October: A month in the life of a herbwife

When a whole month rushes by in the flicker of turning leaves, you know you’ve been busy. Usually, it is September which promotes the panic of harvesting and foraging. This year, October’s warmth and beauty kept us outside to gather what we could.

Most months, I offer two workshops. In October, we met for the last time at the Sanctuary and I was intending to hold the other in my garden and kitchen at home. I was also asked to put on a herb walk and workshop for the Kushinga Gardening Group which helps support homeless refugees from all over the world in Birmingham.

I am dreadful with dates. I think I know when something is and tell others, but when I check, I’m often incorrect. I thought I’d advertise my second workshop locally and three women duly booked before I realised the date was wrong, so I ended up delivering two workshops, two days apart. It wouldn’t have been so bad but two of the three cancelled on the morning of the workshop, leaving me with one person to guide and entertain for over four hours.

Each workshop was extremely productive. At the Sanctuary, we gathered haws, New England Aster, calendula flowers and seeds, marshmallow leaves and seeds, elecampane root, blackberries, nettle seed, milk thistle seed and Solomon seal roots. We also processed dried nettle seed, mugwort, goldenrod and hops. Helen, one of my apprentices plied us with a new tea of dandelion, dock roots and nettle leaves which was surprisingly tasty.

There was also time to think about the energetic side of trees growing in the Sanctuary. We found the earth/water vortex at the back of the pond where two self-sown hazel saplings are growing. People gathered twigs and branches of their chosen tree to make various crafted items including two willow dreamcatchers.

Either side of the workshop, I gathered crab apples and rosehips and Chris dug a basketful of horseradish roots. Once home, I made crabapple jelly (the first of two batches) and eight pints of hedgerow cordial. The first four quinces went into two liqueurs, one simple and one spiced and the liqueurs from last year were decanted and put away for Christmas.

Hedgerow cordial

250g elderberries

500g haws

500g rosehips

1 nutmeg grated

1 tsp cinnamon or 1 stick

6-10 cloves

1inch ginger root grated

Place everything in a large saucepan or stockpot. Cover ingredients with water (about 1 or 2 litres). Bring to the boil and simmer for thirty minutes with the lid on. Mash all the contents with a potato masher to release as much as the juice as possible. Strain, retaining the liquid. Wash the pan. Measure the liquid and return to pan adding 1kg of sugar to 1 litre of liquid. Bring to the boil, then pour into sterilised bottles and seal, label and date. Serve in a goblet or mug with boiling water to taste adding lemon or orange juice if the cordial is too sweet.

Crabapple Jelly

2.5Kg crab-apples

1.7l water

Wash crabapple, cut into quarters, without peeling or coring. Put into a pan and add the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 1.5 hours until the fruit is mashed, adding a little more water if necessary. A few cloves or some ginger root can be added while the apples are cooking to give added flavour. Strain through a jelly cloth and measure remaining liquid before returning it to the cleaned pan. Add 450g sugar for each 500ml liquid. Stir until the sugar has dissolved then boil rapidly for ten minutes. Tip 1tblsp of jelly onto a saucer and check for setting point (when it cools a skin should form when you gently push against the edge of the jelly). Skim any scum from the top of the jelly then pour into small jam jars sterilised in the oven for ten minutes. Sterilise tops by boiling in a saucepan for ten minutes. This jelly can also be made with any cooking apple. Herbal jellies can be made by cooking the apples with a bunch of a herb (mint is a good one to try first), reserving some of the herb to chop finely and add once the setting point has been reached.

Spiced Quince Liqueur

2 large quinces chopped and grated in a food processor

1-2 cups of sugar

Vodka

3 cloves,

1 nutmeg grated

1 cinnamon stick broken into halves

(other spices such as star anise, ginger can be added if wished)

Place the grated quince and spices in a large jam jar. Add the sugar. Cover with vodka, stirring to remove air bubbles then fill to the top of the jar. Leave somewhere dark and warm for 8 weeks then decant. The pulp can be infused again with more vodka and fresh spices if wished.

Some of the haws were put to infuse in vinegar, as was the New England Aster, and the mugwort vinegar which had been prepared the previous month was strained and put away. The flavour of the mugwort was so delightful, I determined to make more!

During the second workshop, we dug more elecampane and processed the Solomon’s seal roots. We also discovered how good the dried New England Aster stalks tasted in tea. Holy basil and chamomile seeds were harvested and the stalks used to make vinegars at a future date. Some stray vervain and agrimony stems were also found and tinctured the following day.

To make the most of the Solomon seal harvest, I always tincture the sliced tuber and make a double infused oil from the peripheral roots. Recent discussion infers that the tincture taken internally in drop doses is the most effective when it comes to restoring ligaments and joints but I’ve found the oil helpful when added to a mixed salve for frozen shoulder and other joint ailments.

