A Pajama-clad Herbal Collection Stroll
This Sunday morning we depart for a week long camping expedition through Banff and Glacier National Parks. The excitement is real! There has been lot of planning, scrambling, and over all intense preparations going on around the place as we get ready to take off on vacation for a week. This trip is going to be extra special because we are going on the adventure with some good friends and their kids. Ten people, one fifth wheel, and the open road. The blog posts will flow!
Of course Nature could care less that I am leaving. Every year I replenish my dried herb stockpile, and one of the herbs that I won't live without over the winter is yarrow (Achillea millefolium). Now, I am not an herbalist, nor am I going to give anyone health advice, but I will tell you what I do with yarrow. Hello yarrow tea! I have been drinking piping hot cups of yarrow tea since I was a child. If a cold, fever, or the flu strikes me, I can guarantee you that I will be ingesting a steaming hot cup of yarrow infusion.
This year I also wanted to experiment with creating my own yarrow hydrosol, but as the best time to harvest the herb is right when it bursts into full bloom (which is of course right when I am to leave on my vacation) it looks like my hydrosol experimentation will be conducted on my hyssop, mint, and lavender plants this year. That's okay by me, gotta go with the flow sometimes!
Morning found me out in my back ten acres, wandering clad in my pajamas through the wild plants that inhabit that patch of earth. I love quiet mornings in the woods. Of course I am never alone, my cat bodyguard contingency followed me through the shrubbery, and a mama white tail deer bounced out of the trees in front of me. White tails are such dramatists.
Once I had cut a good sized pile of yarrow, I tied it together in clumps with baling twine and hung the bundles in my woodshed suspended on more baling twine (An ode to baling twine is forthcoming). Sometimes I dry my herbs on screens, other times I tie them in bundles and hang them to dry, for anything done around here tends to happen in the most convenient way that appeals to me at the time. The most important thing to remember when drying herbs is to keep them out of direct sunlight and place them somewhere with good airflow.
I'll usually remember to check the herbs in a couple of weeks and place the dried herbs in a labeled paper bag or glass jar for later use.
All in all an easy to-do that I enjoy. The hour that I spent cutting yarrow this morning will be time well spent if I or one of my herd gets smacked with a sinus cold at some point during the next year, for then the tea will flow along with our nasal cavities!
Hope you all have the most wonderful Father's Day weekend ever!!!
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