A lovely guy at work named Bruno, heard earlier this year that I love calendula flowers. He happens to be our head gardener (I work for a Council) and being the wonderful human being he is, planted many main street gardens with gorgeous calendula during winter. Even better, he provided me with buckets of flower heads to dehydrate!
I was inspired to plant my own seedlings, but being a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to all things garden related, put in my own plants very late. In fact they are still flowering now, regardless of the heat and humidity we've been enduring.
The flowers are small compared to Bruno's, but every time there are sufficient blooms to make it worthwhile, I have been picking them and tossing the petals in the dehydrator. I was very surprised to see calendula petals available online recently for $69.99 per kg. Mind you, that would be a MASSIVE bag of petals, as they weigh next to nothing. Still, I'm happy to dehydrate and save my own :)
I've used the dried petals in a couple of projects so far. I have been making soap for a couple of years using Rhonda's recipe (from Down to Earth), I love this soap! Then I noticed that Christine from Slow Living Essentials used calendula petals both in her soap making and also in a wonderful calendula salve (here and here).
Inspired by both these wonderful ladies, I now use their recipes and create wonderful natural products for my family to enjoy. Kirrily18 suffers from eczema and won't use anything but my home made soap now as she gets no reaction from it at all, unlike commercial soap which drives her crazy. And apologies that a finger or three have enjoyed the salve in the photo below, not very artistic!!
I hope Bruno's planning to plant some more calendulas this winter...
Today's stats:
Min 19.6 Max 27
Rainfall: About half an inch overnight, enough to stop any ideas of planting soya beans
Eggs: 3
Til next time,
Kath
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