It's the herb episode, and we're getting eerie with it. Discover why gathering herbs feels so witchy, what chants mom intones when harvesting lavender, and a recipe to one of my favorite potions.

Want to see pics from the garden? Instagram: @freshclippings

Show art by Alison McKenzie

Production guidance from Evan Roberts

Special thanks to Jeremy Bloom

Episode music from Blue Dot Sessions:

Our Son the Potter (Love and Weasel)

Pigpaddle Creek (Sour Mash)

Bossa Boa (High Horse)

Gamboler (Pglet)

Frank and Poet (Reflections)

The sun has set.

We've got about half an hour until dusk.

The sky is glowing outside.

I can see it out the window.

It's the perfect time to get witchy.

We're gonna be gathering herbs from my garden.

I've got a big metal kitchen bowl.

I'm gonna fill this up with all kinds of goodies.

So Let's get outside.

The moon is this wicked little Crescent up in the sky.

The light is just so that everything seems to actually glow

a little bit more than usual.

even brighter than during daylight.

It's one of my favorite times to be outside and the cats agree.

They both came along.

Let's get some tools and let's get into it.

So what's this whole witchy thing.

It's not just a vibe.

I promise there's a reason.

Waiting to gather your herbs until it gets darker or it's not in the full

light of day is kind of important because when you harvest any herbs,

you're just cutting a plant open.

You're actually creating wounds in the plant long term.

It's not bad for a plant.

In fact, getting herbs harvested can help plants grow more fully and healthy.

So harvesting herbs is great to do.

, but if it's hot, like it is right now, and it has been

pretty hot up here in Portland.

You don't wanna do it during the middle of the day because, um, the

sun can damage the plants more, or the plants might divert water

to try and heal up the wounds.

And so it puts a stress on their system.

So it's just recommended for the health of the plant that you gather your herbs,

not in the full light a day, therefore.

it makes gathering herbs even just a little bit more witchy.

I always feel like gathering herbs is kind of fun and sort of old school,

black magic, like gathering your ingredients or your, for your potion.

So I go on that trip myself.

When I gather herbs, you don't have to, but it makes sense why folk lore would

have, uh, women out there gathering under the light of a full moon.

Maybe it's the rhythm of the full moon.

Maybe it's just that it's super convenient that it's light or as

bright as it can be at night when they're looking for herbs in the woods.

Um, but either way, I think there's some wisdom in that folklore

and I try and stick with that

in keeping with our theme.

I'm gonna be gathering some of my witchiest herbs.

I have a little bit of a kitchen garden going on by our garage and in it, I

have stuff that's fairly run to the mill and more savory I've got time Reno.

Um, but I also have some stuff that I've started planting that

I use in something I call patio.

And patio T is a great way for me to brand for my husband and for guests.

Something that sounds intentional, but is largely accidental.

I just kind of gather together all the herbs that I think are gonna

be cool to put in tea during the winter I grow 'em all together.

I dry them.

store them together in a bag.

And then that sort of mishmash of whatever grew that season is what I call patio.

it's a very romantic way to talk about something in the winter, especially when

you don't have that much patio time.

The main ingredients in my patio tea are obviously mint.

I just love mint.

It's great for digestion, but this year I've been playing

with some additional things.

I started growing borage and skull cap.

I think they're really cool ingredients.

I'm excited to put them into the tea.

Let's get the borage plant first and I'll tell you more about it.

Okay.

So we're at this borage plant and it is kind of cool looking a little gnarly.

It's got hairs all over.

It's got these really droopy flowers and these kind of wrinkly leaves.

Uh, it has a little bit of a Dr.

Sues vibe to.

um, but that's not the reason I chose it, although it does fit

with my overall theme for the back.

Um, it first off is a nitrogen fixer, which is great because that means

that it's actually taking nitrogen out of the end, putting it into

the soil who cares plants care.

nitrogen is an element in most fertil.

But when you have plans that are nitrogen fixers in the mix, that

means that they're enriching the soil without you having to add chemicals

in terms of its usage as an.

borage is lovely because it helps with relaxation and helps with

digestion and its sleeves and its flowers all have a really lovely

kind of cucumbery taste to it.

So once I dry them, I think they'll be a great ingredient along with mint in a,

as with any pruning.

When you're harvesting herbs, you wanna make sure that you're cutting just

right above other growth on the plant.

What that does is that gives the plant somewhere to grow

from wherever you've cut it.

This Boge plant is also prolific.

It has been growing like crazy.

So I really need to kind of cut it back a little.

Okay.

I think we've got enough borage.

That bowl is almost full and.

As I was cutting, I ran into a cute little spider and I didn't want

to destroy his home completely.

So in the spirit of our episode, we'll leave him where he is onto the next herb.

Next up we're harvesting skullcap.

I actually, until this season thought skullcap was a mushroom

and then I saw it in a nursery and was like, oh, that's cool.

My experience with it had been with tea.

It doesn't have much of a flavor, but it has very relaxing.

Is it's really leafy it, honestly, if you were just gonna think of like

a plant, that's what it looks like.

It's got fairly normal shaped leaves.

They branch out, they have tiny little flowers, but it's also good for digestion.

It's not a coincidence that a lot of times when you're reading about

verbs, That herbs that are good for digestion are also good for relaxation.

I'm not an expert, but from what I understand,

our digestion and our anxiety are actually very, very closely connected.

your brain and your gut are deeply connected by a lot

of nervous system stuff.

And that's why, even if you think about things, sometimes

people say you had a gut feeling.

It's because there's so much nerve activity in your stomach, but some

people call it the second brain.

So when your mind is overactive, your stomach can be and vice.

