Is It Me or Are These Plants Leaning?

I don't always buy this plant for the garden.  Every time I do though I think I need to buy this plant more often!  Its common name is the Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha).  It is definitely an annual for us!  The blooms have this velvet feel.  Sometimes it doesn't get to bloom because we have an early frost.  It is a bonus this year, but it is leaning because it is in the shade of the chestnut tree most of the day and it really wants and needs full sun!  Note to self to plant out in the front garden between the daylilies.  I planted three like the experts say and it does make a statement, but Tony Avant from Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina in a talk said that a drift of one is acceptable also!  He has a great nursery and is a very good and funny speaker.  Their catalog covers are a hoot!  You can send 10 stamps or a box of chocolates to get a catalog.  As Tony says, 'They prefer getting chocolates!" Would like to get there some day.  Here is a closeup of the flower.

Herb Garden Chaos!

The growing season is rapidly coming to an end here!  We may get our first killing frost tonight.  I let the herb garden get a bit out of control this season!  You know Virgos and their control issues.  Soo I need to get out in the garden and cut some herbs.  Will talk to you later.

The Herbal Digging Has Begun!

I said to The Herbal Husband last week, "We need to dig up the rosemary that is along my rock wall in my herb garden.  It didn't grow too big.  An ideal candidate to come into the garage!"  Well, we got that rosemary and this one too!  Hopefully, they will both survive.  They are both in the house.  Rosemary does better in an unheated room or garage with windows and with a southern exposure.  One is in the basement and the other is in the bathroom!  They get powdery mildew very easily in the winter indoors.  I will be lobbying to get them both in the garage soon!

We also dug up this favorite plant, lemon verbena.  Always have to have one in the house for the winter.  That guarantees especially if you live in the northern part of the U.S., that you will have a lemon verbena in your garden at the earliest point for planting.  Sometimes that is not until Memorial Day for us.  It cannot go out until all danger of frost is gone!  Usually it loses all of its leaves when it comes inside.  Sometimes we have fresh leaves that hang on until Christmas.  We cut the plant back then if there are still leaves.  Then in February it wakes up and starts new shoots and by the time it is ready to go out into the garden, we have made at least a couple of lemon verbena bread recipes!  Here is the recipe if you missed it!

here comes coolness (hot beverages)

First, the Nov/Dec 09 issue of TEH will be going up on the website on Wednesday. Don't miss out - subscribe or renew today! Medicinal herbs and teas for winter, holiday crafts, figs, cold and flu remedies, the herbs of Latin America, Cardamom - and SO much more - are in these pages, just waiting to guide you through the wonderful world of herbs.

Now... it is getting cooler here with a frost coming tonight (most likely). Many of our friends are already waking to hard frosts and some have even seen snow. Time to think about some nice hot drinks, don't you think?

American Cranberry Tea (Susanna Reppert)
1 qt cranberries
4 qt water
2 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c cinnamon candies
juice of 3 oranges and 3 lemons
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
Bring cranberries and one quart of water to a boil. In another pan, bring three quarts of water and sugar to a boil. Add cinnamon candies, cloves, and spices and simmer. Put cranberries through a sieve and combine with other liquid. Before serving, add juice of oranges and lemons. Serve hot. 12-15 servings.

Rest Easy Tea (Pam Ferry)
1/4 c dried spearmint
1/4 c dried lemon grass
1 c lemon balm
1/2 c dried catnip
3/4 c dried chamomile flowers
Blend all herbs thoroughly and store in an airtight container away from heat and light.
To make tea, use 2 tsp of blend for each cup of boiling water. You can prepare the tea in a tea ball, or mix the loose herbs with water in a tea pot, and then strain tea into a cup.

