COVER STORY
by Carissa Wills-DeMello
Is there anything that embodies summer more than multicolored blossoms unfolding in the sunshine? For gardeners and herbalists, we wait for this eye candy all year long. It’s the time of year when we get to reap the beauty of what we sow. The harvest of fresh garden veggies is delicious, but flowers? Pure bliss!
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t’s the copper-colored poppies, radiant lavender, and magnificent mullein that we’re all really waiting for. There’s something about the ephemeral nature of the flowers that captivate our spirit and beg the question: how can we preserve this beauty for year-round enjoyment? Here are a few time-worn practices for the herbalist in all of us.
Flower Essence
A flower essence is a water-based infusion which is said to capture the energetic imprint of a flower. Anyone who has inhaled the aroma of a flower knows that each is different. Some calm you instantly. Some inspire. Some give us strength or joy. A flower essence then captures these unique characteristics, so that we can benefit year-round from the emotional and spiritual support flowers offer. There are endless resources online to help you choose which flower essence is best for you. They can be used internally like a tincture, or externally as a mist. Easy-to-find flowers that make beautiful essences include: Mimosa, Goldenrod, Mullein, Motherwort, and Honeysuckle.
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July 2021 | The South Coast Insider
✿ Fill a bowl with clean spring water. ✿ Pick a sunny morning to harvest. Choose which flowers
you’ll be working with and take a moment to sit with them in gratitude – they will be creating herbal medicine for you, after all!
✿ Harvest your flowers directly into your bowl – hold each
blossom with a tweezer, clip at its base, and let it drop into your bowl.
✿ Cover the surface of the water with a layer of flowers. ✿ To “infuse” your essence, place your bowl in the sunlight for 3-4 hours or in the moonlight overnight.
✿ After infusing, pour your essence through a mesh strainer into a clean glass jar with alcohol or distilled white vinegar, at a 50:50 dilution. Label the bottle.
✿ You now have a preserved “mother essence” – this is to be
diluted, not taken directly. To make a “stock essence,” add 10 drops of the mother essence to a 60 mL bottle filled with 50:50
