Earlier this year when I had the MO roundup, I wanted to make something really neat for the cooks to take home with them. Gifts from the garden, so to speak, but what to make? The year before the cook's gift was a potted herb in a one of a kind pot. I had envisioned full lush pots of happy herbs just waiting to be used. Not quite an epic fail but not what I expected either so I decided to look at other herbal gift ideas. Flavored sugar and salt seemed doable. Two simple ingredients with some herbs thrown in. What could be easier? I just needed cute jars and a recipe, which I was sure I could find on the Internet. Turns out everyone has their own idea of "how to" and "how much" when flavoring salt or sugar. After much reading, I decided to go with the food processor for incorporation and winging it with the herb amounts. I knew exactly what I wanted my end result to be so how much trouble could it be
or sugar. After much reading, I decided to go with the food processor for incorporation and winging it with the herb amounts. I knew exactly what I wanted my end result to be so how much trouble could it be.
With the salt, it was just a matter of adjusting the herb amounts. I wanted a nice strong flavored salt that would add that burst of garlic and oregano to bread sticks or pasta or anything else for that matter.
The sugar I made a small miscalculation in the drying procedure resulting in one large piece of minty rock candy the first time. Well, the salt pretty much dried on its own so why wouldn't the sugar. Alton Brown could tell you the molecular "whys" but I'm going to share with you the "what I did's" so you can make these simple recipes to use for yourself or for gifts. Plus, I have 2 extras to share, both of which I find rather exciting. Ok, so exciting might be a little strong but one I found very useful and the other, well, just plain interesting from an herb grower's point of view.
Let's start with the sugar since I forgot to get pictures of the salt for some reason. It is the same process for both.
Minted Sugar
Wash and dry 4 cups of fresh mint leaves. I left the stems if they weren't too tough. Use your salad spinner to get the mint dry. In a food processor, add all the mint. Add 1 cup of sugar and pulse in the food processor. Add 3 more cups of sugar, one cup at a time pulsing in between each addition
Here is where I went wrong the first time. I put my wet sugar on my solid trays in the dehydrator just as I did the salt expecting the same result. A nice granulated substance that made the garage smell
like a pizzeria. Not that I expected the sugar to have the pizzeria smell, just for it to return to its small granulated form. That will only happen if you do this to dry your sugar.
1. Turn your oven on to 200 degrees F.
2. Line cookie sheets with foil for easy of handling when finished drying. I did enough sugar at once that I needed two cookie sheets.
3. Place both trays in oven and watch carefully. Take out one tray after 5 minutes and stir with a fork. Return to oven and immediately repeat with second tray. When the #2 tray goes back in take out #1 and repeat. This takes several minutes but you want that sugar dry. Trust me.
If you are wondering why I used so much mint when other cooks recommend a sprig or two tossed in with several cups of sugar and allowed to dry over a period of time. Because I wanted to make these.
Touch of the Tropics Tea cookie
http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63416445/touch-of-the-tropics-tea-cookie/detail.aspx
I wanted to make up a new cookie recipe showcasing the mint sugar to share with my cooks for our dessert. I figured a sprig of mint wouldn't cut it if I wanted any kind of mint flavor in my new cookie recipe. Yes, I know mint extract can be overwhelming when used in excess but the herbed sugar isn't. Besides, I wanted to be able to see the flecks of mint in the cookie and I thought it was cool that
the sugar turned such a lovely shade of green naturally!
My DH likes takeout garlic bread sticks. He has never quite come out and said it but the implication has always been there that my homemade bread sticks are a pale comparison. Not anymore! Using a blend of my oreganos (I have 5 varieties), chives, garlic and garlic chives I made a herbed finishing salt that I use for more than garlicky bread sticks.
Garlic Oregano Salt
These measurements are not precise but I think everyone can use their own judgment where their taste buds are concerned.
2 cups rough chopped fresh chives & garlic chives
3 minced cloves of garlic
3 cups rough chopped fresh oregano, your favorite flavor. I just happen to like a blend of mine.
