Here they are! The New Flower Essences from Green Hope Farm for 2014 including our new Venus Garden Flower Essence combination, Effort and Grace.

The Angels encouraged me to have them ready for you on this full moon in November! Every Flower Essences has a photo of its Flower except White Mulberry. This will have a photo as soon as we find the ones we took!

These Flower Essences will soon have their own section on the main website, but for now, this is the only place where you will find their descriptions (we are also going to send a hard copy of their descriptions out with orders!)

These new beloveds are not yet on the order blank but are ready and available for you now! So with much joy and excitement, we welcome these new beloveds!



Austrian Copper Rose– Rosa foetida bicolor
Reawakens passion

This Rose helps us reawaken passion after firestorms have left us drained and flat in our enthusiasms. It sparks us to deeply embrace our life situation again with a zest tempered by the wisdom gained from the firestorms. It helps us move forward to refine our passions in more evolved ways in alignment with our unfolding experience of self.

-Helps elevate a relationship or creative endeavor to a whole new level of loving expression.

I AM ardor refined and restored.

Black Moss Rose Rosa Black Moss
Being true to our core self and values even when others oppose our choices

Black Moss Rose helps us hold true to our core identity as a divine being when surface circumstances or other people press us to change. It is particularly helpful when our heartfelt choices don’t make sense to others. Black Moss Rose helps us make peace with our purpose so we can stay true to self regardless of external pressures to change course. Our destiny is between us and God and no one else. This Rose helps us know this!

-When we are in a place of uncertainty and others behave as if they have the inside track on our lives, Black Moss Rose helps us be comfortable in our uncertainty until our own heartfelt guidance about the way forward grows clear.

-Helps us reframe what others might see as liabilities or challenges in our situation so we experience them as strengths that help us stay the course.

I AM unwavering in my trust of myself and my path.

Blood Lily– Haemanthus albiflos
Emotional calm during extreme situations

This Flower comes from the Cape Floral kingdom of South Africa, the source of so many wise Flowers here to help us cross the spiritual thresholds of this millennium.

Many varieties of Blood Lily have blood red Flowers, but this variety has luminous bundles of individual white filaments tipped in large yellow anthers. It holds information to help us shift from fear and panic to centered calm during extreme dramas or situations that feel like bloodbaths. It helps us transmute our fear during intense situations into a measured, balanced response infused with wisdom and clarity.

-In heated interpersonal dramas this one helps break the cycle of reactivity by helping us find within us calm and sure knowledge that we have many choices about how we can to respond.

-Helps calm fears around scary events like epidemics. This would be my suggestion for those worried about the Ebola epidemic.

In any situation, I AM calm, certain of my choices and measured in my response.

Okay, you probably didn’t need three, make that four pictures of Charles de Mills but it is SO LOVELY I couldn’t resist!

Charles de Mills Rose– Rosa Charles de Mills
Restores and refresh every part of our electrical field

This gorgeous Rose has an Essence that helps us expand our electrical field for the purpose of cleansing, restoring and literally enlightening our electrical field. When our field expands, all parts of our electrical field can be cleansed, refreshed and rejuvenated much more easily. This is because healing light moves much more easily through an expanded field than through a contracted field

-Useful when our electrical field contracts with emotions such as fear, guilt, anger and doubt.

-Helps us trust, release and open our field so that light can wash through to cleanse and restore us on every level.

I AM the flow of restorative light through every cell of my being.

Dainty Bess Rose– Rosa “Dainty Bess”
Release of our deepest sorrows

Dainty Bess helps us reach into our depths to bring to consciousness hard kernels of sorrow, bitterness and disappointments. She supports us to bring these deep griefs to the surface then let them go knowing the grace of an ever present light will dissolves them all away. This Rose works with an infinitely kind, soft and gentle touch so we never feel shame as we release these burdens. Instead she basks us in an experience of being profoundly loved.

The kindness as well as the thoroughness of this Rose is reflected in her soft pink petals and stamens of a deeper pink that hold aloft many particular maroon anthers. Even in her appearance she shows us how she lifts up and relieves us of all our sorrows.

I AM the sweet and gentle dissolution of any feelings that it would serve me to release.

