An Exploration in Herb Garden Management and Usage

Final Thoughts

After the disappointment of our final distilling workshop, I am honestly a bit glad to be ending this distillation ILC. The amount of time that both Laura and I put into this project for almost no desired product was frustrating. However, looking on the bright side, this project was still a wonderful learning experience in multiple different ways. Obviously, it taught me about the process of distilling essential oils and the amount of work and effort that people put into creating these tiny bottles of aromatic oil. I have a much higher amount of respect for essential oil creators now. Along with this, I learned how to be a leader in presenting information. Despite not having an exciting final product, I think both of our workshops went extremely well and I’m proud of us for taking both of them on.

Finally, this project taught me that not all of my learning endeavors are always going to turn out perfectly. Distillation of essential oils is not as easy a process as I originally believed going into this project, just as many things in my future are not going to be easy or achieved in one go as well. Learning how to ride out the disappointment and adapt to try again in the future was a super important lesson for me. Although for this particular project, taking a long break and doing some serious adjustments before trying again is definitely the approach I will be taking.

Looking ahead, I am honestly not sure if I would like to work with this still again. It was a super valuable project to be a part of, but now that it is complete, I do not fully see any future for me in working with stills or creating essential oils. I also do not wish to put any more of my labor into running this particular still if I will continue to get no desired product out of it. If the farm was able to purchase a smaller still, I would definitely be interested in experimenting with that and hopefully producing some actual product, maybe even pursuing the “Scent of Evergreen” that incorporates the farm, forest, and sea of the Evergreen campus. But until then, I am quite content leaving this project in the past.

With these thoughts in mind, I did some light research during this final week to explore smaller, stove-top distiller options and was excited to find people creating their own distillers with a variety of home products. This video, in particular, caught my eye. Using a pressure cooker, a homemade condenser, and a flexible plumbing pipe to connect the two, this person was able to create their own distiller for essential oils. While still only producing a tiny amount of product, this set-up was quite intriguing to me; I am curious about how much, if any, of the cost it cuts off when compared to simply purchasing a stove-top distiller. I am not sure if this is a project I would be interested in pursuing in the future, but it still got me excited that maybe this can be a touch more accessible than simply having to drop hundreds of dollars on a brand new distiller.

Final Connections

As I reflect back on my multitude of learning and work endeavors this past quarter, I wish to start by inserting sections of a reflection that I wrote about my highlights and personal learning from the Medicine of Community and Place program that I participated in during the time of my internship:

“…the plant botany, identification, and discovery list were super meaningful aspects of this program for me. Through my learning with these elements, I have realized that I think I want a big part of my future to include working outside in nature with plants. I want to have my hands in the soil, my feet exploring new paths, my eyes identifying new plants and making new connections. I am feeling incredibly antsy and stagnant in my education because of this, I feel like I’m at a point where I just want to get outside and learn, just like Vivian Mork told us to do. Discovering this feels very empowering, but also leaves me unsure of what to do about these feelings and nervous about cutting off other paths of interest to me. Either way, I am incredibly grateful for the exploration in these areas of herbal learning as, no matter what, they have played a part in shaping what I want my future to be.”

“These past couple months, I have felt insanely scattered when thinking about my future. What do I want to be doing after I graduate from Evergreen? Do I want to stick around for both my Art and Science degrees? Do I want to attend a more focused herbal institution to hone in on this new interest of mine? Do I want to attend an outdoor wilderness program that will fully immerse me in nature? Do I want to just drop out and work on a bunch of farms all across the world? All of these ideas have crossed my mind. However, I feel like writing the above reflection made me realize the true things I want for my future, so it was actually an insanely helpful passage for me to sit down and take the focused time to write. I want to be outdoors, learning in and with nature. I want to have my hands in the soil, working with plants and forming those personal relationships through my care and love for them. I’m antsy to just get out and do all of this, and because of that, I’m not sure if sticking around for two degrees or furthering my education at a different institution would be the best idea for me.”

