Okay, I’m not doing a “mother’s day “ post this weekend .. Really, if you’ve noticed, I usually go in a different direction, not participating in a one day noticing of something, and certainly, am not fond of days that primarily exist to sell things to people. Is this is a good business practice? Probably not, yet I can’t do things my heart’s not in. Quietly, I’m showing you this moss rose, so called because in its metamorphic expression, the multitude of stem thorns become tiny sepal filaments, giving the appearance of...moss. New to the garden this year, and still tiny, the scent surprised me. Tart green apple lightly sprinkled with clove, allspice and cinnamon, washed with bitter orange and stored in a trunk with antique paisley shawls. The shawls preserved from moths with crumbling ghosts of patchouli leaves. Of course I am thinking of my recently passed mother, feeling a tinge of grief that I don’t feel uncomfortable to feel. Instead, there’s wonder and curiosity to follow it.. like a trail of scent, with its oblique lines, familiarities, surprises and shadowed corners, into the no-word place. It’s all fine. To quote my IG friend @woodlucker, “ at the center of grief is Love”. #roses#heartcentered#slowbeauty#botanicalperfume#aromaticlife#jevaisaupif#artisanperfume#plantmedicine#olfactory##aromaticmedicine#scentsy

At last, the website is updated with new Spring plant creations! Then, a nap is in order before tackling the newsletter. Feeling extra grateful today for @cha_michi ‘s help with the weed jungles and my partner’s taking the day off to mow and remove buttercups, prune prickly canes and wash dishes, for a painful injury has been limiting my gardening work the last week. Last autumn I decided that except for seasonal and occasional herbal concoctions, I’d relinquish offering many of my standby apothecary items. Instead, chose to focus on delightful tiny batch teas, the hydrosols and skincare and, of course, perfume: all things that really make me happy. Aromatic medicine in every form is my passion.. also formulating, teaching and just being in the garden with deep presence. I couldn’t be happier with my decision. There are more changes to come, but amplifying working with what’s on my land or in my heart mind is unlimiting and a better canvas for my plant based healing arts. I won’t go into big descriptions here, but in the five photos are Cloud Lift Flower Essence; Vernal Pool Facial Serum ( amazingly cooling & refreshing for “ hot” or dull skin conditions ); Dandelion Acetum; Love Your Lymph Elixir and Printemps Herbal Tea ( full of flowers). Probably tomorrow I will describe them a little in my stories. Yesterday one of the holistic estheticians who uses my products in her practice said she loves how I tell the real story here on IG. For me, I can’t do otherwise. This is a tiny, direct from farm to product business without employees. (@cha_michi and I have a different understanding, not bartering, either.) The real is trying to catch up with TF life post wonderful incense class collab with @ritual_skincare ; having to slow way down and take more attentive care of myself and, fully enjoy some support from dear ones. ♥️♥️♥️ #biodynamicfarming #biodynamicskincare#plantcrazy#wholeplantskincare#organicapothecary#aromaticlife#plantmagic#naturelove#ilovemywork#botanical

Making little paper baskets filled with flowers, to hang on doors in secret was a quaint May Day thing I did as a child. Did you bring in the May or wash your face with dew? Some little bits of news from here: The flowers of May are abundant and so is the garden work! My version of the “April Showers” saying is: April & May flowers make a lot of Tender Flower products, but only if the work gets done. So the April newsletter will become the May one, the site will be updated with new products next week, and you’ll all forgive me I know because you get to peek at some of these beautiful blooms. (more photos in stories) The perfume aspect of the farm is expanding. There are new varieties of fragrant violets, scented geraniums and roses to be planted. Tuberoses went in yesterday and plenty of annual herbs, too for your favorite skincare creations. And, yesterday, @cha_michi found two patches full of four & five leaved clovers while weeding, apparently a sweet spot on one of the garden paths. Happy May! #smallherbfarm#biodynsmicfarming#greenbeauty#botanicslperfume#aromaticlife#wholeplantskincare#jevaisaupif#ilivrinagarden#ilovemywork#plantedlife#plantmagic#naturelove#biodynamicskincare

At it again, catching the breath of flowers onto the fat. Trying to give you a full face of scent through the screen.. Each tiny open flower is laboriously picked off and placed separately until the fat is covered, every day through lilac season. It requires incredible dexterity and attention. When I call enfleurage a flower meditation, I don’t mean it glibly or trendily. There’s a difference between doing things mechanically, perfunctorily with plants and then working in awe and respect. Someone recently wept smelling my hyacinth enfleurage, and told me they felt the soul of the flower. This is all medicine. #aromaticlife #enfleurage #jevaisaupif#wholeplantperfume#slowperfume#greenbeauty#botanicalperfume#lilac#flowerlove#plantmedicine

