Gardening Under Lights with Kids Webinar – KidsGardening

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Do you love gardening with kids, but perhaps feel challenged by space or weather? Gardening indoors under lights might be the perfect solution! Don’t know where to start? We’ll help you.

Join KidsGardening’s senior education specialist, Sarah Pounders, and Leslie Halleck, horticultural expert, and author of “Gardening Under Lights” as they simplify successful indoor gardening with lights and explain how you can engage kids in this fun and educational activity.

Date: Thursday, February 4th, 2021 at 7-8pm Eastern

Registration Cost: $8

Learn to garden under lights with kids! This fun webinar with Leslie Halleck will teach you to successfully garden with grow lights.

Source: Gardening Under Lights with Kids Webinar – KidsGardening

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Parsley – Herb of the Month and Herb of the Year

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Maryann Readal

The spotlight is shining on parsley this month. Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is The Herb Society of America’s Herb of the Month for January and the International Herb Association’s Herb of the Year™ for 2021. The three most common varieties of parsley are P. crispum or curly-leaf parsley, P. crispum var. neapolitanum or flat-leaf Italian parsley, and P. crispum var. tuberosum or turnip-root parsley which is grown for its root and is used in soups and stews.

Parsley has an interesting history dating back to Greek and Roman times. To the Greeks, parsley symbolized death and was not used in cooking. However, according to Homer, the Greeks fed parsley to their chariot horses as they thought it gave them strength. The Greeks believed that parsley sprang from the blood of one of their mythical heroes, Archemorus, whose name means “the beginning of bad…

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Readers Choice: Ringing in the Best of Blog Castanea

As we spin forward into 2021 (are we there yet, mom?!?), it’s exciting to reflect on what you—our friends, fans, and phenomenal plant family—went herb-wild for through the seasons.Did you know we serve up a splendid spread of free herbal content on our blog?In 2020, we decked the halls of Blog Castanea with garlands of new articles, and re-polished our most popular blogs from seasons past. We brought in new contributors and the blog officially became a team sport. Are you curious which topics were herbally admired and adored this year? And which plants people felt positively passionate about? Get caught up with our Best of 2020 Roll Call:

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My Adventures in Making Corn Husk Paper

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Angela Magnan

Corn husks for papermaking After watching a video online about making paper from corn husks, I thought it would be fun to try. I had never made paper before, but the video made it look easy. Don’t they always?! I first made some using the husks from six ears. After it didn’t really go well, I bought a book with more detail and tried again.

But like many DIY projects that I try for the first time, or even the second, making paper out of corn husks reminded me that watching a video is no substitute for a detailed book, which in turn is no substitute for experience. It also reminded me that when trying something new, I should perhaps follow the directions.

Corn husks and stalks are some of the many plant materials commonly found in home gardens that can be made into paper. Grass and leaf fibers are some…

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HSA Webinar: Molé, Pan and Chapulin–Oaxacan Style

The Herb Society of America Blog

by Jen Munson, HSA Education Chair

Face it, 2020, for the most part, has been a bust! The pandemic has cancelled events, reduced travel, and all but eliminated herbal adventures. As we dream of a future where we can begin to move about the globe more easily and safely, now is the perfect time to research new destinations. map Interestingly, just south of the US border in Mexico there is a unique community that is home to sixteen distinct indigenous peoples living in a mild climate, enjoying unique botanic diversity.

Oaxaca, Mexico, is a community known for its culture, crafts, textiles, ceramics, cuisine, and complex use of plants. While Mexico is known for its Day of the Dead celebrations, Oaxaca offers the most spiritual and unique Dia de los Muertos Celebration celebrations of them all. The Day of the Dead festival (or Dia de los Muertos) is celebrated from October 31st thru November 2nd. During this…

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Herbal Hacks, Part 1: Food and Drink

The Herb Society of America Blog

We asked and you delivered! Over the summer we asked folks to share how they used herbs to make their lives easier or more fun. We received many great responses, and want to thank everyone who contributed a little snippet of herbal how-to. We received so many responses, in fact, that we’ve decided to offer them in installments, categorized by topic for easy reference. Please enjoy this week’s selection – herbs in food and drink.

Violet banner_Creative Commons via Pxfuel

I love to use fresh herbs as drink garnishes and in ice cubes. Edible flowers and leaves enhance my beverages, from my morning smoothie to my afternoon glass of wine! – Janice Cox

Dried blue cornflower petals sprinkled over salads – or as a garnish on other foods – for a beautiful blue punch of color! Flowers are harvested each year from my garden at the end of a hot day, dried on white cotton…

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Natural Perfumery Course

Good Witches Homestead

Blending your own botanical perfume is a delightful, time-tested way to infuse both your home and your body with the plants you connect with most. A true breath of fresh air, the Natural Perfumery Course will empower you to form a new type of relationship with plants—a relationship that lets the plants speak for themselves with woodsy whispers, herbaceous harmonies, and smoky secrets. As the conductor of this olfactory orchestra, you will blend, infuse, tinker, and spritz your way to custom scent combinations for you, your herbal product line, and everyone on your gift list.

The Natural Perfumery Course includes all the information you need to start blending your own botanical perfumes at home today, including over 20 recipes, a special collection of perfumery plant monographs, simple rituals for incorporating them into your lifestyle, expert guidance, and beautifully illustrated downloads for safety, sustainability, techniques, and more.

Choose to enroll in…

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Getting Results with Herbs, a free training with Rosalee de la Forêt

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

We are thrilled to share with you that Learning Herbs will open their registration this morning for Taste of Herbs with herbalist and best-selling author Rosalee de la Forêt who has created a transformative online training.

Rosalee writes and teaches with such substance, and depth, but also makes it very easy and practical for people to understand. In Rosalee’s ‘Taste of Herbs’, she has a way of showing people how to understand and apply the energetics of herbs to every day herbalism and it is quite brilliant.

Click here to register!

Source: Getting Results with Herbs, a free training with Rosalee de la Forêt

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Fresh Flower Crowns and Flower Garlands: Step by Step How-To Guide

The Druid's Garden

A woman hikes up to a sacred spring that she visits at least once a season. From her small bag, she pulls out a beautiful crown of flowers that she had lovingly crafted before leaving home. Placing the crown upon her head, she dances and sings around the spring, drinking deeply and celebrating life on this early fall. As a sign of respect and offering, she hangs the flower garland near the spring and carries her sacred water back down the mountain.

Family wears crowns I made at the bridal shower

I find it interesting that the ancient art of flower crowns garland making is almost non-existent today, at least here within the US. This tradition has so much potential. The only people who I’ve seen make these delightful crowns are children, who haven’t yet lost their magic or wonder about the world. And yet, garlands and flower crowns, are…

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Drought workings: A Druid’s Perspective on Drought and Dry Weather

The Druid's Garden

2020 is certainly a year to remember for many of us in the human realm. Here in Western Pennsylvania and up along many parts of New England, we’ve had an additional serious problem affecting the natural world—an extreme drought. This summer, the jet stream is way off of its normal course and so most of the major storms that would typically hit us have been forced south of us, creating the “moderate” drought that we are now in and causing uncharacteristically dry conditions. know there are other serious droughts around the world, such as the three-year drought currently happening in Germany. Climate change is making these kinds of weather events all the more common and teaching us powerful lessons along the way. In today’s post, I’ll share some drought lessons, drought land healing, and ways of working and honoring water.