How to Grow and Make Herbal Vinegar with Chamomile
Barn Goddesses Leslie & Terri
CHAMOMILE AROMATHERAPY PROPERTIES:
 Chamomile calms gastrointestinal and nervous systems. It improves appetite and digestion. Chamomile contains apigenin a flavonoid which has antioxidant properties and may inhibit skin tumor formations.
Healing Chamomile Vinegar
Make a bouquet of 12 sprigs of chamomile and place in a sterilized pint jar with 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper corns.
Heat white wine vinegar to just below the boiling point.
Fill the jar with the vinegar and seal tightly.
Allow it to stand 3-4 weeks.
Strain the vinegar and discard the chamomile.
Pour the processed vinegar into a clean sterilized jar of your choice, adding sprigs of fresh chamomile for a garnish if desired.
Seal tightly.
Vinegar "Beautiful" for Dry Skin
- 1 pint Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup each Chamomile, Mint, Parsley and Primrose Petals
Steep this in a sunny window in a sterilized dark glass jar, that's well sealed for 3 weeks.
Shake daily then strain and rebottle.
Barn Goddess Tip: This is great as an astringent for the face.
Growing guide: Morning sun/filtered afternoon shade
Culture:
Prepare the soil for cultivating herbs. Prepare a light, well-drained soil. You can grow from seed or transplant. Best times to plant are February-April or December-January. Thin seedlings to stand 6 inches apart. Chamomile improves the growth and flavor of cabbage and onions, however, plant sparsely (at least 1 meter away) to avoid too much of a good thing.
Maintenance: For best growth and flavor water Chamomile regularly, but don’t allow it to sit in soggy soil. Harvest flowers for drying when the petals begin to turn back on the disk. If you are planting German Chamomile, leave several flower heads on the plant and allow it to go to seed, so it will return next season. At The Farm at South Mountain, we had a stand of German Chamomile that re-seeded itself for many years.
CULTIVATING CHAMOMILE:
Did you know there are two types of Chamomile, one known as Roman and the other German? They look similar, but these cousins are two different plants. The Germans and Northern Europeans claim their Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is the true Chamomile. And as you probably guessed, the English-speaking parts of the world consider Roman chamomile (Chamamelum nobile) to be the true Chamomile. Really they’re both right, and regardless of the botanical details, Chamomile as a whole has become one of the world’s most well known herbs.
Both types have daisy-like flowers, light, feathery foliage, and the most delightful apple-scented fragrance (similar to Jolly Rancher® sour apple candy). So what’s the big difference? German Chamomile is an annual growing to about 18” tall, is considered the “wilder” one, has abundant blooms and is most preferred by cooks for brewing tea. Roman Chamomile is more herbaceous perennial, growing to about 9 “tall with fewer but more fragrant flowers. It can be planted in the ground between stepping –stones or grown as a grass substitute to create a fragrant lawn. However, it is more commonly used for medicinal and aromatherapy purposes. Interestingly, so-called Roman Chamomile was historically found in England not Italy. A German botanist who visited Rome in the mid-sixteenth century dubbed the plant “Roman” and that designation remains today.
Barn Goddess Tips: The word Chamomile came from the Greeks, who after stepping on it and enjoying the apple scent named it “on the ground” (kamai) “apple” (melon). The way to tell the Chamomiles apart is to tear open the receptacle, the swelling behind the flower head, and see whether it's hollow (German) or solid (Roman). I recommend that you plant German Chamomile because it does better in our desert heat and soils. You may have success with Roman Chamomile in the cooler months, but typically it struggles during the summer, acting more like an annual than a perennial here in the low desert.
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