Instant Chai (Maryanne Schwartz)
3/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c powdered honey
1/2 c unsweetened iced tea mix (like Lipton)
2 c nonfat dry milk
1/2 c non-dairy creamer
1 t powdered ginger
1 t powdered cinnamon
1/2 t powdered clove
1/2 t powdered cardamom
First pour the extract in with the sugar and stir it around to break up the lumps and let it dry before mixing it in with the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients together in a blender or food processor and blend until you get a powdery texture - about 1 minute. This will make about 1 gallon of prepared chai. Lastly if you don't want to use iced tea mix you can mix all the other ingredients and suggest brewing regular tea and mix about 2 rounded Tbsp of mix to the brewed tea.

Mulling Mix (Susan Evans)
4 sticks of cinnamon, 2-3"
2 heaping T dried orange peel
2 t cloves, whole
1 t allspice, whole
1/2 tsp peppercorns
Combine ingredients and use one tablespoon of the mixture for every quart of wine or juice. Sweeten with 2 tablespoons of sugar or honey if you wish. Gently simmer for about 15 minutes. You can strain the mixture at this point, or skip the straining process by enclosing the herbs in a muslin drawstring bag. In this case you add 10 minutes to the simmering time. Ground nutmeg and ginger can also be added.

Chocolate Ecstasy Cocoa
2 cups milk
5 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 cup chopped dark chocolate
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Gently heat all the ingredients over a low flame, stirring constantly, until the cocoa is creamy and bubbly. If you have leftovers when the kids are done (not likely), try adding a splash of Drambuie, Grand Marnier, or Creme de Menthe. It's killer!
Geri Burgert

There --- these recipes are excerpted from past issues. They ought to get you warmed up for those chilly days that are coming!

Joyfully Blooming in the Garden!

I know I write about certain plants too much, but you can never write too much about roses!  This is the 'Fairy' rose.  It is a polyantha rose and is a cross between Rosa chinensis and Rosa multiflora roses. Hybridized in 1932 by Ann Bentall of England, one of the few female hybridizers of the day.  It blooms from mid-June to right now and later if we don't have a frost in western Pennsylvania.

On the Fine Gardening magazine website, I did find a list of problems it can encounter:  aphids, leafhoppers, spider mites, scale, caterpillars, sawfly larvae, cane borers, Japanese beetles, rose stem girders, rose midges, rose slugs, rose chafers, leaf-cutting bees, black spot, rust, powdery mildew, crown gall, canker, dieback, downy mildew, viruses.  In my experience it is just joyful when it blooms and I have been lucky not to have the problems except for Japanese beetles that Fine Gardening mentioned.  Hope you are enjoying your roses blooming where you may be!  Talk to you later.

Herbal Update-Nasturtium Peppercorn Vinegar

I promised myself I was going to do more updating this year.  Not let unfinished stories hang in herbal space.  Someone asked in my first post about the nasturtium peppercorn vinegar placing new herbs in the finished vinegar.  I never do that and this is partially the reason.  It gets to be a mucky mess!  I think with edible flowers they are fragile in the first place and collapse in the second place.

Hardy herbs like rosemary, thyme or even tarragon and basil hold up much better if you want to decorate your vinegar bottle with a fresh sprig or two.  Tarragon and basil become pickled and can be used in a recipe as you would use fresh.  You can even give them a rinse if you don't want too much of a vinegar taste.  Here is the finished vinegar.  I had a tasting for my last audience and they liked it!  No, they didn't have a shot of vinegar!  They dipped a sugar cube into the vinegar and then sucked the flavor from the sugar cube.  It works quite well.  I think it is a beautiful color and the taste is peppery from the flowers, leaves and peppercorns.  It adds an additional layer of flavor to a meat or vegetable stew.

