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June 2007
We had a very pleasant day for the workshop,
despite the insistent spells of rain. We made plantain double infused oil
using greater plantain and narrow-leafed plantain which my father had
collected for me the week before during a dry day. It had been drying spread
out on the spare bed and looked almost dry, but it was amazing the large
amount of water on the inside of the cook-pot lid!
We made some elderflower tea, lemon balm tea and some red clover and rose
petal tea made from a mixture of dog rose and apothecary's rose petals. We
also nibbled yarrow leaves while we were talking about its many uses and
studied the star flowers of the St John's wort.
Luckily the calendula was just coming into flower, so one of the
participants was able to make her calendula tincture from both fresh flower
heads and dried petals. The other participant decided on an elderflower
tincture and gathered enough to take home to make a cordial as well.
They also wanted to try making infused oil at home, so they went away with
fresh comfrey and mugwort.
I'd not been down to the Sanctuary for two months because the May workshop
was cancelled and was horrified by the rise of weeds and plants growing
where they shouldn't. The herb beds resembled some kind of tropical jungle
with large, structural plants beating everything else for space, light and
volume. The patch of ox-eye daisies I planted so carefully never germinated
- probably due to the lack of light caused by the enormous angelica leaves.
I was really frustrated because I have been wanting to grow them for years
and getting the seed was a real palaver.
Second year
woad plant prior to flowering
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The goats rue had fallen all over the
bergamot plants, so that was culled in an attempt to save about £60 worth of
plants. I removed all the seed heads from the angelica - which took about an
hour in the rain on Sunday morning, did some weeding and removed the woad
from the bed by the fence before it all self seeds. The mullein are coming
out in flower - beautiful tall yellow spikes, but the leaves are all
mildewed and I despair of harvesting the flower stalks for drying. I also
planted out milk thistle seedlings which my mother had heeled into the
ground in their polystyrene boxes, which was not helping them!
The constant wet has meant my father could not do his normal mowing either
of the path down the fields nor of the "Sanctuary" itself. Walking through
two fields of three foot soaking wet long grass several times over two days
was not fun and I've pulled some muscles in my right foot arch so it's now
painful.
Such is the price we pay for growing things! |
