Little luxuries

The horizontal rain pelted the windows last night to the point where I thought it would break them.  There was a puddle on the kitchen counter because somehow the roof over the kitchen leaks in eastern winds.  This truly is not my time of the year.  By January my body has finally succumbed to the oppression of the dark, refusing to wake up and generally behaves like a teenager.  I have learned to give it space and wait it out patiently.  I don't expect to be as energetic as at other times and find that this time is more bearable if I try to pamper myself.

One of the things that I like to do at this time of the year, apart from sleeping late, is to use all the herbs and plants that I collected over the previous summer.  I have a lot dried herbs and I make my own herbal mixtures and put them in capsules.  I make up my own mixes in attempts to inject some herbal goodness into my body.  Some of my dried flowers get used on top of soaps, at least before Christmas and my infused oils get used in creams and lotion.  But since I haven't had the energy to do much more than my weekly yoghurt and sourdough bread I started to use the oil as they are.  And I really like them like that.

I am especially thrilled with the Rumex oil that I infused late last fall.  It is the most perfect dark golden yellow and smells lovely.  I use it at night on my face and neck.  The yellow colour is very strong and even if I spread it out there is a bit of a yellow tinge to my skin.  I am convinced that it is an excellent anti oxidant and it really does make my skin feel very nice.  Remarkably my pillow doesn't get stained and my husband hasn't made a comment yet.  I have never had dry skin, so I was a bit surprised how much I like to use the oils on my face.

For the daytime I tend to use the Yarrow oil.  Yarrow is one the traditional medicinal herbs and is wonderful for the skin.  Even if the oil is slightly green, it doesn't color my face at all.  Both of those are infused in Olive oil.  I find that it just glides on my face really smoothly and absorbs quite quickly.  I use mineral make up and find that occasionally it can sometimes look a bit dry when first applied.  Now I usually mix it with oil to make a kind of make up and apply it that way.  It gives a nice dewy finish.

The last of my oils is the Rose oil.  I actually have a Rose oil infused in both Olive oil and Peach kernel oil.  Infused three or four times, the oils really get a good rose scent.  The one I'm using now is the Peach Kernel oil and I like that as a body oil after bath.  It really makes spring seem just around the corner then I emerge from the bath all dewy soft and smelling like a bed of roses in the dead of winter.

The Queen of Hungary's water

I found a lot of recipes for the Queen of Hungary's water.  The recipes are all pretty different and after reading about it trying to find the correct recipe I discovered that originally it was probably a distillation of Rosemary in Brandy and that it dates from the late 14th century.  It has since been added to and modified to include various herbs such as sage, mint, rose, chamomile, lemon balm, calendula and lemon peel.  The Hungary water is both a cosmetic and a herbal remedy, reputedly curing all sorts of ailments.  My interest is to use it as a toner.  I love to use toner on my skin, even if I read somewhere that they are useless.  I don't care.  So I thought I'd make my own Hungary water.

One common recipe for Hungary water is widely attributed to Rosemary Gladstar on the internet.  She has been called the godmother of American Herbalism and she has written many books.  This is her recipe for the Queen of Hungary's water and I used that as a base for mine.  She uses vinegar instead of alcohol and I think that suits me well.  I've been interested in using vinegar based toner for a while, but haven't done anything about it.  Although, of course, it is the easiest thing to do.

6 parts lemon balm
4 parts chamomile
4 parts roses
3 parts calendula
3 parts comfrey leaf
1 part lemon peel
1 part rosemary
1 part sage
Vinegar to cover (apple cider or wine vinegar)
Rose water or witch hazel extract
Essential oil of lavender or rose (optional)

Place the herbs in a widemouthed jar. Fill the jar with enough vinegar so that it rises an inch or two above the herb mixture. Cover tightly and let it sit in a warm spot for 2 to 3 weeks. Strain out the herbs. To each cup of herbal vinegar, add 2/3 to 1 cup of rose water or witch hazel. Add a drop or two of essential oil, if desired. Rebottle. This product does not need to be refrigerated and will keep indefinitely.

My own version of this depended on my ability to find the ingredients fresh and free.  I wanted to use only plants that I either grew myself or picked from nature myself.

So my version is here:  I put in the fresh herbs in this order.  I did cheat a bit and used dried lavender from the store since I had just killed my plant (with kindness, you understand).  I didn't measure the amounts, but I guess there was more roses and calendula than the others.

Roses
Calendula
Comfrey
Yarrow
May Seaweed (our local Chamomile)
Sage
Lavender
Mint
Calendula
Roses

These were stuffed into a large jar (it looked really pretty) and I poured 300 ml. of white vine vinegar and 300 ml. apple vinegars.  This sat in a jar for quite a few weeks until I strained it.  I then diluted it, like instructed, with Witch hazel and Rosewater.

The resulting toner smells of vinegar and herbs.  I don't mind the smell at all.  I've gotten very used to the smell of vinegar, since I use it a lot in cleaning.  The toner really works well for me.  I use it to wipe away my makeup and it does a great job of it.  I then use some infused oil, I love the green Achillea millefolium oil and also the Rose oil that I infused this summer.  It makes for a rather shiny face at night, but also very soft skin.  I also use the oils under my makeup in the mornings.

I had planned elaborate Christmas presents for the women of the family with this toner and face oil (in a serum type bottle), some face cream maybe and a lovely soap, sugar scrub, bath bomb and body bar - all in delicious scent blends, but you know how it is.  Maybe next year I'll start early enough.

Liquid gold - Dandelion honey

Those dandelions are everywhere and I've had a nagging thought that last year I wanted to make something from them, but was too late to collect the flowers.  And couldn't remember what it was.  That happens to me a lot and it's got nothing to do with age.  It's just the way I am.  Feeling rather frustrated that I hadn't written anything down, I kept scouting for the best places to pick the flowers and pray for some sun so that I could pick them fully open.  The weather this spring has been really dismal, but things are looking up.  We saw double digits yesterday - 13C.  This is what I've been reduced to. By now I'm grateful if the temperature climbs above 10C (that's about 50F) and ecstatic if the sun peeps from behind a cloud.

Then it came to me.  Dandelion honey!  I read about it somewhere (didn't write it down) and I knew that I had to try that.  It just sounded so jummy to me.  The only trouble was that I imagined that it would require so many flowers that it would take forever to collect them.  But when I was collecting the flowers to make a dye from them the other day I knew that it takes no time at all.  And it's pleasurable, too.