Hydrosols for Skin Care

12 Best Hydrosols for Skin Care – and which are Best for You
Excerpt from The Essential Herbal Magazine Sept/Oct '07
Marge Clark
Nature’s Gift Aromatherapy
www.naturesgift.com

Hydrosols are among the gentlest and safest aromatics for use in caring for your complexion. We use them as toners (saturate a cotton ball and wipe your face carefully to remove all traces of cleanser), refreshing “spritzers” during the day to revive your make-up (or your spirits), soothing and calming anti-inflammatories to ease the redness of rosacea or sunburn, or gentle anti-bacterials to help calm troubled skin and acne. Hydrosols may be used as the water phase of a cream or lotion. If you want just a tiny amount, and don’t want to go to the effort of emulsifying the ingredients, you can try an instant “non-cream”. In a one ounce bottle, pour approximately 2/3 ounce of your chosen hydrosol. Top the bottle off with one/third ounce of your favorite skincare carrier oil. Shake well, and apply a few drops to your freshly washed face. This mixture makes a wonderful night-time moisturizer. Basically it gives you the ingredients of a cream or lotion, without any need to emulsify.

Use your favorite hydrosol as the water portion of a simple clay mask, or to remove a mask.

The wide range of available hydrosols make it easy to select the appropriate distillates for your particular skin.
Carrot Seed Hydrosol: Just as Carrot Seed essential oil is one of the most recommended treatments for mature skin, Carrot Seed Hydrosol is highly recommended for treating mature and wrinkled skin. Carrot Seed Hydrosol is also reputed to have cellular regenerative power and thus recommended for easing razor burns and irritations.)

Chamomile (Roman) Hydrosol Soothing and relaxing, useful for helping dry, flaking itchy skin from rashes or eczema.

Cistus Hydrosol (Rock Rose): Cistus water has been recommended as a toner for wrinkled, mature skin since it can “plump up” skin cells and erase fine lines. Cistus is also an astringent, so would be useful both for oily skin, and as an aftershave toner since it can help stop bleeding of minor cuts and scrapes.

Rose Geranium: Geranium is thought to be a cellular regenerative, thus Rose Geranium Hydrosol is a toner of choice for mature skin, or the perfect liquid to use in creating a facial masque. Like Geranium EO, Rose Geranium Hydrosol is recommended for balancing combination skin, since it balances both oily and dry skin.
Suzanne Catty says that it is a humectant, wonderful for dry skin, or mixed into a clay and honey mask.
She also recommends it as an anti-inflammatory, useful for sunburns, Rosacea, rashes, any condition where redness or heat is present. (I think a touch of Helichrysum hydrosol would increase the effectiveness.)

Helichrysum Hydrosol: Helichrysum italicum essential oil is the most powerfully anti-inflammatory essential oil, and an essential component in Rosacea and bruise blends. The gentler helichrysum hydrosol is the perfect toner for Rosacea, couperose (thread veins) and inflamed or irritated skin. I've heard back from people using Helichrysum Hydrosol and Roman Chamomile hydrosol together to sooth sunburns, radiation burns, rashes, skin irritations of all types. Our clients rave about the combination in keeping eczema manageable. In spite of its cost, Helichrysum Hydrosol has traditionally been our best selling hydrosol, month in, month out. Nothing else that I know of is its match for gentle care for sensitive skin.

Lavender Hydrosol: The all purpose floral water. Lavender doesn’t excel at the treatment of any single skin condition, but it is helpful to almost every skin type. Lavender hydrosol is a very gentle antibacterial, making it useful in treating acne, and can help balance both oily and dry complexions. Lavender water can help ease the pain of sunburn and windburn. Please note, most lavender hydrosols do not smell as pleasant as the essential oil. We have found one Lavender Mailette hydrosol from California that smells delightful, but we suggest getting a small sample of most Lavender waters before investing in a large quantity.

Spike Lavender Hydrosol: Spike Lavender is the most powerfully antibacterial member of the Lavender family. We can see using this delightfully soft scented floral water as a toner/wash for oily skin or acne. We’ve tested it out with some teenaged boys. They all liked it and didn't think it smelled too "girly" for their use. We are experimenting with a blend of witch hazel (the kind from the drugstore, with alcohol added) and Spike Lavender Hydrosol for an aftershave for troubled skin. We had expected this lovely water to smell camphorous, as does the oil which is its co-distillate, however, we were pleasantly surprised by the soft herbal scent that we all loved. Unanimously, we prefer its aroma to that of our true Lavender hydrosol. We've read that the hydrosol is also helpful in easing the symptoms of Psoriasis and Eczema, either used as a compress or as an ingredient in a lotion or cream. (I would mix it with helichrysum hydrosol for this purpose!)

