Gathering Arnica Blossoms

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Arnica BlossomSo far, this year Earth’s weather has been rather crazy. It is almost as if its hormones are raging, something akin to a person experiencing menopause or puberty. Each day, we have no idea what the weather will bring. With no warning, one day it can go from peace and tranquility to a day of extreme temperatures, tornadoes or torrential rains. It keeps you on your toes no doubt. The minute the calendar revealed summer, the weather felt more like a beautiful spring day. Perhaps, it might have to do with this thing people call climate change. Just a thought.

Since this affects all living things on our beautiful planet, the herbs are adjusting as well. This year, plants are coming in at a different pace than before. They seem to be delayed and then burst open when the opportunity presents. Therefore, my herbal harvest schedule has adapted as well. Every morning I go out and walk the land to see what is thriving, because I do not want to harvest anything that is struggling, nor do I want to miss any opportunities.

Our growing Arnica bed

Our growing Arnica bed

On most occasions, I do one big harvest of a particular herb for the year. Except for Arnica (Arnica spp.), I have always done daily blossom harvests. Although, our lovely bed has grown and spread out marvelously since I planted one little plant 5 years ago, there are rarely more than a dozen blossoms blooming at one time.

Every little blossom helps

Every little blossom helps

I simply love the process of going out, picking a few blossoms every afternoon, slowing pulling them apart, and placing them in a jar of organic first cold press olive oil. I start with a small jar and then when it is almost full, I transfer it to a larger jar during the summer and keep filling it. I give all the herbs I am processing daily love and attention with a little shake and check on them to make sure there is no condensation. However, Arnica gets a whole lot more on a consistent basis. I am thanking the plant daily for giving me its blossoms and lovingly pull them apart each day.

It's full and ready for me to transfer to a larger jar so I can add more blossoms.

It’s full and ready for me to transfer to a larger jar so I can add more blossoms.

During the summer, the blossoms do increase, since the process of removing them stimulates production. Plants create flowers, which in turn develop seeds so it can continue to flourish. As bloom wanes and the flowers shed their petals and form seed heads, their energy transfers from forming blossoms into seed development. By harvesting its blossoms, I am keeping its energy focused on increasing its flowers.

Arnica is wonderful for relieving pain of strains, sprains, and bruises as it works in concert with the bodies own immune response to injury. When tissues are injured, the body’s immune system reacts by dilating capillaries, therefore increasing blood flow to the area resulting in inflammation. Yes folks, inflammation is good. Sure, chronic inflammation is bad but for minor acute injuries inflammation is how the body heals itself. Arnica works by stimulating the flow of white blood cells to the injured area. They process congested blood by dispersing trapped fluid from joints, muscles and bruised tissue. This increased blood flow also brings healing hormones to the area and moves stagnant blood (like bruises). Consequently, there will be decreased swelling and the person will heal faster.

A while back, my Mother fell and hit her head very hard. She ended up with six stitches and two massive black eyes. She looked like a panda bear. She started to take Homeopathic Arnica pellets three times a day and her bruises started to fade. Her doctor was amazed at how quickly her body responded and healed. Arnica assisted her body in removing the dead or damaged cells of her bruises.

I love adding Arnica infused oil to my Pain Begone! salve. It is a wonderful blend of Arnica, St. John’s Wort and Goldenrod; harnessing their medicinal powers to reduce the pain of muscle and tendon injuries, aches, arthritis while reducing swelling.Pain Begone

What do you use Arnica for? Please share and I will continue to share.

All information is shared for educational purposes only and has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Let it decompose

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The first place I lived where we composted our food scraps was in Richmond Hill, Queens. That summer, I lived with my boyfriend’s family, in the early 1980’s. His Mom composted most of our food and used it on her beautiful garden. I remember her being very specific about what could and could not be put into the compost. This included absolutely no animal products, not even eggshells. She cultivated a beautiful rich compost for her garden.

I simply fell in love with the idea of composting!

We are allowing nature to do its job.

We are engaging in the natural cycle of life.

We are nourishing the soil, so it can nourish us.

We are not burying food in our landfills.

It’s a beautiful thing!

Since moving away from Queens, I have tried to compost everywhere I have lived. Remember, I am not a gardener, I’m a conservationist, and my primary goal for composting has always been to limit what I throw-out or put into the landfill. I see no reason to contribute to the building of more landfill mountains than necessary. If it can decompose, it should be allowed to decompose, not stuffed in a plastic garbage bag and buried under other garbage bags, where it will sit for a very long time.

Look at all that garbage!

Where ever I have lived in a home with a backyard, I have composted. Sometimes I would dig a hole; about two feet deep, fill it with food scraps and once filled, I would cover it with soil. If there was a forest, I would place the compost bin on the inside edge of the woods. In this case, I would take a bit of fencing material, the kind you put around young saplings to protect them from critters. It is about 3 feet high and, when formed into a cylinder, its diameter is about 2 ½ feet, perfect size for a compost pile.  You may be asking yourself about critters. I have never had any problems with critters. But in the country, there are critters and if they eat the compost, YAY, it continues the circle of life. When I lived in the suburbs of Northern California, I was warned about roof rats, but never had an issue. And we had a very large open compost bin (5 ft high and 5 ft across) that we put lawn debris in along with food scraps. When we lived in San Francisco, the waste removal company took compost along with all the other recyclables, as it is mandatory. I loved it. The city even provided kitchen pails and carts at no charge.

Our little compost pile

Remember, I am simply diverting my food scraps from the landfill. However, there are other benefits to composting beyond not making garbage mountains.

Did you know?

  • When waste is sent to landfill, air cannot get to the organic waste. Therefore as the waste breaks down, it creates a harmful greenhouse gas, methane, which damages the Earth’s atmosphere. However, when this same waste is composted above ground at home, oxygen helps the waste to decompose aerobically which means hardly any methane is produced, which is good news for the planet. And what’s more, after nine to twelve months, you get free fertilizer for your garden.
  •  A recent estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency predicted that up to one-fourth of all landfill waste could have been thrown into the compost. It’s amazing to think that a quarter of our waste could be turned into nutrient-rich soil.
  • Even if food does biodegrade in a landfill, whatever comes out of it won’t be useful. Even if it does turn into very good compost, nothing will grow in it, and chances are some of the toxic materials that end up at the landfill will contaminate it.

There are many ways to compost but simply, all you need to do is get a container with a lid, put it by your sink and throw your food scraps into it. When it’s full, take it outside and let it decompose as nature intended.

Food for the Earth!