Sorry everyone, I didn't get around to writing a blog for our fourth workshop so I'll put the details into this week's entry as well. Since the fourth week, we've begun to have weekly tea sessions featuring different herbs each time. Taking advantage of the nice weather outside, we've also been practicing our plant identification skills as well. In addition, over the last two weeks, we've made two tinctures, garlic and oregon grape, as well as a lemon balm lotion.
One of the new things we've started to do in the workshop are the tea sessions. Different herbs are featured every week and we make them while on the fireplace. So far, we've had over 5 different kinds of teas including dandelion, peppermint, rose hip, and yerba mate. One of interesting things about these weekly tea sessions are the different types of teas we get to try each week. In addition, a lot of the herbs we used to make the teas were actually harvested around Vancouver and dried by my fellow attendees. So far, my favorite tea has been the rose hip one. We made it by combining dried rose hip that were harvested a year ago in the garden and some fresh rosaceae leaves that we harvested while walking around the garden. I really enjoyed the rich rose hip flavour and especially its herbal benefits which helped to fight the cold I'm currently having.
An exercise we've been doing the last two weeks was practicing how to identify different plants. We were given a guide which illustrated the different shapes and types of leaves, stalks, floral arrangement, etc. Since the weather has been great the last two weeks, we were able to spend time outside in the garden looking at the different plants and identifying what shapes the leaves were and how they were arranged. This was something I've done as part of my schoolwork so I was quite familiar with all the different terms. I think everyone found the activity quite enjoyable and definitely informative. In herbalism, it's important to be sure what plants you're using so learning how to correctly identify plants is vital.
In the fourth workshop, we made two tinctures: garlic and oregon grape. Unfortunately, I had to leave early that week so I wasn't able to stay during the making of them. However, I'll be able to see how the tinctures turned out this coming week when they will be brought back to the pavilion for bottling. For the fifth workshop, our project was a lemon balm lotion. I felt the process was quite similar to making the salve since we used beeswax and oil again. This time however, we also added a borax powder to turn it into a lotion. I think my favorite part of making lotions is using a hand blender to mix the oil/beeswax mixture with the lemon balm water/borax powder mixture together in a process call emulsification. Another fun part of making the lotions and salves is watching everyone apply the leftover cream/salve onto themselves so we don't waste any of it. Each time, everyone will roll up their sleeves and pant legs and smear what's left in the pots and ladles onto their elbows and knees. It definitely makes for some great pictures.
We're nearing the end of our workshops together, only two more weeks left! Looking forward to spending more good times with everyone and the end of workshop pot luck at the end! Now I've just got to decide which herb I will be featuring for the last week's project. Be back next week with another entry!
Pictures pictures!
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