Sweet Medicine

This month's blog party hosted by Kiva Rose is all about Sweet Medicine. Thank you Kiva!

I know herbal honey, cordials and syrups are well covered ... so I hope to offer something a little different... one of my dearest specialties, if I do say so myself.

Sweet oil.

I'm probably most in love with making herbal oils over many other menstruums. I love the feel, the versatility, the romantic, sensual nature, and really everything about it.

One of my formerly best selling skin products was my Lover's Cream ... a sweet, light, edible cream with herbal oil, herbal honey, and some tingly yet gentle essential oils.

But you don't have to get that complex... for sweet oils are easy to make!

First, you may want to use a different oil than the usual olive, as some sweet herbs taste too culinary in olive oil. But suit yourself. My favorite is apricot kernel, with it's fresh cherry-almond aroma. You can also use grapeseed or sweet almond oils. Unrefined coconut oil is especially sensual, and is lovely to use from it's semi-solid state, or warmed until liquid. Yum.

Next, you'll want to comb your cabinets or garden for your most favorite sweet or aromatic herbs. Fresh herbs should be carefully made or wilted first to avoid mold. Herbs that I really adore infused in oil include:

Vanilla beans

Cardamom pods/seeds

Stevia leaves or powder

Damiana leaf

Anise

Fennel

Grated Nutmeg - in moderation

Lavender

Lemon Verbena

Meadowsweet

Orange peel

Dried roses

Peppermint leaf and flower

Hyssop leaf and flower

Freshly ground coffee beans

Sassafras root

Cherry bark (Prunus spp.)

Birch (Black birch or yellow birch bark, also leaves)

Next, fill your jar 1/3 full if using powdered herb, or full if using loose dried herbs or freshly wilted herbs. It's best if freshly harvested herbs have wilted 2-5 days, depending on how much water content the plant has.

Cover your plant material to the brim with oil, label and cover. Let steep in a warm spot for one moon cycle.

If you're using powdered herb, stir it at first to saturate the herb in the oil. I have also found the taste and fragrance releases better if gently warmed before straining.

If you wish to use a fresh root such as ginger, a yogurt warmer or carefully watched crock pot method (two days intermittent low heat) work beautifully.

When your sweet oil is ready, strain it through muslin or layered cheesecloth, bottle, label, and store in a cool dry place - that is if it makes it to storage.

There are a million lovely ways to use your oil, both internally and externally. Obviously, you can use your oil for sensual massage with your sweetie, without displeasing your taste buds. But you can also enjoy the health giving benefits of self massage, using this heart centered oil to massage gratitude and attention into your own muscles and skin. Sweet herbs relax the nerves as well as work through scent to relax the limbic system - all too hyper in this day and age. These herbs, combined with self love in the form of intentional massage, can serve to clear up stagnation in the abdomen, throat, and neck areas, as well as feeding and soothing all your layers of skin. For more information on the rejuvenative powers of Ayurvedic self massage; abhyanga; you can read the description at the Maharishi website.

If you are a cream-maker, you can invent lovely creams with your sweet oil. If you are a kitchen Goddess, you can use your sweet oil in desserts, sweet bisque soups, or in your warm milks and hot toddies. If you are a locks lady, you can treat your dreads or tresses with sweet warmed oil mixed with vitamin E, shea butter,or Basil essential oil. And ... if you make salves... you can make the most sensual of body butters and lip balms when combined with cocoa butter and unrefined beeswax.

Gifts of sweet oil are well loved, too, and look so pretty in a basket. Women experiencing female transitions or discomforts appreciate a belly and breast soothing oil, and women dancing with breast issues or ovarian cysts can benefit greatly from applying healing oils, especially when combined with specific herbs such as Red Clover blossom, Violet leaf, or Dandelion flower oil.

I hope you will gift yourself with a little collection of sweet herbal oils for all of your daily treatings.

(photo of sweet oil #9: pink rose powder, sassafras root, vanilla beans, and crushed cardamom pods in apricot kernel oil)

Medicine Woman Plant Encounters Roses Ladys Slipper Sweet Gale and Sacred Waters

Before we get to the photo-story of my last week, FIRST things first .... I'm DELIGHTED to highlight for you one of my very special Lady's Slipper Ring Members! 

