Lets just say that I have been living on my sewing machine night and day.
Its tough with a full time job finding time to sew in between trying to gather as much as can with greens, flowers, and what not. And then of course taking time away from my family. Somehow I manage to squeeze time in to sew even if it means staying up till 1 in the morning and my eyes are cross eyed.
But I must say that I have the best customers because they are so patient with me. And of course grateful to my family, especially my husband who is my rock.
Like a crazy person I signed up for the Kenai River Festival which is this weekend June 10-12th in the Soldotna Creek Park. So on top of my orders I have also been trying to get qaspeqs, bags, cup cozies sewn for my first real festival. I don’t know what I got myself into but I am excited 🙂
June is already shaping up to be a busy month! I am taking time away from the sewing machine next weekend and going to the Eklutna Pow Wow! I am so excited! I have not been since 1996! Modest Mouse concert 🙂
Happy Monday! I hope you have a wonderful day! Be grateful!
I was a road master between Cooper Landing, Homer, Soldotna and Cooper Landing it was a whole lotta driving.
We had a sewing retreat in Cooper Landing from Friday night-Monday afternoon. I made it Friday night and was able to whip out two qaspeqs for my customers, and a cute Diva Wallet frame for another awesome patient customer.
Saturday was a busy day working at the quilt shop Bearly Threaded Quilting Too! And then I was a roadrunner and headed out to Homer to have a fun evening with the girls “camping” on the beach. It was a much needed night of lots of laughs, jumping pictures, Baywatch beach running, and more laughs! So glad I snuck away for a night and was able to visit with friends from home 🙂
Sunday was a perfect day resting. My body must have needed it because I just lazed around on the couch all day and it was wonderful!
Cooper Landing was calling my name Monday so I went back and able to almost three BB bags, organize my fabric for the millionth time, finished a customers order that went to Shageluk  and visit with the gals. My allergies were giving me heck from the fresh smelling rain on the cottonwood buds for my motivation was slugging.
I also finally received all my tags for my Sew Yup’ik business! Made in Alaska and the Silver Hand Program thru the Alaska State Council on the Arts! So I am going to be rocking and rolling at the Kenai River Festival which is in two weeks! I better get sewing!
Its also my dads birthday! So if you see him around wish him a Happy Birthday! I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for my strong, amazing dad who has been there for me from the very beginning. I feel lucky and am super grateful for him 🙂
And of course! My pops and Arraq share the same birthday too! So its my wonderful anaans birthday Arnaq! Who would always send for me in the summers to visit her in Anchorage and would take me all over! I love her for that and if you see her in Anchorage wish her a happy birthday and give her the biggest hugs!
Dealing with Devils Club is quite a process. You have to be careful not to get pricked by the thorns. I use a potato peeler or the back of a small knife to de-thorn the devils club. Once I get all the thorns off then I use my small knife and start cutting away the bark.
After I get all the bark off I let it sit out and dry in the basin either outside, or in the garage. Once it is dried off then I cut it up or break it in small pieces and put it in he grinder and grind away.
Once it is all ground up you can store it in a glass jar in a cool dark place. I will put some of the ground devils club in olive oil and use it to make salves. It definitely smells stronger ground up and I am excited to start making some salves!
Happy Harvesting!
I will share the process of making salves when I make them. Hopefully this weekend I can set aside some time to make some goodies!
Cinque Foil Herb also know as five fingers, crampweed, five leaf grass, goosegrass, goose tansy and silverweed to name a few.
As I was weeding away the dandelions away from my wild irises I noticed this weed that was trying to invade them as well. And I reached out to a Facebook group Alaskan Harvesters that I am in and asked if anyone knew. Some told me a weed pull out, and some others told me it has wonderful medicinal qualities. So I checked out the links and it looks like they have strong medicinal qualities which is great!
It is an astringent, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, tonic, antiseptic, hemostatic and antiphlogistic (which I have no idea but I am going to look it up).
It was used for a laxative by the Paiutes, can be used for a red dye. It is also good for diarrhea, enteritis, inflammation of the mucous membranes in the mouth and bleeding gums, cancker sores, dysentery and much more!
I don’t know how I am going use it either dry it, grind up the roots, make a salve, or put it in a tincture. But once I figure out how I will use it I will definitely share my recipes and the process.
