In case you haven’t met yet, let me introduce you to THE SHRUB – the kind you drink.
Shrub What?
At its heart, a shrub is a sweetened fruit syrup mixed with vinegar as a way to preserve summer flavors. In practice, shrubs are best sipped with friends who are as bubbly and sweet/tart as the flavors flowing from the glass.
The magic of any shrub is how it brings together the sweet of the fruit with the acid of vinegar- creating a depth of flavor that lays down a perfect base to build on. But typical of true magic, there’s a third part – the health benefits of probiotics and enzymes from the apple cider vinegar complete the trinity.
Stephanie and I before Covid, at a WBL Farmers Market after she taught a fermentation class
When I first made shrubs, I cooked my rhubarb (and other fruits) then strained the juice and added vinegar. But there is a fresher flavor with fermenting- which may seem counterintuitive but hear me out. When you skip cooking the fruit you retain some great high notes from the rhubarb that get cooked out in other versions. Similar to fresh strawberry jam versus cooked strawberry jam…
Stephanie Thurow, a friend and coauthor of our book, Small-Scale Homesteading is also a master food preserver of Minnesota from Scratch . She first opened my eyes to fermenting shrubs and I will never go back!
I love a good two for one and garlic delivers every time!
This bulb is used to flavor foods the world over, and one of the best kept secrets about garlic is the garlic scape!
Because of the way hardneck garlic grows there are two chances to harvest deliciousness. We all know about garlic cloves, technically the bulb, harvested in late summer… but the beautiful reed like stalks shooting up and the single flower stalk that shoots up from the center, around midsummer in my region, are a delicacy known as the scape.
The garlic scape is slightly milder and somehow ‘brighter’ than the underground cloves. They can be eaten raw or cooked with the flavor changing drastically after heating. I enjoy eating them in a few different ways. In a garlic scape pesto (recipe below), grilling them with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice- when they magically taste like asparagus, or fermenting for a spicy mid-winter snack.
They show up around midsummer in farmers markets, but the surest way to gather garlic scapes is to grow your own!
For ALL the Details on Planting Garlic, Read my Growing Great Garlic post.
Harvesting Garlic Scapes
Once the garlic scapes have curled around and you can see where a flower will emerge from, it’s time to get snipping. The softer the scape, the more tender eating- so you take them when you want, depending on your end goals… I usually harvest almost all at once, so I get a variety of maturity, I use the larger ones in pesto, and the smaller ones I grill or ferment.
*You will also want to snip off the flower tips and add to the compost as the buds can harbor bad bacteria and I just don’t dig the texture*
Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe
Ingredients: 1 Cup + of garlic scapes, chopped ½ Cup Basil Juice ½ lemon ½ tsp+ salt ½ C Extra Virgin Olive Oil ¼ Cup sunflower seeds or pine nuts ¼ C grated Parmesan / Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Instructions: Place scapes in food processor (or Ninja) and pulse to chop finely, add all ingredients but the olive oil and pulse until well combined. Then drizzle in (or add in batches to Ninja) olive oil. Try to freeze half for a mid-winter burst of summer flavor! *If using raw seeds or nuts, toast before using.
This was the first herbal salve I ever made, years ago and it is still one of my all time favorites to use, pretty much daily. this Calendula salve softens, heals, soothes and calms my skin in ways that nothing else can.
Making salve is kind of the gateway herbal bath and body product. Once you realize that you can mix a few natural, quality ingredients and end up with a practical, beautiful and healing product most people feel empowered. I want you to feel that power too!
At a time when more and more of us are becoming aware of what we’re
putting on and into our bodies – along with the carbon footprint the products we
use leave behind… making your own salve is a great place to pivot.
These salves also make great gifts! As I am writing it is prime Holiday Shopping time, yet my gifts are being made from things I am already have in my home. Nothing beats a consumable, homemade gift as far as I’m concerned. Bonus that you can use canisters you already have, furthering your commitment to ‘reduce – reuse – recycle’!
Basic Benefits of Calendula Salve:
Calendula petals contains anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial properties, and is used to soothe a long list of skin ailments. Plus, it’s safe to use on babies (yes, even the finished salve with beeswax)! The oils and beeswax are both sustainable and deeply healing in their own right – so being able to swirl and melt them all together can make just about anyone feel like a healer.
There are
two parts to making salves.
*Infusing
the oil with an herb/flower you’ll be using.
*Adding the thickening + healing agents to that oil.
