SweetMyrtle

Autumn harvest and fireside dreaming

I have written before about the wonderful Community of Farnham Local food #CSA that i belong too. well last weekend i spent an amazing day amongst friends in the field. It was a beautiful Saturday with clear skies and sunshine. Not what is usually expected in November. I headed down to help out with the harvest. My first job being to weigh a basket of barlotti beans ready for sharing out. There were many hands on harvest duty so Susie, our main grower asked if my friend aka KnitNell (check out her beautiful illustrations) and I would create a harvest display, so we did. It was fun bringing together some of the colourful produce and adding golden leaves and logs below the display to give it a sense of place.
My next job was helping Nick to light a fire ready for him to make some Chai to share with our members when they came to collect their shares later in the day.
Every saturday, fresh produce gets harvested in the morning and then collected by members from the yurt later in the day. Quite often harvests are made into more of an event, with stalls selling dry goods (flours, nuts, seeds, honey etc) and locally produced organic meats. The pizza oven is often fired up too, serving delicious pizza.
This Saturday Sarah (my Morsbag buddy) had planned a drop in dreamcatcher workshop and asked me if i'd like to help out. I have been wanting to make one for ages so i jumped at the chance. Dreamcatchers are American Indian decorations of webs woven within an outer hoop shape with a bead at the centre and feathers hanging below. They are hung above your sleeping place. The web catches the bad dreams which then evaporate in daylight whilst the bead catches the good dreams which travel down trough the feathers into the dreaming sleeper below.
We cropped willow from our willow arch and wove it into circles. Coloured yarn or twine was then used to create the web of the dreamcatcher. Sarah had picked up some beaded necklaces from the charity shop which along with my glass beads looked great at the centre of the webs. Feathers were then tied on using embroidery floss to finish.

I loved how everyone starts with the same materials yet creates something unique.

It truly was a wonderful day.

making me happy ~ lavender

i am so happy to have finally cut my lavender bushes as the flowers were at risk of going way over

i will dry the lavender and use it to scent eye pillows and sachets.

it has such a beautiful fragrance and i have lots to use!

would love to hear your recommendations of what else i could use it for.

from the garden ~ jam

our fruit garden this year has been very productive

so far we have had raspberries, blueberries, cherries and blackcurants.

the blueberries are still going and the blackberries are still to come.

there is nothing quite so wonderful as picking fruits straight from the garden.

my man likes to make jam and this year he has turned some of the first fruits into some gorgeous tasty jams

here are the cherries bubbling

and the pots of his labour so far.

as well as the fruits mentioned we had only had a few gooseberries this year but luckily still enough for one pot of his delicious gooseberry and ginger jam.

i know... i am one lucky girl : )

 

calendula salve

our garden is a place to share with  the bees, birds and butterflies, providing food for them and also for us. the clever blackbirds discovered our morello cherry tree recently as well as our blueberry bushes which are on the patio. thankfully our cat was asleep at the time!

as well as providing food, i am beginning to use the plants for teas ; the chamomile i cropped a few weeks ago is now dry and we have been enjoying the tea. i am also looking to preserve and use them medicinally.

We have some wonderful cheery orange pot marigolds on our plot and I saw on the permaculture blog a great recipe by Carl Legge for making Calendula salve so i had to try it. 

Calendula makes up part of the hyperal cream i get from the health food shop for cuts and grazes and is well known for it's calming and anti inflammatory actions so the thought of a soothing healing ointment straight from my garden spurred me into action.

if you fancy making it too, do go and follow the original recipe and please note that I did reduce the quantity greatly for my trial run , only using 3 flower heads.

 after picking the petals off 3 flower heads i added them to a saucepan with some good quality olive oil

the recipe recommends using a double burner to gently heat the oil and by a process called maceration, the goodness from the plant matter transfers to the oil. i thought it would be good to have separate pans for making 'potions' and found some pretty cornflower pyrex ones in my cupboard, which i had inherited from my in-laws.

after simmering the water in the large pan for 4 - 5 hours (topping up when needed) the petals were strained off through muslin and the oil returned to the pan. i then added some beeswax which helps the mixture to solidify when cooled, so it it easy to apply.

beeswax can be sourced from your local beekeeper or find a good supplier. i discovered this one online.

ideally dark glass bottles are best for keeping ointments but any small glass jar kept out of direct sunlight will do. i picked these up for a pound each at a local shop. The recipe didn't mention sterilising  the bottles but i did as we do for making jams; popped in a saucepan of boiling bubbling water with the lids and then air dried.

once the wax had melted i carefully poured the mix  in to the jars and was surprised at how quickly it solidified.

i have kept 2 jars and gifted one to a friend. I am planning to make some more for gifts and had a tweet conversation with Carl's wife Debs the other day who suggested making up the oil which keeps for about a year in the cupboard and then adding it to the wax when i want to make the salve for a gift. I have also read that the petals can be dried and then made into the oil and salve later in the year.

and I am now waiting for someone to fall over so we can apply it!

making me happy today ~ from the garden

i love this time of year as i can walk into the garden and choose some homegrown produce to add to our meals.

today we have the first red tomatoes and some basil; perfect to add to some mozarello and bread and make an Italian inspired  lunch : )