Medicine making

I'm not sure which part I'd choose I love the most: the gathering, the preparing, the gentle stirring of the contents during the infusion time by rocking the jars between my hands, the filtering or the actual, finished medicine, labelled. It's one thrilling, utterly satisfying journey. Bottling smaller amounts into tiny glass bottles with pipettes. Putting some of them into our kitchen cabinet for daily use. A sigh of accomplishment and happiness - finally! Finally I'm doing this, what I was softly aching for my whole life. Turning plants into medicine, in collaboration, with the spirits of the plants. In it together.

2nd batch of herbal medicine

This time I finished making Plantain tincture, Plantain extract in apple cider vinegar, Mugwort and rose petal elixir, Mullein tincture, Mullein flower infusion in almond oil, Yarrow tincture, Elderberry elixir and Impatiens tincture.

My online study was going very slow for a period of time, as I was gathering and preparing the medicine and reading into the Plant Healer publications. Now back on track of the intermediate herbal course, enjoying it very much!

Autumn at the future foodforest

The future foodforest - which is a field at the moment. 

The fruit trees are out there... And the baby walnut tree 'Chiara' :)

I was hoping to be able to make some paths into the high grass this time, but we only got as far as planting the trees, organic(!) flower bulbs and blueberries we had with us, and cutting the bramble around the field.

 

Here's the Elstar apple tree I planted this spring. I hope it will grow big, strong and abundant!  On the far right of this photo you can see the blue bucket of the next photo...

I admit, it is a messy photo. Jerusalem artichoke falling all over the place, a bucket to put the tubers in and behind the bucket the sugar maple that was looking so tall in my Amsterdam garden, now dwarfed by the surrounding wilderness.

 And here's some harvest! Herbs, roots and Jerusalem artichoke to take inside.

This was the second autumn for us there. Last year I didn't even make it to the edges of the field, the grass and brambles were in such a wild state until winter. This year I made my walk around and let sighs of happiness - hello Hawthorn, hello Elder, hi there Walnut and Hazelnut trees!

Hawthorn tincture is now steeping for its six weeks.

The hazelnuts had fallen out, the walnut tree stands in knee-high nettles...  Even though I was looking for walnuts, I couldn't find them on the ground. Maybe next year?