While writing what I first thought was just gonna be a simple reflection on my participation in a highly meaningful program turned into a minor epiphany about what I think I truly want for myself in my future. Exploring all aspects of herbal studies through the Medicine of Community and Place program was so beneficial for me; it gave me insight into the different areas of herbalism that I could choose to go more in-depth on. So as I reflected on all of these areas of herbalism, I realized that what stood out to me the most was my hands-on work outside with the plants, studying botany by engaging with nature, digging in the soil and planting new herbs in the garden, creating personal connections between me and the plants I felt drawn to. Those are the things I want to be doing with my life, those are the aspects of herbalism I think I wish to focus on.

When looking at my distilling ILC and my internship and all other aspects of my quarter too, the best way for me to learn was through visual and hands-on work. Even if working with the still became a slightly annoying and laborious task, it was an insanely beneficial learning experience to be taught about the still in person, to fumble through working with it and making mistakes and figuring out solutions. Another example of my experience as a visual learner includes the fact that the easiest way for me to complete my WordPress posts was to have all of the photos within the post before starting to write. Because of this, I could structure my writing around the photos and have a better time remembering all that was achieved and all that I wanted to say. This entire school year has been a journey of figuring out who I am as a student, acknowledging the effects that an entire year of online college had on me, and moving forward so I can have the most success in my final years of school and beyond. I am immensely grateful for all of the support along the way.

At the bright and early hour of 7:30 am, Laura and I arrived at the Organic Farm to harvest the comfrey for our final distillation workshop. With permission from Maleah Upah, coordinator of work within Demeter’s Garden, we entered Demeter’s to find a literal comfrey forest; the plants were as tall if not taller than both of us. Working around the stinging nettle and massive rhubarb plant, we gathered the comfrey leaves and were able to stuff the inner chamber of the distiller completely full with plant material, so we had high hopes for actually creating some oil this time around.

Believe it or not, we still got NO OIL even after shoving the chamber completely full of comfrey leaves. We ran the still from 9 am to a little after 11 am yet only produced 4 large jars of comfrey hydrosol. To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. But, continuing on with grace, Laura and I led a small distilling workshop for the Practice of Organic Farming students at 11:30 and answered their many questions. It was exciting to have so much interest in the still, but many of them agreed that the bread dough seal is a quirk that is not the most inviting for using it (even though they were eager to eat the baked dough after the distilling was over). It was also important to have Beth see the seal dilemma and hear about our experience in working with it; I think it really drove home the fact that a replacement still might be necessary if there is to be continued interest in distilling in the future. Overall, the workshop went really well and I was greatly thankful for all of the interest and questions.

I also find it crazy how much the comfrey compressed down during the distilling process. As seen in the first photo above, the container was filled to the brim with comfrey leaves, but at the end of the distilling process, it was compressed down to barely a quarter of the container. Could we have shoved even more plant material in there?

Comfrey Hydrosol

While not as potent as a comfrey essential oil, comfrey hydrosol still has healing properties and is sold by multiple aromatic companies online. Comfrey hydrosol can be used on aches and sore joints in the form of a compress, can be applied on dry, cracked skin to promote healing, and can be used as a facial toner in cases of inflamed, acne-prone skin. While this was not the original product we set out to create this week, I am still excited to experiment in using it as medicine and am highly grateful for the learning experience that this distilling workshop offered to us.

Sources:

Groves, Maria Noel. Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies. Storey Publishing, 2019.

Comfrey Hydrosol

After having two weeks in a row of still runs and scrubbing baked bread dough for hours, this week was a welcome break from distillation. It gave Laura and I the time to plan and reconsider our Week 9 Workshop with the Practice of Organic Farming program, as we were both worried about how we still have not produced any lemon balm essential oil. Because of this, I took the extra time this week to look into a potential alternative for our final distillation project for the quarter, looking into the benefits of comfrey essential oil as recommended by classmate, Sarah Dyer.

Common Comfrey – Symphytum officinale

Boraginaceae, Borage Family

While the internal use of comfrey continues to be debated heavily by herbalists due to certain components that are potentially toxic to the liver, there’s no denying the external benefits of this plant as a healer of the body’s connective tissues. Whether used for tiny scratches and minor burns or more serious sprains and even broken bones, many studies and herbalists have reported the amazing healing abilities of this plant. Why is this so? Comfrey is a cell proliferant, meaning it increases the growth of cells and therefore increases the healing ability of the body. Many believe this is due to the chemical, allantoin, which is a known cell proliferant found within comfrey, but studies have shown that it’s most likely a variety of chemicals within the plant that contribute to its miraculous healing abilities.

