Herbarium - Herbal Holiday Specials

Herbal Holiday

Gift Baskets

Tastefully created herbal gift baskets that everyone enjoys giving and receiving.

Stressless Gift Basket
Herbal Spice Gift Basket
Lavender Gift Basket
"Create Your Own" Gift Basket

"Fresh Cut Christmas Tree"
Essential Oil Recipe interview with Kathleen Duffy

FEATURED in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine Dec.,2004

Since the "fresh cut" smell usually fades in days, here are a few pointers on how to create an air of nostalgia and calm in your families home through the whole season.

Pine Essential Oil

Spruce Essential Oil

Cedarwood Essential Oil

Empty Amber bottle with reducer (dropper)

~Frankincense & Myrrh~

Aromatherapy uses of frankincense and myrrh draw on the deeply meditative quality of these oils. A gentle diffusion of a blend of equal proportions of both can evoke emotional balance in cases of anxiety or stress. Such a blend is also appropriate as an adjunct to prayer and meditation. In fact this usage is consistent with the long history of frankincense and myrrh.

Frankincense and myrrh can be useful in less relaxing blends as well. Outstanding and unusual aromas can be created by blending the two oils with citrus oils -- lemon and bergamot work well with frankincense; orange and tangerine with myrrh. The citrus oils produce a lighter, cleaner, more uplifting aroma, more inspiring and less introspective than using frankincense and myrrh alone. These citrus frankincense and myrrh blends are useful when seeking emotional inspiration. Frankincense and myrrh alone are best used when seeking emotional insight.

One of the most appropriate ways to use frankincense and myrrh may be to burn the crude resin on hot coals as the ancients did. This simple ritual will release a distinctive aroma and sinuous trails of fragrant incense that hold a mysterious presence in the room. The curling tendrils of burning frankincense and myrrh have measured the passage of history, and facilitate the navigation of inner and outer spiritual.

Frankincense & Myrrh Resins
Frankincense & Myrrh Oil
Frankincense & Myrrh Gift Basket
Frankincense & Myrrh Soy Candle

Pomander Recipe

Choose firm whole apples or thin-skinned oranges to stud with
cloves, then roll in spice and tie with ribbons. Pomanders last
for years and can be restored to their original fragrance by
washing them in warm water and rolling them again in spice.
Ingredients for six to eight fruit:

· 1/2 pound long-stemmed cloves

· 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

· 1/4 cup each:

o ground cinnamon,

o ground cloves,

o ground nutmeg and allspice,

o powdered orris root.

Pomander Mix

Wear tape on thumb to protect it while inserting cloves in close
rows into the fruit. Mix the remaining spices in bowl to create
a spice bath. After studding the fruit with cloves, roll it in the
spice bath. For each pomander allow thirty minutes to an hour
and be sure to complete it within twenty-four hours. Leave
pomanders in spice bath in an open bowl in a warm, dry place
for at least a week, turning them daily. After curing and drying,
tie with ribbons. Allow a week or more before boxing as a gift.

~Mulling Spice~

A blend of spices that is added to heated cider, wine or apple juice for a warm spicy drink. It is usually served during the holidays or on cold wintry days to ward off the cold. Spices are usually broken into pieces with a mallet or rolling pin and then tied into cheese cloth bags and added to cider or apple juice with water and sugar and heated just to boiling. It is then served warm in mugs.

Mulling Spices

Spiced Apple & Bay Leaf Garland

Handcrafted at the Herbarium

Full of Warm Character and Aroma~

These Garlands of Dried Apples, Oranges, Bay Leaves & Cinnamon,

are carefully strung together and tied with Raffia.

Spiced Apple & Bay Leaf Garland

GingerBread Potporri

Everybody loves the Sweet-Spice Combination of Gingerbread scent. We combine Bay leaves, Cinnamon, White and Yellow Flowers from the Garden and a variety of seed pods.

Holiday Essential Oil Recipes

These Recipes are NOT for internal use. Keep Essential Oils away from eyes and mucous membranes.

"Holiday Blessing"
6 drops Frankincense E.O.
6 drops Sweet Orange E.O.
1 drop Clove E.O.

"Candy Cane"
Equal Parts
Peppermint E.O.
Cinnamon, cassia E.O.

"Orange & Spice"
20 drops Sweet Orange E.O.
2 drops Cinnamon(cassia)EO
1 drop Ginger E.O.
1 drop Clove E.O.