Tag Archives: potion

November 6, 2023 · 10:16 pm

Root tinctures & weird fiction )O(

 

Merry meet all,

I was out foraging for dandelion roots this morning. The earth is carpeted by beautiful autumn leaves, colouring the earth in a resplendent mix of browns, golds, yellows, oranges and fiery reds. I just love it and the weather was warm enough for foraging. I look forward to drying the roots in my dehydrator. 

I enrolled in the Business course at the Herbal Academy. The workbook is on its way to me. I am sure I will learn a lot from the course. I have to decide what I plan to do with my herbalism training. This course will help me with that. I still have a long way to go. The Business course teaches everything on how to manage a herbal-based business. Good thing too, as I don’t have the first clue. 

My bound book is so beautiful and cool. I ordered book corner protectors from Etsy. The corner protectors have an octopus on them to represent a character from Lovecraftian fiction. Here is the link: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1253357176/the-bookworms-from-shaggai-lovecraftian?ref=yr_purchases. I can’t wait to see how amazing my book cover will look. I have plenty to look forward to here. Now I have to write more poems to fill the pages of the bound book. 

I received the copies of Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird and the Halloweenthology anthology my story is published in. Both books are designed beautifully. I have to stock up on coffee because I shall spend many happy hours perusing the fascinating pages of Weird Tales. Yes and I have those three past issues of Weird Tales magazine to read too. I love to read, I am addicted to the written word. I will invest in a nice bookmark to accompany the huge book, 100 Years of Weird Tales. That is quite the book. 

That is a lot to keep me busy reading during the dark half of the year. I attended a psychic fair yesterday. I can’t recall the last time I was at a fair. It was so good to be at a fair and even better to be around real mediums. I hung out with the wannabe toxic queen bee drama witches for so long. I really enjoyed the fair. I bought a Harry Potter wand. 

I’m brewing a jar of apple slices in rum. I hope to conjure a brew of Apple Spiced Liquor. The potion has to brew for a few more days then I can strain out the apples. I cannot wait to sample the potion. The apple slices look beautiful steeping in the rum. It will taste amazing. I added cinnamon and cloves to the mixture. The apple slices have an amber color and the rum looks like a deep deep red/ burgundy color. I can’t wait to taste it. 

I am also making a skullcap and ashwagandha tincture. I am blending the herbs in two separate jars but I will eventually blend them into one. The intention is to use the tincture  to calm myself, ease stress and help me sleep. The calendula oil is still steeping, as well as the lavender oil is still steeping and the echinacea root tincture. 

I have dried the dandelion roots and the plantain leaves and seeds. I stored the seeds, roots and leaves in jars but I left the lids off. I want the herbal goods to have a chance to fully dry to avoid mold. I waited hours for it all to dry. It takes that long. If you don’t wait that long from morning to night, everything will be moldy and ruined. It takes patience and I have to stay home all day but I enjoy drying herbs – leaves, roots, seeds, bark in my dehydrator. I do not know how I ever managed to live without it. 

Before the frost hit my garden, I spread the last of the straw mulch over the garden. The leaves now cover the garden like a thick beautiful blanket. My soil, the beneficial insects and the roots of my herbs and other plants are now well protected. I harvested the echinacea seed heads. The frost has hit my garden but I know that even though the snow falls and the garden is laid to rest, in the spring it will be born anew. 

I would love to hear about your garden preparations for winter and tincture making. The Herbal Academy is offering a course in tinctures currently. https://theherbalacademy.com/product/tincture-making-101-mini-course/ 

Blessings Spiderwitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 19, 2023 · 12:01 pm

Herbal whipped Body Butter )O(

Chamomile and calendula body butter

Merry meet all,

This week, I whipped up my very first batch of herbal body butter. Today this post will be about how I did it. When I began, I didn’t know what I was doing. I picked up a few pointers along the way. Now let’s get started!

