4" Californian White Sage Smudge Stick / Bundle

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For medicinal or food purposes, white sage could be harvested at any time of year, but its flavor or medicinal properties would vary. Again, this is related to how much water the plant might have stored in its leaves. Drier conditions made more pungent food herbs or resulted in stronger medicines, where wetter conditions tended to mellow these out and might require larger amounts to be harvested. How To Harvest White Sage The stems of white sage were seldom used medicinally, but were occasionally used in cooking for flavor. Young stems were sometimes utilized for making small items such as baskets while fresh and somewhat pliable.

Californian White Sage Smudge stick (8 Inches Approx

The leaves of the plant are a whitish-green, and if you rub the fresh leaves between your thumb and forefinger, a refreshing, cleansing scent is released. North direction aligns with the Animal Spirit of White Buffalo. It is grounding, protective-gives knowledge of life and death. It also aligns with the Earth element. The home of Californian white sage (Salvia Alpine), a scrub plant with spiky flowers, is along the sun-washed coastline of Southern California. Flowers attract varied pollinators including bumblebees, carpenter bees, Bombyliidae, and hummingbirds. [3] However most of these species are ineffective pollinators, with only three species of carpenter bee and one species of bumblebee actually leading to routine pollination. [2] Pests and disease [ edit ] White Sage ( Salvia apiana) is a plant native to high desert ecosystems and grows prevalently in California and in the Mountain West.Traditionally, white sage leaves were chewed by Californian tribes to freshen the breath and to stave off thirst on hot days before other modern methods were available. This might have been due to the high eucalyptol content in the leaves, which leaves a refreshing, almost minty coolness in the mouth after chewing. Sage is a cleansing and purifying herb and can be used to help break up feelings of negativity. Traditionally, it's regarded as being able to open people up and bring about the ability to have a greater connection with the sacred world. The plant communities where Salvia apiana naturally occurs include coastal sage scrub and chaparral areas. The coastal sage scrub area is dry but foggy and has shorter plants than those in drier, inland chaparral. Plants in coastal scrub areas are drought deciduous types. This means that instead of remaining full and green during summer, they generally lose their leaves at that time. In contrast, chaparral plants are evergreen and generally have tough leaves that aid moisture retention. So, White Sage might act deciduous in one location and evergreen in another.

California White Sage - Gardenia

Over-harvest of wild Californian white sage populations is a concern held by many Native American groups and conservationists. [5] Over-harvesting is negatively affecting the wild population and distribution of white sage. [5] It is believed that illegal harvest is occurring on public lands and non-permitted harvesting is also taking place on private land. In June 2018, four people were arrested for the illegal harvest of 400 pounds of white sage in North Etiwanda Preserve of Rancho Cucamonga, California. [6] Due to the potential for overharvesting and the plant's sacredness to certain Indigenous tribes, many Native Americans have asked non-Natives to refrain from the usage of white sage. White sage doesn’t need fertilizing. In fact, it actually prefers low-nutrient soils as an adult plant. Smudging is a personal ritual as well as the prayers that we say. For smudging one generally will use an abalone shell or clay bowl to hold the sage. Matches made of wood from the earth, not a man made lighter. Much like a bonfire, sage needs air to burn .A sacred smudging feather from Mother Nature to send air and wind to the burning plant as well as the sage you would like to burn. Feel connected to your smudging feather and sage. This may explain why white sage has not featured in recent efforts to revitalize Californian Native foodways. Notably, the Chia Café Collective, a nexus for Indigenous educators reacquainting people with traditional uses of and relationships to California’s native plants, published a cookbook in 2010: Cooking the Native Way. (Drake, Lucero, and Small contributed to the text.)Pollinators love mint family plants, particularly Salvias, which are also referred to as the “true sages.” When in bloom, Salvia apiana is a busy, buzzy species that attracts hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and other insect pollinators.