Hand Sanitizer

In March, I began making hand sanitizer for my husband to carry with him to work.  Initially I started out with rubbing alcohol, glycerin, witch hazel, and essential oils, but we found this combination very drying to the skin, so I made a few changes. The CDC recommends minimums of 60% ethanol or 70% isopropyl...

Skullcap

I have Skullcap growing that I started from seed indoors under lights, then moved to a place in our garden near echinacea and lovage which provide a semi-shady micro-climate from their tall stalks in summer and also keep the ground cool and moist.  The Skullcap plants have been spreading from their initial spot by way of runners and have since moved and colonized three feet away, together with mint.

Bare Necessities: Tincturing

It's the heat of what's been a scorching day, the kind where one steps outside and within a few steps sweat begins to bead up around the hairline and next thing you know it's in your eyebrows, and you're glad to be wearing a skirt to wipe your face with. I'm headed to a slope...

Plantain

Plantain is a most noble plant to be sure. 

Dandelion

Dandelion and violets were two of the first wildflowers that I worked with as allies; I love that their flowers are complementary colors too.  When we lived in town, my neighbor Josephine, a lovely elderly woman with violet tinted hair, gave me permission to pick both from her (unsprayed) lawn before Teddy, the mower boy...

Burdock

Burdock grows easily where I live.  Under stands of tulip poplar where woods meet grass, burdock’s right there at the edges of the hedge row.  There are clumps in corners outside our house, by doorways, near the chicken coop, under apple trees, we get caught up in burs and our dog gets clumps in her furs.  My children used to toss the burs at one another then come inside for detangling, ouch!

Knotweed and Morsels

Warm rainy days, cool nights, lilac's blooming, spring green bright. This is the time, after forsythia has blazed golden, gone to green, and given her petals to the ground, that the first tips of nettles emerge. It is now that most of the burdock leaves have grown enormous; the smaller ones are what make for...