Melissa Hydrosol: Melissa is a great toner/astringent for oily skin. I don't recommend the essential oil in skin care since it can be irritating. This is where the gentleness of the hydrosol makes it the delivery method of choice. One staff member uses it as a morning toner for her oily skin and says that the excess oil “just vanishes.” One client writes that it has helped her hormonal acne tremendously.
Jeanne Rose writes that Melissa hydrosol has powerful uses in skin care products, that it is antifungal, relieves skin infection and breakouts and can cure herpes.

Rose Hydrosol: Rosewater stimulates the skin, heightening the blood flow. Rosewater controls and balances sebum production, making it useful for both dry and oily skin. It can balance and restore the skin's Ph and helps tighten pores. Its antibacterial properties help fight acne giving troubled skin a gentle, rather than a harsh treatment. It is reputed to be useful in the treatment of all sorts of dermatitis. Suzanne Catty recommends blending Rose Hydrosol with Cistus (Rockrose) Hydrosol as an anti-wrinkle treatment.

Teatree Hydrosol: All the anti-fungal, anti-bacterial effects of Tea Tree Essential Oil in a delicately herbal scented hydrosol. A superb toner for skin with acne; a mouthwash for infection or for thrush, a baby wipe if baby has a yeast infection, a deodorant spray, a base for a foot spray, washing out wounds or cuts, treating hotspots on dogs or cats...the list goes on.

Witch Hazel Hydrosol: Soothing and anti-inflammatory, anti fungal and anti-bacterial. A wonderful toner for teenage skin, as well as a free radical scavenger recommended for anti-aging skin treatments. One of my mentors uses Witch Hazel Hydrosol in all of her creams and lotions for mature skin. Suzanne Catty says Witch Hazel hydrosol is the most antioxidant of the hydrosols and recommends it for psoriasis, eczema, cracked or blistered skin, for treating insect bites, and as the treatment of choice for varicose veins and hemorrhoids.

Yarrow Hydrosol: This cleansing and astringent hydrosol is one of the toners of choice for skin with acne. It is also useful as an anti-inflammatory for inflamed or irritated skin (although I would reach for witch hazel or helichrysum in addition to the Yarrow.)
I have used Yarrow Hydrosol to ease the sting of sunburn or other inflammation, and been amazed at the results. We’ve heard from clients that Yarrow hydrosol is almost a miracle cure for any sort of itching skin condition. It almost instantly soothes the itch of insect bites, eczema, poison ivy, sunburn... a wonderfully effective skin soother. I've been told that the hydrosol, used as a compress or as the water phase of a lotion is effective in treating both psoriasis and eczema, soothing the itching, calming inflammation, and assisting the basal cells of the skin in healing.

A Visit to Sweet Remembrances Tearoom!

We had a delightful visit with Nancy Reppert at Sweet Remembrances Tearoom in Mechanicsburg, PA. It was unfortunately too brief! It was like a drive by tea. Don't do this if you ever get to visit! We had a wedding to attend at 2 PM so every moment counted. So here is the menu because Nancy gives you a wonderful selection and you will not go away hungry. The menu changes with the seasons and holidays!

The Herbal Husband had Earl Gray tea (Predictable, but he was happy.) and I had Blue Lady. It has a delightful combination of kiwi, strawberry and black tea. It is wonderful!