Outside of being a cell proliferant, great success has been found in using comfrey for inflammation and swelling. Freezing the blended-up comfrey root with a bit of water and applying this to burns or using a comfrey bath for an enraged wasp sting have both had wonderful healing results by herbalists. If we were to create an essential oil out of comfrey, I would most be interested in using it in a salve for minor skin wounds and burns.

Because of how abundant comfrey currently is around campus and the farm, and also how impossible it is to get rid of, I think it might be a good plant to consider for our final essential oil run. Our supply of lemon balm is growing thin which was always a worry at the back of my mind, but now that we are fully aware of the amount of plant material it requires to produce any oil at all, I am almost positive that we will not get any oil from our final run if we stick with using lemon balm. I think comfrey would be a wonderful alternative and would allow us to further experiment in making salves as well, which we just learned how to do through the Medicine of Community and Place program.

Source: de la Foret, Rosalee. “Benefits of Comfrey.” HerbalRemediesAdvice.org, https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/benefits-of-comfrey.html

Finally time for our first workshop with the Taste: What We Hunger For program! It was a warm, sunny morning, perfect for harvesting the last of the lemon balm from the Ethnobotanical Medicine Garden before heading to the farm to get things prepped. As students arrived, we walked through the process of setting the still up, explaining the use of the bread dough as a sealant, and filling the inner chamber 3/4 full with the lemon balm. Once the process was rolling, we experimented with the relationship between smell and taste by picking a lemon balm leaf and chewing it with our noses plugged. As I chewed, I was completely unable to determine that what was in my mouth was the lemon balm, but once I unplugged my nose, the volatiles flooded into my nose and the taste burst on my tongue almost instantly. This experiment is always so fascinating to me, and really highlights the importance of smell in our tasting experiences.

Perfume Lab with Jean Fenske

After the smell experiment, I waited with the still as everyone else went up to the SAL for the perfume lab with Jean Fenske. Jean is a librarian at the Evergreen library but is also a perfume enthusiast with a vast collection of perfumes that she brought to share with us in relationship with our essential oil lab. I was really excited when my turn to join everyone at the SAL arrived because the perfume lab had been very exciting to me during Fall quarter and I was excited to see what Jean had brought to share this time around.

I, unfortunately, took no photos or notes during my perfume experience due to limited time and my want to smell all of the perfumes, but I specifically remember my favorite perfume being Sundowner by Tauer. The packaging was quite appealing in a pentagon shape with colorful floral designs on the front, and the smell was intense, hitting me out of nowhere. I think that’s why it left such a lasting impact on me, I am not a perfume person at all, but the aroma hit me so hard in the face that it truly stood out among all of the others to me. The initial smell was smokey and subtle, but then came the hit of cinnamon and spice out of nowhere, it was truly such an interesting and unique blend.

What I Learned

At the end of the day, we didn’t get any oil again, which was a bit disappointing. While I don’t think I learned anything different from our last run, this experience just drove home the fact that this still requires A LOT of material to produce any usable oil. And also the fact that I do not wish to work with this still if we have to continue to scrub endless amounts of cooked bread dough off of the metal chambers. The steel wool we are using is starting to tear up my nails and skin, it is really not an enjoyable task to do at all. I also feel like the size of this still might not be the most useful for the farm and interested students, as I don’t think the farm will ever be able to produce enough of any material, other than maybe lavender, to actually create any oil. I am actually feeling pretty anxious about how much material we will have for our final workshop with POF during Week 9. Either way, I think designating this still for alcohol brewing and investing in a smaller one for essential oils would be very beneficial for future students, and also for my future in working with the still as well.

As for connections between the perfume lab and our essential oil workshop, I was so pleased with how well these paired with one another. Getting to see and understand the process of extracting the natural oils from a plant made the perfume lab all the more special in understanding the work that went into creating these products. Although a lot of perfumes are synthetically created now, I am starting to understand why this is the case, since it takes so much plant material just to extract a small amount of essential oil. I am not a perfume person and probably never will be, but I now have a lot of respect for those who put the time into making these incredible aroma combinations like Sundowner, and even more respect for those that put the time into making natural perfumes and essential oils as well.