Flowers First
Like all recipes, it’s important to start with quality ingredients. Growing my own Calendula adds so much to the garden, as both a trap crop for many common garden pests, and as a draw for beneficial insects – plus they’re gorgeous. I prefer Calendula Resina because it has the highest concentration of petal ‘resin’ aka the good stuff. My original seed packet came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
These are also great starter plant to seed save from; more on seed saving here. This is all before I snip off the buds to use their medicine. More in depth info on growing these and other beauties at my Companion Planting Flowers for your Vegetable Garden.
Harvesting Calendula
Summer is in full swing when it is finally time to start
harvesting the flowers. This is both rewarding and a great way to tidy up the
garden. Picking them at their peak, with fully opened petals but not drooping-
and after the morning dew has dried but not in the heat of the afternoon, will yield
the best resin.
So, start with either homegrown calendula or skip that part of the
process and buy your calendula from a trusted source. The only place I’ve been consistently
happy with is Mountain Rose Herbs.
They have an amazing selection and grow things they way I do.
Making Calendula Oil:
Once the flowers are cut, I usually let me calendula (and any other herbs/petals) wilt for a good day or two- or even place in our dehydrator overnight to reduce the water content. This make for a more intense diffusion and reduces the chance of mold in the oil as you let the plants sit and infuse. After they’re wilted/dried a bit cover the petals with enough oil so the petals are fully submerged. This also helps keep any possible mold at bay. I use a mason jar and screw the lid on. I usually write the date I started the infusion on a dissolving label and let it set for at least 4 to 6 weeks – usually more.
Sweet Almond Oil is my go-to carrier oil for infusing. It has the softest
feel, a good shelf life and healing properties of its own. I’ve used a light
Extra Virgin Olive Oil as well, and that works fine too.
Infusing the Oil
Infusion is the process of extracting chemical compounds or flavors from plant material in a solvent such as water, oil or alcohol, by allowing the material to remain suspended in the solvent over time, a process often called steeping.
Herbal academy
Think of this as a cold brewed tea on overdrive. There are quicker methods where you heat the oil. I’ve never tried this, but if you want to check out the Double Boiler Herb-Infused Oil section of the Herbal Academy article, you can make the infusion in a day. It will not be as potent as the slower, lower temperature version.
*You can also slowly add petals to this jar as they bloom- just
make sure they are dried a bit and remember to keep adding oil to cover petals
completely.*
By the time I’m ready to make salve the bulk of my outdoor garden
work has slowed down – and if you don’t have time to make the salve right away,
just try to strain off the oil from the infusion within 8 weeks. This straining
is as easy as leaving it to drip through a sieve, until the very end when you’ll
want to get in there and squeeze out every last drop of goodness. The oil will
be cloudier as you squeeze, this is totally normal.
Alchemy Time
Ingredients:
1 C Calendula Infused Oil (or less if adding other oils)
1 Oz Beeswax
20-40 drops of Essential oil of choice. Here’s a great list of Essential oils for salves and their properties.
Now it’s time to get your other ingredient(s) and containers in order. Mainly, beeswax and any other oils you’ll be adding to the mix. One word about beeswax. If you can buy directly from a beekeeper- the raw goodness, plus the smell of honey will add another layer of healing to your salve. Local beeswax will keep the carbon foot print low as well!
I keep my salve recipes pretty simple and just add a bit of jojoba or emu oil to the pot as I’m warming the ingredients. And topping it off with essential oils just before I pour it off.
So Simple
Melt + Pour.
It really is that simple.
Notice my pyrex measuring cup in lieu of an actual double boiler- means one less dish!
In a double boiler (see my cheater version above) or a heavy pan start warming the infused oil and beeswax. If you want to make a larger or smaller batch a good rule of thumb is 1 ounce of beeswax for every 1 cup of oil. You can play around with these ratios as much as you’d like. Adding more beeswax will give you a harder salve; some like a harder slave for summer so it doesn’t melt.
The only trick is to not let the mixture get above 140- low heat is the trick here! If adding essential oils (I do love this, but unless capped they loose their fragrance quickly) do so right at the end. I usually turn off the burner and add just before I pour in.
I usually opt for Lavender or rosemary – but this time I let my
son choose. I make this as much for his eczema as anything else, so I figured he
could chose the scent…and I love that after smelling over 30 bottles he chose frankincense,
which is an essential oil known for being wonderful for your skin!
Let the containers cool and cap in a few hours.
Congratulations! You’ve just made your first calendula salve.
One cup of oil turned into this much calendula salve.
These are great as gifts, and you’ve solved the dilemma of needing an upstairs + a downstairs + a car + a backpack skin cream without any fake chemicals or plastic packaging. Well done!
