Let's Talk About: Goldenrod

He is everywhere.

Waving at me from above the blue and purple chicory, teasing me, dancing behind the brown grasses drying in the autumn sun.

Goldenrod, Solidago, Golden Dagger!

Many people take one look at Goldenrod and run in the other direction, sneezing and coughing, but Goldenrod is NOT the source of your autumnal allergies.  Poor showy Goldenrod has the bright, obvious flowers and so gets blamed. The big yellow flowers do not have airborne pollen, so you'd have to put the flowers IN your nose to cause a reaction (watch out for hornets).

The plant to blame is Ragweed - this sneaky plant is small, green, and unassuming, but the pollen blown on the breeze irritates many, many people.  Ragweed and Goldenrod do tend to grow near each other in ditches and fields, hence the confusion.

The worst part is that Goldenrod is one of those cures that grows with the ailment, and it actually offers great relief for sinus allergy sufferers.

(Read more to see a recipe for Goldenrod Infused Honey...)
Read more »

A quick update of sorts...

Joyous Equinox, Beautiful People!

I've been terribly busy all September, and now I realize that I've not updated this poor blog.  You must forgive me, I've been 'et up by celebrations, memorials, weddings, harvest, and life in general - to good end!

We've been 5 hours to Georgia and back, 8 hours to the ocean and back, into a mountain full of dragons and faeries, and yesterday was spent tending neglected home and freaked-out kitty.

Equinox hit like a hammer this year.  Boom, frost on the ground and roof and cars, reddening the stems of the poke and making the trees shiver and change hue.  Boom, my breath visible in the morning.  Boom, the house full of spiders and free of ants and flies and mosquitoes.  Boom, socks and sweatpants and hot drinks.

I'll be back soon, with some updates about PixiesPocket.com and a few other matters-of-course.

Love, and Happy Autumn to you all!

These busy days (Photo Post)

This is our chicken, Bok.  She is our official compost-turner and shoe-pecker.  Bok just finished a prolonged molt, and looks gawgeous!  Her death sentence was drawing near, as she hadn't laid in over a month, but today we peeked and found some lovely brown eggs.  Well played, Bok, well played!

The catnip is happy, even though the cold is keeping it close to the earth.  It still smells potent, and yet Akasha kitty doesn't care for it until it's dried and crumbled into her special Nip dish.

Thanksgiving table: Pumpkin, Mead, Gingersnaps, Cranberry Cordial, Truffle Honey, and not shown is the spiral cut ham, turkey breast, stuffing, beans, peas, biscuits, and more bits that were brought by dear friends as they stopped in!

The gingersnaps going into the oven were lovely!

THIS is why I've not been blogging...Holiday honey sales!  I'll be back with more words soon, I promise.

Spelunking 101 and Plant Identification Help

Here is a photo post for y'all to enjoy...they don't capture the reality of the smell of the leaves, the sound of the rushing stream nearby, the dripping of the rain onto the fallen leaves, or the giggling of my dear Eric and myself, but I'm pretty proud. 

You see, the photo-genius behind Modern Scribe Photography, Sarah Thomas, has been teaching me how to use all of the twiddly-bits on my camera, I've been excited about getting the pictures I want instead of dealing with the pictures I get! 

I could use a hand with plant identification as well!  Check out the last couple of pictures and let me know if my guesses are correct...(UPDATE:  The identified plants have been labeled!)

Eric found this small cave in an abandoned housing development near his job...armed with flashlights, walking sticks, and a camera, we decided to go investigate how deep it was, and seek our fortunes, and fight kobolds and drow...

But this is from halfway in, looking toward the entrance in the first picture.  The rest of the cave was just dark, wet rock, mud on the ground, and angry cave crickets.  Denied the chance to battle a dragon, we explored the surrounding riverbank.

This was a verdant green, more live than most other plants around.  It struck me as my eyes fell on it, and my brain said "Vinca" (periwinkle), but that is not correct.  There were no visible flowers, does anyone know what this is?

Is this bee balm? Monarda?  Because when I saw it, my heart sang.  But I've never found bee balm in the wild, only big, red-flowered, over-fertilized department store bee balm for landscaping...Can anyone confirm it?

UPDATE:  This lovely purple-flowered plant is Wild Phlox

It was the only spot of bright color among the greens and browns.  I was enchanted!

And then I found more color...can anyone help me identify this berry bramble? 

UPDATE:  These are not berries at all, but rosehips!  I'd never seen them so small before!

