The Harvest Continues

Every day we're bringing something in out of the yard. The photo above shows yesterday's harvest, herbs and cucumbers. Later we picked some peppers and zuchinni. In the foreground are the blackberry leaves for stomach upset, in the middle is mullein for breathing issues, and the flowers are calendula, which I use for skin and fungal issues.

I find one of the tricks to using herbs successfully is learning how to process them effectively. I took this photo today. The blackberry leaves are dried and in a brown baggie, ready for tea. I dried the calendula and picked off the petals to soak in almond oil for skin salves, and you can see my finished herbal healing salve, made with the oil infused with comfrey and yarrow. You can see the infusing stage here. I picked mugwort this morning, and I'm hoping that by picking it just before it blooms it will be at it's highest potency.

It's a daily process, going out into my yard to see what is ready to harvest. When I first started learning about gardening and herbalism, I found that while I could grow things, a lot of times they would just rot on the vine, or get over ripe. Gigantic cucumbers don't taste good, flowers past their peak don't have their volatile oils. Then even when I harvested them correctly, if they just sit on the counter and wither they're still useless. It's the process that matters here. Moving from one step to the next in a measured round of planting, observing, picking, preserving, and using, coming full circle again each year anew in the spring.

I find art and gardening have a lot in common. You must be able to see correctly and honestly in both cases. Spotting small details that can spoil a painting or a plant use the same techniques. You also have to enjoy the process of the work, patiently building on the stage before, waiting for the correct time to move to the next stage.

As I was typing, my daughters brought me goodies from the yard. It's really wonderful watching them learning and exploring outside. My oldest does all the red clover picking. I haven't picked one red clover flower this year, but I have a bag full of ones that she's picked. My youngest isn't quite there yet, but she brought me some chicory flowers. One of my favorite summer sights is the combination of wild orange daylillies and blue chicory flowers growing in the ditches along farmer's fields. It was lovely to be reminded of that this morning.