Rosemary is a beautiful plant! It helps protect mind, body, and spirit. This herb is both an ancient remedy and a culinary delight, and there are so many ways to work with it.
In the All About Rosemary booklet, which accompanies the autumn issue of Botanical Anthology, I shared my longevity tea recipe which combines this delightfully pungent and tasty herb with other plants valued for their neuroprotective properties. Here is the recipe portion of my article – you can find the full article in the booklet!
Materials
2 tsp rosemary, dried
1 tsp ginkgo leaves, dried
1 tsp goji berries, dried
½ tsp ginger, dried
Method
Mix the ingredients in a bowl to make a single cuppa, but you’ll probably want to scale up the
recipe and make a larger batch to sip often!
To brew one cup of tea, place a tablespoon of the blend in a tea strainer or disposable eco-
friendly paper tea bag. Pour just-boiled water over the tea and allow to steep for 10 minutes.
If you’d like, you can sweeten your tea with a bit of honey, maple syrup, or sugar.
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Aside from my tea, the All About Rosemary booklet contains so many jewels worth reading and recipes worth trying:
And all this accompanies the full Botanical Anthology magazine issue. I am sharing about it because this independent magazine, a labor of love by creative folks, is near and dear to me as I help edit and compile this publication and write articles for it.
With 40 articles from 38 contributors, there is something in this magazine for every budding herbalist, natural health enthusiast, (urban) homesteader, kitchen witch, and nature lover.
TODAY is the last day to download our digital version at a discounted price of $15 and receive the free All About Rosemary booklet. I hope you’ll consider treating yourself to a copy and enjoying the autumn plant goodness!
Botanical Anthology is an indie magazine made by and for plant lovers, which I am lucky to write articles for, edit, and help produce. It is very much a labor of love and is full of herbal and seasonal magic! Apothecary knowledge, tasty recipes, gardening tips, creative crafts, folklore, seasonal celebrations, interviews, and more!
Now through 6/26, you can pick up the digital (ebook) edition for only $15 and it comes with the All About Chamomile bonus booklet free!
Or purchase the print edition via Amazon or Lulu, and email your proof of purchase to plantwondercollective@gmail.com to get your free digital All About Chamomile booklet!
Linden makes a lovely, calming, skin replenishing ingredient in botanical recipes in the form of an infused oil! It also complements the scent and properties of lavender infused oil very nicely. I decided to incorporate both into a homemade body wash recipe using simple, natural ingredients!
Homemade herbal recipes that contain water can have a short shelf life, so it’s best to make them in small batches. However, if you make a larger amount of infused oil in advance—infused oils keep longer than water-based products—then it is easy to store the oils in glass jars and mix up batches of the body wash as needed. An additional option is to add a bit of natural preservative, such as leucidal liquid—made from fermented radishes!
Begin by infusing your herbal oil. Do this by filling one jar about ½ full of dried linden, then filling with jojoba oil until the dried plant material is completely submerged, using a chopstick or wooden spoon handle to remove any air bubbles. Do the same with the dried lavender and sweet almond oil, filling the jar about ⅓ full with the lavender. Place both jars into a saucepan or bottom of a double boiler pan with about 1 ½ to 2 inches of water and place on the stove over low heat for 3-5 hours, watching closely to ensure that it doesn’t get too hot (you don’t want to cook your herbs!) and making sure the plant material stays submerged. Remove from heat and allow to cool once the oils have changed in color from the herbs and smell fragrant. After cooling, strain through a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth into clean jars.
To make the body wash, find a soap or body wash pump bottle to repurpose; remove the old label and clean well. Add the castille soap, herb-infused oils, honey if using, and water (decrease amount if you want a thicker body wash; you might also want to add small amounts of water at a time and test the consistency till you reach your preferred thickness). Cap and shake, and you might also want to stir it with a chopstick to ensure the honey is fully incorporated. Then add essential oils and leucidal liquid and shake/stir again.
Use in the shower or bath, shaking well each time you use. Enjoy the relaxing scent and the nourishing properties of the linden and lavender oils!
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For educational purposes only. Not intended for medical advice. Always consult your physician.
*This post contains affiliate links, which means if you choose to buy something from a link that I share, I will make a small percentage of the sale *at no extra cost to you*.
Yarrow is a plant that I had not previously worked with very much, outside of adding a pinch of it to tea blends here and there. So I am really loving learning more about it in terms of its medicinal and spiritual attributes.