I had to look for a recipe again, since I hadn't written anything down.  Always write things down.  I know this.  But I still don't!  Thankfully, I found this really good recipe with step by step photos on a German blog: Heilkraeuter.  The recipe is very easy, but it takes some time to make mostly because it needs to simmer for a long while.

Dandelion honey

3 handfuls of Dandelion flowers
1 liter water / That's just over a quart
1 kilo sugar / 35 oz sugar
Juice and rind of 1 lemon (the original recipe give 1/2, but I like lemons so I used it all)

Wash the flowers quickly and gently in cold water.  Pour the water over the flowers and let it stand for about 2 hours (or longer, it's no biggie).  Bring to boil and then turn of the heat and let cool slowly overnight.
Sieve the flowers from the water and discard (or even better, put on the compost heap).  In a saucepan, pour the sugar into the flower water and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat to a simmer and simmer until it reaches a syrup stage (110 C / 230 F).  This took me 3 hours, but the time may vary depending on the temperature.  Pour into sterilized jars.
Use the syrup as you would use honey.

I made another batch that I heated a little less, maybe slightly over 100C / 210F, to make a more runny honey.  The first one can be used as a spread on bread, the second is better for my yoghurt.

It tastes remarkably like honey, sweet and flowery with a hint of lemon.  And it's vegan.

This German recipe uses the flowers whole, with the green sepals.  I have seen some recipes that say you should only use the yellow petals and therefore you need to spend a lot of time pulling away all the green stuff, because it is bitter.  This isn't true.  I tasted it and I have also tasted both batches that I made and they are very far from bitter.  The sepals taste nothing like the leaves.  So I wouldn't recommend that anyone wastes time on that.  But have a go at making the honey, it's really good.
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Orange dog soap

The old books were used as props for the wedding. They were
stacked here and there in the house. We got them for free at the
Good S. Those fall colours we had this year were fantastic.

I thought I would do an orange soap to keep Jennifer at Jenora soaps company. One of the reasons is that I saw unrefined Palm oil in an asian food store the other day and I just had to have it. I have never used Palm oil because it isn't sold here. I know that there is a lot of controversy surrounding Palm oil and I respect that. But I wouldn't be human if I didn't succumb to trying out a new oil!

I decided for some reason that this would be a good dog soap and that it should go into a tube. I had intended to cut it into long half rounds since I thought that would be a good shape to fit nicely into the palm as I wash the dogs. I did cut a few that way, but some I cut smaller. I have no idea why, but ever since I have been thinking of trying to do a landscape, using this as a setting sun. That would be very patriotic.

The soap is without scent, but with some herbal oils because Bichons have a tendency to have skin problems and I thought it would be nice for my bitches to have nice skin conditioning ingredients.

Recipe:

Coconut oil               25% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Palm oil                     25% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Olive oil                    25% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Soybean oil               20% 100 g / 3.5 oz
Castor oil                     5%   25 g / 3.5 oz

Water                        38%  190g / 6.8 oz
Lye                                       71g / 2.5 oz

In addition to this I added 1 tsp. of Comfrey infused oil and 1 tsp. of Yarrow infused oil, both infused in olive oil. So the SF is a bit more than the 5% that the recipe reports.

But the soap traced very, very fast and I had quite a time getting it into the tube. I was therefore a bit surprised that the soap was quite soft when I took it out of the mould. The colour is a very strong orange-yellow. It is a little bit too saturated for my taste.  The colour is not dissimilar to the Sea Buckthorn soaps that I did some time ago but it is more orange, so not a bad try for an orange soap.  But maybe I'll try to use more socially acceptable colourants next time.
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My Incredibly Green Cream

I had dried herbs hanging all over the house in the autumn
and I am always looking out for suitable containers for dried
herbs, face creams, body lotions, lip balms and toners.

I have been making face creams for almost two years now. I really like that and I use no commercially made creams anymore.  In fact, my cousin and I were talking and she was telling me how someone had given her a sample of a well known brand of face cream and she almost threw up because it smelled so artificial.  I so agree.  All those famous brand creams now are about as appealing to me as nuclear waste.

The creams I make are usually made with beeswax as an emulsifier.  That makes a thick, very creamy and slightly oily cream that is very good for the night.  It is concentrated and a little goes a long way.  I tend to slather on lots and lots, probably I use too much, and I really shine in bed at night.  But I have been searching for a lighter emulsifier as an option for daytime.  I ordered some vegetable emulsifier and it came with an ingredients label that said: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate!  That is very irritating to the skin and it is one of the ingredients that I want to avoid.  So I haven't used it at all.

I was really please to read Texia's (at Sanga natural) post about homemade emulsifiers.  She did two recipes and I have made them both and already used one in a cream.  I have a lot of dried herbs and herbs macerated in oil and I figured that I should use all my herbal oils for something.  So I decided to make an incredibly green cream.

The Incredibly Green Cream:

Oil phase - 70g of macerated oils: 20 g. each yarrow (Achillea) oil, chickweed (Stellaria) oil and Calendua oil.  10 g. mock orange (Philadelphus) oil.  And additionally almost 1 tsp. Njóli (Rumex) oil.
Into the oil I added a pinch and a dash of AHA and A retinol.  I don't have a scale that measures accurately in small increments so I eyeball the small stuff.

Water phase - 120 g. herbal tea: I made tea with the following herbs: Yarrow (Achillea), chickweed (Stellaria), shepherd's purse (Capsella), Comfrey and Viola.  I let this steep for about an hour and then I added a bit of licorice extract and niacin as well as the preservative Natrium benzoat.

Making cream is just like making soap, minus the lye.  I warm the ingredients in bain marie and then pour the water phase into the oil while whisking with a stick blender.
I forgot to write how much emulsifier I used, but I think it was somewhere between 10 and 20 g. and I put it into the water phase.

I like the cream very much, so thank you Texia.  I've been using it for about 2 weeks now, both morning and night.  It absorbs well so that my husband's goodnight kiss doesn't slide right off.  It is chock full of goodies for the skin and smells a bit green and I am pretty sure that it has taken twenty years of my appearance already.
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Calendula soap - Triple luxury

That improvised soap mold worked beautifully and I could
easily use it to practice swirls. The heart shaped evening bag
is pretty and the ornate hairband is a little over the top.