The following day I determined to clear most of the herbs which had been drying in paper bags in my hot cupboard over the summer. To make room, I made some calendula oil from last year’s harvest and was pleasantly surprised to see how deep the oil turned during the second infusion. It was satisfying how much chamomile, sage and calendula petals I’d been able to gather by picking just a few flowers whenever I could. There will also be lots of seed for next year’s planting.

During the third workshop, I took my newcomer on a comprehensive tour of my garden, identifying and talking about the herbs still growing. I’d dug up and washed more elecampane root and this was split between an infused honey and sliced for drying. We made a double infused chickweed oil and I turned it into an eczema salve with St Johns wort and calendula oil for the attendee to take home.

Another trip to the farm yielded a harvest of purple New England aster, ashwagandha roots, roses, calendula flowers, purple sage, lemon verbena, milk thistle seeds and a huge harvest of quinces. My father kindly picked a load of crabapples and horsechestnuts so I was able to make a second batch of jelly and the conkers are waiting to be turned into oil if necessary.

The following day, the calendula, sage, lemon verbena and half the New England aster were put to dry. The ashwagandha roots were tinctured and half the quinces were made into jelly. The horseradish root was washed and chopped in the processor, ready for the next day’s workshop but I used the opportunity to put up a large jar of fire cider vinegar, just in case we get a winter of colds and other nasties.

It was good to return to my student haunts in Selly Oak. The Kushinga garden is owned by the Bournville village trust and sits behind Hope House run by Selly Oak Methodist Church. It grows an array of fruit and vegetables including native and exotic herbs. Only four people joined us for the herb walk but others were waiting when we returned to the church hall to make fire cider and rosemary digestive vinegar followed by hedgerow and nettle and rose syrups.

Fire Cider Vinegar

Equal portions of horseradish and ginger root – grate or whizz in a coffee grinder. (It is your choice whether you peel the roots or not.)

1 head of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 good handful of rosehips (fresh or dried)

6 cloves

2 tsps paprika

2 tsps tumeric

2 tsps cayenne pepper

(If you have access to fresh chilli peppers, you can add these as well, leaving the seeds in to give extra “fire”!)

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large glass jar so it is filled about half full, then add cider vinegar stirring well to remove air bubbles until the jar is full. Place cling film over the top of the jar before sealing with screw top lid. Label and date. Place jar in warm, dark place for 3 weeks. Strain and use.

Rosemary digestive vinegar

2” root ginger grated

1 small head of garlic peeled and crushed/chopped

1 large handful of fresh rosemary chopped coarsely

1 large handful fresh or dried rosehips

1 small handful fresh or dried haws

Holy basil stems

Dandelion roots or leaves (optional)

2 tblsps freshly grated orange peel

2 tsps ground coriander

1 whole red chilli

1 tsp powdered turmeric

Cider vinegar

Layer your ingredients in a large glass jar until it is halfway full then cover with cider vinegar, podging with a chopstick to remove air bubbles then refill with more cider vinegar. Put clingfilm over the mouth of the jar before putting on a metal lid. Strained the infused vinegar after a month and re-use the ingredients after blitzing with more cider vinegar to make another infusion.

Nettle and rose syrup

Gather a large amount of fresh nettle tops and wash well. Either place in a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for twenty minutes then turn the heat off and leave overnight or place the nettles in a bowl, cover with cold water and leave overnight in a cool place. The next morning, strain the nettles and add the petals of seven red roses to the liquid in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Strain and measure the volume of remaining liquid. For each pint of liquid add 1lb of sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon, bring back to the boil and simmer until the syrup is reduced to the desired consistency. Pour into heated, sterilised bottles. Seal, label and date. Store in a cool place. Keep refrigerated once opened. Use to make a milkshake with cold milk. This can be made with dried nettles and rose petals, but reduce the amounts.

Two of my apprentices, Kathy and Lorraine, travelled over fifty miles from Gloucestershire to help with the workshop. I was so grateful for their help in preparing the herbs and syrups and working with the refugees and other locals who came to make some medicines for winter. 

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we were treated to a wonderful vegetarian lunch prepared by one of the refugees who used to run her own restaurant back in Malawi.

It has been a busy month with all my herbs. In between, both my sons have moved house and asked for practical support with electrics and loft boarding. A close friend of the family, (my unofficial third son!) was married last Saturday which provided the opportunity to visit Warwick Castle with my grandsons the previous day. We hoped things would calm down a little once the festival was over but it was not to be. Maybe November will bring the quiet time we crave.

Lament for a missed Indian Summer

September is usually a beautiful, busy month. While the sun shines with diminishing warmth I am usually to be found scurrying around hedgerows and my garden, harvesting the last of flowers, fruits and seeds.

