Handmade Monday

Today I will be joining Olga, at Olga's Home and Garden Blog, for Handmade Monday. Stop by there and see what people are making by hand these days...

I have spent the last two weeks working on these, and I took them to the Farmers Market for the first time, Saturday.

As summer moves along, people are no longer in the market for live potted herbs, and that has been my biggest money maker at the market, so I wanted to add some things to replace them.

I looked around a bit, studied some options, and visited some different herb shops, both locally and in the small towns where we were camping, to get some input and ideas.

So, I had three new products to take to the market this week. I don't have any pictures of the process of making any of these, but I do have the finished product.

First was my Bouquet Garni Style Herb Blend.

Although a true Bouquet Garni is generally a bundle of herbs that is thrown in the pot, and then removed at the end of the process, this is a blend of the same basic herbs, dried and crushed and ready to go. This is similar to my own private herb blend that we use for everything here at home, but mine has garlic powder and black pepper added as well, and this one does not. This is just straight herbs, a blend of Parsley, Oregano, Marjoram, Savory, Sage, Tarragon, Basil, Rosemary and Thyme.


They were grown, picked, dried, crushed blended and packaged by hand, I used a computer to print the labels. I hope Olga doesn't disqualify me for that. I put them on by hand.

This is the ideal herb blend to use for a quick pizza sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons of this in a can of tomato sauce, stirred well and spread on your crust makes a quick, easy and delicious sauce.
Of course, I had to add the disclaimer required by the State of Michigan, but at least under the new law, I can sell them at the market.

And I thought they looked great in the vintage glass candy shop style jar Diann thrifted for me.


My next new item was an Herb & Oatmeal Milk Bath. I researched these pretty good, and checked out the ones that they were selling at the herb stores.


I printed the packets, but cut and glued them by hand, and again, all of the ingredients were mixed by hand. These have peppermint in them, Peppermint, as you may know, improves circulation, and increases energy.


I plan to make several different variations in the future, but I just wanted to start with one to kind of "test the water". (Get it?... Milk bath... test the water... Hah! Sometimes I'm just so clever I can hardly stand myself)



My third new handmade product this week was an Herbal Salt Scrub.
This was my featured item at the market this week, and I was demonstrating it and letting people try it. I sold out, with two hours to go, and probably could have sold a dozen more if I would have had them.

They have a blend of salts, including natural mineral salt, moisturizing oils and herbs. I made two different kinds.
One has Peppermint, for circulation and energy, and Lemon Verbena, to calm the nerves. The other has Rosemary, for circulation and mental clarity, and Sage, for calm nerves. They both have Comfrey, which contains allantoin, which stimulates cell growth and promotes healing.

I will probably put this in baby food jars in the future, but these little containers were so cute, and they were in a package of 10 at the dollar store, so I squandered $2 for two packages.


I thought they looked nice with the milk bath on their little black metal stand.

Now, head over to Olga's Blog and see what everyone else made by hand this week.
And don't forget to enter my giveaway, check it out here


Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures. Read all about it here