· By Jessica Brown
The Magic of Sweet Chamomile
This is the start to a series where I will be going in depth about some of the medicinal herbs that I grow on our farm and use in my products. A sort of spotlight onto a single herb and how/why I use it in each of my products.
I am beginning with German Chamomile (matricaria recutita), a sweet and gentle herb to get to know on a intimate level.
Chamomile is quite easy and lovely to grow in your home garden. Give it summer sun, a light to medium amount of water, and pick from it weekly to obtain blooms all summer long. I recommend planting it in soil in the springtime and keeping the soil moist to germinate. If where you live experiences nice spring rains then you’ll be taken care of. A way to ensure you will have chamomile is to sow the seeds in trays and raise starts to then transplant out into the garden. Here is a great link on seed starting. The great thing about chamomile is that it seeds itself for next year, as long as you let it hang around late summer, go to seed, and drop its seeds in the soil. My favorite place to get seeds is at www.strictlymedicinalseeds.com.
Chamomile has been used for generations and generations to aid people in stressful situations.
It has a gentle yet effective affect on the nervous system, immune system and digestive system. It is safe to use on children, adults, and even babies through breastmilk. Try taking it or administering it during highly stressful, anxious, or frustrating times. It is helpful if experiencing children’s colic, stomach disorders, uneasy digestion, infections. Any discomfort within digestion can be aided by a cup of chamomile tea or tincture. It is like a deep breath, there for you to call upon when you need.
All of our body & systems benefit from touch. It stimulates the lymph to flow healthily which aids in detoxification, calms the nerves, increases circulation, among so so many other things.
When administering it topically, try it in a massage oil form. After a shower when your pores are cleansed and open massage onto your temples, feet, or whole body! Take the time to massage yourself or ask a loved one to nourish you.
To make an herbal oil. you'll add dry herbs into an organic oil for a 8ish weeks, letting the herbs marinate and imbue their components into the oil. I am a firm believer in whole plant infusions. This means that I collect the plant at peak potency, dry it, finely chop the material, and infuse it into the carrier oil for 2-3 months (time dependent on plant). Because the entire plant is infused into the oil, the components are able to truly awaken and seep into the carrier oil. No part is missing or being stripped out; it is a slow method that creates a high quality product that is essentially better for the environment.
Essential oils, use a LOT of plant material to create each little bottle. For example, it takes roughly 63 lbs of lemon balm to make 15 mL of Essential Oils. I choose to infuse the plant material into organic sunflower oil because while it is a nice and light oil, it is deeply nourishing and warming so that any type of skin is able to soak it in. Also, It carries more Vitamin E than any other vegetable oil. Lastly, growing oil sunflowers has the lowest environmental impact of large scale vegetable oils because the flowers depend on the least amount of water, have the lowest carbon footprint, can be planted in poor soil, and are GMO free.