A Day in the Life

For anyone who is keeping score, I missed an entire month on this blog. August was like that novel Gone with the Wind, or at least what it seems to imply. FYI, my brain is also like this of late, but more of that later.  I hope no one minds a post where I am not serenading you about all I know about herbs and showing you just how smart you can be if you do a ton of research. I thought it might float your boat if I told you all the wonderful things one can do with herbs if they don't want to take time to even sit down for five minutes in a day.  Problem is, where o where should I begin? 

First, let me tell you a little something about me.  I have been using herbs for several years now but really got into it seriously the last 4 years. I only dabbled before that. The last two years, I have been studying with Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism, as well as Learning Herbs and any other herbalist that I felt had something to teach me, which are many. During this time, I have read voraciously from many different books, never finishing one completely, as I am like a cat chasing a laser beam.  I listen to a multitude of podcasts that have interesting subjects with various herbal themes. Up until recently, the only books I found to read were herbal tomes or nature compendiums. I have rediscovered my old reading habits of late though, reading about 3 or 4 books at a time. It may interest some to learn that one of them is East of Eden. Anyway, the majority of my time is spent learning about herbs and then using this knowledge as much as possible. 

During the summer months, it is best if I get out to the garden early, before the heat. If there is no rain forecasted, I will usually water all the herbs around the house. I have a decent sized herb garden in the middle of our front yard, a butterfly garden on the front left side, some beds right in front of house and on right side, two smaller beds one on either side of front driveway, and an area in the back on left side that has some herbs in less formal arrangements. I also have a veggie garden in the backyard with a small greenhouse. I would say I have about 38 or 39 different herbs growing altogether.  That includes some trees along the edges of property.  Trees can be important sources for herbs or spices too! With all of that, I have yet another garden planned on the front left side that will hopefully be completed by next spring. Call me greedy but I want as many herbs as I can get on this small property. Please note that I count volunteers as herbs I grow too, as long as they come back year after year. I love love love the volunteers! Does this sound substantial? It certainly keeps me busy, that's for sure!  

After watering gardens, I might retire inside to check on things in jars. Currently, I have plantain oil and yarrow oil on front windowsill and black walnut and goldenrod tinctures on counter. I have apple cider vinegar brewing on the counter next to fridge and herbs drying on the counter, as well as downstairs. Today I picked calendula, a very useful herb I will add, and lemon verbena, which smells heavenly. I processed some comfrey, which means I took the dry comfrey that was hanging downstairs and put the leaves in my one blender that I only use for my herbs and ground them up fine. I then put the processed herbs in a jar labeled Symphytum officinale that I have on rack on counter in the kitchen.  This is one of the herbs I use for nourishing infusions, and since it is the only one I grow, it means I use as much of it as I can get in the summer.  I have about 4 comfrey plants, but my biggest producer is one I have in front of the house near my front door.  Nourishing infusions, by the way, are made by taking one ounce of dry herb and putting it in quart jar filled with hot water. Let it infuse for 4 hours on counter, strain off herbs and refrigerate liquid. This will give you lots of vitamins to nourish your body for the day. I use comfrey leaves, oat straw, red clover, nettle, and linden. I use comfrey, nettle and oatstraw the most right now because my supply of other 2 are low. Ideally, you can and should have one of these a day, but I find it hard to keep stocked in herbs with the amount of dry herbs it takes. I would say to do them as often as you can.  

That is the morning, and many more things happen throughout the day. Right now, school is in session so I have to allot myself some time to do the necessities, like picking herbs and processing them. It can be very time consuming and honestly a bit tedious at times. My goal in doing this is to stock up on the herbs I want to have on hand for the year, but in reality, I find it impossible to have as much as I need from what I have in gardens. Well, that is why I try to tincture as much as I can too. Dry herbs don't last as long but tinctures can last for years. In any case, that is side note to why collecting is so important. Aside from collecting, there are the other tasks that pop up out of need, like making shampoo or dental rinse. Shampoos really don't take a long time but I need to make sure I have everything on hand before starting. Once I start, I don't want to realize I'm missing something important, like castile soap, and find I wasted my time and efforts. The herbal tea could be refrigerated and used after I get what I forgot I didn't have, as long as I do it in a day or two. As for dental rinses, these are so simple and I basically put water in a glass bottle, add a teaspoon of salt and put whatever dry herbs I want to use in a teabag, then put it in bottle. I then put cap over it and put the bottle on windowsill to infuse for a while. My favorite ones are sage and peppermint, sage for its anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties and peppermint mostly for flavor. There are so many you could use though and the nice thing is that you do whatever you desire when you make it yourself. 

 Other things that come up are my organizing of all the herbs and products made with them. I have recently reconfigured my apothecary downstairs and must admit to brain overload the other day while doing this.  I was downstairs and found some useful items while cleaning and brought them upstairs. I put the one bottle I found in sink to soften label to ease its removal, turning on the water to soak it. Then I went downstairs to quickly do something of which I have no recollection because once downstairs, I got sidetracked and did more organizing. When satisfied at my organization, I threw away the detritus and noticed a fast moving puddle growing in another room downstairs. I yelled up to the hubs to ask what was leaking...do you see where this is going? I totally forgot I turned on the water! So, beware of absentmindedness when multi-tasking!  I don't think this day in the life is very organized, but, hey, that is my life.  I have so many things going at once that I sometimes forget what it is I was supposed to be doing. Throw in all the canning and food preservation and you have yourself a day with no end. No time to park your end either I might add.  I might sound like I'm complaining, but I have to admit that I enjoy every minute of it. I think I only sit down when I do because my husband wants my attention and I feel guilty. Sometimes I just have to know when to say "Enough is enough!" That ends my craziness. For a time...