Port Potager

It’s hard to believe that our trip to Costa Rica was almost two years ago, and even harder to believe that it took me this long to finally make the lip balm I was planning with the ingredients I bought at the cacao plantation we visited .  Though, to be fair, I only just ran out of the lip balm I made over three years ago . Truly, a little goes a long way. Anyway, today I finally gathered my Costa Rican ingredients: achiote and cocoa butter:   This cocoa butter was made by hand by our tour guide Priscilla , so it's unrefined. It still smells good and chocolatey, and the color is tan rather than white: Since cocoa butter is solid at room temperature, I dropped the whole container into some boiling water to melt it: While that was melting, I gathered the rest of my ingredients: beeswax and coconut oil . The proportions here are 1 part beeswax, 2 parts coconut oil, and 2 parts cocoa butter: It all gets melted together and stirred over ve...

Yesterday I was planning to make a few more bars of soap , but was stopped in my tracks. Check out the state of my glycerin soap base: What you are looking at is a plastic bag with a big hole in it. Inside that bag is a half-eaten block of glycerin. I know we have some mice in the basement of our old, less-than-perfectly-sealed house. I did not know that mice like to snack on soap when there are perfectly good butternut squashes and seed potatoes nearby.  Weird. So after a moment of admiring the pattern of those industrious little teeth marks, I pitched this block and ordered more online. In the meantime, I decided to make some cold cream. Now that 50 percent of Port Potager residents wear makeup , we could use a makeup remover. This one is all natural and very gentle, with just four ingredients: water, grapeseed oil, coconut oil and beeswax. Here's how you do it: 1. Measure 1/4 cup of grapeseed oil and 1/4 cup of coconut oil. Start with the liquid grapes...

Today, our pre-teen guest blogger will share how she made some homemade lipsticks this weekend. It's like a blockbuster Kids' Corner-Meets-Herbal Apothecary post — if crayons were made of herbs. How to Make Custom Lipstick Colors with Crayons! by Tiegan Trach I just recently bought a lot of lipstick, and I realized that it dried out my lips and there weren't many colors to chose from. So I searched for a way to make my own lipstick. I came across a way to make lipstick out of crayons, and if there's anything I don't have to go and buy, it's crayons. You need: coconut oil crayons ruler knife measuring spoons pot glass bowl water containers to put your crayon/coconut oil mixture into (I used bottle caps) First, you need to cut your crayons into 1 inch lengths and peel off the paper. I found that if you score a line in the crayon you can easily break it along that line.  Next, set up a double-boiler by filling the pot with water ...

About six weeks I ago I harvested some valerian root from the garden and set it out to dry: I had been warned by many sources that valerian smells terrible and only gets worse as it dries. I also heard that it attracts cats, but neither of these things have turned out to be true. Fletch has never even given it a sniff, despite it being at nose height for a couple of weeks. As for the smell, it does have an odor — I just don't happen to hate it. It's very hard to describe. It reminds everyone of something , but no one can seem to place it. There's definitely a camphor scent to it — kind of turpentine-y or Mentholatum-y — that lingers in the back of your sinuses. There's also an earthy, root-y smell to it, like a medicinal version of sarsaparilla . And, sometimes, there's a whiff of stinky socks involved, but that's not ever foremost in the bouquet for me, though apparently other people find it unbearable. Since I had two trays of roots, I deci...

I'm not sure what happened, but all my weekends out in the garden have done a real number on my lips. Lots of sunshine and wind have left them very dry. They are cracked at the corners. Last weekend I put sunscreen right over them, and (while important to keep them from getting burned) it just left them even drier. I don't have a "before" photo of this, and you should be glad. It wasn't pretty. They were so dry that they felt crispy and were peeling, and no amount of lip balm was enough to help. Enter my new favorite medicinal herb, comfrey: Comfrey has been used to heal cuts and burns on the skin since medieval times, when it was known as knitbone due to its healing properties. I usually just use it when I make soaps and lotions , since it is supposed to be healing and soothing to the skin. With my lips in such a state, though, I thought I could see if something a little stronger would help. So I decided to make a comfrey poultice. T...