We started with a fall apple harvest salad. Then the savories were cheesy corn muffins with ham and apricot preserves, ranch chicken salad sandwiches, chocolate zucchini bread, apple harvest tea sandwiches on raisin bread, the scones were a traditional English cream scone and a cinnamon chip scone with mock clotted cream, cinnamon honey butter, peach preserves(The Herbal Husband loved Nancy's scones. I kept raving about them and he agreed. They are the best scones!), orange slices and dessert was raisin triangles, pumpkin tartlets (The Herbal Husband loved these!) and ginger cookies. Excellent, excellent tea! No matter what time of day you have it! We look forward to visiting again in the future!  Here is a link to find out about upcoming events.   Hope you enjoy the show!

One of My Favorite Shopping Bags!

Jules from MoonCat Farms and I are on the same wave length, sort of.   I still like paper shopping bags and this one may be extinct in the near future.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, The Herbal Husband and I got to have a brief excursion to Susanna's Rosemary House and Nancy's Sweet Remembrances Tearoom.  We only spent about ten minutes with Susanna, but she wrote how amazed she was that I could pick out the best herb books for sale on the shelf!  This bag was full!  It was great fun.  I promise we will spend more time with you next time, Susanna!  Please don't forget to patronize your local herb farms and shops, small family nurseries and tearooms.  They always have lots of fun for your children, grandchildren and even you!

TEH - Under the Sun (revisited)

The other day I was talking to a woman who had recently retired and finally had time to grow herbs. She'd put in a lush and lavish garden this summer, but now she was at a loss as to what to do with them. I asked her what she was most interested in - cooking, home remedies, decorating with herbs, their scents, teas... there are so many areas. She wanted to learn it all, and she was willing to buy several books, figuring that she'd need a book for each of the various specialties. There are MANY great books out there. For this particular person, and all the people like her, Under the Sun is my best recommendation (available at our website: www.ym-health.blogspot.com ). To begin with, it contains 5 years of spring and summer issues of the magazine. We added some things, culled some others, and wound up with a spectacular blend of herbal knowledge that everyone will find useful, from the beginner to the more experienced herbalist.
Hundreds of recipes, scores of crafts, tons of remedies and instructions on how to make and use them are all included. Well over 200 pages (8 1/2 x 11!) of information.
Since she and I were talking in person, I was able to hand her a copy. She looked through the table of contents and said, "Oh! I have to have this book!" For only $24.95, I tend to agree. My personal copy is already getting worn.
~~~~~~~
Excerpts:

Bruise Butter from Meredith Corwyn
1 1/2 C calendula flowers

8 oz pure anhydrous lanolin
6 oz coconut oil

1/4 to 1/2 C comfrey root

3 or 4 whole cloves

Put all ingredients in a covered casserole. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour. Strain through a colander lined with cheese cloth into containers. Cool and label. It can be done on top of the stove, but it burns easily and the odor is powerful. The oven is easier and less risky.

Herbed Lemoncello
Maggie Howe
prairielandherbs.com
Delicious, heady, and strong! A wonderful summer drink. This is a herbed variation of "regular" Italian lemoncello.

6-8 large lemons (organic, if you can find them)
4 cups 100 proof alcohol (can use everclear or vodka, whichever you prefer or is easiest to find)
1 lg. handful roughly chopped fresh lemon verbena or lemon balm
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

Peel lemons, leaving as much of the white "pith" on the lemon as you can.. Place the lemon peel and all other ingredients in a sun tea jar or widemouth glass jar. Let steep in a dark place for at least 3 weeks, shaking or stirring occasionally.
Next, combine 2 cups sugar and 3 cups distilled water in a large pot, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until sugar is all dissolved and the mixture is slightly thickened.
Strain out your vodka/herb/lemon mixture, using several layers of cheesecloth, or a coffee filter. Combine the sugar mixture and the infused vodka back into your (now clean) jar, and let it sit in a cool, dark place for at least a month. Finally - drink and enjoy!

There. That's a teensy tiny taste of some of the things you'll find - as well as gardening ideas, plant advice, how to make herbal preparations, and so much more. So if you're looking for a terrific book that covers a lot of stuff - check out Under the Sun!