Leslie's Lotions

Hello friends! I always look forward to our class gatherings and the wonderful friendships that develop as we create beautiful, healthy things together. Honestly, those connections are the most rewarding part of teaching! I have a few exciting classes coming up—including one at my home and two through Utah Valley University (UVU)—and I would love to see you there. 1. Elderberry Syrup Class  When: Saturday, November 21 at 5:00 PM Where: My home in Elk Ridge, Utah Cost: $20 per 12 oz bottle (Order up to 4 bottles) What’s Included: Dinner is provided! We'll be having white bean chicken chili with fresh toppings, plus fruit on the side. Plan on about 3 to 3.5 hours for the class. Our syrup is crafted with organic homegrown elderberries, rose hips, astragalus, ginger, fennel, cinnamon, and cloves, sweetened with apple juice and honey. You will take home a finished, shelf-stable bottle ready for your pantry or fridge. Elderberry syrup is fantastic for seasonal immune support, but it...

Sunflowers embody the sunny, carefree days of summer with their bright petals and their sweet yet refreshing fragrance. Sunflowers sprout up and bloom anywhere there is disturbed soil. As we are facing some challenges this year, wisdom from sunflowers is helping me.  Did you know that the entire sunflower plant is also edible and useful? Sunflower seeds are great to snack on by themselves, and they are a tasty, crunchy addition to bread, granola, and pastries. A spreadable nut butter made from sunflower seeds is not only delicious but also nutritious. Sprouted sunflower seeds make tasty microgreens that are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  Sunflower buds can be boiled and eaten like artichokes; they almost taste like artichokes, too!  If you decide to try boiled sunflower buds, the sap from the flower buds can be sticky and hard to wash off from a cooking pot. A little olive oil rubbed into the sap makes it easy to wash off....

The challenges we face can feel overwhelming, stressful, and discouraging at times. One of the gifts from God are plants. Chamomile is calming, relaxing, and rest promoting- the perfect gift in a little flower. Chamomile's scientific name comes from the latin word for mother- marticaria chamomilla. Drinking a cup of chamomile tea feels like a hug from someone you love, helping you unwind from stress and feeling like you can get through another day. Chamomile has helped me so many times- whether as a tea to relax and unwind from the worries of the day, or as chamomile lotion soothing away a stress headache. Other herbs great herbs for relaxing are lemon balm and skullcap, we will study those soon!  As wonderful and amazing as chamomile is, it is not a showy flower. Chamomile doesn't call attention to itself, it is content to be a background character in the garden, filling the gaps and spaces between other taller plants. Chamomile is easily overlooked and underappreciated but it...

Comfrey Comfrey is an amazing plant that offers great medicine and it helps other plants to grow. Comfrey is soothing and cooling, and it helps with hot, dry, painful conditions. It has been used for centuries in wound care, as food for people and animals, as medicine, and as a garden fertilizer. If you look at comfrey leaves, they have little hairs on them that are scratchy, uncomfortable, and irritating. God put clues in plants to remind us of what they’re good for. This is called the Law of Signatures. Comfrey’s hairy, scratchy leaves remind us that it helps heal things that feel scratchy, uncomfortable, and irritated. Comfrey’s wide, luscious, dark green leaves with leaf lines that look like cells remind us that it wants to help everything grow!  Here are other examples of plants with built-in reminders of what they can help with.   Carrots are high in Vitamin A which is good for the eyes. Walnuts have healthy oils which are needed for our brain and nerves to work w...

I asked my children what plant they wanted to study next. Decidedly they said, “Dandelions!!!” As I have studied dandelions, I think children and dandelions may be kindred spirits. They are often overlooked, but they are joyful and full of hope. They renew life. They grow without asking permission! They pack a lot of life and energy into a small size. They are a beautiful gift from God.  Last year we were at the cemetery on Memorial Day to visit my father-in-law’s grave. My mother-in-law put many beautiful flowers around his grave. My children looked around and noticed many graves without flowers, some of them over a hundred years old. They asked why so many graves had no flowers. We told them that maybe the people who knew them had died or moved away. They began picking dandelions and putting them on the forgotten graves. They were so happy running around the cemetery putting dandelions on the grave markers. Thinking of others makes you happy, but also one of the gifts of dandelio...