How I use herbs - sweet violet

To be honest, I've had Sweet Violet (Viola Oderata) in my garden for about a year now and I'm not really sure how to use it. It smells lovely when it flowers and I've managed to keep it alive through winter and a hot dry summer. I thought this was a good opportunity to learn more myself.

eight acres: how to grow and use the herb Sweet Violet in the sub-tropics

How to grow sweet violet
I bought this herb as a small plant in a pot. It spreads as it grows, so its pretty easy to propagate by division. I've read that it also grows from seed. The plant seems to flower here in autumn, and dies back a bit when we get a heavy frost. I do have to remember to water it in summer, but otherwise its seems pretty hardy. I've planted it in a shady spot. Apparently it grows wild in some areas, but I think our climate is too harsh. It would be a great herb to forage if you have it locally.

How to use sweet violet
I haven't been actively using my sweet violet, but I'd like to start, here are a few things that jump out at me from my herb books. Firstly the flowers:

good nectar for bees (ours forage year-round)
edible and can be added to salads
the aroma is calming
make violet vinegar using apple cider vinegar and lots of flowers

The leaves are also useful:

mild expectorant action - treatment for colds and congestion as a tea
will also reduce fever and induce sweating
the tea can be used externally to relieve swollen joints (e.g. rheumatism) and eczema (here's a recipe for a balm made with violet leaves)
it seems to also have some anti-cancer properties, slowing the growth of tumours

I'd really like to try this violet leave soap recipe too.

I also notice that sweet violet is related to the pansy (Viola tricolor), which I didn't know had herbal properties. That's a good excuse to grow some pansies!

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here . You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!). I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months. I'm very excited to share this new website with you!

Chicken tractor guest post

Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about chickens, soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post! New soap website and shop opening soon.... Tanya from Lovely Greens invited me to write a guest post on chicken tractors for her blog. I can't believe how many page views I get for chicken tractors, they seem to be a real area of interest and I hope that the information on my blog has helped people. I find that when I use something everyday, I forget the details that other people may not be aware of, so in this post for Tanya, I tried to just write everything I could think of that I haven't covered in previous posts. I tried to explain everything we do and why, so that people in other locations and situations can figure out how best to use chicken tractors with their own chickens. The dogs like to hang out behind the chicken tractors and eat chicken poo. Dogs are gross! If you want to read more about...

How to make soap with beer (and tallow)

I may have mentioned this before.... soap making is addictive! Once you start, you just want to keep making more soap. And not the same soap, you want to try all sorts of different soaps. I made the mistake of joining a facebook group called Saponification Nation and now my facebook newsfeed is full of glorious soaps, in all colours and shapes, which makes it even harder to resist the urge to experiment. One soap that kept popping up a few weeks ago was soap made with beer. I generally prefer not to use ingredients just for the sake of it, I like to know that they are adding something to the properties of the finished soap. As you know, I don't like to use artificial ingredients either (colours or fragrances). When I read about beer in soap I found out that beer adds sugar to the mixture, which increases lather. I use tallow in my soap, which has limited lather, so anything that adds lather could improve the soap. ...

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