Now I know that it's fall again.  My cousin and I just started to make soaps together again after taking the summer off for the most part even though I have made a few soaps on my own.  I can't not do it.  I guess it's an obsession of sorts, or it's just too much fun to not do it.  And there always seem to be some really fund things to try out.

But our joint soap making sessions are ususally fun.  We always manage to agree on what to do and this time she wanted to make calendula soap with her homemade Calendula oil and my dried Calendula petals and her dried flowerheads.  We ended up making it in a tray mold that I had picked up at "The Good Shepherd" a thrift shop charity where I spend all my spare cash.  It isn't really a soap mold, that much I know, but I can't imagine what else it could be used for.  I frequently get asked by the staff at the till: "What is that you are buying?" and very often the answer is: "I have absolutely no idea".  I usually figure it out or find some use for the stuff myself at some point.  But back to soaps.

Very pretty and very nice soap for delicate skin.

We intended to make just one recipe and since we wanted it a bit yellow we used carrot juice and we also hoped that the infused Calendual oil would contribute a bit of colour.  But as it turned out we made a 3 layer soap because the mold required at least 3 pounds of soap and we just made a regular size batch the first time.  So we made the other two a bit different, just for fun.  We could have made swirls, but didn't since she wanted to put dried flowers on top and I have to admit that that looks very nice.

I was asked for cut pictures and here they are, the little hacked up darlings.  It did surprise me that the dried calendula petals came through with their colour so orange, but I don't know if that will last.  We used no fragrance.  Two reasons for that.  I placed an order from a UK company at the beginning of June and am still waiting for it!  This might turn into a separate post about fraud pretty soon.  I've called and emailed... But... later.  Anyway, in the absence of the EO's that we should have received a looong time ago we thought we would make this unscented and therefore suitable for people with allergies and sensitivity to fragrance.

The recipes are:

Layer 1:
Olive oil            56%        420 g / 14.8 oz
Coconut oil       28%        210 g / 7.4 oz
Cocoa butter       6.3%       70 g / 2.5 oz
Sunflower oil      5%          50 g / 1.8 oz (Calendula officinalis infused)

Carrot juice         38%       285g / 10 oz
Lye                                    103g / 3.6 oz
8% SF.

The infused oil was added at trace as well as a generous amount of dried Calendula petals.  This layer turned out to be a slightly yellowish tan colour.

The next layer is almost the same except we added unrefined palm oil which I found in an Asian store and couldn't resist trying even if there are all kinds of ethical issues.  So layer one has different percentages, but mostly the same numbers are layer 1.

Layer 2:
Olive oil                   52.5%      420 g / 14.8 oz

Coconut oil              26.3%      210 g / 7.4 oz

Cocoa butter               8.75%       70 g / 2.5 oz

Sunflower oil              6.25%       50 g / 1.8 oz (Calendula officinalis infused)

Unrefined Palm oil     6.25%       50 g / 1.8 oz 

Water        38%       304g / 10.7 oz

Lye                         109g / 3.9 oz

8% SF.

To this we also added dried calendula petals and the infused oil went in at trace.  This layer turned out a very pretty yellow.

The third layer was the same as the first except we used water instead of carrot juice.  That layer is quite white and is a perfect backdrop for the dried flower heads we pushed in on top for decoration.

Cutting the soap turned out to be a bit of a challenge.  I hadn't really thought about how I would do that since the mould is larger than any knife I have.  I guess I need to make a wire cutter if I use that mould again.  I had thought that we would end up with 3x4 soaps out of the mould, but when I had cut (hacked?) them up they were way too big so I cut them in half again.  And they look kind of cute, if a bit crooked.
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Mock orange / Philadephus coronarius - oil infusion

My mother gave me that colander and I use it for all sorts of
things. It's perfect to separate the stamens from the petals.

I have two Philadelphus bushes in my garden.  They are on either side so when I walk into the garden when they are in bloom, the air is filled with this magical fragrance that is so different from any other.  To me it is like the scent of oxygen, if it had any.  Just so refreshing and light and a hint of vanilla.  I have often thought about trying to capture the fragrance somehow and the scent is so unusual.  So this year I decided to collect the flowers and pour oil over them to see what happened.  I have done this with roses and viola, but one of the dogs got into that jar and licked it up!

It is time consuming to collect enough quantity, but I was in the company of eager bees and it was nice and sunny.  The bushes were absolutely covered in flowers so they still looked pretty after I had raided them.  I then tried to isolate the petals from the stamens (the things in the middle of the flowers) and was successful using the old Swedish colander that my mum gave me and shaking it.  Then I put the petals in a jar and poured oil over.  This I let sit for only 24 hours during which I try to poke the petals into the oil.  They tend to float up.  I find that longer time does not work well with Philadelphus petals, they wilt quickly and start to look bad.  When that happens there is no fragrance left in them.  So I strain them out and let the oil sit for a bit.  There are always some impurities and bits that gather at the bottom.  These are water based and and heavier than the oil so they sink to the bottom.  When the oil looks completely clear I pour it into another container.  A turkey baster also works well.

I managed to make two infusions, one with Apricot kernel oil and one with almond oil.  I infused the first 3 times and the second 2 times.  The fragrance that was left in the oil smelled surprisingly of pinapple to me.  It's not the same as the fresh scent of the flowers, especially when I sniff the oil directly.  But when I put it on my skin it smells heavenly.  I intend to make this into a body lotion.  I know that this would never survive a lye bath.

I looked for medicinal uses for Mock orange and found some described for P. lewisii which is the American variety.  I haven't found anything about it's European cousin, P. coronaria, and don't know if they are similar in this respect or not.  But the American mock orange is described as used by native Americans as anti-hemorrhoidal and anti-rheumatic, used as a poultice or in oil.  Apparently the leaves are very high in saponins and can therefore be used instead of soap.  I found that a bit amusing.
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Raspberry/Rubus idaeus - Leaves and berries

They may be a bit smaller that store bought, but what taste.
Our dinnerware is Maria from Rosenthal designed in 1916.
I fell in love with the glass bowls. We use it every day.

I have to admit to feeling a little bit greedy these last few days.  And I am suitably ashamed, as I should be.   The greed has to do with harvesting from nature.  I just have a feeling that I'm missing out and not picking enough and winter will be here soon.