Yarrow is a bit of a chameleon; it can be both cooling and warming, aiding flow and stopping it, and in astroherbalism terms it has ties to both water and air. But harmonizing lies at the center where these variances overlap. Finding wisdom in discernment, in balance, in both drawing clear boundaries yet allowing for flow and openness, all bring harmony. (Yarrow cards shown from The Herbal Astrology Oracle and The Herbcrafter’s Tarot.)
In folklore, yarrow is associated with love and visionary abilities; the tides of emotion and the clarity of communication that a combination of water and air brings.
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One of my new favorite ways to work with yarrow is in a lovely skin toner. Toners are not just about wiping down your face at night to improve skin and treat blemishes; they are a beneficial ritual that, when used before bed, can offer (magical-metaphorical-mindful-whatever you feel best calling it) plant-infused healing, nurturing, and intention. Botanical glamour magicks or simple self-care, it’s all the same.
Yarrow is at the heart of this new skin toner recipe I’ve created to offer the medicinal applications of astringency (pore tightening and texture benefitting), anti-inflammation, promoting circulation, and anti-microbial action for acne. But it is also present for its more esoteric value of promoting love, beauty, attraction, happiness, balance, and protection. Its association with war and battle—Achilles was said to have treated his soldiers’ wounds on the battlefield with it—means that your use of it each night is like putting on your own magical armor to defend against outside forces. And the folk application that witches might have used yarrow to boost the potency of workings translates here as an amplifier for your own inner power.
This toner also includes lavender for calming the skin and the mind, hawthorn for its antioxidants and heart-mending magic, and rose water for moisture, soothing, and beauty.
Add dried plant material to your jar. Add rose water, then top up with witch hazel, leaving about 1 inch of headspace at the top of the jar. Stir with a wooden chopstick or the handle of a wooden spoon to make sure all the plant material is submerged and your liquids are well combined.
If using a BPA-free plastic lid, cap it tightly; if using waxed paper and a regular metal canning lid, add the waxed paper first before screwing the lid on to prevent corrosion of the metal.
Label your jar with the contents and date, and allow to steep for 2-4 weeks. Top up with extra witch hazel if the plant material floats to the top and dries out.
Strain the plant material out with a mesh strainer and coffee filter or cheesecloth, bottle (a spray bottle works well), and use by spritzing or swiping over your face gently with a soft cloth.
Note: you can also add a few drops of lavender, rose, jasmine, or geranium essential oil to the toner if you’d like!
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This year will be my first year to grow yarrow in my little chaotic herb garden at home. I am a bit of a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” gardener, so I have a few spots where I plan to plant a bit: in those “luck garden” flower beds I mentioned earlier in this month’s Little Rituals post, in a couple containers in my patio tea garden, and around my daughter’s new rose bush because my fellow PWC friend Erin Harwood (@plantmagicwitherin on Instagram and Ponderings & Wanderings on Substack) shared that yarrow can aid in attracting helpful insects that feast on pesky aphids. Check out her Substack for lovely plant content, by the way!
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Aside from love, beauty, protection, and healing, yarrow is valued for its divinitory insight, emotional strength, and has ties with the faeries and animal magic.
A simple yarrow tea can be drunk to aid in clarity and insight.
A pouch of yarrow can be carried as a token and talisman for courage, protection, and love.
In the kitchen, yarrow has a long history of use in fermented drinks like beer and mead. If you are a brewer, try replacing hops with yarrow to mix things up! Or, perhaps infuse some yarrow honey, add the young fresh leaves to a salad, or grind the dried flowers for seasoning blends and salts—I plan on trying that soon!
With a reverence for spring and the plants associated with it, TODAY we launch our spring edition of Botanical Anthology.
As always, I am so proud to be a part of this lovely and inspiring publication! (I write multiple articles for it and also edit it and help a lot with its production.) Our fearless leader Harmonie, the lovely and incredibly creative contributors, and I have all worked tirelessly to bring you this magical spring issue we are so proud of.
A plant lover’s dream, it is a seasonal, plant centered quarterly digital + print magazine bringing you 40+ articles from 40+ contributors to incorporate herbs into your apothecary, kitchen, foraging and gardening, crafts, rituals, celebrations, and more.
* Blend lilac sugar scrub, infuse allergy vinegar + whip spring weeds body butter
Botanical Anthology is perfect for the budding herbalist, natural health enthusiast, (urban) homesteader, and nature lover in your life. Feel good knowing you are directly supporting a small business and each contributor of this independently published magazine.