Sue is an extraordinary woman.

Through our work together I've seen the incredible strength of heart and passion for mother earth that Sue holds and expresses. It's truly an honor for me to know and serve her, and I'm excited to share with you the most wonderful gifts she offers and the ways in which she serves others.

In her own words, she writes:

"After two years of several major life changes and then a tragic loss, self-care of any kind seemed a lifetime away.  The simple act of reflecting on why I am worthy of self-care is slowly becoming a daily reminder.  I have one of the those personalities that strives for constant production; self-care was often on the to-do list but I just never got around to it.  My place in the mystic is still raw and uncertain and sometimes I am my worst enemy. But my effort to keep my worthiness front and center helps to break free of that kind of self-critical thinking.  

One of the changes I made was to leave a 20 year career in higher education to pursue my own business. The learning curve has/is constant! Inserting some of my values into my business design is a wonderful feeling though incredibly time-consuming. I started a gift basket business that is inspired by the scents and aromas of herbs & spices. Ninety percent of my products are created by small American businesses including two herbalists. I offer several of the traditional ready-to-eat food baskets but also design multiple thematic collections.  You can check out my unique designs at http://thewitheredherb.com." 

Thank you, Sue, for being YOU and for sharing your beautiful, yummy, gift creations!

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The land is painting itself with color and inventing its signature scent of May 2012. 

The Orchids are blooming in their exquisite perfection and provocative shapes

The Cottonwood fluff is *everywhere*

Plant walks abound in the Happy Valley, and I'm happy to finally make it to one

  .... wild lettuce detail ...

Aralia neudicaulis, wild sarsaparilla, is widespread along the forest floor..

Tangles of mystery, deep in the forest

More Aralia..

 Little peeks from the rattlesnake plantain

Mountain Laurel is blooming elegantly

 I'm a sucker for gorgeous tree bark, especially on the black birches

and for the spicy-sweet delicacy of fresh sassafras root bark. I'm happy to have started a fresh jar of elixir. 

The wild roses cascade along the landscape, scenting the bike path and the highway wind

I patiently anticipate the linden blossoms.....

Creatures have been paying me auspicious visits. This Northern Flicker was at our Red Tent....

I blended a sensuous and uplifting aromatherapy oil with Clary Sage, Ylang Ylang, Roman Chamomile, and Vanatu Sandalwood, to help calm and ground my nerves (and those of my Lady's Slipper Members) during stressful times. 

And I saw a black bear for the first time in my life: 

!

I took a hiatus on the holiday weekend ... spending a day with the waterfalls in the woods, and then a day at the beach gathering roses with my mama......

Sacred waters

Renew the spirit

and make me very, very, happy

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The Rose Harvest:

Rosa Rugosa

Best to start early, when the mist is still hanging over the water

The scent is at its richest early in the day

I brought my menstruums with me so I wouldn't lose a drop of perfume, or magic

Thanks to my crazy fabulous facebook herbal community, I made friends with a new fragrant plant: Sweet Gale, or perhaps a closely related spp of Myrica which I haven't keyed out yet.

It's herbaceous, lemony, astringent, and very uplifting, with a long tradition of use in fermented beers, meat seasoning, and topical balms.
My first experiment with it is a batch of elderberry - myrica kombucha. I'll also make an oil.

Herons are always enchanting to see...

I loved the abundance of the white roses as well, who exuded an equally delicious perfume with a little spicy twist. 

 To die for beautiful. I took so many photos! 

Happiest in the outdoors, collecting plants, by the water. 

And always wearing that dorky camera bag :)

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

        

*sigh*

Sweet peas are just beginning their showcase as well. These make excellent trail grazing, yum.

 Thank you roses. Thank you water. Thank you trees. Thank you Earth. 

I am grateful.

I am grateful for your healing waters, and abundant medicine

I am grateful for your fragrance, your colors, your moods, 

 and for sharing your blessed body with me.

Love, Ananda

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If you're also out adventuring - be sure you're prepared! Bites, stings, and many manner of wild unpleasantries can be easily remedied with my versatile and powerful Medicine Woman Set - Don't leave home without it! 

 

Woodswoman Medicine Set