Garden Goodies

Even though this summer has been a dry one and my backyard hose has been my gardens best friend, I have some veggies and herbs that are going strong! I am so happy to be doing something with my wonderful smelling herbs!

If you know me, I am always researching on the Internet about a project I am interested in. I looked up drying herbs and most of the information had two ways to dry herbs.
One is hanging them upside down in a sunny place and let them dry the "natural way", which takes a couple of weeks. I did this and it just took too long! I love fast results! So this one was a bit of a waiting game and a bit annoying to me. Just because I am impatient.
The second was drying herbs in the oven. I got a couple mixed reviews of this. Most said to put the oven on the lowest possible temperature. Also, to put the herbs on a cooling rack set on a baking sheet before you put into the oven. It is said to do this to get the best air flow so the herbs dry faster. I decided to try it because I won't know how the dried oven herbs will turn out if I don't try it!

Here is a mixture of patchouli, lemon balm and lemon verbena, chocolate mint and basil herbs before going into the oven.

A lot of the information said that it takes hours and hours for the herbs to dry, but mine only took 30 minutes to an hour. BUT...they were WAY smaller and not as fragrant as the "hanging" way of drying.
So, even though my patience will be tested on the hanging drying method, I just wasn't happy with the outcomes of the oven method. Hanging the herbs and waiting is the way to go. Even for this impatient herb gardener.

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I have also done some research on what to do with the herbs after you have grown them and also after drying them.

One of my favorite things to do with fresh lavender is to use it when making sun tea. I got this idea from a friend in Michigan and it is so refreshing! All you have to do is to put fresh lavender leaves (or dried lavender flowers) in a slotted spoon used for brewing tea. Then set it in your glass jar while brewing your tea on the sun. Remove before drinking and now you have lavender sun tea.

I have taken some of the dried lemon verbena and put it in a jar then poured vitamin E into the jar and put a tight fitting lid on top. You let this sit for 3-4 months and you will have herbal scented oil to use in candles or soap making. The possibilities are endless for this.

With the dried basil, I put that into a jar with olive oil. Also put a tight fitting lid on and will leave that to sit so I can have basil infused cooking oil.

Got any ideas for dried herbs? Send them my way!

Happy gardening!

Garden Bragger

When I was out for my friends birthday the other day, we got talking about gardens. I am roud of my garden and I feel like my garden (after a slow start) is doing pretty good this year. After talking about our gardens, I felt like quite the old lady because I then proceeded to bust out my camera and show pictures of my garden. I wasn't sharing pictures of my kids or my dogs or my vacation....only pictures of my garden. I am officially a garden bragger.

It has been awhile since I originally posted about our garden because we have been traveling and visiting the beach. I have definitely learned the hard way about some of the plants that I had tried to grow for the first time.

Here is my garden in June. About a month after planting. Cucumbers to the left, tomatoes on the bottom of the picture, hot banana peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and jalapenos in middle.

 First batch (of only 3 batches) of spinach. I only got to eat it 3 times before I killed it all by over pruning.

Note to self: invest some time into studying up on spinach growing next year

This is the start of our cauliflower plants. They are deceiving. I thought that each plant in my garden should grow big and strong. But that's not the case with cauliflower. You need to pick it before the head of the cauliflower starts to seperate and flower. Well, I let grow too long and it got all yucky. I later learned to pick it early and once you pick it, that's it. They do not regrow another head of cauliflower. Live and Learn.

First banana peppers! We have grown these before so these are safe in the garden :).

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Here is our garden today! Growing grandly!

The cucumbers are in the back. Watermelons and cantaloupes are in the front. Both of which I have "trained" to grow up the chicken wire. Tomatoes are on the far right (and left, but not pictured). The big plants on the left are broccoli. As you can see, the cauliflower is gone. But it will actually give me more room to pick the 100's of cucumber pickles that are growing!

I am so excited to make salsa and canned pickles! I will keep you up to date on the growing of our garden (if I am not too busy with all my beach bumming).

Stay cool!

I Heart Herbs

My trip to Remus Farms the other day, had me venturing into the always familiar greenhouse full of herbs. I am familiar with growing the usual household herbs such as basil, cilantro, oregano, and dill. But to my amazement they had the most fragrant herbs in there! Ones that I had not seen in greenhouses before.

These gems from top left are two different types of basil, Patchouli (yes, this hippy found and planted patchouli!!), and in the blue pot is lemon balm.