It started to rain, so I was more worried about covering the camera and heading home than collecting a berry or two to study.  Silly me!  I don't know the smell or texture of the inside of the berry, and surely don't know what they are.

Dead Folks

I'm tender-hearted today from spending last night with my Dead folks.

As we do every year for Halloween and Day of the Dead, Eric and I tended to our ancestor altar, remembered out loud the names, lineage, and tales of our beloved dead, and drank a beer with them. 

I remember Paul Canon, Catfish, Daddy.  Wild spirit, poet soul, nature boy, party animal!

I remember Richard Stanley Canon, Grandfather. Singer, Bostonian, goofball, charismatic, loving.

Catfish and Catfish, Jr. circa 1990.

I remember Richard Thomas Greene, Grandfather.  Singer, Irish & Iroquois, New-Yorker, red-cheeked, laughing, flowing, loving.

I remember Ruby Edwards, Great-Grandmother, Nanny.

I remember those who I knew only as a small child, and saw standing in my room glowing, after they passed, loving them without fear.

I remember Enkil, Rosanna, Bandit, Spider, Kitty, Gomez...furry four-legged loved ones whose lives trot out so much more quickly than our average span.

I remember many and more.  I honor and respect those who have come to make me be here now.  I honor and respect those who came to make Eric who he is now.  I honor and respect them as people, for their good and their bad, their humanity.

Apple Picking & Processing 2011

J.H. Stepp Orchards, by Modern Scribe Photography

I live in an incredibly beautiful and bountiful area.  Western North Carolina has so much to offer in the way of local, healthy food that I'm becoming quite happily spoiled by my diet.  There's hop farms for brewers, local bison ranches, and in Hendersonville, North Carolina, you can't throw a stone without hitting an apple tree.  The winding roads around Lake Lure and Chimney Rock are a verdant place where orchards and small farm markets thrive.

My love and I recently went winding down that road with our housemates, a friend, and his six-year old daughter to pick apples from J. H. Stepp Orchards, a beautiful old orchard we picked from last year.  We missed the really sweet apples of late August and September, but still delighted in the bushel of Golden Delicious, Fuji and Rose Cameo Fuji apples that came home with us.

Stepp Orchards also has a wonderful common room in their barn, with a fireplace going to keep icy fingers warm, hot cider on tap, fresh apple juice, apple cake, and accessories such as apple peelers and corers available for purchase.  I picked up a handy dandy apple-corer and gorged on butterscotch apple cake while we all got assembled and directed to the proper picking places.

Calliope, by MSP

By the by, if you have an enthusiastic and bright child to bring along apple picking with you, I highly encourage it.  Boy, can they pick like little devils! And run. And climb trees. And not carry heavy apple baskets, at all.

Once we were laden with big, gorgeous apples, we didn't linger long at the orchard, because we had plans...oh yes, we had plans.  The bushel of apples, the gallon of apple juice, and a bag of fresh, clean sweet potatoes made it home with us in no time.

The rest of the day involved relaxing, for the most part, but I just couldn't wait.  Within a couple of hours of being home, we were diving into a still-warm pan of German Apple Cake!

In the month since picking, we're down to about 5 apples after we made everything...but we still haven't made all that we wanted.  We might just have to go again so we can have apple pie filling!

The complete list of what my housemate Sarah and I made from a bushel of apples:

Dried Apple Rings:  Soft and chewy, melt in your mouth, super-yummy apple rings!  And then the dehydrator started making the most TERRIBLE sound...time for a new one? Any suggestions from you food-preservation people out there?

German Apple Cake:  Nuh-uh. No way.  Not this recipe...if I tell you, I'll have to kill you.

Apple Sauce: (which became Apple Butter)  Easy to do...chop apples, put in pot with small bit of water or apple juice.  Cook down with a lid until soft.  Strain if needed, and ta-da!  If you want to turn it into apple butter, transfer it to a crockpot and season the ever-loving sense out of it with brown sugar and cinnamon and cloves and such, and then let it cook on low until you like it.  SO EASY, and smells soooo goooooood.

A happy apple crew, by MSP

Apple Pectin:  (Check out this recipe on Mother Earth News for reference) We did not succeed completely at this task...but we used up all the peels, cores, and otherwise unwanted bits of apples on hand in the attempt.  Our pectin didn't clear or settle well, because our apples were too sweet. Apparently, this works better with sour or crab apples, which I would have know had I read the entire recipe. Whoops!

