The Plant Whisperer!

The tall yellow flowers in the background of this photo are native sunflowers.  They can be aggressive and take over a space.  We always use the sticks and strings to conquer this giant.  The Herbal Husband and I tackled the job today.  At one point, The Herbal Husband was muttering to himself.  I asked what was wrong and he said he thought he had trained the stems to stand upright so that we could put the string around them easily and they would listen!  I can't make this stuff up!  I thought he is thinking he is the plant whisperer!  Well, hope you had a great day.  I had to mow the yard.  So I'm fading fast.  Will talk to you later.

My Birthday Flowers!

Just had to share my birthday flowers.  No, not from The Herbal Husband, but from our dear friends in Uruguay!  I'm a very lucky girl!  They are from Pro Flower.  They came very well wrapped and lots of instructions and information to make the flowers look good and last.  So if you need flowers for a special occasion or just as a treat, try them.  Well, we had a beautiful day in the 'Burgh and I was inside cleaning!  The Herbal Husband was out watering the garden so I would have gotten wet weeding!  He is sort of like a dog who hates the vacuum noise.  I know he probably has more than selective hearing.  He probably could use a hearing aid or two.  Oh well, hope you are enjoying your day.  Some of you are still without power and we are praying you are OK soon.  Talk to you later.

So Long, Irene

We were lucky. Very lucky. We took the warnings seriously and took all the necessary precautions. We are inland enough that I really expected lots of rain and wind. Memories of Agnes are pretty fuzzy, and this house on the hill is constantly battered with winds, so it seemed like a simple adventure that might call for some chocolate chip cookies and a movie.
As the storm headed up the coast, it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to be just another rain storm.
Evening brought the storm to our part of the country.
I'm used to high winds. 3 or 4 times a year I go out and gather up shingles from the yard. When the trees are bare of leaves, I can see 2 neighboring counties (Lebanon County from the front of the house, York from the back) and this hill that I live atop is about the highest place in the Lancaster county. It's great on the 4th of July for watching fireworks, but not so great in a hurricane.
The wind whipped around the house, howling and screaming, while waves of water slapped against the doors and windows. I didn't sleep very much during the night. As dawn broke, I pulled back the drapes and was surprised to see that we had lost some trees to the side of the house and half of the tree in the front yard. The doormats inside both of the doors in the front of the house were drenched from water that was driven in under the doors. Otherwise, everything was fine.
In the next town over, my brother's house in the middle of the woods came through fine, but after the storm passed, a tree brought down a power line, so they've been without power ever since and came over this morning to clean up before work.
In the meantime, the storm pressed north and friends up that way started reporting in. Some fared as well as we did. Some were in much worse shape. One was stranded in an ever rising swirl of a brown, murky, dangerous flood.
Lots of people who were not seriously impacted in areas that could have gotten a lot worse feel that the preparation was overkill. Mother Nature isn't all that easy to read though. She goes where she chooses and mere mortals can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. She spared some places while demolishing others.
This morning is a beautiful early autumn morning. It isn't officially autumn, but there's no mistaking the feel in the air. Things will return to normal eventually. Here it will only take a few days for most of us. To the far north it will take longer.

The sound gets wiped out by the breeze in the second part of the video, but it is showing the southern sky - blue and mostly clear.

A Day of Celebration and Multitasking!

Had to Make Blueberry Muffins for Breakfast!

The Herb Garden on My Birthday

A Candlelit Breakfast Table

Raspberries from the Garden in Our Fruit Bowl

Made Two Batches of Raspberry Jam

The Century Inn in Scenery Hill, PA

My First Course was Seared Scallops with Arugula Salad and Bacon!

A Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

A Lemon Tart for My Birthday

A Beautiful Sunset to End the Day

I feel kind of sad that I had such a fun and full day and others are in the dark and flooded out!  Hurricane Irene was a terror and stayed way too long in some parts of the country.  As you can see by the photos I did way too much on my birthday, but Mother Nature had us picking raspberries yesterday and I had to make jam today.  Raspberries don't keep, but it went quickly this morning.  Usually the early crop doesn't set up well for jam, but it was already set up before we left for dinner tonight.  I forgot to take a photo of my entree.  It was grilled salmon and The Herbal Husband had maple glazed pork.  Yes, I pigged out.  Back to writing everything down tomorrow.  I'm picking up a few extra pounds and need to focus on getting them off!  Always something!  I'm thinking of all of you on the East Coast that got battered by Irene!  Hope everything gets back to normal for you quickly!  Talk to you later.

