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Stoney Ground Herbs

Beautiful, strong herbs for NZ gardeners and herbalists of all levels

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    • Clary Sage
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    • Mugwort, Chinese
    • Peppermint, Chocolate
    • Peppermint
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    • Sage, Common
    • Sage, Purple
    • Self Heal
    • Soapwort
    • Southernwood
    • St John’s Wort
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    • Thyme, creeping
    • White Sage
  • Dried herbs
    • Catnip, Nepeta cataria
    • German Chamomile, Matricaria Recutita
    • Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis
    • Lemon Verbena, Aloysia citriodora
    • Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca
    • Nettle (Lesser), Urtica urens
    • Peppermint, Mentha x piperita
    • Sage, Salvia officinalis
    • Self Heal, Prunella vulgaris
    • Yarrow, Achillea millefolium
  • Ordering Your Plants
  • Maramataka Māori
  • Blog

Easter Adventures and Wildcrafting

April 5, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I was going to write a post up about how Autumn is the time to start tidying up your herb gardens. Cutting back spent flowers heads etc but the weather has gone from fairly horrid to even worse and I’m not going to go out there to take photos to support the write up. You’ll just have to read this post that I wrote up last year – that quite honestly, probably says the same as what I would say this year!

So what I will write about instead is our day out yesterday…

So windy that rainbows were created on the water from the spray it was picking up. Beautiful.

Easter Sunday we took a trip down to Ocean Beach on the Wairarapa coast. The wind was so strong it was bloomin’ nuts, it was the type of wind where you had to turn your face so sand/grit wouldn’t peckle your face. The type of wind where you worry that your small child might fly like a kite. The type of wind that makes you slightly stumble, dig in your heels and lean in like a picture in a kids book. It was so fun ~ it felt like a real adventure!

Fennel seed heads to forage
Wild fennel seed heads ripe for the picking.

Along the banks and hills of this coast is oceans of wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) – so much so that you couldn’t smell the sea air for the smell of fennel. I love the sweet aniseed-y smell but the kids didn’t (strange children!). I collected seed anyway as fennel seed is a wonderful carminative and excellent for sore bellies, for more info on identification and the medicinal uses of fennel go here, to The Wild Food Huntress. The seed is said to be good used in cosmetics as well, especially to help smooth out wrinkles (according to one of my old books ‘A Country Herbal’ by Lesley Gordon).

Wild fennel seed heads ripe for the picking.

Perhaps it would go well with all the gorgeous rosehips I also found on our adventure. Rosehips are most well known for their vitamin C content – made into a syrup and taken as a preventative for the common cold. There’s heaps that you can do with rosehips from jellies and rosehip vodka to nourishing moisturisers. Homegrown Botanica uses rosehips in one of her moisturisers and has a wee article here about rosehips.

Rosehips, foraging
It’s a really crap photo I know, blame the wind!

Any rosehips can be used, if foraging you’re most likely to come across Dog Rose (Rosa canina) where the hips are smooth-ish and the sepals have fallen off the ends (Dog rose is what I had come across and collected). Sweet Briar Rose (Rosa rubiginosa) have pricklier hips, sepals attached (like a wee skirt at the end of the fruit) and fragrant leaves. Dog rose is much more pleasant to harvest!

Collecting Kawakawa
Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum)

To top off my surprise foraging adventure (I wasn’t expecting to find goodies, but fortunately I always have a pair of secateurs in the car!) was Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum). Kawakawa is a bit of a family favourite as a tea – especially blended with Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citriodora) and Peppermint (Mentha x piperita). Relaxing but invigorating.

The holes on Kawakawa leaves are created by a caterpillar of a native moth and indicative of the choicest leaves.
Holes are a good sign!

Before harvesting Kawakawa always ask the bush if it is OK to take from they – if you know an appropriate karakia (prayer) even better. Harvest from the sunny side, never take too much, only what you need and if the leaves have holes in them (caused by the caterpillar of a native moth) they must be the tastiest so choose those! Dry as you would other herbs; in a warm dark space. Take care to not bruise the leaves in transit from harvest to drying space. And thank the Kawakawa plant before you go!

A bit of cuteness to end this post! My youngest didn’t fly like a kite but he did climb the Manukas’ like a monkey

Filed Under: Herbal Lore, Herbs in Use Tagged With: fennel, foeniculum vulgare, foraging, harvesting kawakawa, kawakawa, macropiper excelsum, rosa canina, rosa rubiginosa, rosehips, wildcrafting

Dried Herb Update

January 24, 2021 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I’ve changed my system, I’ve updated my dried herb listings and I even have a couple of new herbs available… Whoop whoop!

