Recently, I have also been harvesting summer herbs to make my own tea blends for everyday use.  My current blend is a nutritive and calming mix of nettle, lemon balm, chamomile, blackberry leaf, and oat straw.  It’s 100% local – collected from my garden, local farms, or local wild lands.  I also gathered a large amount of Deer Brush (Ceanothus integerrimus) which grows with great abundance in the foothills, and makes a lovely tea rich in anti-oxidants (thanks to Alicia Funk for introducing me to that one!).  Gathering your own teas is a great way to localize your needs, become more intimate with your local plant world, and enjoy the benefits of fresh, vibrant herbs on a daily basis.

This year I started experimenting with blackberry leaf tea, mostly because it is so abundant! The leaves have a mild taste, contain Vitamin C, and tannins that provide a moderate astringent quality.  The leaves have historically been used for healing wounds and promoting gum health.

As I researched more about blackberry leaf, I found a recipe for fermenting the leaves for tea.  Black teas and oolong teas are fermented (or oxidized) to bring out the flavor and strength of the tea, so why not try it with blackberry leaf? The process involves bruising the partially dried leaves and keeping them damp and warm for about a day (see recipe below).  The final product results in a blackened tea leaf that makes a bolder, darker, tea with a sweeter taste and heightened nutritive value.  It’s a refreshing change from the mild flavor of many garden herbs teas – and quite tasty! When I compared the teas made from fermented and non-fermented blackberry leaves, the difference in appearance and flavor was striking.

There’s still enough blackberry leaves out there to provide you with a Vitamin C rich tea through the winter season!  I prefer to harvest the canes of new growth (that have not yet flowered or fruited) with strong, healthy looking leaves.  This time of year, I usually find these popping up in undesirable places in the garden –  so if you are weeding your garden already of blackberry, you might as well save the leaves and make some tea! If you don’t have any blackberry in your yard, it won’t be hard to find a friend or a local wild land that could benefit from some blackberry removal.

I wonder what other herbs from the garden could be fermented? I haven’t tried it with any other plants yet, so if you get inspired and try it, let me know how it goes!  Here’s the method I used to ferment the leaves:

-Gather blackberry leaves from canes that have not yet flowered. Cut leaves off at the stem.

-Let the leaves dry for a day in the shade, on a screen or sheet (in a single layer)

-Place the leaves on a sheet, and bruise by repeatedly rolling them with a rolling pin.

-Wrap the leaves up in damp cloth (a sarong works great) and keep them in a warm place for 24-28 hours.  I put them on a trail in my garden where it received full sun for most of the day, and that worked well.

-The top, green side of the leaves should now be half to fully blackened.  Let the leaves air dry in the shade on a screen. When they are fully dry, wrap them up again in a sheet or blanket, and walk on them (or use or rolling pin) to break up the leaves into smaller pieces for tea.

-Pack the leaves in a glass jar, and store in a cool dry place.

1) Try making a strong tea with our native bay leaves and/or mugwort. You can put it in a spray bottle to apply directly to skin.  This offers moderate protection from mosquitoes.
2) To make a stronger repellent, try adding a blend of essential oils to the tea above (or to plain water).  Some essential oils that work very well include eucalyptus and lemon varities.  Choose pure essential oils – you’ll pay more for them, but you’ll have a better, chemical free product.

Sunburn
Prevention, of course, is the best practice! Cover up, or use a mineral based-sunscreen.  There are some herbs that help protect the skin from the sun, but if you are going to have extended exposure, you’ll need something stronger.   If you have concerns or questions about the safety and efficacy of various sunscreens, read more about sunscreen ratings here.
If your sunburn prevention didn’t work, here are some ideas on some topical herbal treatments for soothing and healing an uncomfortable burn:

-apply aloe vera (directly from the leaf if have it!)

-make a tea with cooling and skin healing herbs, such as calendula, lavender, or mallow varieties, and apply to skin

-apply apple cider vinegar (diluted with water or above tea, 1 part vinegar : 4 parts water/tea)

-avoid oils, lotions and salves while the skin is still hot to the touch (these can trap heat).  After the burn has cooled, these treatments can be appropriate and helpful.

