It's been so long..............

I have been waiting to have fresh St. John's Wort flowers again for 2 years.  Two years ago all my plants died so I replanted.  Last year the plants got really big but hardly any flowers so I think I got 4 ounces of oil from them.  Hardly enough to keep an herbal business running for a year.  This year they are in early and back with a passion!  I had already started an 8 ounce jar last week but here is what I pulled today:

And we have only just begun!  I filled a QUART jar and topped it off with the small jar I already started.

This should be ready after 2 weeks in the Kentucky sun.  If I get another quart (which I think I easily will) I will be set up well for the year!  And I saw this while I was gathering my flowers:

A ladybug napping on my clary sage, surrounded by yarrow flowers.  I will be distilling clary sage this weekend.  Probably right before I go to bed. 

And I need to gather elder flowers this week and run the lemon balm.  I am going to be busy!

Ginger Root

I ran a distillation of fresh organic ginger root this morning.  This is yummy!!!!!  The fragrance is straight up ginger and there were little beads of essential oil floating on top.  The flavor has all the zing of ginger root and is warming and leaves a mild sweetness on the lips.  This would have been wonderful to have on the cooler days to stimulate circulation and warm my blood.  I may give some of this to my Dad to rub on his sore joints-he loves the essential oil so he should love this!  So far the PH is 5.8 but I'll keep checking it so i can get a final reading after it "settles".

Frankincense

I have been making hydrosols in the background while I work on orders so today I am going to make a codistilled Frankincense and Myrrh.  Both are great for aging skin, especially frankincense but I prefer the aroma of Myrrh so I am throwing some in there.  This would be a great spritz for prayer and meditation.  I will spritz myself down with this before I pray my rosary and I would love to see how a Bible study group would do with this sprayed in the room!

December Sales Incentive

Rather than having a normal sale I have decided to do a lottery of sorts for the month of December.  On the 31st I will draw names from everyone who has placed an order between Nov 30th through Dec 30th.  The lucky winner will have the cost of their order refunded back to them via paypal.

Also, I am nearing 500 sales so I will have an extra special gift for my 500th customer!

And here's a special coupon code for my blog readers.  GBHBLOG for 20% off your orders until December 23rd.  This coupon will be good in all of my stores.

October Giveaway

For October I will be giving away TWO one ounce tins of sage ointment.  This isn't regular garden sage but Ceremonial White Sage.  The smell is absolutely heavenly, and this herb has a long use as a natural incense for ritual, meditation and purificatrion cermonies.

Sages are cooling, deodorant, anti-inflammatory, purifying and anti-infectious.  Try this on wounds, on sweaty feet to reduce perspiration, rub a little on your chest to break up congestion or even to alleviate hot flashes.  One customer who bought this oil from me described it as a garden in a bottle.  I LOVE it!

Leave a comment for one entry.  I am also going to allow extra entries-leave 3 comments if you make a purchase from ANY of my stores-leave 3 comments and tell us what you bought.  Leave an extra entry if you follow me on twitter, youtube, or follow this blog.  This contest will end on October 31st at midnight (eastern time).  You can have lots of entries if you purchase from me more than one time.  I am going to be starting to stock for the Holidays so keep checking my stores for special offers!

Birthday Giveaway

On August 1st I will be turning 35-Again! I should be in a bad mood since I know how old I REALLY am but I'm not. This is the bag that will be loaded with goodies for the July giveaway, to be given away on my birthday. It doesn't look like much now but by the time I'm done with it it will have deocorative stitching and be loaded up with stuff made by me! I will have at least $20 worth of stuff in it.

To make it more exciting, I will not be posting it to etsy giveaways and I want to include more chances to win. If you look to right you will see links to my stores, etc. Here's how you can get multiple entries........
1) Visit my stores and tell me what you would like to see in the bag if you win. Who knows-it may just show up in there.
2) Follow me on twitter and make a post here telling me you did.
3) Subscribe to my youtube channel-again leave a comment to tell me you did.
4) Make a purchase from any of my stores for 3 entries. Leave 3 comments.
5) Post this giveaway to your blog for an entry and post a link in your comments.

So you can have up to 7 entries! Also, I am nearing 150 sales in my etsy store so lucky customer 150 will also receive a free gift. Good Luck! The contest ends at midnight July 31st and the winner will be chosen and notified while I am having my birthday coffee (Dunkin Donuts).

Marshmallow

I have uploaded a new herbal video about Marshmallow. I love this plant, the leaves are soft and fuzzy and the whole plant contains a soothing mucilage. this mucilage coats and soothes wounds and inflammations both internally and externally. It loves soil that is NOT well drained, however, as you can see from the photos, it can adjust even to Kentucky clay if you keep a watchful eye on watering. My Marshmallow is planted in front of a 6 foot fence so you can see it's quite happy in my garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbFM5q1iOR4

New video

I managed to get my St. John's Wort video uploaded. Check it out-this plant is amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKqpGVI80_8

Echinacea Video

I have posted a new video-this time it's all about Echinacea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAvzYEO-w-4

Lemon Balm

I have a video up about Lemon Balm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRzC29mtC8g

Happy Thursday!