Pulse the herbs and 1 cup of kosher salt in food processor until blended well. In a bowl, add 4 more cups of kosher salt and your herbed salt. Either use your oven at 200 degree F to dry your salt or your dehydrator if you have solid trays. The salt doesn't have to be stirred, as it does not turn into one solid rock hard lump.
I have used this salt in and on everything. I really like the salty burst of herbed flavor it can bring to my plate. Salty foods are one of my favorite things: however, we all know we should watch our salt
consumption. Since I try to not use much salt while cooking, I find that at the finish a small pinch of this salt really perks up whatever I'm eating. Be it pasta or a baked potato. And my garlic bread sticks finally have won over the DH.
I'm pretty sure this salt gives my infamous cheese crackers and extra boost too. Just ask the ladies that have tried them. I don't like store bought cheezits now that I have perfected this recipe. And no, I haven't updated the one that is in my recipe box yet. It is on the list of things to do.
Onto the new and exciting stuff I have just learned about. Recently there was a discussion on Facebook about washing your face with olive oil. Hmm, I seemed to remember my cousin saying something about that several years ago. What really caught my attention was a comment in this
discussion about using an olive oil sugar scrub and how this friend really liked it. Well, I have seen
sugar scrubs before and didn't think much about them but since my friend liked it I thought I should check it out. So I looked at different websites and the links for the olive oil wash. Found a recipe for the scrub and thought, hey, why not? Then I thought why just use plain sugar? Why not use my minted sugar while I was at the experiment. I knew peppermint worked for your stomach and in aromatherapy for headaches so I looked at skin care uses. It's reported that spearmint is healing in the bath and when decocted strongly heals chapped hands. Applemint and lemon balm are soothing and cleansing in a facial steam. All right then, got them all covered my minted sugar has applemint, lemon balm, spearmint and peppermint in it. I used this recipe-
http://michellephan.com/blog/post/diy-sugar-and-olive-oil-scrub
The smell of mint when I mixed this together was nice. Mint being one of the few things my nose will pick up. I was rather afraid of smelling too minty so I used this one day when I wasn't going anywhere, just in case. Yes, it is a little messy to use but in the nice warm bathroom that mint smell
was so soothing and I wondered if headache sufferers might not benefit from this scrub. *A word of caution, if you do try this recipe watch it in the shower, the olive oil can make your floor a little slippery!*
I was shocked at the results after using the scrub and showering as usual. My skin has become so dry this winter that I have been using what amounts to axle grease to alleviate itchy and dry as the Sahara skin. Minute I am out of the shower that nasty stuff would have to go on and then the 20 minute wait
for it to absorb. Yuck and I would still have dry patches! After using the scrub, I was not itchy and I could use my lightweight summer moisturizer. I have been using this about 3 times a week for 2 weeks now and I am happy to report this is so working for me! I've also been experimenting with washing with olive oil too. Again, a note of caution because not everything you read on the Internet is true, shocking I know. You can always do your own research and I certainly encourage that, but I'm sold on doing this because along the way I read about honey and sugar's benefits to the skin. Both are humectants meaning they bring moisture to the skin. Honey has claims as an anti-oxidant and sugar is said to contain alpha hydroxy acid. Sugar is supposed to be a milder gentler exfoliant too. And just think you can add whatever herb or essential oil to your own homemade scrubs that might benefit your skin to its fullest or your nose.
Now for my 2nd exciting discovery! I know I should maybe get out more. Follow me along on this quest and see if you don't find this just a little interesting.
The dear lady that came and helped in the garden recently (you met her on the WWOOF blog) brought along and herb for my collection. She called it broadleaf spearmint. Ok, it smelled like mint
BUT it was growing wrong and its taste had bitter after notes unlike any of my mints. I was pretty sure it wasn't a mint. But what was it? I questioned her as to where she got it. She thought maybe a private sale, maybe a nursery. She had the plant a long time. She used it to make tea. There was something about this plant that reminded me of something else. It was irritating that I couldn't think what.