Dried nettle, NZ Stoneygroundherbs
Lesser nettle (Urtica urens)

My original game plan from the inception of Stoney Ground Herbs was to grow herbs en masse to dry and have available for the home herbalist and professional herbalist alike. I have made various discoveries over time about demand for certain herbs, the sort of quantities that tea makers are looking for and; that it’s quite a thankless task as a product to sell…..!

As an example, I will hand pick each chamomile flower, I will get a whole basket full, I then dry it, it looks stunning, smells stunning and weighs nothing!

german chamomile, dried, baby balm, uses
German Chamomile

Then someone will ask if they could “just” get 500g of chamomile. 500grams is a shat load of dried herb! Even if I did have 500g of any herb the price I would charge is out of a lot of people’s ball park~ and my prices have probably been too low for the amount of mahi (work) that goes into growing, thriving, harvesting (non machine), drying, processing + packaging the herb.

There are people whom totally appreciate the work, the product, the fact that it is locally (NZ) grown and organic and that they’re supporting a small business. Hell, I would’ve given up a long time ago if it weren’t for these people. But I also appreciate that it’s actually quite hard to get your head around what sort of volume you’ll be getting for the quantity requested.

This is where we welcome my new way of selling dried herb…

I will now be selling my herbs by volume in these fabulous biodegradable pottles. I have two sizes available, 24oz and 12oz.

Dried motherwort, NZ Stoneygroundherbs

The smaller pottle will be useful for one off medicinal balms, tinctures, syrups and for single blend teas or a component of a blended tea. The larger pottle for the true lovers of the particular herb or those that have a particular need for a fair share of herb.

Dried self heal, NZ Stoneygroundherbs
Self heal

New dried herbs available are Self heal (Prunella vulgaris), Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), and Sage (Salvia officinalis). Think healing balms, teas, natural remedies, medicine making.

I have a new format for my listings and one of the biggest changes is transparency. You can see exactly how much you will be getting, you will know what part of the herb you’re getting, whether it’s available, potential uses and you will know when it was harvested. Check it out here, using Motherwort as an example.

Some people have trouble on my website locating what dried herbs I have, we’re working on this. In the meantime, if you are on your mobile; go to the three lines underneath my logo, that will take you to a drop down menu, beside Dried herbs there is a wee + sign, press that and you’ll get another drop down menu with the individual listings (press on them to see the details). If you’re on desktop/laptop, hover your cursor over Dried herbs to see the drop down menu. If you click directly on Dried herbs you’ll see my tikanga for my dried herbs, which is always interesting to know eh!

Filed Under: Herbs in Use, SGH updates Tagged With: biodegradablepackaging, dried chamomile, dried herbs, dried lemon balm, dried motherwort, dried nettle, dried sage, dried self heal, new zealand, NZ grown dried herbs, NZ grown organic herbs, organic dried herbs, stoney ground herbs dried herbs

Let’s Talk About White Sage

November 1, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

White sage, Salvia apiana, is native to California U.S.A. There it grows wild on the desert plains; I would love to continue on to say “where they thrive and grow undisturbed” but sadly they are getting seriously disturbed.

White sage, Salvia apiana

With the advent of the new age trend of “smudge sticks” the plants are being un-sustainably harvested, or stolen, for profit. To the point where the people whom have used white sage traditionally (the Native Americans) and still use it for their smudging ceremonies, are not able to wild harvest it due to protection orders put in place to stop this indiscriminate harvesting. This article here will tell you all about it in more depth…https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7jkma/the-white-sage-black-market-v27n3

Fortunately, people are becoming aware and businesses like Mountain Rose Herbs are now sourcing their white sage from a sustainable source, read the article here. https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/procuring-organic-cultivated-white-sage There’s some pretty amazing photos of some pretty amazing bushes in there too!

Fortunately there are also people like you, whom grow your own white sage. Selling white sage for me, feels like I’m helping in some way, helping white sage’s ancestors stand strong again, unharmed, empowering people to grow and dry their own.

White sage
White sage growing in my garden, about to flower

Which brings me to something else close to my heart… This is the cultural appropriation of the term “smudging”.

White sage smoke cleansing wands
White sage smoke cleansing wands

Smudging is a sacred ceremony practised by Indigenous Peoples of North America. It involves a group of people, a shaman, singing, chanting, praying – yes it involves burning white sage (or other herbs), to clear and cleanse an area and/or person- but it is not just that, it is so much more.

When you use white sage to clear negativity from your house, your aura or your crystals, it is totally fine and valid, but you are possibly not “smudging”, you are smoke cleansing. So it’s just a matter of changing your vocab. Instead of “smudge sticks” say “smoke cleansing wands” (I think it sounds so much prettier too!). Instead of “smudging”, “smoke cleanse”.

