Yesterday i got an aloe vera plant from friends living in my street. Last week i took care of their cats, while they were on holiday. They have many aloe vera plants in their house, so i asked for one. Very happy with it. Need to read more about its uses. For now, i love the way it looks, so i won’t be using it that much.
It is cold today. The first day of the wintertime. A long day. It still feels like it should be later right now. Only 21:11.
There was a Pot Luck this evening at the Vredestuin. I didn’t expect many people. We joked beforehand, Jorinde and me, that maybe it would be just the two of us. But it was quite busy! Around twelve people turned up. We chatted. Sang a few songs. Sat around the fire, which made it feel not that cold. Our behinds were cold though. And the few moments i walked away i felt the chill in the wind.
I made a potato, onion, courgette and green tomato dish to cook upon the wood fire. Someone else bought a dessert, a thick sweet semolina porridge with currants. Vegan. I still had some quince cake i baked this morning. I’m still full.
A lovely evening!
This summer i picked calendula flowers, put them out to dry and saved them. The end of June i took the dried flower leaves home and put them in oil. I used ecological sunflower oil. I let it stand on the windowsill for way too long. I read that a month should be enough. I let them stand for three months.
Today i let the oil drip from all the dried leaves. The oil is very orange. It also smells a bit sweet. I put some left over oil on my legs and afterwards my fingers smelled sweet. Lovely!
The main use of calendula is in wound-healing and skin-soothing. It promotes healing. It is anti-inflammatory and slightly antimicrobial. You can use it on scratches. Do not use any oil-based calendula on oozing or weeping wounds. Use a calendula tea for those and let it dry between applications. It is safe and nontoxic.
My main purpose is making calendula salve. A person i’m following on youtube is Morag Gamble. She has a channel about permaculture life. She made three movies about calendula. I used her recipe as a base. The movies i linked at the bottom of this post.
The recipe is very easy.
I put all three ingredients in a glass jar. I warmed it up in a pan and kept on stirring it until everything was dissolved. I washed several small jars and pots, dried them completely and filled them. That’s it!
This morning i worked in the garden de Tuin op Hofbogen. Harvesting the beans, the courgttes. Watering a bit. Talking with some visitors. Good weather.
This afternoon i went to the market and got me some leeks. Yesterday i thought about making a leek and chicken soup. Which is what i did! I also used fresh ginger. Some loose leaved cabbage from the garden. A courgette, because, well, i have so many! It tasted good. Tomorrow i will do something with the beans i have. I might blanche them and put them in the freezer. I also want to do something with the green tomatoes i took home today. A green tomato chutney!
The plant in the photo above is a Doornappel. I posted this picture in the Dutch permaculture group. I saw this plant today in the garden and was curious. I talked about it with the other people, but nobody knew what plant it was. In the permaculture group within minutes two people replied with the correct answer, the doornappel, the Datura stramonium. A member of the nightshade family and a very poisonous plant. Careful!