-take a cool bath and add 1-2 cups of cider vinger and/or tea mixture described above

Poison Oak
Poison oak rashes are hot conditions, and can be dry or ‘weeping’, depending on the individual reaction.   For any kind of poison oak rash, herbs can provide relief by breaking up the poison oak oils, closing the pores, cooling the skin, and soothing the itch.  Fortunately, there are many local plants that can help ease a poison oak rash.  You can make a medicinal wash by steeping manzanita leaves, mugwort, or ceanothis blossoms in hot water.  Strain and apply directly on the skin.   Consider adding skin soother like calendula or lavender to the mix, or add 1/4 part apple cider vinegar to help promote healing of the skin.  Avoid using oils, salves, and lotions that can trap in heat and poison oak oils on the skin.

All parts of the dandelion are edible – the roots, leaves, and flowers – and they all carry some of of the plant’s medicinal properties.  Dandelion comes to us in the spring, just when many of us need it! It is a mild laxative, diuretic, and helps improve function of the liver.  It is known as blood-cleanser, and helps remove accumulated toxins in the body.  Its an excellent choice for many of those who wish to improve skin conditions (its important to consider what you put in your body as well as what you put on your skin!).

As many of us strive to eat well and eat locally, dandelion is a truly a gift! Its probably already in your backyard, and as long as you don’t spray it (or it does not grow near a roadway), its ready for the picking! Dandelion leaves are high in Vitamin A and C, potassium and calcium.

Inspired by Susan Weed, I picked some fresh flowers yesterday with my daughter for Dandelion Fritters.  We delighted in removing the yellow petals from the stem and piling them up in a fluffy beautiful bowl of spring cheer.  We folded them into the batter, and cooked them up into warm and delicious fritters.  I spread a little violet -infused honey on top…. yum!!

The leaves can be folded into stir fries, eggs or smoothies (and are best picked before they flower), and the roots can be put into soups or dried and made into tea.  Here’s the recipe for fritters:

Dandelion Flower Fritters, from Susan Weed
Serves 2 people
1 cup whole wheat flour or other grain
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
.5 cup milk, milk alternative, or water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup yellow parts of dandelion flower (remove all green)

Mix dry ingredients.  Beat egg, add liquid and oil.  Stir into dry mix.  Stir in yellow florets and cook like pancakes.  Server very hot with jam, syrup, or butter.

But let’s relax our faces back into their normal shape and continue the discussion about the blossoms… they have been calling my name this year.  They started blooming weeks ago – long before the recent snow storms – and have been catching my eye every time I pass a hedge of those rotund bells.  Alicia Funk likes to make syrup out of them, and my friend Margo likes to sprinkle them on early spring salads.  But this year, I’ve been thinking that these bell-shaped delights will be a key ingredient in my Sierra Floral Toner.

My friend Willow has a lovely grove of manzanita on her property that I have been visiting regularly over the last several weeks, waiting and watching for the right moment.  The delicate and compact white and pink buds have been poised and ready for quite awhile, but today when I went for an early morning walk, the blooms were showing off their stuff: big, bodacious, bells delicately hanging in the cool air, beckoning me to come take a closer look.  Before picking any, I walked around for awhile to see what was happening in the grove and then sat with the manzanita for awhile.

My hunch is that our local manzanita has been largely written off as a nuisance, a fire hazard, or part of a scrubby, impassable wasteland.  It’s been looked over, undervalued, and neglected.  My belief is that plants pay attention to us humans, and when they are neglected or undervalued by us, that has an energetic effect on the plant.  In my opinion, manzanita needs some love and loves it when we pay attention to it!  This plant is so generous with its sweet blossoms and edible berries, and its leaves provide a great topical astringent for poison oak.  Its bark is incredibly beautiful, to boot.   Try spending some time with manzanita and see what you think!

On my way out of the grove, I merrily picked a few handfuls of blossoms and took them home to process.  I crushed them in a mortar and pestle until they turned a beautiful deep pink, and then tinctured them in a light alcohol blend.  I also made some tea with some of the blossoms, and splashed it on my face.  The tea had a soft yet slightly astringent affect on my skin, and carried a lovely floral scent.   I plan on adding the finished manzanita blossom tincture to some lavender hydrosol and aloe vera – and perhaps with some elderflower as well – to create a floral toner with our local sierra talent.

I have eliminated the use commercial shampoo and conditioner from my household (that journey wasn’t all glamorous, but we have succeeded!), and my next obsession is skin cream.  I have been making my own lotions for many years, but it always makes me sigh a bit when I add coconut oil, shea butter, or other tropical ingredients from around the world into my own blend.  These are fabulous ingredients for the skin, and a better alternative than commercial creams, but I knew there had to be another way.