Tansy Workshop at the Village Herb Shop and It's My 900th Post! WOW!

Tansy Blooming in My Garden

Getting Ready for the Tansy Workshop

Ant and Insect Repellent Bags

Kathleen Gips, Herbal Owner of the Village Herb Shop

A Fragrant Pet Pillow

Breaking Up Cinnamon Sticks!

Corn Cob Fixative Waiting for Essential Oil

Moth Chaser Closet Bags

The Beautiful Herb Garden at VHS

Look Out Kathleen, the Garlic Chives Will Take Over!  Not On Your Watch!

Wish I Had Noticed That Truck!

Lots of Statuary and Bird Baths to Look At

The Edible Flowers Garden

Well, my herbal companion, Bonnie and I went up to Chagrin Falls for the day and spent time with our dear friend and herbal teacher extraordinaire, Kathleen Gips at her first tansy workshop at the Village Herb Shop.  Both Bonnie and I have a thick file of recipes and information from Kathleen that we have accumulated over the years.  We keep learning so much from our visits.  We enjoyed lunch with Kathleen as well at Rick's Cafe.


Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) can be an invasive herb that should not be used as a culinary or medicinal plant.  Never ingest tansy.  It is toxic. Tansy contains thujone which is a relatively toxic compound, capable of inducing both convulsions and psychotic effects in human beings. If you have older herb books, they may have recipes using tansy.  Please do not use those recipes.  It was trial and error back in the early days and sometimes mostly error!

In the workshop today, we started by stripping the tansy leaves from the stems to make up 1/2 cup of material and added a couple of stems of lemongrass chopped up and placed half in one small muslin bag and the other half in another bag to make ant/insect repellent bags.  They can be used on windowsills or any place where ants are getting inside your house.  They are also known to repel flies.  We also made a pet pillow (Bonnie took mine home for her kitties.  I couldn't call The Herbal Husband a pet!  Could I?)   Then we also made a couple of moth chaser bags and they are already smelling the closets up nicely.  Kathleen clips all of her very aromatic herbs through the season, drys them on trays in her dining room and then places them in bins to be used for her workshops.  In this case, santolina, tansy, and southernwood to name a few.

In the link above, it talks about interplanting tansy with potatoes and that reduces the Colorado Potato Beetles by 60 to 100%.  That sounds like a very good thing!  They link the reduction in populations from the avoidance of the beetle to the essential oils of tansy.  I would say if you are going to plant it, plant it in a back corner of your garden.  It will take over in a short period of time.  Tansy did attract ladybugs in all stages a few years ago when I wanted the tansy moved!  Yikes!  That was a dilemma!

So a few photos of the workshop and then the Village Herb Shop's lovely gardens.  Kathleen has classes where you work in the gardens and learn about the herbs and how to maintain them.  They may be just about over for the season. You can check out the Village Herb Shop to see what events are upcoming.  They are definitely ready for Halloween!  Hope you had a good day.  Keeping our fingers and toes crossed for all of you on the east coast, especially all of my blogging friends up and down the United States.  Please stay safe and blog when you can to let us know you are OK!

Finding New Ways With Elecampane

Elecampane is said to be the herb of the fairies and I have no doubt why. Playful and whimsical, it will take up a corner of your garden with it's majestic leaves and bright yellow bursts of flowers. 




I've been growing elecampane in my garden for a few years now. In the fall I harvest the roots to infuse in honey and make into tinctures and elixirs. 

Most people do not adore the taste of the roots. Pungent and bitter, it's strong enough to wipe out intestinal pests. 


I love how it can bring up congested stuck mucus in the chest, wonderful for that winter time crud. Infuse it in honey and the pungent bitter taste is mellowed. 