In addition to these photos of the Effort and Grace garden, there is a film of this garden composed of a photo taken each day all summer of the garden. You can find this film on our Green Hope Farm YouTube page

Effort and Grace
Before we broke ground for this year’s Venus Garden, the Angels told us the name of the garden was Effort and Grace. Throughout the growing season, I spent much time thinking about what was meant by the word EFFORT and what was meant by the word GRACE. However, when I wrote this description the word AND came to feel of equal significance in my understanding of this garden and its Flower Essence combination mix.

The garden was planted by the community of people here at the farm. I have often planted this particular garden, known from year to year as the Venus Garden, by myself or with just one or two other people. It felt significant that a dozen people were involved. It suggested to me that the garden was going to be about community. And so it was.

When we finished planting the many concentric rings of yellow, white, purple and pink Flowers, our final task was to tie twine from individual stakes on the outside of the garden to a very tall birch pole in the center of the garden. The gesture felt symbolic of each of us seeking connection to a greater whole and asking for grace to experience this wholeness.

The summer was complicated with many interpersonal dramas. The group of twelve had many levels of relationship with each other beyond the connection of working here. There were several sets of siblings, spouses and business partners to name just a few of the layers in the relationships. As is typical of the Venus Garden projects, the gardens stirred the pot, in this case bringing to the surface many of the things preventing us from experiencing our oneness.

These interpersonal conflicts in our community were gifts in that they gave each of us opportunities to try and find our commonality beyond the personality shell of self interest. Sometimes we found this common ground. Sometimes we didn’t. The Angels encouraged us to wade into each mess together but also let people be where they were in their varying levels of interest in engagement. We learned that an experience of unity by one person did not mean we all saw the situation the same way or all experienced the same level of connection. The Angels consoled us that our efforts mattered no matter the apparent results.

Toads abounded in the garden. I came to think of our efforts to surrender our differences and seek common ground as like the toads. Our efforts were warty, imperfect, earnest but deeply essential. The way our individual strands of twine were tied in the middle of the garden created a visual diamond shape. We began to call the garden Toads and Diamonds as well as Effort and Grace. We spoke of the grace of certain conflicts finding unexpected resolution and closure as the diamonds of our situation. We thought often of the exhortation, Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. This summer the boldness was going into messy interpersonal dynamics ready to surrender our agendas. Sometimes grace was simply remembering we were all one even when we didn’t experience this truth clearly.

The plants in the garden grew in a way that encouraged us to keep surrendering self to the grace of a greater all encompassing love and oneness. The relatively few vines we had planted next to our individual stakes transformed into an immense and glorious canopy of overarching, connected Flowers. Our warty efforts were merged into an ocean of grace in the form of thousands of Morning Glory Flowers. Their blossoms reached to all corners of the garden and then up, up, up into the sky.

The grace of the garden was a gift to everyone no matter their level of effort. Because of this, we could have interpolated that effort did not matter in the face of this grace. But the AND in the name of the garden suggested that those making an effort to surrender their personality agendas and seek the most loving path were experiencing grace differently. There were no guarantee or promises, but the grace felt deeply sweet to those making an effort. Effort elevated and sweetened grace. Grace elevated and sweetened effort.

Many religious traditions suggest that divine grace is the only factor in play on the spiritual path while others suggest effort is the only thing that matters on this path. This garden suggested both mattered. The grace of an embracing oneness is helped by our efforts to meet the embrace.

This Essence supports us to know our efforts matter no matter the surface outcome of these efforts. It helps us catch a whisper of a glimmer of the abiding reality of love beneath all form and comforts us that our toady but invaluable efforts will be met in full with a grace we can only dimly imagine.

Golden Hedge-Hyssop Gratiola aurea
Release from shame about what and how much we feel

So many of us come from cultures that encourage us to feel shame about the intensity and volume of our emotional responses. This Wildflower offers comprehensive support to release this shame.

While the Hyssop family from which this Wildflower comes holds much information about forgiveness, this specific Flower knows there is nothing to forgive when it comes to what we feel. It helps us release all negative judgment about our emotions by showing us a way to respectfully contain our feelings as purposeful and good.

Released from a response of guilt and shame, we are free to learn from our feelings versus fight to deny them. In this climate of acceptance, we can bring to our emotions the maturity of choice about how we want to make use of the information our feelings give us. No longer at war with our feelings, we can use our resources to bring a measured response to address the circumstances that precipitated the feelings in the first place.

