Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Back in the June fo 2024, I waited patiently for my yarrow to spring forth flowers, so I could brew up a tincture.  In the end, I ended up putting both catnip and yarrow in one tincture, for a experimental mix for bug repellant spray (for us). I strained it and used it to make the every changing recipe that Mountain rose herbs keeps changing (on their website). You can read about the bug/mosquito repellant here on my blog.  Original post is here, but their link no longer works. (dried yarrow on a screen) We have added powdered yarrow to our "medicine chest" of remedies.   We learn something new every year.   We have already used macerated yarrow for a bleeding cut, and it is said to be great for wound healing.  If you haven't read up on yarrow, you really need to.  According to Learning  Herbs,  yarrow is also great for treating a fever.  In the past, we have grown and dried feverfew, but we now dry yarrow.  Yarrow salve...

  You may get a laugh out of this discovery, but it's a reminder to get your recipes out before you do early prep work.  I started a catnip infused oil earlier in May, thinking it was what I needed for my homemade bug spray.  It was not.   I then thought I used catnip oil for homemade tick repellent, and that was not it either. Having said that, I started a catnip tincture .  Good grief.  I started making the bug spray way back around 2015.   It works to repel bug bites, but if it's very hot out, you do need to re-apply it during your time outdoors. (photos from September of 2015, when I first made the bug repellent spray) The link for the online recipe no longer works, but the original recipe was from Mountain Rose Herbs.  They have changed the recipe and the title over three times since then.  It was first called Bug-Away Spray, then a Skeeter spray, and again changed after that.   I went searching for the link to share,...