Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Douglas fir sachet

I was at Whole Foods yesterday picking up some kid's vitamins and I happened upon some Douglas Fir sachets near the vitamin section. I picked one up, since I love Douglas Fir, and gave it a whiff. I was amazed at how sweet smelling it was even though all it contained in the muslin drawstring bag was Douglas Fir needles. I was about to spring for one when I noticed it cost something like $8.99.

Since we live in the land of Douglas Fir trees and, since we have a fir Christmas tree sitting in our living room, I figured I could easily make my own either by sewing my own sachet or using a repurposed one.

I went home and looked around online to see if anyone had any hints or tips on making your own, such as whether or not you need to dry the needles or what and there were quite a few articles and blog posts on making your own pine needle sachet. One of my favorite's was making a sachet out of a men's shirt sleeve. This same site suggested using pine needles and lavender (which we have a ton of) as well as a mix of other herbs.

What a great way to use leftover pine needles from your used Christmas tree. I think I'm going to have a hard time waiting for after Christmas before I start snagging the needles for this project. Patience, Deanna, patience. In the meantime, I might be heading down the road to Carkeek Park for some downed Douglas Fir needles and some salmon watching at Piper's Creek.

Juniper Ridge, which makes the sachets I was sniffing in the store, also has them in Christmas Fir and Big Sur Sage. Since we also have a ton of sage, I might make one of those as well.

In any case, here's yet another thing to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays are over.

4 comments:

Laura Kaeding said...

That must smell heavenly! I have never seen sachets, but now I want to make them and have them all over the house. I can imagine it would help with the kitty smell too :D thanks for sharing

Robj98168 said...

My cousin's mother er i mean ex-wife and her mother and aunts made sachets to give out at her daughter's wedding- they used lavender- pretty cool

Vegetable Garden Cook said...

$8.99?! I'd be a millionaire. I have tons of fir trees. Anyone want to buy some needles?

Aimee said...

I know - I've been shocked by the $25 wreaths made of two feet of branches and the - even more audacious - $10 "swags" which are nothing more than a couple of twigs tied together with twine and a scrap of red cloth. Damn, I could apparently make a fortune from the bush in my front yard.