smellovision – Pearl of Civilization

Hug in a mug

Today’s small pleasure is making one cup of tea from the one cup’s worth of linden blossoms I picked at the kids’ bike track the other day.

I really love living in a city that doesn’t spray the city-managed landscape trees

You would think by now I would have one moment of hesitation before I started boiling 3 bunches of radishes that had been in the back of the fridge too long. It makes #WeirdSmells but will it make ink?

Photo of a small stainless steel pot full of chopped radishes and water. On the surface there are bubbles and foam. The radishes are pale pink, having released some of their colour into the liquid.

Surprisingly solid pink ink once it gets concentrated enough! Seems more stable than things like raspberry or red cabbage.

Photo of a stainless steel pot with about 2 cm of dark pink liquid in the bottom -- radish tea

Photo of four strips of paper that have been labelled and dipped in ink at different stages.

radish: very pale pink

radish + 10 min: still very pale pink

radish + 15 min + salt + alum: noticeably darker but still pale pink

radish + 20 min + salt + alum: even darker but still light pink that could possibly be legible for writing

Can’t decide whether to add gum arabic for a drawing/dipping ink, or filter it better and add a bit of glycerin to try with a cheap fountain pen 🤔

First time since maybe June that I felt well enough to go putter in the garden.

I thought everything might be dead but look at all the treasures! I’m going to rest a bit and head back out for berries.

Flat-lay photo of treasures from the garden on a weathered wood surface. Dry branches of long, beige seed pods; small raspberry seedlings with prickly stems and leaves that are silvery underneath; a woven tray with yellow-green lemon verbena leaves, a bundle of leafy parsley, a stack of ruffled kale leaves with purple stems, a pile of dark purple beans pods, bright orange calendula blossoms, and a few stray green leaves of stevia; and finally some feathery stems of mostly-brown coriander seed heads.

Normally the scent queen is lemon verbena but today it’s the coriander seed heads that I can smell from the next room.

Going to have a Bear Snack 🐻

Non-weird smells for once

Close photo of a tray of lemon verbena cuttings. Their tender, green leaves grow in groups of three around green stems

My very first harvest of lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora) is somehow ready to dry. I only rescued this friend from the discount section at Canadian Tire a couple of weeks ago and haven’t gotten around to repotting it, but it managed to transform from straggly to lush and fluffy anyway. On brand somehow– a plant with very happy vibes.

Hug in a mug

Posting these linden (Tilia cordata) blossoms mostly to prove that not all of my herbalism projects smell weird. These famously smell like a hug.

Photo of white linden blossoms and their light green bracts drying on a metal tray. Everything has a yellow cast from the afternoon sun

Weird smells time again

Aww yeah it’s time for my favourite part of any [online] experience– using the #WeirdSmells hashtag. I managed to forage some hawthorn (Craetagus crus-galli) flowers to dry for tea, and now my kitchen smells like it is trying to attract flies for pollination…

Photo of flowering hawthorn tips on a tray-- clusters of simple white flowers with a few dark green leaves attached.

Because I always like to include an ethical note about foraging– these Eastern hawthorns are invasive here, cultivated as public boulevard trees, and the city has a commitment to avoid spraying them except in a few circumstances. Perfect urban foraging conditions?

Tag: smellovision

Hug in a mug

Making pink ink from radishes

First time since maybe June that I felt well enough to go putter in the garden.

Non-weird smells for once

Hug in a mug

Weird smells time again