One of the last balmy days of '06

Yesterday was simply gorgeous, and today looks like it is shaping up to be another just like it. I went for a walk in the woods and around the yard yesterday, gathering bits and pieces of "stuff", like tiny leaves that we'll try the electroform machine on, feathers, pinecones, and berries. And then I was just goofy enough to put it all together and take a picture.

The berries on the plate are big juicy rosehips from the Rosa Rugosa that my brother in law planted this past spring. They really took off, covering an entire hillside behind the "condo" where the pheasants currently reside.
Next year, we will definately make some jelly. We probably had plenty this year, but time was not so plentiful.
The pinecones grow right off the side yard. I'm not sure of the species of conifer... maybe a spruce. The firs growing there don't have cones that you can actually hold in your hand. They fall away into scales in the wind as soon as they are picked. I found a few violets, lots of beautiful leaves and holly berries... the yew out front is covered with the palest of blue berries. The mums and flowering sages are just knocking themselves out. And then there are the Jerusalem Artichokes. Oy.
Those knobby roots are the chokes. They are much simpler to harvest than I had imagined. One scoop with the shovel brings up a lot more than I can possibly serve for one meal. The scale is not very clear in the picture I took to show the quantity of chokes under a single plant, but each of the tubers are a couple inches in diameter. They are pretty tasty, almost like potatoes, except they have a "rooty" flavor that reminds me of ginseng. They contain inulin, which I had read was very good for helping to regulate blood sugar - and since they can be prepared in almost any way that potatoes are used, I thought they would be much better to eat than the regular starches. I'm still reading up on this, so I could be wrong. Still, free food is a good thing, and a health benefit would clearly be a bonus.
This is what they look like all cleaned and ready to cook. I tossed these into the oven for 30 minutes, and they softened, making it very easy to peel them. After that, I sauteed some sweet onions in a little butter and sliced the chokes like home fries, frying them just until they were browned. They took on a wonderful texture with a soft middle and a sort of crunchy-chewy outside... just what you imagine really good home fries would be like.
However. I must warn you that they produce intestinal gas. Lots. So, since I've got them and like them, looks like I'll need to try growing epazote next year and grabbing some Beano for now.

My friend's new shop

Many people who read the magazine or people the yahoo list know Sarah Campbell. She's a longtime friend and she is beginning a very exciting new adventure in downtown Lancaster. Wonderful timing, as Lancaster is experiencing a huge resurgence, and this is sure to be a big part of it. Having been on this particular adventure a while back with my sister, I am so excited for her, and am so tickled to see the glow radiating from her eyes. OH! That's the name of the new adventure - Radiance!
She and her daughter Kara Kriner are opening a great new business here in Lancaster.
For many years, Sarah has worked on learning about herbs. She's taken courses, traveled to workshops and classes, and studied. We've gone on many a weed walk together, field guides in hands, comparing notes. She has a gorgeous labyrinth in the backyard of her home, and uses the herbs that make up the labyrinth to create tinctures, balms, teas, and all sorts of herbal preparations. Over time, her stuff has become very popular through sales on her website and people started showing up at her house looking for her shop.
About this same time, Kara - a massage therapist and trained teacher of kid's yoga - was finding a little more time with her own daughter in school.
They started looking for a space where they could work together.
What they found is a beautiful, large, airy space right across the cobblestoned alley from the Lancaster Central Market. The address is 9 West Grant Street.
They have been hard at work for the better part of a month, and the result is gorgeous. I took some pictures when I stopped in today (and HAD to pick up a couple items!) even though they have only begun to stock the shop. The colors they have chosen for the floors, walls, and surfaces have blended to create something that remind me of what I imagine to be inside of a lush gypsy wagon.
The offerings are diverse and imaginative, fun and ... well, they are the sorts of things that make us feel luxurious without being wasteful. The beautiful African baskets are sturdy enough to use everyday. The bags made from hemp, nettle fiber, and recycled silk are very reasonable and yet seem decadent. Himalayan objects abound, from prayer flags to portable altars to hand puppets and singing bowls. There are all natural handmade soaps, sugar scrubs, and all sorts of pampering products. The incense is divine! The music on sale is world music - something for everyone. And of course there are the tinctures, bulk herbs, teas, ear cones, and on and on and on. This is certain to be one of the coolest shops this town has ever seen!
And yet, that's not all! There is a huge yoga room where Kara will be teaching kids - great for parents to hop across the way for a quick trot through the market ALONE! Note: That's my Molly in the picture with Sarah... There are two treatment rooms for massage, and there will be bellydancing lessons. There is a very large and quite unique eco-feminist lending library. Sarah and Kara are planning to have lots and lots of classes to get the community involved, and I know that my sister and I will be giving some of them too. This is very exciting! I think I may even be putting some hours in at this new place. I can't wait!
Just have to add this last shot. This morning Molly called to ask me to deliver her homework to school. As I got out of the car, I looked up and saw this tree. The leaves have the most unusual patterns, and are striking in their contrast. I'm sure the kids in the bottom level of the school got a chuckle watching me scamper around with the camera snapping shots of the leaves. Perhaps even more amusing would have been when I was fumbling around under the beech tree looking for beechnuts. Ah well, it's a new school for her.... so they don't know we're related - yet.

