Garden Goodies



The Plum Tree



Cayenne

                                                                     

Hurry Up...Turn Red



Freesia or Lilly?



Peppers and Tomatoes



Pickled Beets and Green Tomatoes



So...

  The computer crashed on Sunday,

just now got it up and running.

We were out in the yard tonight and

I thought I would share the view.



We canned the beets and tomatoes on Sunday,

 unfortunatelywe didn't plant very many 

so we only got two jars canned.

They're  for Steve's Mom and

she will appreciate whatever we give her.

The green tomatoes were a gift from

Steve's workmate Rollo and

he's promised some okra so

I'll pickle that for Steve's Mom also.

The garage sale-ing went well and

 I found a bike for Nathan....

photos to follow (hopefully).

Sorry this post is so terse

but I'm expecting the computer to crash at any moment.

I know, positive thinking.....



Happy first day of summer!!!

 Till next time,
Bonjour

 P.S.
It rained this morning and it's raining tonight. I can hear thunder outside...
SUPER!!!!!
I'm gonna check it out.
We're in a drought you know....TEXAS

Natures Bounty



Common Sage



The New-ish Berggarten Sage




The Yellow Irises



The Irises At The Dead Tree Garden







Wild Garlic





Lemon Balm And Chocolate Mint



Wild Blackberries













The Harvest



Sage leaves and flowers, dill, lavender flowers, thyme, yellow roses and rosemary in the back.





What say ye?

Till next time,

Bonjour

How We Grow Lavender

Well....

Let me just start by saying, lavender doesn't grow well in North Texas!

If I lived about 3 hours south down interstate 35 I would have fields of it.

Down around Austin there are real lavender farms, acres upon acres of lavender.

It's the new cash crop!

Austin is hilly... read.... loose, drainable soil.

We have tight, not so drainable soil.

What grows well here are cotton and maize, useful crops I'm sure,

but...

 cotton and maize don't make for a good soap or bath tea....



SPANISH LAVENDER



So,
What to do, what to do?

We've tried and failed with the elusive lavender

until we talked with a master gardener.

She was one of the speakers at the lawn and garden expo a few years ago.

Her advice was....

Dig a large hole, add about one gallon of pea gravel, 

insert the lavender plant,

backfill halfway with pea gravel,

backfill remainder of hole with your native soil,

ring your lavender from the stem out, about two feet,

with a layer of white marble chips.

Viola....

 The dynamics are...

the pea gravel mimics the rocky soil, aiding in drainage,

the ring of white marble chips reflect the sun into the plant center

aiding in faster dry time of the foliage during wet weather.

Seems to be working, we have eight lavender plants all doing great.

As to the type of lavender,

we have one spike, huge plant but the flowers are very elongated,

the other seven are Spanish,

it's more compact, with bushier (fatter) flowers.

I prefer the Spanish.

Lavender it seems, likes loose, rocky, well drained soil.

Don't over water.

I hope you give lavender a try, it's a lovely plant and our bees love it,

 they also love the buford holly and the rosemary.

Let me know if you have success with this method.

And, as usual, it's way past my bed time.

Till next time,

Bonlour

P Is For Poison And I have The Recipe



My Poor Oleander



The Rhubarb



Well...

Remember the boy at work who told me,

"WHEN THE WORLD FALLS APART

I'M COMING TO YOUR PLACE BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALL THE FOOD,

AND IF YOU DON'T FEED ME I'LL KILL YOU, AND EAT YOU"?

I have a special salad just for him.

RHUBARB AND OLEANDER LEAVES SALAD

WITH RANCH DRESSING. HEHE!!!

Just kidding!

We're working on a fence, got the posts set, now we need the wire and a gate.
You never know who might show up uninvited!!!!





Blooming Plum



The New Persimmon Tree





In the five or so years that we've lived here, in addition to the shade type trees, 

Steve has planted about twenty fruit trees,

(peach, pear, pomegranate, fig, quince,
apple, persimmon, plum and apricot)

several nut trees,
(black walnut and pecan)
not to mention the veggie garden.

Add to that all of the herbs I've planted.

(rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, all kinds of mints,
lemon balm, lemon verbena, basil, dill,
garlic, fennel and onions.)

On the property Nathan and I discovered
wild garlic, wild walking onions and wild blackberries.

The previous owners planted two mulberry trees.

So as you can see we have a lot of plants to tend.

That's a lot of work and water.

It anyone wants to come out here and help with the work

I have no problem feeding you,

 otherwise you get an Oleander and Rhubarb Leaves Salad.

YUM!!!


The New Pear Tree

In this part of Texas, Cedar and Mesquite trees are quite prolific.

If you aren't careful they will take over and choke out anything else.

Believe me, I've seen this first hand.

