Mad About Herbs

Elderflowers

Elderflowers come from the Elder tree (Sambucus nigra).  The Elder has been called the 'medicine chest of the people' due to the remedies that can be made with either its leaves, bark, flowers or fruit to treat many common complaints.  It is a native tree/shrub which is found growing wild in most of Britain.  The creamy white flat topped flowers appear in May and June.  The elderberries ripen ready to pick from September.

The most popular part used now is the elderflowers which are said to contain a plant acid that is anti-inflammatory.  Some people don't like the smell of the flowers but I can assure you that the elderflower cordial or champagne made from them tastes delicious (in my opinion!).

Harvesting
When picking the elderflowers, make sure they are from trees that are not close to busy roads or other sources of pollution; apparently they are very good at absorbing pollutants from the air.  You can just cut the whole flowerhead from the main stem, so you have the complete 'umbrella' (the proper name is 'umbel') of tiny flowers.

Use in skincare products
The flowers are used in skin lotions, oils or ointments.  eg elderflower water.  A soothing eye wash can be made from it and it can be used to soothe skin rashes or eruptions.

Household/Garden uses
The leaves can be used as an insect repellent; just boil and strain to make a natural insect repelling spray.

Culinary uses
The flowers can be used to make elderflower cordial, 'champagne', wine or vinegar.  A salad dressing made with elderflower vinegar is lovely.

Other recipes include elderflower and gooseberry jelly, elderflower and polenta cake, elderflower fritters and elderflower and gooseberry fool.

Medicinal uses
It is reported by medical herbalists that dried elderflowers when combined with dried yarrow and peppermint to make a tea is effective to use when you have a cold or influenza.  The elderflower lowers fever, reduces inflammation, soothes irritation and has anti-catarrhal effects.

The leaves can also be used in the making of an ointment for use on bruises, wounds or chilblains.

You can also listen to some more detailed information on my podcast about elderflowers which was included in the Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast last June.

If you have any favourite recipes using elderflowers, please feel free to send them to me or add them in a comment below.

Free Seeds

To celebrate their garden at The Chelsea Flower Show, The Children s Society and Royal Horticultural Society are offering families a free pack of flower seeds to brighten up their garden or window box. You can find out more here.

Thanks to Shirl at IndigoShirl, I found a great website that has an opportunity for 7 to 14 year olds to win money for their school in either Amazon or Garden Vouchers.  The idea is to grow your mint from the free seeds that they provide, then add as much value to it as possible, sell it and record the process.   You can see lots of imaginative uses that school children came up with on their website.  To get your free mint seeds, visit Planet Science.

Unfortunately I've only just found this site so it may be a bit late to get your mint plants to a usable size; the deadline for sending in your results is Sunday 6th July and the seeds can take anything between 2 to 6 weeks to germinate.  Mint doesn't actually come true from seed which is why you should take cuttings if you are after a particular variety of mint so I'm not sure what type of mint plant the seeds provided will create!  You could however try doing the challenge for yourself and see what you can create from a mint plant.  Feel free to leave me a comment if you give this a go. 

Aromatherapy Dough

Why didn't I think of that!  Dough with pure essential oils incorporated into it.  My daughter gets travel sick even on short journeys so this might just be worth a try.

Mohdoh have brought out a range of mouldable medicines to combat a variety of childhood ailments through play therapy, colour therapy and aromatherapy.  There are six products each of which tackles different symptoms from travel sickness to anxiety.  As the dough is kneaded, the essential oils are vaporised, inhaled and absorbed through the skin. 

You can choose from No worries, Smart, Are we there yet, Calm, Breathe and 40 winks.

The product is non toxic and contains pure essential oils.  It retails at £6.49 or £30 for all 6 and is available online at www.mohdoh.co.uk

Has anyone tried these?

Lemon Verbena

I wish you could smell this plant, it is heavenly.  It survived, hooray!   I brought the plant indoors for the winter but it looked like it was dying so I pruned it back quite hard and it did what I hoped it would and has lots of lovely fresh growth appearing from the old wood.

Lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) isn't very easy to grow from seed and is best propagated from softwood cuttings in the summer or hardwood cuttings in the autumn so I'll be taking some cuttings in the summer as insurance!

Facts and uses:

• Lemon Verbena is a large, bushy deciduous shrub that can grow up to 1 metre or more in height or up to 4.5 metres in warmer climates where there is no frost.
• It can be combined with other lemon scented herbs such as lemon thyme and lemongrass to make a seasoning that goes well with chicken, fish, pork or lamb. 
• It makes an attractive pot plant, or border plant if you live in warmer climates where it can be left outside; it prefers moist, warm climates and a rich soil.  It is sensitive to cold weather so is best grown in a container if you live in a cooler region so it can be protected in the winter.
• Lemon verbena leaves can be made into a lovely tea especially when mixed with mint leaves.
• The dried leaves hold their scent well so can be used in pot pourri, pillows and sachets.
• Sprigs of leaves can be harvested and dried then stored in airtight jars. (I have some from last year and they still smell wonderful when crushed).   Alternatively they can be wrapped and frozen for up to 6 months.

