Everyone in the house appears to be totally recovered from various illnesses and dead computers have been brought back to life – so now returns the witch of Forest Grove, Pagan Bookworm and the Wigglian Way podcast. Today at lunchtime the mailman delivered my Sunburst Bottle order a week early to my supreme delight as this afternoon my wonderful friends from Herbal Craft and their little one came to visit me and bring me my other Botanica order which is a giant box of organic and wildcrafted herbs. They smell so good! Since both serendipitously arrived on the same day I can get started right away making new incenses, herbal remedies, potions, witchy salves, and restock sold out items…. I’m so excited I get to make things! I really missed it while covered in blankets with the swine flu.
The strung Rowan berries I’ve had hung up in my kitchen are now nicely dried and ready for sale – so expect to see them listed in the Botanica soon along with many many other new witchy goodies and herbal remedies. I’ve got eight of the European Rowan and two with Mountain Ash berries (the little ones at the bottom). I love how the climates and vegetation of my ancestor’s old world of Ireland and Scotland are so similar the new world I live in here. It always manages to put me in thankful awe for living in the rainforest of British Columbia.
Sarah,
Your Rowan strings look so much tidier then mine and less wrinkly!
What my dear is your secret?
Perhaps you strung yours earlier in the season?–the berries I strung were quite squishy!
Ta
Nikiah
Hi Nikiah!
I string them using natural thread and a large sewing needle – this time I used alpaca yarn or something – whatever I had that was red. I string them from the stem base to the remnants of the flower top straight through the centre when they are still fresh and firm off the tree; this lets air into the centre of the berries letting them dry from the inside out so they stay red and don’t get all shriveled and brown and black. I hang them up to dry in a warm, dry, and dark place for a few weeks to a month. The bright red ones look so good because they’re from a European Rowan which has huge berries compared to the local variety, so they dry big and stay bright.
Slainte!
Sarah
Seems that yesterday was a global witchy serendipity day! I could have written this exact post – I also got an order of very expected herbs and spent the night witching away after we both got ill last week! LOL we’re sisters, aren’t we?
Witch sisters, lol!