An Herbie in the News - with recipes!

Our friend Pat was recently interviewed by her local newspaper (my apologies for not getting the name of the paper) in S. Tennessee. Here it is:

Cook: Herbs figure importantly in Pat Stewart's cooking
By Karin Glendenning
Community News Writer
Pat Stewart is a busy woman. With a job as a quality systems manager at William Wrigley Jr. Company as well as growing herbs for Possum Creek Herb Farm and a business, called Down to Earth, where she makes and sells garden-inspired gifts and gourmet treats, she still finds time to cook and experiment with recipes.
She has entered the Hamilton County Fair on three occasions and each time came away with a blue ribbon for her entries: Tomato Juice, Tomato Bread and Parmesan Cornbread.
"Not only do I enjoy cooking, but I enjoy people enjoying my cooking," she said.
Except for baking, when she always follows recipes exactly, she likes to experiment with food. "It's Katie bar the door for me. It's always a pinch of this or a pinch of that," she said.
"I come from a family of cookers. I grew up where the family revolved around the hominess of the kitchen and breaking bread together. Lots of my recipes are ones I got from my mother and grandmother," she said.
"When I cooked Thanksgiving dinner the first year after my mother died, my dad said "If I'd closed my eyes, I would have thought Eileen (her mother) cooked it." That was the greatest compliment I've ever received. I thought I had arrived," she said.
Mrs. Stewart said she makes everything from scratch and likes making recipes her own. The Parmesan Cornbread is a good example of this. When she wanted to enter the fair, her husband suggested she enter her cornbread, so she went out to her backyard herb garden and gathered several varieties and came up with the prize-winning recipe.
Mrs. Stewart was born in Hixson, but her mother came here from New York, so she said her cooking reflects both Southern influences and Yankee ones. When it comes to Thanksgiving dressing, she said she always prepares her mother's recipe that uses regular bread instead of cornbread, but she has tweaked it so she uses half white bread and half whole-grain bread.
She said her specialties are her cheesecake, which she calls "the widow-maker," and her bread dressing. "I'm a purist when it comes to cheesecake. Mine is very dense and not fluffy. It's my mother's recipe," she said.
Mrs. Stewart partners with Michele Brown to grow herbs that they sell at Possum Creek Herb Farm in Soddy-Daisy. In two greenhouses she raises a huge variety of savory plants, including pineapple sage, Greek and Roman oregano, rosemary, salad burnet, lovage, sage, dill, cinnamon basil, Genovese basil, anise hyssop, chives, chamomile, chocolate mint, fennel and a selection of medicinal herbs. She also grows scented geraniums, and this year harvested a crop of garlic in her vegetable garden along with heirloom tomatoes, green beans, okra, cucumbers and squashes.
Several of the recipes she shares with readers today make use of many of the herbs she has learned to use to make her food interesting and tasty.

HERBED CHICKEN BREASTS
(Once Michele Brown of Possum Creek Herb Farm introduced me to the world of fresh herbs, I was hooked," said Mrs. Stewart. "I use Herbs de Provence, which is a combination of rosemary, thyme, savory, fennel seed, basil, lavender and marjoram. This is a great combination for any poultry or pork chops or loin." She said this recipe works best on a gas grill with indirect heat, or it may also be cooked in a 350 oven.)
Chicken breasts
Herbs de ProvenceExtra virgin olive oil
Preheat grill or oven. Rinse and dry boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Lightly coat chicken breasts on both sides with olive oil. Coat the tops of each breast with Herbs de Provence. Cook chicken breasts until done, without turning. The herb crust can be eaten with the chicken or scraped off. (The flavor will still remain.)

IRISH STEW DUMPLINGS
("As a child, I remember my grandmother and mother making these dumplings every time we had beef stew. I always thought they looked like clouds," said Mrs. Stewart.)
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon shortening
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
Sift dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening. Add enough milk to make a drop batter. Drop by spoonfuls on the top of simmering stew and cover. Cook, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Don't peek!

PARMESAN HERB CORNBREAD
(Mrs. Stewart came up with recipe when she decided to enter the 2005 Hamilton County Fair and won a blue ribbon for it.)
2 cups self-rising corn meal mix
1 egg, beaten
1/8 cup oil
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh sage
1/8 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 450. Mix ingredients together. Pour into a preheated 9-inch cast iron skillet or greased 9-inch square pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle some extra Parmesan on top as soon as cornbread comes out of the oven.

