My husband needs prayer. God bless him, he’s married a crunchy woman. I’ve always been a nature kid. It’s only gotten worse (better) in recent years. From an academic standpoint, I LOVE learning. From a religious standpoint, I believe God created incredible and remarkable gifts in nature that go beyond visual beauty, and include multitude of health & wellness benefits.
I was excited to see our yard full of dandelions this year. Fight me. I already knew dandelions had a wealth of benefits, and did a bit of digging. If I’m honest, I have an entire Pinterest board that is more or less apothecary plants & herbs, and how to use them. So one thing led to another….
We started with Dandelion Balm with Myrrh and Copaiba.
Then we branched out. We spent a morning foraging wild violets, more dandelions, catmint, dead-nettles, and lilacs.
In the midst of our foraging I also discovered that we have garlic mustard, daisy fleabane, and gill-over-the-ground. My little apothecary heart has been SO excited to learn about and discover what is literally growing right in our backyard.
After our foraging, we made some goodies. Athena helped pluck lilac blooms for lilac syrup!
After picking blooms, we added it to a simple syrup mix of equal parts sugar:water. We let this simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. I let it sit and cool just a bit before straining. I also added just a touch of natural food-dye as lilacs of any color don’t actually make a lilac colored syrup. As you can see Athena was very proud of her work.
Using the same method we made lilac & wild violet syrup. There wasn’t much of a flavor difference, but wild violets have a plethora of medicinal properties.
So far our syrup has been mostly used on morning French toast and pancakes. Both syrups can be mixed into teas, lemonade, or even ice water for a soft, sweet, floral touch.
This is a really easy activity, quick to make, and easy to use. So much so, in fact, it kept Athena’s attention the whole time. She loved that as soon as it was dine she could also enjoy it. It was a win for everyone.
The Nurtured Bee 