Bertha Bee Apothecary LLC

20/07/2024

More Reishi ready.

13/07/2024

Mmmm Melissa

13/07/2024

Calendula!🧡💛🧡💛🧡

04/07/2024

The yarrow is going strong too.

04/07/2024

My mullein stand

04/07/2024

All my echinacea is popping 💕

21/06/2024

Happy solstice 💕

17/06/2024

My hypericum perforata (St. John's Wort) never wants to wait for the solstice.

16/06/2024

2nd lavender harvest. I have 3 distinct varieties (I wish I had been thinking and labeled them when I planted 3-5 years ago depending on the plant). I should be super Zen next week if you talk to me, my office smells amazing.

14/06/2024

Awesome first 🪻 lavender harvest!!

10/06/2024

Started an arnica infusion this weekend.

27/05/2024

Arnica came back nicely.

26/05/2024

Ganoderma sinense, Black Reishi. First time for this one, it's so wicked looking, I love her! Sliced fine, I think I'm going to reserve most of this for tea, I bet it makes a nice adaptogen chai. Maybe a small double extract 💕

20/05/2024

Lady's mantle is flowering this year for the first time. So dainty.

20/05/2024

My Achillea millefolium is growing into a heart. ❤️ You too.

03/05/2024

Pretty cool.

A wounded orangutan was seen self-medicating with a plant known to relieve pain. It's the first time an animal has been observed applying medicine to a skin injury.

26/04/2024

Yay! Spring nettles! I'm probably covered in ticks now.

30/03/2024

The ramps I rescued from the grocery store are coming along nicely. This is my second or third year of them coming back. Woohoo!

20/03/2024

Hello plant friends!

During March, United Plant Savers is having a membership promotion where you can get $5 off a membership by using the code MARCH2024 at check out.

I love being a part of this community for several reasons. One, it is a way for me to give back to UpS for all of the things that I have learned from them. The international herb symposium they put on is absolutely amazing.

Two, as we humans use up this world , I think it's really important to be a part of conservation and these guys are really good at it.

Three, they're starting a seed bank for medicinal plants and I think this is HUGE. A seed bank you guys, how amazing is that?

Four, someday I'm going to make a trip to Ohio to see their sanctuary & one awesome part of being a member is free admission to botanical gardens, and arboretums through the American horticultural society's reciprocal garden network.

Five, discounts! Discounts on herbal products, classes, conferences.

There's lots more membership benefits, but I think the best one is knowing that I can be part of an organization that's helping to conserve medicinal plants on this planet.

www.unitedplantsavers.org

13/03/2024

18/11/2023

The wind has been blowing about a million miles an hour lately and I've started to feel dried out. I did a quick infusion of calendula in avocado oil and camellia seed oil. After that I mixed it up with some cocoa butter & a little bit of beeswax. It was then chilled and whipped and chilled and whipped and chilled and whipped again. Now I have some body butter. Let me tell you this stuff is literally like butter. I need to perfect this recipe. It's a little too oily for me but it was nice to do oil bathing before bed

05/11/2023

Lamium purpureum (purple dead nettle), anti-inflammatory, antifungal and antibacterial actions. Plus a nice bowl of spent mushrooms and herbs for the compost pile.

05/11/2023

Withania somnifera (ashwaganda root) & brandy tincture. Adaptogenic & nervine support.

05/11/2023

Morning coffee and tincture pressing. I pressed out the trametes versicolor and ganoderma lingzhi (turkey tail and reishi) alcohol extractions and combined them with the tea extractions earlier in the week to make a double extraction. Next I'm going to combine and bottle these two but I need to figure out the ratio I'm going to use.

04/11/2023

I took a self-care day and went to fangirl at the Madison herb fair to see Sam Thayer speak. He signed my book! Eeee! He was so super fun to listen to and it was just an all around nice day geeking out about plants and herbs with my people. ☺️☺️☺️

01/11/2023

My ginger ferment started, drying completed. I'll probably regret saying this but I almost dare my body to get sick so I can try this! 🤪 tempting lady fate!

01/11/2023

Y'all, I did it, I grew zingiber (ginger)! Last thing I picked from the greenhouse. Going to dry half for teas and ferment half in honey.

27/10/2023

Today is another mushroom day. Ganoderma lingzhi (reishi) first and second extraction. This will later be combined with the trametes versicolor for a powerful immune blend.

26/10/2023

I took some time off work to do important things. Today was a mushroom day. You might remember the trametes versicolor harvest (turkey tail). Today was the processing day now that the creepy crawlies have been frozen out. First I loaded them all in the pressure cooker, after that I had two options so I took both. Half were tinctured as a second extract in good ole everclear. The other half were blended in their own water extract to make a powder extract. One reason why I love mushrooms so much is that they are so giving. The process also gives you a water extraction or tea which will be combined with the alcohol tincture to make a double extraction. At the end of all this, I will end up with a double extraction of turkey tail as well as the powder extract. I'll be combining the double extraction with my reishi double extraction to make a powerful immune blend. Turkey tail is immuno modulating, cholesterol modulating among other things. It's super great for your immune system. This is going to be an annual thing for me. I think turkey tail is a new ally for me.