BLACK BEAN SOUP
1 1/2 cups dry black beans
1 1/2 quarts chicken broth
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Clean and rinse beans. Put beans, stock and oil in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer beans approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 medium potato, peeled and grated
3 tablespoons chopped green pepper
1/4 pound chopped or shredded ham (not a sweet, honey variety)
2 teaspoons fresh or 1 teaspoon dry oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 minced garlic clove
3 tablespoons parsley
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Juice of 1 lemon
Sauté onion in olive oil until tender, then add shredded carrot and potato. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
At the 1 1/2 hour mark, add vegetables, ham and seasonings to beans. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for the remainder of the bean cooking time. The beans and vegetables should be tender.
Add lemon juice and stir.
Optional additions of any combination of chopped green onions, rice, sour cream or Louisiana Hot Sauce add spice and variety to the servings.

CRUNCHY TUNA SALAD
("This is a kind of 'make it your own' tuna salad. There ends up being less tuna in it than anything else," Mrs. Stewart said. "My husband told me years ago that he didn't like tuna salad. I love it, so I set out to find a way to get him to like it. This was the result. This makes enough for a crowd. You can play with the recipe and reduce it or just come up with a combination of your own," she added.)
4 to 5 cans light or white tuna in water, drained and flaked
Chopped Kosher dill pickles
Chopped red onion
Chopped celery
Chopped red and/or green bell pepper
Shredded carrot
Mayonnaise to taste or enough to hold mixture together
Combine ingredients, using amount and type of vegetables to suit personal taste. Serve with savory bread or chips.

Demotivators

A couple of years ago one of my brothers gave me a calendar filled with "demotivators". They are twisted, a little dark and very, very funny.
I'm in that kind of mood today and thought maybe it might be fun to share that site. To see the many posters that parody the slick, goofy posters that cover the walls of corporate America's factories and cubicles, click on "Spin".

Nov/Dec teaser

Table of Contents

Field Notes from the Editor
Five years!!! What now?

Scented Pine Cones, Maggie Howe
Crafting with Pine Cones

Holiday Spice & Everything Nice, Rosanne Tartaro
Warming Scents for the Holidays

Never Enough Thyme, Susanna Reppert
The Cranberry - it’s All-American! Recipes and Crafts

Product Reviews
Wonderful new products and books

Kids Corner, Karen Hegre
Celebrating the Holidays - Crafts for Kids

Suburban Herbie , Geri Burgert
“Revolution!” Surviving the winter

Truly Essential Oil of Lavender, Lyn Belisle

The Herbs of Christmas, Maureen Rogers
Frankincense & Myrrh, Mistletoe,
Rosemary, Holly and more!

Down on the Farm, Michele Brown
Working the farmers market - and a little about apples

List Article “Hostess Gifts”
20 different ideas - most with recipes and instructions. All of them fun, beautiful and inexpensive.

Juniper Berries, Mary Ellen Wilcox
Information and recipes to get to know these beauties

Savory Starts “Appetizers”, Susan Evans
Delicious treats to enjoy at home or take along

Surviving a Hangover, Karen Mallinger
A little information on exactly why you feel so bad and how to avoid that horrible feeling.

views from Amish Farm and House

There were so many interesting things to see while we were set up doing demos at The Amish Farm and House. Maryanne's blog (my sis) has more pictures of different things, by the way. In the tobacco shed, they show the tobacco hanging to dry. That used to be a very big crop in Lancaster County, but now we grow more corn, grains, and soybeans. The tobacco grown here was mostly used as the outer wrapping of cigars. I was happy to see this little guy crossing my path. A wooley bear caterpillar with NO black bands. Whoopie! That would mean a pretty mild winter. I've seen a few with very small black bands on either ends, but not when my camera was handy. I'm still on the hunt. Stay tuned.
This pair of pea fowl allowed me to take a picture, and I found a few small feathers around. They shimmer in the light like gemstones. We have some pea fowl living nearby. I've never seen them, but they sure make a racket. This pair was fairly quiet.
This pie wagon was directly across the path from us. The buggy was fitted with shelving to hold pies, cookies, breads, and jellies on three sides. We didn't stand a chance.
At exactly 10:45 all the bells in the county rang in memory of the Amish girls slain one week ago. There was a bell on the building directly behind me, and I found myself looking directly into the eyes of a young Amish woman when the bell rang out it's first chime.
This is a yew "bush". There are three just like it, and this "bush" must be several hundred years old. A woman visiting the farm was blown away by its size. She told us that she was a botanist, and that she'd never seen anything like it. Yews of this variety generally grown to about 6 feet under the best conditions. These were 30 to 40 feet high and spread even wider.
I have never really looked at a female ginkgo tree in fruit before. This one was lovely, and had not yet developed the scent that generally makes people avoid it. The flora growing on the farm was really stunning.
There was also a Chinese Chestnut tree growing. The quilter told me that in years past, the bounty found beneath the tree was much larger, but one tree had been cut down and this tree needed to self-pollinate, resulting in smaller nuts, and fewer of them. I had forgotten how prickly the burs of the chestnut are. They are like tiny needles, and it is nearly impossible to pick them up without stabbing yourself. Several of us compared methods we used in our childhood to get the nuts out of the burs. I particularly enjoyed one story of using the feet (shoes), and how important it was NOT to wear canvas sneakers while doing it.
One crafter had a beautiful display of dried ornamental plants and wreaths, along with wonderful potpourris and spices.
These Chinese lanterns are so pretty. When I was a kid, one of my great aunts always grew them along with "silver dollars" (Lunaria) and would put them into a large vase together. They seemed like the most extravagant thing to me at the time. Pure magic.
There were so many beautiful things to look at. I really enjoyed our days at this show. Autumn is arriving and painting everything in new colors. The air is brisk and clean.
Back to work on getting all the addresses up to date and the mailing labels printed up so that as soon as we get The Essential Herbal from the printer we can get them into the mail. Did I mention how wonderful this next issue is?