-Helpful for those of us have been shamed about our feelings or have been taught to think of emotions as a liability or weakness.

-Particularly helpful for those of us who have been criticized as too emotional or overly dramatic. Helps us own our feelings as valid and not up for debate.

-In relationships, supports us to move the focus from an attack on us as too emotional or our feelings as inappropriate to the real issues that are precipitating such strong feelings.

I AM at peace with my emotions, embracing them as guideposts on my path.

Goldfinch Rose Rosa Goldfinch
Balm when our electrical systems are frazzled by too much electrical stimulation

Helps us to recollect ourselves and our electrical systems when we are electrically frazzled, especially after too much time at our computers or other electronic devices. Shows us how to smooth and soften the glitches in our electrical field from too much electrical stimulation.

-Very calming for “wired” individuals.

-An excellent remedy to use in a spritzer.

I AM the tranquility and calm of my restored electrical system.

Ispahan Rose Rosa Ispahan
A clear sense of personal direction no matter the tumult or distractions around us

This Rose was first found in the ancient Persian city of Ispahan. During the middle ages this city was known as “half the world” as its presence on the silk road and forward thinking leadership made it a tremendously beautiful and dynamic, multicultural city.

Ispahan Rose is a strong presence in a garden no matter what other Flowers are clamoring around it. It knows itself and what it expresses. As an Essence it helps us stay on our true course amidst the pull of many diverse forces and distractions. It helps us zero in on what matters to us and let go of what does not. It brings clarity, focus, discernment and determination to our understanding of the spiritual priorities in our life situation and what we need to do to take care of these priorities.

-Cuts through any confusion we have about our situation to help us know what we need to know to move forward.

I AM certain of the truth of my situation and know who I am and what I need to do.

Louise Odier Rose Rosa Louise Odier
Spirited and determined courage and faith

This warm pink Bourbon Rose blooms vigorously for a very long season. First found on the Pacific island of Reunion, Louise Odier is thought to be the result of a serendipitous cross between Old Blush China Rose and Autumn Damask Rose.

Regardless of our circumstances, Louise Odier Rose Essence helps us have the pluck and resolve to keep going with confidence in the goodness of ourselves and our situation even when others do not share our faith and optimism. It helps us attune to the divine reality beneath events, a reality that always supports us even when surface circumstances suggest otherwise.

-In any undertaking, Louise Odier helps us have true grit: the passion, inner confidence and poise to keep going even when others dismiss our resolve as foolish or misguided.

I AM certain of myself and the purposeful goodness of all of my life circumstances.

Madame Isaac Pereire Rose Rosa Madame Isaac Pereire
Mercy

Rosarian Graham Stuart Thomas said of this Rose, “possibly the most powerfully fragrant of all roses; the flowers are enormous, of intense rose-madder, shaded magenta, bulging with rolled petals, quartered* and opening to a great saucer face.” The Angels describe this as a Rose of Mercy. While Mercy is ever present for us, this Rose helps us feel the love of Angels, their tender concern and the matrix of Mercy which is the abiding reality behind all form.

-Offers us a consoling comforting vibration that helps us feel more connected to the Angels that love us and watch over us.

I AM ever loved and cared for.

*Next season I will try to get a photo of this Rose that shows this quality of quartered petals better. In this photo she has opened past this stage.


Rosa Gallica– Rosa Gallica
Anchoring to the immutable heart of the Earth

This is an ancient mother Rose from which many other Roses descended including Charles de Mills Rose. For centuries Rosa Gallica was grown for its medicinal uses thus it is also known as the Apothecary’s Rose.

Rosa Gallica helps us establish and improve the interface between our own electrical system and the electrical grid of Earth. More specifically it helps us align and ground to the heart of the Earth versus the surface of the Earth. This is a purer, deeper connection to our planetary home and one that is more stable and supportive than grounding to the surface of the Earth. To understand why this is so, consider how a heartfelt connection with another person is more profound than a surface connection.

By helping us plug into the electrical grid of the heart of the Earth, Rosa Gallica helps us be more present, more effective, more grounded, more light filled and more in the flow of our lives.

