March 22, 2015

Springtime Child's Wild Plant Walk: Finding Violet

March 22, 2015/ Angela

It is Springtime and plants are joyfully peeking their heads up through the soil everywhere. There are some happy, lovely child-friendly herbs that are commonly growing this time of year. Often referred to as weeds, these plants are powerfully healing, nutritious, and tasty! A favorite little plant just awaking in the world is violet. Take a walk with your child and see if you can find violet growing in your neighborhood. To help really get to know violet, when you and your child are meeting her share the little stories below and consider creating something tasty or crafty with your new plant friend.

April 18, 2014

Spring's Beautiful Gift, Violet Honey!

April 18, 2014/ Angela

My absolute favorite way to enjoy violets is by making and eating violet honey. The flavor of the flowers and of the honey harmonize together magically. It really is incredibly tasty and makes me think that this must be the perfect fairy food. Violet honey is wonderful on toast, biscuits, in tea or by the spoonful, and it is easy to make.

March 18, 2013

Natural Living Monday ~ Sweet Viola

March 18, 2013/ Angela

Any moment now she will wake! Each day I check the garden peering from my window into the shady places where she grows hoping to see her blossoming purple flowers, a sure sign of Spring. I love this sweet powerful little plant, resplendent with the loveliest little flowers full of gorgeous aroma. She is a good friend I look forward to spending time with each and every Spring.

Violet Flower And Leaf

Viola odorata

Violet's flowers support the heart like a compassionate and kind friend, and are wonderful for helping people through times of grief and heartache. The flowers also help ease coughs and soothe scratchy throats. My favorite way to prepare and preserve the healing power of violet flowers is through making a simple violet honey.

Traditionally used as a nutritive food, Violet is a wonderful nourishing plant that eases and soothes with it’s gentle sliminess. Use as a vitamin rich food, which supports digestion, making it even more healthful. Violet soothingly eases headaches and nervous tension by gently cooling and supporting the body and the nerves.

Violet acts on the reproductive system, nerves, lungs, and immune system with a unique alliance with the breasts. Useful for respiratory aliments especially those associated with coughing and thick, yellow catarrh. Helps fight to cancer of the breasts, lungs, lymphatic glands, urinary tract and GI tract. Violets will decrease swellings and soreness in breast tissue, for instance, in mastitis, cancer, fibrocystic breasts, PMS, and lumps. Externally, use the leaves to treat all sorts of skin problems, like: abscesses, wounds, pimples, swellings, persistent purulent wounds, chronic skin diseases including herpes, and red tense eyes.

Find this and more information about other amazing herbs in my Materia Medica section.

More ~

Violet Equinox ~ A Children's Solstice Celebration ~

Sources ~

Healing Wise by Susun Weed

Flower Power by Anne McIntyre

A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve

Notes From Class With Herbalist Ann Drucker

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March 20, 2012

Violet Equinox

March 20, 2012/ Angela

A Children's Solstice Celebration

We have a lush happy little patch of violets (Viola odorata) outside at the preschool. I noticed them last week quietly poking their deep purple heads through the soil and smiling with a delightful fragrance. I knew that we had to get outside and be with the violets. Violet are often one of the first flowers to grace us as the sun makes its way closer to us each spring and they are truly a treasure to behold. So what better way to celebrate this first day of spring than by smelling, harvesting and eating violets? Hence today we made our way to the violet patch.

I taught the kids a little song my teacher taught me, a song for the violets. A song to say we are here and we are friends. To say thank you to the violets for giving away to us. And we marched out to the patch singing and excited!

The kids did a wonderful job being careful with the plants and picking just the flowers.

Meeting Viola odorata for the first time.

As we all tried the flowers it was delightful to watch little faces light up with the amazing taste of violets.

The children loved them. We talked about how the violet's are good for us and they taste good too!

What a treat!

After gathering a good amount we took the violets inside, washed and dried them. We put them in a jar.

Then we covered them with agave. I usually make violet honey but the preschool is vegan so we are trying using agave this year. We will see how it goes! So far so good. I plan to keep the violets infusing in the agave for a good week or so. Then the agave and violets too will both go into a jars, one for each child to take home and enjoy!

We also read Mother Earth and Her Children by Sibylle Von Olfers. This is an amazingly beautiful book about the coming of spring. It is based off a gorgeous quilt made by Sieglinde Schoen-Smith. There is a little Violet child in the book and we had fun hunting for her and her violet plant. The kids were able to recognized the flower and the leaves in the book!