This article here explains it in depth, including the history of this practise and how it was used to repress the Indigenous people (by making it illegal). https://fashionista.com/2019/11/burning-sage-cultural-appropriation.

Burning herbs for spiritual purposes is not unique to Native Americans, in Scotland they call it “Saining“, Aboriginies in Australia have “Smoking Ceremonies”, Catholics have “censers”. And white sage is certainly not the only herb you can burn, do take mind that there are some herbs that are toxic to burn and others that frankly just don’t smell nice and you may as well burn some cardboard!

If you are not growing your own herbs do check where your herbs come from as sadly it is not just white sage that is in danger in its natural habitat, many medicinal herbs also fall victim to unscrupulous profiteers.

Other very interesting articles to read if you so desire… https://unitedplantsavers.org/what-is-going-on-with-white-sage/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudging

About how to grow white sage read this article here..

Filed Under: Herbal Lore, Herbs in Use, White sage Tagged With: beautiful plants, cultural misappropriation, grow your own, respect, salvia apiana, smoke cleansing, smudging, white sage

A Balm for the Emotions

October 26, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

If you have lemon balm in your garden and have done for a while, you most likely have quite a few lemon balm plants in your garden, and then some!

If that is the case for you, it is easy to forget how amazing and splendid this plant is, or maybe you didn’t know? Or maybe you do! Then you may read on whilst nodding your head in a knowingly pleased fashion.

Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis

Lemon balm, sweet balm or just balm (or Bawne in olde English), Latin name Melissa officinalis.

Melissa is from the Greek word signifying ‘bee’. Bee keepers would (and still can) rub their hives with balm to attract bees and to keep bees together. Plus bees love lemon balm flowers (for more bee loving plants read this post here).

Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis

But medicinally and historically what lemon balm has been used for is melancholy and long life.

Ruin of Carmelite Church in Famagusta, Cyprus

Carmelite Water, a closely guarded recipe made by monks in France (in the way back and when) has lemon balm as its main ingredient along with lemon peel, nutmeg and angelica root (ahh, don’t be fooled by the water part… ‘water’ is wine- as wine is water for some of us!).

Learning Herbs has a great article about Carmelite Water along with their recipe if you want to give it a crack.

Mrs M. Grieve reckons it is highly useful against nervous headache and neuralgic affections. Just steeping lemon balm with a bottle of white wine can “comfort the heart and driveth away melancholy and sadness”

Paracelus said that “essence of balm given in Canary wine every morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve languishing nature and prevent baldness” If that’s your excuse to drink wine every morning Paracelus you strike a good argument!

I’ve had days where I’ve felt a little blah, a bit dark… and I get a definite lift if I munch on a lemon balm leaf, well maybe not so much a lift but a forgetfulness as in “hmm, that’s right, I was feeling down before, ha! wonder what about?”.

You can dry lemon balm but I find that the scent doesn’t really remain and it’s better to use it fresh if possible.

Lemon balm also has wonderful anti-viral properties, particually effective against herpes simplex, more commonly known as cold sores.

Cold sore ointment diy
Cold sore ointment/balm

I’m blessed to not get cold sores but my boys do now and again so I made up a balm that goes onto their cold sores at first tingle. Works a treat. Article and recipe can be found here (goodness, written back in 2015!).

To grow lemon balm it likes a shady to semi shady spot and plenty of moisture, though it’s pretty adaptable and can handle being neglected (as long as it’s in the right spot!). If you don’t want it to self seed all around the show then nip out the flowers as soon as you see them. Optimum harvest time is late spring and throughout summer.

So I hope you can now look at your lemon balm with new appreciation or you’re now well excited about getting lemon balm into your life! Click here to see availability of Lemon Balm.

Filed Under: Herbal Lore, Herbs in Use Tagged With: carmelite water, cold sores, growing lemon balm, harvesting lemon balm, herbal lore, lemon balm, lemon balm for sale, lemon balm uses, melancholy, Melissa officinalis, natural cold sore cure, sweet balm, what can I do with lemon balm

Pleasing The Bee’s Knees ~ Herbs to Grow for Bees

October 3, 2020 By SandRa Timmins 2 Comments

French lavender for bees

If you hadn’t heard the news, I’m now the very proud, very amateur, owner of a beehive and a humming colony of busy ladies and lazy males! I am on a quick learning curve to say the least (it was an unexpected but very gratefully received surprise gift).

Beehive

In the past I’ve had people buy herbs off me specifically for the bees and I have had a fair idea of what herbs would be best~ but now my interest has double folded and I’m looking at a lot of my plants in a new light!