I have completely neglected to pick Birch leaves, and there are so many trees here that I felt I could pick them whenever.  They weren't exotic enough to begin with, but now I want them and I want a lot.  They are good in tea as a diuretic, although I don't really need that as such.  I just want to have a large jar of it.  And then there are the plants that I should have picked in their prime in early summer that are now past their best.  So I am too late.  Oh, horror of all horrors!  I actually have to wait until next spring.  And I am not particularly good at waiting.

But I did find something new the other day and I'm ecstatic.  I found Raspberry bushes growing by the big river that runs through the city.  They are quite close to my allotment garden and seem to have been planted in the 50's or 60's.  They have spread quite a bit in those decades as they are a bit rampant and not something that is suitable to my small garden.  After I found them I visited again, this time with a basket and picked some raspberries.  The berries are almost too ripe, but I managed to get a bowlful.  And they were so good.  I have been eating them with ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.  Very, very healthy.

But I did more than that.  I picked Raspberry leaves.  They have medicinal qualities as so many plants have.  They are particularly good for pregnant women and during childbirth.  the leaves supposedly tone the uterus and pelvic muscles.  But they can also be used for PMS, bedwetting, sore throat, burns and mouth ulcers.  I just love the list of things that each plant can manage to treat.  But one thing is for certain, they contain vitamins C, E, A and some b (niacin), calcium, magnesium, manganese, selenium and iron.  Who needs pills?

But I also was given some rooted shoots and have planted them in my allotment.  The allotment community is planning to plant berry bushes all around the area and that way we should all get our share of berries, Red currants, Black currants and now Raspberries.  I can't wait for next summer and this one is hardly over yet.
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Shaving soap - for my barber friend

I love the old fashioned look that this colour gives. The razor
and the leather strop came in a cabinet that I bought that
had a small sink and a mirror perfect for bachelors to shave.

This one had better be good.  I wrote about my encounter with the barber before last Christmas a few posts ago.  I guess that one of the reasons that I never went back to him with a shaving soap that he could try is because I wasn't really sure that it was any good.  But that would of course be the whole point of having him try it.  To tell me if it was any good.

So I decided to make another shaving soap and this time I thought a lot about the ingredients.  The first one I basically did a soap recipe and added some clay to it.  It was pretty early in my soap making days and I just thought it was cool that adding clay would make the soap into shaving soap.  And, don't get me wrong,  it was a fine shaving soap, but I always thought I could improve it.  So I sat down and thought long and hard and this is what I came up with:

I need good lather, not because that's so important for a good shave, but because most men think it is.  So this one will be with a good percentage of Coconut oil.  To make up for the rather drying qualities of the Coconut oil I have to have some Olive oil because that is really conditioning and and it makes the lather stable.  The same goes for lard, which I included because it's macho... well... and conditioning and makes a good stable lather as well.  And of course I also had to include Castor oil which has such nice lather and conditioning, but makes a soft soap.  So I added some Cocoa Butter for it's moisturizing and hardening.  So that was all my oils.  Except I thought that Njóli oil (Rumex) would be very good in a shaving soap since it is so good for skin disorder and some men experience a rash from shaving.   So that added a bit of Sunflower oil as I had infused the Rumex root in that.  And for the water I did a tea from Shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris).  And then I added the clay.

I made the soap in the traditional way and I had intended to use 15 g. of Njóli oil, but as I was pouring it into the soap at trace I kind of lost control and ended up with a lot more than that.  Luckily I had placed the bowl on the scale so I just adjusted the recipe.  This means that I will be making another soap with 15 g of the oil because I need to see what the colour will look like.  I was a bit concerned that the soap would look too pink and that wouldn't be macho enough, but then I thought that maybe the green colour of the weed tea should make it a bit more brown.  I'll have to see what my barber friend says about the colour, but here is the recipe (always run it through a calculator, the oz. are approx.):

Coconut oil       33% 175 g / 6.2 oz
Olive oil            24% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Lard                   23% 120 g / 4.2 oz
Castor oil         9%      50 g / 1.8 oz
Sunflower oil    5%    26 g /  0.9 oz  (Rumex longifolius infused)
Cocoa butter      5%     5 g / 0.8 oz
Bentonite clay    1.5 tbs


Shepherds purse tea         38%  208g / 7.4 oz
Lye                                                     75g / 2.6 oz
6% SF.

I poured this into a tube and used silicone baking sheets to make sure I could get it out again.  That worked really well, except that I got a "seam" along the soap tube.  But I got it out really easily.

Now, I don't think I should be the judge of how this turned out.  I will simply take this to my barber friend along with my first shaving soap (which I have in a very macho brown coffee cup) and see what he has to say about them.  I'll be posting the result.

Plants with purpose

I hang my kitchenalia from the upper cabinets. I tend to
favour hanging things up to any other method of storage.
I also dry small bunches of herbs that way. This is Comfrey.

When I was little my parents would take us out to the country for day tours.  Since they didn't own a car, we would go with the local equivalence of a rambler organization.  Once off the bus, the others would walk briskly and look up at the mountains.  We walked slowly and with our noses practically in the ground because we were looking for plants.  My parents were both biologists and both specialized in plants.  So they taught us their names and my father and I collected whole plants that we dried and labeled, just like real professionals.

I have ever since been able to name some plants without even thinking about it.  Their names would just pop into my head when I looked at them.  However I recently noticed that I wasn't been able to put a name to many plants anymore, so this summer I took out my books about local plants and started to read them.  My incentive was mostly from wanting to use the plants in creams and soaps.  Partly for their benefits and partly for their colour, but I have found that I have really enjoyed this refresher in botany.  I can now name practically all the plants that I encounter in the woods where I walk the dogs.  If I come accross one that I don't know I take home a sample and look it up.  It might just be a fantastic medicinal plant.  The result of this has been plant collection en masse.

It started innocently enough last year with drying a few sprigs of Mint and infusing some in oil.  I also made infused Rose hip oil.  And this summer I was given a Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) plant and gathered the leaves and of course then I started digging up the roots of Njóli (Rumex longifolius) for soap colour.  Soon after I picked rose petals to make rose oil.  Very soon thereafter I realized that Chickweed (Stellaria media) and Shepherds purse (Capsella bursa pastoris), both of which grew profusely in the allotment garden, were very good medicinal plants, so I collected a few to infuse in oil.  Then some more to dry.  And then there was the local Chamomile.  And by this time my mind had recollected most of the plant names and I just kept seeing these amazing plants everywhere around me.  And then I just went wild.