First off, I googled because I wanted an answer. I came up with several different types of mints but this plant didn't match any of these. If you are wondering why I was so sure it wasn't a mint, remember I said it was growing wrong?
This is applemint.
This is peppermint.
You see how both plants have a straight stem with many leaves coming off that stem? That was my first clue. Any of the mints I have here and what I saw on my search grows that way. This plant's
leaves grew straight off a woody rootstock on individual stems rather like a violet.
Was I able to find out what the plant was quickly? Nope, took me two weeks. Had I the patience, I could have looked page by page in my tried and true herb book (The Complete Book of Herbs by Leslie Bremness, I highly recommend this as a good basic herb book) and found it.
I brushed up against this plant in the sun room one day and again was taken by its minty aroma so back to the quest I went instead of on with the chores. That and I had been looking at my Shasta daisies thinking their leaf pattern was oddly similar. I plugged in the correct search phrase, finally,
and found a chat forum where someone asked almost the same question. There were several suggestions there and on of them rang a bell. So I looked it up and sure enough, there it was.
Alecost/Costmary
Chrysanthemum balsamita (Tanacetum balsamita)
It is called Alecost because it does have bitter notes to it and was used in brewing ale. Cost derives from the Latin costum, meaning spicy oriental herb. Alecost, well, spicy herb for ale. Costmary is Mary's or women's spicy herb. Common names for the herb include balsam herb due to its smell, Bible leaf as it was said to repel bugs from bibles and its smell could keep one alert during long sermons. Mint geranium is a misnomer because costmary is not related to the mint family (Labiatae) or the geranium family (Geraniaceae). Another interesting fact I found was that originally this herb was always classified as Tanacetum balsamita but now is becoming more widely known as Chrysanthemum balsamita. Why? I didn't find the answer to that one. There is so much to learn about the classification of plants.
Plants and herbs can easily be mislabeled when common names are used or they came out of great great grandma's garden and have been handed down. Information can get lost. Luckily, for my friend this wasn't one of the herbs that was used long ago but is now classified as toxic. For me, it was exciting to learn about this herb. Herb lore has interested me as far back as grade school. Too bad I didn't know how fascinating I would find it when I was in college and could have studied it more in depth. However, a dear friend recently told me you can always learn, you don't have to go to college for that. Lady Sparkle you were right because I have been learning. And there is so much to keep learning.
I hope you enjoyed today's journey through my garden and into my kitchen. Until next time, may your garden whatever size it may be, help set your table. Or supply your cosmetic needs.
Colorado. Oregon. Wyoming. Now they might be among some of my first picks. But Missouri? And it really wouldn't be WWOOFing here at my house, it would be WWOOGing. Who in the world would want to WWOOG in a state that can equal the humidity of New Orleans and the weather can give you plenty to talk about because you just never know what your season will bring you. I do the Ging part here all the time but this is where I live!
What the heck am I talking about? World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms and I leaned about it in an article "Postcards from the Veg" by Amanda Kimble-Evans in the Organic Gardening magazine. Originally the program was called Weekend Workers on Organic Farms and originated in England. It was a way to get city folk out on the farms for a weekend lending a helping hand on organic farms in exchange for food, lodging and a chance to learn about where their food comes from. According to the article, WWOOF has 90 countries now involved with 6, 000 hosts providing a way for farmers and volunteers to connect. There is also a WWOOF-USA. There is a name for having this type of working vacation, agro-tourism. Can you imagine going to Italy or France and joining a family to work on their farm, to see how things are done? A lady mentioned in the article
had gone to Italy and stayed on several Italian farms. She wanted to connect with her ancestral roots.
Another gentleman traveled to New Zealand. He spoke of forging memories, learning new skills and finding a passion for gardening. For those of us non-fliers staying stateside sounds like a good idea
to me. But Missouri? And like I said it would definitely be gardening here at my house and not farming.