This year feels different. After a dry summer which has caused the ground in the Sanctuary to crack and the two minor springs to stop running entirely, the rain has now come to ease our water problems but temperatures have plummeted. Although I’m grateful, this now brings an added worry of whether the tomatoes will ripen or will I lose my significant crop to rot? As it is, I’m now picking every day or alternate days and using any damaged tomatoes in soup.  

Two nettle roots growing next to the tomatoes are constantly sending up new shoots, so these are my autumn bounty for green minerals.

Spiced Tomato and Basil soup

1lb tomatoes (or an amount you have to use)

2 medium potatoes

2 carrots

A large handful of ripped basil leaves

One medium onion

1 red chilli (adding the seeds will produce a fiery soup!)

Peel, dice and sweat the onion with the chopped chill until soft. Peel and slice the potato and carrots and chop the tomatoes. Add vegetables to the cooked onions and cover with 3 pints of cold water. Bring to the boil, adding seasoning and basil (or any other favourite herbs). Simmer for half an hour with the saucepan lid on until everything is cooked. Blend or liquidise, then strain through a sieve to remove tomato skins.

Nettle, sweet potato and tomato soup

1 colander full of fresh young nettles

1 large sweet potato

1lb tomatoes (or any amount you have to use)

2 carrots

4 cloves of garlic

8” length of lovage stem

1 medium onion

1” fresh root ginger

Peel and crush the garlic and leave for fifteen minutes before cooking. Peel and dice the onion and root ginger and sweat in a large saucepan with the crushed garlic for five minutes in your oil of choice.  Peel and slice the sweet potato and carrots. Slice or chop the tomatoes. Wash the nettles if necessary. Add everything to the saucepan and cover with 3 pints cold water. Bring to the boil adding the chopped lovage and seasoning. Simmer for half an hour until everything is cooked. Blend and sieve to remove tomato skins and any stringy bits from the nettles.

September is also the time of year to think about storing anti-virals and vitamin C ready for the winter. My favourite method is elderberry elixir or cordial and gathering as many rosehips as I can find and store.

Fire cider vinegar is another staple in my household. You can follow Rosemary Gladstar’s original recipe of equal parts of fresh garlic, root ginger and horseradish root but add in whatever spice you fancy. I always add rosehips for vitamin C but if you have any fresh chillis they are good to complement the turmeric powder. If you wanted to increase the mineral content of the vinegar you could add nettle seed or fresh young nettle leaves or shoots if you have any.

Don’t forget another autumn harvest, honey. Many beekeepers are collecting their golden treasure this month, so if you have any near you, it is worth asking if they will sell you a few pounds of fresh honey to last you over the winter.

Think what you might want to add to this honey. Elderberries taste divine but make sure you infuse it in the fridge if you don’t want purple overflow everywhere from fermenting berries. Rosehip honey is another favourite but does involve hours of cutting and scooping out the stones and hairs before blending the flesh with the honey. It is worth waiting until after the first frost when the hips become soft so you can squeeze out the centre without ending up with itching thumbs.

Don’t forget your honeyed roots. Angelica and elecampane are two roots which produce an interestingly flavoured infused honey which may be more palatable in this form rather than in tea. You may want to experiment with sweet calamas root in the same way if you have some to harvest. Don’t be surprised if your infused honey is thinner than the original runny honey. This is the result of osmosis whereby the honey pulls liquid from the fresh roots. It should store for several years but keep an eye on it.

It looks as if this year will be another good apple year. Windfalls from my tree are producing many boxes of frozen applesauce and there are new jars of apple and red currant jelly on the larder shelves. If you are looking for something different to add to your complement of bitters, try rowan/mountain ash or crampbark/Guelder rose berry and apple jelly. They will complement any rich meat but also get your digestive juices flowing. Bitter jellies are an acquired taste, so less is more when you try it for the first time.

One of the most exciting things I heard at our festival was Fred Gillam talking about his comfrey bath bombs for serious bruising following accidents and the news that a London herbalist is experimenting with Crampbark flower and berry tinctures to treat muscle cramps on different energetic levels.

Guess what I’m going to be experimenting with this autumn!

Herbal updates

Anyone trying to discover what I was up to by following my blog this summer would have been sorely disappointed. A dearth of posts resulted from a plethora of stress, knitting and gales (although not necessarily in that order!). Now the autumn equinox has passed and life has quietened just a little I can look backwards and forwards to various herbal exploits.

The weather has been atrocious. There is no other word for it. No sun, no warmth and almost continuous rain. I really thought I would not be gathering anything but I was wrong. It may be small and not as rich as I’d like but there is a harvest and I am grateful.