Elecampane root infused in honey

I also add it in small amounts to digestive blends. It's warmth and pungency can spicen up a digestive bitters blend. 


This year I was especially taken with the flowers. By the end of the season I will have had over fifty blooms on my towering plant. Every time I visit the elecampane I am struck by how voraciously the bees attack the blooms. Literally crawling on top of each other to find the sweetness below. 

I've always wondered about using elecampane flowers as medicine. Thomas Avery Garran tells me that the Chinese use the flowers of different Inula species. And sometimes species are interchangeable and sometimes they aren't. 


As my own mind was full of elecampane flower musings I started to hear other herbalists echo this query. Can we use the flowers? Are they similar to the roots? 

In herbalism some of the best ideas come from following our intuition so today I headed down to the garden with my harvest basket in hand to pick the brightest flowers I could find. 


I had to gently shoo away the bees since they busily buzzed over every bloom. 

Back home I stuffed the flowers into a small jar and covered with this everclear. 

In a few weeks I'll be able to report my initial thoughts on these elecampane flowers. 

Common name: Elecampane
Botanical name: Inula helenium
Family: Asteraceae
Parts used: Root in western herbalism, TCM uses the flower of various species
Plant Energetics: Stimulating, warming, aromatic
Tastes: Bitter, pungent with a little sweetness
Plant Actions: Stimulating diaphoretic, stimulating expectorant, carminative, vermicide
Use for: Colds and flus, fever with chills, bronchitis, intestinal parasites, stagnant or damp digestion, asthma, imbalanced intestinal flora


You can buy your own elecampane plant at Crimson Sage Nursery. They ship all over the US. 


You can buy dried elecampane root at your local apothecary or Mountain Rose Herbs. 


Try the dried root infused in port! 


Have you used elecampane flowers? Done any experimenting yourself lately? Please share!

A Visit to Middachten

A Castle Still Owned and Lived in by Generations of the Same Family!

A Beautiful Setting

Even a Moat with Koi!

A Storks' Nest on the Chimney!

A View to the Garden

The Rose Garden

One of The Herbal Husband's Favorites, A Fig Tree!

One of My Favorites Growing Beneath the Fig, Nasturtiums!

Part of the Perennial Border

A Boxwood Hedged Garden

Our Dutch hosts treated us royally!  Middachten is a beautiful castle and gardens.  It has remained in the same family for generations and has never been sold.  It is still lived in today.  It was first mentioned in the history books in 1190 because of its defenses and it was destroyed in the late 1690's.  Once rebuilt around 1698, the gardens were also redesigned in the style of Versailles and in the late 18th century, the English garden was added.  It had a lovely herb garden and I will be sharing that part of the visit on The Herb Companion blog next week.  Hope you are having a great day.  It's off to see One Day with Anne Hathaway later today.  Will let you know how it is.  I did see The Help and liked it, but thought it could have been shorter.  It just dragged a little for me.  Talk to you later.

A Great Repeat Herbal Flower!

If you can keep deadheading your calendulas, you will have them until frost.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that I keep repeating myself!  Yikes!  Why don't you tell me these things?  You just let me blab away!  It's a slow garden year and I feel disconnected at the moment.  I spent a good part of yesterday weeding which was very fulfilling.  A good weeding always helps me get back in touch with my garden.  Maybe I should get back to traveling and take you with me?  More traveling tomorrow!

A New Favorite Basil!

Since we were away so much this summer, we didn't buy a lot of herbs like usual.  I found several sweet basils at the nursery and one 'Siam Queen', a spicier version with an anise flavor.  It is nicely ornamental with purple flowers and one of the leaf stems is variegated.  Usually variegation comes from a virus, a good one not a bad one, I think.  'Siam Queen' has added an interesting note to our tomato, feta, olive and basil salads sort of a Greek caprese salad.  The Herb Companion had a great article on the original Italian caprese salad in the last issue.  Hope you enjoy it.  It was a beautiful day in the 'Burgh and I was sitting in Home Depot trying to get my door order straightened out!  Ugh!  That's all I have about that!  Hope you had a great day!  Talk to you later!

