Harvesting Roots: Burdock and Echinacea

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Harvesting Roots by Jade Shutes I have been waiting for the time for root harvesting to arrive and this weekend, although I was busy with other projects, I received a ‘call’, seemingly from the plants and from an inner tuition, that it was time to harvest some roots.  Pausing my wintertime gift making, I headed [...]

Summertime: A time for Herbal Infusions!

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Written by: Jade Shutes                     With a lunar eclipse this evening and the summer solstice approaching, it a good time to either make a herbal infusion or begin preparations for making them throughout the summer months. A herbal oil infusion is the combination of dried or [...]

Our garden awakens

The Back garden with lots of chickweed

Here in North Carolina we have been experiencing a mix of warm and cold weather. It has been perfect to prepare our back beds for spring greens. We had to remove (rather unfortunately) a ton of chickweed which tends to overtake the garden in the back. Thankfully there is lots of other chickweed around. We [...]

Richo Cech

This is a quote written by Richo Cech in Horizon Herbs recent newsletter.  I just loved it.  Check out Horizon Herbs at: www.horizonherbs.com People, please learn, teach and practice permaculture.  Attune to food as medicine, medicine as plants, plants as emanations of the Great Spirit.  Let us respect our landscape by greening it up for [...]

Herbal allies

calendula drying

Tonight I sit sipping on a herbal tea blend of Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), Oat straw (Avena sativa), Nettles (Urtica dioica) and Raspberry leaf (Rubus ideaeus). I look over to see the jars of dried herbs I have managed to harvest before the heavy humidity of summer sets in. The calendula I dry hanging upside [...]

Biodynamic Strawberries

the field rotation strawberries

My son Soren and I recently went on our annual strawberry picking.  We returned to Whitted Bowers Farm, a biodynamic farm located just north of Durham, NC.  To learn more about this farm please visit: http://www.whittedbowersfarm.com/Site/About_the_Farm.html According to http://www.biodynamics.com/biodynamics.html, “Essentially, biodynamic farming and gardening looks upon the soil and the farm as living organisms. It [...]

‘Tis the season for Golden rod. It is scattered…

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Tis the season for Golden rod. It is scattered throughout North Carolina. I was also amazed at its prolific presence in Massachusetts as well. In the heat of the last full month of summer, golden rod (often confused with ragweed) reflects the suns rays and warmth. Golden rods Latin name is: Solidago virgaurea Another species [...]

What’s growing in your garden?

By garden I mean anything from the actual garden that you planted on your land to the plants growing up through the cracks in the city (e.g. St. John’s Wort in the sidewalks of Seattle). Your garden includes the natural landscape which you can drive to, walk to, or happen to be in. This spring [...]