The skin cream we use most in our family is a general body cream, and that seemed like a good place to start.  I tried several recipes, and was blown away by what I was able to create with 100% local ingredients! I blended together local beeswax, Chaffin Family Farm Olive Oil infused with calendula, and some lavender hydrosol from a distiller friend in Marin County.  The cream was amazing!  I carried it my purse for awhile and demanded that friends and acquaintances sample it, just to make sure I wasn’t fooling myself into thinking it was actually a good cream.  But people really liked it and wanted to buy samples right away!

I’m looking forward to selling varieties of this cream this year and educating people about what is possible.  When I sell a cream, I do like to put in Vitamin E, which works as a great natural preservative (and also very nice on the skin).  So admittedly, the E comes from Spain (if anyone knows a more local source let me know!), but that constitutes less than .5% of the product, and allows it a longer shelf life.  I could put in essential oils as an alternative, but again most all commercial essential oils come from far away countries (even if they are distilled in the US), and I find that the addition of essential oils can be overwhelming for many people.

So, do I still use tropical ingredients in my creams? Sometimes.  I also will occasionally use some essential oils (although sparingly).  I save these ingredients now for specialty creams, like my Elderflower Cream, which is designed specifically to nourish and protect the sensitive skin of the face that is nearly always exposed to the elements.  I will continue to experiment to see how many of these global ingredients I can replace with more local ingredients.  But for now, when I smooth on my new local body cream, I smile knowing I am nourishing my skin with local ingredients from my bio-region (and that I don’t need to buy so much coconut oil!).

I hadn’t collected the buds myself, and so I was excited to do some gathering.  Heck, I was just excited to get outside and do some gathering at all during the darkest days of the year! It was a winter-time treat.

During the first visit to Tania’s, I was with my 3-year-old daughter Amara and quickly cut the tips of the downed branches and packed them into a brown bag.  When I got home, I noticed that the buds were not sticky like I remembered from a sample my husband Matt brought home last year.  I went back to Tania’s a second time (by myself), and made some more careful observations of the trees themselves and the downed branches and buds.  The trees appeared to be our native Black Cottonwood, and upon closer look, I found that the smallest buds at the tip of the branches were indeed sticky and resinous.  The bigger buds, further down the branches, were more puffy, less sticky, and I could see the forming catkins inside.  The strongest medicine, I figured, was in the resin.  Resins produced in trees (like the sticky sap of a pine tree), often hold anti-microbial properties to protect against disease when wounded.  I imagine this resin in the cottonwood buds likewise protected it from disease and/or invaders.

By the end of my cottonwood bud picking, my hands were sticky, my fingers were colored orange from the resin, and my skin carried a sweet, complex fragrance that stayed with me for the rest of the day.  I chopped the buds up in the Vitamix to maximize the surface area (not sure I would do that again… very very sticky mess to clean up!) and added my favorite Chaffin olive oil to infuse.  I am looking forward to adding this old healing tradition into my local healing salve this year!

I highly recommend the nourishing routine of an herbal steam, facial scrub, garden toner, and then deep moisturizing cream to finish it off.  Yum.  This is an amazing combination to feel invigorated, relaxed, and renewed. The lack of an alcohol free garden toner has been my missing piece!

Queen of Hungary water has a long history of use in Europe as a perfume, a cure all, and a facial treatment as well.  Kara and I decided to make Queen of Hungary water a la Rosemary Gladstar: a vinegar tincture of some of the most beloved plants in the herb garden: lemonbalm, chamomile, rose, calendula, comfrey and sage.  Kara, my daughter Amara, and I grabbed basket and collected all of these bodacious beauties fresh from the garden.  What a delight.   We processed the herbs, cut them up, and then stacked them in colorful rows into a large mason jar.  We topped them with vinegar and now we patiently (or not) wait 2-3 weeks for the vinegar to infuse.

The recipe calls for the addition of rose water after the vinegar is strained and plant material is removed.  This was the perfect time to try a folky, home style distillation of rose petals! I had never done it before, but my friend Judy had, so we pooled our kids, a few ounces of rose petals from my garden and her herbal know-how to make rose hydrosol right there in the kitchen!  It did not smell as potent as commercial rose water (which was nice for my easily-over-stimulated-nose), but it offered a subtle, gentle scent captured from my very own backyard.  It’s a treat to spray on the face on a hot day, or to sooth itchy skin.

