Hedvig’s permaculture diploma

So, last time we left off at the surveying and assessing stage.  Since then I have continued with the assessing and researching for the products that I could make.

I had a good chat with Sarah about different products, and how easy they are to make.  Ire and I also explored different aspects of essential oils, which was another part of the assessment.  In the Neal’s Yard book that we were looking at it includes a psychological profile for each oil.  So we went through the different oils and noted down who sprang to mind when reading it.  This was an interesting exercise.  The dual purpose of it was 1) a way to get more familiar with the oils and use people we know as a way to make sense of it 2) figure out which oils would be good for various products we want to make for different people.

I have spent some time out in the garden trying to see plants in different ways.  I planted the calendula that I found in tea dregs. It is growing, both the Neal’s Yard and the Organic Catalogue.  Pretty slowly, but ‘use small and slow solutions’ is one of the design principles of permaculture, so it’s all good.  I just showed Sarah one of our sage plants that is looking particularly fine, and she hadn’t discovered it, some we’ll be drying more of that to get us through the winter.  I have been taking lots of cuttings for peppermint so that we have plenty.  We have used peppermint to make a body scrub, so hopefully this year it will be from home-grown stuff.  I also took a cutting from Marianne’s comfrey, that was growing profusely at her house.  Sarah was really excited about it and we spent some time reading about it while in the garden.  It is taking well, so lots more to get excited about.

This leads me on to the other aspect of the project: making stuff.  I started with something simple, home-made deodorant.  Here is the recipe I used:

½ tsp rock crystal

10 drops juniper

10 drops frankincense

3 drops lemongrass

2 drops bergamot

 

Put the rock crystal into deodorant container, add essential fills.  Fill to the top with water and shake. 

 

The blend of smells seemed to work in itself, but I wasn’t sure about it for me.  How about a future blend of:

Bergamot

Orange

Lavender

Geranium

 

Thus the learning cycle continues, and I’m looking forward to the next batch.  There is talk of trying to make different things, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the growing and making cleaning products.  

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 09:09 pm and is filed under Cosmetics and plants, Permaculture Diploma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.