Heartwood Herbs

13/12/2024

Harvested Blaen Y Wern, Carmarthenshire, Wales (All photos taken here) Dual extract alcohol extraction and hot-water extraction 45% organic alcohol extraction 55% water 1:3 ratio (following DafYdd Monks volume recommendations resulting in high strength) traditional dose 2 - 5 mls daily in water GWC....

16/11/2024

Here we go,. winter solstice herbal gift ideas!

https://heartwoodherbs.org/collections/winter-solstice-gift-ideas

06/07/2023

An earthskills herbal/art club project which we are excited to host is a plant medicine club/group/herbalists without borders Vibe. So far the idea is to meet monthly, on a Sunday, at Heartwood, with the possibility of other venues. The idea is to skillshare, herb share, make remedies, grow herbs, forage and make art inspired with nature, journaling, or otherwise), with aspirations to be a creative community and a herbal resource to support the local community and people seeking asylum in the UK and Calais. (We tried to become herbalists without borders southwest wales, but those at HQ said we had to be HWB Carmarthen and haven't gotten back to me in my appeal of having a wider geographical name! https://www.hwbglobal.org/)

The first meet up is: This Sunday the 9th of July 12 till 4.30pm. Bring lunch.

The Second meet up is: Sunday the 6th of August: 12 till 4.30pm. Bring lunch.

Again not everyone has whatsapp, facebook and we want to stay away from them so please reply to this email heartwoodearthskills@gmail.com and I shall send you an invite to the email group. (This aims to be a low traffic group with working groups if needed.)

We are very excited to have just been awarded £500 SEED funding with the support of Glasbren and Carmarthenshire County Council. This is going to
jump start us in developing a community tree and plant nursery, medicinal herb garden and medicine woods. Design and planning days to follow soon.

Thank you so much and looking forward to our 'growing community' growing,
https://heartwoodearthskills.com/
Scheduling options

Happy Summer everyone, Anita and the rest of Earthskills team.

Anita O' Flynn
( www.heartwoodherbs.org )

HWB is a 501c3 NGO nonprofit. Our nonprofit is a global member network of of herbalists, medicinal plant growers, herbal educators, alternative holistic modality practitioners and others dedicated to herbal health access for all, medicinal plant conservation, health justice and more.

05/07/2023

So I have been busy making tinctures with the bounty of nature all around and I must say it's lots of fun.

I use organic grain alcohol which I buy using an alcohol license. The amazing herbarium website helped me do the paperwork which was easier then I had procrastinated over and can be found here: Application for Authority to Receive Duty Free Spirits.

Another option if looking for smaller amounts without a licence is 5 litres of 95% @ £85.50 at liquid essences.

When I started making tinctures for use for home and friends I used coop gin. I'm not sure why, perhaps because I'm a fan of gin and tonics. In hindsight vodka would have been a cleaner alcohol as it is not already infused with botanicals and some people find gin brings them down. How many botanicals coop gin has ever seen is best left to the imagination. The second error I made was using the gin or vodka at the strength it came in and not cross referencing with other tincture makers websites or books as to the recommended percentage of alcohol required. This meant I was spending more on alcohol then I needed to and possibly damaging some of the plant constituents. For example gin is 40 to 45% and cleavers (Galium aparine) tincture only needs 25%.

''Tinctures contain specific ratios of water, alcohol and dissolved plant material. The ratios are different according to the plant used and what we want to extract. The alcohol acts in two ways, as a preservative and also as a solvent that extracts compounds from the plant called ‘constituents’. The alcohol used is of edible food grade. Its technical name is ethanol or ethyl alcohol - the same alcohol you’d find in beer, wine, vodka, brandy, whisky and all the spirits in your drinks cabinet.

The water in the tincture also extracts plant compounds but is mainly used to balance the amount of alcohol included. Some parts of a plant need a great deal of alcohol (70-90%) to extract their compounds, such as resins like propolis and myrrh, and some need much less, like the polysaccharides in marshmallow root. '' (Zenmaitri).

I'm making milky oats tincture with my first crop of the famous welsh black oats at a ratio of 1:2 at 95% for a nervine tincture and another at 40% for a more nutritive tincture! Thanks to Katie for those precious seeds.

Squeezing of oats revealing milky latex within which is what we are looking for!

The bright green is only evident in the 95%, as it raws out the latex. Minerals are water soluble so the lower alcohol concentration draws them out but less of the latex which supports the endocrine system and supports hormone regulation. I think I will be using this myself!

Here are the Common oat, Avena Sativa in 95% and then the Welsh black oat which may be known and Avena Strigosa in 95% and 75% on the day they were harvested and tinctured. The Black oat was noted for giving horses an 'extra furlong of energy', but almost died out as horses gave way to the combine which struggled with the tall oats! Thanks again to those that saved them!

In high insight I would have harvested the oats, and left the stalks in the off chance they may produce more oats and so the stalks could mature into oat straw. We didn't harvest the lot as we are hoping to save seed for growing next year. But I have been struggling to find out weather it is an outbreeder or otherwise so some enquiries are needed!

So I hope you learn something from my mistakes and enjoy your journey.

Note: I am not mentioning other websites or links for any other purpose other than to be helpful. No funds come to me for any recommendations.

05/07/2023

Hello, the Heartwood Earthskills team of which I am a member is getting organized!

Firstly: If you would like to be on a general mailing list to keep up to date with the Earth Skills project (https://heartwoodearthskills.com/) as it develops and the various activities and workshops we are doing please sign up to the mailing list below. We do not like spending time on social media or encouraging others to do so we have decided to use it to signpost people to this mailing list and advertise updates as appropriate. Don't worry it won't be too crazy, one or two a month max!

Sign up here:
https://tinyletter.com/Heartwood_Earthskills

Secondly: an earthskills herbal/art club project which we are excited to host is a plant medicine club/group/herbalists without borders Vibe. So far the idea is to meet monthly, on a Sunday, at Heartwood (SA175ES), with the possibility of other venues. The idea is to skillshare, herb share, make remedies, grow herbs, forage and make art inspired with nature, journaling, or otherwise), with aspirations to be a creative community and a herbal resource to support the local community and people seeking asylum in the UK and Calais. (We tried to become herbalists without borders southwest wales, but those at HQ said we had to be HWB Carmarthen and haven't gotten back to me in my appeal of having a wider geographical name! https://www.hwbglobal.org/)

The first meet up is: This Sunday the 9th of July 12 till 4.30pm. Bring lunch.

The Second meet up is: Sunday the 6th of August: 12 till 4.30pm. Bring lunch.

Again not everyone has whatsapp, facebook and we want to stay away from them so please reply to this email heartwoodearthskills@gmail.com and I shall send you an invite to the email group. (This aims to be a low traffic group with working groups if needed.)

We are very excited to have just been awarded £500 SEED funding with the support of Glasbren and Carmarthenshire County Council. This is going to
jump start us in developing a community tree and plant nursery, medicinal herb garden and medicine woods. Design and planning days to follow soon.

Thank you so much and looking forward to our 'growing community' growing,

Happy Summer everyone, Anita and the rest of Earthskills team.

Anita O' Flynn
( www.heartwoodherbs.org )

Earth Skills Project based in Carmarthen.

09/03/2023