a bowl of plantain

When I was in my mid to late teens, I was a bit on the wild side. Not too much, just enough that I left school mid way through Year 11, got a job and a car and left home. All before I turned 18. Have car and money?….well, lets party!! And so it was. My three closest friends were 3 hillbilly boys and we would just hang out at a laid-back pub in Windsor (west of Sydney) till closing time and then head off back to someones house in Pete's very cool, black FJ Holden. My parents rarely drank alcohol, which meant that I'd not grown up thinking that was what happened when people got together and so I didn't drink either - but I had grown up using herbal teas and a few old fashioned remedies and that too had a bearing on my beliefs! 

The late 70's were just at the tail end of the true hippy era and I dressed accordingly - black Chinese 'happy shoes', King Gee overalls with various patches and cheesecloth Indian style shirts complete with embroidery and little mirrors! Ah, those were the days! But I digress - I just wanted to mention that my life as a 'herb witch' began right back then, when we sat around in that pub, playing pool, being cool and in my case at least, spouting what little knowledge I had about wayside weeds and garden herbs…..and gaining the fond nickname - "The Witch". 

And my love of all things natural and weedy hasn't left me to this day. I can identify many more wayside weeds, have used a whole heap of medicinal herbs with my children and still love to pootle about with oils and potions. 

My veggie garden has been much neglected over winter and I still haven't been able to bring it to some semblance of order, but yesterday as I was organising some boys to start weeding, I noticed a whole heap of fresh, lush plantain growing beside the raspberries. Perfect for a bit of magic salve making - good to use on babies bottoms, rough skin, itchy spots and many other skin irritations. 

I have the narrow leaved variety growing here Plantago lanceolata but there is also a broad leaved type which I'd love to have access to, as I've read it makes great 'kale' chips. The seed heads are interesting as they can be long or quite short, all on the same plant and the tiny cream flowers dance around on their fine stems like little creatures floating on the tides.

I started picking the youngest leaves as they are tender and succulent and I'm sure I've read that they have most of the 'good' bits in them……but then I thought, well, maybe the older leaves are more mature (and wiser, like older women ;) and may be better to use! So I just picked both and filled my bowl with fresh green goodness. I do know that when using the leaf of most herbs, the best time is in Spring when all the plants energy is being put into the leaves.

I didn't wash them since they were from my own garden and I know they are unsprayed but I did have to check each one for bits of blossom and the odd bug. I cut them into small pieces with a pair of scissors and packed then loosely into a clean glass jar, almost to the tippy top.

You can see here that the oil has already started to penetrate the leaves after only about 10 minutes. In a day or two they will all be a nice dark green and soaked through with oil.

Then a good quality olive oil to cover the greens, pop the lid on and store in a cool dark place for up to 6 weeks. And thats the part that is a bit tricky……I've made this several times before and its been hit and miss with mould growing on the surface after only a week or two. Sometimes its fine and other times I've needed to throw it out - which is why I don't use an expensive organic olive oil.
I do think though that I've found the secret to keeping it mould free - and that is to fill the jar right to the top with the oil so that theres only a small space for air and therefore less space for microbes. Thats my theory anyway and I'll let you know in the next instalment if it worked!

And if you are interested, here are a couple of links to more plantain goodness - a new to me permaculture and herbal blog.
I found another method of making salve by pureeing the herb, which looked interesting enough that I may try it too.
Of course, a discourse on plantain wouldn't be complete without some words from Susun Weed, a wise woman with a vast knowledge of herbs, weeds and women's business.

I hope you give salve or ointment making a try as its so very easy to do…. and so lovely to use ones self made remedies.

holidays are always fun…now its time to get busy!

Yes, our little jaunt to the warmth is over. I've been home for just on a week now almost a month and trying to get myself back into some sort of rhythm - I think its finally happening. We had the most beautiful weather in NSW - hot and hot - with just a few cooler days. I'm having a giggle right now because the weather does seem to come up a lot in my blog posts, and indeed in my thoughts! 

Anyway, we visited almost all the beloved friends and family that we'd wanted to catch up with (Granma and Granpa, your turn next time!) as well as some places that we hadn't expected to see……. Nimbin, Murwillumbah, Byron Bay, Lennox Head and Ballina were a day trip in the northern rivers area. I took along two 15 year olds - my Dj and a friend Lily - and following along with their ideas for the day was loads of fun! In Nimbin we were offered 'marijuana cake, the best in town' which gave us all the giggles (no, not coz we tried it!) and then a second time, although we decided to forego a bag of something green, which a happy young man thought we needed! An interesting place, that Nimbin!! Byron Bay is much busier. Lots of beautiful people, funky shops and a very leisurely feel to it. 

My lovely mum was very happy to see us all. She is a sprightly 87 years old and still gardens, goes on 5km walks and dances around her lounge room to Roger Whittaker and the Beatles! Yes, she's a hoot! Her garden was in disarray because she broke her wrist in June (she was playing chasing in the park with my 8yo nephew…but was too embarrassed to tell the doctor that, so just told him she fell) so my brother and sister in law, my youngest two, mum and I, spent a couple of days weeding and replanting her veggie garden. The weather was warm, (ha!) we chatted, wet each other with the hose, drank copious amounts of water and really soaked up our too infrequent time together. I think that was the highlight of the whole trip. I do so love to be with family.

I did a little sketching, stopped for a quick visit to a beautiful old cemetery and managed to catch up with most of my best-est friends. Alas the time slipped away and 4 weeks disappeared, just like that and once again I had to fly south. Luckily its for the summer!!

I've been busy since I've gotten home…. you may notice that my Etsy shop is stocked once again. Ah, yes, its time I cleaned out some of the very many old books I've collected and made space for some new ideas that Ive been fermenting! And on that note, I'll say goodbye!! Its lovely to be 'speaking' to you again…thanks so much for still dropping in!!