With a little help from Google I've discovered that you can make a
flour type product from the Mesquite bean seeds.
Complicated process but it's useful info in a crisis.
We have several of both trees on our property.
If anyone knows of a food use for Cedar trees I would be happy to know.



One Of The Mulberry Trees
(Maybe I should Turn That Rain Barrel Right Side Up?)



My Favorite Mesquite Tree

Underneath both of these trees are wild blackberry bushes.

You gotta love the birds for this,

they sit in the trees and poop out berry seeds and viola,

BERRY VINES.

Nature is a strange and wonderful thing.

SUNSET

What kind of plants do you have growing?

Nathan and I had  a very busy day cooking and exploring
so I'm off to watch Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom.
One of his favorites!
Till next time,
Bonjour

99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall




Z CHOCOLATE MINT



SO.....

The song 99 bottles of beer on the wall

 has been floating in and out of my mind for the last few weeks.

Perhaps because the song seems to never end.

And, as I prepare for our upcoming shows, the work seems to never end.

We have five shows scheduled for the spring so I've been a busy bee.

Over the last few months I've made,

113 lip balms

26 body butters

31 bath oils

96 bath teas

300 bars of soap (I think, sometimes I get lost)

I'm probably good on most of the soap till June,

everything else I'll make as needed.

With spring soon to be here for real,

the ladies will be thinking about wearing their sandals,

 and then realize they have sandpaper feet.

Body butter to the rescue, I guarantee!!

I think I have things covered, at least for the moment!

And, as I've been busy as a bee and

thinking of endless bottles of beer, guess what?

WAIT FOR IT....

I landed another store account!!!

Yeppers, I sure did!

Shabby Sheek Boutique in Texarkana, Texas. (Google them)

This makes three total.

I'm so proud of me....

Slowly but slowly I shall make this venture work and

before I know it,

I'll change my name to Tyler Durden and

 have a whole army of people making soap for me!!!

You  know, the movie Fight Club.

(I choose to believe they were only making soap.)

And who pays $10.00 wholesale for a bar of soap anyway?

Lead me to them!!!

And what I wouldn't give to have that army

working in my herb beds. ( I really don't like pulling weeds!)

So here's to a successful spring!!!

Anyway. I've been offline so to speak, for far too long,

I'm off to see what you' all have been up to.

Till next time,

Bonjour

OH YEAH,

If you have a ruptured eardrum,

don't go to the emergency room,

find an urgent care facility!

$250.00 versus $100.00

Just thought you would want to know!!!

Food and Knowledge...These are a few of my favorite things...

YUMMY GOODNESS

SO....

The goodies have finally arrived.

No more onions from the BIG BOX PEOPLE,

small box delivered right to my mail box!

(My, that's a lot of boxes for one sentence)

I didn't know there were short day, intermediate and long day onions, or that some were better for storing than others, or that you leave them to dry in the garden after you pick them.

Seems I knew nothing at all about onions.

After some research I now know that in Texas, we need short day onions.

And there's a local supplier in east Texas. Brown's Omaha Plant Farms Inc.

I like to shop local when I can.

We are now the proud parents of,

TX 1015 - Y Supersweet

Red Burgandy Hamburger

My husband's choices!

The snow has melted so maybe tomorrow we can get them in the ground.

I'm still doing research to understand which ones store better. 

OTHER BREAKING NEWS!!!

KNOWLEDGE

We subscribe to Backwoods Home Magazine and they had a few books we've been coveting.

I finally loosened the purse strings and ordered one for me and one for Steve, the third one was free.

My choice was,

Jackie Clay's canning book.

This is not your run of the mill canning book, this is the SUPREMEO CANNING BOOK!!! (I'm sure that's a word)

I have several canning manuals but not one covers the range of foods to can as this one does.

Canned cheese, meat, milk who knew?

There's tips on growing a wide range of foods, recipes and even info on raising animals.

I can't wait to put this book to use.

I love knowledge.

Steve got,

 Butchering Smoking Curing and Sausage Making.

I haven't looked at that one yet so I have no opinion to share.

The third one is,

 Recession Proof Your Pantry

It starts out listing everything you'll need in your pantry to survive for one year, just in case you can't get to the market.

You never know what will happen, flood, hurricane, snow, ????

Great info on how to store different types of foods.

It lists the requirements for most veggie, how cold, how much humidity etc.

Also gives you ideas on where to store if you don't have a root cellar. (NOT)

I haven't finished reading it yet but so far I'm learning alot.

We do ok in respect to canning but I feel that we need to take it to the next level.

In addition to what you grow why not take advantage of the market sales, buy it on sale, can for later use.

That's one of the goals I have for 2011

Self reliance is a good thing!!

 Till next time,

Bonjour