I really wanted the satisfaction of growing something useful, something I could use in my products. So, about 18 months ago I asked my husband to build me a couple of small planter boxes. We live in an upstairs apartment and do not really have a yard to call our own. He obliged, the boxes were built, and then they stood bare for a couple of weeks. I don't have a whole lot of gardening experience having lived in apartments all of my adult life and spending my youth in a totally different climate that seemed to me (or rather, my parents) un-reliable for planting. I decided on herbs that smell good for sure, and then narrowed my selection to German chamomile (chamomile comes in three types, German, Roman and Moroccan...., each are prized for the same things, yet each have distinct healing traits of their own too), some mint and whatever else suited my fancy.

My girls helped me haphazardly sew some seeds and we watered them far too infrequently for anything to come of them. I put in some prostrate rosemary at the front of the box and a climbing jasmine at the back of the box. Weeks turned into months and soft, frilly, fragile looking plants eventually emerged and slowly grew. I had to tell my husband twice not to weed them because they looked suspiciously un-inportant. Months turned into seasons and the small plants grew taller and wider, but still gave no flowers. We casually forgot about them as the mint in the 2nd planter box expanded, took over and escaped.

Then about 4 months ago one morning I spotted a small white bloom on one of the chamomile. "Huh. That's cute, "I said to myself. "But what am I going to do with a couple of blossoms?" After a month or so more I found myself with many more small white flowers, but never adding up to any great amount. So my toddler and I started a ritual of picking all the ready flowers (their petals turn downwards) each morning and carrying our small handfuls upstairs and putting them to dry in the oven (our old fashioned stove stays warm all the time). Our meager tablespoons of fresh flowers were transformed into meager teaspoons after drying and we labeled a jar to add them in to.

Day after day, week after week, we repeated, until, much to my surprise, I realized that our meek and frail chamomile plant had turned gigantic! It smothered the rosemary below, blocked the jasmine in back, and produces more and more small white blossoms every day. 

For the last 4 weeks we have picked fresh handfuls of blossoms, dried and added them to our jar, which yesterday was finally full enough to add 12 ounces of coconut oil to. This will sit on my warm stove for another 6 weeks while all the plant essences are infused into the oil.  20 months and possibly a couple thousand tiny blossoms to make 12 ounces of oil. Whew. That's a lot of work for 12 ounces (think one and a half cups)!

And just think, I can buy a whole pound (which is approximately 16 cups) of chamomile online for $6.89 (plus shipping), which was grown in Egypt. But I should note that there is a disheartening footnote on the chamomile page of said website that says "due to political unrest in Egypt supply is limited".

I am not even totally sure where this oil will end up, I mean in which of my creations, but today I got the idea to make some really special, gold label, top shelf, limited edition sort-of products in my line called "AngelMade, homegrown". I've got tons of mint, some beautiful sage and I have to go see if the blackberry leaves are ready for picking out back.

Look for "homegrown" in the summer, my chamomile infused oil will be ready by then and added to something spectacular I'm sure.