Apple Cordial:  This is so fun, and so easy.  I peel my apples by hand, and leave flesh clinging to the peel.  I put the peels in a jar.  I put spices in the jar sometimes...othertimes, just apple-y goodness.  Then I fill the jar with vodka (or rum. or brandy.) and remember to shake it occasionally.  Once I've forgotten about it for a while, I strain out the peels, add sugar or sugar syrup to the alcohol, and bam! Apple cordial.

Apple Mead (Or Cyser):  A grand experiment has begun!  The jug o' juice that we picked up from Stepp Orchards was wonderfully tasty, but we stopped drinking it when it was half-empty.

Next, I heated water and melted a large pour of honey into it to make a must (un-fermented mead) and poured it into the gallon jug, and added one single solitary allspice bud.

I popped an airlock on the jug, and pitched the yeast the next morning.  We've got a perfect spot to keep the jug warm (between 80-84 degrees) and it's been bubbling merrily for about a week.  It will soon be bottled (if we can save enough...we keep tasting it and it's already dwindling rapidly).

Check out your local farm offerings for a U-Pick near you.  I used the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) to find Stepp Orchards!

Are you Ready to Die?

Boo! - by Modern Scribe Photography

October. Samhain. The Turn of the Wheel.

At a festival years ago, Eric and I were asked to hold a position in an autumnal ritual - to play the role of questioner, of taunter, of fae...in this case, some little devils known as the "Ooga Boogas."

Sunset had begun. A line of ritual attendees paraded themselves to the valley with the raised circle waiting for them, and they were all told to think of the goals we wanted to accomplish in the coming solitude of the winter months, and were also to contemplate the harvest of our mind and body's work of the previous year.

Everyone began to follow this focus and create those visualizations, until they reached the ritual circle. Then as we felt the tug, one by one, all of the Ooga Boogas peeled away silently from the line and began darting around, whispering doubts into the ears of those meditating. We asked them the sort of tough questions that are hard to ask yourself, and even harder to answer.

"Are you happy with your life?"

"What are you doing with your time here on Earth?"

"How much is life worth to you?"

And as the ritual progressed, we melted back into the lines of attendees, all of us riding the waves of magic as it rippled throughout the night. Confidence and reassurance was returned to those who listed to the questions and heard the doubts and fears prompted by our whispers, and the concerns were temporarily forgotten as people began to dance and celebrate around the huge fire ringed by drums.

Day of the Dead, by Modern Scribe Photo.

One of my fellow doubt-bringers was a Priest of the Serpent path and was quite an appropriately chosen Ooga Booga, in my opinion. Yet after the ritual, I found him quite distraught, seemingly wrapped in the doubts he'd been asked to spread. I asked him if he was well, and he explained that he couldn't whisper a single thing to anyone participating. He said that the only question that he could imagine was too harsh, and would terrify people.

The only question he has was "Are you ready to die?"

Most people know me as a creature of light, oh my gentle readers. And this is true. But I am more than that a creature of balance. I acknowledge the dark desires as well as the selfless and pure. And I informed this priest that his question was the more potent and precise of all that I heard asked.

Am I ready to die? Should it all end tomorrow, would I be satisfied with all that I have accomplished, or experienced? Most of my soul feels that it is so - I would not be a weeping and wandering ghost full of unrequited loves and unspoken words. (Were I to be a ghost, I would be one just for the fun of terrorizing and alternately amazing people with my shimmering nature. It's a kick! I suggest you try it sometime, when you are good and dead.)

Are you ready to die? And if not, then what is it you haven't done, and why haven't you done it? This is the season of mirror-staring; of ompaloskepsis, of scrying. Enter into winter prepared, my lovies. This season has some big ripples for us to ride.

Are you ready to live?

Let's Talk About: Tinctures, Elixirs, and Cordials

Tincture corner of my herb shelf, A. Shehan

I love herbs, and I also enjoy alcohol. You dedicated readers know for sure that I adore honey...so I generally do my best to combine those three ingredients in as many forms as possible.

My cabinets are full of jars, and those jars are full of strange floating bits in colored liquid. It makes me feel my most witchy to open that cabinet and bring out strange brews to share with friends.  I have many jars that are medicine, and jars that are for fun, and jars that are a bit of both.

Tinctures are medicinal extracts of herbs in alcohol. Some folks use moonshine and other high-test likkers for their tinctures, but I tend to use a medium-brand, triple-distilled vodka so I don't have to dilute the tincture until it's ingested.  If you aren't into vodka, a nice brandy is a good alternative.

