Blog

Things I Love: Summer Storms

Amber Shehan July 6, 2017

Hello, everyone! I hope your summer is just as joyful and busy as my own. I’ve been white water kayaking (WHEEE!) and camping and performed in a few shows, and that’s kept me happy but exhausted. Our houseguests just left and our house is again quiet and peaceful, and I can let my introverted self…

Screen Shot 2017-07-06 at 2.59.52 PM

Hello, everyone! I hope your summer is just as joyful and busy as my own. I’ve been white water kayaking (WHEEE!) and camping and performed in a few shows, and that’s kept me happy but exhausted. Our houseguests just left and our house is again quiet and peaceful, and I can let my introverted self out to lounge on the couch and just breathe. Phew!

Beeeautiful ‘maters a-growing! I can’t wait for that BLT… #pixiespocket #garden #gardening #homegrown #organic

A post shared by Amber Shehan (@amberpixiespocket) on

We’ve had way more water and rain in the Asheville area this year – I’ve hardly had to water my raised beds! The sunchokes are exploding, the thyme and oregano are full and strong, and the rosemary has been alive two whole months! Just look at those tomatoes! I can’t wait to eat my first ‘mater sammich of the year.

I’ve also been blessed with a young herbalist-in-training who is interested in making things like lip balms, skin care, and other topical things. Since most of those are new to me, I found this article on DIY skin care projects from The Herbal Academy really useful! Time to shop for supplies and get to brewing…

So here’s some nifty things going on…

The Chestnut School of Holistic Herbalism is offering a FREE Herbalism mini-course! You must register by tomorrow, July 7!

The free course includes three streaming videos, written lessons, downloadable PDFs, review questions, quizzes, and an online community of plant people to share your newfound knowledge with!

The free herbalism class starts July 8th and runs through August 8th, and it’s self-paced, so you can access the videos, audio, and written lessons when it’s convenient! The audio and printable lessons are yours to keep, so you can revisit the material year after year.


I’ve got a few projects in process – one is a fermented hot sauce. I’ve chopped and pureed a peck o’jalapeno peppers, an entire head of elephant garlic, a small mango, and a nice bundle of spring onions, added the brine and airlock, and it’s bubbling away.

If you want to try making your own (but don’t want to wait for me to write up a recipe!) check in with Fifth Season Gardening and their fermented hot sauce recipe!

Cool Things:

  • The Herbal Academy is releasing their Herbal Materia Media short course for only $45. This discount is good through the summer season!
  • If you are someone who makes their own clothes or costumes, check out the Vintage Patterns Wiki to browse 83,500 free patterns from before 1992. Time to make some bell bottoms and palazzo pants!
  • I am completely chuffed about the solar eclipse coming this August!  Asheville is right in the line of visibility, and I’ve always wanted to see an eclipse, ever since I was a kid and had a favorite book called “Someone is Eating the Sun
  • Have you visited my Zazzle shop lately? There’s a few new goodies there, go see! You’ll find great things like this very clever bumper sticker.


“Things I Love” are the occasional update posts full of fun stuff I come across on social media, events and workshops I have coming up, and other nifty things that don’t get their own posts.

Get updates from Pixie's Pocket: brewing and herbs in your inbox:

Posted In
Tagged:

Amber Shehan

Hi! I'm Amber Pixie, and this is my site. Enjoy the recipes, information, posts, and please feel free to message me if you have questions!

3 Comments

  1. Lindy on August 4, 2017 at 12:47 pm

    I loved the photo of your organic tomatoes, they look really nice.

  2. Junior on August 4, 2017 at 12:49 pm

    I have a small garden in my yard and the tomatoes are very beautiful and mature, sorry that there is no way to show you by the comment.

  3. Sheila Amorim on September 21, 2017 at 12:40 pm

    Our Amber Shehan, my Mother loves to do these things, her yard is full of greens and spices planted, made by her is all organic, I loved her blog, very creative …. Success !!!

Leave a Comment