Wild Harvest

Winter Woods Salve for the Cedar Hill Christmas Tree Farm

November 10, 2018 in Aromatherapy / Biodiversity / Distillation / Food / Products / Wild Harvest by Kelli

Our neighbourhood is called Cedar Hill, and there are many Eastern White Cedars (Thuja occidentalis) all around us. Also there are Eastern white pine, spruce, and balsam fir, and we are fortunate to be able to sustainably harvest and distill needles and greenery from the various evergreen species.

Cedar essential oil and hydrosol

My Winter Woods Salve is made using Canadian spruce resin dissolved in safflower oil, with added essential oils, many of which are from our own distillations, in a base of beeswax. Apply it to the neck and chest area for a cooling decongestant effect.

Winter Woods Salves – just poured and now cooling!

Winter Woods Salve is one of my most popular products at markets, and this holiday season we are happy to say that it will be for sale at the Cedar Hill Christmas Tree Farm. The farm is a wonderful local business and the perfect place to find a Christmas tree, but it also features a great sledding hill, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and Cafe Claus, which always features a warm fire and delicious homemade food. Run by the Martin family, the farm is an ideal place for a day of winter fun.

Eastern White Cedar, ready for distillation

Yoga Mat Spray and a little info about Hydrosols

June 7, 2018 in Biodiversity / Distillation / Healing Herbs / Markets / Wild Harvest by Kelli

June 9th at the Almonte Farmers market I will have a new hydrosol. Yoga Mat Spray is a co-distillation of wild harvested Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus )and our own organically grown Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus). As with all my hydrosol blends there are no added anythings……no added essential oils, alcohol, or stabilizers. True hydrosols are a unique product obtained through the steam distillation of various leaves, flowers, barks, needles and roots and naturally contain all the water-soluble constituents of the plants including 0.05 – 0.2 per litre of essential oils (see “Hydrosols: The Next Aromatherapy” by Suzanne Catty). This makes them one of the safest forms of aromatherapy and herbal medicine.

This Yoga Mat Spray combination is antiseptic, antifungal, and antimicrobial – Spray on and let dry or spray on and wipe off. Depending on your own particular mat’s specific cleaning and maintenance instructions you could even add one drop of plain organic dish soap to give a little bit of extra wash.

Of course you may have figured out that the Yoga Mat Spray can be used many places, on many surfaces, and for many other uses!!

Here you can see the cluster of White Pine that this batch of hydrosol came from

Eastern White Pine growing near me.

Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus )and Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus)

Arnica Montana just waiting to burst with the first rays of a full sunny day!

Tulsi / Holy Basil or
Ocimum tenuiflorum (synonym Ocimum sanctum) These little babies will be for sale this weekend!

Spring Ice Storm with the New Moon in Aries in April 2018

April 16, 2018 in Biodiversity / Food / Gardening / Healing Herbs / Wild Harvest by Kelli

I follow a lot of different growers, herbalists and nature websites and it has been hard to see all these baskets of lovely wild greens being harvested and eaten and even flowers blooming while this is my yard – ice so thick on the bird feeder it is weighting it, activating the squirrel proof mechanism that keeps it closed. I keep chipping away at it and am putting extra out on the table.
Everyone is desperate.

The spark of spring only exists in the wood stove just now but the one in my heart is smoldering as I stand in amazement at the variety of life and am beyond thankful that I don’t have to live outside all the time. Thankful for my family, my warm bed and for my many aromatherapy blends and salves which carry me through while I wait for better weather.

Ice covering everything

Various Finches

Red Wing Blackbirds

Even the fox is hungry enough to come closer before the storm

finches

Arnica, crowded and ready to be outside.

All babies potted up now and much happier but leaves little room for anything else until Spring comes around.

I was looking forward to this sorrel I found last week but……..

And definitely some of the Nettles coming up all around

2017-10-26 Spruce Distillation

October 28, 2017 in Aromatherapy / Distillation / Markets / Products / Wild Harvest by Kelli

When we lived in Sweden we regularly distilled Norway Spruce (Picea abies). Since we moved to Canada, we have been learning about the native conifers in our region of Ontario. Right outside our home we find Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea), White Spruce (Picea glauca), and Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis).
Another resident of our forest neighbourhood is our old friend Norway Spruce, and today we distilled our first batch in North America. The hydrosol is quite lovely, and I will have some available at tomorrow’s Almonte Farmer’s Market Harvest Market. I hope to see you there!