I LOVE ELDERFLOWER!  It is such a beautiful plant with bundles of gorgeous wee white flowers!  The bees and insects love it too.  I put into the ground some brand new cuttings in the fall and they are already flowering.  A beautiful fragrance!  An amazing herb with so many uses.  It's great for young children.  I make a tea from the flowers and then freeze it into ice blocks.  Tea, champagne, tincture, even Elderflower pancakes (which I found out about from a German friend of mine).....

Enjoy

I LOVE the Spring rains as they pour down their blessings on the land.  All the pants are soaking up the moisture and loving it.  When the sun shines again I feel I can literally watch them growing.  Not too far off now from starting to harvest some leafy herbs such as peppermint and thyme for drying and use in teas!  YUM

I LOVE that I can make a fresh green salad from my garden in the middle of winter!  I can gather chickweed, mizzuna, dandelion leaves, small kale, cabbage, or broccoli leaves, fennel, beet leaves, yarrow, endive, miner's lettuce, and other hearty lettuces.  We get a decent frost here but these lovely greens have managed to stay vibrant through it all.  What a treat!

We also enjoy fresh mandarins, lemons, grapefruits and other citrus from our lovely neighbors!  Sure beats a long winter of no fresh fruit or veg.  

I am taking my yummy garden salad to a potluck birthday party tonight....maybe with a few toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top. :)

COCONUT OIL:

What a fascinating plant!!  How useful it is; no wonder God put the Palm tree on deserted islands.  I use coconut oil for cooking, my hair and skin, and even in baking.  It is such a great source of Medium chain fatty acids and a healthy saturated fat.  Great for the brain and body overall.  I love giving my 2 1/2 year old a coconut oil massage by the fire!  It is soothing for her and her skin just soaks it up.  Coconut oil is a great base for herbal creams/balmes as well.

So happy  to have such plants on Earth!

So nice to see the ground frosty in the mornings.  Some plants really benefit from a cold frost that burns their leaves.  You can just sense how the energy of the plants has moved way down into the Earth...down with the worms.

RAIN RAIN....BEAUTIFUL RAIN....finally the plants are soaking it up and everything is going to turn lush and green again.

Under cloudy cool skies today we harvested a beautiful Marshmallow plant.  Although it was not the best timing bio-dynamically sometimes you just have to harvest when you can.  Especially being a mother you have to seize opportunities.  A lovely friend helped me out who was keen to learn about herbs.  So I thought what better experience than HANDS ON with the herb.  Also, she is a singer and has used Marshmallow to help soothe her vocal cords.  The roots were thick and spreading...luckily not too deep and rather easy to pull up.  We washed and cut them into small bits and put them on the racks in my drying house for drying.  We've had literally no rain lately so I predict they will be dry enough to store in a short time.  It was amazing to feel the oozing mucilage from where the roots were cut or bruised.  This is the substance that makes this herb so amazing for any inflamed or irritated tissues.  A cool, almost aloe vera like, gel is present in the roots amongst a fibrous touch skin. A miracle of the plant world...right in our backyard.  

Herbal Blessings.

Don't forget...now is a great time to start a cleanse.  I am about to embark on fresh fruit and vegetable juices in combination with herbal teas and tinctures, massage, reflexology, and relaxation.  I am aiming for a week of fine tuning.  And remember it's always the first few days that are the hardest...then as you lighten your load it becomes much easier.