Calendula grows effortlessly in our front and backyards. They pop open their first buds in February and last through the beginning of November where we live in Northern California. Sunny yellow and cheery orange blooms are beautiful, fragrant, and most of all, healing.
Wilson has been reading the Herb Fairies program this year which ties in beautifully with our Grade 5 Waldorf homeschooling Botany blocks. He is currently reading about the healing properties of calendula, just as the first flowers of the year are arriving! Calendula is wonderful for scrapes, burns, thrush, dry skin, and other skin issues. We decided to make a healing salve with the flowers.
Step 1: Pick calendula flowers that are in full bloom.
Step 2: Separate the petals, rinse, and let dry.
Step 3: Steep petals in organic olive oil or other base oil of your choice for at least a few days.
Step 4: Melt an equal amount of organic beeswax with your calendula petal/olive oil mixture in a crock pot for 2-3 hours.
Step 5: Carefully and quickly strain the warm mixture through cheesecloth, add a few drops of organic lavender essential oil, and gently stir.
Step 6: Quickly scoop salve into tins or other sealed containers. Cool in the refrigerator.
We are very fortunate to coordinate and teach at the Davis Waldorf School Summergarden Camp in Davis, California. This summer was our 4th year. Children entering grades 2-6 attended for one-week sessions. Older students could attend as Jr. Counselors. We have highly qualified teachers for handwork, gardening and cooking, and a host of amazing high school and college volunteers who help the program run smoothly. Children come to us from the Davis Waldorf Schools, and also from the local public schools, Waldorf schools from other cities and states, and homeschooling families. Some families travel from afar and stay in Davis for a week or more on vacation while their children attend camp.
Children rotate each day through the kitchen, garden and handwork room/woodworking area. The calendar provides breathing in (learning) and breathing out (playing) times throughout the day. Gardening includes planting, harvesting, weeding, composting, learning about herbs, and garden crafts.
Week 3 - Wood Toy Boxes, Flower Essences, Herbal Cheese
Children help prepare their own snack and lunch made mostly from local and organic ingredients. This summer, we were fortunate to have produce from Good Hummus Farm in nearby Capay Valley. Live musicians perform for the children during lunch once per week (harp, guitar, fiddlers, flute, clarinet). A beautiful aftercare program is available for children who want to stay longer than 1pm each day.
Each morning starts with circle time: Good morning song, gardening song, yoga stretches, summer song. Each learning session includes an opening and closing verse. Eating times begin with a meal verse. By the end of the week, children learn 8 verses and 3-5 songs. Children watercolor paint a cover for their journals which includes the week's recipes, songs, verses, and drawings.
Summergarden 2015 information will be on the website around February, 2015!
So fortunate to have incredible teachers -- Jennifer Tan, Par Duncan, Bill Critchfield, Robyn Wolfe, Jan Plotkin, Dahlia Haberman, Hue Thao, and Aftercare providers Karen Hansen-Downey and Misty DeGennaro
Below is a photo album that we created featuring our 5 weeks of summer camp adventures!
Gardening in the Autumn can be tricky in Northern California. Sometimes, the heat continues through October making it hard to pull out the tomatoes, peppers and basil. Other weeks, it is cool and crisp and feels like time to plant greens and root veggies. Here we are back in early September, planning the garden plots after pulling out most of the summer veggies.
We select a garden plot each year to fill with a cover crop, like fava beans, to provide nutrients to the soil. Hopefully, the beans and peas will grow up into our handmade tepees from branches that our neighbors cut down.Grow, little fava beans!
Adding sweet soil from the bottom of our compost pile helps revive the raised garden beds. Our compost pile is hidden by the fence near our meditation spiral. The spiral is filled with new golden leaves each morning! This is the view from our bedroom window each morning.
We have learned that certain crops just do not grow well from seed here, so we plant some seedlings -- broccoli, onions and cauliflower. The garden gnome watches over our progress.
We are going to add some flowers for beauty and color to invite the elementals to stay! Sometimes, we do better planting in pots and barrels like this one, filled with celery, strawberries, pansies and nasturtiums.
Singing to our garden encourages growth and invites the elementals. Singing is also soothing for us as we sow, water and tend to the needs of soil and plants.
We are building Winter gardens in a planter box and a barrel. Asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, chard!
Our side yard gets the best sun, so we prepped an area with organic composts and biodynamic tea, while carving a geometric pattern around the birch tree. We've heard that planting celery in a circle makes it grow well, so the circle row is for celery! Radishes, beets, carrots, onions, kale, lettuces, chives, parsley. And, some pansy seeds in-between for color.
Now, what should we sing? Sometimes we make up songs. One of our favorites is a German song that we wrote about thanking the Earth. We have movements that go with the song to help us remember our German vocabulary.
Danke fur die Erde Danke fur die warme Sonne Danke fur den Kletterbaum Danke fur den Bach
Danke fur den Garten Danke fur den kleiner Frosch Danke fur die Schnecke Danke fur mein Freund!
Edelweiss (alpine flower) from Sound of Music is another favorite...especially the part about "bloom and grow"!
Edelweiss, Edelweiss,
Every morning you greet me, Small and White, Clean and bright You look happy to meet me. Blossoms of snow may you bloom and grow, Bloom and grow forever Edelweiss Edelweiss Bless my home land forever....
A Waldorf verse (we do this with movement, too)... I dig, dig, dig And plant some seeds I rake, rake, rake And pull some weeds I wait and watch And soon I know My garden sprouts And starts to grow!
