St. John's Wort is ready to harvest now

We harvested St. John's Wort in our last herbal class. Just like with other herbs remember not to overharvest. We took part of a flowering tip with some leaves from scattered plants in a huge area, and made a tincture & an oil.

Infusing Wine with herbs

In the summer I often infuse some white wine with herbs. I made some white wine from scratch 2 years ago using green grapes & peaches. It still tastes a little 'new', aka not so good. When I walked outside the other day I saw the climbing rose had quite a few roses on it. I poured some of the wine into the mason jar above & added all the rose petals. It tastes amazing!

So I got out the other 20 bottles of peach/grape wine & a chopstick & pushed a bunch of herbs in each bottle.

For those taking my herbal course you'll have a good idea what herbs to use. For flavor I am thinking the rose petals will be great. And I made a few with lavender flowers (which will be great for relaxing before bed, lavender makes you sleepy). I also added: comfrey to some bottles, plantain, yarrow leaves & flowers, calendula flowers, borage flowers, lemon balm. Lots of these are for immune system, and some are for relaxing the nervous system. At some point I will strain the herbs out of each bottle, and also at some point, lavender or rose petals will be added to each one because I love the flavor.

I did try making some herbal wines using just herbs - no grapes. They are NOT so tasty. I think I like this method the best.

Pictures taken by our house.