-The Angels included this Rose in their Angel Set for Abundance explaining, “Rosa Gallica sets the stage so that all good things can flow into your world.”

I AM the full expression of my light.

Square Stemmed Monkey Flower
Energetic sanctuary and recovery for those who have been abused

The Monkey Flower family has been calling to us loudly. We now have four different Monkey Flower Essences on offer. This purple variety specifically helps those of us in abusive situations to find shelter and regain our energetic vitality and sense of wholeness even if these have been badly damaged. Additionally, this Essence helps us stay out of focus so those that might hurt us don’t notice us as easily. This Flower helps us stay out of sight almost to the point of invisibility. It is a very strong plant ally.

I AM beyond the reach of any harm.

I learned about this ability of Square Stemmed Monkey Flower to stay out of focus when trying to take a photo of the Flower. It required meditating with the Flower, explaining my purpose and asking the Flower’s permission to be photographed AND three of us taking photos before we got anything but photos like this.

White Mulberry’s photo will be here shortly!

White Mulberry– Morus alba
The freedom to express our unique divine identity

As the sole food of voracious silkworms, White Mulberry has been chained to the ego dreams of fortune seekers for tens of thousands of years. In New England the silk industry boomed and busted in the early 1800’s. White Mulberry trees fueled many get rich quick schemes in the region. The industry collapsed when a Mulberry blight killed most of the trees. When I found an elderly surviving White Mulberry blooming with abandon, I knew its Flowers would hold a unique wisdom.

A tree’s destiny, like our own, is to express its true self. This White Mulberry was warped to fuel other’s desires yet matured beyond its original imposed role. In its wise old age it offers us information about the territory beyond the cycle of being consumed by others or consumed by false obligations.

“I sing a song of the immutable God self within those who have lived through the total depredations of ego driven behavior. I am solace and the way forward for those who survive the extremes of human greed and selfishness. If you have been at the receiving end of someone’s extreme selfishness and ego driven behavior, I help you find your way beyond this drama. I am the calm certainty that all shall be restored, and that your eternal self is intact and whole within you yet.”

-Excellent for those in recovery from relationships with narcissists or other selfish or abusive people.

I AM the enduring reality of my divine self poised to begin anew in expression of my truth.

On the Camino de Santiago de Compostela there are hostels called albergues where pilgrims can get a bed and perhaps a dinner with fellow pilgrims at the end of each day’s walk. On Lizzy’s third trip down the Camino she took these two photos of a pilgrim dinner table before and during the rush of hungry pilgrims.

This summer was filled with moments like this when the farm’s three big kitchen tables were flooded with staff, family and an abundance of produce and then just as suddenly empty and waiting for the next gathering.

As summer rolled into fall, I realized that Green Hope Farm is like an albergue on the Camino in more ways than just the numbers circling the dinner tables. People’s journey’s take them down the trail to the Green Hope Farm where they come and stay for a bit and then it is time for them to continue their pilgrimage. As the host to this albergue, I get to welcome them to the farm and then, in alignment with a mysterious timetable appropriately between the pilgrim and God and NOT in my control ;-), it is time for them to go, and I must send them on their way with a “Buen Camino!”

It is much easier for me to say hello than goodbye, but it helps me to remember that even as the departing pilgrims go out of sight down the trail, they are still on the Camino, still on their journey.

Here was one September night at the Green Hope Farm albergue with pilgrims coming and going. It was Grace’s second birthday. Katie Carpenter is on the left, Lauren Lenz is in the middle and Molly Sanders is on the right. Grace is making sure they pet her new stuffed dog “Tiny” carefully. Katie’s Camino was taking her to Pennsylvania almost the next day. Lauren’s Camino was bringing her back to Green Hope Farm for another stint working here. Molly Sanders was getting ready for the next twist in her Camino, a travel plan that includes her next sure destination, Patagonia.

And here are some of the pilgrims who are at the Green Hope Albergue right now- From the left around the table- Elizabeth Sheehan, Clare Smith, Laura Carpenter, Alli Howe, Eliza McLellan and of course GRACE. We are out at breakfast to say goodbye to Molly Sanders so none of us were feeling THAT cheerful as Molly Sanders is an absolute ray of sunshine, and we will miss her very much! I am sorry Molly is not in the photo! The breakfast really WAS all about her!

