I love the smell of burning white sage for purifying home and personal space. However, as I continue into my studies of all things Nature-based it occurred to me I should be seeking out plants native to our region to make my own. All part of the keep it local movement that has become quite the theme these days.
This morning we still had our holiday tree up and I wondered how I might recycle or repurpose it, then I remembered a video shared on Magical Crafting (see link below) where she used pine needle twigs, cinnamon sticks and rosemary to create her version. Rosemary sounded like nice addition but my plant is still too young and small to donate some of its parts.
Evergreens, on the other hand, are plentiful around here, a handsome juniper berry tree out lives out front, and some recently bloomed lemon thyme plant. These became my ingredients for today’s project.
If you’d like to recycle your holiday tree, or simply forage around the neighborhood for some fallen pine branches then follow along to see how you might go about creating your own smudge sticks. Please note you can include whatever ingredients you have on hand. It just depends on the theme of what you’d like to create. I’d love to hear feedback in the comments section below of what you made yours with.
Here I trimmed off and set aside the smaller branches of the tree.
Then continued till I had only a long trunk left. Thinking I’ll use this in the garden in some way. The larger branches will have to compost, or they could easily be turned into a wreath, a haven for little birds, or some other creative idea, like pine needle tea (link below).
Three littles piles of the ingredients used today: Juniper Berry, Lemon Thyme, and Evergreen.
Of course, my kitty had to get involved, … because well, she’s a cat!
A bit of twine was used to anchor the cinnamon stick into the twigs.
Some red and green embroidery thread is wrapped each direction to secure the pieces. Then a little trimming at the ends and all around to clean off excess pine needles that were poking out. Voila! Nice gifts for holiday or whenever!
First, they’ll need to hang for a while to completely dry out before use.
As a side note, Douglas Fir and Spruce tree tips make incredibly nutrient-rich, Vitamin C packed tea. Make sure you know how to identify each by doing some research in advance. Here’s a couple helpful links for that:
Katie Carter, ND discusses the importance of high quality Vit C, tree identification, and gratitude for staying healthy!
If you prefer to read about making pine needle tea then here’s Steve’s blog:
Magical Crafting is an amazing YT channel with a ton of creative videos!
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Regina Chante 