Herbal Helpers for Tumultuous Times - an Herbal Retreat

Mom and I attended an herbal retreat (plant class I call it) that was called "Herbal helpers for Tumultuous Times" about a month ago in Palmer.  I mentioned it in an earlier blog about the travelling of the "People Quilt", as the quilt had gone with me for sleeping and comfort.

The class was taught in part by a lady named Janice Schofield and she lives now in Australia, but had once lived in Alaska for many years.   She is the author of a number of books on plants and harvesting plants in the wild as well as their medicinal uses.  If you Google her you can find volumes of information and reference her books (click the link on her name for a class information flyer).

The other teacher/leader of the class was Ellen VanDevisse of Good Earth Garden School.  She lives full time in Palmer at Artemesia Acres.  A wonderful little, "zero waste" permaculture farm.

Here is Janice getting us ready to harvest Devils Club at the Matanuska Park in Palmer, where the Park maintenance had been creating a new trail and were going to cut a wide swath of the stuff down, so it was providence that  we were having the class at the same time so we could make use of a product that would otherwise have been wasted!  My pictures from the actually processing of the Devils club have been lost somehow so Ill be going over that in another blog after I've had time to  recreate it.

Here she is (in the red) talking to us about Cottonwood and how to harvest the buds for salves and other medicinal uses.  It was a jam packed class, full to the brim with information and hands on education about plants.  

,

This is our sitting circle at the plant class.  It was a place that we would all post up and tell about why we were there and what we hoped to learn on the first evening as well as where we took our meals.  On the second day it was the place where we talked about our personal herbal helper (as I said before mine was Detox Tea).  Others had helpful tips, or recipes, or essential oils that they used and told about.  It was an amazing group of people and ideas.

Here is one of the other group members herbal helper and I have put it on my list of things to try soon!  As I am back at the school working too now, there is a lot of flu and such going around so I will make use of this one too, along with the Fire Cider - you will learn about that later!

If you get a chance to read some of Janice Schofield's or Ellen VanDevisse materials or to take a class from either of them - do it!  Dive in past your comfort zone (which this was way outside of mine) and make some new friends, learn something new and maybe get a little bit grounded along the way!

Herbal Harvest - Oregano

A few weeks ago I went with my mom to an herbal retreat.  I mentioned it in my previous post (see here).  We were asked to bring our favorite herbal helper - whatever we use to help us through our stressful, crazy, mental and physical challenges.  I took my detox tea recipe (see it here) and a batch of it so that everyone could sample it if they chose.  Included in this batch I also used Oregano.  The reason for that is that Oregano is a super beneficial herb to help with sinus and respiratory issues.  Reed and I had both been having issues with that during the time that the class was happening.  Just add two teaspoons of dry or 1 tablespoon or fresh oregano to the detox tea recipe.  It is a great natural way to solve sinus issues without chemicals.

Oregano is a wonderful little herb that will grow almost anywhere it seems!  It is not a perennial here in Alaska, but it will cooperate growing outside in containers or in the ground and it can also be brought inside to help you all winter long if placed in a window with light and a fair amount of heat.

Above shows an oregano that lives in a terra cotta container (it actually lives in a black pot inside the terra cotta one), right outside the greenhouse door.  Another of the uses of Oregano is as an insect repellant and since I have two lovely Birch trees outside the greenhouse that sometimes draw aphids I like to have the Oregano as a little buffer to help keep them out of the greenhouse.

It is also a great way to have it handy to harvest a little whenever you have need of it!

Use your herb snips (or any scissors really) to snip the stems just above a two leaf set (that way it will produce two more stems for you to harvest later).  I know there are "rules" about harvesting herbs - do it in the morning, once they are dry of dew and before they start to flower - I say poo poo to that!  Harvest when you have time and the plant is big enough to handle it!  Don't be afraid to snip it!  It will be fine!

I like to bundle the stems together and wrap them with a rubber band or one of the bread ties and then clip a binder clip onto that so that herb can hang to dry.  I use this method for most of my herbs - thyme is the only one that doesnt really lend itself to this method as it tends to drop its tiny leaves all over the place (more in another blog about thyme).

Above two photos show the Oregano tied and binder clipped ready to hang.  My drying rack is so techno advanced!  See below....

Gotcha!  It is really just tacks pushed into the wood beneath the cupboards and the binder clips hand on them - effectively drying the herbs!  Simple but works great!

The above photo shows Sage and two bundles of Oregano in various stages of drying.  I harvest a little any time it needs it and bundle it up.  After the bundles are dry I strip the leaves off and store them - some in jars in the spice cabinet and some in bags in the apothecary cabinet.