On another note! The dandelions are trying to take over my beautiful wild irises and me personally I prefer the iris over the dandelion. I started weeding without even thinking of using the dandelion roots and halfway thru I realized that the dandelion roots are very medicinal and are strong! So I went back to my weed piles and started taking off the roots and setting them aside. I have harvest a bunch of flowers for dandelion salve but have yet to harvest the flowers for dandelion jelly. That is my list this weekend when I can set aside time to take care of the dandelion flowers.
SO! But I did gather some dandelion roots and rinsed them off immediately and they are sitting in the sun drying. Once they are dried and cleaned good I will grind them and figure out what to do with them. Dandelion root is super good for your health! So before you rip out the roots see if you want to harvest them for medicinal or share them with someone who will use them medicinally.
I am not an expert in gathering or making salves out of cottonwood buds, devils club, dandelion flowers and spruce tips. I am learning as I go and I will share the recipes that I plan on using once they have all infused in the extra virgin olive oil and are ready to be made into salves.
I didn’t grow up learning about them other than caiggluk, berries, wild celery, the grass that you pick in marshy areas and it tastes sweet, ayuq (tundra tea), the tasty pink flowers from the tundra, and the tasty bluebells.
And I am grateful for participating in the Ethnobotany certificate program thru the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. It has been an amazing experience and I am three classes away from getting my certificate. I was lucky to be able to travel to Nunivak Island for a 2 week class in 2009 and it was amazing and really opened me up to a new world that I never really understood. And I talk to anyone and everyone who knows about using plants and medicine and try and soak up all their information. The internet is also a wonderful tool to find out recipes, and information about each plant. I also have some books at home and I will share those titles because they are also wonderful resources.
So far I have gathered cottonwood buds, devils club, spruce tips, and dandelion flowers. I usually pick them in a jar on my quick 30 minute lunch breaks and cover the tips, or dandelion flowers with extra virgin olive oil until they are completely covered and I let them sit in my car in the sun. I have heard and read different times to let them infuse in the sun and so I am just winging it. I check to make sure they are covered in oil daily and shake up the jar or add more oil if need be.
I have heard that you can use other oils like sunflower oil, almond oil, coconut oil. But I just extra virgin olive oil because it seems to be the cheapest and I get more for my dollar.
If I am going to use the spruce tips for jelly or tea I let them infuse in water in the sun. They are also good just to snack on and they are pretty citrusy and sour but you get used to the taste.
I also plan on making some dandelion jalapeno jelly and I will use this recipe and just add a couple jalapenos in the mix.
And this video is Ahhhhhmazing! If you haven’t already you should check out all the UAMuseumOfTheNorth film series on YouTube. They are all wonderful and informational so grateful for videos like these to learn from.
Remember not pick spruce tips from the young trees because it will stunt the growth.
Do not over pick one tree, one area, and always leave a token of thanks to the plant or tree that you harvest from.
Go out and pick with your friends, family, niece, nephew, son, daughter or whoever and keep spreading the knowledge that plants are medicine. We are surrounded by plants and they all have strong medicinal qualities that could be better for you than any pharmacy or prescription. Be sure to consult with your physician or provider if you are on any types of medications as some of the medicinal qualities in the plants or trees can affect your medication.
My qaspeq class at Bearly Threaded Quilting Too was ahhhmazing! There was two gals Barbara and Nikki and it was wonderful! They both made beautiful qaspeqs! And I got to sew and make a couple qaspeqs for my amazingly patient customers 🙂
I love how Alaska is such a small world! I used to work for Nikki’s son Luke in Bethel over 10 years ago. And she knew alot of people from back home 🙂
And! I finally busted out Janome Memory Craft 500E Embrodiery machine and put it to good use! I cant believe it took me this long to brave it and try it out! Now all I want to do is embroider 🙂
Its going to be another busy week I have quite a few orders to fill and need to gather more spruce tips and dandelion flowers before its too late!
I have started gathering spruce tips, dandelion flowers, devils club and am going to attempt to make salves, teas, tinctures, and much more. I am saving this recipe for when the spruce tips have infused in the oil for at least month and then I will make some salve 🙂
A Recipe for Spruce oil, a fragrant, medicinal cough and chest rub. Tree oleoresins and oleogumresins are full of healing phytochemicals, often discarded in favour of their more well-known and popu…
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