Welcome to my Witchen Kitchen! I hope you find tons of inspiration and useful herbal information and wise woman wisdom here! Just grab a cup of your favorite herbal tea (or coffee...I love coffee too!) and pull up a chair. I've got a tasty soup bubbling on the stove, herbal medicines in the cupboard, and lots of information to share. Happy reading and green blessings!!

 

 

garden plum

Tales From the Chicken Coop: Free Range Bliss

tammy August 10th, 2008

We always wanted free range chickens, so yesterday, we took a big gulp and opened the door of the chicken pen so our new flock could roam a bit, standing close by in case they decided to take off to parts unknown. 

This made them so very happy.  Their excited energy was obvious as they immediately started foraging through the wooded area near their pen, finding big fat worms, juicy bugs of all sorts, and delectable greens everywhere.  Chicken heaven. 

To my horror, one even got hold of a baby black snake, about the size of a worm.  Chills up and down my spine!

They stayed close to the pen, never really roaming more than 10 yards away.  Their water was still in the cage, so occasionally they popped in for drink.

Mid afternoon, it was apparently nap time for the youngsters, as most of them headed into the cage to rest for a while.  Then after about an hour they headed back out. 

Chickens will eat just about anything, we’ve discovered.  We usually bring them lots of table scraps, and they especially like fresh dandelion greens.  Today when we brought their evening feed, they weren’t all that hungry after their day of foraging, but most came into the cage to peck half-heartedly at the cracked corn we put down. 

We’ve seen a fox out at night a few times in the past few weeks, so we wanted to make sure they were all inside the coop before dark.  Even though we thought they would probably all come in to the roost on their own as the daylight faded, we didn’t entirely trust them to do it, and we didn’t want to be tromping through the woods in the dark, so we started rounding them all up then.  Another hilarious chicken run, but we finally got them all inside. 

The young chickens won’t be laying eggs probably until next spring, so we added a couple of full grown Rhode Island Red laying hens to our flock a couple weeks ago.  They each give us one smooth brown egg every day.  They are more like pets, coming up to us to socialize and letting us hold them and rub their heads.  They also help keep the younguns in line, who always scatter when we approach and can get into quite a bit of mischief with each other.

We’ve identified at least three roosters so far.  They’ve started squaring off in very comical displays of bravado.  They have a lot of heart, but absolutely no clue of how to rule the roost yet. 

One of the roosters is particularly mean.  He likes to pull out the tail feathers of some of the others and eat them (the feathers).  We may be eating HIM come fall!

First Tastes of Goldenrod

tammy July 31st, 2008

For the July blog party on the topic of “bitters,” hosted by Kiva at Medicine Woman’s Roots.

I’ve had a love affair with Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) for the past year, since I first discovered its intoxicating scent and made an oil of it. So far, I’ve only enjoyed it as aroma therapy (not in any official sense; I just like to smell it!) and as a bath & massage oil. Now it’s time to take it to the next level and taste its medicine internally.

According to my book research, Goldenrod is considered a bitter. “The root, leaf, and flower of the Solidago is predominately bitter and pungent…” – Matthew Wood, The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants

Many tend to think of bitters as digestive tonics, and they do have a wonderful reputation for that, but bitter also can be associated with other kinds of medicine, too. I know that “alteratives,” those herbs that can have a beneficial effect on almost every system of the body, often have a bitter component. Some of my most beloved herbal medicines are at least partly bitter. Burdock, dandelion, yarrow, sage, angelica… there are more… These are the plants that ease my “achy all over” symptoms, clear congestion in the lymphatics, improve overall circulation, among other wonderful things.

I don’t yet have a full picture in my mind of the mechanisms at work when these plants do their magical thing in the body (just a partial picture getting clearer all the time), but bitter definitely equals medicine in my mind. When I taste bitter in a plant, I intuitively know that there is strong medicine there.

The bitterness of Goldenrod tells me it has good medicine also. Below are my impressions from my first tastes of it. I sampled each of these different parts and preparations on different days so they wouldn’t all blend together and I could get a better sense of each form individually.

