Herbs: Harvesting and trashing

Dried calendula

Last week I ran a workshop for  IAAMA, the International Aromatherapists and Aromatic Medicine Association. Preparation for  a workshop starts many days before. This time of year is the perfect time to harvest and dry many of the softer leaves and flowers for the oil extractions.   I decided to take last years dried herbs with me to show the textures of dried leaf, roots and flowers. Although they had been stored in the dark, the contrast in colour and vitality to the newly processed ones was startling.

It is a good reminder that as the newly dried herbs are packed, it is time to throw out last years supply.  This is true too for the herbs and spices in your kitchen cupboard. I have a friend who throws the lot out every January and buys new. You need not be that ruthless. Try the smell test...no smell, no good.  Ground herbs lose their viability very quickly, best to buy them as rubbed or as whole leaves. The same applies to spices-buy whole when possible and grind your own. Check the use by date when you by them and store in dark glass, ceramic container with a tight fitting lid or in glass jars in a dark cupboard. Never keep by the stove or in bright light.

 rubbing through a sieve 

Dried herbs are a boost for your compost pile and make a nice weed free mulch although I would hope you don't have sackfuls to throw out! I have tried some of them on the chickens but they much prefer to eat them fresh and continue to graze on comfrey, chickweed, dandelion and plantain they can reach through their fence. Old dried spices can be used sprinkled on the garden around seedlings to help deter pests or again, in the compost. You can also mix them with essential oils and use to stuff calico bags to deter moths and silverfish in your wardrobe and linen cupboards. Mixed with resin or gum arabic, they can be rolled into  incense or beads. Check out the various sites for Rose bead making, you can add ground spices to these. They are  a great school holiday activity and  make a delightful present.

Go well,

Nirala

Tea bag avalanche

Beautifully tied with old buttons

And still they come! Tea bag strings, in a range of hues and coloured tags that are a reflection of the diversity of my friends and family and the Stirling Street Arts Centre ladies happy to support a bit of creative madness. From Liptons to Twinings, green tea to Earl Grey. Some have quizzes on their tags, some have funny quotes. tea bag tags and strings from Bunbury, Donnybrook, Warnboro, Margaret River and even some carefully collected in Eastern Europe (who strangely all seemed to be named after men!

First balls of thread

Lace

To make thread, you first have to remove all the tags. Enter  my mother. Now blind and quite restricted by arthritis,  misses her knitting and sewing and is always interested in what I am doing. I had taken my tea bag string scarf for her to 'see' and she wondered if there was someway she could help. I had a shopping bag full of tags in the car. It didn't take long for a crowd to gather to see what we were up too and as mum pulled the tags off I knotted the strings as the ladies swapped craft stories. Ever since, detagging has become a part of mums world and she gets regular deliveries from me!

Scarf

It takes 2 golf ball sized balls of thread to make a small scarf and one to make enough crocheted lace to decorate the neckline of a dress. I have no idea how many. The colours have the same subtlety of variation of the tea itself, from dark browns to cream and a few pink ones from herbal teas and the knots add texture. Use needles and hook that create a loose result - it becomes too hard to work around the knots if you work on small needles. 3-4mm work for me.The scarves are soft to touch, warm to wear... worth the effort.

String of flowers