Hedvig, The Blog

Last Wednesday, I got a call from Colette from Ashurt Organics, to ask if I could possibly come in to work the following day.  She said she was down on help and people were sick.  I had just run out of veg, and had been meaning to give her a ring anyway to go and volunteer.  But this was even better.  I was going to get paid.  Okay, so it ain’t billions with bonuses, but it is money.  And these days, I ain’t complaining when that comes my way.

So I dutifully arrange a lift with Leif (often called Leaf), who also lives in Brighton.  Last time we went in with Leif’s girlfriend, and started the day off with lots of discussions about projects in London and Brighton.  This time, we were going by motorbike.  I haven’t been on a motorbike since I was a tiny, bare-footed young thing, and my cousin Max tore round our old summer place in Sweden.  Twenty years later, it was just as exciting.  Whizzing through town and countryside, relaxing into the journey.  The journey back was a little more scary, purely because I was carrying a large sack of veg and that affect my ability to balance.

I also left with a paper envelope with my wage.  I have also run out of my last batch of Samuel Close deodorant.  So I decided to take the plunge and go and buy rock crystal, essentials oils, pestle and mortar and an oil burner.  I feel so much happier for it.

My house is getting pleasantly scented of lemongrass.  Just as well as it normally doesn’t smell very nice (meat fumes rising from the kitchen, and two cats don’t help).  So I’m very grateful for my call from Colette, unexpected day of work and my smelly results.

These are one of the strangest cosmetics I have made.  Now they aren’t connected to seeing plants in a new way, but still worth sharing.

Girls, forget your expensive exfoliating scrubs and moisturisers.  I have found the answer, again from Neal’s Yard.  But it’s through through sheer daring that I made and used these.  I know they look like falafels, but, they work (my new favourite saying, btw).

The recipe

1 slice of old brown bread (I know!)

1 handful raisins

1 handful almonds

Blend them, using a hand blender is definitely the easiest.  Then roll into small balls.

I washed my face with half a ball this morning.  You don’t have to worry about gross tasting stuff getting in your mouth, this is really good.  The bread is really exfoliating and then the almonds really moisturise it.   Incredible really.

Yesterday, I made the spur of the moment decision to invite a friend over to make some herbal products.  Wasn’t sure what we would or could make, but thought might as well give it a go.  Both of us are low income/unemployed, and so budget was important.

We spent the morning leafing through various books, exchanging recipe ideas and figuring out different herbs and ingredients.  I spent most of my time trying to get my head around shampoos and hair conditioners.  Michele, was researching toners and skin care products.

After a bit, we decided that we wanted to get on with something that we could do at home, and then we would go off and source other stuff.  So an easy one to get started with was lip balm.  We went for ‘Grapefruit conditioning lip blam’ from the Neal’s Yard Recipes for Natural Beauty.  It’s really straight forward.

1g cocoa butter

9g shea butter

10 drops grapefruit essential oil

We made a bain marie, with the butters in a citrus squeezer in a frying pan filled with boiling water.   Then poured the liquified butters in our sterlised containers.  Then when it was starting to solidify we added the essential oil.  It is really conditioning, but doesn’t make your lips tacky some lipsyl or stuff like that.

The body scrub was equally straight forward.

4 tbs salt

8 tbs oil (sweet almond would be good, we only had olive oil)

10 drops essential oils.

No heating with this one, but mix.  It is super effective, and cheap as chips.  Well worth it.

The other thing we tried was a real experiment, and I’ll let you know how that went when I’ve tried it.

So the developments continue.  I’ve tried out a new essential oils mix for my deodorant and that seems to work better (ylang ylang, orange and bergamot).

Today I tried a different cosmetics thing.  I made a strong chamomile tea, let it cool, filled up a spray and put it in my hair while working out in the garden, to see if it would work as a dye.  Did try it once years ago and it didn’t do much, so thought I would be more persistent this time.

Might be making some balms this weekend.  Thinking about tinctures.