Enough for Another Tree!

I think you remember the artemisia tree I made last Christmas.  Well, I got three bags full of artemisia this time so I think it may be even better than last year's.  I'll let you in on a secret last year's is still in the dining room.  The Herbal Husband thought it was a good every day decoration.  Well, after how he decorates.  Let me remind you if you have forgotten, The Herbal Husband's Holiday Decorating.  So it is looking hopeful that I will have a much fuller Christmas tree or maybe we should call it an everyday tree this year.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Late Summer (OMG) Garden!

The native monarda (Monarda fistulosa) is blooming nicely.  It is leaning a bit trying to get the most sun.  We propped it up with some sticks and strings this afternoon.  We had some blooming when Jekka was here in June and now the late summer (OMG) plants are blooming away.  Having a long vacation in the middle of summer has thrown me completely for an herbal loop!  I'm slowly finding all of the weeds that were just about to bloom.  They can disguise themselves very well.  There was one weed in the raspberries that was at least 7-1/2' tall and had a stem like a small tree trunk.  Had to make sure I got that one out before it sprang forth and multiplied!  Rain tomorrow.  Hope to get my handouts for Seven Springs finished.  Will show you more garden photos tomorrow.

Did someone say contest? Cultured Food Life!

Update: Congrats to Sue Smith!
If you want the book but didn't win, there's a link at the bottom of this entry to purchase. Thanks everyone!

Many subscribers have gotten their copies of The Essential Herbal by now, so they perhaps have seen the wonderful review by Danette Cathcart of "Cultured Food Life" a book on making probiotic foods. It just so happens that I have a copy here that I've been trying to figure out how to give away. The best idea I've come up with is that I'd love to see people comment, letting us know their very favorite cultured food or drink. Comments left here or on the facebook page for TEH will be entered into the drawing until the 26th.In the meantime, I highly recommend that you get to know Donna on Facebook at Cultured Food Life, where she shares information and recipes on a regular basis. She has provided us with the following recipe to enjoy while we think about what our answer for the contest will be:

Rosemary Sage Lemon Pickles

These pickles are my secret weapons.
If you haven’t heard of lacto fermented pickles you are missing out.. They are super easy to make, no canning just chopping and a little time sitting on your counter to perform their magic. They are loaded with good bacteria’s that turn these pickles into super foods. You don’t know how many times I have used the pickles and the juice themselves to cure a cold, flu and stomach ache. Acidifying bacteria make these pickles sour and load them with microbes that not only protect the food but also in turn transform you. Loading your body with much needed probiotics this is a food you always need to have on hand. They are delicious and unique and they will change you from the inside out.

Rosemary Sage Lemon Pickles

½ cup chives, chopped
2 cups cucumber, sliced
2 to 3 sprigs rosemary
4 to 8 sage leaves
1/2 Veggie pck or 1/4 cup kefir whey
1 tablespoon kosher salt
zest of one lemon
cold water to fill the jar

2 to 3 clean grape leaves, oak leaves, or cherry leaves, raspberry or blackberry leaves. (There are tannins in the leaves that make the pickles crunchy. You can leave them out but it makes a big difference in how crisp the pickles are.)

1. Slice cucumber into ¼-inch rounds. Tightly pack sliced cucumber and herbs in a 16-ounce clean glass jar until about ¾ full. Add cultures and extra water. Leave an inch or two of room at the top of the jar. The pickles will ferment bubbly and expand.
Let sit on counter tightly capped for 3 days and then place in refrigerator to further culture. They are ready to eat after about a week but keep fermenting and age much like a fine wine. I like them at about 2 to 3 weeks.

Http://www.culturedfoodlife.com

Click here if you can't wait and want to order a copy

Here is the link for the kefir whey
on the recipe. http://blog.culturedfoodlife.com/2011/07/19/how-to-make-whey-to-cultured-foods.aspx
And for the 1/2 veggie packages.
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/caldwell-starter-culture-for-fresh-vegetables.html
Both of these are on the same line as an ingredient in the recipe.