The wheel of the year is turning and each day we inch towards the start of spring. Still, nights are cold and days are dry before the spring rains arrive. The garden is being planted and tended. There is plenty to enjoy about this season but, if I am honest, late winter can be a bit boring as an herbalist
There are only a handful of herbs to be harvested and most of those aren't as potent medicinally as they will be when spring and summer roll around. In an effort to gain some enthusiasm during this last month of cold weather and gloomy days, I am going through my herbal apothecary to review some of the dried herbs I have from the last harvest seasons and using them up before springtime.
Scrolling through my camera roll and reminiscing on the herbs I collected spring through early fall... Seeing the vibrant colors of the fresh or freshly dried herbs brings brightness to otherwise grey days. Looking back at all that I did last year makes me feel like a better herbalist and gives me inspiration on where I can improve.
Ginkgo leaves, dried pennyroyal (poleo), and lavender flower bundles. Some of these herbs were destined for sale and put into little bags with pretty labels in a local shop. Others I still have in jars on my shelves and I really need to put them to use before I harvest more in a few months.
The most tedious aspect of this review was going through my herbal apothecary:
Consolidating herbs, cleaning out jars and getting a good idea of all the herbal material that I have. This was a task I had been putting off for weeks, but, every day that the apothecary remained un organized added a layer of stress and guilt to my day. Now the apothecary is tidy, I feel much better and am ready for the next task .. actually doing something with all the dried herbs!
I am fortunate to live in a small, rural town where herbalism is very much a part of popular culture. This means that many people cultivate, wild-harvest, and sell herbs and it also means that many people are interested in buying herbs. With so much supply and demand, it was essential to find a niche in the market and so I have! While other herbalists tend to focus on native herbs, I (who am not native nor even born in this country) tend to focus on rare herbs from the western herbal tradition such as linden, hawthorn, and ginkgo.
These little packets will be sold in a local store or traded with friends for their wares. The rest of the herbs will be used here at home, made into teas for my partner and I, or infused in oil for herbal skin products. Last full moon I filled a jar halfway with dried lavender flowers and topped it off with sweet almond oil. Now as the full moon comes around again I will separate the herbs and oil and use the oil, now infused with lavender scent and properties, in a skin salve or cream -- more on this in a future herbal post!!
Study -- probably the best thing about winter is the time available to sit by he fireplace and read, usually with a cat on my lap, or maybe two or three! These are are a few of my all time favorite herbalism books that I refer to quite frequently when researching for my herbal related articles, Although I have thumbed through them many times, I still always have something to learn and apply to my natural medicine practice.
Just a few weeks until rose buds begin to bloom and nettles break through the soil! I eagerly await their arrival but, until then there are many cups of tea to brew and much to study in this wide world of herbs!