http://www.moddejongesherbals.com/

Moddejonge's Herbals, 1905 Hewitt Avenue, Everett, WA (2026)

09/27/2026

September Harvest Moon

09/19/2026

Good afternoon and Happy Saturday again. Wow, 2 posts and 2 events. I am going to take the rest of the weekend to recover 😉 When we last spoke, I was talking about seeds. I want to continue talking about them today. There are several places that you can get seeds. You can go to a hardware store, a department store or a feed and seed. All of these stores will have racks of seeds. You can get hybrid seeds, organic seeds and heirloom seeds at all of these places. You need to be mindful what you are looking for they will be labeled. If there is no label, they are hybrid.

You can get seeds online, again you have to look for the labels. If you are considering a seed bank, you will want to take a look at what seeds they are containing. I have a seed vault and for my wants/needs they are very incomplete. So I had to augment the seeds.

You can save seeds from organic fruits and vegetables from a Coop. Unless the vegetable is labeled heirloom, it might not be open pollinated, but it will be organic.

The Everett Public Library has a seed exchange in a vacard catalog cupboard with vegetables, flowers and herbs. They are all donated so the variety can be a little incomplete at times.

You can also look for a seed exchange. I want a larger selection of squash and peppers, so I am going to going to a Farmer’s Market in the next couple of weeks and harvest the seeds. It is more than likely that I will have extras, so be on the lookout for a notice about a seed exchange.

Stay Safe, Warm and Full.

09/19/2026

Good afternoon and Happy Saturday. I have a funny story for you. Last Sunday I lost my SIM card. Now you might ask how did you do that? I have no idea. Sunday night I was reading on my phone and fell asleep. When I woke up on Monday, I had no internet connection, could not turn off my phone and had an occasional dialog box popping up saying I have no SIM Card. Well I took my phone to my phone provider and asked them what is the matter with my phone. The phone person took out a handy dandy paperclip and opened the sim carrier and said you have no SIM card. How did that happen?I told them it was there when I went to sleep last night, I have no idea, it was there when I went to sleep. She fixed me up with a new SIM card and all was well until Wednesday.

Wednesday I went to see Practical Magic 2 with my daughter and some friends. I drove to my daughters house and then she drove the rest of the way to the theater. I noticed I did not have my phone but was not worried about it because I knew it was in my car. We watched the movie (good movie - I highly recommend) and my daughter drove me to my car. Wee could not find my phone. I was still not worried, I thought it is dark I will find it in the morning. I did not find it in the morning. I tore apart my car and had a friend do it again after me. Still no phone.

So SIM card disappears on Sunday, gets fixed on Monday and phone disappears on Wednesday. Strange happenings. So this is all to explain, if you are on mu phone list or contact list in Face Book, I have lost all my contact information. If you want me to have your phone number, please DM me and we will get it all set up again.

Thank you for your patience with my telephone trials.

09/11/2026

9/10/2026

Good afternoon and Happy Thursday and New Moon. I told you yesterday that I was going to talk about garden types today. But first I want to talk about what started me on this path. It has been one I have been walking for 50 years. When I was a child (longer than 50 years ago) I sometimes went hungry. I didn’t starve – I always had something to eat but it was not always enough. I started reading the Little House on the Prairie Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and found out that people couldn’t always depend on grocery stores to get something for dinner. That there were ways to save food when it was plentiful for when it was not. My mom dabbled in canning – she canned fruit, she taught me how to help her.

Then I grew up and had children of my own. I didn’t want them to be hungry and I may have taken it to extremes, as the kids got older and invited friends to dinner the always said that I cooked enough for an army and we always had a ridiculous amounts of leftovers. One time when my kids were in middle school we went camping with my parents and I miscalculated the amount of food that I needed for one dinner. I was mortified. I will never forget that day.

I have been planting a garden since I bought my first house. I took trips to Yakima in August/September to buy direct from the farmers. And I canned, froze and dehydrated food so that I had a year’s worth of food at the beginning of Winter so I never had to worry about my kids being hungry. I will tell you that after 40 years of this habit it is hard for me to change. So I still can. Although not as much as I have done in the past.

So now, back to the garden. You can have a hobby garden that gives you fresh salads throughout the summer and there have been years that I did that. Or you can go to the other extreme and plant a victory or survival garden. Or you can do anything in the middle.

