Foraging: Lavender

I love lavender.
I love the way it looks, the glorious scent of the beautiful purple flowers, the dusty looking green leaves.
I love how many different ways you can use lavender.
I really enjoy anything that is lavender scented- lotions, soaps, chapstick, tea, anything lavender is just divinely lovely to me.

It just so happens my mom has a huge lavender bed right out in our front yard.
I'm not sure if this actually counts as foraging, since it's in our yard, but I'm going to say it does since it's from a natural source and not a store.

I cut several stalks of lavender a few weeks ago, put them into bunches and hung them upside down to dry in the kitchen.
When they were nice and crispy dry, I ran my fingers down the stalks and got as many flowers off as I could.
This was a messy job! I got the little lavender flowers everywhere, and then vacuumed up the ones I dropped on the carpet and the whole kitchen smelled wonderful!

I stuck the lavender in a jar and put them in the cupboard to experiment with different ways of using it.

First up: Tea!

Yesterday I was really stressed out and decided that using a little lavender for aromatherapy and tea would be a good idea to help calm me down.
I also spent some time with the Lord, and that calmed me down more than any tea ever could, but I have to admit, this tea helped too. God gave us lavender for a reason- to help calm our busy little lives!
If you'd like to make some into tea, it's simple. Here is what you need:


Lavender Tea 

1 Tbsp dried lavender

Hot water to fill a nice mug

1 tsp. Raw Honey (optional)

Tea Strainer or Tea Egg

Take your strainer, set it over your mug and put some lavender flowers in it.

I used way more flowers than this when I made my tea!
 I didn't think to take the picture til after I'd already dumped out the used flowers and didn't want to waste any more than this, so put a teaspoon or tablespoon of flowers in, depending on how strong you want your tea.

Then pour boiling water over the flowers, until they are slightly floating in the water.

Let steep for 5 minutes at least.

If you want your tea to be sweetened, put a teaspoon of raw honey in your mug, stir, and inhale deeply as you cup your hands around the mug and relax.

Try not to gulp it down. 

I imagine if you had some chamomile flowers and added it to the tea you'd really be relaxed! I'll have to try it sometime. :)

I'm on my way outside to go pick more lavender to dry for future tea-making. I have a feeling I"ll be drinking this a lot, it's so yummy!

Have any of you ever made lavender lotion? I'd love to but am not sure where to begin. If you know, please leave a comment for me!

An exciting day!

Guess what happened today??

We didn't win the publisher's clearing house $5,000 a week for life prize (I know, that's what you thought it was, right??) . ;)
We aren't pregnant.
We went running this morning around Patriot Lake at Shelby Farms, and it was great.
We said farewell to some sweet friends who are moving back near where their families are. Best wishes and lots of love to them.

Also....(and this is the exciting part!!)

We got our first chicken egg!!!!!

I seriously almost burst into tears when Ethan brought it to me, his eyes shining with a huge grin on his adorable face.

It was freckled, tiny, and beautiful.

Also it was delicious.

We fried it right up in some butter (because E dropped the egg and cracked the shell) and oh. my. gracious me.

It was DELICIOUS.

Bright orange yolk full of gorgeous nutrients...MM!
If you've never had a free-range mostly grass fed chicken egg, you have to try one. Right now.
You'll never want to buy eggs from the store again!

I'm so excited to see the rest of our chickens start laying, it's going to be fun!
In the meantime, does anyone have advice about actually getting your hens to lay eggs IN the nesting box?

Ethan found ours in the yard, right by the back fence where the hens like to hang out and take dust baths but I'd really rather them lay eggs in the nesting boxes. So if you know, please tell me!!
I read something about keeping the hens in the coop til mid morning because that's when they usually lay?? Does that work?
I don't know.
I suppose only time will tell. :)

Also tonight, we pulled up our dead squash plants and found these cute little snakes under the dirt.

We all held then and visited with them for a minute, then we let them go back to their home.

Eliana laughed and said the snake was licking her when she saw it's little tongue flicking in and out. :)

That's all for tonight.

I'll be back in a few days with a sewing project: how to renew your cloth shoes (aka knock-off TOMS because I can't afford to pay that much for shoes) by re-upholstering them. Fun!

A few new things in our lives...

A  lot of things have been changing around the Swan homestead lately.
Namely, that we've begun the step of turning our little house into a homestead!

We were thinking and planning on moving to Oklahoma this spring to be nearer to family, but after a ton of prayer and then even more praying with our church small group, we decided to stay here in Tennessee.
Both hubby and I are looking forward to what God has for us here, and already things are turning out for the better!
Since we decided to stay here, we've started working on building a garden,

Our blueberry bushes are looking good this year!

This is a mystery plant that sprouted from our compost! Can anyone tell me what it is??

 We got chickies to raise for eggs and meat if any of them turn out to be roosters.

Our little one-week-old chicks

 We are also trying to make our tiny little house work better for the way we want to live. (This may involve tearing down walls at some point. Stay tuned. It could get dusty!)
Hubby also is starting a new job next week which has had some serious prayer put into it as well-we've been needing a change there for a long time. This job will fit him much better and allow him to have a lot more uplifting work environment.
So, things are a changing!

It is exciting.
It is freeing.
It is wonderful.