Chew a fresh flower – Slightly numbing on tip of tongue; bitter sparkles on the back. Sharp heat that diffuses and rises into nasal cavity and sinuses. Tongue slightly puckers indicating astringency. Lingering bitter aftertaste mixed with fragrant licorice-like flavor.

Chew a fresh leaf – Sharp and slightly numbing on entire tongue, diffusive (tingly). Less bitter, sharpness fades as you hold it in your mouth, leaving a slight buzz on the tongue and a pleasant taste.

Sip some fresh leaf and blossom tea – Taste is mildly the same as the fresh plant aroma, pleasant. Not very much bitterness (maybe more if left to steep longer). Lovely green-yellow color, which grew deeper the longer the tea sat. A few sips and a few minutes later, marked relaxation in shoulders and upper back. Sleepiness washes over, just want to take a nap, eyes gritty, heavy.

Sip dried leaf and blossom tea – Much, much stronger taste and smell of licorice. While the fresh plant is very complex with a strong note of licorice, the dried plant loses some of that complexity I think, but the result is a very concentrated licorice-ness. The tea turned the beautiful green-yellow color much quicker than with the fresh plant. Slight astringent pucker on the tongue. Sharp, sparkly, licorice heat rises, filling the nose and sinus; lingers pleasantly. Cannot taste any bitterness, primarily tastes of sweet licorice. Very, very slightly tingly/ diffusive on the tongue, much less than with chewing the fresh plant. Mildly relaxing to upper body, but not as pronounced as with the fresh tea.

Other notes and comparisons – The oil of Goldenrod is a darker shade of the the unique green-yellowness, the color of its medicine. I think I would use the fresh plant and/or the dried tea for cold nasal/sinus congestion. Headaches, colds, allergies, etc.

Tincture – I have also made a tincture of fresh leaf and blossoms, which I’ll report on as soon as I’ve had occassion to use it. I’m anxious to see how it compares.

In a future post, I’ll compile all my research on the traditional medicinal uses of Goldenrod as a reference for my ongoing experiments. I would love to hear your experiences with this plant also, so please leave a comment if you’ve worked with it at all.

Seaweed Facial & Magic Lotion

tammy July 24th, 2008

Today is happy birthday to me! I’m celebrating with friends and family later this weekend, but today I treated myself to a spa right here in my Witchen Kitchen.

First, I whipped up some amazing, skin softening lotion. Remember that diaper rash balm I made and wrote about a few weeks ago? Well, I began using that on my elbows and feet not long after I made it, and I was so impressed with it that I soon started using it as an all over moisturizer after every bath.

It is miraculous in the way it softens my skin and makes it so fresh and dewy. At the risk of sounding like a gimmicky commercial, I have to say that my skin literally looks years younger and is exceptionally soft and smooth since I’ve been using it. We’ve also used it to heal bug bites and scrapes, as well as the original diaper rash. It is good for just about any minor skin irritation.

I’m no longer calling it diaper rash balm. It is now Mimi’s Magic Balm.

The balm was made of infused oils of yarrow, plantain, and cottonwood buds (balm of Gilead). I soon ran out of that initial batch I had made for Jelani’s bottom, so I made fresh batches of the three oils separately last week, using fresh yarrow picked from a neighbor’s field, plantain from my yard, and dried cottonwood buds I had ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs.

This morning, I mixed about a 1/4 cup of each infused oil along with about 1/2 – 3/4 ounce grated beeswax, and melted them together over a double boiler, then poured into a jar to set. As the mixture cooled, it firmed up nicely into a salve/ balm.

I also wanted to try making a lighter lotion out of these three herbal oils. Here’s what I did. I put a few tablespoons of the still warm, liquid balm into a pouring cup. Into a bowl I put about an equal amount of a strong infusion of chamomile, warmed also. Then I started whisking the chamomile infusion as I slowly dripped the oil into the bowl. By the time I had dripped and whisked in all the oil, it had emulsified into a lotion.