Putting the Pieces Together

This was one of my busiest weeks so far between both of my classes, this ILC, my internship, and SCARF club events. However, the piece of my week that stood out the most to me was the guest speaker in my Medicine of Community and Place Program, Enrique Salmón. Enrique is a member of the Rarámuri tribe and is an ethnobotany and Indigenous studies professor at California State University. He is also the author of Iwígara, one of my program’s required readings.

I was drawn in from the very moment Enrique joined our online class. Maybe it was the silly jokes he sprinkled into his presentation or the absolutely breathtaking way he told stories and shared information, but his presence was very calming to me, he felt like an old friend stopping in to say hello. Enrique spoke about the importance of story and language in relationship to plants and the land. In his book, he includes Native stories that accompany each plant mentioned, and through these stories, we are able to learn and create a deeper relationship with the plant that the story is about. For example, he shared the story of Horsetail, in which the trickster, Coyote, falls into a river and grabs onto a plant to try and save himself. Coyote begs the plant to save him by extending its roots further into the soil, saying that he would turn it into the most beautiful plant in the world if it helped him. The plant, not trusting this trickster at first, finally agreed and reached its roots further into the soil so that Coyote could pull himself from the swirling waters. Sticking to his word, Coyote turned the plant into the unique Horsetail that we know today. Through this story, we learn a lot about Horsetail. We learn that it grows where it is damp, along streams and rivers. We also learn that its roots grow deep, so we must bring a trowel or small shovel if we ever plan to harvest any Horsetail. I really appreciated this demonstration of the importance of storytelling, especially when being told by as wonderful a storyteller as Enrique.

All of this talk on stories had me thinking about the connections between the perfumes we were exposed to and the stories that Jean shared behind them. While I was not present to hear her explain and share the stories of the perfumes that she chose for us this week, I remember from fall that she was passionate and knowledgable about each perfume she brought, making her a wonderful spokesperson for these aromas as well. While I am not a perfume person, knowing and understanding the background and ingredients of each perfume truly enhanced my experience in smelling them; instead of just being turned away by the strong synthetic scent, I was drawn in to try and pick apart each component of the perfume. This really drove home the importance of stories in creating lasting and meaningful relationships with not only plants but smells and foods as well.

Now my mind is spiraling into a connection I made from reading the Introduction to Tasting Difference by Gitanjali Shahani during our Scholarly Ingredients module. I was thinking about how meaningful it was that when making my favorite recipe, I am aware of the history of all vegetables that are put into this recipe as I am living on the land where those very vegetables are produced from. So much of our experience with food is lacking in that history, those stories of where our food is coming from since the majority of us buy everything from our local grocery store or grab a to-go meal from our favorite fast food place. A meal is so much more meaningful when we know where the ingredients have come from, or even when our hands were the ones that grew and harvested those ingredients ourselves. I am beyond honored to be able to create these stories of our food for my classmates and peers through the Taste program and my Food and Ag internship. I hope my peers are as touched as I am by this opportunity to create such a deep connection with our food.

Our Second Run of the Still!

Preparation

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The morning started with the distillation prep work. First, we pulled all of the still materials out of the shed and made a simple bread dough with flour and water to seal the still when it came time to do the run. Then, we harvested all of our lemon balm from the Medicine Garden by the Ethnobotanical Longhouse with permission from Marja Eloheimo; the lemon balm was spreading insanely fast and taking over the North bed, as well as trickling into the trails where it did not need to be. It’s a nice feeling to be able to use weeding as a time of harvest in any garden; instead of just throwing the excess lemon balm into the compost, we are able to use it for our distilling, which I am super grateful for. We brought the lemon balm to the still, washed off all of the dirt, and stuffed it into the inner chamber of the still. The chamber was filled a little over halfway, without any stuffing or compacting of the plant material.

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The Run

Then, we were able to fully set up the still and get the process going. We inserted the inner chamber and sealed it with the bread dough. We hooked up the burner and the water and then the waiting period began. It took around 20 minutes for the hydrosol to start pouring out, and this time around, the hydrosol actually smelled really nice compared to our first run. As we watched, I thought I saw some oil separating out onto the surface of the hydrosol as we drained the liquid out, but ultimately, we did not get any oil out of this run. We let it go for around an hour before calling it a day and bottling up our hydrosols to go.

