At Blue Chicory they don’t just grow vegetables and produce honey. Kristine is also a herbalist so at this time of year she sells echinaceae tincture, in the summer she sells a herbal insect repellent and when the poison ivy is out in force she sells a jewelweed spray for any unlucky hikers.
Echinaceae Tincture and Beeswax lipbalm
Malcolm manages a sustainable forest, harvesting diverse kinds of woods for making hammocks, hammock chairs and Muscoka chairs, amongst other things. Today he was weaving the ‘hammocky’ bit of the hammock using a huge contraption in the middle of the living room.
High speed Hammock Weaving
He offers day workshops where you can make your own hammock, but will not sell you a hammock ‘jig’ so you can make your own. Partly because the jig would cost as much, if not more to make than a hammock and partly because your better half will likely divorce you if you decide to set one up in the middle of the living room and then spend weeks working on your hammock.
This jig is used for weaving hammock chairs. The full sized hammock jig is twice the size!
The benefit of Malcolm’s woodworking is that as well as providing an alternate income stream it is both complementary to what they do already, happens mostly during the winter and, most importantly, he enjoys it!
Kristine enjoys the benefits of selling hammock chairs at the market
So if you are looking for an ecologically sound Christmas present for a loved one that is hand crafted, fun and will last a lifetime, check out their website in the list of links. Who wouldn’t benefit from spending time hanging out in a hammock?!