 All of them were wafting the most heavenly scents, I just had to buy them!

The next ones I found were on the right lemon verbena and then on the left chocolate mint. Yes, chocolate mint! It smells sooo good!!

My mind is racing with things I can make with these herbs. I know I can cook with these herbs. But what about scented soaps or herb satchels? Hmm...the possibilities are beginning to flow in my mind!

Let's Get This Garden Started

I love summer so much! Ok, I know it isn't truly summer yet, but this Memorial Day weekend was warm enough to be called summer and it was the start of our vegetable garden.

This will be our 3rd year having a vegetable garden and I keep learning more and more every year.
We (meaning my husband while I sat back and drank wine and told him he was doing a good job) expanded the garden this year. More space = more vegetable goodness!

The past two years we just bought whatever starter plants we wanted at Remus Farms in Hobart, IN and put them in what we thought was a good layout. Last year our tomato plants were gargantuan and over took our garden and some of our peppers didn't grow. But we yielded lots of cucumber pickles. Which I happily canned for the first time and loved doing it too! This year I found a book at the library called Square Foot Gardening.

 This book got lots of vegetable growing ideas in my head, such as how many vegetables to plant per square foot based on how big your garden is and how much you will actually grow and actually use. It also gave a lot of great ways to grow plants such as cucumbers, cantaloupes, and watermelons upward rather than on the ground. I followed a  lot of the advice in the books on where to put my plants in the garden also. It was a bit cramped last year and I tried to spread the plants out a little more this year. But my mind sees these small plants and makes me think I need to cram more and more in the open space. I always forget that plants grow, and some grow big! So my mantra for planting today was leave space for growth.

Beginning of our expanded garden. My husband does a special combo mix of soil, peet moss, and manure. Which is another wonderful tidbit I got from the above mentioned book. My husband has done this every year with his own special mixture. The book gives great examples on how to follow the authors mixture.

The starter plants I got this year are 2 different types of cucumber pickles (8 total), 2 different types of tomato plants (8 total), hot banana peppers (2), jalapeno peppers (6), cantaloupe (2), watermelon (2), spinach (4), broccoli (4), and cauliflower (4). The last three I have never grown before so I am excited to see how they will turn out.

The finished planted garden!! The back row are the cucumbers. The tomatoe plants are on either sides. The canteloupe are front left followed by hot banan peppers, and spinach. The bottom right are the watermelons, then jalapeno peppers, and then cauliflower. The broccoli is in the middle.

All my spaced (hopefully spaced far enough apart) rows. We still need to add something for the cucumbers, cantaloupes and watermelons to grow upwards on. After that, it is just a little organic fertilizer, watering, pruning, and reaping the rewards of hard work! I am hoping to continue my canning of salsa and dill pickles this year too.

Just thought I would throw in a shot of how dirty I got today with all my planting!!

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I hope to take a picture week by week so you can see my garden's progress. I am sure my journey with a larger garden will lead me to have some tips and pointers for any gardeners out there.

I hope your green thumb is itching to get some planting done on your end!

Holy Cucumbers Batman!

Our wonderful garden has been producing a mass amount of cucumbers and pickle cucumbers! Which is to my great happiness since I made up my mind to try out canning this year and love summer salads made with cucumbers.




Our garden is cranking out about 3 regular cucumbers a day. This leaves me a lot of cucumbers to work with! I got a recipe for cucumber salad from a friend and looked a little more in depth to it over the net.

I made this batch, but got the recipe from Threedifferentdirections.com.

I started with 4 cucumber. I peeled and sliced them (not too thin, not too thick). Then laid them down on a cookie sheet covered with paper towel and sprinkled sea salt on top. Put them in the fridge for about an hour. This takes a lot of the moisture from the cucumbers out so you don't have a watery salad.

Mix together:

-1/2 cup Sour Cream

-1/4 cup Miracle Whip

-2 tbsp. Dill

-1 tbsp. Lemon Juice

-1/4 tsp. Black Pepper

-1/2 tsp. Sugar

Mix ingredients in bowl, pour over cucumbers, and gently mix until your desire.

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My go to recipe for summer is made with cucumbers and tomatoes.We have tons of tomatoes in our garden, but none of them are red yet. My friend Tarantula gave me some cherry tomatoes from her garden.

Chop up the cucumbers and tomatoes into bite size chunks and put into bowl. Then add Italian dressing (I just eyeball it, but don't add too much and make it soupy), a couple pinches of Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Then mix. This is so fresh and yummy for the hot days!

