GreenHouse17 (Formerly Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program)

By S.

This last week in the garden I have done some mowing, pulled weeds throughout the green beans and corn and also done some harvesting. I harvested some tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, zucchini and two tasty cucumbers! My son eats the tomatoes before I can even get them into the bowl! But this time there was enough ripe tomatoes and peppers to harvest for the entire house. This last Friday I grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone. I roasted red potatoes with onions and bell peppers, and I roasted squash and zucchini with onions. Everything fresh from our beautiful community garden!

Then Saturday we were blessed with a lovely church coming with hamburgers, hotdogs, fresh fruits, desserts and the best homemade potato salad I’ve personally ever eaten! They even brought toys and activities for all the kids! It was such good company. Then to top it all off, yesterday we had a 2 hour long “make it and take it class” with Jessica. It was awesome and relaxing. We used different flowers and herbs to make a healing balm for bumps, bruises, strains, even chapped lips. A few of the things we used were rosemary, thyme, lavender, catnip and holy basil; also beeswax, coconut oil, vitamin E, extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil.

Since I’ve had a very hard time with relaxing, anxiety, and sleep, Jessica showed me how to make a very simple and very cheap herbal remedy using a pan of boiling water with a bowl sitting on top of it; we put holy basil, lavender, catnip, lemon flower and honey. We let it simmer for 30 minutes then used baby food jars to store it. Jessica said to let it sit for 1 week and it will be ready to use. I am so excited about trying it, I walked away from Jessica’s class happy, relaxed, with a sense of peace and a ton of knowledge. You just can’t beat that!

This post is part of our Field Notes series written by survivors of intimate partner abuse who are enrolled in our agency’s farm stipend program.