The plants that grow practically on my doorstep, most of which I have started to collect include:

• Achillea millefolium - Vallhumall / Yarrow:  One of the best medical plants.  Used to treat colds and fevers, skin disorders and to stop bleeding.  Arial parts; stems, leaves and flowers are collected.  I have this dried and in oil but need more of it so I am still collecting it on my walks.
• Alchemilla alpine - Ljónslappi / Alpine Lady's mantle:  Long history of using this herb for a variety of ailments, but all the Alchemillas have a reputation as women's herbs.  Can be used in skin creams for cuts and wounds and internally for menstrual problems and symptoms of menopause.  I have been collecting the leaves and flowers of this plant which grows profusely where I walk in the woods close to home.  
• Alchemilla mollis - Maríustakkur / Lady's mantle:  Same as above.  This one grows everywhere and I have bunches of it hanging in the shed.
• Arctostaphylos uva ursi - Sortulyng / Bearberry:  Great value in diseases of the urinary tract, it soothes, strengthens and tightens irritated and inflamed tissues.  However this should only be taken for a week at a time and not more than five times a year.  I have just started to collect small amounts of this.  
• Calluna vulgaris - Beitilyng / Heather: Used for urinary tract infections and to drive out kidney stones, it is diuretic as well as cough suppressant.  In ointment it is good to rub on  affected joints.  This has been used in dyeing cloth and yarn, but produces an uninteresting tan/grey.  The flowering stems are collected and dried.  This is in flower now and I am collecting and drying some. 
• Caltha palustris - Hófsóley / Marsh marigold:   It has been used locally as a painkiller and anti spasmodic as well as a expectorant cough medicine.  Young leaves are best used and either dried or boiled.  Older leaves may contain toxins.  It should always be either dried or boiled as otherwise it may irritate.  I have this growing by the pond in the garden, but haven't harvested it yet.  It will probably wait till next year.
• Capsella bursa-pastoris - Hjartaarfi / Shepherd purse:  Good for cystitis and is styptic.  Arial parts collected all year long.  I have some of this dried and used it in my latest shaving soap, but again I need some more.  The allotment is a good place to collect this one.
• Elymus repens - Húsapuntur / Couch grass:  This is excellent for the urinary system and kidneys.  It is good to treat cystitis, painful urination and is even good for an enlarged prostate.  It is the root that is collected, preferably in spring or autumn.  I have collected a fair amount of this invasive weed and plan to collect more later in the year when it should be even more potent.
• Epilobium (syn. Chamaenerion) angustifolium - Sigurskúfur / Rose bay:  Externally it is healing.  Internally it is good for stomach complaints.  The leaves and flowers are used.  I picked bouquets of these pretty flowers and leaves and have them drying in the shed.  
• Equisetum arvense - Klóelfting / Horsetail:  This strange and ancient plant is very diuretic.  It contains silica which helps to fix calcium so it strengthens bones and ligaments and is very good for hair, skin and nails.  There is some talk of it improving memory and concentration similar to Ginko biloba.  This is best harvested when young.  I haven't harvested this yet although it grows absolutely everywhere.  Next year.
• Fillipendula ulmaria - Mjaðurt / Meadowsweet:  Good for heartburn and arthritis.  Leaves and flowers are collected in summer.  I have a gallon jar of this herb dried.  
• Galium boreale - Krossmaðra / Northern bedstraw:  Apparently this was used to stuff mattresses, but it's main uses are similar to it's yellow cousin.  I have a fairly large jar of this herb dried.
• Galium verum - Gulmaðra / Lady's bedstraw:  Good for eczema and psoriasis and in an ointment for cramped ligaments.  The whole plant can be used, mostly leaves and flowers.  The chopped up plant can be used as a rennet in cheese making.  The plant is related to Madder and it's roots and stems can be used to get a red dye and the flower tops yield a yellow dye.  I haven't used it as such, but I would love to try that.  I have large jar of this dried.
• Matricaria maritima - Baldursbrá / Sea mayweed:  Anti inflammatory.  Flower heads are collected and dried, the good stuff is in the yellow part.  I have a gallon jar of it dried .
• Menyanthes trifoliata - Horblaðka / Bogbean:  This is an arthritis medicine, both for osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis and it grows in my pond.  The leaves and flowers are best dried and gathered in early summer.  It haven't used this one yet, so it may have to wait until next year.
• Rumex longifolius - Njóli / Northern dock:  This weed is great to make soap pink, but it is also very good for skin disorders such as eczema, psoriasis and itchy skin.  I have it infused in oil and some dried, but plan to dig for more roots later, in autumn for more potency.
• Stellaria media - Haugarfi / Chickweed:  Good for cooling the skin and relieving itching, eczema, varicose veins.  Arial parts are collected in summer and dried.  It is excellent to pick fresh and toss in a salad as well.  I have it infused in oil and some dried.
• Symphytum officinale - Valurt / Comfrey:  The most fantastic plant.  It's a terrible weed, but it has been used for ages to heal broken bones, wounds and skin ailments.  There are some concerns about toxic alkaloids, but many people still take this as a tea.  I'll just use it in creams since it's quite safe that way.
• Trifolium pratense - Rauðsmári / Red clover:  Traditionally used to treat skin complaints and is considered good for symptoms of menopause.  It also has a folkloric reputation as a cancer cure, specifically breast cancer, but no conclusive research exists.  Mostly the flowers are used either internally or externally.  Apparently the flowers give a reasonable yellow dye colour.  I have two gallon jars of this pretty thing and will probably consume it myself as well as put it into creams.  
• Tussilago farfara - Hóffífill / Coltsfoot:  Tussilago means cough suppressant so it comes as no surprise that this the best cough medicine.  It has been used for asthma, emphysema and smoker's cough.  It flowers very early and the flowers appear before the leaves and they along with young leaves are used.  Some concerns about toxic alkaloids in this plant, so best taken in moderate quantities and for a short time.  I have made a tea from this but I need to collect more of it if I find yung leaves.  Otherwise it will have to wait until next year.
• Urtica dioeca - Brenninetla / Nettle:  This is one of those miracle plants and is often taken as a tonic.  It is also eaten in soups.  It's really good for asthma and allergies and as a hair tonic.  The leaves provide a good green colour.  I have a small plant, but haven't been able to collect it yet.  It should be collected in May and June, before flowering.  This one is definitely for next year.
• Valeriana officinalis - Garðabrúða / Valerian:  Natures valium, this one.  It is calming and aids in sleeping.  The root is used and it is most potent fresh apparently.  It should be collected in spring or autumn like all roots since they are most potent when the top growth is dormant.  I am waiting for autumn to dig this up in a garden were the owners want to get rid of it.
• Viburnum opulus - Úlfarunni / Cramp bark:  Long history of using the bark to treat period pain and even to prevent miscarriage since it is a smooth muscle antispasmodic.  I have two shrubs growing in my garden and they are getting a good pruning this autumn and I'm going to harvest the bark from the branches to dry it. 

