It's that time of year when the grass (and whatever else is growing in your yard) draws in all the spring rains and bursts forth with new life! In other words, your grass needs cutting!
Last year I had this great idea...you know, with gas prices so high...I thought I'd be "green" and let my grass grow. There were a lot of healing plants growing in my field and I was thrilled with the prospect of gathering them to make into some sort of herbal concoction. I tried to please the neighbors by mowing a generous margin around my wildness and dreamed I was living on the praire! But if you're not pruning your yard within an inch of it's life on a weekly basis, folks begin to wonder about your sanity.
Seriously, though, we saved on gas because with our 5-6 acres of yard, it takes about 4-5 gallons of gas to cut, weedeat and push mow our entire place.
Plus, I gathered the plantain, chickweed, dandelion, ground ivy, yarrow, violets, strawberries etc. for use in my Herbal Medicine Chest.
It was awesomeness at it's best!
There is one particular area growing an amazing amount of healing plants so before the first cutting, we harvested some of the bounty. Since we've been really busy, we decided the best way to go was to fill a kettle with our harvest and make an infused oil that could be used in healing salves, as a massage oil or even in a fomentation in the future.
We gathered, plantain, stellaria, ground ivy, comfrey and melissa, all of which have wonderful healing properties for sore muscles, drawing infection (caution: comfrey may cause rapid surface healing that would seal in germs so make sure to clean open sores first), wounds and bruising, even broken bones.
Plantain, Ground Ivy, Comfrey...with...
the herbs steeped in the covered kettle overnight.
Next morning, the oil was strained from the pressed marc...
To avoid moisture that could cause spoilage, I heated the oil again, gently,
to evaporate any water that was created while steeping...
but not enough to evaporate the essential oils.
Now the oil is ready for final straining and storage until time to use as is
or added to another herbal remedy.
sharing this post @ Wildcrafting Wednesday #39
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Much herbal love,
