Gathering the Sun
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Calendula flowers are one of my favorites for infusing oils, adding to broths and making sun teas. Every summer and fall, we grow and harvest calendula to store for the winter in various ways.
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I love to have big orange glowing bottles of sunshine oil to use on our skin or make salves with when the winter darkness settles in. They seem to harness the light they open to and share it freely in their blooms.
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Calendula is an amazingly resilient flower that grow almost everywhere, through cold and heat and hungry bugs; it seems to push through it all and if you have any space in your windowsill or garden, I highly recommend giving it a try!
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Calendula is an amazing medicine for the skin, liver and many other bodily systems, as well as shining light on long, dark days.
Morning Rainbow Harvest...
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Cornflowers, Calendula, Violas and Nepitella to cook with, dry, and use in oils & teas.
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Nepitella, the green herb in the basket, is native to Italy/Sicily, growing wild there in the hills. It is a delicious remedy for everything from chest colds to indigestion. It tastes a little like a perfect combination of basil, mint & oregano and will be something I use for medicines, but also hopefully with porcini mushrooms if it’s a good season this year! In Tuscany it’s said you can’t eat Porcini mushrooms without nepitella, so I’m hoping to test it out this summer.
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We have two dehydrators that run from now until late fall as we preserve the harvests that come. We have a very short season here in Colorado, so preserving foraged and grown foods is an essential part of the rhythm of our life.
