Absinthe - The Green Fairy

Our friend, Cheryl Lins, is an artisan absinthe distiller. She is located in the Catskills, as are we. She LOVES local. We grow many of the herbs she uses. Says she likes the quality of our herbs better than the Italian imported herbs she used to buy. Click on the link to see an article that the NY Times just wrote about her and Phoenix Distillery.

Herbs Popping Up In The Yard

It's April 9 and spring sure is slow in making its presence known. In fact yesterday and the day before, we had snow flurries. Today the temperature is reading warmer, but the howling winds still feel brisk! As I was walking around the garden, I noted several herbs that are emerging from their slumber. Here are a few of the many herbs:

Sweet Violet, not the common blue. Smells and tastes oh, so sweet!

Rhodiola. Looks pretty ugly now, but soon it will be filled with rosettes!
Ramps. Delicious wild food!


Angelica just coming up.


Celandine, with its bright orange sap. The appearance of celandine in the spring also harkens the arrival of tree swallows. Sure enough, I saw a pair today.

Coltsfoot, or Son-Before-the-Father, as the flowers show up before the leaves.
Maral Root unfurling.
Stinging Nettles - a power house of nutrients.
Sweet Cicely.
The joy of spring is that every day new life is shown.

October's Bright Blue Weather

October's Bright Blue Weather by Helen Hunt Jackson (b. 1831)

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather,
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair
Later aftermaths are sowing;
When springs run low and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiselessly in the bush
Of woodsd, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather,
O suns of skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

Amen, sister, Amen! We have had a glorious streak of weather here and autumn is dazzling! On Saturday, Green Spiral Herbs vended at the Schoharie Old Stone Fort History Fair. Sunday, we vended at the Catskill Ginseng and Medicinal Herb Festival. It was a terrific day out. Lots of people buying our herbal stuff and enjoying the weather and speakers at the event. A reporter from the Catskill Daily Mail interviewed me and a few others. Here is the article http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2008/10/12/news/news3.txt We bought a few more ginseng roots to plant on the property. Monday was my birthday and DH took the day off work and took me on a lovely drive to look at the gorgeous trees. He made me dinner of bacon-wrapped scallops and spinach orzo. Delicious! We spent time in the garden, collecting more seeds (culver's root, black cohosh, Korean angelica, feverfew, meadowsweet and a few others), harvesting more herbs and doing some general fall clean up. Yesterday would have been my brother's birthday (he passed last year). I wished him a happy birthday and felt his presence with me as I gardened. Today, 125 garlic were planted. I harvested more dill and coriander seed and comfrey leaves. There is a patch of nettles that were just coming up, so I picked those as well. As long as nettles are young and tender, they are good. I started putting sand around the base of the lavender plants (we planted 500 in mounded rows earlier this year). The sand will reflect light back onto the plants and keep some weed growth down. I picked a few leeks to make potato/leek dinner for tonight. I love autumn!

Pictures of the Garden

Paul's Himalayan Musk on the gothic arbor.

Daylilies and William Baffin rose.
Foxgloves, lupines, campanula and lamb's ears.

Borage. I will eat the flowers while working in the garden. I also have a white variety.

Apothecary Rose. Fragrant!

Yellow foxglove.


And the pink foxglove.
William Baffin roses near the birdhouses.

Spring has Sprung or at least the snow has melted

Ahh, finally a few days of warmer temps strung together. 50s and 60s for a few days wakes up plants. I hear from a lot of people that they don't know what herbs look like when they emerge from the ground. So, I've snapped a few pictures of some herbs that are poking up now.

The first picture is Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). The leaves will turn greener as they grow. Valerian root is used as a sleep inducer. The flowers smell of cherry pie. The root smells of feet and butt! What a dichotomy.

The next picture is Celandine (Chelidonium majus). The yellow-orange sap of the plant removes warts. This works pretty well. There's a folk tale that says swallows use the sap to clear the eyes of their newborn chicks. Humans, don't try that! The tree swallows return around here when the celandine starts growing in the spring. Sure enough, I saw the first tree swallow 2 days ago.

The next plant is Angelica (Angelica archangelica). This lovely perennial is good for a number of things, one of which for protection. The candied stems are delicious. Various plant parts are used medicinally.

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfare) is next and is the first blooming wildflower around here. Coltsfoot is
also known as son-before-the-father because the blooms are first, followed by leaves later. Often, people mistake coltsfoot for dandelion. As the Latin name tells you, coltsfoot is useful for coughs. However, NEVER use coltsfoot without the guidance of a competent herbalist.

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is the last picture above. A great anxiolytic and useful for some heart problems as well. Again, make sure you have the advice of a competent herbalist before using this.

Talking About herbs

I teach crazy quilting and herbs. Maybe a strange combination, maybe not. I also write articles about each subject. In January, my article on calendula appeared in The Essential Herbal.
I will post it on the Green Spiral Herbs web site now that the next issue has arrived. Make sure you check out and subscribe to this grass roots, exciting magazine.

Today, the United Plant Savers Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation arrived and it has our progress report about our Botanical Sanctuary in it. Go to United Plant Savers to read the update.

Another project which I am quite excited about is the start-up of an absinthe company in the Catskills. Why am I excited? Well not just for the taste of absinthe (however yummy that is)...the owner, Cheryl Lins, has asked us to grow many of the herbs she will use in this mythic, mystic concoction. We met with Cheryl a few months ago and gave her samples of our herbs and she was impressed with the quality of what we grow. She wants to keep as much as she can "in the Catskills". We agree! Here is a link to a newspaper article written about her last week:
Absinthe. Oh yeah, I'll let you know when bottles of this fine beverage will be available. You may have to come to the Catskills to get it though!

In the meantime, it's another frozen day here. Spring is still some time away, but seedlings in southern facing windows have sprouted and red-winged blackbirds have arrived in the yard. Not so very long now til my hands can get in the earth again.