I am enjoying a peaceful lunch hour, inside where it's nice and cool. It has been very hot and humid in Kentucky already and it's not even Summer yet! However, it was like this last June then we had the COLDEST July I have ever seen in my life! It was really nice but the trade off seems to be big ice storms in January and I don't want that.

I have officially run out of St. John's Wort oil but I have several of the salves made up. Fear not-my plants have already started blooming so I have more oil going already. It should be ready in 2 weeks and I have until about mid-August to keep harvesting flowers.

I will probably do a video on this wonderful plant and post it this weekend. If you haven't looked at any of my videos you can check me out on youtube. I have a link under my favorites on this blog. Don't forget to subscribe-this is a BUSY BUSY time of the year for the herbalist! I generally don't make an appearance on the videos because I am filming on my cell phone early on Sunday mornings while my neighbors are asleep and I haven't gotten dressed or even brushed my hair yet. I am not used to this but they are getting better. I may also post about echinacea soon because my coneflowers are big and bushy and I am getting TONS of flowers!

I will talk to y'all on youtube on Sunday!

Arnica video

I have a new video on youtube-this time Arnica. I will have more coming over the Summer and Fall. Still to come goldenseal, ginseng, lemon balm, marshmallow, echinacea, roses, peppermint, spearmint, plantain, clary sage, helichrysum, St. john's wort, Yarrow. So stay tuned to learn more about herbs that you can easily grow in yourself and use for natural health and beauty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Yjxt4p0DE

New Oils

I have been sick all weekend and still feel a little yucky. I have managed to get a couple oils infusing today since I 'm starting to feel better. First, I am infusing a full quart jar of chamomile oil. I have been selling some cold cream like crazy this week so I have run out of oil. I also harvested some fresh peppermint, rosemary, marjarom and arnica to infuse in olive/sunflower oil to make a nice sportsy massage oil. It should be ready in a couple weeks unless I decide to double infuse it.

Roses

Time for another educational post. This time another favorite of mine-Roses.

Roses have been used for medecine, perfume, and to flavor foods for thousands of years (yes they taste good, too). All roses are non-toxic, astringent, healing to the skin, anti-inflammatory, regulate female hoemones, laxative, liver and blood cleansers. Plus the fruit, or hips, are higher in Vitamin C than citrus fruits. So if you have look at the bottles of chewable Vitamin C tablets, they are usually made with rosehips.

Not all roses are fragrant. Some will bloom continuously some bloom only once and they're done. They have a very low essential oil content so it takes an enormous quantity of rose petals to make a little bit of oil. It takes 30,000-50,000 pounds of roses to produce 1 pound of essential oil. Now, you know why the oil is so expensive! Thankfully, it's also a very potent oil so that expensive little vial of rose oil will last a really long time.

Although all these roses won't make much essential oil, they will make LOTS of rosewater. So if you can't afford the essential oil try purchasing the Hydrosol. It can be used as a body spray, linen spray and in foods for flavor. It's the original flavoring agent for the soft candy known as Turkish Delight.

One drop of essential oil on pulse points makes a fabulous, long-lasting, all natural perfume. Roses are also used to keep skin young looking, and to treat thread veins and redness. If you have delicate, sensitve, inflamed, mature or dry skin-rose is what you need. I love to combine roses with german chamomile, with a little calendula and lavender sometimes. They combination smells wonderful and heals your skin, and keeps you beautiful.

Any questions? Leave a comment or you can contact me through any of my stores.

Comfrey

I posted a video about comfrey on you tube. Here's the link....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTLR7rjo5Hs

You Tube Video

I actually posted a couple of videos on You Tube this morning if anyone wants to check it out. I wanted to show you guys my plants that I grow and use in my work. It was a spur of the moment decision and it was very early in the morning-just after sunrise. It was also a little chilly out so I was sniffly. Look for it here........
http://www.youtube.com/glorybeherbals2010. It was fun and I may post more as my plants grow and I start working with them. I would also like to do videos for each plant with more detailed info for their uses.

SPRING!!!!!!! Finally...........

Today is the first full day of Spring and it's beautiful here! I got a little Spring Fever. I started some seeds and dug up some roots, planted some new roots and bulbs. I have a small flower bed under the living room window which only gets a couple hours of sun a day and I have been wanting to do something new under there. But this is also where I have my most valuable roots planted. I was going to dig them all up and dry them but my Husband talked me into moving them. So I moved a goldenseal, 2 ginseng, and a blue cohosh. I just hope I haven't traumatized them for the year because they should be sprouting in 2-4 weeks. I did actually dig up my 3rd ginseng root and chopped it up to make an extract. American ginseng is supposed to be much milder than the Asian varieties. We'll see because I can't do the Asian at all!

So anyhow....I planted some Lily of The Valley back there and watered everything real good. I will add some Johny jump-ups too. So I will have a nicely perfumed area with bold color right by the patio. I will probably trim with allysums later on which will add to the fragrance and color.

Happy Spring!