Singing in the Solstice

 On June 21, a few heart-y souls gathered between rain showers at Local Farm

 to sing in the solstice, to mourn the loss of a mulish friend, and to sing up the near full-moon...

Weed-Made First-Aid

It was a sparkling day for a stroll around the Local Farm barnyard with local herbalist, Alicia North of Northstar Botanicals.  As we crossed the lawn, heading toward a patch of nettles, Alicia pointed out plantain; one of the primary healing "weeds" that we'd harvest for our salve. Later, in the pasture, we'd find two varieties of plantain;

Common Broad-leafed Plantain or "White Man's Foot" has followed European colonization throughout the world. It is slightly astringent and stimulates healing of skin wounds, The juice is said to soothe bee-stings, bug bites and nettle burn. Debra remembers her young son's playmates chewing up the leaves and applying the mash to cool and soothe bee-stings.

The primitive Ribwort or Lancelate Plantain has long, narrow, ribbed leaves harkening to prehistoric times and has properties very similar to Broad Leafed Plantain. We collected leaves from both.

At the nettle patch, Alicia spoke of Stinging Nettles as a blood-building herb, a fiber plant, and a delicious health-filled spring green once it has been cooked and lost its sting. The stinging nettle hairs contain formic acid and flogging oneself with the plant increases blood circulation. This practice is said to be useful in decreasing arthritic inflammation.

Asked about plants historically used to help with digestive complaints, Alicia suggested Catnip which is also mildly stimulating. She suggested bruising the fresh leaves in cold water as a good summer drink.

Next to the Catnip was a thriving plant of Greater Celandine with little yellow flowers. Its bright orange juice is said to be a cure for warts and in Russia, the plant has been used in treating cancer.

We next harvested Chickweed to supplement our salad as well as an addition to the salve for its cooling, inflammation reducing qualities.

To make the salve we steeped chopped or broken up herbs in warm olive oil for an hour. We put our pan of oil and herbs into a second pan of hot water - being careful not to cook the herbs.

While they steeped Alicia showed us her personal first aid kit with...

 Essential oils of thyme and lavender for repelling insects and calming excitement...

 Homeopathic remedies for allergic reactions, motion sickness, headaches, etc...

Sea bands for stimulating an acupuncture point helpful in reducing nausea...

Charcoal capsules to take in case of food poisoning. And much more!



After a delicious pot-luck lunch including salad supplemented with red clover blossom, chickweed, and sorrel; sauteed nettles; and steamed lambs quarters, we strained the herbs out of the oil, added beeswax, and poured the warm mixture into small containers to cool and take home.

Summer Full Moon Gathering

Nancy hosted a full-moon gathering at her home on Great HIll July 17. We hung the red tent in her family's Sukkat arbor. Elsie (with her face painted like a round slice of watermelon) cut our bright yellow napkins into moon-shaped rounds. Nancy prepared the ingredients for making our own round sushi rice rolls. Rachel make a round broccoli ring. Nita brought cherries and salad in a round bowl. Margaret and Debra made round shortcakes and whipped cream to go with fresh berries that Margaret and Elsie picked. Some of us tried sleeping out under the full moon but the mosquitoes were too intent on rounding their bellies with our blood so we retreated to various places a-round the Moche's home. --- Debra

New Moon Gathering

Every New Moon, Motherhouse has a gathering. A place women can come together to share in stories, company, activities, good food, and honor our cycles. Yesterday, the new moon gathering was at Perry Hill Farm. We ventured out in a field of ours to pick black raspberries, gather motherwort, mullein flowers, plantain, yarrow, and St. John's Wort. As we gathered our goodies, we spent time sharing stories and support through our friendship.

Once our goodies were gathered, we sat at our outside table under a large white pine tree and begun to make our tinctures and oils for salves. We sat in the shade sipping on mint water, laughing, taking in all the wonderful smells around us and we listened to the birds chirp. We read information from Susun Weed's website about tinctures. We discussed the many uses of these wonderful plants we harvested. We laughed at how picking the black raspberries stained our hands. We especially giggled when we tried a skin conditioner I had made previously from mullein and wild lettuce on our faces with those same stained hands. Now our faces had a lovely berry juice color!

I never realized just how beautiful these tinctures and salves in the making are! It was amazing to see how quickly the St. John's wort started turning the alcohol red. Motherwort and St. John's wort will be soaking in 100 proof vodka for 6 weeks. Mullein/yarrow/plantain will be soaking in olive oil in the sun for 6 weeks.

It was a peaceful empowering new moon gathering. --- Vicki