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A farm-grown guide to chamomile’s traditional uses, creative inspiration and a simple chamomile-infused honey recipe.
The wind feels refreshing as it blows on my face and bare arms as I walk to the upper field. The hyssop is in full bloom, its tall purple spires buzzing and vibrating with bumblebees and honeybees. Just beyond the hyssop, I can see the chamomile patch radiating amongst the green field. This is where I’m heading.
I walk the farm daily, often at dusk, to visit all the growing plots. These walks are meditative and open me to being in the moment. They tell me how the plants are doing. Are they happy, healthy and thriving? Or are they looking ill and in need of some tending?
This particular evening, I was heading out to the chamomile patch to weed and harvest, but I was also going there in search of inspiration. I was in the midst of writing my book, Herbal Revolution, and was feeling a bit stuck. While I worked in that beautiful patch, I started thinking about how everything is connected. How the digestive system isn’t just our stomach and intestines, and how so much of our nervous system lives within the digestive tract. Research is starting to back up what many of us have intuitively known for years about the gut and mind connection when we say, “Go with your gut.”
That visit with the chamomile inspired not only the introduction and digestive chapter of my book, but also the beginning formulation of our elixir, Go with Your Gut. Chamomile is a main ingredient in this blend and is actually next on my list to harvest and tincture fresh this week!
You can also find chamomile in our Digestive Tonic and our Goodnight Moon Tea!
Chamomile is well known for being a calming, relaxing and mildly sedating plant, but it’s also a plant that can inspire deep creativity. It’s all in how you work with it. I believe great medicine comes from just spending time with the plants. For me, spending time with chamomile means tapping into my intuition and creativity. It’s like a floodgate gets released and a series of clear, amazing possibilities fill my thoughts.
Chamomile is a fabulous herb for children who are restless or irritable, and for teething, growing pains, colds, fevers, sleep issues and nightmares. It can be used for both children and adults with digestive issues caused by anxiety or stress. Chamomile helps reduce inflammation in the GI tract, relieves gas and calms a nervous stomach. It’s also used to ease symptoms of PMS and menopause, like cramps, anxiety, irritability and sleep issues.
Topically, chamomile can soothe eczema, sunburns, sores and other skin irritations. Here in Maine, it has even brought relief to painful rashes caused by the browntail moth caterpillar.
One note: Chamomile should be avoided by people with ragweed allergies.
Here on the farm, our chamomile plot grows larger every year. This is a laborious plant for us to harvest, as we do everything by hand, but it’s worth the aching back. The quality of our chamomile can’t be compared to what can be bought. It’s just that beautiful.
Chamomile is an annual that readily self-seeds. If you start a patch, which I highly
recommend, chances are you won’t need to do much after that. It will sow its own seeds and offer a chamomile patch in that same spot for years to come. Despite being an annual, it will trick you into thinking it’s a perennial. And if you don’t have a garden, have no fear. Chamomile will grow fabulously in a container.
Once in bloom, you can harvest the flowers regularly and the plant will keep sending up new blossoms. We harvest by hand, holding the plant midway down its stem and using the other hand in an upward motion to rake up the flowers.
Most of our harvest is dried for our tea blends and other products, but I also make a large amount of fresh chamomile tincture every year. I use the fresh flowers in summer drinks, ice cubes, infused vinegars, oxymels and honey. Mmmm, chamomile honey, one of my favorites.
Which brings me to a recipe.
A fun, delicious and easy way to work with chamomile. Use it in baked goods, add it to tea, make it into a simple syrup for drinks or drizzle it on toast.
Makes 8 ounces
Gather your chamomile flowers and place them in an 8-ounce jar. I like to use jam jars.
Fill the jar with honey.
Make sure all the flowers are covered in honey. Fresh plant material is high in water content, and if exposed to air, it can rot and encourage spoilage. Shake the jar daily and check on it.
Let your infused honey sit for one to four weeks.
Strain, or don’t strain, and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
I encourage you to grow this plant, even if it’s in a pot, and spend time with it to see what magic it has to offer you.
Family: Asteraceae
Part used: Flowers
Energetics: Sweet, bitter, warm
Actions: Anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, carminative, diaphoretic, nervine
Contraindications: Avoid using if you have ragweed allergies.
Lemon balm is a cooling, uplifting, aromatic herb that has long been used to support the nervous system, digestion, and emotional well-being.
Herbalists often reach for lemon balm when someone is feeling hot, tense, worried, scattered, or emotionally worn down. It has a way of helping us soften, cool down, and come back into ourselves.