Clare and Eliza are brand new, and I am so happy to welcome them along with Lauren to the GHF albergue! Alli, Lizzy and I are teaching them all the different jobs to fill the gaps left by Miguel, Molly, Katie and Laura (who is only here part time now). After running the GHF office for almost two years, Miguel has taken a job in his field of International Relations at the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth. We are so happy for him that he is doing what he loves. He is helping Tuck students organize short term work projects for NGOs in third world countries. As he ran an NGO called Solar Aid in the country of Kenya before coming to Green Hope Farm, this job is right down his alley and a perfect place for him to continue his Camino. Molly has flown south- very far south to the southern most tip of the Americas, and Katie is doing more web design work from her home in Mount Gretna, PA. Fortunately her next stop on the Camino leaves her free to keep helping the albergue she left behind- She gets a lot of emails from us- A LOT!

So that’s the census at the Green Hope Albergue! Tonight anyways!

I am close to finished transcribing the definitions for the 2014 New Flower Essences! Effort and Grace will finally have a description as will the other gems of the season! Look for this next week on the blog! Yahooooooooo!

The energies of these times support us to increasingly experience ourselves as one with one another.

We are receiving unprecedented support to release the illusion of separation and experience the complete realization that, “You and I are not we but one.”

Today I want to discuss a few of the complexities of expanding into an experience of oneness in a world in which many remain asleep to this truth.

Some of the complexities are challenges that empaths have long struggled with. More specifically the thought glitches wired into an empath can carry over when empathy expands into an experience of oneness.

Before I go further, here is a link to something I wrote about being an empath.

It seems worth going over some of an empath’s challenges, because I suspect most people who are beginning to experience our unified energy field more clearly began their lives as empaths.

An empathic child has an awareness of what others are thinking and feeling from an early age. I suspect most empathic children assume everyone is as empathic as they are. They assume everyone holds a similar awareness of interconnectedness and therefore is making decisions from this place of interconnectedness. When adults who are not making decisions from this place make decisions about them, empaths assume they must deserve what the adults in their lives are doing to them. They have no choice in their thinking but to assume this.

Many empaths have parents who have no natural empathy or sense of oneness. This assumption that the adults in a child’s life are looking out for the child from a place of empathy is an unavoidable misunderstanding on the empathic child’s part that can lead to a profound lack of self love as the child struggles to accept that he or she deserves what the adults are doing to him or her.

This sense of deserving what others are doing to them because we are all one often carries into adult life. It leaves empaths hurt, confused and disappointed by their treatment by others. The key here is grounding the truth that other people don’t feel connected as empaths do and are reacting from their illusions of separation consciousness. But this is very hard for empaths to grasp.

Once you know the answer to a riddle, you can’t go back to NOT knowing it. Empaths KNOW we are all connected. It is very hard for them to imagine there are really people who don’t know this.

Like everyone else, I have been at the receiving end of some harsh treatment from people wrapped in separation consciousness. I have wasted much time puzzling how they do not understand that we are all connected. It is hard for me to grasp that they do not, BUT THEY DO NOT!

When an empath’s understanding of the world blossoms into an expanding experience of the truth of our oneness, the same challenges continue to exist.

This is how it was explained to me by my guidance, “You can recognize a tiger as one with God, but this does not mean you should sit down and have tea with him. The tiger still thinks of himself as a tiger and may eat you!”

I was raised in a den of tigers. It is surprising they ate only part of me. Sometimes my survival makes me naïve about tigers. My wiring, laid down by my tiger mother, was an exhortation to live to serve tigers. This makes my default mind idea when faced with a tiger an idea that all tigers are my business. This idea kicks in with my own variations on the theme like, “As I learned a lot about tigers in my childhood, shouldn’t I take on any tiger thrown my way to try and tame them?”

The answer is always NO and frankly, you would think by now I would notice that I have never tamed a tiger- EVER!

This is where a gift of our expanding experience of oneness saves the day. As we grow in our awareness that we are all one, this oneness includes those beings in a state of complete conscious divinity. These beings stand ready to help us across the rocky terrain of our own expanding consciousness.

There are a million images for the spiritual path we are all on. One of them is the image of being led towards a high mountain peak by an experienced guide. The foothills of the mountain can be navigated by anyone, but higher up in the mountain we need a guide who has been there before.