If you are planting a victory garden you need to look at what type of seeds that you need and where to get them. A victory garden needs to have calorie dense foods that can sometimes become meatless meals. Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squash, Beans, Lentils, Onions and Garlic. Most of the seed vaults of heirlooms stock few of these seeds. Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes Onions and Garlic can be planted from seeds but can take as much as two years to get a good crop from them. You generally get “sets” for them at local Feed and Seed Stores. Or you can start them yourself by buying organic produce from the grocery store. The Winter Squash (generally the seed vaults contain seeds for pumpkins and possible butternut squash) will keep if stored correctly throughout half of the winter as fresh or if dried or canned the entire winter. Beans like Pinto Beans, Black Beans, Red Beans, etc. can be germinated from the package of beans that you get from the grocery store and is much less expensive to go that way then to look for a package of seeds.

This has turned into a book, so I am going to close here. If you want to ask questions, please drop a comment under here or a direct message if you want the chat to remain private.

Stay safe, warm and full 😉

09/09/2026

9/9

Good afternoon and Happy Wednesday. Back when I closed the shop, I promised to keep you posted on what I am up to. Well, honestly, I haven’t been up to much. I kind of shelved a lot of my thoughts and plans and just was for several months. Now, I am getting ready to pick up my plans and start moving forward. I am getting my house ready for sale and am looking for property here in Western Washington but off the I5 corridor. I am looking for 3-5 acres with some trees. I want to go from being the Witch on Hewitt to the Witch in the Woods. I am planning to homestead. I am going to walk you through the rabbit holes I am playing in.

One of the primary reasons for the land is to grow my own food. I have been doing a lot of seed research. There are three types of seeds that you can plant. 1 is hybred seeds 1 is organic seeds and 1 is heirloom seeds.

The hybrid seeds are grown with pesticides and treated give you one harvest and will not grow true if you collect seeds for next year's garden. This is called F2 breakdown. The genetics fall apart after one generation. The organic seeds are not grown with pesticides but they may still be hybrid and may not grow true the next year. The heirloom seeds are open pollinated and seeds that are true generation after generation. These are the seeds that my grandparents grew and collected year after year. So the first thing you want to do is decide which kind of seeds you want to grow. Next you have to decide what kind of garden you want to grow. More about that nesext time.

I hope these posts have some value for you. The UK just sent out notices to their citizens that they need to be stocking some food. And we have seen FEMA have trouble when storms or earthquakes hit. Just a thought. Seeds do not take up a lot of space and if you remember COVID, when the shelter in place and the food expenses went way up, the seed companies pulled their websites in February and you couldn‘t get them in the stores nor online.

Stay safe and warm.

08/28/2026

Good morning and Happy Friday! It is another beautiful day outside. The trees are beginning to turn, I love this time of year. It is a time of change. I am making a few changes in my life.

I will no longer be doing in person Moon Rituals. Instead I am returning to my COVID model of doing them on-line on Facebook Live. I think I am going to mix up the places a little so you can see different parts of the North West. Tonight will be the first Full Moon release in this new model.

I hope to see you there!

08/08/2026

Good afternoon and Happy Saturday, Lion’s Gate. Today is the day the Universe amplifies manifestation, abundance, and personal transformation. It is a time for personal reset and goal setting. I spent my morning at a friend’s place visiting and picking blackberries. I spent the morning connecting with my prior self. The me before all the changes that began 2026. I hadn’t seen this friend since before the shop closed. We texted back and forth but had no in person conversations. I picked nearly a gallon of blackberries and I am going to make blackberry pie filling and can them into half pint jars. That is connecting me with the who I was when I was canning and preparing for the future. I enjoyed the sunshine and I enjoyed visiting with myself as well as my friend. Monday, I am going blueberry picking to continue this visit with myself and another friend and even perhaps a new friend.

I hope this Lion’s Gate was good to you. It certainly was to me. Best wishes for continued good.

Blackberry pie filling

3 ½ cups blackberries

5 tablespoons Clear Jel (if you are canning the pie filling)

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup water (cold)

3 ½ teaspoons lemon juice

Wash the blackberries

Place the fruit a batch or two at a time in boiling water, let the water return to a boil, boil for 1 minute. Get fruit out right away, put in a covered bowl to keep warm. Repeat until all fruit has been blanched.

Put Clearjel in a very large pot along with the sugar. Mix.

Add water or juice. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture gets quite thick and begins to bubble.