My own private paradise. This woodland is a 2 minute walk
from my house. There I can find most of the plants I write
about here. The rest I find around the allotment garden.

Looking at this list I am amazed at the variety of beneficial plants I am able to harvest from my immediate neighborhood.  And I left out Dandelion, Viola, Calendula and a few more.  You'd think I was living way out in the country, but I live in a very urban area.  I guess it is just a question of opening ones eyes to the possibilities that are around.

I am still learning about all the plants so that I can use them with confidence to treat minor ailments in the family.  I bought a thingy (on a whim on the internet) to stuff capsules and some capsules to stuff.  It works pretty well although I think my vintage glass turkey baster works best for getting the herb powder into the bigger capsules.  I think it makes sense to ingest the herbs that way.  Even if I have read about making tinctures and decoctions, it just sounds as a bit of a bother, although quite a bit more romantic.

But in the end I'm really thrilled with this abundance of goodies from nature and will now officially stop envying inhabitants of warmer climates for their plants. 

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Shaving soap

I made shaving sope for the first time quite some time ago.  I was really excited by shaving soaps when I first read about them.   The way I understood it, shaving soap is basically soap with the addition of some clay.  The clay improves the slip.  Slip, apparently, has to do with the way the blade glides over the skin.  So I made shaving soap and started to use it.  It was nice enough, but I have to admit that I use all my soaps as shaving soaps and I don't really notice much of a difference between them.  Even the salt soap works really well!  So I've been thinking that I should reformulate my shaving soap and see if I can come up with something fantastic.

One of the reasons is that I went into a barber's shop just before last Christmas to buy an old fashioned razor for my son in law.  The barber specializes in quality shaves and sells all the paraphernalia.  He showed me his collection of old shaving things and we chatted quite a bit and I told him that I had made shaving soap.  After I had made my purchase, left the store and was about to step into the car, the barber came out of the shop and said that he would be interested in trying my shaving soap.  He warned me that he would be ruthlessly honest in telling me if it was any good.   And I told him that I would love that and he said he was interested in selling locally made shaving soap, provided it gave a good shave.  Since I'm no expert I was really happy about that and told him that I would get some shaving soap to him.  But I never got round to it.

The shaving soap that I made was pretty basic and there are many ways to make it more special.  I guess that is one of the reasons that I haven't seen my barber friend again.  I always intended to do another batch and add more clay and even some extra special oils.  So I think now is the right time to make some new shaving soaps.  Some time ago I did order more types of clay, admittedly in small quantities, but it doesn't take much.

I have been thinking that I could use some Jojoba or Castor oil and some infused oils like Calendula and even Shepherds purse, Capsella bursa-pastoralis.  It is one of the much overlooked weeds that have amazing qualities.  It is an astringent and antiseptic plant that is well known to treat urinary tract infections and stop bleeding, internally and externally.  It is the styptic qualities that I find interesting in a shaving soap.  I think it is best used as a tea for the water phase.  I might also include some yellow dock for it's skin benefits.

I had intended to post my original shaving soap recipe here, but I have looked everywhere for it and I just can't find it.  Another recipe that I thought I would remember for sure!
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Honeysuckle honey - For sore throats

Honeysuckle  has the most wonderful fragrance and it's such a shame that there is no way to make an essential oil from it.  I have 3 different varieties of it growing in my garden, Lonicera periclymenum Serotina, a yellow early flowering one, L. periclymenum Belgica, a pink and later flowering and Lonicaera caprifolium a yellow that flowers in between the others.  But I absolutely love all their scent and I frequently cut off branches with flowers to put into bouquets to bring the scent into the house.

Honeysuckle had been used as a medicinal plants, both in Europe and China for centuries as a remedy for fever, inflammation and infection.  The Chinese variety L. japonica is more likely to be used medicinally than the European varieties which are not as potent and apparently Honeysuckle isn't much used in modern Western herbalism.  But all the plants contains salicylic acid which is basically what is in aspirin so it can be used for pain and it has some benefits for irritated skin.

Different parts of the plant have a different effect.   The dried branches have been described as a remedy for arthritis, the bark is diuretic, the leaves are astringent and can be used as a gargle for sore throat and canker sores.  The flowers are antispasmodic and have been used to treat both cough and asthma.

Wonderful!  So I picked a jarful of honeysuckle flowers and poured honey over it to cover.  It is important to cover the flowers completely or they may go moldy.  This needs to be stirred every day especially at the beginning when the flowers will rise to the top because of air among them.  Or much simpler, the jar can simply be turned over every day.  After a few times the honey will have replaced the air.  If needed, add some more honey to cover.  The honey is infused for about 4 weeks and then the flowers are strained from the honey.  It may be better to warm the honey a bit to do that.  But when that is done the honey is a wonderful soothing remedy for sore throats this winter.
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Pink shampoo bar - Yellow dock for itchy and flaky scalp

I really like the colour that Yellow Dock - Rumex crispus gives to soaps and I liked the dark raspberry colour of the soap that I recently made.  However I knew that I would want to use a bit less in another soap to see what type of light pink I would get.  I don't really use Yellow Dock, it doesn't grow here, but rather a local plant that is closely related to it, commonly called Njóli here,  but Northern Dock in English.

