Green Wizardries Preserving the Spring by Maxine Rogers
The cold weather this spring has preserved a lot of blooms for longer than usual. My camellia, in a sheltered spot at the edge of the forest, has never been lovelier. The species tulips are coming in waves, as wildflowers do, and the chilly weather has kept them at their best for longer than usual.
The dandelions are out on the pasture, a welcome feed for the bumblebee queens who made it through the winter. They need lots of pollen and nectar to breed up the next generation of worker bumblebees. I do collect a dandelion flower here and there, being sure I leave lots for the bees. I fill a quart jar with dandelion blooms and apple-cider vinegar and I leave that for four to six weeks and strain it. I use the vinegar for salad dressings. It aids digestions and I feel it contains some of the marvellous spring sunshine.
I do not have enough dandelions and a friend brought me a box of dandelion plants from her yard. These are a superior strain and have very large leaves. I planted them in a row in my vegetable garden as I cannot grow enough dandelion on the pasture to satisfy everyone. The sheep love dandelions and will eat them to extinction if left to graze a paddock for too long. Finely chopped dandelion greens are just the thing to feed chicks and ducklings. I also like to give it to lactating rabbits as the lore states that dandelion is good to increase milk flow.
Another weed that is very important for bumbles, humans and livestock is the dead nettle. A friend just taught me about them and they are a wonderful, nutritious spring herb. The are among the first plants to bloom and they provide some of the first food for the bumblebees and other early native bees. They are the herbs next to the dandelions in the photo. These small herbs are good to eat, steamed with other wild greens such as nettles, dandelion greens and chickweed. They also make a great spring tonic for poultry and rabbits. I cut them carefully so I do not damage their roots as I consider them a very valuable food, forage and nectar supply.
Dead nettle is a type of mint as you will be able to see by its square stem. It is an astringent which means it stops bleeding and is also antimicrobial and antiviral. You can make a salve out of olive oil that you have macerated the dead nettles in. Always fresh-wilt fresh herbs for a day so they have a lower water content before adding them to oil. Too much water in the oil can cause mould to grow.
After steeping the herbs in olive oil in a warm place for four to six weeks, the oil should be strained and bottled and labelled with the contents and the date. To make a salve, you melt a quarter of a cup of bees wax in a cup of medicinal oil, over a double boiler, and that is all there is to it. Of course you can add essential oils such as lavender or thyme for scent and for their anti fungal and antimicrobial properties.
Another herb I like to harvest now is lovage. I cut small bundles of lovage and hang it from a beam in my living room to dry it for winter use. Lovage has a strong celery flavour and I like to keep a jar of dried lovage next to the stove in the winter to flavour stocks and broths. Lovage is also a medicinal herb with a long history of use in ancient Greece and Rome. A tea made from the leaves helps settle the stomach after overindulgence.
Last year, I learned about English daisies, the little white or white and pink flowers that grow almost everywhere and are used in the production of daisy chains. What I learned was the English daisy is the poor man’s arnica. Arnica is a daisy that grows in the alps and is used for bruises, strains, sprains and sore muscles. I went out hunting for daisies and found to my dismay that they had all finished blooming. This year, I was ready for them and went out daisy hunting as soon as the started in the pasture.
As with any flower, I make sure to pick only a few here and there and leave lots for the pollinators. Daisies are a special charm for moths and butterflies and they are having a really tough time of it now so we need to help them wherever we can.
I left the blooms out on a saucer for a day and then added them to some olive oil. The next day, I did it again and soon had a small jar of oil saturated with daisy blossoms. I will make this oil into a salve and experiment with it. Daisy blooms dried and saved for winter are useful in treating bronchial colds, coughs and catarrh. We really do have most of what we need growing right here on our enchanted Islands.