Herbs for bees, Borage
Borage

A Bit of Bee Backstory…

Bees need pollen and nectar. And depending on what time of year it is and what your hive is trying to achieve, sometimes they’re searching for mainly pollen (pollen is their source of protein and is essential for the feeding of larvae) or nectar (nectar is their carb source, it is converted into honey- honey for them to live on, and stored for the cold months when plants are not flowering). Often when searching for nectar they also inadvertently collect pollen~ pollination.

(Photo by Andreas Trepte, www.avi-fauna.info)

You can see the pollen stashed on their back legs, nectar is transported in their stomach. It is in the warmer months when lots of flowers are producing the most nectar and this is called “the flow”.

Tarata/Lemonwood in flower
Tarata/Lemonwood in flower

Honey bees also need to collect water for the hive and resin (from trees and buds) to make into propolis.

Many of our native trees are excellent for nectar and pollen, a lot of our fruit trees are great for pollen but some don’t have nectar sweet enough for their taste buds (Pear as an example). But as they say (they being me), there’s a bum for every seat and an insect for every flower!

Bee on cherry plum blossom
They smother our cherry plum trees though

In New Zealand we have four different types of bumblebees, 33 ‘native’ bee species and four introduced bee species, one of these being the honey bee.

What Can We Plant for the Bees…

Being a herby person I’m going to focus on herbs that you can grow that the bees will love and appreciate (my idea of herbs is quite broad!). Firstly though, lets acknowledge their amazing visual spectrum which includes the short wavelength ultra violet range which is beyond our mere mortal human eyes. So blues, yellows, light pink/purple and white are more on their radar than reds and oranges. This is quite a cool clip I found on YouTube that shows how bees and butterflies see, I mainly like it for its music!

EARLY SPRING

It’s a pollen a go go in Spring – the Queen has started laying and there are hungry mouths to feed..

A swathe of poppies that bees would love
Brought to you by the letter P… This is a public garden bed in Masterton
  • Poppies; all and any, plant them in large swathes so it’s like a billboard for the bees, advertising food for the needy.
  • Lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia); often used as green crop- let the bees in before you dig it in
  • Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
  • Honesty (Lunaria annua)
  • Borage (Borago officinalis)
  • French lavender (Lavandula dentata)
  • Let any brassicas you’ve got go to seed- the flowers are an excellent source of nectar
  • Let your dandelion flower and if you can stand it, the buttercup too.
Plants for bees, flowering kale
Kale going to seed

SUMMER ~ The flow is on!

Honey bees are native to the Mediterranean and naturally will go gah gah over thymes, rosemary, sage and oregano. There is also (in no particular order)

Herbs for bees, Rosemary
Rosemary
  • Clover
  • Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)
  • Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
  • Geraniums/Pelargoniums
  • Rue (Ruta graveolens)
  • St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)
  • Mint (Mentha sp.)
  • Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
  • Catmint (Nepeta mussinii)
  • Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)
  • Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea)
  • Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
  • Chive flowers (Allium schoenoprasum)
  • Borage (Borago officinalis)
  • Dandelion
  • Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
  • Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
  • Marjoram (Majorana hortensis)
  • Comfrey
  • Fennel (Foeniculum sp.)
  • Lovage (Levisticum officinale)
  • Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)
  • English lavender (Lavandula spica)
  • Basil (but if you want basil for your own needs wait until the end of the season)

AUTUMN

A lot of salvias wait until autumn to flower or are flowering well into autumn. Sunflowers. All the herbs that are onto their last hurrah/going to seed before dying (annuals like basil and dill) or going to ground (perennials like chives and echinacea etc).

Salvia farinacea, Victoria blue
Salvia farinacea, Victoria blue

Even if you don’t have hives it’s really important to have flowers in your garden for the bees and all the other pollinators out there. For their health and well being as well as your gardens productivity.

And I really really hope that it goes without saying that the use of pesticides is an absolute no-no and pretty counter-productive if you’re trying to attract pollinators!

Now go to your garden and watch the bees, see what they’re gunning for, watch whether they’re lolling about in pollen or head down supping up the nectar. Wonder at how they see the world and hope that they are as thankful for your garden as you are as thankful for their existence and the food on your table!

Salvia sclarea and bumblebee
Salvia sclarea and bumblebee

References/Recommendations;

  • Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand by Andrew Matheson & Murray Reid
  • A Beekeepers Year by Janet Luke (NZ book)
  • The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey & Gretchen LeBuhn (US book)
  • If you’re after all plants specifically for the bees, based in Manawatū is Trees for Bees

Filed Under: Animals, Gardening Styles, Herbs in Use Tagged With: bee keeping, bees, gardening for bees, herbs, herbs to grow for bees, list of herbs to grow for bees a seasonal list of herbs for bees, new zealand, plants for bees, what do bees need

Herb Pruning

September 5, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Winter is the time to prune most of your fruit trees, your end game is healthy bountiful trees that’ll give you bushells of fruit.