This is to say, navigating our expanding sense of oneness is territory no longer in the foothills. It is easier in fact NECESSARY that we seek the guidance of others who have done this already. EXPERIENCED MOUNTAIN GUIDES so to speak- GOD REALIZED BEINGS THAT KNOW THE WAY!

One of the big surprises for me as I have sought guidance from God realized beings who are way out ahead of me is that I always am advised to leave the tigers completely alone.

Sensible advice of course, but having grown up with tigers who wanted me to take care of them, fix their problems, give them an arm or two to snack on, I still struggle with my hard wiring to think this is my business. Thank God, our guides are willing to say over and over and over and over to us, “NO!”

When a new tiger arrives in my ken, I don’t always notice the pattern until I have been dropped to my knees. But what comfort it is when I finally ask and get told,

“Just another tiger. Leave them alone. They are God’s business not yours.”

(My business appears to be keeping my hiking boots on and trying to keep up with my guide! )

Q: I recently purchased some Red Clover Flower Essence (for panic attacks and anxiety) along with some other Essences from Green Hope Farm. I have noticed that since I began taking the essences that I am experiencing an increase in panic, anxiety and fears. I have also been crying a lot. Is this normal? Do I have the wrong flower essence? Do I need another one? Please help.

A: Red Clover Flower Essence can only give your electrical system information about finding calm and peace because that is the only energetic information the Flower holds.

Additionally, no Flower Essence has the volition or ability to cause panic or a lack of calm. This is because Flower Essences are strictly information and cannot chemically alter your system or cause you to feel negative symptoms.

Instead, Flower Essences offer your electrical system the high vibration pattern of the Flower. If and only if your electrical system thinks it is a good thing for your health and wellbeing to hold this pattern also, your electrical system will copy this information and vibrate at the same higher vibration as the Flower and its Essence.

Your electrical system is always driving the decision making about using the information of a Flower Essence and will only use the information if it serves you and will improve your health and wellbeing.

The reason Flower Essences hold only high vibration patterns is that Flowers are by their nature high in vibration as they hold the highest vibrational and most evolved wisdom of the plant. Since they naturally vibrate at the highest healthiest band of electrical bands they offer us electrical patterns that we can learn from to hold the same high vibrations.

Sometimes it helps to think of Flower Essences as the same energy as the actual Flower just in a different form. If you were standing in a field of Red Clover, those blossoms would hold the same calming information as the bottle of Red Clover Flower Essence. The Red Clover in the field would offer you its sense of peace- no more- just as Red Clover Flower Essence does.

Please keep questions like this coming. I want to address all these concerns. Flower Essences are the safest, most gentle friends and can do no harm- I truly want you all to know this!

Q: I’ll be ordering some more Red Shiso soon and was wondering: when I make mixes, would it be fine to add also some good spring water to the mix, apart from Essences and Red Shiso? I’m making more mixes so that would seem practical. If yes, are there any recommendations regarding the ratio of Red Shiso to water?

A: Good question! I would not add water to the Red Shiso when making a mix of Flower Essences. If you dilute the mix down with water, it may not stabilize as well as full strength Red Shiso.

Sorry to be the bearer of this info! I wish things could work well when water is added but the life force of the Flower Essences is such that they need the Red Shiso full strength to stay potent and fresh.

If you were to make a mix that was going to be used in a few days, water would be fine to add but the mix would only last a few days. One important thing about what kind of water you use: Do not use distilled water as it is actually the minerals and other materials in water that hold the charge of the Flower Essence. Distilled water has none of these minerals so cannot hold the electrical charge of the Flower Essence

Q: This am, I was sitting at my desk waiting for the rain to ease before my run, so I opened up The Things We Cook: A Green Hope Farm Cookbook and started reading the dedication and stories about your three cook inspirations. LOVE this. I had been looking at recipes. Now I feel like I am in the family soup with you knowing the full history. Your grandmother was amazing. I didn’t know Ben was such a badass cook. His recipes look great. What a cool cookbook. You have a way of making us all feel part of your family soup.

