This year’s bumper crop of calendula (pot marigold) flowers had me planning a return of our Homestead First Aid Kit stand-by salve. It’s perfect for those annoying scratches, knicks, and knocks you can never remember happening but, for me, I’m looking forward to once again lathering it on my old-lady-gardener hands. Nothing bought comes close.

The flowers have been hanging in the glasshouse for about eight weeks and, when I checked yesterday, were dried to perfection. I’ve split them into two containers, one submerged in a collection of oils – jojoba, almond and a bit of sunflower – solar infusing on the kitchen windowsill and the other topped up with vodka (I only had peach flavoured so who knows how that will go) and hidden away in a dark cupboard.

Potion hocus pocus takes time: luckily the process looks so glorious.