I have gathered rose petals whenever and wherever I can. There are jars of rose elixir, rose vinegar and rose honey infusing in the larder and two large jars stuffed full of dried petals waiting for autumn or winter inspiration. I also discovered a beautiful bag full of apothecary’s rosebuds dried to perfection. I’d picked them after one of the summer workshops when I felt sure I’d lose the entire crop because of the rain. They smell amazing and I’m looking forward to using them in some ashwagandha milk over the winter.

The calendula crop was initially disappointing. I blamed myself for not supervising the apprentices who sowed the seed then I blamed the weather. I picked yellow and orange flowers and began to be grateful for the limited bounty I was able to gather. We even made a double infused oil from wet flowers – something I never thought I’d do – and yes, it was paler than usual, but not without merit. You have to use what you have when you can.

I was also incredibly grateful for the self -seeded row of plants which offered a rich and healthy crop of flowers without any thought or effort from me. When I went down to the Sanctuary last Tuesday, both calendula beds were looking the best I’d seen them all year and I was able to pick a large basketful of flowers and a whole pile of seeds for next spring.

One of the things I’ve tried to do this year is not panic. Ok, there were very few St John’s wort flowers in my garden. I have given away so many plants, the marjoram has completely overwhelmed the few I have left.  Bees adore the marjoram. Luckily there have been plenty of flowers at the Sanctuary and, even more exciting; I found a real sufficiency of small wild plants when I was foraging in Cornwall. There were enough blossoms to dry for our German friend who can’t use alcohol. They grew next to ragwort, so you really had to be able to identify your plants to wildcraft in safety.

The St John’s wort oil is not as crimson this year as others but that’s ok. I still have loads left from other years so I don’t think I’ll run out and there’s always next year.

There have been a lot of plants I have not harvested this year, ladies mantle and agrimony being but two. I don’t know either of them well enough, so maybe next year I shall choose a new ally to get up close and personal with. Anne MacIntyre’s comments about agrimony’s digestive properties have already got me thinking. I’d like to be able to tie them in with its energetic properties and Matthew Wood’s use for pain where there is tightness/contraction.

Even when I was so miserable and frustrated because of the weather and my mother’s deterioration, the Sanctuary still held me and gave me hope. 

I was picking St John’s wort flowers in a howling gale one August afternoon, thinking how dreadful everywhere looked because we hadn’t been able to mow or weed.The hops completely sheltered me from the wind and the message in my head was, “Never be ashamed of what you have.” 

It made me realise I don’t have to compare myself with other herbalists. Just because they have stunningly beautiful, manicured gardens with easily identified and labelled herbs, it doesn’t mean my piece of land is any less valuable or beautiful, it’s just different.

It was one of those days when nothing went right, but when I touched one of the oak trees it told me to “remain steadfast”. I don’t spend enough time talking to my trees but they are always generous with their support and advice when I do listen.

It’s sad to see branches so bare this Autumn. Oak trees covered with knopper galls instead of acorns. Apple, plum, pear, meddler and quince trees devoid of fruit. Even the sloes, damsons and haws are scarce. I guess the trees are resting after last year’s bumper crops but it’s still difficult to see empty spaces in the freezer and know they won’t be filled anytime soon. I’m grateful for our Autumn raspberries which are cropping for the first time this year – not enough for jam but a real dessert delight mixed with natural yoghurt and honey.

I’ve already wildcrafted two baskets of windfall apples in public spaces this year, one in Cornwall and one locally and I can see me hunting for more in the coming weeks to turn into jams or jellies. It’s frustrating that none of the rosehips I’ve found are ripe yet as I want to restock my dried hips this year. I’ve already made one batch of elderberry and blackberry cordial from fruit leftover after my festival workshop and a muslin bag of “hedgerow juice (sloes, blackberries and elderberries)” is currently dripping quietly into a bowl over the cooker top as I type. Tomorrow I shall turn it into jelly to add to our growing stock of preserves.

The hot cupboard in the kitchen is still full to the brim with paper bags drying herbs and seeds plus a few infusing vinegars. It has taken weeks to process dried herbs from bags into glass jars on my larder shelves but the kitchen table is finally clear. Only one of my ashwagandha plants has produced the familiar red cherries this year but there will be plenty of seed for next spring. I also managed to save lettuce seed from plants which bolted; the first time I’ve done this.

As I was looking at my French beans flowering in the new raised beds today, I noticed chickweed was growing again to be added to autumnal salads. There are still bright green nettle seeds to harvest and dry towering over the mint and raspberry canes and fresh nettles are taunting me to make soup from underneath the patio.

Everywhere I look there is something to gladden my heart and prompt gratitude. It would not be real life if bounty were not balanced by lean times. It is all part of the cycle of life and death and rebirth. We could not learn if we did not experience and could not grow if those experiences did not feed us and grant us riches. We do not always appreciate the lessons we are offered but they make us who we are.