We are excited to tell you about our new, nourishing and hydrating handcream, ideal for gardeners or anyone with dry, hardworking hands. It is something we have wanted to make for ages. We have also been busy harvesting comfrey from our herb garden for a new batch of herbal balm. It is such a  soothing and healing herb and the balm is great for skin irritations, cracked skin (on hands, feet ot lips), even for nappy rash! 

What a wonderful month May is. The hawthorn blossom is slowly opening here in Northumberland and the trees are adorned in beautiful fresh new leaves of a myriad shades of green. We thought we would share one of our favourite pieces of writing about May by Monty Don, taken from his garden diary 'The Ivington Diaries' (see below)

Greening by Monty Don

​As May slips in, there is the most astonishing greening of the world. It shouldn't surprise me - I've been here before nearly fifty times - but every year it shakes me to the core, scrambles the sediment that has silted up over the winter and sends me spinning into a green space. It is like falling in love, like recovering ones sight. I suspect that all gardening, all life perhaps, is built up from just a few moments like these. Not many days in all, not a body of achievement. Just the few days each spring when you transcend your lumpen self. All lyric poetry, all mystical expression, all the most sublime music strains towards what every leaf does as carelessly each spring as it does when it falls in autumn. 

Sweet Mandarin Hand Cream

A mildly fragranced, deeply nourishing and hydrating cream for hardworking hands with sweet mandarin, sandalwood and rose. The tiniest dab of this cream goes a long way! Packed full of fantastic organic oils, with added d-panthenol (also known as provitamin B5) for moisturisation and vegetable glycerine for its protective, anti-ageing properties.

Comfrey ready for harvesting

Once a year in May, we harvest some of our comfrey just as it is about to flower and at its most potent. We use this to  prepare comfrey, calendula and lavender herbal balm. To find out more about this special healing ointment and how it can be used follow the link below. We always keep  a jar in our medicine cabinet as we never know when we will need it!

Workshops

We have a programme of exciting workshops running this year that you may be interested in. Here is a link for more information.