Fresh Milky Oat Tops can be made into a tincture, infused in alcohol and left to infuse for around 6 weeks before straining and bottlling into dropper bottles. I am not a clinical herbalist and practice the folk method of tincture making. Meaning, I don’t do alot of measuring (unless you count measuring with your heart or the wisdom of your intuition) but typically will fill a glass mason jar about 3/4 full of fresh herb then pour the alcohol up to just under the rim and seal.

Dried Milky Oat Tops and the dried oat straw, are best used as a tea or I also love to use them in a cold infusion! Both versions help to ease stress, anxiety, and bring a sense of calm in a gentle way. They can be used daily as well!

My current cold infusion for these hot summer months are hibiscus, some type of mint, oat straw or dried oat tops, and nettle. Steep in cold water overnight and sip throughout the day. I keep adding cold water to my mason jar and use the same herbs for about 3 days before composting.

What are you making with Oat? Please share!

_{I have both dried oat tops and oat straw at my apothecary located within Loose Cow Merchantile in Front Royal, VA if you want a local source.}

_{Visit my website here for more receipes and DIY ideas.}

One of the reasons I wanted to try sharing in this space is that I have been doing a terrible job keeping up with my newsletter. I was using a platform that wasn’t super intutive or user friendly and I really wanted a space where I could just share what’s on my mind, in my heart, and what’s in the garden without a bunch of clicking, optimizing, and strategizing.

I couldn’t even tell you the last time I sent an email newsletter so it’s as if I’m starting over which is both exciting and a little scary at the same time!

A little introduction to me (if you are brand new) and my plans for this space. My name is Sarah Morgan, and I could add all sorts of labels to myself here but the bottom line is that I love to grow and make things. I love all sorts of mediums but the through line is that it’s all connected back to nature and the garden. I love to use what I grow in any medium I work in. I have used plant material to make an eco-friendly photography film developer, I have made ink from all sorts of different herbs, flowers, and botanticals. I love to make flavored simple syrups, shrubs, and oxymels; I’ve dabeled in wine making using ingredients from the garden, I love to dye clothes with herbs, make my own seasoning, and let’s not forget all of the soap and skincare products I make for myself, friends, and family!

My plan for this space is really just to share what is growing and what I’ve been making and experimenting with in a longer format than other social platforms are meant for.

My husband and I recently bought the property next door so we can start to expand our farm and gardens. I love to grow herbs and have BIG plans to expand my apothecary gardens over the next few years. Outside of my main job (I work in the banking industry full-time) I sell dried herbs and small-batch products I make in the cutest shop located within the Loose Cow Merchantile in Front Royal, VA.

I’m an artist at heart and while my medium changes with the seasons (and seasons of life I’m in, let’s be honest!) I do love to share my processes, recipes, and formulas on my website/blog that I call the “Garden Journal”. I love to share processes or methods for creating; leaving room for experiementation, substitions, and edits by the end user. I don’t claim to be a guru or any sort of subject matter expert. I love experimenting and playing and then relaying what I’ve learned with others so they can also experiement but also have a starting off point if they want to try something new.

It’s June and it feels as if the garden is just starting to take off. It was a cooler spring for us here in VA and we ended up having a hard frost later in spring which devestated our fruit trees so growing was a little slower than past seasons. It’s that time of year where I keep planting the same seeds because I haven’t seen any pop up yet and then BAM! 2 weeks later ALL of those seeds sprouting and I’m up to my eye balls in cucumbers! I’ve been harvesting lots of herbs - oregeno is on it’s second harvest already; chocoloate mint, ginger mint, marshmallow leaves and flowers, flowers for the dye pots, mugwort, and more.

I shared over on the Garden Journal about my experimentations with DIY incense over the winter months and how I used marshmallow root as the binder - with great results! You can read about it here.

We recently remodeled a room in our house and it now serves as my apothecary/work room. I’ve been able to spend a few evenings drying/processing herbs in that room and makes me so happy. I will share more about that in a future post.

The elderflower is in all it’s glory right now, the earliest flowers have fallen away and you can just see the berries starting to take shape. I currently don’t harvest elderflower to sell at the shop, simply because for every flower head harvested, that’s a ton of berries that don’t get to develop. I did harvest enough for my personal apothecary and encourage you to harvest some for yourself! In the past, I have made elderflower champagne (not that great IMO), I use it in all of my skincare products like my day time face serum and night cream; and last year I made elderflower simple syrup using this receipe with great success! I even made a few batches and water bath canned them and I’m still enjoying last year’s harvest.

I harvested garlic scapes and turned them into the most delicious garlic scape salts I’ve been putting on everything. If you are unfamiliar with created herb salts, you can check out this post for a basic tutorial.

I started a shrub last night using

^{You can find all of my recipes/formulas on my website here.}

^{You can buy my hardcover Garden Notes Journal here.}

^{You can buy my Apothecary Book which includes all of my formulas for various skin care products here.}

^{My stock photography can be viewed and purchased here.}