I, of course, tried it out right away. It is amazingly light and absorbs quickly with no greasy feeling at all, yet it feels just as nourishing and softening as the heavier balm. Seems a much better consistency for every day moisturizing, though I’ll continue to use the original balm for problem areas like heels and elbows, as well as for first aid for minor skin abrasions.

Okay, lotion ready, on with the spa treatment. Next I mixed up one of the best facial masks I’ve ever used. A nice hunk of kombu seaweed, ground to a powder using a coffee grinder to yield about a tablespoon, plus a tablespoon of cosmetic clay, and enough plain yogurt mixed in to make a nice paste.

Then I drew a nice warm bath, pouring in some rose petal vinegar to soften and balance the skin, and eased down into the delicious warmth for a nice long soak. I patted the seaweed mask all over my face and neck and put a couple cucumber slices over my eyes.

Lay head back. Go to daydreamland for almost an hour. Then rinse face to reveal radiant, baby soft skin, and nearly invisible pores. Wash, dry off, and apply Magic Lotion liberally to entire birthday suit.

Ahhh… what a nice day!

Crabapple Delight

tammy July 21st, 2008

I made the yummiest apple crisp for dessert last night, with crabapples. These little beauties taste like a cross between cherries and apples. So delicious! I got them from a tree in my mother-in-law’s yard. She didn’t know what they were and had been telling the kids not to eat them because they were poisonous! Somehow I had never seen this tree in her yard before, but I’m glad I finally discovered it.

(sorry the pics are a bit fuzzy… don’t know what is wrong with my camera)

First take out the seeds. The crabapples are small, so this part is quite tedious. The quickest way I found was to just cut the flesh from all around the sides. No way I was peeling them, though!

Then coat your baking dish with butter and drop in the cored crabapples.

Make a crumb topping from brown sugar, butter and flour. I didn’t have any regular wheat flour, so I ground some flax into flour instead. Sprinkle the mixture all over the top. Bake until lightly browned. Yum!

I spent the morning with my mother-in-law attempting to also make jelly from the recipe I found here: http://earthnotes.tripod.com/crabapple.htm, but alas it did not jell as it was supposed to. I now have liquid “jelly” — anyone know what I could do with this sweet, tasty liquid?

P.S. the chickens really loved the cores!

The Chicken Whisperer

tammy July 13th, 2008

All I can say is, be careful what you wish for! Dreaming of our own fresh eggs and being one step closer to producing more of our own food, not to mention all the wonderful fertilizer for the plants, we’ve been wanting to get chickens for some time now, but hadn’t had the time to prepare a coop yet. I was sure we would wait until next spring to begin this new venture. But what did I know?

Last weekend, out of the blue, we were given 16 young chickens that needed a home immediately.

Yes, I said 16.

We had to hurriedly scramble to put together a safe, cozy home for them. We ended up converting a dog kennel into a chicken yard by covering it completely with chicken wire, and we used a bunch of scrap wood to build a secure coop inside it. The dog kennel is one of those huge chain-link thingies that was also given to us some time ago. Our dog won’t use it because he thinks he is one of the children and has full rights to the house.

The chickens are all small now, so they have enough room for the moment, but we know that will change as they grow bigger. Thankfully, our son is planning to take half of them as soon as they develop enough to see which are hens and which are roosters. He already has a coop. We also plan to extend the dog kennel to make a bigger yard for the ones we keep.

Chickens are funny creatures, I’m finding. I’ve really enjoyed sitting out by the chicken yard just observing their behavior and the way they communicate with one another, peeping warnings to the others to scatter if you come too close, sometimes fighting, always looking for bugs and worms. If one finds a particularly tasty morsel like a fat worm, it will take off running away from the others to try to eat it before they see it. But as soon as the others see the lucky one running, the jig is up. Busted! The others will all take a stab at darting in to grab it away, only succeeding if they are very fast.

We had a chicken run the first day we brought them home. They all got out of the pen at once. They mostly all stayed together during their frantic escape, peeping to each other which direction to take. Run this way, no here she comes, run that way, no back this way, wait, there she is again… It was hysterical.