Yeah, yeah this is a working vacation but to me it sounds like a fabulous idea. Granted I am a little
odd in my notions of what a vacation should consist of. Me, I want friends or newly made friends,
good food and something fun to do. Again, my ideas of fun are odd. I do like the outdoors but I am tired of having crappy vacations. I have been to Sturgis for a trip that makes people giggle hysterically when they see the pictures and hear how it went. After they stop laughing they look at me and maybe wonder how my spouse managed to talk me into going on another motorcycle trip
with a sidecar and my son. We had a blow out riding down the highway at 75 on that one. I have been hit by lightening on the dunes of Colorado. I once thought we had lost my son while 4 wheeling on the Paiute Trail in Utah. We were in the middle of NOWHERE with NO cell service. That was my last vacation with the family.
Come on, fess up! Is there anyone that wouldn't like to stay at petey's and see her life and critters first hand? Oh man, I could learn so much from her and I am a willing worker. Except for the butchering part. I admit being able to do that would be so hard for me and I am not a vegetarian. Weeding and learning how to make cheese and soap would really be more my speed.
Back to me and Missouri. When I saw that people were traveling to help out on farms in exchange for education and seeing where their food comes from, I wished I had an interesting enough place for
someone to want to come to help. I could really use an extra pair of helping hands but I don't have a farm and I don't have beautiful vistas to gaze at. I just have lots of gardens. My ability to share good
gardening knowledge some might say is debatable, myself included, but I'm always confident I can
tell you what not to do! The mistakes I have made in the gardens are too numerous to count. I did
have 2 interesting successes this year. One because I've been trying to grow a "salad bowl" for several years and failed but this year I tried something different and TA DA!
Some of those greens were served at the mini MO. That's zucchini next to my lettuce mix. I have horrid squash bugs here so I wondered what would happen if I put my squash in a container. I could control its environment better.
That is celery. When I saw, where ever it was, about re-growing certain plants from the root ends I just had to try.
I do love to chat while weeding. It makes, to me, a tedious task go by faster and I will happily talk about the plants we are working around and what you can do with them. Just ask some of the girls I've been able to hire in the past. One of them was kind enough to say she always learned something
while here. To have someone here for a week working with me and sharing food at my table would
be such a boon to me. We might have to send the DH &DS to Subway but why not after spending a
day in my gardens couldn't we have a nice meal from what it can offer? A rustic gratin of potatoes,
tomatoes, onions and cheese served with a nice homemade loaf of bread. I can grow 3 of those things. Figured out juicing those blackberry brandy leftovers make a much better seed free dessert so we could have a really nice easy ice cream. We could go fishing in the pond out back for our main course. After dinner we could sit outside and just enjoy conversation in the nice country quiet. Certainly not fast paced or exciting but it sounds like a good time to me!
Another article which was in the Kansas City Star about the lack of urban grocery stores made me really wish I could WWOOG here at my house. One mother featured in the story lived in a neighborhood lacking in convenient grocery stores but rift with fast food places. She didn't have a car to go to the grocery store but had to walk and then carry home groceries with very small children in tow. She spoke of how her food choices were limited. Once the children wanted to purchase a watermelon but she was afraid the distance they had to carry it would be too much for them since she
couldn't carry milk and the watermelon. There were other similar stories. I knwo what these people really needed was decent transportation but it certainly would help them out if they could grow some produce for themselves. I know renters or apartment dwellers might not be able to actually have a
garden plot or fruit trees but they could container garden. At the very least that could give them
cherry tomatoes and herbs.
Food matters to me a lot. Fresh food grown without pesticides or herbicides. All of that is important to me and I couldn't help thinking maybe these people just don't know they can grow some produce for themselves. I grew up in the suburbs but we always had a garden and fruit trees. My grandfather farmed for a living. My townie grandma, Mom's mom, always had a garden and fruit trees. Something else occurred to me. What if I could share my cooking knowledge with those who didn't have the opportunity to learn from one of the best thrifty home cooks like I did? With today's food costs and the economy as it is, knowing how to prepare an affordable nutritious yet good tasting meal is important. Again, I don't know everything but I keep learning new things all the time!