To make your own body butter, you will need the following tools and ingredients:

  • a saucepan
  • a measuring cup
  • dried herbs,  chamomile and calendula
  • essential oils such as lavender and roman chamomile
  • Jojoba, grapeseed oil or sweet almond oil
  • beeswax
  • shea butter
  • coconut oil
  • a wooden spoon
  • an electric mixer
  • a spatula
  • thermometer (optional)
  • a jar to store the body butter in
  • labels to adhere to the jar
  • a double boiler

Ok, I would suggest you use dried herbs. Fresh herbs have too much moisture in them. If the dried herbs were stored properly, they will not make the mixture go rancid. I did a water bath to infuse the herbs into the oils and waxes faster. Add the chamomile and calendula to a clean dry jar and then add in the coconut oil. Let sit for about three to four hours. Add water to the lower pot. Use a double boiler for this step. Then add in the coconut oil. Be patient with this step. Eventually the waxes and oils and herbs will mix and blend. If you are really keen on infusing the oils with the herbs, you can let it sit overnight. Do not let water get into the mixture. 

The herbs are brewing in the double boiler on the stove!

Remove from the heat and strain the herbs. Compost the herbs and store the oil in a jar. I loved the scent of the oil- it smelled so good! I added the herbal infused oil to a bowl and whipped the oils with my electric mixer. Ok it changed color. This is where the fun began, if that is what you could call it. Now we have to get the potion to mix or synergize, if you will. This is the hard part. I whipped for a few moments. The oils and waxes stubbornly refused to thicken. I put it in the fridge for an hour. When the time was up, I removed it from the fridge and whipped it again with my electric mixer. I kept stirring with a wooden spoon. It remained in a liquid form. I tried to reheat the mixture and the oils rose to the surface. I hit up google for tips on what to do. 

I returned the mixture to the fridge where I let it sit for a few hours. I removed it from the fridge and was shocked to discover it finally thickened! Delighted, I set about to again turn it into a body butter. This potion making takes some stubbornness and insistence. So hang in there. I let it sit for five minutes then I plugged the electric mixer in and whipped it for a few moments. Success! I sprinkled in the lavender and roman chamomile essential oils. I didn’t reheat the mixture again after I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Important tip there! The waxes, oils and butters take a few hours to thicken. 

I spooned the body butter into a beautiful glass jar. I cleaned and sanitized the jar first. I don’t want to let any contamination into the jar. Every time you use it, ensure your hands or a spoon are perfectly clean to avoid it going rancid. So you can see how patience is a virtue when making whipped body butter. You don’t want it to  be a liquid but you also don’t want it to go too hard. I added a lot more coconut oil, shea butter and two tablespoons of beeswax before I let it chill in the fridge. The mixture need more waxes than liquid. Clean up your workspace and test it on your skin.

Do not store it in the fridge. I store the jar in the bathroom and leave the window open a crack. I love the feel and scent of the body butter. It dries and absorbs into my skin immediately and leaves my skin silky soft! I know I will use it up so fast. The scent is heavenly! This is my first body butter but it will not be my last. 

Do not store the bottles of shea butter and coconut oil in the fridge. They will harden and be no good. The tools and ingredients are no doubt expensive for you so be careful when you clean up to make sure you minimize the potential of something going moldy. I ran hot, like really hot water over the dishes I used to make the butter. I ran the hot water over the double boiler a long time. I ordered the shea butter online so safety is my first concern.

I hope this inspires you to make your own heavenly body butter potions. Let me know how it goes!

Blessings, Spiderwitch 

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January 15, 2023 · 4:14 pm

Seed starts

Merry meet all,

Today is rainy, snowy and very overcast. Snow lightly covers the ground. Raindrops splatter the windowpanes. It is a sleepy, stay home type of day. The next turn in the Wheel of the year is Imbolc. Before I get started, I just wanted to write here that I know I haven’t posted much. This week, I had to deal with an infected tooth and an abnormal amount of pain. I had to get that under control’s which involved freezing my tooth at the hospital, and a lot of painkillers and an antibiotic to clear up the infected tooth. I am feeling much better now. 

Imbolc is coming soon! My kitty Penny woke up from her long nap. I just gave her a cuddle. Imbolc is exciting to me because it is the first of the three Spring Sabbats. Imbolc is a time of renewed hope, purity and the return of the light. The cold remains but hope and new life stirs beneath the soil. I will post more here about Imbolc. I have a recipe on how to make Imbolc inspired cookies already. I can’t wait to try it!