Spring is the time to prune your herbs. For a lot of our herbs, their best harvest time is just before they flower or as they’re flowering. So we want to be pruning them for amazing leaf action and the best time to prune for that is Spring, just before they get their boogie on…

Pruning Southernwood
This is going..

Plants like Southernwood, Texas tarragon (Mexican marigold), french lavender and Lemon verbena can get damn right leggy and scraggly if left to their own devices. For these ones you can get right in there and prune quite hard – they’ll come back laughing, don’t worry.

Pruning Southernwood
Southernwood bud

Special note for Lemon verbena though, as she’s not a slave to the seasons you’ll find she may even be still holding onto leaves and not even considering to leaf up again til early summer. So wait til you see little buds of green on the stems before pruning. If you want to be careful about it, prune just above buds.

Pruning Lemon Verbena
Lemon Verbena, not in her prime! And not ready for a prune just yet.

For your tenacious herbs like mint or basil mint~ the ones that have kept on growing above ground through winter (so not peppermints) you can cut these right back to get lovely fresh spring growth. Old leaves can be a bit bitter or they might be getting rust or just not looking as amazing as usual, so cut’em all off. Cutting down to the base encourages new stems to come up too.

Basil mint asking for a haircut

If they’ve gotten really big, consider dividing it up. Especially true for your bergamots, every two years it pays to divide your plants or else the roots get so tangled that they don’t flower as well as they should and for bergamots, we want to see as many of those glorious flowers as we can!

Bergamot, monarda didyma
Bergamot, monarda didyma

If you’re looking for advice for your white sage, go to this post here; Cultivating White Sage Smoke Cleansing Sticks.

White Sage
White Sage

Culinary herbs… eat and be happy

If you want to prune your thyme’s, don’t take off more than a third or they’ll freak out and die.. to be blunt. The best way to prune your thyme and any and all culinary herbs is to use them, that’s why you’re growing them right? It is the secret to happy healthy herb plants, they want to be in your dinner or in your apothecary, use them, eat them, be adventurous and remember to give your thanks to the plant. They will thank you back many times over with their flavour and/or medicinal value!

Plenty of herbs I haven’t mentioned here, please ask in the comments if there’s something specific you’d like to know~ xx

Filed Under: Care and Maintenance, Herbs in Use Tagged With: basil mint, bergamot, herb gardening, herb pruning, how to have healthy herb plants, lavender, lemon verbena, mint, Southernwood, spring jobs, texas tarragon, white sage

Happy Balding Hens

May 19, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I’ve been having fun lately making up herbal concoctions for our flock of ladies.

bantam rooster with a rose comb, natural chicken keeping
Ice is our bantam rooster with a rose comb. Peaches is a buff orpington x

We currently have 33 chooks (four of those are roosters) and 15 chicks. Too many really but we are a family of five and we like our eggs!

mixed breed pullets, natural chicken keeping
Some young-uns

They free-range around our property when they’re not locked up at night, so they’re pretty lucky and have access to green pastures, tasty weeds and if they’re really naughty fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden!

free range chickens
Blue, our blue orpington x silkie, looking gorgeous

Right now though most of them are molting so just to give them an extra boost I’ve formulated a herbal crumble supplement..

moulting chicken
Poor Blue

When chickens are moulting they need vitamin A, folic acid and zinc for feather growth. As well as extra protein, warmth (circulation) and they’re a little down in the dumps and exposed, so some immunity support as well. They won’t be laying eggs as their energy is going into feather growth rather than egg production, so expect empty nests.

Moulting chicken herbal blend
She’s like a shadow of her former self

In my Moulting Blend (yep, it has a capitalised title because it’s going to be up for sale soon) I have…

  • Flaxseeds… folic acid (B9), feather growth
  • Garlic… warming, protection from infection, vit A
  • Parsley… vit A, protein, feather growth
  • Dill seed… high protein
  • Mint… feather growth, digestive health
  • Star anise… warming, anti-microbial
  • Seaweed… all round health, zinc

Moulting is a natural thing to happen to your chooks, usually yearly and usually in autumn. You can’t stop it and you can’t speed up the re-growth but you can make sure they’re getting a bit of a boost in the vitamins and minerals they need to supplement their normal balanced feed.

I’m giving my girls about a teaspoon each, every 4 days.

