Attempt No. 1: FAILURE (of sorts)

So a conversation on Facebook got me thinking about holiday (in this case the 4th of July) ice pops for the kids. I thought first I would try colored infusions frozen seperately (at seperate times.) Unfortunately as you can see in the picture, it didn't exactly work out as planned.
I started with blueberries mashed up with honey and a bit of water for the blue (which came out a bit more on the purple side) and let that freeze up.
Meanwhile I made and chilled some lemon balm and hibiscus infusions.
The lemon balm pops that I usually make aren't EXACTLY white, but they are close.
Unfortunately, I had to move the sticks to pour the hibiscus infusion in, and the lemon balm infusion turned into a redish swirl..... Ah well.
Ultimately they were deemed tasty by the trusty taste testers, but they weren't red, white, and blue. I do have another idea brewing in the back of my mind which I will attempt tomorrow. We shall see how it goes.

Herbal Lotion

Today we are going to tackle herbal lotions. There are varying ways you can accomplish this. There are endless variations of herbs and oils that you can use and it can all depend upon what it is you are trying to accomplish with said lotion. Today we will discuss something basic, a calendula and st. john's wort lotion.

First you need:

1 cup of an infused oil. (in our case since I am making calendula/st. john's wort we will use 1/2 cup of each.) Note: I am talking about an infused oil NOT essential oil. (Mine are usually infused in olive oil, but there are better oils you can use such as grapeseed or almond.)

1 ounce of beeswax

Calendula flowers infusing in Olive Oil

Put both in a double boiler and heat until melted. Then pour your mixture into your blender. (At this point I should state you need a good blender and if your blender is not so good you can ruin your motor doing this to many times. ) Let mixture cool but do not let it solidify. (about 5 minutes or so.) At this point I add:

The gel of 1-2 aloe leaves (You could add more if you wanted)

1 tablespoon Shea Butter

Now you will want to turn your blender on low setting, you can push it up to medium if you want or just leave it on low.) While your blender is on you will add:

6 tablespoons of water (You may want to add distilled water, or maybe a hydrosol of some sort, or you can make an infusion of lavender or really whatever you want and use that. After you add the water and blend the oil and water mixture together you then pour the mixture into tins/jars. At this point you may want to add a few drops of essential oil, depending on your fragrance preferences. Once your creams are cooled you can check them for consistency.

You may have to play around with the oil types, amounts, and what have you until you get something you like.

I got the main recipe for this lotion at Herb Mentor . They have an in depth video about this and it's many variables on youtube. (There are 4 parts.)

Marshmallows

The kids, hubby (the Zymurgist over at Zymurgia ), and I made some marshmallows the other day. We got the recipe from Lesley Tierra's A Kids Herb Book, which our youngest got for Christmas. They we really easy to make and really delicious to eat. They aren't soft like ones you get in the store, but they were really good in hot cocoa. Next time I think we will have chocolate and graham crackers all ready for when they come out of the oven. (Since I don't think they would toast over a fire very well.) This book, by the way, was a great investment and is great fun for the kids, and us adults as well!

Herbs and Crafts Christmas Edition

For presents this year I first settled on making some herbal salts for everyone. I was in a craft store one day and saw some empty clear glass ornaments and I bought them. (Along with some fabric to make bags to hold them.)


Rosemary Salt in a glass ornament.

Rosemary is a traditional Christmas herb, we also gave sage salt. My husband made each recipient a cedar smudge stick to burn, and my Mother trimmed washcloths. I made each bag that everything fit nicely in and all in all I was very happy with the outcome of it all!

Sage salt, cedar stick, trimmed washcloth, and bag

We then had the children help us glue paper leaves and paper berries together for tags which we pinned to the bags with safety pins.


Finished product.
I hope everyone had/is having a great holiday and Have a Happy New Year!!

First Aid Kit

So I have been looking at first aid kits for a while. Trying to find the right one. One I can add my own stuff to but has what I would want it to have when I buy it. After looking and looking AND LOOKING, I decided to make it myself.

I decided to make two organizers and a bag for my mortar and pestle.


The organizers required a bit more thought then the mortar and pestle bag did. I wanted a place for some tincture bottles, some essential oils, a bottle of homeopathic arnica, a tea strainer, some teas, ginger chews, all that sort of thing. I also needed places for your typical first-aid supplies, bandages, band-aids, tape, scissors, and such.



The first organizer closed up.


From left to right: Top: Tinctures, band-aids, medical tape, pocket knife
Bottom: Essential Oils, Arnica tablets, gauze, salve


Left to right: Top: tea strainer, folding scissors, tweezers
2nd Row: ACE bandage, nail clippers
3rd Row: thermometer, sling
Bottom Pocket: cotton swabs, cotton balls, teas, ginger pieces, matches,
extra material, etc.

I am really happy with the way they came out. I bought an army messenger bag from Amazon. In the beginning I was planning on making pockets in the bag itself, but this worked out much nicer I think.

Problem Solved

I dry my herbs by hanging them on sticks. I then hang the sticks out in the garage from the rafters until the herbs are dry. While I am placing the herbs on and taking them off the stick, I am in my living room as it has the biggest clearest space for working. My biggest problem with this arrangement is; Where do I put the stick while I am trying to work? I would usually try to hang it from the cabinets, my pan rack, and various other things, much to my dismay and the dismay of those around me. But, no more. My husband surprised me with a rack he made out of a pallet. I painted it. It looks better then it did unpainted, but I will be the first to admit painting is not a strong point of mine.



This is what it looked like when we first hung it, but it swung to much so we had to rethink our hanging method. I have no idea why we thought that was going to work, but as soon as I put the stick up there we knew it wasn't going to be okay.



This is the final result we decided on two lengths of chain so that we could keep it up high when it's not in use, and lower it so that I can actually reach it when I am using it.



All in all we are very happy with it, and it didn't cost me a thing except the price of the chains which was like 5 dollars. I am especially happy that I will not have to play "hang the stick" with the kitchen cabinets anymore!

Apples and Cinnamon in Brandy

So we are on week 4 of The Nourished Kitchen's Preserve the Bounty Challenge. This week was preserving in alcohol and I had a very hard time deciding what I was going to do. I finally settled on Apples (since I had just gotten a bunch from my CSA) with some cinnamon chips in brandy. I think I will have to try this with a few more fruits before the season is over!!

I am aware that this is a rather short blog but I really have nothing else to say about this, except it looks incredible and I can't wait to try it!!