november notes
So many fresh seasonal treats are arriving in the shop each day, as the weather cools and we settle into the longer nights. I invite you to cozy up with a cup of something warm and spicy and to perhaps draw a forest-scented bath…
As always, I’ve been balancing out the grey afternoons with cheerful bunches of carnations from my favorite local spot. This year I’ve gone from being partial to single shade bouquets to embracing their multi-color offerings, which change a little bit each time, but they deliver a real chromotherapy boost when arranged thoughtfully. Just so divinely cheerful!
Read on below for a few favorite things from the past month, small bits of inspiration and light in what has been a difficult time for the world. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to stay present, to continue feeling. To let that feeling move us. To commit to a spiral path of taking action, resting and reflecting and then starting it all again.
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reading:
listening:
to Seeds of Resilience with Rowen White. So much appreciation for Rowen’s writing & wisdom
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A friend picked these rosehips for us in Maine and arranged to have them delivered to us in a clandestine handoff in the caverns of Wall Street, which made for a truly amusing errand. I had at first thought of distilling them into hydrosol, but then reconsidered and decided to ferment them (with the help of the fermenter-in-chief of our household) into a sort of cordial. Something like this. In retrospect, I highly recommend this method. The results have been absolutely delicious. Straining out the fruit bits from the liquid and passing them through a food mill also resulted in a lovely kind of preserve that has been delicious alongside cheese.
I’ve also just distilled another batch of our windowsill rose geranium hydrosol, this time with the skeleton-leaf rose geraniums. They have a slightly different character than my Attar of Rose variety, but still so lovely and my hope is that the next release of our Rose Geranium sur Fleurs facial tonic will feature a blend of hydrosols from both varieties. Stay tuned!
Tis the season for sending out lots of parcels to our beloved stockists, this month to Carton Blanche and El Dorado General Store. I’m deeply grateful to have worked with so many wonderful independent shops over the years!
And in the garden, the seeds are ripening. This year, I have plans to save seeds from our native plant beds at 6&B and sow them outdoors to give them their requisite cold period before they germinate in the spring. I’ve been so grateful to the Wild Seed Project (a resource passed along to me by a garden friend) for all the wonderful information they share about how to do this. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
Below, clockwise from top left:
the seedheads of the New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) which grows up to 7 feet tall and has beautiful purple flowers in the late summer
our common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) pods beginning to burst and release their seeds and fluff
the lovely seedheads of one of our asters, I believe it’s the smooth aster (Aster laevis)
leaves from our ornamental cherry tree (the one that we harvest from to make our preserved cherry blossoms!) are always some of my favorite for their subtle colors as they fade and fall
the frosts are very late this year, so a few calendula blossoms are still holding on. I took these home to make a little cup of tisane
and the absolutely stunning autumn foliage of our native oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
more autumn notes
This month has been truly lovely in the garden, a spacious respite from the heat of summer. I’ve been very busy in the studio, releasing our botanical perfume, TILTH, and sending lots of treats out to our wonderful shop partners across the country.