We’ve settled into a daily routine of feeding and watering and securing the coop. Now I’m looking forward to all those gorgeous, super nutritious, golden-orange yolked eggs, and a very rich compost pile for next year’s garden.

Skullcap too!

tammy July 5th, 2008

I almost forgot to show off the skullcap that I found and tinctured a few weeks ago. This has been a year of many first finds for me. Seems there is a new gift waiting for me every time I go outside!

Here she is. So beautiful!

And it is an effective pain reliever for many different kinds of pain. I’ve found it particularly useful for tension type headaches and tension related back pain. Kiva Rose has also written about it extensively as a nerve tonic. She calls it blisswort, so if you do a search for that word on her site you’ll pull up all sorts of information.

A sweet story… Hubby had seen me gathering the skullcap for medicine, and even helped me reach some that I couldn’t quite get to in the overgrowth with my bare feet (he was wearing boots).  Now, keep in mind, this man knows nothing about plants, and doesn’t particularly care one way or another, and he’s not particularly sentimental either.  If I let him, he would just mow all those “unsightly weeds” down every chance he got.  But he did remember this plant and the fact that it was important to me.  A few days later he came in from walking the dog with a bouquet of skullcap for me.  Is this the flower you were looking for?  Awwww… he’s learning his plants! And wasn’t that sweet of him to bring me such lovely flowers?

Goldenrod Invasion

tammy July 4th, 2008

They have arrived! Standing tall and strong all around the edge of the yard and all over the meadow, with tiny little flower buds just forming. I crushed a few of the buds this morning while I was out walking to sample the sweet, heady fragrance and be instantly reminded why I love this plant so much.

Even if I could find no medicinal uses, I would make oil with the flowers every year for no other reason than to be able to smell them all through winter. It has been described as an anise fragrance. I’m not sure what anise smells like; I just know I love the aroma of Goldenrod. I find it invigorating and expansive and intensely joyful. But it turns out that it has many uses besides just therapy for the olfactory senses.

I call the oil “summer in a bottle.” In addition to frequently opening the jar to smell, I also use it as a relaxing and pain relieving massage oil and bath oil. This year I want to experiment with some other creations. A honey, a tincture, a vinegar, a syrup… what else can I think of? Some dried for tea? I want to experience it in many different ways in order to understand its medicine better.

It has been used frequently by herbalists for bladder and kidney problems, as a diuretic, as an antisceptic and astringent wound wash or salve, as a fomentation for pain relief in arthritis and rheumatism, as a tea or tincture for relief of colds, sinus congestion, and related headaches, as a general tonic for exhaustion, as an anti-fungal for candida… there are probably other uses as well.

I still have about 3 or 4 ounces of the oil I made last year. It smells just as beautiful and potent as it did when I first made it. Since I’m going to be making fresh oil in a few weeks, I’d like to use up this batch. If you would like an ounce, email me. I will sell this batch for $5 per ounce including shipping.

I wish I could put one of those scratch and sniff cards here on the computer for you to sample it. But alas, you’ll have to either go out and find some growing and make your own, or email me if you’d like me to send you some of mine!

St. John’s Wort on Summer Solstice

tammy June 22nd, 2008

I haven’t let hubby mow the meadow at all this year, just so I could see what would grow if we let it alone.  I’m glad we did this because yesterday, a beautiful Summer solstice day, I found St. John’s Wort, one of my first and very beloved herbal allies, growing in a corner of the field. 

Although my friend Sue sent me some baby plants this year that I planted early this spring in another spot, this is the first time I’ve seen it on the property growing wild, and I am very excited!

St. John’s Wort usually blooms on or around the Summer solstice.  See the little buds?

I don’t know if there are enough to really harvest them this year.  I think I may let them go to seed so there will be more next year.  We live in a very rural area with many pastures and open fields.  I’ll definitely be scouting out the neighbors property to see if I can find some more that I CAN harvest!

 

Herbal Coconut Diaper Rash Balm

tammy June 22nd, 2008

My new little grandson, barely 2 weeks old, has had his first minor diaper rash. ‘Cause he likes to poop in the middle of the night while he’s sleeping and nobody knows about it until the next morning! Here is a simple herbal balm I made that cleared it right up.

