August 01, 2019

What's been happening on Pippettes Farm in July

Lots of picking, watering, planting and mowing.

The calendula and chamomile suddenly came into its own and we are overwhelmed with beautiful vibrant luminous flowers. Our fingers have been sticky and stained orange from all the calendula picking and then stained further with the red hues of the last flowers on our St John’s Wort bushes.
Mullein, Mallow, Elecampane, Echinacea, Rosemary and Thyme are growing rapidly and all in flower. We’ve collected the flowers and new leaves off the Mullein but need to wait for the roots of the Mallow, Elecampane and Echinacea. We have never collected these before so ... we’ll see.

We have harvested sage for the first round of smudge sticks hoping that we will get a second and third crop through to October.
Lavender - wow. Another amazingly aromatic fragrance that wafts across the meadow with the chamomile. I love the intense yet pure combination of lavender and chamomile as I walk up our meadow and have captured this in our Benediction range of body care, Meadow flower soaps and Elf Leaf Potion Bath Foam for you to enjoy too.

I’ve picked and dried a lot of lavender this month and as it’s so fresh the colour is glorious and the fragrance aromatics and a bit camphorous too. It’s Angustifolia (the bluer fatter and rounder flower in the picture) and grosso the thinner greyish mauve. Angustifolia May be prettier but I adore grosso. It reminds me of the lavender and oil we used in NZ. It seems more therapeutic too. I hope to get these tested and analysed further one day, but for now we are happy to admire their colour, let the bees enjoy them and then collect the flowers for teas, distilled oils and infusions.

If you visit the shop or order online please  just ask is for a bag of our freshly picked flower heads and we’ll be delighted to give you a free bag.  
Written by Elaine Everitt

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