Winter Elderberry

Finally a reprieve in our winter storms, at least for a few hours. David and I have been checking on our young elderberry plants ( Sambucus canadensis) throughout these winter months and have a few images to share. For those of you familiar with Herbal sage Farms or have seen our talks at @MotherEarthNews these images will be more of an update.

Early summer 2013, we were able to harvest 80% of the mature rootstock from a local winery which was no longer going to grow elderberry for their wine. From the plants themselves we planted 139 cuttings. 
In the fall of 2013 we realized that we had a success rate on these starts of about 75%, which is quite good. As fall turned to winter, our protective fencing was not good enough to keep the deer out and we had plenty of deer damage. 

 The last image shows a start that had developed quite a number of buds before winter arrived and remained untouched by the deer. This will be our comparison start to see how the others do.

 Elder elderberry growers ( nice play on words, yes?) assured us that this damage would not affect the starts come spring 2014.These wise elders told us that elderberry is very hardy in this area and would recover by putting out plenty of new shoots as the warm weather arrives.

Stop back for updates, we'll keep you posted as the warm weather arrives...it will arrive won't it?

Rosemary Gladstar, Herbalist and Friend

Last month I had the opportunity, again, to listen to my friend Rosemary Gladstar talk about using  herbs for nutrition and health. She was speaking at The Mother Earth News Fair and I was an exhibitor there.Rosemary is one of the matriarchs of the herbal world. She has been creating effective and great tasting herbal formulas for over 4 decades. I am honored to know her and feel blessed too, of having her support and encouragement over the years. Her belief in me, as I grew The Herbal Sage Tea Company,inspired me to become a better formulator. Rosemary has a great way of reaching out, she makes it look so easy! I was sent this prompt today, this is a new venue for Rosemary, using the Internet to share her story. Take a moment and join her, and I know you will enjoy her as much as I have over the years!

 Maureen and Rosemary a few years ago at

The New  England Womens Herbal Gathering

                                                            http://rosemarysremedies.com