October has wings

So far, this month has been a mere blink of the eye.
It started with the deadline for the magazine on the first, and hasn't slowed since. At one point, we spent a day polishing the magazine *while* making 6 batches of soap.
I can't wait to post the cover and table of contents for the holiday issue of The Essential Herbal, because this issue is really terrific. So many recipes, crafts, and gift ideas... well, you'll see.

I'll post more pictures of this later, but yesterday and today we are taking part in Harvest Days at The Amish Farm and House on Route 30. Our job is to do soap demonstrations. We took along the fall additions to Lancaster County Soapwork's line (my sister's soap company) to sell, and my books and magazines. We were only going to do yesterday, but the people there are so nice and so easy to work with that when they asked if we could come back for the morning today, we quickly agreed. Besides, we got 3 batches of soap made yesterday! Full size, too. That's Maryanne standing in our tent getting ready to start a batch. We wanted to have a batch ready to show when the buses started arriving. She's talking to (another) Tina who does spinning. Tina sat next to us, and when she saw the gourds on the current cover asked if we knew where she could get a snake gourd. HAH! Do we ever! Her husband wants to make a Didgeridoo - may not have spelled that correctly - out of a snake gourd, so we'll take her one today.
The crafters at this celebration of the harvest are pretty amazing people. The quilter told us that she and the spinner both participate in another sort of festival that I have to keep under wraps at the moment - but if we do it, I'll be shouting from the rooftops. I'll keep you posted.
There will be more pictures tonight. Lots of great plants growing out there!

Sad day in Lancaster County, PA

The news is full of the story.... A 32 year old man with a 20 year old grudge walks into an Amish one-room schoolhouse with guns and sends the boys and adults away. He binds the feet of the little girls, faces them toward the chalkboard, and executes them. Then he kills himself.
There are more details, but they don't matter. He had three small children himself, two of them girls. What the hell happened here?
I've lived here all my life. The Amish are part of my home and part of my heritage. These children weren't even born when whatever happened to him happened. They had no telephone, no electricity, and no security. It was like shooting fish in a barrel... or clubbing baby seals. They were babies, defenseless and innocent.
Just last week we were driving down in the country and passed a schoolhouse where the children were outside playing a game of baseball during recess or maybe lunch. My sister remarked about the tiny little girl holding the bat. We laughed and both silently thought about childhood and the pure pleasure of being a kid, playing a game, being with your friends. All of the schools look pretty much alike, and most of them are now surrounded by chain-link fences to keep out the tourists. They are posted "no trespassing" because of the tourists. I'm sure that they never, ever thought such a thing as this could happen. Nobody in this town ever thought such a thing could happen.
This has shaken our community - plain and fancy alike. Aside from a few issues with road usage, the Amish just exist peacefully alongside of the rest of us. They don't judge, they don't witness, and they don't care what anyone else does. They just want to lead their lives as they see fit. To have something like this happen feels very personal. It is heartbreaking.
And the thing that I keep thinking today is that the Amish will already have forgiven this man by the time I finish writing about it. They believe that only God has the right to judge or take revenge, and that they must find a way to love and forgive. They will, too.

vinegars and hot pepper jelly

Getting ready to put out the next issue means actually testing out some of the items to go into the magazine. 

There are probably 100 crafts, recipes, and ideas to use for the holidays in this issue.  We can't do them all, but we attempt a good many. 

