harvest

Ok it's that time of year again, Harvest Time! Although I do love Spring much more, this is the time when your hard work pays off. It's a very magical time of year and I feel very close to the earth at this time..
I harvest my herbs according to the weather, even though Harvest Home or Mabon is Sept 24-25. It's best when it's dry and warm, and the growing season is over. This year it wasn't until mid October. . I harvest not only the plants but the roots of many herbs and it's much better when the ground is dry and warm.
There are many books that can tell you when the best time to Harvest certain herbs. Moon Phases and such
For some it's not that easy.. I have 3 boys, when they were younger, it was hard to go out at midnight when the moon was full. I don't think it matters all that much, harvest when time allows. and you enjoy it the most.
Harvesting my herbs is very important to me. Having my dried herbs in my home is my only link to the earth in the winter, except for my few house plants. I can make candles, insense, spells if need be, while I wait for spring. I've always thought of myself as Persephone. I more or less go underground until the weather breaks. I'm solar powered, and even go into a depression mid-winter. (January-Febuary.)

I'll start with Roots here. Many Herbs you'll want to stock up on for your Magical Herb Cubboard will be roots. Be ready with your scissors or pruners and something to lable your roots with. Also get a screen or something that allows easier drying.
   Dig up or pull your roots, Then you will want to wash them. Cut them in small pieces then lay them out to dry on a screen or something with good ventilation, roots will mold if piled up with no air going through them. Put them in a warm dry place to dry. Every couple of days you'll want to move them around and turn them. Depending on where you are this could take a week or two.
I have read a few places you can put your roots on low in an oven. I guess that would work if you were to use your herbs right away. In my opinion this takes out some of the power of your plant. As for me with storing them I would rather have them air dried, don't forget you want a powerful plant that can last another year.
   You want your roots good and dry if you don't, and you put them in a glass container they will mold on you!
   Keep your roots in tact until you need them. I don't crush them until right before I use them. Always lable your herbs! Roots sometimes don't have an odor and trust me, after a couple of months you'll forget what is what. Roots all look alike when cut up. The last thing you want is to use Nightshade roots instead of something not toxic!

Ok So you worked hard all summer long keeping your herbs clipped back and they are ready to Harvest. Get your scissors or knife ready, you'll also want some twine and something to lable your herbs. Just some advice this year, the spiders are not only plentyful this year they are BIGGER! I don't mind spiders and never kill them but they do bite so get out your garden gloves, if a spider bite bothers you.
   First thing when you cut your herbs don't cut them all the way down, most herbs are perrenials and will come back next year. Cut them and stack them so they will be easy to tie together. If you have a mass amount of one herb, you'll want to make more then one bundle, they dry fast with less plant there.
   Tie them from the bottom lable them then hang them upside down. You'll want to plan ahead and have a warm dry place to hang your herbs. I can't say this enough,,,lable your herbs! After an herb dries they look very much alike, they might not smell alike but unless your sooooooooooooo sure you won't mix up your tyme with your oregano for example lable those bad boys!
   After you dry your herbs they will be brittle and fall apart pretty easy, so again I feel no reason to crush them until needed. You'll need your container or glass jars, something to lable them with, and I use a funnel so I don't lose any of my herb on the counter.
   Remember when growing your herbs to always cut them back throughout the year. After they bloom this takes away from the plant, hence it makes a less powerful herb.
   I let a few stalks bloom to use the flower, and cut back the rest. Herbs that have berries and you want to keep them they have to bloom. Such as Nightshade. With these plants I harvest some of the flowers, and let the rest bloom to make sure I have berries later on.
   If you are concerned with when to harvest what herbs I encourage you to get a good herb book. I have some listed on the front page of this site. If you want to really get into herbs and grow many, like I do I encourage you to have a good library of herb books, magical and informational. You can't learn everything about herbs only from Magcial books.

Ok this is also a good time to Harvest any berries you might need. Now I know with strawberries and what not, you can freeze them. The berries I harvest are poison so I don't have them anywhere near food. I Harvest Yew berries and Bittersweet Nightshade. Much like a grape that becomes a rasin these things need to be dried. If your berries are not dry they will mold very quickly. I again put them on a screen and put them in a warm dry place. If you can, keep them in the sun during the day and out of the night dew in the evening. Wait until they are completly dry before putting them in a container. You can save juice like nightshade to drop into your ink before they dry if you like other then that I dry them.
I had some people ask why harvest berries of some plants. Well if you don't use them for your cubboard they make seeds!

Now for Berries you don't need dry such as Polk Berries I smash them in a Gallon jar then let them sit for a day or so. Then I use a strainer or a cheese cloth to take out the pulp. I use polk for ink so I don't want any pulp only the juice of the berry. I first put all the juice in a large container, then funnel it into small jars.
   I get the small eye dropper sized jars to put my ink in for several reasons. You don't need to open a large container for ink, and trust me polk berries STINK! They stink real bad so the last thing you want to do is open a large jar and get a whiff of that! Besides you can make several different scents for your ink with some oils. After I put the polk in the small jars I scent them for intent.
                              Love (not love spells please)
                              Luck
                              Protection
                              Everyday writing in BOS
                              Rituals, so on and so on
Lable your ink this by itself can be creative. I make my own designs on the computer then print them off. You don't need to have a lable maker. I just print them on paper, glue them on then put wide tape over it. You can do this for all your herbs so they all match for your Magical Cubboard.
    Lets face it your not going to find lables that say nightshade, mandrake or polk in your local store!

Roots

Herbs

Berries

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Harvest Home

(Mabon)

ok Just a quick story about me picking Polk Berries. I had to quit growing Polk because we wil be listing our house. So I deside to go to the wooded area around my house. I went with my gallon baggies scissors, um no gloves.
I was kinda in a hurry so I used my hand to peel the berries off the vine into the bag, you know taking my hand down the vine so all I got were the berries. It's a messy buisiness I must admit, and more likely then not , a bad idea. Hey, I got a whole gallon of those bad boys in record time, and didn't have to bother picking them off the vine later. Still when it comes to playing with weeds I've never really used my head, and by the time I was done, smiling ear to ear, I was covered with splatered berry juice and my hands a pretty deep purple.
I walked out of the small wooded area, in my over sized overall's just a mess, looking like a child that just had a great day making mud pies. Hey, I'm the first to admit I've never REALLY grown up. So I'm walking towards my house on this wonderful sunny day, and run into my first neighbor, who stops his car and says. "what the hell have you been doing" I say gleefully "I'm gathering Polk Berries" He says with no apology "Well you dumb ass, where's your gloves? Don't you know that will go into your bloodstream" "umm Yup I'm on my way home to wash my hands" He just shakes his head and laughs at me, "well next time wear gloves you goofball"
So I keep walking home and the second neighbor stops. His family has a buisness near here and was in his Van with the kids. He stops to tell me about a break in he had, (flipping crime!) then says "what cha doin, getting polk?" I said "yup" So he tells me to go behind his buisness there was plenty there. Then as we start to part he says "you know you really should wear gloves when you do that" I said " yeah I'm not the smartest am I?" Did you notice no one asked me why I was gathering polk berries? Ok one of those people, his wife is also an Eclectic Wiccan, could have something to do with it. Still I thought I would come out of there with stares and questions. I think part of me is really going to miss this neighborhood.

Well folks I get home and wash my hands and it wasn't an hour later I had pretty bumps all over me. So Don't gather polk without Gloves!

Vestas Herbs 9/2004

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