This is a great way to have enough herb that you grew yourself to have all winter, even if you don't have room to bring your herbs inside for the winter to use.  I hope you can find a spot for at least a few pots - it doesn't take much.  Have fun with it - even if the only place you have is in the bathroom - it'll make the bathroom smell great when the shower steam hits your plants!

Happy Herbing!

The further adventures of The People Quilt!

A few months ago I introduced you to the People Quilt - A wonderful comfort quilt made for me by my family members and delivered to me at a family quilt retreat.  I said it was going to be my personal version of "Flat Stanley" in quilt form and it has been!  So far it has had a few adventures - most recently it went with me and mom to a medicinal plant class in Palmer called "Herbal Helpers for Tumultuous Times".  The class was an overnight at  "Artemesia Acres" off of Farm Loop Road and part of the "Good Earth Garden School".

The class was wonderful - we did some crafts using flowers and fabric (right up mom and I's alley), we made some food, and we learned how to harvest and use devils club which is something I have always wanted to do but wasn't quite brave or knowledgeable enough to do.  We tested out Ellen's new sauna (it was delightful), and we also shared great company with 17 other people who are like minded in wanting to know more about medicinals and plants.  It was badass!  Ill have more on that later in another blog - stay tuned!

Here it is in the tent with mom.  We took a blow up mattress along as well and I had a little fleece blanket that I had also taken to use underneath me.  The blow up mattress was great but it has one small problem - it had flocking type material on the top and so everything stuck to it!  We decided next time we use it we will bring a sheet to put over it to prevent being stuck to the mattress all night in one position!  Who woulda thunk it?  Not us!  It was beautiful weather - 80+ degrees during the day, but at night it got right chilly and the humidity was up so everything drew damp!  By 5:30 in the morning mom had had enough and she got up - I didn't realize it at the time but she was cold!  I would have shared the people quilt if I knew because I was toasty warm, but I though she had to go to the bathroom.  

After the class was over and we were wrapping up the tent and our things the People Quilt got a little show n tell.  Some of the ladies who knew I was struggling commented that there is sure a lot of people who love you - and it is true.  Literally a blanket of love!

Stay tuned for further adventures of the People Quilt!

Its in the Bag!!! A grocery bag upcycle.

Recently an article ran in our local newspaper discussing the issue of plastic grocery store bags and what a bane they are to the planet.  The article discusses a 10 cent tax on them here in the Matanuska Borough.  You can read it here:  https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/mat-su/2017/08/01/mat-su-will-hear-proposal-to-tax-plastic-shopping-bags/

After my oldest son passed away we had a lot of his clothing (in addition to the SOCKS) to go through so some of my family came to the shop with me to help go through things.  What I wanted to keep or donate or things that needed to wait until I could see them without crying.  One of the people who came to help was Aunt Deanna - she is my aunt by marriage and is younger than either Chad or I.  Its funny how it works.  She asked if she could take some of the T shirts for she and her daughter. 

On my birthday she brought me a couple of these:

They are reusable grocery bags made out of old t shirts!  They are awesome and if you don't have any Im going to show you how to make them.  There are also tutorials on YouTube and on Pinterest as well.  

My son was a welder so a lot of his shirts had slag holes in them, so we had quite a few that were available for use in this instance.  

Start with the sleeves of the shirt and cut them off leaving about 2" on each side of the shoulder seam.

Then do the same at the inside (collar) part of the shirt.  On this one the shirt has words so I just cut down to that level so you can still read the words on it - "harden the F*#k up" it says at the bottom - not a school shirt and it had a big welding slag hole in the back too.  That was one of my sons favorite sayings so I had to keep it.

I discarded the sleeve parts but Im sure there is some use for them - Ill work on that - you know how I hate to throw anything away that might have a great upcycle!

Once the sleeves are cut away, turn the shirt inside out, even out the bottom of the shirt and start making cuts - about the length of your scissors all the way across the shirt through both layers. 

Begin at one edge and tie the layers together like you would tie the first knot of a shoe.

 

After you have gone all the way across start back across the shirt and tie together every other tie - alternate them so that they sort of braid across the bottom.  You may have to make a double knot - I did on this one as the material is a little bit thin and has a slippery finish kind of.

It will look something like this when you are done.  

Turn your bag right side out and you are done!  

These two on top of the one I just made are two that Aunt Deanna made for me.

You can sew them and hem them if it makes you crazy that they have raw edges but it is not necessary.  You can wash them just like you would a t shirt.  If the knots come out you can just tie them back up - easy.

Not only are you saving money but you are working towards a better day on the planet too!  

These are light weight as well and they hold about 4 plastic bags worth of groceries as well - as long as you can carry that much.  

Happy Shopping!