but before dips in the river there are many chores around the manor that must be done...cats fed, birds fed, hummingbird water to be made, berkeys to be filled, greenhouse opened and watered and herbs to be gathered for morning soup.
that is home-grown sage, rosemary, thyme and parsley all to be added to home-made bone broth with butter-fried liver - yummeh!
can you say iron and calcium to start your day? i know that you can!
then it's odd jobs around the house and yard and then time for some dinner. how about fajitas with steak, home-made guacamole (which i still call "gwak-a-mole" and can't stop myself from laughing hilariously whenever i say it - bahahahahah!), home-made salsa and 4 stir-fried coloured peppers and onions to complete the meal.
then it's down to the river we go. it's quite strange - we never got this many river days in july before. the climate is changing people...regardless of what you believe. here's a grouse feather we found down at the river after a dip.
remember that patch of wild rose flowers that are growing across our bog? well, even more of them have flowered!
here's a closeup of the ones that grow right where our loungers are...
sooooo pretty!
and then the other day jambaloney is in our local home hardware and buying 24 more tiny canning jars. we've gone through about a hundred in the last few years and it's what i make my "healing" salve in.
i've made this salve and given it to friends and jambaloney and i use it like mad! it is good for cuts, scrapes, bruises, bug bites, sunburns, rashes, chaffed anything (lips, feet, knees or elbows) - it's a wonderful product. i have given and sent it to friends over the years so even though we still have a ton of these little jars - jambaloney decided to add to our stash.
the man at the counter asked jambaloney "what were we making him?" - i think he was thinking we were making jams, jellies or marmalades. jambaloney said healing salve. the man at the counter and the woman there asked about it. jambaloney explained that i used 3 of the most precious and healing herbs and then made salve from it. another man in the store (D) lifted up his sleeve and asked could the salve help with psoriasis and jambaloney said it could definitely help and that when i made my next batch, he would leave some for him at the store.
so that kicked me in the butt to make some more. we have a jar at each of our chairs in front of the tv, a jar in the kitchen, a jar in the bathroom and one jar in our preps. we don't worry about stocking it because i can pretty much make a ton every summer. but i have given a lot away to friends and whatnot so it was time to make another batch.
here's the usual suspects that go into making a batch. 15ish comfrey leaves, a bunch of comfrey flowers, 15ish leaves of plantain and a whole pile of heal-all flowers.
put all of that in your "salve-making"pot and just cover it all with Extra Virgin Cold Pressed Olive Oil - it is VERY important to use the best olive oil that you can.
you want to boil it for a good 15 minutes so that it starts to look crispy like this.
and then you want to remove it from the heat and let it settle for several hours so it looks like this.
and then the next day (tomorrow for me) you want to heat it up to a boil again. and then let it sit. i will finish my explanation in a post tomorrow to show you what else you need to do to make a wonderfully-organic healing salve. so stay tuned.
but you know what else is wonderfully-organic and a healing salve????
how about these fresh-caught trout with home-made dill sauce, some spinach and pineapple and our first 3 ripe strawberries???
stay tuned for the rest of my tutorial on how to make a healing salve that you will love.
speaking of love...i am sending much to all of you.
Does the healing salve work? Better than using more drugs I'm sure. Enjoy the river days!
ReplyDeleteI've always heard of the healing/soothing powers of comfrey... so I'm paying close attention to your tutorial!
ReplyDeleteSeems like things are rocking along at the homestead. When you are swimming do those black flies try to bite you? Your place is a paradise but those flies are the serpent in the garden.
ReplyDeleteYou have only lived there for six years, you cant really claim climate change from such a short observation and anecdotal remembering.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that 80% of olive oil from Italy is actually low grade. The industry controlled by the mob and they make the farmers use the cheapest presses and claim it as the most high quality products. 60 minutes did a good story on this last year. Their advice was to buy only non Italian Olive oil or use something like Avacado oil. Otherwise you do not know what you are really buying.
ReplyDeleteSweet Kymber,
ReplyDeleteMaking your own salve at home with fresh organic homegrown items is the best way to stock up one's medicine cabinet. I love those little canning jars just for homemade medicine :-) They really do come in handy and they're hard to find. When I run across them in town, I usually will pick up a box or two. OMG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>TROUT!!!!!
I'm thinking we have to go fishing for Trout this year when it's nice and cold out. Bulldog Man and I will be the only fools in the area fishing in 20 degree temperatures and loving it!!!!
Love and hugs to you both.
Sandy
I am interested in the healing salve too.. Might need to start my own little garden of medicinal herbs.
ReplyDeleteI love the little jars, if not for the fact that they are little and cute. They come in handy to keep small things in like spare change, buttons...or in my case the small tiny lego pieces the boys have.. But mostly they make awesome shot glasses...lol
Of all the things in the pictures though, I actually like the table with the heart and yall's initials... that is sweet.
Much love to you guys too
kymber - Did you get the link I left on one of your previous posts about a homemade insect repellent?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing your healing salve recipe Kymber, I'm going to have to look in to doing this for the knocks and scrapes on our homestead in the near future!
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting to me! I am just venturing into salve-making and I have tons of comfrey. I am waiting with bated breath for Part Two!
ReplyDelete