Two of them are herbal vinegars and hot pepper jelly. I've eaten hot pepper jelly before and really do love it with cream cheese on crackers. Considering that the garden is spewing hot peppers faster than I can string them onto ristras, it seemed like there needed to be other things done with them. 

We made a dozen jars of the jelly, and had another larger jar that we'll probably serve this coming Friday night at the weekly family dinner. The Pink vinegar is a lovely opal basil vinegar with a touch of garlic and thyme. It came out beautifully, and I might need to make some more. 

The other is "Red Hot Rosemary" vinegar, suggested by Mary Ellen Wilcox. Not finished yet is "Scarborough Faire", with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. It is steeping now, and in a few days I'll bottle it and add the herb garnish. 

Here's a delicious recipe using Hot Pepper Vinegar: Garlic Chicken
2 lbs. Boneless chicken breasts
½ c hot pepper vinegar
2 T vegetable oil
2 T honey
15 (yes…15) cloves of garlic, peeled and split
1 oz. soy sauce
Wash chicken and cut in half.
Brown in vegetable oil in a heavy skillet.
Add garlic and cook a little longer, until browned.
Add remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat until chicken is done and glazed with sauce. Turn chicken several times while cooking.Delicious!
All this fun in the kitchen isn't enough to keep us from our regular chores. The still has been in regular use because frosty weather is breathing down my neck, threatening to destroy all the botanicals that need to be distilled, and Maryanne's soap business is in high gear with all of her wholesale customers starting to place orders for the holiday season. Even so, around about Saturday, I'll be seriously focused on finalizing the magazine. It is going to be the best holiday issue ever... and it will also finish up 5 whole years!

Fall-ing!

The Fall is upon us, and there is so much more to do than I remember from years past. Lately I've been helping Maryanne catch up with her soap business. It has been growing by leaps and bounds (most likely because it is such wonderful stuff), and we went from making 2 batches a day to 4, and now 6. We work so smoothly together, and have this great work-shop to do it in that it goes very well. The picture of the workshop shows the yellow delicious apple tree that is begging me to find time to make applesauce and apple butter. There is the gourd trellis where the gourds are drying, and you can make out part of the garden.
Of course there is the still that calls me constantly too. On an evening walk, we gathered enough plantain to try tomorrow. There are all the sages, the basils, the mint, and the evergreens. Next year there will be many more things to try.
Right now I'm also making vinegars - mostly hot pepper and opal basil. The peppers also need to be made into jelly. If it seems like I'm complaining, that is not the case. I'm THRILLED! A little scared too - lol. The next magazine deadline is this coming Saturday, and it is the holiday issue AND the issue where we do lots of product/book reviews. There are a lot of little things I need to do beforehand. All fun.

Another thing we discovered during a walk the other day was this Rusty Black Haw tree. The berries have a large pit, turn black, and the one I tasted reminded me of dried plum. Not bad, a little bland, but it is always interesting to find new edible plants somewhere that you've been walking past for years and not noticing. There are so many wonderful edible plants around here. With the recent scare caused by E. Coli bacteria in cultivated spinach, I'm pleased to have and know so many wild greens. I'm thinking about sewing some spinach right quick since it might be the right weather for it now.

Lastly, while making deliveries the other day, we saw this little display outside a roadside stand. Those corn wreaths were eye catching and colorful, and the pumpkins and gourds were a sure sign that summer is officially over.

So that night I pulled the watermelon and squash vines. Just waiting for the beans to finish drying. Soon, very soon, I'll be planning next year's garden - and it is going to be a doozy!

Wooly Bears and the Weather

The Wooly Bear Caterpillars are out in force, marching from one field to the next. The first place they usually catch my eye is crossing country roads. This year I've also been seeing lots of them in my yard and garden.
Here's the thing... there isn't a bit of black banding. That would mean an extremely mild winter. In a day or so, I'll take the camera out on a wooly bear safari and see if I can capture the likenesses of a bunch of them so we can compare.

Meet my friend Laura Daniel (remember that name)

Back in the days of the Renaissance Faire, my sister and I became good friends with Laura. She moved to New York, and for years we've stayed in daily contact - thanks to the computer. I've been vicariously riding the rollercoaster of auditions, headshots, gigs, and classes right along with her.
Her most recent part is that of the Singing Nun in "The Tragic and Horrible Life of The Singing Nun".
The play is a short run, ending next Friday, but the reviews have been great. I'm hoping this one goes to Broadway, and takes Laura along.
Anyhow... I'm pretty proud of my friend. She has never, ever stopped following her dream. The day will soon arrive that she will be called an overnight success. She should have been.
Back to our regularly scheduled herb stuff :-).