This week my friend Kara and I inspired each other to make the infamous Queen of Hungary facial toner from the garden.  I must admit, I don’t reach for the toner very often, but a nice toner following a warm herbal steam and light cleanse sure does make the skin feel soft, clean, and firm!  If I had a nice, garden based toner on hand, that would encourage me to take a few minutes every week to give myself a nice series of facial treatments.  Any reminders to give myself loving self care are much appreciated in my life! How often do you treat yourself to your own loving care?

I highly recommend the nourishing routine of an herbal steam, facial scrub, garden toner, and then deep moisturizing cream to finish it off.  Yum.  This is an amazing combination to feel invigorated, relaxed, and renewed. The lack of an alcohol free garden toner has been my missing piece!

Queen of Hungary water has a long history of use in Europe as a perfume, a cure all, and a facial treatment as well.  Kara and I decided to make Queen of Hungary water a la Rosemary Gladstar: a vinegar tincture of some of the most beloved plants in the herb garden: lemonbalm, chamomile, rose, calendula, comfrey and sage.  Kara, my daughter Amara, and I grabbed basket and collected all of these bodacious beauties fresh from the garden.  What a delight.   We processed the herbs, cut them up, and then stacked them in colorful rows into a large mason jar.  We topped them with vinegar and now we patiently (or not) wait 2-3 weeks for the vinegar to infuse.

The recipe calls for the addition of rose water after the vinegar is strained and plant material is removed.  This was the perfect time to try a folky, home style distillation of rose petals! I had never done it before, but my friend Judy had, so we pooled our kids, a few ounces of rose petals from my garden and her herbal know-how to make rose hydrosol right there in the kitchen!  It did not smell as potent as commercial rose water (which was nice for my easily-over-stimulated-nose), but it offered a subtle, gentle scent captured from my very own backyard.  It’s a treat to spray on the face on a hot day, or to sooth itchy skin.

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Inspired by the good cheer of my violet friends, I wanted to share some good news in the herbal world.

Last week I gathered with some herbal-minded women in Grass Valley to talk about how we can build more community around herbalism.  What an inspiring conversation we had thinking about all the ways we could weave more connections among those of us who are using herbs! Although we have lost so much of our ancestral herbal traditions, we are lucky to live in a time where more and more resources are available for herbal studies and none of us will get burned at the stake for empowering ourselves with herbal medicine.  Especially given the state of our current health care system in the US, now is the time, people!  Get to know the herbs in your backyard!  You can start by joining our new Sierra Foothills Herbal Connection list-serv! A forum for sharing ideas, inspiration, resources & questions about anything herbal. Also check out the Resources page if you are looking for some good resources to learn more.

More good news on the national level – the Organic Consumers Association has joined forces with Dr. Bronner’s and some other Certified Organic brands to file a complaint to the USDA, urging the government to take action against popular commercial body care products that falsely advertise as “organic”.  The “organic” products listed in the complaint use at least some petroleum-based surfactants as their primary cleaning ingredients (and at least a few of these companies flat out deny this on their label!).  Products from Jason and Nature’s Gate were identified as having some of the most hazardous ingredients of all the “organic” lines. Hopefully, all this will result in more honest labeling practices for body care products.  Read more about the report here. Join the Environmental Working Group if you would like to receive more updates regarding the safety of body care, as well as other household items.

The thing is, I’m addicted to these products.  Commercial shampoos strip the hair of its natural oils, leaving it dry and brittle.   That’s where the conditioner comes in – more commercial goop is needed to make it feel soft and hydrated again.

And then, as for all cosmetic products, there are the chemicals to consider. It is difficult to find hair products without chemicals, even if they are labeled “organic” or “natural”, because manufacturers are not required to put all ingredients on the label.   For example “fragrance” ingredients are trade secret and exempt from labeling, and some ingredients are by-products of the production process and are not required to be listed.

When third-party analysis of shampoos are conducted , some of the more common chemicals of concern that are found include 1,4-dioxane (a known animal carcinogen), pthalates (linked with reproductive damage, especially in boys), and formaldehyde (a known human carcinogen).  Why would you want to rub any of these things into your scalp on a regular basis??! Read more about chemicals in hair care products at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They have a great website, and you can even look up the products you buy to see how they rate in relative safety.