What I Learned

This run was a great learning experience for me. First, it showed Laura and I that we are capable of working the still without any supervision or guidance, which provided a lot of relief for our Taste program workshop this coming week. Second, it really showed us how much plant material is necessary to run the still. Even with as much lemon balm as we harvested, we got close to no oil at all, which was disappointing, but again, an important learning experience for us. For a small-scale herb garden like on the farm, making essential oils with a still really isn’t going to work out, since no amount of plant material the garden could produce would ever be enough (unless the garden was dedicated to growing one type of aromatic herb). I’m feeling anxious about the amount of material we will be able to gather for our next two workshops, as the lemon balm in both the Herb Garden and the Longhouse Garden is growing thin. Either way, our workshops will at least provide a demonstration of how to set up the still, run it, and information on hydrosols and their usage, which I know both Laura and I were interested in from the start.

Finally, both of these runs have taught me that maybe investing in new, non-damaged parts for the still would be beneficial for future students interested in what we are doing. Using the bread dough to create a seal on the dented inner chamber is a cool learning experience, but the process of scraping the baked bread dough off of each piece after everything has cooled off is infuriating and takes over an hour to complete. The thought of having to do that two more times this quarter already has me exhausted.

Putting the Pieces Together

This quarter, I have been wearing many hats: I am taking 8-10 credits in the Taste: What We Hunger For program which includes a 4 credit in-program ILC, 8 credits in the Medicine of Community and Place program, and I am dedicating 8-10 hours of each week to my Food and Ag internship surrounding the Herb Garden at the Organic Farm. I have been learning so much through all of these opportunities and am very proud of everything I have achieved so far, but up to this point, all of these different hats feel very disconnected from one another, when really, they all have a lot in common as I work through them. That is why for the rest of this quarter, I will be incorporating a section on my website that is dedicated to highlighting the connections between my programs and internship. I am excited to start putting all of these puzzle pieces together in this final quarter of my second year.

Stinging Nettle – Urtica dioica

Family – Urticaceae, Nettle

Botanical Information:  

Habit: herb
Life cycle: perennial
Size: 2-8 feet tall, commonly 3-4 feet
Arrangement: opposite
Leaves: simple leaves | shape – heart-shaped | margins – toothed
Flowers: color – greenish

Ecological Information: 

Habitat (growth conditions): deep, rich soil, near moisture, shade
Range (geographical distribution): sea level to low mountains, most of North America
Origins (native where): northern Africa, North America, Asia, Europe

Medicinal Information: 

Part(s) used for medicine: young leaves, root
Indications: arthritis, eczema, hypothyroid, fatigue, seasonal allergies, UTI’s, asthma, menstrual cramps, weak teeth/hair/bones, build blood, increase lactation
Actions: nutritive, adaptogen, diuretic, astringent, hemostatic, kidney/adrenal trophorestorative
CAUTIONS: stinging hairs along all parts of the plant, use gloves when harvesting and cook or boil for 2 minutes before use
Access and Use: access – forage (it’s all over campus, near the farm right now!) | harvest – top of growth any time during season, preferably before flowering | use internally as a tea or tincture, use in your favorite recipes or find new recipes

Food Information: 

Part(s) eaten: leaves
Harvest timing: while plant is young, before it flowers
Recipe: Potato Leek Nettle Soup, Japanese Nettle Soup, Nettle Cream Soup

References Cited:

1. Benoliel, Doug. Northwest Foraging. Skipstone, 2011.
2. de la Foret, Rosalee. “Nettle Herb.” Web https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/nettle-herb.html

Our first run of the still! We met with past POF students, Travis and El, who had used the still in the past and were willing to pass on their knowledge to us. The morning started by making a basic bread dough using only flour and water; this would act as the sealant for the still as the colander had been dropped and dented, messing up the original sealing action through using the clasp. After the dough was made, we harvested our plant material from the herb garden. Since we hadn’t fully known if we would be running the still today or not, we were only able to harvest a tiny amount of lemon balm, yet still decided to go through with the run just to see how everything worked.