Colonial Day in East Berlin

This past Saturday we spent as vendors at Colonial Day in East Berlin.
As always, vending at a show is interesting.
To begin with, we needed to be costumed. Knowing about this show since May, you'd really think that we could have had that all worked out by now, but no. We procrastinated until last week. We decided to try the costume shop at Millersville University - where they have 11,000 costumes. We went to check it out. Well... the admissions office didn't seem to know it existed until we googled it on their computer. We had to ring a doorbell to enter the building (??? at a college ???), and then the 7 or 8 people working there were WAY too busy talking to offer us any assistance. We left - but not before Molly got to try on some of the hats. She really wanted a hoop skirt. Costumes rent for about $50/week, for those who don't mind wading through thousands of costumes on racks that are out of order - without any help, of course. If I seem a tad miffed, it is because I am.
We just got out some old ren faire stuff, made a couple of aprons, and pulled it off.
The morning of the show, we woke (at 4) to some very thick fog. In fact, a few miles out we missed a turn, but realized it quickly. The trip there was a little frightening, and daybreak didn't change it much. The fog hung around until at least 9.
Although we got there a full hour before the start of the show, the streets were already filled with shoppers. That was a little weird.
We got ourselves set up, and met our neighbors - a wood-carver, and a lady that painted pots. Both very nice, btw.
The first half of the day, sales were decent and we were approached by several other festival organizers and some wholesale acct. possibilities.
By noon, the crowd started to dwindle, and it got pretty dull.
We had forgotten to bring anything to sit on, and somehow I managed to fall on some loose stones behind the booth. Every joint in my body started to stiffen up painfully, but eventually one of the organizers found us a couple of chairs (bless her!).
This festival is juried. In the last few years, the whole town has understandably started to join in the effort. But that means that there is no real meaning to the juried portion of the show. Right outside of the bounds of the juried section, a man sat on his porch selling GREEN gourds that he'd cut holes in for birdhouses. Those will be rotten in a week! There were yardsales and white tents throughout the whole town. It diluted the festival for us.
Besides that, I've got a theory about arts and crafts festivals in our area... 30 years ago, there was ONE really great show held at F&M college each spring. It was wonderful, with real art, and fabulously unique crafts. I used to take off work to attend it. Since then, there have gotten to be so many of these things - most include MLM companies like Avon and Home Interiors, etc., that on any given weekend, one could find about 20 shows. Instead of paying a few bucks to set up, it now costs in the hundreds - but the return is much less. Maybe its time to do something different.

Blending Teas

My friend Rachel at SBSTEAS.com is having a contest, and it involves a blog entry about her business. She wrote the following article for the September/October '05 issue of The Essential Herbal, so.... I'm IN!!! Here is a link to her blog if you'd like to join in.

How I Blend Teas by Rachel Johnston of SBSTeas.com

Originally when my first tea blends came into creation, I was wild about making teas that were not only tasty but provide a healthy beverage for people. So many times, herbal concoctions for health and wellness just tasted bland and brittle to my palate. Today, I am still very passionate about this aspect of blending, but have expanded my repertoire. When you visit Scentbyspirit.com, you will find an expansive selection of green, white and black tea varieties as well as herbals (often referred to as tisanes). My process for blending teas and scents is quite simple for the most part. Once a week and sometimes daily, I sit down and do a meditation to get different ideas. This way my mind is clear and focused and I am "in the now" of what I am doing. Fabulous ideas come to me in my sleep as well. After meditation, I sit down with all of the herbs and teas in my studio and begin choosing them on instinct. I rarely pair tastes together on purpose, but rather let Spirit guide me to the perfect combination. I have coined a term in my classes for this type of blending. I call it "blind blending" where I simply close my eyes and choose at will. This is one of the primary ways tea is blended here at Scentbyspirit.com. As the teas and herbs are added, I smell each one and give thanks to the plant for being part of the blend. I also inhale the scent of each ingredient very deeply to get a sense of the essence or personality of each botanical. My sense of this part of the process is what one might call dry aromatherapy. Different herbs will evoke powerful feelings and memories and propel me towards the next ingredient to be added. When the blend is complete, I take a moment to give thanks to Spirit for guiding me. Then the blend is mixed thoroughly and I record my notes, thoughts and recipe in my tea blending book. We then begin taste testing which is my son’s favorite part! My son is also learning to blend teas and scents. At the ripe age of 13, he is proving to be quite a creative genius in the process. He lends his own unique style and insight and is a perfect addition to our growing company. We also make custom blends and scents as well. There are many wonderful companies that provide teas in the world. We like to think we do things differently through our creative process. This process and our commitment to outstanding customer service is what makes Scentbyspirit.com stand apart. Choosing tea and scent are both deeply personal choices for people. We recognize this and are always here to answer questions and to offer assistance anytime. We know that our clients have a choice where they purchase products and we value them for choosing us as a source for fulfilling their needs