If you have any favourite uses for lemon verbena, feel free to leave a comment below.

How to make a Herbal bath bag

I'm excited to tell you that my third children's activity 'Lavender/Rose petal bath bag'  has been published on the ichild website as a Mother's Day gift idea. My 10 year old daughter made the one shown in the photo.

If you want to take a peek, visit this page and let me know what you think.

(In case you missed them, the other activities were: How to make an orange Pomander and Spiced Biscuits).

New Herb Forum

I'm pleased to say that the Mad About Herbs Forum has now been set up, ready for you to join in, make friends, ask for or share information and have fun.  Most herb forums are mixed in with fruit and vegetable topics or mix all the different aspects of herbs, so this forum has been created to focus solely on herbs but split between the different areas so that it is easier for you to find the information you are looking for.

On this forum you can:

• ask your herb related questions on the appropriate forums
• share your knowledge of herb gardening, cooking, crafts, making skincare products, using herbs for health
• arrange herb seed swaps
• share recipes
• let us know your favourite herb related books, products, suppliers
• let me know what information you are looking for, what you like and don't like about the website/blog/newsletter
• just drop in for a chat off topic in the 'Fancy a chat?' forum
• and lots more....

You are welcome to view the forums but will need to register to post on them and to view member profiles.  The forum provider has  a security feature that can block bots from capturing member's email addresses, so you can use the board without having to worry about getting more email spam.

Almost forgot to include the link!  Click here to access the forum.

I hope you find it useful.

How to make a room spray

A simple recipe for making your own room spray/linen spray/natural air freshener:

You will need:

a 50ml bottle with a mister lid and cap (glass is best, but you can use plastic)
distilled or spring water
pure essential oils of your choice
vodka (if you want it to last a long time; also helps disperse the essential oils)

Put 30 ml (approx 1 fl.oz) of distilled or spring water into the bottle, add between 25 to 35 drops of pure essential oils into the water; this could be a blend of your favourite oils or just one eg lavender for a relaxing room spray/to spray on your laundry before drying.  Add 15ml of vodka (optional).  Top up with more distilled/spring water; you need to leave some space at the top of the bottle so you can shake and mix it later.

Put lid on tightly, shake well to disperse oils.  Spray to check scent.  It is best to wait about a week then try it again before deciding whether or not the scent is too weak.

A few precautions: Do not spray onto furniture/polished surfaces or anywhere near the face or directly onto the skin. i.e. spray into the air or onto sheets only.  Keep away from children and pets.

To find suppliers of bottles, essential oils and more check my website resources page.

For aromatherapy books which include recipes for various blends, why not have a browse through the recommended books in my Amazon bookstore.

Christmas wall hanging and Iris Folding Patterns

I got invited to a Christmas Craft evening at one of the local churches in my town.  We could choose 3 out of 4 crafts.  It was so much fun, I still can't believe I made that wall hanging in the photo!  It's just an old wire coat hanger lengthened out, a block of oasis that had been soaked in water for a while then wrapped in cling film, then just add layers of the plant material there plus some baubles and artificial flowers and a ribbon.

I also learnt how to do iris folding cards which look impressive too.  You can find the instructions here.  There are lots of patterns for the cut-out; christmas trees, angels, stockings, hearts and more!  I think I might get addicted to this one.

The last craft I did was decorating small cards with glitter pens, bows, sparkly stickers and more, they could be used as christmas cards or gift tags or place name cards, some were christmas tree shaped, some were cracker shaped.

I think I must just be a big kid, I love creating stuff!

How to make an Orange Pomander

I'm pleased to say that I have been asked to write a herb or spice related activity for the website www.ichild.co.uk which provides free educational and fun activities for children up to the age of 11 years.

This is the first one which is How to make an orange pomander.  Just click here to access it.

The one in the photo has just been made; it needs to dry out for a few weeks then you won't see any of the orange and it will smell lovely.

Hope you have fun if you try this out, just try not to get orange juice squirting in your eye!

Herbal flower arrangements

This is one of my favourite combinations and so easy to do.  The calendula plants in my garden are still flowering away even though the leaves have been affected by mildew.  The rosemary is of course evergreen. 

This brings a ray of sunshine and natural uplifting fragrance into my room which is great at this time of year.  Who needs yukky artificial air fresheners!

Let me know if you have any favourite combinations.