Posted by Lindsay Kluge on Monday, December 25, 2023
Wintering projects: infusing oils, macrame plant hangers, landscape designing, baking sweet loaves of all kinds and moving through a stacked-high pile of eager reads. Pine is one of my favorite plants to forage for oils and soaps, and the house is smelling like a Christmas eve dream this season…
If you’ve been eager to start learning more about herbs or furthering your studies, The Herbal Academy is returning their holiday sale on herbal courses with up to 25% off site-wide on all of their herbal courses (December 25-January 3). Each one is so unique and robust – I couldn’t recommend them enough. I’m diving into Botanical Drawing for Herbalists in January. “In this mini course, you will achieve the skills and confidence to accurately draw the plants that inspire your herbal studies. Not only will you learn to make personalized botanical illustrations, but you will also begin to see the plants more closely and render them with greater accuracy. As you’ll soon see, drawing is a miraculous study tool that can help you embed a plant’s characteristics in your memory—all while you enjoy a mood-boosting, meditative activity that nurtures your creativity.”. Winter is a beautiful time to really view plant architecture in it’s bare and hibernating form. Doing this course once in winter and again in summer will be such a fun project!
An end of spring ritual, harvesting whatever herbs are on hand for you this season and enjoying the floral flavors of a wild summers eve flower tea. I have chamomile and lavender growing in my garden, with yarrow and field mint speckled around the fields by my house. I love to harvest a few bits of each in the evenings and steep in warm water for 10-15 minutes. Calming chamomile and lavender are a sweet way to relax into the day, while strengthening yarrow replenishes my energetic reserves from the long days. A hint of mint opens my senses, and together it’s a beautiful seasonal combination grounding me into the joy of late spring. Summer’s eve is right around the corner now…
If you’d like to learn how to forage and identify the herbs around you throughout the seasons, sign up for the Foraging Course from the Herbal Academy! This course will will get you started foraging wild edibles and herbs safely, ethically, and sustainably.