First Distillation with the New Still

Several months ago, the Yahoo list for the magazine started talking about distillation. Tamara Hartley-Hunt helped put together a buy on stills from her friends at Heart Magic. Maggie from Prairieland Herbs has talked about how much she enjoys it for quite some time, and I've been interested ever since I read about using a pan, a brick, a bowl, and an inverted lid filled with ice. But I digress... I decided to spring for this still, and it has been sitting in the box through the move. This morning, Maggie gave me a kick in the pants and I got started. This is sure to become my latest obsession.
After figuring out the instructions for putting the thing together, the rest is fun and exciting.... well, once I got the hoses on the condenser to stop popping off and shooting water all over the kitchen.
In the shot above, the still is set to go, and in this picture it is actually turned on. The water is clear in the bottom chamber. Nothing has started to drip into the collection flask yet. What you can't see is the wet towel used to sop up the water that got all over the counter, nor can you hear my panicky phone call to my sister asking for a hand. However by the time she got here, all was under control.
Here you can see that the water is starting to boil. The condenser (the long thin tube above the green clamp) is starting to have tiny bits of steam adhere to the inside and cool from the water running inside the walls of the tube. It is something like a donut, with cool water pumped through the "donut" part. The steam comes through the "hole" part. This still came with the hot plate, and that has a heat shield on the back, where the collection takes place so that the oil and hydrosol are not exposed to the direct heat.
Now the boiling water is starting to darken. If you look at the flask under the drip spout, you'll notice that it is starting to collect some hydrosol. Inside the spout, there is a chamber where the essential oil collects. Eventually, the water turns very dark. I kept adding ice cubes to the water in the pail. Inside the pail is the pump that circulates cool water in the condenser. I was surprised how quickly the water in the pail became warm.
We filled four 2 oz. spray bottles with the hydrosol and still have a full 8 ounces in the collection bowl. It was a little surprising how much hydrosol there was. As far as the essential oil, there were probably about 30-50 drops. Maryanne put it on her arm to test it, but I (of course) tasted it. It tastes slightly different from other peppermint essential oils I've tasted. Greener and VERY nice. It all smells delightful.

The spent plant material. It probably could have cooked longer, but we decided to turn it off because we had some errands that needed to be run. I emptied them after returning to the cooled still, and was very glad that I'd followed the instructions that suggested cutting the pieces to about 1" for ease of removal.
Clean up was pretty much of a breeze. Some bottle brushes might be in my future, though.


The very next thing I did was head out to pick the Holy Basil for tonight's adventure. I've been babying that stuff all summer to keep it from flowering. Pinch, pinch, pinch. See my green thumb? Ok, well maybe it's more like brown, but that's because of the purple stems of the Holy Basil.

Sept/Oct issue is out!

The newest issue of The Essential Herbal is in the mail and should be reaching subscribers and shops right about now. We had fun putting this one together, and used the arbor of gourds that I've talked about in past posts for the cover. All of our regular writers were here, in addition to some wonderful articles from guest writers. Even Molly got an article together, talking about what it was like to grow up with an herbie for a mom.
We had to increase the size of the magazine by 4 pages this time because of all the wonderful information. 32 pages is our goal, but this time we just had to go to 36.
Below, you'll find the table of contents...

Table of Contents

~Harvest Crossword PuzzleField Notes from the Editor
~Suburban Herbie—Roots and Runners by Geri Burgert Finding depth and friends in herbs.
~Never Enough Thyme by Susanna Reppert Help With Kelp
~Fried Dandelion Flowers from Roni Palmer
~Kids Korner with Karen Lee Hegre
~The Olive Tree by Gail Faith Edwards
~Favorite Recipes Sarah Liberta Overstuffed Artichokes and Savory Herb Bread Pudding
~Horehound Lozenges, Karen Lee Hegre
~Intl. Herb Conference Report by Karen Creel Lots of news and recipes from the conference
~Making a Fresh Herbal Wreath by Mary Ellen Wilcox
~Down on the Farm– by Michele Brown Round Two and Beyond
~Gorgeous Gourds by Tina Sams How to craft with gourds
~List Article—compilation Trying New Things
~The Herbal Pantry by Susan Evans
~Marshmallow by Maureen Rogers Everything you ever wanted to know and more about this plant.
~Making Mead by Connie Nordhus Homemade Inebriants
~Growing Up Herbie by Molly Sams Reflections on growing up with an herbie mom

wandering through the day

This morning started with a fairly unpleasant visit to the auto mechanic's. On the way home I remembered that I'd brought along a camera to take pictures of the pumpkin field - and from then on, the day went more smoothly.
Every year the fields of pumpkins astound me. They are hardly even noticeable until suddenly the bright orange orbs show up from under the leaves (much like my watermelons are currently doing) and although I haven't really captured it here, it is an amazing site that seems to make me believe in Cinderella... or return briefly to childhood... or "something". It feels fanciful to see them. Exciting.
The weather is not doing them any favors this year, as it is incredibly dry. The leaves are wilted, showing the pumpkins earlier than usual. Normally, they would remain hidden for a few more weeks, and then magically appear, round and enormous.