Yeah, it kind of has a little bit of a, a little bit of a minty smell to it.

Hey there.

Morning, can you hear me?

So I caught you in the middle of some plant chores.

Yes.

Yeah.

I, um, I give my plants a shower.

mm-hmm

yeah, I think it's, uh, really good.

I, I live in a dusty environment, so I like to.

Give them a shower so that I can clear all the dust off and they can

breathe better and they look prettier.

Yeah.

Exfoliate the pores a little bit.

I'm in a Neme again today.

Pour my plants.

Oh my Rosemary.

Which I decimated, well, the cats away, the mice will play it all.

Oh,

from your time out here.

Yeah.

I think all the spider mices in the entire, uh, Willow

bend said, Hey, she's gone.

Come on over.

You know, so.

anyway, what's our topic today for you going

a reveal?

No, it's, uh, it's interesting that we were talking about Rosemary.

This week.

We're actually talking about herbs.

Um, What are, what are some of your favorite herbs to

grow?

I'm an herb enjoyer, I guess I would have to say herb appreciator.

Herb appreciator.

Yeah.

Um, man, one of my favorites, of course, besides has to have

basil at least one type of.

And the bagels and the mint are always out there.

The parsley regenerate, you know, every couple of years have to renew.

Lavender is always growing and flourishing.

It's I'm now catching my fourth lavender flower harvest, um, of this summer.

Oh, that's awesome.

How do you keep your lavender?

Blooming.

Well,

, Mom: it's a little, it's one of

my cup of tea and I listen to music and I pull up a little chair.

So I'm at the right Heights to clip my lavender and I clip right above

where, um, you have the lavender blocks on and then the stem goes

down and then you have these.

Leads come out and new lavender is spreading from

there, new lavender flowers.

So I judiciously cut, um, above those new ones.

So I always have lavender flowers.

You've got quite a ritual going well,

I know it, but it's so enjoyable.

Um, is it, what are you, uh, what are you listening to?

Is it Fleetwood Mac?

I have been listening to, um, kind of pop, uh, it's a Spotify kind of thing.

And it's playing a lot of, uh, lady Gaga and Syrian, you know, stuff like that.

Oh yeah.

What, what lady Gaga do you listen to?

Well, it's whatever Spotify deems I should listen to

while I'm putting my lavender.

Um, so it's just been a, a mix of stuff.

And then I go to my road trip mix.

Then I made up of music from like this 70 and eighties, and, you know, a lot

of CCR and different things like that.

So I, I go between the.

. What do you do with your lavender?

Oh, the lavender I make sachet.

So, um, I'm always like right now on my calendar, I have a little basket of the.

Of the flowers that I picked a few days ago put them in bunches and hang

them upside down in a dark closet, you know, but then I put him in a

big bowl and then I just kind of.

Slap 'em, against the side of the bowl and all of those

beautiful little buds fall out.

And then I make SAS, or I put 'em in tiny, cute little jars and

give them to my friends to use.

Nice.

How often do you refresh your Sache is like, is that kind of like

yearly Finn

agrees.

Yeah.

he was like, totally do that.

I mean every year.

Yeah.

Every year.

Okay.

Last herb for the evening, completing the trifecta of our witchy herbs is catnip.

You gotta have some herbs for your cat familiars.

So I believe there are herbal uses for catnap, for humans.

I'll be honest.

I don't know them.

I grow this exclusively because Agnes absolutely loves it

weirdly enough.

Um, only about a third of cats actually respond to catnip.

One third of cats don't care about catnip.

One third of cats like it, but can do without it.

And then the other third freak out, an Agnes is a cat feed.

She can't get enough.

Catnip is a member of the mint family, thes family.

So like any mint, don't plant it next to anything delicate or small

that you don't want it to take over.

That little sneeze was Agnes putting her face in the catnip.

Now she has to wait about 30 seconds until it really kicks in.

And then she's gonna be wilding out

like any other mint.

You wanna chop it?

If you see it growing flowers, because that means it's not gonna

be putting energy into its leaves.

It's gonna be putting energy into making seeds

and you want it's leaves so that your cat can go on a hallucinatory trip.

Yeah.

Ane.

Yeah, it's starting to kick in.

Her eyes are looking wider.

That's her, that's her on the mic.

She starts to get really affectionate.

Yeah.

Hi.

Yeah.

We're all friends now.

Yeah.

This is the first stage.

. The second stage is her chasing imaginary prey.

And then kind of rolling around in the live cat net.

She really gives into the full experience.

Oh.

So I've got three full kitchen bowls with really vigorous looking herbs.

What do I need to do before I can put them into a potion?

Well, my go-to is just hanging drying.

It's really simple.

You can do it in a basement or a closet or anywhere that isn't with direct.

And you want it to be relatively dry.

An easy thing to do is just to make them into little bundles, put a rubber bound

around the end of the bundle loop, a twisty tie through there, and then you

can arrange the bundles on a hanger and put it in a closet, or you can put them.

Really anywhere that you can wrap a twisty tie around.

It's really simple.

Um, and around this time, every year, my closets and my basements start to look

kind of frontiery, but I really like it.

It also smells great as they dry.

So with the moon turning more yellow and the crickets chirping and an

eerie breeze beginning to blow through my neighbor's apple trees.

I think we can call this evening of Witchery a success.

If you're curious to.

What the little bundles of herbs look like as I hang dry them,

I'll post a few on Instagram.

We are fresh clippings.

Do you have a witchy friend who likes to play with potions or just make tea?

Send the show to them.

Thanks so much for joining us on plant time.

This is Topher for clippings and we'll see you in the garden.