A: This is not a question obviously! I include the lovely comment because I want people who have not seen or read our Green Hope Farm Cookbook to know that the Cookbook is a book of stories about my childhood and the adventure of creating Green Hope Farm as much as it is a book of recipes. What I found as I embarked upon this project is that recipes work as a wonderful springboard for telling stories about the beloveds who have been a part of my life and the life of Green Hope Farm!

This is my beloved grandmother Katharine Salmon. Her hair is bobbed as she is just about to become the adventurous thoroughly ahead of her times woman I knew and loved.

Here is Teddy at her family farm in Wolfe’s Neck, Casco Bay, Maine. I love how she is so casually feeding a lamb while managing a St Bernard and her brother Woodie. Teddy is the reason Green Hope Farm is here and the reason I am a good cook! There is lots more about Teddy and my grandmother in the Cookbook.

Another character from life on the farm! Bless you Alli Howe for the fabulous art that FILLS the Cookbook!

Q; I just spotted the Vata, Pitta, Kapha Trio on the website (which is gorgeous, by the way, and must have been a considerable feat to realize) and would like to know more about how it was developed and how it can be used. I am interested in how these essences are used to affect imbalances, either in the individual’s constitution, or under conditions that provoke a particular dosha. In particular, would a Vata use the Vata essence exclusively to rebalance at the exclusion of the other essences (which, for example, might promote more pitta or kappa)?

How do the clients of the practice that they were developed for use them? One at a time – using the essence related to one’s primary dosha, or as a group – employing those that are not one’s constitutional type in order to effect balance?

A: These are relatively new mixes available individually or as a trio. An ayurvedic practice asked us to create these three remedies for the doshas- We had been making custom mixes for their patients for many years and had learned much about the doshas as we did so. After we were asked to make these mixes, we studied more, consulted with our Ayurvedic practitioners friends and of course, got guidance from Angels for the creation of the three mixes- They are intended to balance the doshas- Each addresses a specific dosha.

My understanding about how the Ayurvedic practitioners use this remedy and how we have seen these used is that people have gravitated towards taking the combination remedy that best represents their dosha or their combination of doshas i.e. a Kapha takes Kapha, a Kapha-Vata takes both Kapha and Vata. Each remedy works to help us be the strength of the dosha not the liabilities of the dosha and supports us so we can vibrate at the high end of our constitutional structure not the low end- Taking the remedy for a dosha if it is not our dosha will not make for problems but it will probably not address issues you are apt to have.

Q: I can’t say enough wonderful things about The Arbor Garden!! I had a feral cat show up at my house in January. She was very scared and edgy. I first gave her your Abandonment and Abuse, which really helped calm her down. Then I gave her The Arbor Garden. Suddenly she came in the house and started sleeping at the end of our bed. She’s turned into such a lovey kitty!! She runs up to me when she sees me and can’t get enough loving.
Such an amazing turnaround! And I love it, too!!

A: So not a question here either, but I love this story! One of the first jobs we give new staff ( and we have two new staff right now! more about them soon!) is to open the mail because it is so much FUN and it’s a great way to hear a lot of Flower Essence stories- Email is another way! THANK YOU FOR SHARING! It means the world to all of us!

PS Yes, Ben is working on the search function!!!!! We know it needs to be created! THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE AS WE GET THIS DONE!

I have begun to get questions for this blog. The following are some that I have received. I have edited the questions slightly to protect people’s anonymity.

Q: Can my Flower Essences go through airport security?

A: Flower Essences can go through airport security without their vibrational information being damaged. I always ask the Angels to keep my Flower Essences safe and protected when I travel as they can be pulled on energetically by people and animals in close proximity to the Essences, and this can drain them of their information. But the machines do not damage them. Someone also asked if their Flower Essences would get confiscated. The bottle size is under the legal limit. I have heard of no one getting their Flower Essences taken from them at the airport.

Q; My rescue dog has gotten very quiet even withdrawn since beginning to take Abandonment & Abuse. My instinct is to keep giving him the Essence. What do you think?

A: Every animal is going to make use of the information a Flower Essence provides in a different way. I had a number of back and forths with this GHF friend about her dog, a 5 year old rescue who had been in his new home with her for 3 months. Ultimately she decided to keep giving him the Flower Essence. We both agreed that the dog was really taking in the information of the Essences to heal, and in that place of deep healing work, he needed the quiet and the space he was taking.