Here I served my salad with Pineapple BBQ Chicken and stuffing.

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 My canning abilities have definitely been tested this summer! I am really glad that I tried it though. It was something I have been wanting to do and it was surprisingly easy! I was hesitant because I didn't have all of the tools that most of the internet said I needed. Which come to find out, you really don't need all of those anyways! What I did have on hand to use was a very big pot, a big saucepan, tongs, a whisk, and lots of towels and pot holders. I did have to purchase Ball Jars and I dabbled with the pre-made mixes of dill and bread and butter from Ball (which I loved and were really easy!).

These are jars of pickles I made following my Aunt's go-to pickle recipe. They have about 2 more weeks before we can eat them! When I do, I will let you know how they turn out!

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I found a gem in the free book case at the Kalamazoo Public Library when I visited there a couple of weeks ago. It was a fabric covered book and when I opened it, I found out that it was a hand written, personal collection of recipes that a woman named Virginia put together in 1984.

Come to find out there were two pickle recipes in there. One is for refrigerator pickles and the other was for sweet pickles. Both of which are currently chillin' in my fridge.

Refrigerator Pickles

Slice cucumbers and onions with slicer. Put in clean jars.

Mix Brine of:

1/4 cup canning salt

1 Tbsp. Tumeric

2 cups vinegar

3 Tbsp. mustard seed

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup water

Pour over cucumbers and onions in jars. Seal and refrigerate for one month before using. (I also made canned green beans with this recipe)

I like to put either the date they can be opened or the date I made them with a permanent marker on the lid so I don't forget when I can snack on them or open to early and ruin the process.

Sweet Pickles

I added my own jazz to this recipe since I didn't have as many cucumbers and onions as it called for.

Cucumbers and onions sliced to your liking.

1 cup canning salt

Put cucumbers and onions in a larger bowl. Add canning salt and cover with water.  I like to put a large heavy plate on top of the pickles in the water so they are weighed down a bit. I also put plastic wrap over the bowl after putting down the plate. Let this soak overnight.

Drain. Then wash and dry canning jars.

In a large saucepan mix together:

1 1/2 quarts vinegar

1 cup water

4 cups sugar

1/4 cup mustard seed

1 tbsp. tumeric

1 tbsp. allspice

1 tbsp. celery seed

(her recipe called for no water and 6 cups sugar. At this point she says to add pickles to the mixture and cook slowly, but I decided to do something different)

Mix with wire whisk and bring to a boil. Once boiling stir once more and turn off heat. Take canning jars and add 1/4 tsp. Alum Powder (supposed to keep them crispy, although they were pretty flimsy from soaking overnight, but thought I would add it anyways). Add as many pickles and onions as you can add into the jar and then ladle the mixture over the pickles, leaving an inch of room from the top of the jar to the top of mixture. Add lids and tighten enough to where you won't struggle opening them once they are ready. Ball calls this "finger tightened".

 

Got any cucumber recipes? Send them my way! I am sure I will have a lot more to work with!

Have You Missed Me?

The past couple of weeks have been so much fun, but required some driving which can be tiring on my part. We like to visit our friends and family members that are spread out over the Midwest so much that it is something we are used to doing. It makes me feel so great to see people I love and don't get to see a lot!

I have done so many exciting and heart warming trips in the past two weeks that it is too much to put down in a post. I will give you some pictures that sum up my adventures.

Good times = Good memories!!

Root Beer Sherbet

photo via: One Ordinary Day

I haven't used my ice cream maker in a couple of years! So when I found a recipe from One Ordinary Day for Root Beer Sherbet, I had to make it.

 *Plus, it was made by her 7 year old daughter and only uses 3 ingredients!*

These were all the ingredients I used.

My new best friend.

What it looked like after putting in all of the ingredients.

How cute do my boys look waiting for the sherbet to be done?!

All finished!

This was soooo yummy! It tasted just like a root beer float! I thought it could be turned into a more adult dessert by adding some Root Beer Schnapps! Oh Yeah!

Now that I used my ice cream maker again, I am hooked! I cannot wait to make chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream!!

Root Beer Sherbert

2 12-oz. bottles of root beer (opened and left to sit and get a bit flat)
1/2 c. sweetened condensed milk
1 c. whole milk or half-and-half
Stir all ingredients together and allow the foam to settle a little.  Pour into ice cream maker and churn for 25 minutes.  Enjoy!