticks, the bundles can be made according to healing qualities, fragrance, color and more. You could drop one in a cup of hot water for tea like this. Or in a little vodka for tincture. Endless.

One day I cut my finger knuckle to the bone so applied a comfrey leaf spit poultice followed up by simple comfrey leaf band-aids for protection -- it healed amazingly fast. A piece of a cabbage leaf would have also worked.

I pick a few roses daily for drying to make rose syrup or to infuse in body oil. Nettles are collected regularly -- simmered in a big pot to keep on hand in the refrigerator or blanched and ground with oil, garlic and toasted pecans for pesto. Consider eating pesto as eating your greens. And a lot can be done with a pesto plus it can be frozen. My new thing is stuffing raw mushrooms with it.

There's been more playing the drum than stitching on the drum case. The dog doesn't mind and I love drumming, even by myself.

We have a full moon rising this Friday -- I hope to wrap up more herbal bundles and write my gratitude list during the day...that night I'll set out a jar filled with lemon balm leaves and water to be infused by the full moon and other cosmic energies. I like leaving this water out the following day as well to be infused by the sun, after which I strain it. Lemon balm water helps us to be centered in the midst of chaos, also helps meditation. xx

Good Nettle Pesto
Simmer a half-pound of nettle leaves and tender leaf tops in a large pot of salted water for a few minutes. Drain and when cool enough to handle, put them in a towel to squeeze out all the water. In a food processor, grind up a few cloves of garlic with 1/2 toasted pecans and 1/2 t. salt and some ground black pepper. Add the nettles and 1 T. fresh lemon juice. Add 1 c. olive oil, keep going until you're satisfied with the texture. Stir in 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.  Based on a pasta recipe by Jess Thomson.


9 comments:

  1. Wow must try the nettle pesto thank you!
    Love your hand dyed circles. I've been scrappy block making but keep coming back to making odd circle blocks.
    For me I feel they are balancing somehow but I've certainly been in a bit of inner turmoil and they do seem to
    wind me down lol
    A pal used to sit and drum in the garden rhymically and he swore it was like mediating :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Lyn, hope you like the pesto, I just can't get enough of it, crazy. The circles are from the 365 quilty project I learned about from you, don't have enough for a quilt top, that is certain. So starting to use them on other things. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ahhhh...those gorgeous purples!!
    I saw that band-aid photo as a statement on healing the earth, especially with Paris Agreement in mind...not an actual owie!
    Somehow I didn't get notifications for the last several posts, but now I'm all caught up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Air and sunlight enter my dark apartment when I read your posts. I notice the kantha...oh this post is a gem. comfrey or cabbage for healing, fabulous pesto, lemon balm water, lovely photographs.....who could ask for more!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh my gosh Peggy I love your whole post. From the smudge sticks to the Full moon lemon balm water. When I saw your picture of rose petals in the basket I thought I was looking at my own picture I took yesterday. I've been picking my roses everyday, drying some for cream and keeping some fresh to make hydrosol rose water. Thank you for you "moon report", I also will making some lemon balm water!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, I am so inspired by my visit with you this afternoon.
    You really appreciate your surroundings and pay attention to so many things in nature. Me - I can hardly wait to just sit in my deck chair with my glass of gin at 5 pm and stitch for an hour until he gets home.
    The garden, the house, the roses, the planning ahead for appreciating the moon - it all goes backwards for me and I just pour my time into breathing with my needle and lsitening to the birdsong.

    Still inspired though - thank you for writing.
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello, I mentioned this post on my blog and added a link. I ve followed for quite awhile but do not comment usually. Your posts are so calming and uplifting. I'd love to quote your paragraph about tonight's moon on my blog but only with your permission. [and if you object to the link I posted, pls tell me and I will immediately take it down.] Thanks for your beautiful thoughts, ways, photos.

    lizzy gone to the beach

    lizzzz.d@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. love coming here... the last post inspired me to make some chive/thyme butter after reading (I commented but it got lost). The herb butter was delicious -- esp. on corn, which while not fall-off-the-cob tender yet, still was good. I have five or six massive comfrey plants and really need to make some oil or something with them one of these days -- thanks for the reminder that the leaves can be used right off the plant. That cut really sounded nasty!

    ReplyDelete
  9. OMGoodness! Your posts are always inspiring at anytime. I was given some lavender and didn't know what to do with them! But now I do! And you know we have eucalyptus everywhere I look! I will be making these smudges bundles to give to my daughter-in-law for her fire place. I would love a fire place at our house, but DH is not a fan of it because of the dust it makes :( Thanks Peggy for sharing and inspiring us daily - Love Nat

    ReplyDelete