And then, of course, there are all those plastic bottles to consider! I have been buying shampoo and conditioner in bulk now for several years, but I still can’t help but wonder what what American state would be comparable in size to a pile of all the plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles that have been thrown away in the last 50 years.  New Jersey? Or more like Virgina? Yikes. Who knows.

But ultimately, one of the most compelling reason for me to make my own herbal shampoo and conditioner is that I believe in the wisdom of nature.  Any care my humble human body needs on a regular basis should be attainable without synthetic chemicals.  The other most compelling reason: my two year old daughter, Amara. I don’t believe a shampoo in itself is going to do her harm, but I do know that the world she is growing up in is a lot more toxic than when I was a child, and the accumulation of multiple chemicals from multiple exposures over a lifetime is a real danger.  So I am going to do everything I can to reduce her exposure to chemicals – especially in the bath, when her skin is unprotected and her pores are opened wide in warm water.  The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics can also tell you more about the safety of bath products for kids. This is a highly recommended reading for those of you with kiddos to clean.

So, here I am, two days before the New Year, and wondering how I will get my hair clean in 2010.  I have made some herbal hair rinses in the past (that were in essence strong teas), but I did not come up with anything that enticed me to adopt it whole-heartedly.  So this is my challenge – to create something that I will enjoy using, and that will also be convenient enough to keep using.

Tonight, I made my first batch of a blended herbal shampoo and conditioner, inspired by some recipes from Dina Falconi’s Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair.  Lucky for me, my friend Fort supplied with me with a large sample of his fabulous hydrosols to include in my hair care witchery.  I started with shampoo, and melted a small amount of shea butter with almond oil.  I added rosemary hydrosol, some castille soap and a few drops of rose geranium essential oil…done! That was pretty easy.  Then, I pulled out the blender and mixed some jojoba and almond oil (infused with rose and lavender) with rosemary hydrosol and comfrey root powder to make a creamy conditioner.  It smelled great!  My husband cleaned up the blender (again, easy!), and I grabbed Amara, my faithful assistant in herbal experimentation, and we jumped into the bath to give it a try.

The shampoo was a little heavy on the castille soap, but it felt good going on and rinsing off.  I tried it on Amara, too, and she dutifully lathered and tilted her head back for a proper rinse.   Then I tried the creamy comfrey conditioner.  Wow, what a lovely texture! After my rinse, I could feel that there was way too much oil in this one – my hair felt pretty heavy.  So, I skipped it on Amara and we continued to play in the bath.  I LOVED the fact that we could wash our hair in the tub and then have some playtime, without worrying about soaking in a bath of chemicals.  Our skin was probably softer and better nourished from the experience.  What a concept – hair care that nourishes the whole body!

So how did it turn out? Amara’s hair dried before bedtime – it was very smooth and silky, and had a beautiful, pure fragrance that made me smile (instead of wrinkle my brow with fear of phthalates).  My hair is soft and tangle free, but pretty heavy from the creamy comfrey conditioner.  Maybe next time I will just use the shampoo (with less castille soap)?  I am determined to figure this one out…  even if I have to wear a hat through the entire month of January! I will report back when I get it right…

I must admit that lavender essential oil is my weakness.  It is such a versatile and powerful healer concentrated in a small little bottle.  It is a great remedy for burns, it has strong anti-septic properties, and has an amazing soothing effect on the body and mind- and helps you chill out and feel good!  It is also very effective and safe to use on children.  The healing attributes of lavender essential oil go on and on… a small bottle of this incredible oil is a must have for any herbal first aid kit.

So, you can imagine my delight when I met Doug and BJ at the Nevada County Fairgrounds Farmers market, selling small beautiful bottles of local lavender essential oil!  They grow several varieties of lavender at their Forster Herb Garden, and today I took the family out to go make a visit.

When we arrived, BJ was inside teaching a class on how to make head garlands with fresh, aromatic herbs from the farm (she is also an accomplished weaver and spins her own wool from their farm alpacas -check out her classes!).  Doug showed us around the vibrant rows of lavender in full bloom.  It was intoxicating just to be around that much living lavender.  It was a “u-pick” lavender day, so I grabbed by garden shears and started clipping away at this incredible bounty.  I had plenty of lavender at my home garden…. but I didn’t care! This was stupendous!

Doug and BJ have a steam distillation still on-site, so they can make the fresh oil right there at their garden.  They don’t make large quantities, but they do sell 1/8 ounce bottles of local lavender goodness for those who are lucky enough to get their hands on it!