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It is truly surprising
what one encounters when exploring herbs.I first met my
Yarrow plants while hiking in Guelph, Ontario. I had
found a railroad with a very large embankment. Guelph is
a garden city so the area was truly beautiful with
flowers.
Having very little, I picked a bouquet of
wildflowers and made myself a dried flower arrangement. I
liked it so much I took it with me when I moved to the
Ottawa Valley after a new job.
In two more years I had
moved from my townhouse to an apartment on the river. I
still had my dried flowers. I planted the wreath that I
had kept and hoped for the best ; I had very little money
and wanted to plant something.
The first year I was
disappointed to find two tiny feathery ferns about an
inch high from the ground. But the next year I enjoyed
the softest and most lovely Yarrow I had ever seen.
It
had made many clumps over the winter and grew very
beautifully in the enriched compost plus soil and
hose-watering. The Yarrow you see in the fields is often
very dry and continues to bloom even in sand, but it is
half-sized and tough.
I picked my yarrow first for tea, when the stalks and leaves were young and tender and the blooms new. When it is fresh and new, placing it in a wash bucket of cold water extracts a lovely real lime scent- so the plant is at the time most mellow and exquisite.
I use dried Yarrow flowers in arrangements, and have also experimented with tea blends. Since I gave these to a Doctors' family, it would be rude to elaborate the teas blends, their having found what I believed about the herb blend to be functional medicinally, but a version of this is to be found in Companions / Recipes.
I have often bunched dried yarrow into a tea egg and
use it for healthful flavouring in soups in the winter.
Whether you know it or not, it is giving a tonic to your
blood and digestion.
As you will see from the yarrow chart,
yarrow is made into a preparation for hemmhorhoids, among
many healthful uses, so drinking it is an internal balm,
if you resent touching that which is unspeakable . ooh la
la!