The benefits of the root of this plant has been known for centuries and it just seemed logical to me to make a soap that might carry some of the benefits.  As Yellow Dock (and Njóli) are known to be very good for skin troubles like eczema, psoriasis and itchy skin I thought it could make a great shampoo bar for people with dry scalp AND it would look pretty as a pink bar.  Since I wanted to get as many of the benefits of the herb as possible, I decided to use the infused oil at trace.  There is always some discussion going on about weather the benefits of the ingredients survive the lye and some say that the stuff that is added at trace is more likely to be the oils that are left over as superfat in the soap.  Well I can't say for sure, but I figured it was worth the try.

I made a shampoo recipe that has less castor oil than my previous shampoo bars.  I didn't have any olive oil so I used Sunflower oil which I like.  It's rather neutral in my mind.  To give the shampoo bar hardness I added some Cocoa Butter.  The resulting soap seems to have an acceptable hardness and still be quite moisturizing.

The recipe is for 500 g. of oils / 17.6 oz (the oz are approximate):

Sunflower oil    50% 250g / 8.8 oz
Coconut oil       25% 210g / 4.4 oz
Castor oil          13%  65g / 2.3 oz
Cocoa butter     10%  50g / 1.8 oz

Water 38% 190g / 6.7 oz
Lye 70g / 2.5 oz

5% SF.

Rumex infused olive oil     2%  10g / 0.4 oz.  Added at trace

I added the infused oil at trace and the soap turned a beige colour, although it really looked like it desperately wanted to be pink.  I was rather disappointed, but since I had used half the amount that I used before I kind of wasn't surprised.  But the next morning I looked at this lovely soft pink colour!  It resembles the other Rumex soap in that the center is a bit more yellow in colour so I might put them in the freezer next to stop gelling.  But I am very happy with the colour.  Now I just need to make a third soap with 15 g. of the infused oil and see what that looks like.

I can't wait to try this shampoo in a few weeks.  It should be good for hair that isn't particularly dry and hopefully the nice qualities of Rumex will sooth a dry, flaky and itchy scalp.
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Local herbs - Chamomile substitute - Matricaria maritima, Sea Mayweed

I have a tendency to look towards warmer countries and bitch and moan about the abundance of plants that grow on other peoples doorsteps.  Just look at Lavender and Rosemary and Thyme.  They grow like weeds in some countries and I'm jealous.  These can all be grown here, but only in the summer and even then, they are not likely to thrive.  Too wet and too cold.  (I have to say I agree.)

I have been interested in gardening for a long time and have mostly liked flowering plants, for their scent and beauty.  Part of the thrill of gardening is the challenge of growing delicate and difficult plants.  When that goes well, success is sweet.  But when one is growing plants to use them, either to eat or to use them in creams or soaps, then everything changes.  The most important thing becomes not to find something exotic, but to find varieties that grow well in this climate.  I now have a small allotment garden and along with the vegetables I grow a few medically beneficial plants.  I inherited some Mint from a German neighbor who also donated a Comfrey plant and gave me some beens to sow.  I have sown Calendula and violas.  Both are good for the skin, so I'm macerating their flower petals to use later.

But what I have realized is that there are so many plants here that grow like weeds (and actually are weeds) that are medicinal and quite wonderful plants.  And I haven't been using them.  The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?  One of those underutilized plants is the Sea Mayweed - Baldursbrá.  It grows everywhere and I remember that we used to pick it when I was little and take off the white petals and chant: "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves...."  But I digress.  What I hadn't realized is that this humble plant, which is a close relation to the Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), shares most of the benefits even if it lacks the smell.

I have just picked a bunch of them and they are now drying in the oven on very, very low heat.  I could actually smell a whiff of the essential oils when I opened the oven door.  So I lowered the heat to next to nothing.  I'm so thrilled to have made this discovery and I can't wait to use the dried flowers.  I'm now planning some trips to collect more and dry a bunch for use this winter.  Now is the perfect time, they are at their peak.

As far as I can tell from my research Matricaria maritima has a number of benefits.  Among a host of other things it is anti-inflammatory, anti-rheumatic, it is a mild muscle relaxant, anti-infective and what is most relevant for me: It is good for eczema and dry skin.  The only thing that is seems to lack, that the Chamomile has, is the well known calming and sedative properties.  So I won't try to use it as a late night tea, but I am going to use it instead of regular Chamomile in my Lemony shampoo bar for blondes and see if I notice a difference.  It might also make it's way into a face cream or even a body lotion, now that I have an abundant supply.

The photo: I just love the birdcage that I found. It's obviously homemade from scrap building materials. The colander was a present from my mother. It probably comes from Sweden.

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Flora and Fauna (To lard or not to lard...)

I am not a vegetarian, so I use animal products in some of my soaps, both milk and milk products, honey and fat.  I have no problem with that, seeing as I eat the animals without any moral dilemma.  Being an omnivore I think it makes sense to use as many parts of the animals we kill to eat as possible and I think it is great that I can easily get hold of lard fairly cheaply and easily.  It is already rendered, pure white and practically without any smell.  Lard has many really nice qualities in soap, it is pure white in colour, it gives hardness to the soaps, it gives a soft and long lasting lather and is conditioning for the skin.

I also tried to use sheep's fat.  Probably the most common animal fat here, but the fat that I could find had a bit too much meat smell for my liking.  Although I did make a laundry soap with it (and used it for the first time yesterday).  It still smells a bit, but it has cured to a nice hard laundry soap that seems to clean well. The blue Alkanet colour had completely vanished, replaced by a very, very slight pink tinge.  Rather disappointing, but it's just for laundry so it doesn't matter.

I have also made soap using milk and yoghurt.  The soap was really nice and creamy so I want to do some more experiments.  I use cows milk and milk products only.  Goats milk sounds very tempting to use, but we do not have many goat farmers and you can't buy the milk in stores.  Goats milk here is used almost solely for premature babies and I wouldn't dream of trying to take some away from them.  But I like the challenge of making soap with milk.  I freeze the milk products and try to dissolve the lye without burning the milk, but I usually get a tan colour from my soaps anyway.  As I understand it, the goal for many milk soapers is to get the soap to be as white as possible.  I may achieve that one day.

Honey in soap is another favorite and I have read that others are using a little bit of beeswax.   I have never tried that but think I might since I use that in the creams I make.  I have read that it makes soap harder, so that might be a good additive to the Sea Buckthorn soap that was a tad too soft.  Honey smells great and gives the characteristic honey colour to soaps and is supposed to be moisturizing.  I have suggested to my husband that we get a beehive, but his enthusiasm was underwhelming, to say the least.  So we are not doing that.