Do you like dandelions? For me, it was the first plant I fell for, with its bright yellow head that smelled sweet & powdery but slightly rubbery too. Not surprising once you know the milky stem secretion is a latex substance. Dandelion has an affinity with the human metabolism, in general dissolving obstructions to vitality, with an especial connection to the liver. Dandelion preparation 506 attracts beneficial forces to the Biodynamic farm and clears blockages to that purpose. Its relationship to silica in formation, (ie, silica processes), allows the Light ether to work into the land and plants. But its really a reflection of the forces of Jupiter, and our next step in evolution. When you find a perfect dandelion scepter and gaze at its silky corona you are convinced of its magic. Steiner said, “The dandelion is really a kind of messenger from heaven.” (in the last image, dandelion root, leaf & flower acetum. each part harvested and freshly infused on the pertinent BD day, 2 oz bottle, up on site early next week) #biodynamicfarming#dandelion#BD506#naturelove#biodynamicgrower#biodynamicskincare#apothecary#plantmedicine#wholeplantskincare#earthlove#slowbeauty#greenbeauty#biodynamics

Hi! Thank you lovely people for understanding that orders are going out a bit slowly, message & email responses are delayed & brief: it’s April, month of plant madness! If I don’t harvest and process and plant the plants now, in their optimal time, then there are no Tender Flower products. So simply said, but so complex if you lived it. Today’s partial list: harvest large amounts of violet, nettles, lemon balm, mints, monarda, cleavers; enfleurage lilacs; infuse fresh plants of different sorts; start a bunch of medicinal herb seeds; put away the freshly dried herbs in Micron jars; answer the priority messages; file sales taxes; and somehow find something to eat, shower and hide the unfolded and heaped up basket of laundry so I won’t feel too bad. Though it’s an exquisitely beautiful.. outrageously beautiful .. time in the garden, you’re not going to see me in a photo here flouncing about in a pretty dress with a nice basket, playing with flowers. Even though I have the baskets and dresses. Nope, I’m the disheveled one with roughened fingers, eating raw weeds as I roam through the gardens, thinking of the wonders of a personal chef! #plantcrazy#greenlife#springmadness#plantlove#ilovemywork#weedeater#biodynamicfarming #biodynamicskincare#organicskincare#naturalperfume#artisanperfume#wholeplantskincare#plantsmakepeoplehappy

Freshly cured nettles.. no filter.. just different natural light sources. But either way, you can see the vibrancy of this amazing herb, yes? This is the standard for the Biodynamic plants grown right here on my tiny farm. Growing the plants with my own two hands for TF is a life daily immersion of time, devotion and attunement to nature few modern businesses in the botanical products world can claim. It is far harder than foraging or outsourcing everything from farms, never mind simply ordering from wholesale brokers. It certainly moves in a different direction, pace and value structure than the IG world. I mention it because it is so novel, and such a commitment, few can imagine either the incredible beauty & intimacy with nature + the sheerly daunting scope of work I live with each day. This year it’s a wonder to have the help of @cha_michi, who just appeared as if by magic. Magic, that is of the white stripe .. not black or the most prevalent, gray, comes from deeds of Love, which aren’t about what’s in it for you. I’m humbled to be working with someone who also loves this garden, nature, and the working power of Love itself, of healing. Nettles, with its preeminence as an herb strengthening the will forces to align with heartfire, is the only Biodynamic prep to made without a sheath like the others. It ripens within the earth itself and gives the soil a kind of intelligence and balancing of minerals. You can read more about this amazing green plant’s virtues in one of the first blogs I wrote on the site. You can cook delicious things with nettles, or simply make an overnight infusion. But it’s one herb I couldn’t live without, just as I couldn’t live without love. 💚 #nettles#biodynamicfarming #biodynamicgrower#plantlove#naturelove#greenbeauty#biodynamicskincare#wholeplantskincare#plantmedicine#vibrant#heartcentered#greenpath

A New Product, Hydrosols & Biodynamics.. From the lush, cooling plants of Spring comes Vernal Pool, to refresh, dissolve stagnation and curtail inflammation. A crisp, lymph loving and break out curbing plant resin lends its addictive scent to this dewy co-distillation. Plants fresh from my Biodynamically cultivated gardens and land are carefully distilled as primary product plant waters. Meaning the trace essential oil component isn’t removed and the hydrosol isn’t a secondary product of said EO distillation. Also, depending on the plant, I’ll choose either a hydro or steam distillation, or sometimes, a combination of both. Often I see definitions of hydrosols as being produced by steam distillation. However, there’s much more nuance and finesse to the process, beginning with first of all, intimate knowledge of the plants, as well as what the distiller intends to achieve. Though my little farm and business is too small and diversely planted to make Demeter certification feasible, I do use the BD preps, not just in a rote, one size fits all manner. Rudolf Steiner never intended that. The agriculture courses were given as a way to plumb the inner secrets of nature and the cosmos ( depending on devotion to the work), to be as a conscious individual developing the unique individuality of the farm. In turn the farm becomes sentient, in a manner of speaking. Additionally I work with #gotheanplantscience , which was the basis for how visionary Steiner developed his unique manner and esoteric content. Reverence for and learning about the elemental beings who hold together what we experience as physical Nature, is another aspect of my personal BD path. Biodynamics is a path of consciousness, not just substances to spray on the land for better soil. Though that happens, too! 💚 #biodynamicfarm#biodynamicskincare#distillation#wholeplantskincare#plantsonmyface#hydrodols#slowbeauty#greenbeauty#plantmagic#skinfood#naturalbeauty#ecoluxebeauty