Imbolc is the perfect time to read seed catalogues and to plan what you want to grow this spring. Or at least to think about which plants you want to start indoors. I plan to get the seed starting kit back from my Mom’s. I have to wait to get soil. Once I do, I plan to start seeds early. It’s my opinion that tomato plants take a long long time to grow, and I believe that they need to be started earlier in order to reach their maximum growth earlier in the year to bear fruit. This has been my observation.

Tomorrow I hope to get the Mastering Herbal Formulations book from the Herbal Academy in the mail. I can really get deep into the course once I have the workbook. I wish they did delivery on weekends but I guess USPS doesn’t work that way. I have read Unit 1 and I get most of the ideas. The calculations look complicated but not impossible. I really need to learn this stuff in order to sell my teas at the local farmers market. That is my goal and part of why I am studying at the Herbal Academy. I want to run a herbal business when I graduate. First, I have a lot to learn. I want to take my time and learn and then I will have a better chance of running my herbal business.

I had reservations about blending two or more herbs in a tincture and other preparations. The Mastering Herbal Formulations course will take away my reservations and give me a renewed confidence. I look forward to reading and learning more in Unit 2-3. The courses at the Herbal Academy are fascinating. I love everything I have learned so far. So to return to the topic of spring seed planting, I have a few new herb seed packets to try this spring. I have many packets of seeds. However, this spring, I have motherwort seeds and I can’t wait to start that from seed. There are too many for me to count here that I want to get started. That will have to be in a future post. 

If you ask me, time is speeding up. I can’t believe how fast time goes now. It seems like I was holding a bonfire in my back yard and now I want to pore over seed catalogues. Does anyone feel like time is speeding up? To what purpose? It’s hard to say. I will just ride the crest of this ‘wave’ as best I can. The possibility of the return of spring cheers me greatly. 

 

Blessings, Spiderwitch 

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May 22, 2022 · 11:44 am

Scandinavian Dandelion Syrup )O(

Merry meet all,

Today an overcast sky darkens the gorgeous verdant green grounds here. The trees and plants are so bright green, resplendent against the dark sky. I just strolled through the garden, marveling at how fast everything is growing. They get big overnight, it’s amazing. 

The other day I concocted a brew of Scandinavian Dandelion Syrup. I am so proud of myself. It’s an actual syrup. Now I feel like a true herbalist! I have tried so many times and wasted so many herbs to make syrup. I finally did it! Here are some tips on how you can brew this awesome potion too!

Put on your herbalist hat and get outside! I took a bag and a pair of scissors with me. I ventured out to the nature trail where I collected fifty dandelions. Yep you read that right. You can collect more if you like but not less. I washed them at home and snipped off the green stems. Be sure to leave plenty of dandelions for the bees. Only pick dandelions that are healthy and undamaged. Pat them dry with a paper towel. 

Put all the dandelion flowers in a pot. Bring the dandelion tea to a boil then let it simmer for half an hour. Tip: Let the dandelions steep in the pot in the fridge overnight. It makes for a richer, more healthy tea. In the morning, strain the flowers and toss the flowers to the compost goddess. Chop up 1 rhubarb stalk, two apples, add the juice of a lemon, and let it simmer. Strain the tea again. Toss the fruit to the compost. Now you make the syrup. Measure how much tea you have and that will tell you how much sugar to add. Be sure to strain the tea well. I had two cups of the tea so I added the same amount of sugar. Let it boil but not scald on the stove. The tea will smell amazing. The sugar will dissolve. Leave it on the stove and occasionally stir until the liquid has evaporated but again, don’t scald the pot. Turn the heat off and allow it to cool. If you scald the mixture, it will change color and you don’t want that. The mixture should thicken as it cools. 

Pour the syrup into a sterile jar and leave it to thicken into the jar. The syrup should look and taste amazing! Now that I have enjoyed my own homemade syrup, I may never buy processed syrup again! I had so much syrup I split it with my Mom. The photo above shows the jar of syrup. See the gorgeous color? I am so proud to have brewed a jar of syrup! You will fall in love with it too. 

Store the dandelion syrup in the fridge. Pour it onto roasted root veggies or pancakes! Enjoy!

Blessings, Spiderwitch

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