The process for making a tincture is simple:

Get an herb, fresh or dried.
Put said herb into a jar.
Pour alcohol to cover the herb.
Put a lid on it, and give it a good shake every now and again
Strain after 3-6 weeks and label clearly.

Now, tinctures are potent!  When you take tinctures, please do a lot of research if you are dosing yourself, or find a practiced herbalist to give you guidance.  Some tinctures, such as poke root or teasel, only need a couple of drops per day to be effective and more than that can cause you harm.

Elixirs are the sweetened version of those alcohol-expressed medicines.  I tend to make "sipping" elixirs out of the more tasty herb tinctures.  These can almost cross the line into cordials, which while they may have medicinal benefits, are mostly just for pleasure.  The sharp tang of elderberry cordial is lovely, but I try to save it for when I'm feeling sick.  To use an elixir, just pour a bit into your hot tea, or into a brandy snifter to sip on for a while.

Then there are the less-than-tasty herbal medicines...adding sweetener to the more bitter or astringent herb tinctures can make ingesting them a more palatable experience, especially with kids.  Valerian and Horehound are good examples of herbs that can use a splash of honey to cut their bitter strength!

Elixirs are easy to make:

You can start out with a tincture and add a simple syrup (recipe below).  Add the cooled syrup to tincture in small bits, then shake the mix to blend it, and then taste.  If it isn't right, add more and taste again!  Be careful, these are meant to be sipped as they are still potent medicine, and this sweetening and tasting process can get you loopy.

Simple Syrup:
Boil one cup of water.
Add two cups of sugar (or 1.5 cup of honey, or agave, or whatever you prefer!)
Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and remove from heat.
Allow to cool.

Otherwise, you can use the lazy method. Pour a dollop of honey into a strained tincture and give it a shake.  It works, but it ends up being super sticky and thick compared to the simple syrup process described above.

I hope that helps to demystify some of the process and allow you to play around with your Junior Alchemist kit in your kitchen, and have another way to use your herb harvest before the final frost takes it from you!

Cordials and Tinctures, 2011, Amber Shehan

Here are some cordials and tinctures that I have in the works.  All of these are in 40% vodka.

In the back, we have Cranberry cordial.  I buy cranberries when they go on sale every holiday season, and freeze them if I don't use them immediately.  This jar has been full for close to a year, and will remain there until the berries have lost a bit more color to the alcohol.  Then there will be a sugar syrup added (perhaps brown sugar this year) and it will sit and settle until Thanksgiving or Christmas.  

Clockwise, we next have goldenrod tincture.  Goldenrod will have his own post soon, so I'll move on to the next little jar.

Yarrow was a strong sister plant for me this year.  She sprang up tall and magnificent from the patch I prepared and transplanted her the first year I lived here.  The fronds on this plant were humongous, and her flowers plentiful! Yarrow tincture is good for keeping insects at bay when applied externally, and is an amazing wound cleaner as well.  She'll be handy to keep around for next spring.

Lemon Balm, Sweet Melissa, fills out the next jar with her flat, wide leaves.  I crushed them with my fingers as I put them in the jar, to release her lemony, sharp oils.  This plant is excellent for anxiety, depression, any emotional rollercoasters and overwhelming dizziness can be slowed down by a couple drops in water and a couple of deep breaths.

Lastly, we have valerian and mint.  Some folks can't stand the smell of Valerian, but I'm quite fond of it.  The mint is there to make it palatable, sure, but it also has it's own benefits in the realm of gas relief and relaxation.  In a couple of weeks, I'll strain that jar and add some honey to the tincture and shake it together for a tonic cordial.  My delicate-tummied love sometimes ends up unable to sleep at night with gut pains keeping him awake...but after one good slug of valerian and mint cordial, there's a couple of burps and then a symphony of snores!

This is my last fresh-harvest hurrah for the season.  This week, I'll be making tasty treats using the elixir method with rum instead of vodka, and leftover apple peels that would otherwise be discarded.  Winter is nigh, and I'm set on having plenty of tasty, warming medicines to get me and my loved ones through!

Busy as an Autumn Bee...

Things I have learned in the past few days:

• When making bread that requires kneading for ten minutes, don't use a timer, just sing "Matty Groves" once through to obtain perfect crumb.  The rhythm of the song helps greatly with the process!

