St John’s Eve, a traditional time for gathering herbs and celebrating the height of summer, so I thought I’d share a little about what’s happening behind the scenes at Pretty Wild Plants.
This old midsummer festival, the eve before St John’s Day, has long been a time for gathering herbs. In folk tradition, plants harvested now are thought to be especially potent, with the longest daylight lending them extra vitality. It’s a day I honour each year with a small ritual and a big basket, collecting mugwort, yarrow, vervain, and other summer allies while the sun is high.
What We’re Drying Right Now
This is the beginning of our busiest drying season. The dehydrator is running daily with freshly harvested herbs, grown here or gathered by hand.
We use a slow, low-temperature method to retain colour, fragrance, and potency. Then each batch is cured before being carefully packaged. This is the foundation for all our apothecary offerings, oils, tinctures, teas, and more.
Apothecary Restock Coming Late Summer
These lovingly dried plants are what we use to make our teas, tinctures and oils. We're not currently launching anything new just yet, but the apothecary shelves will begin filling again from late summer onwards with fresh batches made from this year’s harvest.
In the meantime, I’ll share some photos of what’s going into the dehydrator this week, think motherwort, mugwort and lots of calendula and dyer's chamomile flowers and a few of the plants that will be part of our midsummer herbal gathering.
Thank you for being part of this journey through the seasons and the plants. There’s always more to come as the apothecary shelves begin to fill once again.
With midsummer warmth
Ruth & Nes
Pretty Wild Plants
