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Jupiter Incense Pastilles

Jupiter Incense Pastilles
Today being Thursday is a perfect day to finally complete my Jupiter planetary incense pastilles!
This special incense does not have the exact same formula like I had created originally (due to some limits on import of certain botanicals outside of North America). But it has lots of great new ingredients that keep it in the same spirit. The main components are piñon pine resin, juniper berries, spruce pitch, fir needles from Canada and other forest treasures. It is very forest-like in line with the character of Jupiter and it being so closely aligned with plant medicine and teaching, hunting and forests.
Jupiter Incense Pastilles
After pounding and compounding all the materials, which was a process that was stretched out over a month or even more - it was time to finally put them all together. They smelled much better after marring for a while!
Jupiter Incense Pastilles
I decided to add some colour to these pastilles, even though I like to usually keep my incense very natural and real looking. It's been a while since I've made coloured incense and I finally got some colourful minerals on my hand. This shimmering blue is just the perfect colour for this planet.
Jupiter Incense Pastilles
Here is a shimmering filet of incense, all ready to get cut into pieces...
Jupiter Incense Pastilles
Except it is still very sticky incense "dough". So I had to wait 24hrs between cutting the two sets of lines (note my attempt at the very bottom left corner).
Jupiter Incense Pastilles
Here it is finally cut up into its final pieces, and waiting to be dried completely before being packaged. It is meant to be burnt on hot charcoal, or warmed gently in an aromatherapy diffuser (I recommend placing a tiny piece of aluminum foil because it will otherwise stick to your vessel and create a mess).

Four Sages Incense Cones

Clary Sage & Incense Wands
An order that came in for my Four Sages incense cones prompted me to make more. I only had a few left which I made with my dedicated student cum friend Jenny Amber. She is the one who gifted me with much missed aromatics from BC (Sagebrush, Coastal Mugwort, Redcedar Leaf, and more). This incense blend feels very special to me as it combines sages of both the West Coast and the Western Galilee - the two regions that I call home.

I was a bit unwell when the order came in so had to wait till I felt better. And even then I felt like I needed a little energy boost - rolling incense cones is labour intense and sometimes it is much more enjoyable in good company. So I summoned my brother Yotam to the task. We sat on the eastern deck this morning, enjoyed the gentle yet warm, wintery morning sunrays, listened to his choice of Ceremonial music and rolled the cones you see in the picture below.
Four Sages Incense Cones & Smudge Bundle
These are potent cones, small yet pack a punch and seem to clear any negative energy within minutes.  They contain Coastal Mugworth, White Sage (Sagebrush), which are both types of artemisia, a pinch of wormwood and clary sage from my garden, and of course - three-lobed sage that is the iconic scent of the Galilee.
The cones are now available and in stock again and you can order however many you wish via the online boutique.

Elecampane Soap Bar

Elecampane Meadow
Elecampane meadow at sunset. This is where me and my mom harvested younger leaves and flowering tops for my soap making and oil infusions.
Elecampane (Innula viscosa/Dittrichia viscosa (L.) W. Greuter/ Cupularia viscosa (L.) Gren. & Godr.) is a plant with many herbal medicine attributions and healing powers, at least forty different ailments according to the folk medicine of Palestine, chief among them hypertension, relief of swollen feet and legs (common during pregnancy), bruises, diabetes, herpes and rheumatism, infertility and for treating dry skin and for its anti-aging properties.

Modern medicinal uses include: treating intestinal worms, cracked skin, athlete's foot, blood coagulation, topical disinfectant for wounds, and more.

Additional uses: The woody twigs and branches from this perennial bush can be used for bonfires, primarily for baking flatbread. Extracts of the plant are also used to treat various plant diseases (especially of bacterial or fungal origin), and also the plant itself has a tendency to stop the growth of other weeds around it. Another useful application is in deterring insects. In Spain entire branches are hang to keep flies at bay. I will have to try this because they tend to get out of control at this time of the year.
The young leaves are pickled in vinegar and can be eaten. I'm still trying to find out what this strange flavour and brought texture could go with.

Elecampane
Oil infusion of elecampane flowering tops and fresh leaves. The smell was strong, resinous and true to the plant. It has a bit of a funk to it, very much like marijuana, but different.
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
The spent elecampane branches after steeping them to make a very strong decoction.
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Frozen elecampane decoction. If not frozen, the various materials within the water will scorch upon contact with the sodium hydroxide (AKA lye).
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Melting the solid fats along with the oils over very low heat.

Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
The oils are all melted nicely now! They include an oil infusion of elecampane, by the way. It was very strong smelling, with that funky resinous odour that is typical for this plant; but the scent got completely lost during the soaping process. Next time I will be infusing a lot more elecampane leaves into the entire oil/fat mixture (and this way, by using a gentle heating method, I will also skip the step of aging the infused oil).
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Elecampane ice cubes
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Weighing the lye
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Sprinkle lye over ice cubes
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Waiting for the ice to melt...
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
Elecampane decoction lye - don't let this honeyed look fool you. This will burn like hell if you touch it!
There are few missing photos from the process, because when mixing the oils with the lye it's a bit of a time sensitive and very hands-on process. It looks similar to making icing, and the soap mixture looks very much like custard when it's ready for pouring into the moulds.
Elecampane (Inula helenium) Soapmaking Process
The soap bars I got lined up that day. It was a very productive soaping day! Elecampane at the bottom, Mastic at the centre, and Absinthe & Lavender at the top. All of them will be ready November 26th.
Elecampane Soap Logs
Logs of elecampane soaps which were very soft for pulling out of the Mold. I had to wait for ten days to do it!
Elecampane Soap Bar Logs
Elecampean soap logs gradually losing their golden look and turning olive-brown.
Elecampane Soap Bars -Slicing Time!
Elecampane soap logs are finally getting sliced!

Notice the "rind" - it will disappear once the soap is cured, due to oxidation and the gelling process.
Srapping & Labeling Soap Bars
Here is a glimpse into the packing and labeling step. Even though I won't get to wrap the Elecampane soap until November 26th, when they would be fully cured and ready for you to enjoy!
You can, however, pre-order them online already.

Wild Soap Bars

Top of the Land

Wild Rose (Rosa canina) on the peak of Mt. Hermon
After picking a bunch of cherries to complete our breakfast we drove to the peak of Mount Hermon (Jabal A-Sheikh) - elevation 2,224m, which is accessible with chair lifts. It was a relatively hot day but still much more pleasant than the rest of the country - somewhere around 26c or so, with a very harsh sun yet a nice dry cool breeze ever so often.

Cherry Picking
The vegetation is somewhat sparse but very special and with many varieties growing on this mountain. Some plants can be found in other northern places (for example: the now protected Wild artichoke (Gundelia tournefortii) - עכובית הגלגל, which grew in most parts of the country before), but others are endemic to this mountain alone, because of its exceptional conditions and placement. It is covered in snow all winter, and once it melts resembles a cool desert land, covered with white rocks and with no trees in sight. Dog roses (Rosa canina) are native to Israel, but are quite a rare sight otherwise. To find a bush in full bloom at the peak of Mt. Hermon was elating. Of course, it has a heavenly fragrance.

Peak of Mt. Hermon

Up on the peak, there is a sense that many of the plants here has some mysterious medicinal value, for some very specific and possibly rare conditions. I am imagining a time when climbing the mountain on foot would be a great ordeal (well, it still is - but most people use the road and then the gondola!). People would only go up the mountain for an important mission set forth by a divine guidance, a royal order, or a great and pressing need to save someone's life from a rare illness...
פריגה חלקת פרי
This poppy (Glaucium oxylobum פרגה קרחת/פריגה חלקת פרי), for example, is unique to Mt. Hermon and can't be found anywhere else in the country (but it can be found in high elevations - upwards of 1,100m - in the mountains of Turkey and Iran). I love its bright dual colours and contrasting "eyes". It blooms for a very long season - six months to be exact, from April when the snow melts, till the total dryness of September. There is a great variety between flowers, but they all share this startling, sudden contrasting colour change, and unusual display of three colours.
Salvia microstegia מרווה בוצינית + Alyssum baumgartnerianum אליסון חרמוני
Salvia microstegia (the hairy big leaves with white flowers), the thistle-looking plant is Cousinia hermonis (קוסיניה חרמונית), the yellow flowers are of Alyssum baumgartnerianum Bornm. (אליסון חרמוני), AKA madwort. It is not the only yellow flower found on Mt Hermon  - so don't confuse it with Lebanese St. John's Wort (Hypericum libanoticum) in Hebrew - פרע לבנוני, or with the two types of Achilea that grow there - Achillea biebersteinii (אכילאה קטנת-פרחים) and the endemic Achillea falcata (אכילאה גפורה).

There might also be a type of catnip (נפית קילקית?) Nepata - of some kind that I'm yet to completely ID), or a horehound in the pic. Which also reminds me of the unusual Lebanese horehound (Marrubium libanoticum Boiss) - in Hebrew מרוביון הלבנון/מרמר הלבנון, which is also a highly medicinal plant.
Israel|Syria border - view from peak of Mt. Hermon
Israel & Syria - view from above. Where the green ends Syria begins... It's sad but true, due to over-forestation and roaming in Syria, and on the other hand much planting of trees all across Israel.

Lastly, here is me and Miss T standing against this dramatic backdrop.

Israel|Syria Border - Peak of Mt. Hermon




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