Come April, the booklets will no longer be included, and the price will increase.
Let us be your guide to work with plants as you journey through the season.
Check out the Table of Contents below to see what is inside!
I love making herbal sugars! They are so versatile, and can be used for so many things—like to sweeten tea and hot beverages, adorn a mocktail or cocktail glass rim, sprinkle on sugar cookies / shortbread cookies / other baked goods, add pizzazz to oatmeal, and even to make a batch of sugar scrub for botanical skincare purposes!
Orange is the star of this particular blend of herbal sugar. With its bright, tangy flavor, vitamin C punch, and complexity of bitter + sour + sweet, it adds depth and delight.
Orange offers so many nutritional and medicinal benefits. It aids the immune system, the heart, addresses inflammation, offers antioxidant benefits, and a host of other perks!
Herbal sugars can be utilized for ritual and spiritual purposes, too, and orange shines in this role. Orange is associated with love, joy, prosperity, luck, and divination. You could certainly change up the ingredients to suit your intentions, but the following recipe would certainly boost intentions of sweetness, joy, and love!
Mix white sugar, fresh orange zest, peppermint, and one vanilla bean (split and scraped, then the whole bean tossed in) in a bowl. Then spread it out to dry awhile on a cookie sheet before transferring the mixture (including the vanilla bean) to a jar. The vanilla bean will continue to impart its sweet flavor in the sugar and it will only get better!
Let the jar sit tightly lidded for a few days to infuse with all the lovely orange oil and vanilla before using it in all the delicious and creative ways you can imagine!
It is ORANGE month at the Plant Wonder Collective Patreon Study Circle! If you’d like to support the work of PWC, please consider joining our Study Circle for exclusive recipes, articles, digital downloads and printables for the plant of the month.
For educational purposes only. Not intended for medical advice. Always consult your physician.
*This post contains affiliate links, which means if you choose to buy something from a link that I share, I will make a small percentage of the sale *at no extra cost to you*.
This is an excerpt from the article Lemon Balm Sugar Cookies by Kristine Brown from the Herbal Cookie Tray Vol 2 booklet featured as the bonus for the Winter Vol 3 | Issue 11 | 2024 edition of Botanical Anthology. To learn more about the ingredients and uses of this recipe, check out the entire article in the magazine! Our herbal magazine, featuring remedies, recipes and projects with plants for the winter season, can be purchased as a Digital version: HERE and as a Print version: HERE.
Lemon Balm Sugar Cookies
Make delightful sugar cookies that melt-in-your-mouth good! The mild lemon flavor adds a delicate blend of tang that compliments the savory rosemary flavor from the garnish perfectly. They can be prepped a day or two ahead so you can cut and bake when you’re ready.
Materials
2 tbsp lemon balm, minced 1 tsp lemon juice 1 c butter, softened ⅔ c sugar 1 egg 2 ⅓ c all-purpose flour Sprigs of rosemary for garnish
Method
In a small bowl, combine lemon balm and lemon juice, pressing the mixture with the back of a spoon to blend.
In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the lemon mixture. Gradually beat in flour and salt.
Cover and refrigerate 3 hours or until firm enough to roll in wax paper.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the dough on waxed paper and slice into slices about 1/8″ thick. Press bits of rosemary sprigs into each cookie to look like a pine tree.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies will brown slightly around edges.
Notes
Yields about 60 cookies.
If you are using dried lemon balm, you will only need about 1 tablespoon.
This recipe can be made gluten free by substituting 1:1 gluten free flour blend for the all-purpose flour.
This recipe can be made dairy free by substituting coconut oil or tallow for the butter.
Kristine Brown, RH (AHG) is the writer and illustrator of the children’s publication Herbal Roots zine, which includes ebooks, online courses, and a membership offering, Herb Club. She is the author of Herbalism at Home, The Homesteader’s Guide to Growing Herbs, and Nature Anatomy Activities for Kids and Nature Anatomy Guided Journal for Kids. Find her online at herbalrootszine.com and on social media @herbalrootszine
A plant lover’s dream, it is a seasonal, plant centered quarterly digital + print magazine bringing you 50+ articles from 45+ contributors to incorporate herbs into your winter apothecary, kitchen, foraging and gardening, crafts, rituals, celebrations, and more.
