Becoming a Hedgewitch: Part 2

Channeling my best Claire Fraser (see previous post and Outlander) I continued to tend my herbs through the summer of the first year and experimented with drying techniques. I couldn't get on with the dehydrator and managed to ruin a few stored herbs through mildew. Went back to the age old hanging and  air dry - although slow it was more thorough.

Lesson 3: the racks of the dehydrator are great as air drying racks for smaller herbs and flowers (and doesn't use electricity).




The fridge was starting to fill with small jars and metal tins of "stuff" (lip balm, salves and tinctures mostly)  so I started to get the word out there about my potions (you can still see a list of what is available here) I mainly used my facebook personal page and my Skip's Legacy page and I'm thankful to say that a  few friends made some orders which felt great. Setting up paypal etc was surprisngly easier than expected and over the next few months a decent amount went to animal charities.

Lesson 4:  Make sure that you have a good system of batch control to keep on eye on shelf life etc. A small book with a system of coloured dots seems to be working for me so far - until I run out of colours!

As the growing season slowly ended I made sure I had enough dried hebs to make up anything needed through the winter,

Lesson 5: At this stage I am still a little nervous of making anything that requires ingestion, preferring to stick to salves and balms that are externally applied - maybe soon I'll try a tincture. Myself, husband and a few friends became guinea pigs to ensure there were no nasty side effects of the things I was making - phew all was well and surprisngly effective :-)

It was time to gain a bit more space - kitchen drawers, cupboards and the conservatory were started to look a little like an apothecary, so, the "summer house" (shed!) was commandeered as my Herb Studio (still can't get used to not calling it the shed ;-)). Everything was transferred across and it now started to feel real. Really love this space and can pretend I know what I'm doing now as I have a dedicated space in which to do it.

 Using the winter to think about the spring planting and gathering I made lots of notes about what I could do ( then lost them). Read lots more books and  visited internet sites and the old faithful - Youtube. I decided not to grow too many in this next year, preferring to concentrate on things I knew worked ( Calendula, Comfrey and Lemon Balm mostly). Unfortunately I was still unsuccessful with St John's Wort (Hypericum) so resorted to buying a dried batch from an outlet I found in Borough Market (only the best!). This meant I was able to make a batch of HyperCal salve (Auntie Angela's magic potion- growing up my nephews and nieces were often given this for scrapes, grazes, stings and bites - it really works).

As spring approached I went out to gather some nettles from the local field and hedgerow. It's amazing how many you can spot when you look for them.

Lesson 6: You can look a little strange walking around the neighbourhood in rubber gloves and carrying a bag !

 These nettles were dried, frozen and I decided to have a go at  a tincture using vodka. This has turned ot well but I am unsure as to the sale of this as it is mostly alcohol! Need to check if I can sell or not.


I also started to look at what was around in the wilder areas of my suuroundings rather than just what I was growing in my garden. It was at this point I remembered another long standing interest that I have rarely followed up on - the Secret Language of Flowers. This has been around for many years and became particularly popular with the Victorians. I could now begin to use my own and wild grown things for more possibilities. This has meant I needed to learn more about flowers as well as herbs.





Lesson 7: still not a Hedgewitch - need to refer to books and the internet for too many things still, but becoming a little more aware and really enjoying the sense of achievement and the fact that my garden looks better than it has for years.

Lesson 8: I need to retire in order to fit it all in :-)