Salad Burnet - an evergreen herb

- by Debra Anchors

Salad burnet
-Image from UBC Botanical Garden 

The herb, salad burnet, traveled to America with the Pilgrims and has provided us with wintertime greens ever since.

Plant this herb beside your back door so you can enjoy its cucumber-like taste year-round; the herb is hardy in USDA zone 3.  Use the ferny leaves on a sandwich in place of lettuce, mix them with other salad greens, steep them in white-wine vinegar, or bruise them and add them to a wine spritzer.

John Gerard, an herbalist in the sixteenth-century, suggested salad burnet as, “pleasant to be eaten in salads, in which it is thought to make the heart merry and glad, as also being put into wine, to which it yeeldeth a certain grace in the drinking”.

Salad burnet is indigenous to Europe, Africa, and Western Asia; it has made itself at home throughout most of North America.  Salad burnet can be invasive, so be certain to employ a method to control its wandering habit.

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Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 
-Debra

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Mulling is a centuries-old practice

-by Debra Anchors

Hot mulled cider

Here We Go A' Wassailing is a song which references wassail, a traditional holiday beverage featuring mulling spices. 

Mulling spices are wonderful to have on hand for those winter evenings when the family gathers around the fire.  Mix 2 cups dried orange peel, 2 cups broken cinnamon sticks, 1-cup whole allspice berries, 1-cup whole cloves, and 4 broken star anise.  Store the mixture in a closed jar.  

To use:  Mix ¼ cup of the spices per gallon of wine, cider, or apple juice.  Simmer for 30 minutes. Serve hot in mugs with cinnamon stick stir-sticks, or fill a punch bowl and garnish with orange slices.  The zesty aroma is a charming additional benefit.

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Thank you for stopping by to spend time in my garden.  If you liked the article, please take a moment to let me know. I will be delighted if you would suggest Gardens Inspired to your friends, follow me or subscribe to my Blog. 

Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 

-Debra

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How to make herbal soap

- by Debra Anchors

Creating handmade soap is affordable and is the perfect solution to add a personal touch to your lavatory or to offer as gifts to friends. Soap making, while a very old practice, has become almost commonplace; supplies and kits are readily available.

Soap consists of an acidic fat such as lard, tallow or vegetable oils, and a base, usually lye or ashes. While you can certainly make soap from scratch, it’s easier, safer, and less time consuming to start with a purchased cube of plain glycerin soap.  True, you won’t get
that Colonial realism, but you also don’t have to worry about inhaling lye, which is caustic.

Here’s how to make your own customized herbal soap bars:

On a cutting board, and using a sharp knife, cut the glycerin soap into smaller cubes to accelerate melting. Place the soap chunks in the top of a double boiler over simmering water; cover and allow the soap to melt down into liquid. You can also use the microwave for this step; put the soap in a glass bowl or large measuring cup, cover with a paper towel, and heat at intervals of 10-to-15 seconds. Stir during each interval until the soap is melted.

Allow the melted soap to cool slightly, and continue stirring until the temperature registers 120°F on a candy thermometer. At this stage, the soap has thickened enough so that any ingredients you add will be dispersed throughout, rather than sinking to the bottom. Do not allow the soap to cool long enough so it starts to form a thick skin.

When your soap has cooled to 120°F, you can add whatever essential oils and coloring you wish. To give soap a fragrance, and/or a property (such as insect-repellent, antiseptic, etc.), use essential oils and not chemicals. There are hundreds to choose from, including citrus to invigorate you, rosewood, which is uplifting, or Ylang-Ylang for stress relief. If you want to make tinted soap, stir in one-half teaspoon paprika, curry powder, cocoa powder, or cinnamon.

Other design options are limited only by your imagination. Add texture by stirring in rolled oats, dried herbs, or finely ground almonds. Blend in the blooms from lavender or roses to add a feminine touch, or choose wheat bran to make an exfoliating scrub. Add flowers or thinly sliced fruit into the mold before pouring soap over it, sealing the botanical inside. Make multicolored soap by layering the mold with two or more colors by letting one layer set before adding another, and so on.

Pour the mixture into a flexible plastic mold and let it set for about 40 minutes. Turn the soap out of the mold and wrap each bar in plastic wrap. To present your soap as gifts, wrap them in raffia, fancy ribbons, or use a dab of glue to attach dried flowers.

If you enjoy this website, you might like my magazines, Upcycled Garden Style and Gardening Life. 

Thank you for stopping by to spend time in my garden.  If you liked the article, please take a moment to let me know. I will be delighted if you would suggest Gardens Inspired to your friends, follow me or subscribe to my Blog. 

Leave a legacy, but garden like you’ll live forever! 

-Debra

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