Gardening practices and medicine making at OHG
Plants are for everyone, no matter what your level of study or how much you “know” - there is an innate knowing of the natural world that lives inside you that no one else can touch. It’s up to each of us to tap into that knowing and allow it to flow through us.
A rattlesnake master growing amongst purple coneflowers in the front garden at OHG
Working with plants is a beautiful way of life - I love it because there are infinite ways to make any process work for you and your lifestyle. I love that this allows me room to experiment, make mistakes and find my way through trial and error. If something doesn’t work, I have now learned so much about what NOT to do next time. That is incredibly valuable information! You won’t find me beating myself up if something doesn’t turn out right or perfectly. It means I get a chance to try again with a new set of knowledge moving forward.
Don’t allow gatekeepers to intimidate you away from herbalism. You don’t have to be a capital H Herbalist to work with plants and plant medicine. All of that is to say that the way I do things at OHG may be different than the way another herbalist does it or the way you choose to do it. That is a beautiful thing! Let’s love on our differences, embrace them, learn from them, not take them personally. As you read, please take and use what resonates with you and feel free to leave the rest.
Evelyn’s feet amongst the violets, which grow absolutely everywhere at OHG
Gardening Practices
From the tiny seed started in the garden or in the greenhouse, to the harvest once the plant’s medicinal qualities are at their peak, all the way to the bottle after some kitchen magic, all of the herbs and items in the collection are grown, processed and made right here at Orchard Hill Gardens on the land we tend. I carefully source the items I cannot grow (organic olive and jojoba oil, shea butter, beeswax and honey), work to find sustainable sources for labels and packaging, and use recycled packaging whenever possible. While it is incumbent upon all of us to use our dollars wisely, I do believe businesses should carry a large portion of that burden when expecting people to buy their goods. I want everything to be sourced as carefully as possible so that when you spend your dollars here, you know you aren’t supporting wasteful methods or paying for me to spray harmful chemicals on the land.
Food scraps, leaves and grass clippings piled up for compost
OHG gardening practices involve lots of soil building, compost, and mulch. I have learned the very basics of some natural farming techniques and utilize them in the garden spaces, and have been amazed at the results. Mainly this is capturing and culturing indigenous microbes (IMO), creating lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to water into the garden, and making various plant and fruit ferments for soil drenches and foliar sprays as well. I have a long and exciting journey of learning ahead of me and feel I have only barely scratched the surface when it comes to natural farming techniques. I highly recommend giving Marco Thomas a follow on instagram and watching his highlighted stories if you’re interested in getting started in Korean Natural Farming (KNF). He explains things so well and is incredibly generous with his knowledge. I believe his work is so important - helping people see how simple and healthy systems can be without depending on chemical companies. Helping a whole ecosystem (whether it’s a yard or a set of potted indoor plants, or a whole forest) work to keep itself healthy is so gratifying and hopeful to me, and it’s next to free! Working with the land to create our own inputs keeps the power with the people, not in the hands of giant companies who prove time and again that they could care less about the health of our planet and the creatures that inhabit the land.
Bridget uses this shaded area to collect the day’s harvest and to do some preliminary herb processing
Mixing the Medicine
After herbs are harvested at OHG, some are used fresh to make tinctures (herbs macerated in alcohol, more on this later) and some are set up for drying. The dried herbs will go on to become oil infusions or stored away in airtight containers as loose herbs. In general, the oils at OHG are made with dried herbs to alleviate any worry about bacteria growing in the oils. There are a few exceptions (lavender and St. John’s wort) where fresh herbs are used to make the infused oil. These require a bit of extra care (allowing the herbs to wilt, sometimes applying heat, steeping only 4 weeks) to ensure the moisture in the herbs don’t make the oil go rancid. Don’t let this intimidate you - like everything in herbalism there is always a way to make the process work for you. For most of the oils, I grind the herbs very fine to expose as much surface area as possible to the oil, which helps the oil extract all the properties of each herb and makes a very strong infusion. At OHG they are steeped in the oil for 6 months, then strained. Using dried herbs and steeping for this extended amount of time allows me to avoid using heat on the infusion (hence the phrase “cold-infusion” that you find on the labels). This gives the oils a longer shelf life - having not been exposed to heat the oil won’t break down as quickly and we can enjoy them for longer.
Rose petals laying out to dry for oils
After the cold-infusion of herbs are steeped for six months in olive or jojoba oil, they are combined with deeply nourishing and protective shea butter & beeswax. These ingredients help the skin retain its own moisture while keeping inflammation down. All of the ingredients have antimicrobial and antifungal qualities, helping to gently regulate the skin’s microbiome. Plus each herb infused into the oil has a unique set of compounds which can help ailments drastically when used in a targeted manner.
Melting locally sourced beeswax in a double boiler to make a balm
Making balms is a simple process of gently heating the beeswax, shea butter, and oil together and pouring them into their tubs while the mixture is still liquid, then allowing to set. Balms can be made in so many different ways, recipes for different types of balms and salves are easily found and fun to experiment with. The way I make balms is at a ratio of 1:1:4 (beeswax:shea butter:oil). This gives the balm a consistency that I really enjoy, not too hard and not too soft. I like to be able to get the balm out of the tub easily, yet have enough solidity that it stays on the skin long enough to effectively retain moisture and allow the good stuff to sink in.
Lavender balm setting up after pouring into slide tin vessels
Back to making tinctures - again this is a process that can be as simple or involved as you like. It makes perfectly good medicine to follow the folk method of simply placing your herbs (also called the mark) in a clean jar, topping with vodka or another spirit (this is the mentruum), and sealing off with a clean lid. This macerates for a month and then is strained into another clean jar - that’s it. At OHG I have my own methods that work for me. For one thing it makes me feel good to leave the herbs in the alcohol for at least 8 weeks. This is purely my own preference, one month is perfectly fine but logically I feel that the longer it steeps the more of the good phytocompounds are able to extract into the alcohol. I am in no rush, and putting them on a two month schedule is less stressful for me. I also use a scale to measure the weight of the herbs and choose the amount of liquid accordingly. Roots and bark are denser and have less moisture than leaves or flowers, so root or bark tinctures will require lesser ratio of mark when compared to the mentruum, and a lower alcohol percentage (lower alcohol translates to higher water content). The solubility of the compounds in the herb will help determine how strong the alcohol should be in the mentruum (water to alcohol ratio). These details are determined on an herb to herb basis, referencing other medicine makers and books. Again, using the folk method will produce perfectly good medicine without all the bells and whistles and math. I like to nail down my method because these items are for sale and I want to be able to create a consistent method from year to year.
Multiflora rose harvest for tincture
I hope this little writeup has helped clarify how things are done at OHG and given a very basic overview of how I make the herbal preparations you will find in the collection. On a basic level at Orchard Hill Gardens, we care deeply about the Earth, we know we have a responsibility to the land, and we carefully tend that which is in our purview.
On a personal note, the most important thing to me is passing on what I learn to my child. For her to grow up with this knowledge as second nature - as normal - not as an unlearning process as it is for me - I feel that is my important work and the best thing I can do while I’m able to walk the Earth.
A toddler Evelyn bouncing in front of blooming elder shrubs
