2021 WINTER Wellness Kit
What's In the Kits?
In addition to the bounty from Auntie Caryl’s Gratitude Garden and Li's Botanicals, the 2021 Sunshine Wellness Kit will include some new items from Liz’s Kitchen in Sonoma County, California.
From Liz, look for some "Lovely Lemon Balm Hydrosol," a naturally scented product made through a distilling process using just two ingredients: homegrown lemon balm and filtered water. It comes in a 2-oz. mister-spray bottle for a gently hydrating and toning mist on your clean face and skin.
I’m also going to throw in a 4-oz. pump bottle of "Good Hands Sanitizer" to keep in your car to clean and disinfect. Made with tea tree, lavender, and lemongrass essential oils along with Vitamin E oil, 95% ETOH, vodka, and aloe vera gel.
Other items you’ll discover in your Kit:
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Yard art from Caryl Henry Alexander
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"Musical Medicine," an original song from Li Schmidt
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Organic, handmade chamomile and calendula soap
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Organic CBD Massage Salve
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Good Hands Sanitizer with Lemon balm, lavender and lemongrass
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Lemon Balm hydrosol
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Organic-2 oz Herbal BBQ rub
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All Natural 4 oz Elderberry elixir
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All Natural 6/4 cup Hibiscus/Mint Iced Tea bags
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Dream pillow
Spirit Sticks
The Cape Coast Street Art Project
The Cape Coast Street Art Project was born out of collaborative workshops in 2006 with AfricArt International (then called Fingerprints International), an organization representing the arts community in Cape Coast, Ghana.
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At its center is training and development to build the capacity of the current artists of Cape Coast, young women and men, to develop sustainable resources for their lives, using the vast resources in art and creativity they already possess.
2020 Winter Wellness Kit
In March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began to grow around the world I realized that I would not be able to carry on my art practice in the ways that I have traditionally worked.
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Most planned projects were either canceled or postponed and some turned into electronic gatherings. I pretty much committed to staying close to home, and began to bring more focus to my Gratitude Garden.
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The plants were happy, as my love and attention was much appreciated. This abundance of time to really be with the garden, the plants, the insects, the soil, and the weather was healing and empowering. I noticed that my neighbors also showed a new interest in what I am growing.
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Out of these experiences came a new idea for a product – or series of products: Auntie Caryl’s Art & Herbs 2020 Winter Wellness Kits! Auntie Caryl’s lets me continue sharing my art with you as well as the abundance of herbs and love that has emerged from this time of being in strong relationship with nature and HER HEALING and BALANCING energy.
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My Gratitude Garden in Clinton, Maryland has been a kitchen garden since 2004 and a medicinal herb garden since 2010. I have served family and friends for many years with herbal tinctures, teas, and tonics - as well as dream pillows and other gifts that are derived from the garden.
What’s In the Kits?
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Especially for you, I’ve created an original mixed-media artwork on handmade paper for each box. The paper is made from fibers that come from Gratitude Garden and also from gardens that I visited in my travels to Florida, Nigeria, and Ghana. The fibers from which the paper is made are naturally dyed with local berries, nuts, and flowers.
Each kit will arrive inside a beautiful original woodcut-and-silkscreened organic cotton tote.
Other items you’ll discover in your Kit:
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Handmade Calendula and Lavender Soap
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An aromatherapy Dream Pillow
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Healing Love For Your Throat Tea
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Catch Your Breath Tea
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All-Natural Handmade Skin Moisturizer Salve
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Thyme Tincture
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Tulsi Elixir
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Culinary Spice Mixes
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Seeds (to grow your own flowers and herbs next spring)!
All Auntie Caryl’s herbal products are grown, packaged, and processed with sustainability top of mind.
Spring/Summer Herb Boxes
The boxes I send in spring are likely to contain the traditional spring herbs for cleansing and refreshing, rebuilding our strength and energy - the energy of spring.
Spring boxes may include:
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Dandelion
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Lavender
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Spring onions
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Plantain
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Mullein
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Burdock
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...and more herbs with rejuvenating properties
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Kit buyers will also be invited to participate in Auntie Caryl’s gardening and herb-growing workshops and trainings. She’ll show you how to grow herbs for culinary and medicinal uses, mixing and combining for the tinctures and teas that keep mind, body, and spirit humming along in every season.
Workshops: Herb and Plant Medicine
Join me for workshops and practical training on:
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Medicinal vs. culinary herbs
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Herbal healing and energetics
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Small-batch tinctures, salves, teas
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Organic herbs by the ounce
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Local herb and plant discovery walks in different parts of the country
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Herb garden planning and planting
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Other topics of interest to the naturalist
We’ll announce them here, but join our email list to get plenty of notice and advance tickets to limited-space events.
Workshops: Herb Garden Planning and Planting (Coming Soon!)
Individual and group classes will help you start your own gratitude garden. Lessons include planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing: tea, tinctures, salves.
When I had the privilege of working on a gardening project with women farmworkers in Florida a few years ago, I got access for the first time to information about Latin American medicinal plants. I immediately learned, as we planted, told stories, and made art -- is that there is a lot of cross pollination. From South Carolina, to Jamaica, to Guatemala - we may call our medicinal plants by different names, but the same knowledge traveled to all these places.
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So, what herbs do you want in your environment? Healing, cooking, or visioning herbs?
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​Your harvesting plan includes guidance on refining the herbs into the forms you’ll use to utilize them (for example teas or tinctures), and making sure you have the right equipment (for example: hanging racks, bags, bottles, etc.) to accomplish the whole task. We’ll give you the proper timeline, and help you understand every process in your herb garden journey.
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We will:
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Work out a plan based on how you intend to use your herbs
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Plan for your location, space, and capacity (how hard you want to work!)
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Create a plan for the harvesting (together or on your own)
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Please join our email list to learn about upcoming workshops.
Know Your Body - Take Care With Herbs
Like any other herbal preparation, not all of them work for everyone in the same way. If you experience any discomfort, discontinue use. Herbal treatments are meant to enhance any health care system, not replace it. Seek a doctor’s advice if you have questions. And lastly, know your own body. Sometimes you may need more or less of something. If you have a sensitivity to a certain herb, replace it with another or eliminate it entirely.