Come harvest chamomile with me
A peaceful walk to the herb garden
Our little cottage is positioned at the top of a slope overrun with aggressive turf grass and a lovely variety of invasive plants. Establishing gardens near the house has not been easy, and the turf grass is usually winning. I have a small potager garden that I can see from my kitchen sink while I’m doing dishes, but the vegetable and cottage gardens are a short hike down the hill through the woods.
Since walking to those gardens and portaging snacks (plus children) go hand-in-hand, I usually opt for the 30-second drive—but on this particular day, we walked.
This is technically my third spring here in western North Carolina—but the first was really a blur since we had just moved across the country. What I do recall clearly from those first two years is the early heat. This third spring here has been very gentle. We’ve been enjoying our walks down to the gardens recently, and I’m cherishing this pleasant spring before the heat is here to stay.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been discovering which things I won’t have to start again each year in this new climate and growing space. No surprise—chamomile being one of them.
I regularly drink chamomile tea, so I was very excited to see so much of it popping up this winter in the areas I had let it go to seed.
After years of growing chamomile, I’ve learned that for various reasons, it’s best to begin harvesting it as soon as it starts to bloom. I’ve found that prolonged intense heat (aka summer in the southeast) makes it prone to dieback, even early in the season. It also grows tall and unruly fairly quickly, and with its fragile stems, it can get leveled by a single heavy rain. With it blooming for a couple of weeks now, it’s been prime time for harvesting.
In the past, I haven’t enjoyed harvesting chamomile because of how time consuming it can be over multiple weeks—at least to dry enough for winter. But the kids are apparently in their chamomile-harvesting era, so it’s becoming a sweet rhythm for us.
With the extra help on this particular day, I ignored pressing tasks and let myself enjoy being in the garden. Do you know the distinct popping noise of harvesting chamomile (with distant birds singing in the background)? Those sounds and the sweet aroma of chamomile in bloom might be as calming as a cup of tea.
Since harvesting last week, hail and flooding from heavy rains have left their mark on some areas of the gardens—most of the chamomile has toppled over. I’m so glad we got a solid week of harvesting in because much of it needs tidying up. Still, in its unkempt state, my six-year-old eagerly runs through the woods to make fresh chamomile and spearmint tea for us in the afternoon—and that’s definitely been one of the sweetest parts of our days.
What are your favorite herbs to use fresh for tea during the growing season? We consume a lot of tea in our family but it’s almost exclusively from dried herbs. We also love to infuse water with fresh herbs during the summer, but tea just hits different! I’m trying to get into a rhythm of regularly drinking tea made with fresh herbs from the tea garden. Would love to hear some of your favorites!
Hoping that wherever you’re at in your growing season, you’ve been able to take some time to simply enjoy what’s growing in the garden.
More from the garden, soon.
-Emily
How lovely! I can’t seem to grow chamomile in NE Florida now that summer starts even earlier! I going to try it again late September in the hopes I can harvest during the milder months of October- November.