Saturday, December 12, 2009

Scent-sible Herbel Gifts

Alicia North of North Star Botanicals led a bunch of 7 in making great gifts to either give away or use ourselves.

Alcohol-free Hand Sanitizer.
2 cups pure aloe vera gel
1-2 teaspoons witch hazel
30 drops eucalyptus essential oil (1/2 teaspoon)
20 drops rosemary essential oil (1/3 teaspoon)
1o drops lavender
8 drops cinnamon essential oil
8 drops clove essential oil



Herbal Eye Pillows
Flax seed because it's cooling.
Lavender flowers for soothing.
Mint to make things look brighter (but go light on the mint 'cause its a stimulant).
Hops if you want, to help you remember your dreams, only a little bit (it smells like dirty socks).
Stitched up tight in a pretty fabric pouch, frog shaped or mask like or a starry blue sky.



Calendula Salve
3 oz. calendula infused olive oil
1 oz. beeswax
Calendula salve is an all purpose healing salve. Good for cracked hands, to keep cow udders from getting chapped, helping heal burns and other things of this nature.


Christmas Tea
1 cup each dried cut rose hips, lemon verbena leaves, and orange peel
6 cinnamon sticks broken into small pieces
1/4 cup cloves
Infuse 1 tsp tea blend in 1 cup freshly boiled water for ten minutes. Serve with honey if desired.

Fizzy Bath Salts
1 cup Epsom salts
1 cup sea salt
1 cup baking soda
8 drops lavender essential oil
6 drops orange essential oil
6 drops neroli
4 drops peppermint essential oil
1/2 cup citric acid
Mix dry ingredients first except citric acid. Add oils, mix, add citric acid and mix thoroughly.
We had an accident with the bath salts because we used Celtic sea salt instead of regular sea salt.
After riding home we discovered the salt had pulled enough moisture out of the air to cause the bath salts to fizz right out of the bag!


Corning Spices
1/2 kosher salt
1 Tbsp cracked pepper corn
3/4 Tbsp cloves
1 Tbsp thyme
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1 4-6 lbs. beef brisket or tongue. Rinse and pat dry.
Rub each side evenly with salt, mix, place in 2 gallon Ziploc bag and force out as much air as possible. Place in a pan, cover with second pan and weight with 2 bricks or heavy cans. Refrigerate 5-7 days. Turn once daily. To cook, cover with water and boil 2-3 hours.

To perches these and others go Alicia's website www.northstarbotanicals.com

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Contra Dance

On the cold and snowy night of December 5th contra dance caller Fern Bradly and Still the Home Grown Band gathered at the Cornwall town hall to call and play for two families plus roadies and we had a tiny but lovely contra dance.