Long before reading either article I simply wished for a pair of helping hands in my gardens. There is so much to do here and the team of me, myself and I get overwhelmed sometimes. There are plenty of varieties to sample from here, so a newbie could taste and choose before buying seed or plants and they could see how they grow.
In the tomatoes, Black Krim is my favorite but it is such a pill here in MO. Very fussy about its conditions but the flavor is outstanding. Like a fine wine. Same with Wolf River, if the conditions aren't right the apples rot on the tree. If the planets align correctly you get these.
The Krim is in the middle. The rest are just an assortment I like to grow. I love the different flavors they all have.
Wolf is huge with outstanding flavor. The other normal sized fruits are Asian pear, Winesap, Fameuse, Granny Smith and Red Delicious. Love those Asian pears; they netted me a great gift!
Herbs in a pot. There is basil, saltwort and bay.
Can you see how dark the "soil" is? I read that spraying your basil with a coffee solution can keep some pests at bay. My morning coffee is cold brewed in a French press. I just pour the dregs from my French press onto my potted herbs. Does it help? I don't honestly know but I know it doesn't hurt and it seems to keep those horrid little gnawing gnats from eating my plants.
.
This year anyone coming here after June 13th would have learned about watering and water conservation. those herbs weren't stacked just to get into the photo. I stack pots so the top one drains into the next pot instead of onto the pavement or ground.
That is my beloved workhorse loaded up. I fill up my water barrel and away I go.
That black thing is a soaker hose. I use the green one as an extension to get where I need to go. It
came to me after the DH's failed attempt at attaching the soaker hose to the barrel to use a siphoning method hence the rock zip tied on. It anchors my siphoning hose in the bottom of the barrel. For those kind enough to wish me a Happy Birthday earlier this year, I could almost feel the "?'s" forming when I said I'd been watering and was going out for another round. You see it takes a while to fill the barrel and use the soaker. Plus, the soaker hose doesn't work everywhere so I had to use 5 gal buckets with holes drilled in the bottom around my parched fruit trees. Yes, it takes time and when I had finished one section it would be time to start back at the beginning. It was really dry here all summer. We had a rain once and when I walked through the mud, I left my footprints on the driveway. They were there until September when we finally got rain.
Despite the drought, my fruit trees were loaded. My dear Asian pear gave me a good crop. Way too many for me and I couldn't let them go to waste so I called people to share my bounty. One dear lady, a fellow Master Gardener, offered to pay me for them. I said I didn't want money but time would be nice. I really didn't think she would take me up on that because who has time? Here though, even for 45 mintues another pair of hands would be nice to have in lieu of payment.
She said she would call and arrange a time.
And she did! Not once but twice. The first time I was getting ready to go to Nashville so I was the one with no time. Yet, she persevered till she found a mutually agreeable time and spent several hours pulling weeds here. That is her in the background. I am very grateful for her help and happy I could share my fruitful bounty with her. Thank you!!
It's not just about having help in the gardens either but how gardens or farms can truly help others.
Not just with food but physically and emotionally. Around the time I was reading the articles I've
told you about, I saw another about a veteran that returned from Iraq with multiple problems. He and his wife ended up back on his parent's farm. There he started growing blueberries. He noticed physical and mental improvements after working the land for a year and a half. Figuring if he benefited so could other fellow vets. With help from the non profit organization Work Vessels for Veterans, he purchased Veterans Farm. Here the challenges of farming help others like him while teaching another set of skills and giving them a place to share their stories.
My dad was a veteran and he helped me put in my very first garden. I used to wonder why, when he didn't have to, he spent so much time in his garden. Having spent so much time in mine, I believe I know the answer. There is something about the growing of things and turning of soil, seeing and feeling nature that soothes the mind and nurtures the body.
I hope you enjoyed today's journey through my garden and into my kitchen. Until next time, may your garden whatever size it may be help set your table.
