Avena Botanicals Calendula promotes healthy skin and supports lymph, liver, digestive, and breast health.*
Calendula flowers are bright, aromatic, and delightful to the eye, whether growing in a garden or floating in a teapot. The flower has many uses, both internally and topically. Here at Avena, we hand-harvest these flowers at their peak several times a week from late June into September.
We tincture them fresh, preserving their radiance and their beneficial properties. Calendula's sunny quality uplifts the spirit, helps restore vitality, and clears dampness and darkness from hidden places in the body, especially the mouth and vagina. The tincture supports the lymphatic system and encourages a healthy immune response, making for a valuable fall and winter ally.
Calendula is mildly bitter and supports liver function, which in turn encourages healthy skin, healthy hormone balance, and the body's digestive system.
Because Calendula is so soothing and resinous, the flowers encourage beneficial activity on mucous membranes throughout the digestive system from the mouth through the intestines, along with supporting lymphatic circulation.
Artist, author, and herbalist Lisa Estabrook (of Soulflower) writes about the spiritual energy of Calendula:
"The energy behind our thoughts and words has power, Calendula's warm, sunlike radiance helps us cultivate compassion and understanding when communicating. Call on Calendula to help you speak what is in your heart in a balanced and considerate way, while at the same time listening deeply to what is being said by another."
Garden Notes: Each spring and early summer, our gardeners transplant over 700 Calendula seedlings, grown from seed, into our greenhouse. From late June through September, we hand-harvest hundreds of pounds of these brilliantly orange flower blossoms from our Biodynamic garden rows. Calendula flowers need to be collected every two to three days, ideally on sunny days, once the dew is dry. Our hands become sticky from the resin for which Calendula is famous. We gently snap the leaf stem at the base of each flower and carefully place them in our baskets for drying. The flowers are used for all our oils and salves and are also immediately tinctured in organic alcohol. This continuous picking keeps the plants producing flowers until the first fall frost.
Taste / Energetics: bitter, slightly pungent, mildly aromatic, warming, drying, soothing, protective, clearing.
Actions: bitter, lymphatic, vulnerary, immune supportive.
When to reach for it: As part of a skincare routine. To support breast health (linked to lymphatic health). During the transition seasons and wintertime for balanced energetic, immune, and lymphatic support. When seeking lightness and clearing. To support communication and listening. During a seasonal reset like an Ayurvedic kitchari cleanse, or other kinds of healing diets. To support digestive, breast, vaginal and oral health.
Botanical Name: Calendula officinalis
Part Used: Fresh flowers
Ingredients: Certified Biodynamic and Certified Organic Calendula flowers, Pure Grain Alcohol OG, Springwater
Suggested Use: Add 10-20 drops (.5-1ml) to 1 ounce of water 1-3 times/day or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.
Avena Botanicals values simplicity and the traditional ways of hand-crafting herbal products. They use simple tabletop tools instead of large, mechanized machines and they do not mass-manufacture.
This holistic and spiritually alive system of organic agriculture enlivens the soil, water, and plants along with the soul, spirit, and consciousness of humans. Biodynamic preparations and practices create herbal products that can benefit body, mind, and spirit and connect individuals to the source of their sustenance.
Since their inception in 1985, they have used no synthetic ingreidents, additives, or solvents of any kind in their herbal products or farming practices. Their on-site production facility only uses 100% biodegradable cleaning supplies.
Avena's products are produced on-site in their custom-built facility. You can take an herb walk through their gardens in the summer, while seeing smellIing baskets of herbs and flowers going into the facility, it doesn't get any more local than this.
Creating gentle, organic, high-quality herbal products that promote good health is their goal. They produce their products in small batches to ensure that their freshness and efficacy meet their high standards.
Avena's gardens are open to the public for a few select events each year. They are a peaceful sanctuary for people (and pollinators) to enjoy, learn in, and experience the gifts of nature. They host a handful of herb walks, classes, and retreats each summer, often accompanied by refreshing botanical sun tea.
These values remain constant in their thoughts, words, and actions. They care deeply about the health and well-being of the people and plants they serve and take extra care as they harvest the herbs and create products.
Despite the modern world's technological advances, many people around our planet remain unhappy and disconnected from nature. Avena's peaceful gardens, retreats, and hand-crafted herbal products assist people seeking to live in harmony with nature and with the spirit that connects all living beings.
They aim to create a working environment that embodies balance, health, and wellness. They ring a bell at noon for any staff who chooses to stop and meditate for 5-10 minutes. Their weekly staff meetings are held outdoors in summer and in a room overlooking the garden in winter. As a staff, they share yummy potlucks, birthday cakes, inspiring books, and garden walks.
Avena Botanicals is the first Demeter Certified Biodynamic farm in Maine. Biodynamic agriculture is a holistic and spiritually alive system of organic and ecological practices and philosophies based on the teachings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner. One of the core beliefs and practices of Biodynamic agriculture is to help heal the Earth.
Their hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's drying rooms and are immediately weighed and laid onto large screens. Most of these herbs are grown in Avena's three-acre gardens. They also collect a few herbs from nearby islands and meadows.
Over five hundred pounds of fresh, hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's apothecary annually and are thoughtfully prepared into herbal tinctures, elixirs, glycerites, and oils. Over 70% of these herbs come directly from Avena's Demeter Certified Biodynamic gardens. Their herbs are fresh, aromatic, sweet, bitter, pungent, and beautiful.
Avena's gardens have been purposefully planted with protective hedgerows and flowering plants that offer nectar and pollen to dozens of pollinators. Shimmering ruby-throated hummingbirds and various butterflies, honey bees and native bees fill our gardens with an array of colors, sounds, and personalities. The presence of pollinators fills hearts with joy and gratitude.
FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.