Creating our Limited Edition Pot Pourri - Part 2
Growing a large garden filled with scented heritage roses, deliciously fragrant herbs and heirloom flowers is the very first step in creating our Artisan Apothecary Botanicals, and especially for our Limited Edition Pot Pourri (see Part 1 for more on this).
Of course, it is possible to purchase all the ingredients you need online. But there's no guarantee that these ingredients have been grown without harsh chemicals or harvested with the well-being of the workers in mind. And that's without calculating the flight footprint. Besides, there is a pure joy in knowing that your botanicals have been grown locally, or you've grown your own materials sustainably and gathered them seasonally.
Once the scented petals, flowers and herbs we've gathered have been dried, they're stored in large glass and ceramic containers. It's not a good idea to store fragile, scented petals in metal or plastic as these materials corrode the delicate floral fragrances in the petals and leaves. (My husband jokes that we'll need to build another house to contain all of the botanicals in large jars when we're at peak season!!)
As you can imagine, constantly gathering the raw materials takes time and patience, as not all of the roses and herbs flower at the same time. This means, of course, that their petals are gathered over time, and once dried they're stored until there are enough botanicals to start creating with.
Sometimes, though, nature takes over and unexpected wind and rain can 'harvest' the petals just at their peak time, rendering them useless once they've fallen onto the ground!
But, of course, once there are enough botanicals gathered, dried and safely stored, the fun of creating lovely, scented Artisan Apothecary Botanicals and our hand-crafted Limited Edition Pot Pourri begins.
I have quite a collection of heritage herbal books that contain recipes for Pot Pourri dating as far back as the Elizabethan era in England. Even during the Middle Ages, when sanitation as we know it was non-existent, Pot Pourri was used extensively to disguise unpleasant smells of poor hygiene of both the wealthy and poor. Pot Pourri and various Apothecary Botanical Blends were also used to protect from the agues, or diseases, of the time, such as the black plague!
Once everything is gathered and dried, the final blend of petals, herbs, spices and essential oils is gently blended and left to cure in a glass or pottery container for a minimum of six weeks. The initial fragrance before this curing time can be quite stringent, but after several weeks of curing, the combination of fragrances mellows into the timeless fragrances that we traditionally associated with a good, well-blended Pot Pourri.
In creating our Limited Edition Pot Pourri, I am inspired by the timeless craft of The Santa Maria Novella nuns in Florence Italy, who had been making their Pot Pourri using herbs planted and cultivated for this purpose, from recipes dating back to 1221. Now created by a family owned enterprise, Officina Profumo-Farmeceutica who are continuing this tradition. It warms my heart that this ancient craft is still being used and purposed for today's modern living, scenting homes and rooms with natural fragrances grown in the garden.
Using Pot Pourri in the home is as easy as putting it into pretty ceramic, glass or china jars and pots with lids. Whenever you want to fragrance a room, remove the lid and give the container with the Pot Pourri a little shake to allow the fragrance to gently permeate the area you want to scent. When no longer using that room, pop the lid back onto the container to protect the fragrance from oxidising into the air. Your Pot Pourri will continue to keep its scent and colour longer this way. And if you do need to leave the room, there is no danger as for a burning candle left unattended.
Another method of enjoying the subtle fragrance of Pot Pourri is to enclose it in pretty cotton sachets or silk pillows. A sachet of Pot Pourri tucked into a clothing drawer or linen cupboard is a delicious way of gently scenting delicate clothing or bed linen. Sachets can also be hung from coat hangers to help prevent that stuffy smell of an enclosed space.
Alternatively, specially formulated sachets of our Artisan Apothecary Botanicals can be placed under a pillow to help you gently nod off to sleep. The Botanicals for sleep pillows are created with a bespoke blend of herbs and petals that are known to facilitate sleep. For this purpose, I have revived my sewing skills to create rustic silk sachets hand-dyed to use with our own botanicals (more on these in a later story).
So. there is more to the art of creating Pot Pourri and our Artisan Apothecary Botanicals than at first meets the eye. Unlike cheap blends that you might find available commercially, we never fill out our Botanicals with dried wood chips or artificially coloured dried flowers. And we never ever use cheap, artificial fragrances. You won't find pumpkin pie or strawberry shortcake fragrances in our blends!
We choose natural Essential Oils purchased from reputable dealers who know the provenance of their products and carefully select these to complement the petals and leaves gathered from our gardens for our hand-crafted Limited Edition Pot Pourri. In the same way, our Artisan Apothecary Botanicals are carefully combined to create naturally scented blends for luxuriating in the bath or to use in your own skin care products.
Because the Pot Pourri and Botanicals that we create use our own garden grown botanicals, they are truly seasonal and only available in small, seasonal batches. Which is why we release our Limited Edition Pot Pourri and Artisan Apothecary Botanicals seasonally each year.
I hope you enjoyed this little journey into how we create our botanicals. Look out on Instagram and on this website for when we release our next batch of Limited Edition Pot Pourri and Artisan Apothecary Botanicals. We're gathering the last of the Autumn bounty of botanicals from the gardens for drying as we speak!!
Enjoy,
xx Lillian
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