I appreciate how animals have the wisdom to take sanctuary when they are healing versus trying to engage in the world full bore while also doing this healing work. This is something a lot of us people could learn from! It struck me and this dog’s person that he was wisely taking a time out to do the work of healing his trauma and would re-engage in the world when he knew he had done this work. This dog felt to me and to his person to be an extremely wise animal practicing self care while letting old traumas surface to be released.

Here the two newest rescue beloveds at the farm, Sheba and Po, meet at their version of the office water cooler!
Q: What is going on with your Guidebook? Are there still copies available?

A: Yes! Yes! Yes! We DO have copies available and we want to share them with those who want them!

As you may have noticed, we have made a sea change in how we are sharing this book! Quite unexpectedly, the Angels encouraged us to get all our information onto our website and let the Guidebook go. Because I have loved writing and sharing different editions of the Guide during the last 25 years, this guidance reflected a big change for me. However, as the creation of the new website unfolded, I could see that the information on the website, i.e. my rewritten Flower Essence descriptions combined with photographs of the Flowers, really did a wonderful job conveying the energy of the Flower Essences. I fell in love with the whole approach! However we want to have Guides for people who do not have computers or easy access to the internet or for those who love books as I do. So we have kept back what remains of the Guidebook to offer to those who need or want it. We are asking people to pay $10 for the Guidebook from here on out so that only those really interested in reading it will request it.

Q: I have just been told there is a long list of essential oils unsafe for cats and that I should discontinue using your Essences.

A: Flower Essences are not chemicals, and they are not essential oils. They do not contain the actual plant. Instead they are energetic information of the Flower transferred from the Flower into our Red Shiso stabilizer. Red Shiso is a mint and is not toxic to animals. Additionally, it is not necessary to give Flower Essences to animals internally in order for the animal to learn from them. Topical applications or misting Flower Essences mixed with water over the animal and around the animal often work just as well if not better! How to use Essences on the website explains this better. This document explains this in even greater detail

Q: I have two Shelties and we will be moving soon to a new state. What would be best to make this move easier for them? How far ahead of the move should I start giving it to them?

A: New Beginnings and Anxiety are great to give dogs well before a move since they pick up all the energy of the move beforehand and may need reassurance even then. Anxiety is also great for car travel; It helps with motion sickness among other things as does Chinese Hat Plant! Depending on the circumstances, Grief & Loss can be helpful if they miss their old home- but this may not be a factor- It is certainly great for you to take the Essences with them as you are going through a lot also! I like Grounding for after a move. It really helps everyone get grounded in their new home!

Q: I see you have some Flower Essence suggestions in your document Green Hope Farm Flower Essence Suggestions for Common Concerns Do you ever do custom mixes for fertility?

A: We do have many Flower Essences to support fertility concerns- There are some really wonderful Flower Essences for this, and we love supporting people to get pregnant when that is what they want- A custom mix is an excellent way to go and we can explain our choices of Flower Essences if you have any questions- We have done a lot of work on this and love supporting people in this way.

Q: Your new site is BEAUTIFUL but all I want is to look at one Essence and a few others and I’ve been pushing and clicking and decided I like the “old site” better. Please tell me how to get to the simple menu that you had before. I am one who can live wonderfully well without electronics. I am electronicked to death in many ways. Just a simple list for each collection and an empty little “search” box that I can fill in with the name of the essence I want.

A: We are working on creating a search bar. We may also create an alphabetical list of all Essences linked to their pages. We are listening to all your thoughts! The new website is a work in progress. We are adapting from everyone’s feedback both positive and negative. When we began the re-creation of the website, our goal was to make all the information we have about our Flower Essences much more accessible. That is still our goal, and we will be working in the weeks and years to come to improve this website in every way you suggest!

And Finally- This is not really a question but I wanted to share this person’s thoughts about Caretaker from our Animal Wellness collection because I love this remedy so much and sometimes feel it gets lost in amongst all our other offerings. Here is her quote exactly, “It seems to me Caretaker is absolutely essential in mothering. I was out of it for three days and noticed I had anxiety in “what to do” for my baby for the first time since she was born. It really helps with being just completely in tune and harmony with the person you’re caring for. I think it’s really amazing stuff and I think it’s my first “staple” find–the one I will need for the rest of my days!”