The strangest animal products that I have used (or rather am contemplating using) is eggshell.  I read about it's use in a book and I thought "What a great idea. Lets try that".  So now I'm waiting to try it.  I have amassed a large quanty of egg shells from baking for the wedding and I have pounded that in my mortel to make it into tiny pieces.  I will post the results as soon as I am done.

I really enjoy using local ingredients where I can.  I'm planning to head to the shore (somewhere far away from the city) to gather some seaweed and kelp.  I need to read up on those plants since I don't know them like I do land plants.  I have planted Comfrey in my allotment garden and have started to dry a few leaves.  I need to get a nettle to grow close to home too.  Just haven't figured out where to plant something like that.  Both are fantastic plants to have access to.  I did sow a lot of Calendula, but didn't have much luck with the seed.  Im hoping to get a few plants to flower and to macerate a few petals and use in soaps.

The garden is getting to it's best at the end of June and I'm getting a bit excited for the wedding on Saturday.  There is a lot to do.  The wedding ceremony is to be outdoors and the reception is at home and we are having 80 people over for coffee and cakes.  And then some 30 for dinner and about 40 for a party into the night.  The house really isn't all that large so it will be a bit crowded.  So I'm hoping and praying for nice weather so that the guests can sit outside too.  Right now the forecast is for a bit of drizzle, so please send you warmest sunniest thoughts :)  But I know that even if we need umbrellas it will be lovely.
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Pure and white, this is the best soap.  It sits on a flower pot that has a lovely rose pattern.  I have three of them and they hold some of my summer flowers.

Soap with teas and oil infusions

I like novelty and I guess one of the things that I like most about soap making is the endless possibilities to experiment.  I sometimes get almost an itch to make soap.  Most often late at night and usually I'll have had an idea that I need to test immediately.  One evening I was rummaging in the cupboards and came across my Celestial Seasoning teas.  They are made in Boulder, Colorado where I used to live, way back in the old days.  Wonderful place!  Tension Tamer and Sleepytime are favorites and I just had to try to use those in a soap recipe.  How lovely to sip the tea in the bathtub using a soap made with the same herbs, both as tea and infused oil.

This is what I made.  It turned out to be one of my "everything but the kitchensink" recipes.  The soaps are lovely, they retained the scent of the herbal tea in a very gentle way.  The colour is a yellow tone.

This is a small recipe, only 313 g / 11 oz.
The figures are a bit strange because I just sloshed this that and the other thing on the scale and wrote it down.  I use grams, the oz. come from the Soapcalc lye calculator.  I suggest to always double check all recipes by running it through a lye calculator.

33.5%  Coconut oil  -  105 g / 3.7 oz
32%  Almond oil  - 100 g / 3.5 oz
12%  Lard  -  38 g / 1.34 oz
8%   Sunflower oil  -  25 g / 0.9 oz
4.8%  Avocado   -  15 g / 0.5 oz
2%  Castor oil  -  10 g / 0.35 oz
2%  Jojoba wax  - 10 g / 0.35 oz
2%  Shea butter  - 10 g / 0.35 oz

45 g / 1.6 oz of lye.

For the water I used 4 tea bags in 110 g / 3.7 oz of water and infused it until cold.
I also cut up 4 tea bags and poured sunflower oil over it.  This I heated up gently over hot water and let it infuse for about an hour.

I have already made tea with the Sleepytime tea and the oil has been infusing at room temperature for a few weeks, so that one I need to make soon to see what difference there is.  Then there are all the other teas that I haven't tried.  I am determined to try a licorice tea and maybe Roobois and ...

The photo: Almond oil and avocado oils really are nice in soap. I use them in facial soaps and also in face creams. The glass thing was my grandmothers and I never knew what it was for when I was a child, but it is to hold flowers nicely arranged in a vase.

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Cetraria islandica - Iceland moss

It is fun to use all sorts of plants in soaps.  I love to make teas and infusions with herbs that I grow in the garden and I also love to pick some fresh plants from nature.  Foraging, I guess it is called.  To me it is wonderful that one is able to walk around and pick things for free.  I guess that for those who are brought up in countries where fruit grows on trees that is just very common, but here we don't have that.

I am always careful not to pick endangered species.  My parents were both biologists and both specialized in plants so I have been brought up with a healthy respect for nature.  We don't have such variety of wild plants as more southerly countries, but we have some really nice ones.   Alpines are of course right at home here, but I don't pick those since the habitat is really delicate and it is better to pick some of the plants that grow in lower altitudes, some of them weeds.  Nettle grows here in abundance.  Angelica too.  And we have a wonderfully fragrant variety of thyme that I would love to try and capture in oil.


All plants are not equal, though.  Some plants here are foreigners that have gotten quite out of control.  They are strong and robust plants that run over the more delicate local flora.  Good examples of these thugs are the Alaska lupin and Cow Parsley.  Pretty plants, but quite a nuisance in our nature.  These two I am picking in great quantities for my daughter's (fast approaching) wedding.  Two flies in one...  Flowers for free and preventing them setting more seed.

But this post was supposed to be about something local:  The Iceland moss.  This curious plant is really a lichen.  It was traditionally been used here to feed starving people (that was the general condition back in the old days) and it is supposed to do really good things for you when eaten.  It was used in cooking for soups and stuff, but also very commonly boiled in milk and drunk that way.  It is considered antibiotic and was used for coughs and tuberculosis among other things.  Topically it was used to treat boils!  But use it in soap and you have this really nice, abrasive scrub.

The recipe I used is very simple.  For something so natural and lovely I thought Olive oil is perfect and with a bit of Coconut. So the recipe turned out to be:

73% Dark Olive oil
27% Coconut oil.

The liquid (standard Soapcalc 38%) is Iceland moss tea and crumbled Iceland moss in the soap.  SF 5%.

The stuff on top is dried Iceland moss, but that isn't such a good idea because it is very brittle.  But it looked nice!

The photo: I was very happy to get my first real soap mold. It's small,but I don't make large batches. The trivet is a 1$ find. It looks worn, but I like shabby. I really like second hand stuff I love to think who owned it before me and why they let it go.

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