It took a long time for everything to get heated up and for anything to begin coming out of the still, and unfortunately, we did not collect any oil today. However, we were still really grateful for this first run-through as it gave us an idea of timings for our workshops and an idea of how much plant material we would need. It was also really wonderful to have support from Travis, El, and eventually Nitz as well, as their tips and knowledge will be very useful in our future research.

Lemon Balm – Melissa officinalis 

Family – Lamiaceae, Mint

Botanical Information:  

Habit: herb  
Life cycle: perennial 
Arrangement: opposite  
Leaves: simple leaves | shape – ovate to heart | margins – crenate  
Flowers: color – whitish  
Underground parts: rhizomes  

Ecological Information: 

Habitat (growth conditions): partial shade with moist soil, full sun
Origins (native where): east Mediterranean region, West Asia

Horticultural Information: 

US Hardiness Zones: 4-9
Propagation methods: root division

Medicinal Information: 

Part(s) used for medicine: leaves  
Indications: anxiety, insomnia, digestion issues, fever  
Actions: calming nervine, sedative, carminative, febrifuge, antiviral
CAUTIONS: possible negative effects on those with hypothyroidism
Access and Use: access – in a garden | harvest – top of growth any time during season, preferably before plant has flowered | use internally as a tea, tincture, vinegar, or honey, use topically as an infused oil or diluted essential oil
Personal experience: I do not have much experience with lemon balm apart from lemon balm teas. I am excited to gain more experience with it through distilling a lemon balm essential oil and also infusing coconut oil with lemon balm.  

Food Information: 

Part(s) eaten: leaves  
Harvest timing: early to late spring

References Cited: 

1. Gunstone, Tari. The Evergreen Herbal. The Evergreen State College Press, 2018. 

1. Groves, Maria Noel. Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies. Storey Publishing, 2019.  

1. de la Foret, Rosalee. “Lemon Balm Benefits.” Web https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/lemon-balm-benefits.html  

Home Herbalism Series – Class 7

Heart Health

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How Does Distillation Work?

While there are many methods for extracting essential oils such as percolation and enfleurage, the method we will be using is called low-pressure steam distillation. Low-pressure steam distillation works through the creation of steam, which, once hot enough, causes sacs within the plant material to burst and release their essential oils. Within the still, these oils travel with the steam through a cooling coil, which causes the steam to turn back into a liquid. This liquid pours out as a hydrosol with the oil separating out on top within an “essencier,” a container that traps and separates out the oil from the hydrosol.

Some questions that we would love to answer through our distillation trials include whether wet or dry plant material and a fast or slow run produce the best oil result, along with what would happen if we combined multiple different plant types within the colander to extract a mixture of oils all at once.

Putting the Still Together

After a slower start to spring quarter, Laura and I finally got the chance to see the still fully set up with Beth’s help. It was exciting to find all of the supplies for our project and to see past essential oils created by other Evergreen students.

To set up the still:

1. Attach propane tank to the burner
2. Attach boiler to the burner
3. Stuff the colander with the product (leaf material)
4. Seal colander and boiler with metal clasp
5. Due to damage to the clasp, this still requires bread dough to be wrapped around the clasp for a more complete seal
6. Attach coil piece to the boiler by contracting back the stem of the coil
7. Cover coil with the condenser cap
8. Place and adjust essencier in the metal stand to the desired height
9. Hold the long glass piece in place, running from the tank to the essencier, and set with orange clips
10. Anchor the metal stand in place with a heavy sandbag
11. Use towels and zip ties around both water pipes to prevent condensation
12. Add jars under both spouts of the essencier

Tinctures and Foraging

With support from the Medicine of Community and Place program, I am beginning to feel a lot more confident in working and experimenting with herbs and foraged plants from around campus. I made my second ever apple cider vinegar tincture, this time using nettle that I foraged from the Evergreen woods. I also came home from the Ethnobotanical Herb Garden with my hands filled with herbs and my head spinning with inspiration of how to work with them. I first made a simple syrup using the Oregon grape flowers I collected, which added a subtle hint of the tart flower flavor to the end result. I also gathered some horsetail which I am excited to make into a tea for hair growth. Finally, I have an entire baking pan of lemon balm drying under my bed now for Laura and I’s essential oil project. I am feeling very excited to be building up my experience and confidence in working with herbs!

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Home Herbalism Series – Class 6

Blood Sugar Support

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