Chamomile Flowers and How to Use Them
Today I’m thrilled to welcome a fellow Montana blogger and guest poster, Kathie at Homespun Seasonal Living. Kathie also teaches a Fiercely D.I.Y. e-course which you can read more about at the bottom of this post.
Chamomile, either wild or domesticated, has some amazing healing and skin softening properties making it excellent not only for its calming effect when drunk as a tea but also as a great herb to have on hand for external application in body products and healing salves. When used externally chamomile is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties making it an ideal way to treat puffy eyes, swollen skin, and more. The skin softening properties make it an ideal addition to soaps, lotions, body butters, etc.
Dehydrating Chamomile Flowers
Simply snip the flower heads and let them dry on trays until crispy and dry. Alternatively hang bunches in dark place until crispy and dry. Store the dehydrated flower buds (not the stems or leaves) in an airtight container until ready to use. These dried flowers can be used for tea or body product making, so don’t be shy in drying lots of it for winter use.
Make Chamomile Infused Oil
To have chamomile ready for inclusion in body butter, lotions, salves, etc. make an infused oil first. Fill a jar half full of the dried flower buds, fill the jar to ½” of the top with an oil of your choice (olive, almond, etc.). Place a lid on the jar and put it in a sunny window to infuse for 1 month. At the end of the month, strain the flowers from the oil and bottle the liquid. Use this oil to make a skin softening body butter instead of plain oil.
Cool Compresses for Swollen Eyes
For those times when eyes are a little swollen from lack of sleep or other ailments, make a strong tea from the dried chamomile – 2 Tablespoons of dried flowers to 8 ounces of boiling water. Let that steep, covered, for 10 minutes before straining and allowing to cool completely. Pour the cooled tea over a cotton rag and ring it out so that it’s just damp not dripping. Place this rag over closed, swollen eyes and rest for about 10 minutes to allow the soothing and anti-inflammatory properties go to work.
Fiercely D.I.Y.
Making body products from all natural ingredients is one of the many ways to build a courageous home and live fiercely D.I.Y. Homemade body products is one of the weekly projects in this summer’s Fiercely D.I.Y. e-course being offered by Homespun Seasonal Living. The E-course is designed to inspire and encourage you to live a life by own your hands, on your own terms, and in your own pace. You can learn more, download a sampler, and register for the course over at Homespun Seasonal Living.
About Kathie N. Lapcevic
Kathie is a freelance writer, teacher, and blogger living in northwest Montana with her soulmate Jeff. She lives a fiercely D.I.Y. lifestyle in harmony with the natural rhythms of nature. You can follow her blog at Homespun Seasonal Living.
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I started growing chamomile last year. It was a slow start and I didn’t get much to dry. This year it spread on it’s own to almost every pot within a close range. It makes a nice addition to my large decorative plant pots, plus what I need for my favourite. tea. – Margy
Chamomile is definitely easy to grow once you get an established patch since it reseeds so well!! There were a few patches of chamomile in our pastures when we moved here two years ago and I noticed this summer there is quite a bit more as it spreads around- I love it!!!!
Thank you for your article. I started a patch 2 years ago. I was quite pleased with how much it spread last year. Looking forward to this upcoming season! As a lover of Chamomile tea, I have started to dry the flowers.
Awesome article i love everything about chamomile but i find alot of people talk about it only for tea ☕. So happy to aee you use it for more!!
We have wild chamomile here. Tons of it ! I grew up drinking it and my kids did too. It has much the same medicinal properties to it. A local Native American taught my Aunt about it. I had a discussion with a Facebook friend who insisted I was wrong. She is no longer a Facebook friend. She not only made me look bad but my Native American friend too. Disrespect big time. Anyway, you gave me a couple new things to do with, so, thanks. Can’t wait to try them~~~
I have a chamomile plant, although I don’t like chamomile tea! So the infused oil is a lovely idea for me – thanks for sharing!
Great post! Chamomile is definitely on my list of future must haves. When it comes to store-bought tea, I generally stick to green tea. But if I could make myself a bit of tea from my own garden, that would be a treat.