The Cottage Farm Witch

  Oh, plantain. If you only ever learn about one medicinal herb, make it this one. Plantain is an amazing plant and it grows *everywhere*. It pops up in early spring and grows through the summer. Native to Europe, Plantain was brought to America by white settlers and quickly became known to natives as "where white man walks" because it would grow everywhere white men stepped due to the tiny seeds getting stuck on the bottom of their shoes. Plantain is useful for burns, scrapes, cuts, stings, poison oak and poison ivy, and sunburns. If you find yourself in need of relief from any of these while out enjoying nature, find some plantain and chew up the leaves to make a poultice which can be applied directly to the effective area. It will quickly relieve pain and discomfort while also cleaning the area and stimulating cellular growth and tissue regeneration. No natural first aid kit is complete without a jar of plantain oil to use on those scrapes and burns at home a...

This post may contain affiliate links. I make a small profit if you click the link and make a purchase, which in turn helps support my family and the life we are working to build. So if you choose to click and buy, thank you. It means a lot to us. May’s full moon is called the flower moon for the obvious reason of all the flowers blossoming into life during May. As they say, “April showers bring May flowers,” and even the naming of the full moon pays tribute to this season’s abundance of blooms. Falling between the night of the 15th and morning of the 16th, depending on your time zone, this year’s full moon also incorporates a full lunar eclipse, which will give the moon a beautiful red hue. The Flower Moon has spiritual themes of: Abundance Joy Laughter Fertility Spiritual Growth Celebrating a full moon can be a big affair, but between kids, jobs, and real life, finding the time to do something extravagant can be overwhelming. These five ideas are simple to do without much planning or...

This post may contain affiliate links. I make a small profit if you click the link and make a purchase, which in turn helps support my family and the life we are working to build. So if you choose to click and buy, thank you. It means a lot to us. When you’re operating a plant based homestead, seed starting is one of the most important tasks you do. Because we grow so many plants, I begin my seed starting in January, and will continue through April. Then again in August for the fall garden, and any plants I am overwintering (such as kale, mizuna, broccoli, etc.). Today I am transplanting 150 tomato plants, along with about 100 pepper starts, just to give you an idea of the scope of seedlings I’m talking about. When you’re starting your plants from seed rather than buying starts, the soil you use is one of the most important things to keep in mind, and luckily, one you can easily control. Many of the soils you can buy pre-bagged are too dense for the tender, tiny roots of new seedlings ...

This post may contain affiliate links. I make a small profit if you click the link and make a purchase, which in turn helps support my family and the life we are working to build. So if you choose to click and buy, thank you. It means a lot to us. Spring is by far my favorite season. Everything feels fresh and new, from garden beds filling up with seedlings to sparkling clean houses from deep spring scrubs. It makes me feel like anything is possible, and my rituals reflect that feeling of wonder and new beginning.  These three rituals can be done anytime during the spring season. They are built specifically for this season, taking into account the theme of the season as well as what is available to us for use during this time. There are rituals I perform daily no matter what the season, but I believe living a seasonal life isn’t just eating seasonal food, but allowing yourself to fall into the rhythms and rituals of each distinct season. It helps us ground us in the present, and co...

As spring arrives to the PNW, we start to look forward to warmer (possibly) dryer weather but it's all that rain that has the first plants peeking their heads out of the earth, coming back to life after their long winter slumber. For me and my children, spring often means lots and lots of walks through the woods behind our home. There we watch the birds build their nests, take note of what's blooming that wasn't before, watch the creek to see how high or low the water is, and (my favorite) begin our foraging season. Today I want to show four of our favorite edible and medicinal plants that are readily available in early spring. You can find separate posts with more detailed info on each plant. This is just an overview of one of my foraging trips in early spring. Yesterday I set out with my trusty foraging bag (a macrame jute bag with a long strap), my camera and, most unusually, all alone. Normally my kiddos will join me when I go walking but sometimes the peac...

One of the first flowers to open up in spring is the sweet and prolifent dead nettle. A part of the mint family, this little plant is one of the easiest to forage as it grows in so many places and you can often find huge clusters of it at a time. The leaves and flowers are both edible, with a taste similar to spinach, and can be eaten either raw or cooked. Purple dead nettle is a self seeding annual and frost resistant. Being one of the first spring flowers, it's actually super important to bees and other wildlife, when food is still scarce. Each flower can contain several hundred to several thousand seeds and you will frequently see it pop up where soil has been disturbed, mother nature's way of healing the ecosystem. As an edible, dead nettle is high in fiber, iron and vitamin c. It contains antioxidants and is good for the kidneys. The leaves are a tad fuzzy which some people don't care for. That is easily remedied by cooking them though. Y...