After arriving back home and taking care of a little business, it was time to trek on down the path to my sister's to can tomatoes. Along the way, I stopped at the little water lily pond to see what was blooming today. Two different colors! I love how leathery the leaves look next to the delicate flowers.

Next stop: cannery row. All the ripe tomatoes had been gathered, and it was time to peel, trim, and cook them for canning. We started with 1 and 1/2 5-gallon buckets full, and ended with 9 quarts of delicious, beautiful tomatoes. We mix together the red and yellow tomatoes, and they look pretty together. Our family has an old "comfort food" recipe which is simply canned tomatoes with sliced hard-boiled eggs mixed in. It doesn't sound all that special, but it is really good. I know that sometime in the coming winter, I'll be cooking up some eggs and SO glad to have the tomatoes.
After cleaning up a little bit, I went outside to see if there were any new kinds of butterflies out on the bushes. This little brown guy was feasting. All the shades of tawny, tans, and brown make up a beautiful muted pattern that is made even more attractive by the sheen that the sun added.


Then, much later, after a round of bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, we went outside to find a whole colony of sphinx moths. Several of them were on the 4 o'clocks. The one I took a picture of was drinking from a cleome. These things scare me. They are twice the size of a hummingbird that was sharing the clump of 4 o'clocks with them yesterday. Not only that, but they occasionally zoom right at you - as if to scare you off. It works! A couple of flashes from the camera really gets them perturbed.

There is always something going on around here. Today Bob decided to let the chickens out for a little play time. They are fairly new, and the plan is for them to be free-range. Well, they left for the day and we have no idea where they went. Bob worried about them (after that nasty turkey incident with the neighbors) and went looking a few times during the day. In fact I knew when he stuck his head out the back door and crowed trying to lure them back, I was sure that image would never leave my mind. Just before dusk, they started to straggle in. First the rooster, then 3 of the girls. "Comby" and "Stubby" were the last of the girls to finally come home. Bob says they are grounded for a week. That'll teach 'em.

The World’s Costliest Spice – Saffron

From the Sept/Oct '05 issue of The Essential Herbal Magazine, submitted by Susanna Reppert of The Rosemary House

The World’s Costliest Spice – Saffron

2016 harvest from 50 bulbs - about a tablespoon of saffron.

Almost all cultures have included Saffron in their cuisine. From the ancient Phoenicians to the Pennsylvania Dutch, saffron has always been the most costly and desirable of the seasonings. Spanish paella or arroz con pollo, the fisherman’s bouillabaisse, Swedish saffron buns, Indian curries, African couscous, Italian rissoto, chicken potpie and gravies, fish sauces and coloring for butter and cheeses are just a few of its uses in international cookery.

Commercially cultivated in Span, saffron can be grown in all temperate climates. It is a fall blooming crocus (Crocus sativus) which is planted now to bloom next fall. The harvest is the little orange stigmas, three per flower, which accounts for its costliness. More than 200,000 stigmas , make a pound of saffron , all laboriously picked by hand.

Once the herb of only wealthy, thrifty Pennsylvania Dutch insure their supply of this distinctive seasoning by growing their own. Saffron is easily grown in any sunny well drained garden where it enjoys an occasional feeding of bonemeal and compost and soon forms a colony of little productive bulbs.

These beauties come from The Rosemary House (see website above).

Plant the corms two inches apart and three to five inches deep in average well drained soil but – a word to the wise – mark the spot!

You can sort of make out 6 horizontal rows of the crocuses waking up in fall.

The bulbs are dormant most of the time and vulnerable to over planting or inadvertent weeding.

Here it comes...

When the small lavender crocus like flowers appear (they open only in sun) harvest the orange stigmas, air dry them on a sheet of white paper and then store your precious saffron in a tightly lidded dark glass bottle.

The harvest from one morning.  The saffron harvest continues for about 2 weeks.

Used in Biblical times as seasoning, medicine and dye, in ancient Rome, Greece and the Orient Saffron was also a perfume. Aromatic, hot and pungent to the taste, today it colors cakes, and confections golden yellow or adds distinctive flavor to exotic dishes. The Arabs believed that saffron kept in the house would drive away dreaded lizards. In the middle ages, adulterers of saffron where beheaded for their crime. It has been written that Henry VIII so craved saffron that he forebade the ladies of his court to use the rare spice to dye their golden hair. The Song of Solomon provides a lyrical reference”…an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits: camphour, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes. With all the chief spices: … Awake, O north wind: and come, thou South: blow upon my garden , that the spices thereof may flow out.”

Bloom that has been been harvested.