Use Freely~ November 28, 2011

Rosemary Hydrosol

Floral, with a slightly sharp fragrance. Rosemary hydrosol is good to go as a mental and physical stimulant, a powerful antioxidant, a wonderful skin toner and a scalp tonic and good tasting too!

Hydrosols are to essential oils as homeopathy is to herbs – at least, I see it as such.  They possess a magical in road to healing and can be used safely without the irritants that some may experience with essential oils.  Hydrosols/hydrolates/floral waters – the names all mean the same.  Made from all parts of herbs, shrubs and trees depending on the constituents desired, hydrosols are the condensate water co produced during the steam distillation of plant material used for healing purposes.  I use them much in the same way I would the essential oil of the same plant.  My daily power houses are Lavender, Rose and Helichrysum.   Here is an article from Jeane Rose on hydrosols – she lists so many wonderful uses for them.  http://allnaturalbeauty.us/jeannerose_hydrosols.htm

Last week as the weather started hovering around freezing day and night, we began using floating row covers on the greens in the season extender and the rosemary was too tall to allow for full coverage in the rest of the bed.  So, although it is not the right time for pruning – there were sacrifices to be made.  ½ the shrub was cut back and I decided to make hydrosols with it even though the oils might have not been at peak.

The culprit had grown too big for the bed~

I produce hydrosols by a simple steam distillation process and have a wonderful still gifted to me for this purpose.  The process involves bubbling steam through the raw plant material.  The action starts at around 90 degrees and is in full swing by 215F.  All the hot vapors produced are immediately channeled into a condenser that cools and condenses the vapors and this is what yields the water and oil from the plant.  I take care to note changes and measure the ph to assure the quality I desire.  I am working towards a fuller understanding of the differences of smell between the many constituents the plants contain.

5 gallon pot still. Cool water enters from the bottom and exits from the top of the condenser~

The flow happening- notice the essential oil layer floating on top~

What a wonderful batch it turned out to be.  I have to thank Amy and Jillian, whose bottles from last year were empty and who kept asking for more for the motivation.  I so enjoyed the afternoon distilling and am thoroughly enjoying the results.  This summer I will make my annual trip to California to make lavendar and helichrysum which I cannot seem to grow in quantity here.  On the farm, we have lots of basil, thyme, lemon balm and peppermint in the garden to play with and as always, I am grateful.

Have fungi…it’s the only benefit we can see to come of this. November 4, 2011

In 2009 there was an incredible ice storm in these parts which brought down many trees and wreaked havoc on natural habitat and distressed lots of folks who were on the grid.  We listened to the snaps of branches and falling of live trees for days.  We wore helmets to get out of the house and do farm chores as it seemed  a 50/50 chance (hat tip to Yohannan)  that a bizarre accident could happen with all the falling debris.  It was an amazing site to behold and also quite sad to watch the forest collapse with a twinkling shatter.  The only benefit we could see to come of this, was to grow mushrooms on the mess left behind.

Thank you oh mighty elm for not falling on the truck and for being a great substrate for oyster mushrooms~

Beauty before the melt~

We took the tops and side branches that measured about 5″ diameter and cut them down to around 4′ in length.  This is a manageable size for working all aspects of the mushroom crop for us.  50 logs was the starting goal and we narrowed it down as we used up the mushroom spore to 30 logs.  The Shitake and Oyster sawdust spawn was purchased from Field and Forest Products.  These guys  sell quality and are a great friendly resource for growers. fieldforest.net.

Inoculating the logs is a somewhat sexy and arduous process.  First-  holes are drilled into the logs in a diamond pattern at 6″ intervals along the length of the log, 2″ between the rows and 1″ deep.  The spawn is then inserted into the holes with a specific sort of ‘plunger’ that is spring loaded (and not very kind to the hand by the end of the day).  After the holes are filled with spawn, bees wax from our hives gets heated to liquid and brushed on the holes to keep the spawn from drying out.  Take note that the wax daubing part is the easiest part if you are ever volunteering to help ‘do’ some logs.

Ready to grow~

There are so many different strains of mushrooms to choose from- warm season, cold season, wide range, big, small, plain and pretty with names to entice like Chocoluv, Night Velvet and Happiness. We chose a WR 46 shitake strain which seemed the best  for our seasons and temp ranges and Grey Dove oysters because they are that amazing color that I thought was reserved for those Weimaraner dogs.

Grey Dove Oyster

There is a north facing hollow behind our house a bit and down by the root cellar that seemed like a perfect spot as we often found mushrooms growing there.  Not to windy, stays moist, in the shade and near our regular foot path so we could check on them daily.  We use rain water catchment – gravity fed, to soak the logs if we want to force them into a faster harvest.  The results of natural and forced flushing has provided us with the most delicious delights.  We eat as much as possible fresh- dry, freeze and gift the rest.

Logs soaking for 24 hours in a cast iron tub to force a flush~

9 days after soaking~

11 days later

Thankful as always for the resources that come so graciously from this forest and without harm or havoc on the land, this year we hope to inoculate 40 more logs with 3 new strains and are looking forward to having more mushrooms year round.