* Blend vitamin C powder, steep cough elixirs + whip up oatmeal lotion
* Roast hyssop chicken, bake friendship bread + ferment pine needle soda
* Forage juniper, care for houseplants + consider windfall herbs
From November 25th – December 10th, receive the Botanical Anthology Winter edition digital download, plus our All About Turmeric + Herbal Cookie Tray Volume 2 + Herbal Advent Calendars booklets, for just $16.
As a thank you for being here with us, enjoy $1 off the publication with this code:
Take$1BAWinter24
Or head to Amazon to order the print version for $26 then email plantwondercollective@gmail.com with proof of purchase so we know to send you the booklets! We also offer bulk pricing on print orders through our website to save you a bit of moolah.
Give the gift of plants this holiday season. Botanical Anthology is perfect for the budding herbalist, natural health enthusiast, (urban) homesteader, and nature lover in your life. Feel good knowing you are directly supporting a small business and each contributor of this independently published magazine.
Come mid December, the booklets will no longer be included, and the price will increase.
Let us be your guide to work with plants as you journey through the winter season!
I recently had a friend dealing with recurring tension headaches ask what herbs might be helpful in a tea to offer him some relief. (He is also being treated by his doctor, but needed some additional gentle diy to help relax his frazzled nerves and throbbing head & get him some sleep!)
Oatstraw immediately came to mind. They’re a wonderfully gentle soother for frayed nerves, burnout, overwhelm, stress, tension—all things that lack of sleep and depletion from migraines and tension headaches can cause.
In addition to the oatstraw, I added damiana (a headache-easing favorite of mine), calming linden, sleepy passionflower, and cooling peppermint to the batch of tea I made for my friend. He reported back that the tea was very helpful and he got a decent night’s sleep after drinking his first cup!
To make a big batch to keep on hand, choose a larger unit of measure such as a quarter cup or half cup for your parts. For a single mug of tea, choose a small unit of measure – I’d suggest half teaspoons (it will still make a very strong cuppa, or two cups).
To make a single cup of tea, add 1-2 tablespoons to a tea strainer, eco-friendly tea bag, or French press. Pour 1 to 1 1⁄2 cups hot water over the tea and steep for 4-5 minutes. Add honey or other sweetener, if desired.
What are your favorite herbal tea ingredients to help combat headaches?
For educational purposes only. Not intended for medical advice. Always consult your physician.
*This post contains affiliate links, which means if you choose to buy something from a link that I share, I will make a small percentage of the sale *at no extra cost to you*.
It’s sumac month at the Plant Wonder Collective, and I am so excited because this is a new plant for me! I am loving getting acquainted with these little ruby gems.
The taste of sumac is hard to describe; sour, tart, earthy, and in my opinion, delicious. It’s cooling and drying—very astringent and gives that tannin feeling of black tea or red wine. But the flavor is light, and both fruity yet complex and mineral-y.
From tea to spice rub, tincture to wound salve, and even a lovely pink dye, sumac has a host of applications. This plant is full of antioxidants, offers anti-inflammatory aid, is wonderfully healing inside and out, and can help with unpleasant conditions such as water retention and diarrhea. It is good for the cardiovascular system, can aid in drying out the sinuses, and can even lower blood sugar, too! Sumac is widely forageable in the U.S. and has a long history of use by indigenous peoples.
Sumac is tart and delicious as a cold beverage, much like lemonade, and so is often cold-brewed as such—I found lots of simple instructions for doing just that online. But of course I wanted to add a different spin on the typical sumac “lemon”ade, and a September-y flavor profile!
Since I am a huge fan of tart apples and fall cider, I thought I’d try a sumac cider combining this month’s plant with apple and spices! It makes for a lip smacking, satisfyingly-sour and tasty beverage that’s easy to make and kid-friendly, too.
Combine all ingredients in a pitcher; you might decide to use a large tea strainer or large eco-friendly paper tea bag to hold the mulling spices for ease of removal. Allow to cold brew either at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 4 hours to overnight.
Strain the spices and sumac berries out using a fine mesh sieve (a cheesecloth or coffee filter can help, too). Chill and serve over ice!
If you’d like to make this a bit more of an adult drink, you can always add a splash of bourbon or your preferred liquor to your cup; you could also make a stronger brew of the base cider-ade and add then Prosecco or champagne for fizz.
For educational purposes only. Not intended for medical advice. Always consult your physician.
*This post contains affiliate links, which means if you choose to buy something from a link that I share, I will make a small percentage of the sale *at no extra cost to you*.
The Herbology Faerie 