• Spirit Horse Herbals makes a great lip balm!!  It's very moisturizing, has no flavor, and is super soft.  I was lucky enough to win a tube of "Soothe Those Lips" in a recent giveaway on their Twitter! <3

• Mountain Rose Herbs is doubling donations to Oregon Wild until September 30! 

 "Oregon Wild (formerly the Oregon Natural Resources Council or ONRC) has been instrumental in securing permanent legislative protection for some of Oregon’s most precious landscapes, including nearly 1.7 million acres of Wilderness, 95,000 acres of forests in Bull Run/Little Sandy watersheds (to safeguard the quality of Portland's water supply) and almost 1,800 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers.  As a leader of the national grassroots charge for conservation of roadless areas in our national forests, Oregon Wild helped secure administrative protections for more than 58 million acres of spectacular roadless areas across the country. "

• I'm packing up with my dear love to go to a festival in Georgia this weekend.  I'm looking forward to fires, drums, friends, and time spent with trees over my head.  Another couple of attendees and I are planning an Autumnal Herb Exchange, where we can share the fruits of our labors this year with one another.  There's at least one wonderful woman at the festival who makes the BEST handcream for tired drummer's hands that I've ever had the honor to use! 

I'll be back soon to do a newsletter and update my shop!

Shine with love, Happy Equinox!

October Mornings

Sol, by Amber Shehan

It is truly October.

I woke this morning to blue light filtering in my window, mist and dew clinging to the dying pokeberry bushes outside. It was a sweatshirt morning, a full pot of coffee morning, and a get something on the stove kind of morning.

Currently, there is a pot full of Cocoa Honey starting to work it's melting magic in the kitchen, and then it will be Ginger Honey for my folks fighting colds. I'm thinking of making a seasonal Elderberry Honey for the sneezes and snorts of winter. There's a sick little girl on the couch, healing from a tonsil infection who's going to get some nice, soothing elderberry tea once the kettle starts to sing.

*yawn*
*stretch*

Good morning, world.

October marches in...

Photo by Modern Scribe Photography

Cold and windy, dark and ominous, October is marching in, leaving muddy tracks on my carpet to mix with the windblown leaves.

I've been away from this blog and my shop for much of the warm months. I've been delving into gardening, raising chickens, working full time hours outside of the home, drumming, socializing, and altogether being a happy and busy bee.

Now the cold is returning, and bringing with it my nesting instincts. I'm ready to clean and create. So far this fall, I've put away some applesauce and pie filling after picking at Stepp Orchard in Hendersonville, NC. I have one jar of peelings soaking in rum, and another in vodka, for making cordials. I have a jar of spiced vodka infusing in my cupboard as well.

I'm eying the plants outside to prioritize the autumnal harvest...the burdock is dying back and after the first frost, can dig up his root for eating and pickling, oh, and the chicory, too.  The primrose is bright with flowers, and I've been pulling leaves of yarrow for drying.  We have a big jar of dried shitake mushrooms, and I'll soon be getting some pumpkins for carving, roasting seeds, and making pumpkin butter and pies.

We have recently used an extra bit of canvas to create a wind block for the chicken coop. The biddies are all fluffy and feathered out as the days get colder. They are happy, healthy, and producing well! Our first winter in caring for them is coming, and I'm confident we'll all make it through with all of our toes.


Enjoy this crisp season of woodsmoke, chill wind, and rustling leaves. I'll be in better touch with all you folks out there.

October drifts in...

I woke this morning, stretched, and performed my morning ritual of coffee preperation. All hail Caffeina and her dark waters of awakening! Ahem. As I was saying...

The mountains this morning were shrouded in a cloak of thick white fog. October is here in her spiderwebbed glory! I walked among the mists and the dew-covered tunnel spider's webs, all the while to the tune of crakking and tokking crows taking wing from the multi-hued trees.

October is here, reminding me of chilly toes and shivering bones, of raspy throats and exhausted lungs. Soon my elderberry tincture will be ready to pour out and use, but I started my Osha root tincture late. More on those dear allies later, dearies...right now I'm waxing poetic.

I've got my garden plot marked and tarped, making a nice warm place for the big fat earthworms to till the clay for me until spring, and I have my compost bin wrapped in burlap to help hold in the warmth while it cooks down to lovely soil.

Oh, yes. Autumn is here, the equinox is past, and my fingers are madly twitching to put things away and prepare for the cold time, the time of deep introspection and silver magic.

Weave and Believe!

(Photo Credits: "Poke" by Modern Scribe Photography)