You know what's the best part?
Being at peace. Knowing that this is what we are supposed to be doing. Just enjoying life, right now, as it is happening.

My clematis flowers are blooming like crazy right now!

My sweet girl eating wild strawberries in the backyard

Ethan, enjoying the afternoon swinging.

It's a good place to be.

Starting seeds

Its quickly warming up around these parts (today it was nearly 90!) and I am itching to get some seeds planted in our new raised garden bed. I have cucumber, zucchini, carrots, watermelon and cilantro seeds that need to get into that soil and start growing!

We are also planning on growing some potatoes like this, in a tower of some sorts:

source

We just need a tower to grow them in.
Add that to the list of stuff to do. ;)

I started some pepper and tomato seeds a few days ago, and the tomatoes have almost all sprouted.

I'm still waiting on the peppers. I hope they decide to grow!

If you are starting seeds yourself this spring, here are a few pointers:

*Don't buy the seed starting pots at the store, make your own!

 *Use old egg cartons cut into sections and then plant a seed or two in each one.

*Or, if you have some newspaper lying around, roll up newspaper into cylinders and put organic seed starting soil in the middle of them.

* Make sure to keep both moist at all times so your seeds germinate more quickly.

*Also, a good tip that I read after I did mine was to pour some water in the bottom of the tray your seeds will be sitting on before you plant the seeds, then the water can be soaked up into your paper container without disturbing the soil. The soil is so light, when you pour water in it it kind of splooshes everywhere and you can easily water your seed right out of the container if you aren't careful.

*Keep your seeds in the sunlight in a warm location and cover them with some plastic to help keep moisture in and encourage germination. (notice the danish containers from Aldi that I used to cover the seeds in the top few pictures)

When my tomato and pepper plants are a few weeks old, I'm going to transplant them to the garden beds. Since my containers I started them in are biodegradable, I can simply plant the whole thing and be done with it.

Easy Peasy. That's my kind of gardening right there!
Of course, I have to water them and weed them...but still. Save a few dollars and use what you have around the house. You reduce your waste, and give your little seedlings a boost with some extra nutrients from the paper.

Are you starting seeds this year? What are you growing? I'd love to hear from you!


This post is shared at Wildcrafting Wednesday 

Beauty

Here is a post from my first blog I started (and stopped posting on last year because I started Sweet Swan Songs, and I liked it a lot better.)
I am going to be sharing the posts from my first blog here in the next few weeks, because I think they are relevant and I want to transfer them over to this blog. So, if you've read these posts, sorry! But in most cases, it's been a year since I posted them, so here is a fresh look at some of my thoughts from the past year.
This was written last summer. I'm about to plant the same kinds of flowers this year, and am looking forward to them looking as beautiful as they did last year!

Some thoughts on..Beauty.


My flowers are finally blooming!

Remember way back in the springtime when I said I'd take pictures of my flowers when they stopped looking like sticks and dirt?
Well, the ones that looked like sticks never really did anything except die. (mental note: do not buy flowers from root stock. None of the ones I planted this year came up! )
Thankfully,  my bulbs and seeds did decide to emerge from the soil and now I have lovely, lovely Zinnias and Dahlias and Sunflowers and Marigolds.

Growing Store-bought Produce

A few weeks ago I shared on my Facebook page an article I came across about how one can re-grow store bought produce like celery, lettuce, onions after you've used up the majority of them by simply putting the root end into some water and setting it in a window sill so it can get some light.

I tried it with some organic lettuce and lo and behold, it worked!

After just a few days, little leaves were peeking out of the stem of my lettuce.
Being the genius that I am, I decided to plant it in our flowerbed. (lettuce needs dirt for nutrients, right?)
Unfortunately, the birds also need lettuce for nutrients and they ate it right down to the ground and killed it.
(sad face)

I decided to try the same thing with some green onions that I got at the farmer's market, although this time I am keeping them inside.
I put the white ends with roots on them in a jar with some water and.....

The next morning there were green shoots sticking out!
Amazing.
You can see where the new growth is- the dark green part.
Ellie thought they were pretty.

It's so cool how God makes plants still grow even after being picked for who knows how long! (although since these were from the farmer's market, they were probably fresher than onions bought at the store.)
Regardless, I am fascinated by it!

So.
Cool.
This is what they look like today, the second day they've been in the water.
It's raining today, so the lighting isn't as good.

So, don't throw away your leafy lettuce roots, celery roots or green onion roots. (I bet you could grow leeks too.)  Use organic produce. Stick the ends in water and watch them re-grow, and make your money go further!

Sneak Peek- it's almost finished!

Hello!

You may remember this from a few weeks ago..

source

Or not.  I'm sure I'm the only one who checks my blog every day. ;)

Anyway, I've been working on making a skirt similar to this beauty, and I"m almost finished!

I just have to add a lining and zipper and I'll be done.
I've never done a zipper before, and I'm kind of scared I'll ruin the whole skirt if I mess up the zipper.
I'm sure that's an overstatement- I'll just have to ...

but still, I really hope that I can put the zipper in right the first time, with no major mistakes.
Do you have any tips for installing a zipper for super mega beginners?


In other news, I think my daffodils may be confused.

It's been so warm lately that they think it's spring!
I hope a snow doesn't come along and kill them all.

I'll be back on Wednesday, hopefully with a finished skirt and more pictures to share.:)