Moulting mama
Moulting mama, Star & chick (Barred rock x)

Other things you can do to help them through this awkward phase is to feed them sprouted alfalfa and cat meat/kibble (as in cat food – not minced cat! 😮)

Rooster and hen
Hei Hei, ironically the rooster not the chicken (hei hei is Māori for chicken) and Cocoa Pops

If this is a product you may be interested in for your own flock do let me know in the comments section or via the contact form. Would be handy to be able to gauge interest…

Other potions in the pipeline is a boosted vaseline lotion for scaley leg mite, a golden layer health blend, worming blend and a chick blend…

Sad Sam

Filed Under: Herbs in Use, Pretty Pictures, Uncategorized Tagged With: chicken keeping, chickens moulting, herbal chicken health, herbs for chooks, natural animal health, natural chicken keeping, new zealand, urban chickens

Fire Cider

March 15, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Obviously there’s a lot of shit going on in the world at the moment, I’m quite sure I don’t need to go into it. I just want to note though, I’m terribly gutted I’m going to be missing the Violent Femmes concert next week, at least its postponed and not cancelled, there’s hope yet!

Fire Cider, freshly made
I could stare at this for hours! Our brew made.

The kids and I made fire cider today. Something I’ve been meaning to do every year but just never quite get round to it, today felt like the day though. Tell you what, I now feel more prepped than what a roomful of toilet paper would make me feel..here’s a (what I thought at the time) funny/interesting article about the whole toilet paper thing from the NZ Herald.

Fresh herbs to go into fire cider
Some of the herbs that went into the brew

I didn’t follow any recipe but many ideas. Basically, we just walked around the property and collected anything and everything that we know have great/wonderous/many properties. Then raided our apothecary for dried goods and freezer for ginger and chillies.

Prepping for fire cider, real life learners
Prepping for fire cider, my real life learners!

Here’s what’s in our witches brew…

  • Dried elderberries
  • Dried Orange slices
  • Dried Horopito
  • Dried Motherwort
  • Dried Bay leaves
  • Cloves
  • Powdered tumeric (would’ve used fresh but really wanted to make it NOW)
  • Sliced red onion
  • Sliced fresh ginger
  • Chillies
  • Garlic, lots
  • Fresh herbs…..
  • Sage
  • Nettle
  • Nasturtium leaves
  • Rosemary
  • Yarrow
  • Thyme
  • Peppermint
  • Oregano
  • Lemon verbena
  • Chive flowers
  • Lemon peel
Apparently the process warranted goggles!

I wasn’t thinking about flavour at all, just potency and what I had available! Oh, so this was all topped up with my homemade apple cider vinegar. The kids have always loved making potions so it was fun for them to be part of a real life process (tinctures aren’t too much of a process).

Jakob and Industrial Fusion cleaver making short work of the ginger

I’ll steep it for 6-8 weeks (in a dark warm place, so it’s sharing space with my brewing fruit wines), sieve it, bottle it and proceed to take a tablespoon of it everyday..hope like hell it’s a little palatable!

Fire Cider, freshly made
I could stare at this for hours! Our brew made.

Do it people, I highly recommend it, I know I haven’t gone into a whole lot of detail but I also know that Instagram and probably a whole host of other social networks are riddled with fire cider recipes right now, no shame in jumping on the band wagon with this one! If you do want more details from me just comment below..

Stay healthy beautiful people, grow more herbs and eat more herbs. I am actually going to have herb plants to sell throughout the year now, that’ll be my next post and I’ll let you know what I’ll have available… Xx

Filed Under: Herbs in Use, Uncategorized Tagged With: diy immunity booster, fire cider, using fresh herbs for health

Salvia Show Off

June 2, 2019 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

The Salvia genus is where we find all our sages and it’s very easy to fall in love with this group of plants from the mint family. Take mind, it is huuge! So many members, ranging from annuals to perennials, medicinal, culinary, hallucinatory and ornamental. Something for everyone!

It’s a wet miserable often hailing day today. But I have a stash of photos put away here, so I’d like to introduce you to my wee collection, it’s by no means huge but I’m proud of it!

Let’s start with Salvia officinalis, common sage…

He that would live for aye
Should eat sage in May.
OLD ENGLISH SAYING
Common sage, Salvia officinalis
Common sage, Salvia officinalis

Salvia officinalis is a wonderful herb if not an essential herb to have on hand. Apart from its culinary uses I use it a lot in winter for sore throats, either as a tea/infusion or you can make a decoction and use it as a gargle. The volatile oils sooth the mucous membranes, useful for the inflammation of mouth, gums, tongue, throat and tonsils. Sage can also help women at various stages of their life; due to the tannins and estrogenic substances found in sage, taking the infusion frquently can help dry up mothers milk, lessen excessive bleeding during menses and reduce sweating during perimenopausal time. DO NOT TAKE SAGE MEDICINALLY WHEN PREGNANT. There are many other uses, but these are the ones that I have used sage for.