Add lemon juice and cook one additional minute. Fold in berries very carefully all at once until evenly mixed

Fill piping hot mixture into hot jars. (1qt size, or 2 pint size or 4 half pint size. Leave one inch head space. DE bubble well, Wipe jar rims, put on lids finger tight.

Process in a water bath canner for 30 minutes.

These can be used for a full-sized pie (1 quart size) or with the smaller jars into scones, turnovers, hand pies, over ice cream, on pancakes or waffles or on a cheese cake.

08/07/2026

Good morning and Happy Friday. The heat advisory for Everett was extended yesterday at 3:10 p.m. for another 31 hours. It was 84 degrees at the time. This is the first year in 13 that I have not written about hot weather. So here I go again.

If you do not have air conditioning in your house, and most of us do not, Keep your drapes or curtains open during the evening and early morning hours to let in the cool air. As the days heats up, close your drapes and curtains to keep the heat out. If you have a fan and a freezer put a plastic just in the freezer (put two and you can alternate them) then put the frozen bottle in front of the fan and let the cool air wash over you. Make sure you stay hydrated. If it is hot, you need more water than normal because of perspiration. If you have to stay home and you are overheated sit in your bathtub under tepid water or under your shower. If you are not that overheated put a towel under the cool water and put it on the back of your neck. Think about a salad or a sandwich for dinner so you don’t increase the heat in your house. As always if you can get out of your house, you can go to the movies for their air conditioning or you can go the library for a free afternoon of reading a book or newspaper. As a plus the Everett Main Library is hosting a book sale right now where hard back books are $1.00, paperback books and childrens’ books are .50 and magazines are .25.

As always, check on your neighbors especially at risk neighbors. See if they need a helping hand.

Enjoy sunshine and stay out of the bad air quality if it doesn’t lighten up. I must say I am looking forward to posting about the cold weather.

08/06/2026

August 6

Good afternoon and Happy Thursday. This week is a portal event in the skies that is very exciting. The Lion’s Gate Portal is an annual cosmic alignment peaking on August 8 (8/8). It blends astrology and numerology, marking a time when the Sun in Leo, the Earth, and the star Sirius align to create a highly spiritual window believed to amplify manifestation, abundance, and personal transformation.

While its exact dates vary slightly depending on the source, the portal generally opens in late July (around July 28) and closes in mid-August (August 12). The peak on August 8 (8/8) holds the highest significance.

The event happens during Leo season (ruled by the lion). It coincides with the heliacal rising of Sirius—the brightest star in the sky, often referred to as the "spiritual Sun". Ancient Egyptians tracked this star to predict the flooding of the Nile and viewed it as a symbol of fertility and rebirth. The date 8/8 is central to the portal's meaning. In numerology, the number 8 is associated with infinity, abundance, cycles of manifestation, and the bridging of the spiritual and physical worlds. The doubling of the 8 creates an intensely powerful day for intention-setting.

You can use this portal period as a time for personal reset and goal-setting. Common practices and rituals during this window include:

Manifestation and Journaling: Writing down goals, affirmations, or dreams as if they have already happened.

Vision Boards: Gathering images and words that represent the life you are actively working to build.

Meditation: Attuning to the "high-vibrational" energies of the portal to release old habits and align with your purpose.

Working with Crystals: Using stones associated with wealth and abundance, such as citrine and amber.

Go to a U-pick farm, pick apples, blueberries, black berries, freeze for smoothies during the winter, make jam or pie filling. Enjoy the outdoors

Go to a flower farm and pick flowers to make a bouquet. Make 2 – 1 to share

Go on hikes or to the beach and enjoy the summer weather

Watch the sunrise or sunset

This is first harvest, go to the Farmers Market and try a new vegetable that you have never tried before

Go to a state or county fair – look at the 4H animals, and canned goods and crafts that others have made

Learn a new skill. I am going to work on barbequing and smoking meat.

Practice your old skills that you have not used for a time

Add magic to your food – pineapple for strength, cinnamon buns -for success and prosperity, Latte - for wisdom, avocado toast - for health

We have a great many new beginnings throughout the year. For me, September is also a beginning. We have finished summer vacation and are beginning a new school year. This is a time when we have to get organized for all the school activities. I like to take this time to start the school year and the beginning of the holiday season a little bit more organized. Hopefully, this will help you out as well.

Moddejonge's Herbals

09/27/2026

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09/19/2026

09/11/2026

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