Yes, you read that correctly. As our temperatures ricochet between 75 and 25 degrees, we've been experiencing high winds for several days. I know, I know —  it's always windy here , so what's the big deal? Well, this go-around was enough to take out the cable, a massive tree limb, and our poor, domesticated aloe plant. It was great to have the windows open over the weekend, but on Monday the wind really picked up, and our aloe ended up on the floor, with three smushed leaves. The photo above shows the plant after I trimmed off the broken leaves, which is why it's now kind of lopsided. Two leaves I cut down to the base, but this one was only broken at the tip, so I decided to try to save most of it. Aloe leaves heal themselves pretty quickly, so it should be ok. I wasn't planning to harvest aloe while the plant is still so small, but it would be a shame to waste the leaves that the wind so efficiently delivered to me. Turns out that I also needed...

Fish is healthy. It's also sometimes smelly. While I enjoyed our fish dinner last night, I wasn't too keen on the lingering fishy smell I woke up to this morning. Sigh. It happens to the best of us, right? It's way too cold to open a window to take care of it, so I went for a quick, homemade air freshener instead. Behold my improvised potpourri: This couldn't be easier: cut up some citrus (I had a navel orange and a lemon we had previously zested, languishing in the fridge), add some spices (I used whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, some cardamom pods, and a healthy dash of nutmeg, but could easily have added rosewater , dried lavender, or rosemary instead for a more spring-time aroma). As it is still winter, this was just the thing. The only other step is to cover the fruit and herbs with water and summer on the stove. As the steam rises, it makes your house smell delicious! Totally got rid of our lingering fish smell, and made the kids hungry to boo...

For the last ten days, we've been in the land of influenza. Well, one of us has, anyway: There's just not much to be done about the flu except to stay in bed (with or without a cat to keep you company). Trouble is, this flu came with a really terrible cough, which would keep the patient awake, making all that rest a lot harder to get. Of course we have regular cough medicine, and our children prefer its sugary "grape" flavor to my homemade cough syrup. The adults, on the other hand, are psyched about our new, all-natural cough syrup. It's based on a recipe I found here , but I also added turmeric. ( Turmeric milk is a traditional cold remedy in India , so the turmeric here gives this cough syrup an extra little boost.) The acidic vinegar cuts through phlegm, and the honey coats and soothes an irritated throat. The cayenne has lots of capsaicin, which blocks pain receptors and stops the tickle, and the ginger and turmeric are antiseptics with usefu...

It's officially Super Cold here. When I had to leave the house this morning, it was 9 degrees out, and this evening we are expecting (perhaps) a foot of snow. The furnace in this drafty old house is getting a major workout, and that leaves us with the driest air this side of Phoenix. Forced hot air from an oil-burning furnace is about the worst of all possible home-heating combination: it’s expensive and it's uncomfortably dry. And with our largely uninsulated old house (we're working on it, I promise), it's running nonstop on days like this. And that has led to some seriously dry skin, especially for our hands. And for certain residents of this house who tend to pick at hangnails, it can be a painful time of year. Herbs to the rescue! I have been very happy with my homemade lotion , but I realize that it isn't very masculine-smelling with its rosewater and other (slightly) girly essential oils. So I decided to make a good, thick, and unscented hand balm t...

I have recently experienced a mini-viral boom of hits on my post about homemade herbal shampoo , undoubtedly fueled by Pinterest . 12 ounces of shampoo lasts me a really, really long time since my hair is so short, so I only make new batches maybe twice a year. For the latest shampoo, I also worked up a new recipe, with herbs that are gentle on my fine hair. 4C Shampoo also lathers up a bit more than my old recipe, which makes it a little easier to use (and makes a little shampoo go an even longer way). The first 3Cs of the shampoo are the herbs: dried calendula, comfrey, and chamomile: The total here is an ounce of dried herbs, in a roughly 4:2:1 ratio of calendula:chamomile:comfrey. Calendula is often used in soaps and cosmetics, comfrey is great for regenerating cells and softening hair, and chamomile smells nice — and can help highlight lighter hair with a golden tone. Simmer the herbs with about 12 ounces of water: I bring it to barely a boil, then turn ba...