Salvia purpurea, can be used just like Salvia officinalis. Salvia Icterina, varigated sage, is more ornamental but can be used culinarily in a pinch as can the beautiful tri-coloured sage.

Purple sage, Salvia purpurea
Purple sage, Salvia purpurea
Varigated sage, Salvia icterina
Varigated sage, Salvia icterina
Tri coloured sage
Tri coloured sage

Unfortunately I must admit that both my varigated and tri-coloured sages did not survive the transition when we moved here over a year ago, very sad.

Next in the line up is the all time most popular herb that I sell.. Salvia apiana, White sage…

Salvia apiana, white sage
Salvia apiana, white sage

White sage, in New Zealand is mainly used for smudging, personally, I use it more as a “keep-me-calm-and-happy” tonic by putting a fresh leaf in my (or my kids, or all of us!) water bottle to sup on for the day. I’ve also used it in a headache balm I made with lavender and peppermint. For more info on white sage, go to the side bar to find my articles on growing and caring for your white sage plant. If you would like to grow your own, contact me and I’ll put you on my “White sage email list” to let you know when I have more in stock.

Onwards to Salvia sclarea, Clary sage. The particular clary sage I grow is “turkenstania” which is a powerful white flowering variety, it is amazing as an ornamental, back filler and/or fragrant herb.

Salvia sclarea and bumblebee
Salvia sclarea and bumblebee
Clary sage foliage
Clary sage foliage

Medicinally Clary sage is probably most well known as an essential oil which is made from the seeds. The seeds are also what give Clary sage its country name “Clear Eyes”, the mucilage that the seeds create can help soothe eye irritation caused by foreign bodies. I tried this with my husband.. don’t think I did it right… poor man!

Moving on… Another wonderfully scented salvia is Salvia elegans, Pineapple sage. Mmmm hmmm, this is one delicious smelling plant and because it’s the leaves not the flowers that are scented you’ve got it all year round.

Salvia elegans, pineapple sage
Salvia elegans, pineapple sage

A lot of salvias have flowers especially made for hummingbirds, Pineapple sage flowers give you a perfect example of tubes fit for a long skinny hovering beak (FYI seeing a real life hummingbird is on my bucket list). On a cultivating note, over the last two years I’ve noticed that my pineapple sage plants that are in semi shaded positions are doing better than the ones in full sun. This is something that I know other people have noticed with their plants that usually are “best” in full sun, basils for example, this will most likely come up more and more as our environment deteriorates.

Lets meet Salvia confertiflora now, sometimes known as red velvet sage, but I recently, can’t think where, saw a plant labelled red velvet sage and it wasn’t confertiflora. Knowing botanical names and ensuring plants you buy have their botanical names on their labels is really very important if you care about knowing what you’re talking about!

Salvia confertiflora
Salvia confertiflora

The leaves have a very pungent smell, not entirely pleasant but quite unique. I don’t know of any medicinal uses with this plant, but gives your garden a lovely tropical feel and wax eyes love their flowers. If you live in a frost free area they can grow quite tall.

Did you know that chia seeds, the super food that most people have heard of these days is a salvia? Yah ha, so I planted some this year!

Salvia hispanica, Chia
Salvia hispanica, Chia

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, it’s flowering now, glorious purple spikes a lot like the following photo. Next season I will sow earlier (I sowed in late November) because I don’t think I’ll have many seeds to harvest before knarly weather and frosts do their worst to the plants.

Salvia farinacea, Victoria blue
Salvia farinacea, Victoria blue

This is Salvia farinacea, Victoria blue. It was my understanding that it was an annual, but it’s still growing strong in its second year, I’m not complaining, the flowers are an amazing colour. This is a pure ornamental salvia, the leaves don’t even have a scent.

There is another salvia that I have where the leaves have no scent, which surprised me and made me quadruple check that what I had (I had been given a cutting) was actually what I was told it was… Salvia divinorum. If you know what this is please don’t get over-excited, I’m still getting my own plant established (and learning how it grows best) before I can consider propagating off it to sell plants.

Salvia divinorum, the diviners sage
Salvia divinorum, the diviners sage

Salvia divinorum has psychoactive properties and Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of Salvia divinorum to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions (thank you Wikipedia). Considering it comes from the montane cloud forests of Oaxaca, Mexico, I might have a good chance of it growing well here in Eketahuna!

So not a massive collection but I love the diversity of it and hope to keep on finding new and interesting salvias to add to it. I’m not selling any plants at this time of year but I’ll be starting cuttings soon so let me know if you’re interested in any of these.

