I enjoy making gifts for family and friends and especially enjoy including Nature's bounty. Using gifts from Nature helps me to stay in touch with my garden and hopefully make other people appreciate the bounty that Mother Nature offers.

If you would like to know more about how I work with the abundance of Nature, take a look at the website https://www.danusirishherbgarden.com/
I also offer an Introduction to Herbal Medicine course which you can take any time from anywhere. You an find out more here https://www.danusirishherbgarden.com/...

Another way that I like to make gifts from nature's bounty is by following the Wheel of the Year. I offer a transpersonal course the Wise Woman Way training and this course follows the Wheel of the Year. It is a personal healing course and we work with plants and connect with the Divine Feminine, making beautiful things from Nature along the way. Find out more here https://www.danusirishherbgarden.com/...

If you are interested in finding out which wild plants are medicinal have a look at my books, The Weed Handbooks Vol 1 and 2 https://www.danusirishherbgarden.com/...

Now for the recipes. These two are from "Christmas at River Cottage" by Lucy Brazier and Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall.
The Spelt Digestive Biscuits are delicious and go really well with cheese. You will need 120g butter; 120g wholemeal Spelt flour;
120g oatflakes; 40g brown sugar or xylitol, (60g if you want a sweeter taste); a few drops of milk to bind. I also added some of my own home grown and dried herbs to make the biscuits more savoury. Make a dough and roll out to 3 or 4mm thickness. Preheat the oven to 180 Fan/160 or Gas 4. Cut out the biscuits with a pastry cutter and place on a baking tray covered with grease proof paper. Bake for about 10 mins until brown around the edges. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then place each biscuit on a cooling tray. Keep in an airtight container.

Blackberry Whiskey Liqueur collect your Blackberries throughout Autumn and place in a kilner or mason jar. Add 150g sugar and then pour over a bottle of Scotch leave it in a dark place until Christmas and then strain through muslin into a jug. Then pour into a bottle and hey presto.. You can drink this as a liqueur or drizzle over deserts. We are making two jars of it so that we can leave one bottle to age and mature for next year. We also made some using poitín and you could use brandy too or vodka too.

To make soap as gifts have a look at how to do it here    • Making Soap with Herbs  

I also like to infuse savoury fresh herbs into oil for culinary use. I simply put my fresh herb you could use Basil, Tarragon, Sage or Rosemary. I have used Rosemary with Garlic. Gently bruise the herbs and place into a clean and sterilised bottle. Pour over some organic olive oil to the top of the bottle and leave for 46 weeks. Once it is being used, if the herb material becomes exposed to air it will oxidise so either remove the herbs or top up the bottle with extra oil. I made Rosemary and Garlic infused oil because I want to use it on a homemade Focaccia Bread.

Making a Christmas wreath can be done many ways. I like to make rings of Willow inside of one another, so that there are lots of gaps to fill with greenery or ribbons.

Here is a video which I came across last week and thought was uplifting and thoughtprovoking.
   • HONEST VULNERABLE MAN worthy of LOVE   I hope you enjoy it too.

I am delighted that I have been invited to teach on an online course which commences at the end of the month. I will be teaching about the myths and customs surrounding the Goddess Brigid. The whole course is about Celtic wisdom and looks SO interesting. Here is a link if you would like to check it out.
https://weavingremembrance.org/voices...

I am also on Instagram   / danusirishherbgarden  
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/danus...
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=117814...

Thanks so much for watching and subscribing and thanks for all the time posting comments. xxx