I used raw, organic coconut oil as the base, and infused some dried Balm of Gilead (poplar buds), dried yarrow, and fresh chopped plantain from the yard. Yarrow is known to be quite anti-bacterial and good for skin ailments. Plantain draws out infection or toxins and helps heals skin beautifully, and Balm of Gilead is well known as a skin healer and soother. the coconut oil itself is also anti-microbial and very nourishing to the skin. There are many, many other herbs adn oils that could have been used here, but these were the ones I had on hand and that came to mind when I started mixing.

Since I needed this balm immediately and didn’t want to wait weeks for it to infuse, I decided for the first time to use a heat infusion method. I followed Frances’ suggestion to use a crock pot set on low for a couple days.

I put the coconut oil in a small jar and immersed it in the warm water in the crock pot to melt it, then added the herbs, stirred it well, put the top on, and sat it back down in the warm water bath (along with a couple other infusing oils so as to get maximum use from having the crock pot on for so long). I let it infuse for two days, opening the cap to wipe away moisture condensation (from water in the fresh plantain) and to stir it occasionally.

When it had taken on a nice green color and I deemed it done, I strained the oil through a mesh strainer first, then strained it again through a clean cloth to get all the tiny little herb particles out.

Coconut oil will stay solid at room temperature, about 76 degrees or less. In our air conditioned homes, this makes a perfect salve. If it were going to be stored in a warmer place, I would have melted some beeswax into the mixture to keep it solid at higher temps too.

While it was still warm and liquid, I put it in a squeeze bottle to keep fingers out of the mixture to avoid introducing bacteria so it will last longer. I have no idea what the shelf life is. Since there are no preservatives, we will keep a close eye on it for spoilage.

My daughter took the filled bottle with her before I took a pic, but here is an empty one.  I picked up a bunch of these at the discount store for about $. 50 a piece.

This balm has a lovely light coconut scent and feels really nice on the skin. In addition to diaper rash, it could be used for many other purposes. It could be really great for moisturizing elbows and feet, or soothing any minor skin abrasion.

I bought the dried herbs and raw coconut oil at Mountain Rose Herbs.

Rose Toner and Spritzer

tammy June 15th, 2008

For the blog party on staying cool in the summer, hosted at Alchemille’s Garden

I spell “cool in the summer” a-i-r c-o-n-d-i-t…. oh, wait… that’s not herbal, hehe

As you probably know, there are literally hundreds of ways to use herbs and plants and food to stay cool in the summer. My favorite is just taking a lazy walk in the cool shade of big leafy trees, especially near a stream or a lake or a river or the ocean. Or better yet, taking a dip in that water or sitting and digging my toes into the cool mud or sand alongside it. Just getting close to the heartbeat of Mother Earth, where the growth is lush and the water runs free is enough all by itself.

I also like to add herbs and plants to almost every other thing I do in the course of living. I wanted to share one cooling thing I’ve been using lately that is so easy and simple. It’s a lovely rose petal toner that takes maybe 5 minutes to make, plus a couple weeks to sit before using.

I made herbal gifts for the holidays last December and had lots of dried rose petals left over. I wanted to use them before they lost their potency, so was wracking my brain for what would use up a lot of them all at once.

I decided to infuse them in witch hazel, which I also had plenty of. I just put the fragrant rose petals in a jar, poured witch hazel over them, and let them sit for a couple of weeks. The result is a heavenly scented, pink, cooling toner.

I use it on a cotton ball to cleanse my face and neck after my shower each day. I have to say that my skin has never been so soft and clear as it has since I began using this. Works better than any expensive facial product I’ve ever purchased.

I also put it in a spray bottle to spritz all over when ever I want to cool off a little. It’s nice spritzed right in the face (be careful not to get in eyes) and on the neck, arms, belly… where ever you need it. Freshens and cools instantly. And it smells soooooo good!

It’s now time to make some more with all the fresh blossoms that are blooming all over. I’m sure a fresh infusion wil be just as lovely!

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