Hackney Herbal Blog
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Hackney Herbal is a social enterprise promoting health and wellbeing through herbs. We run creative herb-related events and activities. In this blog herb related information like its usage and medicinal importance is there. For more passionate learning about the wonders of herbs, follow us.
Hackney Herbal Blog
2M ago
This herb infused balm is a lovely remedy for cold hands and feet. It’s also a wonderful moisturiser for chapped winter skin.
Ingredients
80 ml sweet almond oil or olive oil
5g each of dried bay leaf, peppercorns and thyme
10g beeswax
10 drops each of rosemary, clove, ginger and sweet orange essential oils (40 drop in total)
Method
Combine your oil and dried herbs and heat using a bain marie set-up (eg. double saucepan or heatproof bowl set over a pan of water
Bring the water to a light simmer and heat for about 1 hour, stirring herbs every so often
Turn off ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
1y ago
Even though Spring is still a few weeks away, the signs of what is soon to come are already all around us.
We invite you to have a wander around a garden, park, or any green space and look out for these first stirrings of spring.
A few ideas of what you may see:
Swelling buds on trees: Leaf buds form late in summer and just hang in there for a while. Right around now, they start swelling up, ready to explode into leaf soon. It’s such a joy to watch them grow from week to week and imagine the tiny leaflets forming inside. Buds are also a great tree ID feature, and this time of the year ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
2y ago
Nature was a place of solace for many people during the lockdowns of previous years. More people listened to birdsong, observed wildlife and spent time in parks and green spaces, regulating their nervous systems and slowing down brain activity, than ever before. Visitors to Epping Forest in East London jumped from an average of 4.3 million a year, to over 12 million in 2020. Nature also became a safer way to spend socially distanced time with colleagues, friends and family. Sales of thermal jeans went up by 2,400%, as many chose to socialise outdoors in colder temperatures. Of course, there ar ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
2y ago
August arrives with a spell of cooler and wetter weather and a bounty of herby delights.
Top L-r Yarrow, Elderberries, sage, orange mint // middle right - Basil // Bottom l-r mixed herbs, marshmallow, ground ivy, rosemary cutting
HARVEST
As summer continues, so does the harvest season, with plenty of choices of what to harvest. From sage and oregano, to marshmallow and chamomile, herbs are growing fast this time of the year.
Basil, a particularly summery herb, is at its peak. Keep harvesting the tips to encourage the plant to bush out and produce more leaves. A lot of the mints, l ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
3y ago
This is a collection of books, organisations and tools that inspire us to connect with plants and wildlife. We hope this will provide a useful guide that supports you to feel closer to the natural world around you.
BOOKS
Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, edited by Camille T Dungy
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Diary of a Young Naturalist, Dara McAnulty
Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake
Of Sea, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Into the Forest, Dr Qing Li
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, Peter Wohlleben
The Home Place: Memoi ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
3y ago
Spring is slowly awakening here in Hackney. The elder and hawthorn buds are beginning to unfurl, nettles are sending up fresh green shoots and the migratory birds are making their way back from warmer shores to nest. There will soon be lots to forage, from hawthorn flowers to dandelions and our senses will be drinking in many new sights, smells and sensations of the shifting season. Amy has created this Nature Connection Guide to help guide your nature explorations as we step into spring. With things to do, find, feel and forage in your local area, it aims to guide a greater understanding and ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
3y ago
If you go into a garden centre looking for compost, you’ll most likely find a big range of options, but unfortunately, most of it is going to have one thing in common: Peat!
But what is peat?
Peat is an organic material formed by the accumulation of partially decomposed vegetation that builds up very slowly in soils waterlogged with rainwater, where oxygen is not present. Over thousands of years, this build-up creates areas known as peatlands or peat bogs.
For the past few decades, peat has been the main material in commercially available composts, with several tons consumed every ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
3y ago
Nature was a place of solace for many people during the first lockdown. More people listened to birdsong, observed wildlife and spent time in parks and green spaces, regulating their nervous systems and slowing down brain activity, than ever before. Visitors to Epping Forest in East London jumped from an average of 4.3 million a year, to over 12 million in 2020. Nature also became a safer way to spend socially distanced time with colleagues, friends and family. Sales of thermal jeans went up by 2,400%, as many chose to socialise outdoors in colder temperatures. Of course, there are those of us ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
3y ago
Permaculture is very much at the heart of what we do here at Hackney Herbal influencing everything from our strategy as a social enterprise to the design of our gardens and projects. This 4-part series introduces the ethics and principles of permaculture and explains how it can be implemented in different ways across home, work, lifestyle and community.
Permaculture is an ecological design framework that can be applied to different scenarios in order to solve problems. It is grounded in whole system thinking and is largely focused on working with rather than against nature. The teachings of pe ..read more
Hackney Herbal Blog
3y ago
The height of summer is here and with it comes an abundance of herbs from both cultivated plots or gardens and the wild spaces that surround us.
HARVEST
This is the peak of the harvesting season, with intense new growth all around.
Carry on harvesting leaves like mint, oregano, rosemary, thyme, savoury, basil, parsley, coriander, fennel and bay, and flowers like calendula, chamomile, st. john's wort and lavender. Marshmallow has started flowering, so now is the perfect time to harvest the flowers and young leaves. Borage is also in full bloom! Add the flowers to salads, decorate ..read more