Plus thinking about combining the growing side of things.  Brought a lot of herbs down we’ve grown from the glasshouse so now have hyssop, chamomile, borage, basil, sage, parsley, comfrey, thyme, rosemary, fennel, coriander and probably more growing outside.

The herbs that I picked previously are all now in containers, and I spent the night before the soltice collecting and drying more herbs.  So trying to build up the stores for the winter ahead.  I’ve got a good amount of sage so that will help with sore throats.

Irene leaves soon so thinking about how to pull together some of the info.  I’m also leaving the house so thinking about design in a different way.  Lots still going on.

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.  

The first project that I have started for my diploma is all about plants.  I wanted to explore new ways of seeing plants.  In particular, using plants for cosmetics, cleaning products and herbal medicine.

I took a course in herbal medicine a few years ago, and really appreciated the understanding that I got from that.  Since the new year my flat mates, Irene and Sarah, have been to a few courses about herbal stuff.  I thought that I could use this project to pull together our knowledge and share it in a more structured way.   Especially as Irene is leaving for Ecuador soon, and Sarah is going back to Oz at the end of the year. Sarah is really into the herbal medicine side, Irene has been learning about natural beauty and I know more about the growing side of things.  The two of them are pretty obsessed with cleaning, so something to learn for all.  The perfect combination to develop from last years attempt at food growing.

Today, I started the surveying the plants that we use for teas (partly medicinal), cooking (mainly herbs and spices), essential oils plus the herbs that we are already growing.  While doing it I was assessing the ease to grow those plants in the UK.

After this I replenished our stocks, our marigold pot was looking particularly low, and had to pour out the dregs of the big paper bag to fill it.  A few bits fell out, as I was putting them back in the jar, I noticed a few seeds in the mix, and also in some of the heads. 

So now have a collection of seeds to be planted tomorrow and Thursday during the flower phase of the biodynamic calendar.

I continued the surveying looking at the different cosmetic products I have, noting different brands, prices, main ingredients, base oils used etc.  The final thing was to look into cleaning products, observing the brands and prices.

I picked some herbs from the garden to dry: lemon balm, mint, sage, oregano and they are now drying in my cupboard above the boiler.  I collated some recipes for room sprays, inhalations, cleansing, gargles, mouthwash, perfume, cologne and toothpaste.

As Irene was home today, I started the assessment with her about the different beauty products: how easy they were to make, how (cost) effective, and other observations, and in her opinion whether it would be worth doing regularly.  We also went out into the garden and measured up.  So in the next few days I will draw up an outline for the garden and begin marking the sun at different points in time.

One of the permaculture principles that I wanted to explore through this project was ‘obtain a yield’ and I definitely feel like we will be able to obtain a different yield from the plants we do grow.  The other principle was ‘integrate rather than segregate’ I feel from working with my flatmates rather than doing the research by myself I do benefit from that integration.  I hear about their tips from experience and people on their courses rather than just a book, there is support and enthusiam to make products together, and a real different eagerness to grow plants.

The project is underpinned by the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair shares.  Learning about the components and decreasing my demand of chemicals and thus pollution.  Also it encourages others to grow plants and doing so using organic methods.  It is all about people care: physical, mental and spiritual well-being through re-connection with nature, producing home grown plants for medicinal use and beauty.  We are planning to make extra and give them as presents to friends, and through sharing the experience here maybe others will be encouraged to try it out.

It is early days for the project and for the diploma but even at this stage I feel more empowered.  There are so many plants that we use in the house that can be grown, and so many natural beauty products that can be made.  From the surveying I felt like we didn’t use what we grow enough, and working with Irene today feels like it is making a difference.  When I suggested to Irene that we make sage croutons for our soup this evening, she went straight out to the garden to pick it from Sarah’s window sill.

To answer the action learning questions:

What’s going well? Learning lots, feel inspired, using more fresh stuff, clear idea how to switch from bought stuff to making my own and much more.

What isn’t going so well?  Not enough time to research

Vision? Mini apothecary in my bathroom

Next steps? Continue assessment with Sarah, draw outline of garden, transplant lemon balm seedlings, read up.