Keep warm and embrace the sun when you see it!

Filed Under: Herbal Lore, Herbs in Use, Pretty Pictures, White sage Tagged With: Chia, clary sage, commonn sage, pineapple sage, purple sage, salvia apiana, salvia confertiflora, Salvia divinorum, salvia elegans, salvia farinacea, Salvia hispanica, salvia officinalis, salvia sclarea, the diviners sage, tri-coloured sage, turkenstania, varigated sage, Victoria Blue, white sage

Kia ora 2019!

January 9, 2019 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

Hello, hello 2019, hello you.

Sunshiney St Johns Wort
Sunshiney St Johns Wort

One of my customers told me this week that according to numerology, 2019 is going to be super. So perhaps I won’t give up just yet! 2019 is a number 3 year and three is a pretty fine number for all that it symbolises. If you’re interested in that sort of jazz (or your interest is piqued) go here to Forever Conscious to find out more.

In the spirit of “creativity, self-expression, and alignment” (did you look at that link?) I might write more personal posts, maybe show my paintings and other crafty concoctions as well as herby things. But….

I must admit, apart from time and other priorities the reason my blog posts have been so few and far between lately is because our camera is getting a bit on the old side and the plug points to load the photos on the computer are worn. So to get my photos loaded I have to ever so precisely hold the plug in at some special angle whilst pressing certain buttons (with my nose) and perhaps hold my head/feet/tongue at a particular angle whilst hoping the planets are aligned to be able to successfully get them on there. And still it doesn’t work. So I have to ask my husband to do it whom obviously has his feet in the right position and asks the right gods – because he can do it instantly. But I hate asking him, because as much as I love him he does this bloody eye roll thing or a loaded pause before saying the right words, which are “Yes dear, I’ll do that for you”. And it makes me want to shake him and sometimes I even hate him for about 40 seconds. Nobody likes that. And I’ve got other things to ask him to do – like saw off the chickens roosts because they’re riddled with mites (he can do it so much quicker than me). I can handle eye rolls then, you know, they’re kinda warranted!

So know that these photos that come to your eyes right now came with a little bit of eye roll, a lot of stern eye and a whole lot of garden love~

The side garden with Clary sage and white hydraengas
The side garden with Clary sage and white hydraengas

My “Turkenstein” Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) is in full bloom at the moment and is amazing. (Still have plants available, go here..) It gives you heaps of coverage, a beauts musky scent that really, only a salvia can pull off. Flowers for bees and bumblebees AND any sturdy vase you have on hand.

Clary sage with Feverfew underneth a plum tree
Clary sage with Feverfew underneth a plum tree
Salvia sclarea and bumblebee
Salvia sclarea and bumblebee
..and here we have Clary modelling with Gladioli
..and here we have Clary modelling with Gladioli
Fingers after picking Hypercium perforatum flowers
What have these guys been up to?!

St Johns Wort (Hypercium perforatum) has been flowering steadily since Christmas and I’m starting my second lot of St Johns Wort oil. Fabulous for healing, here’s a link that will tell you more. I grow St Johns Wort in my garden. It’s usually wildcrafted, but last year I couldn’t find any that wasn’t beside a dusty roadside, so I plucked a runner or two and set them in a bed. It’s been growing like the clappers and I’ve got to make sure I harvest as many flowers as I can or else the seeds will pop all over the place and become the invasive weed it is known as in some parts of the country. What doesn’t go in my oil I will snip and use as a fabric dye.

St Johns Wort and it's fabulous oil that keeps getting redder and redder
St Johns Wort and it’s fabulous oil that just keeps getting redder and redder

It takes two to three weeks for the redness to show through in your oil. During that time it should be in the sun, I usually pick everyday for a week then leave it be~ and then start another!

Catnip in bloom
I dare the cat that can reach this!

The above picture is a small portion of my Catnip (Nepeta cataria) that is now drying as we speak/read/write.

Aghhh! What’s happened to my Golden marjoram!

Recall me mentioning the mites thing…

Buff orpington self medicating in oregano
It’s Waiohine self medicating..

My clever chickens are self medicating themselves in the herb patch, luckily I’m a generous soul and I have this in other places where the chooks don’t go!

Anyhoo, this is a good start for me for the new year, lets see if I can keep it up (I have photos pre-loaded now so it’s looking promising!)

PS. To be fair, I actually got a “Righty-o” when I asked my benevolent hubby to do the photo thing. We’re all good!

Filed Under: Herbs in Use, Pretty Pictures Tagged With: Catnip in flower, clary sage, Hypercium perforatum, mites, numerology 2019, oil, salvia sclarea, self medicating chickens in the oregano, St Johns Wort, Turkenstein

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