Artichoke from the Moon Haven garden
We have never grown artichokes before but after our visit to Turkey in June we decided that life was not worth being artichoke-less ever again.
So on our return and once the garden was prepared in went 10 artichoke seedlings.
I don’t think i have ever seen plants grow so fast or so impressively.
Whats more, you don’t just get one artichoke per plant …but soon after cutting the first head multiple others start to develop where the leaves branch from the stem.
Artichokes have become our nightly apetiser. Eric prepares them while I get the rest of dinner underway.
Just before dinner Eric goes out to he vegie garden and cuts the days artichokes. Initially it was just the one and if we were lucky two. Tonight it was four… with a veritable feast readying for tomorrows harvest!
To prepare, Eric cuts the stalks close to the base of the globe and rubs this with lemon juice to help stop the discolouration. Then he cuts the hard tips of the leaves with scissors and places the heads in 1/4 cup of water and lemon juice and covers with plastic wrap. He then microwaves the two heads for about 5 minutes on medium high.
I prefer my artichokes with butter and so slide cold slices of butter into the heart to melt down. Eric loves a little mayonnaise to dip his leaves into.
I think half the fun of artichokes is in the eating… each leaf pulled from the base and the fleshy partat the base scaped away with your teeth. I just love the savouring of the delicate flavours or each morsel. The reward is finding the heart…all rich and butter like.
Once agian we get to enjoy the bounty from our garden and you just can’t beat eating fresh produce that was growing in your garden not 10 minutes before!
New pototoes from the Moon Haven Vegie Patch
There is nothing like digging your own potatoes straight from the garden,then cooking them ( in my case microwaving them) and just a few minutes later slathering them with lashings of butter, salt and pepper.
What a taste sensation!
This year we grew potatoes for the very first time and while we only put in three 1.5 metre rows it looks like we will get a sizeable harvest out of it.
They are the easiest vegetable to grow - just dig a shallow trench… add some good compost and plant food, cover and water regularly. Then 8 weeksor so later … yummy new potoates… a definite taste sensation.
vetiver is distilled from the roots of the vetiver plant
I love vetiver. It’s soft, smoky, resinous scent is so calming and grounding that I will often just open up my bottle of essential oil in the midst of the busyness of moon haven and take a slow, deep breath.
The effect is almost instantaneous - a deep sense of calm and groundedness overtakes me. My heartbeat starts to slow and I am reminded of the cool, damp earth and my connectedness with it.
I use vetiver for all of these reasons and more. It helps to dispel negativity, anger and irritability. It is also helpful for releasing grief and calming panic. It truly is the oil of tranquility.
For skin it is fantastic for helping with stretch marks and wound healing. It promotes hormonal balance and skin moisturisation.
The oil is steam distilled from the dried roots of the vetiver plant which is grown in Indonesia and India. Over the two year growing season the roots of this grass-like perennial can grow to 2.5 metres in length!
The base note of vetiver can be overpowering so I tend to only use it in relatively small proportions.
for example a lovely calming blend for the home is:
1 drop vetiver
4 drops sweet orange
2 drops clary sage
2 drops lavender
The soft smokiness of the vetiver will ground this blend and carry it throughout the day …allowing the scent to linger longer in the air.
At Moon Haven we use vetiver in our Grapefruit & Green Tea designer soap... yummy!
A section of the Moon Haven Vegie Garden
The summer vegie garden is truly prolific and it is around Christmas that our bounty really starts to mount up.
We do not grow many things…just the basics as we are more often at our moon haven cottage than at home - so our vegies (Australian slang for vegetables) have to be relatively self sufficient.
Luckily we have automatic reticulation from a bore (underground water) so our watering duties are limited to a little additional water to new plants and seedlings.
With adding some seaweed based plant food once every week or two and resupplying compost ocaisonally, the biggest job this time of year is harvesting and then eating or preserving the produce.
These beautifully crafted jars were made to hold essential as well as the carrier oils produced by the Dominican monks of Santa Maria Novella.
I estimate that each jug had a capacity of 4 or so litres of oil. This would make each jug a very precious item amongst many others in the monastery…hence the beautiful deocration and craftsmanship of the pieces.
I would certainly loved to have taken one home with me.
Moon Haven’s Cowaramup Cottage is 6 today!
We opened our doors 3 days before Christmas 2002, with all the hopes and ideals of new business owners. Little did Eric and I know what we were letting ourselves into!
Six years later Eric and I can look back and all we can say is Wow…
Moon Haven has become something much greater than we could every have imagined 6 years ago.
What started out as a humble attempt to bring our skin saving soaps, our pain relieving Achy Breaky Rub and our aromatherapy preparations to a demanding public, has turned into a place of creativity, friendship and healing, where random acts of thoughtfulness happen on a daily, if not hourly basis.
Moon Haven soaps, lotions and potions can be found in countries around the world and across Australia. We continue to be astounded by the thoughtfulness of people who write to tell us of their Moon Haven experiences and success with our products.
This feedback helps us to keep on producing and thinking and researching for better ways of combining our herbs, oils and other ingredients to come up with even more solutions.
Of course while Moon Haven in our Cowaramup cottage may be 6 today, Moon Haven itself is now well over 8 years old with our first products being made in our kitchen. How far we have come…how far we have to go!
Santa Maria Novella 17 century Citrus Press
Visitng the Santa Maria Novella Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica in Florence was a fascintating expreience. The museum still contains much of the equipment used over the centuries.
The Dominican monks extracted esential oils using both cold presses and stills.
The press seen at the left here was in full working order and had obvoiusly been well used.
The copper distillation chambers were well beaten and just as well used. As you can see from the photo they were not very large and so any oils extracted were 
considered very valuable and rare.
The other piece of herbalists equipment that i was fascinated with was the grinder. Made of carved granite is was far heavier than expected - but the balance was such that it took little effort to spin the grinder within its bowl. Even though i am sure it has not been used for many years the scent of herbs from ages gone by was intoxicating.
Herbal and Spice Mortle & Pestle circa 1700
Essential Oil distillery from Santa Maria Novella Florence circa 1700's
Eric and I visited the world famous herbalist shop of the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica Di Santa Maria Novella in Florence earlier this year.
The Dominican monastery’s first medicinal herb garden was established in 1221 to provide the herbals required for the monks own use. In 1612 the monks first offered their wares to the public in the same spot where the Santa Maria Novella Herbalist shop is today.
Above is an engraving of the monastery’s distillery where essential oils were extracted from their parent plants. You can see the wood fire hearths lined up in a row below the distillation chambers where plant material and water were gently boiled and the oils distilled off into beautiful ceramic urns and jugs.
