beheading flowers and other fun farm tasks!

Hi all! So sorry for my absence, but things get hectic in the middle of July on a farm! Lots to do! Tomatoes to harvest, weeds to stay on top of, corn to snack on in the field when you're supposed to be working... One of the projects of high summer is the preserving of your harvest for the winter months (in case you can't eat one ton of green beans before they go bad). I've taken on the task of preserving our herbs and flowers for the winter share CSA which will hopefully have a tea component if all goes well.

So on that note, there's something I must confess. I really enjoy beheading flowers. All kinds. Chamomile and purple clover at the moment, but I'm open to calendula flowers, feverfew, and whatever else I can get my paws on! Chamomile (or chammy, as I affectionately call it) is a well-known herb that is used in sleepy-time teas for its' soothing quality and sedating effect. I find that just smelling a whiff of it calms me down.

We got this handy dandy tool called a chamomile rake that allows us to go over the tops of the plants and collect all the tiny flowers that decorate each stem like a cloudburst of white and yellow. I spent a summer a few years ago harvesting tons of flowers to dry into teas and we did this all by hand, so I can truly appreciate the efficiency of this tool, that’s for sure! There’s nothing quite as peaceful as hanging out in a bed of flowers, heaping them into a bucket, and then spreading them out on trays to be dried in our (also new!) dehydrator. And the smells…. I can’t even begin to explain! They fill me with a certain sense of tranquility and happiness that is unlike any other.

Purple clover is a new one for me. Of course I've seen it on tea labels, but I hadn't looked into its' medicinal properties or harvested any of my own, before today. Apparently it is good for coughs and respiratory conditions, as well as chronic skin ailments.

There is so much to know about plants and their medicinal properties, I'm overwhelmed. Skullcap, nettle, catnip, stevia, mint, mullein, sumac - I'm learning about all of them! And as much as I enjoy beheading flowers, sometimes the plants do fight back. Stinging nettle, for instance. I'm sure you've all experienced the pain of a thousand bee stings as you brush up against a nettle plant. It's not fun, I'll tell you that much. Well, today I triumphed over the nettle (a plant with a great many uses, such as aiding in muscle and joint issues) by snipping it down first with giant loppers and then waiting about an hour for it to get wilty. When that happens, it loses it's nasty stinging effect, and I can go about my business without being harmed. Yay!

So amidst the madness of the world, scary shootings and debt ceilings that are beyond my comprehension and control, I get to mosey around the farm, plucking pretty flowers and carefully labeling bags of dark green dried herbs to flavor our food our heal our bodies in the months to come. I wish it could be this simple for everyone...