Ketchup and Catch-Up

I wanted to start today's posting with the photo I took in the National Mustard Museum, which I wrote about 3 weeks ago, of a sign which read, "Eating Ketchup is believed to cause childhood stupidity (be safe, eat more mustard)" But I evidently sent it to the trash. So just imagine it here. Today's posting is catch-up (or ketchup, if you want), several things I would have posted this week had we not been getting ready for the MEGA GARAGE Sale. We filled one 14 ft. U-Haul truck, plus 3 stuffed full pick-ups and drove it via caravan, to our friends, Neil  and Sarah's house in Forsyth, MO. They have good traffic past their house, while we have maybe 2 cars a day. The sale went well and the living room and storage building are basically empty. (What I wanted for my birthday, coming up next weekend, was a garage sale, or you can read it another way, I wanted some new furniture and the garage sale was the means to get it). So, on to the catching-up.

I met Brian Paffin at the Carmel-Indianapolis "Dilly of a Day" herb day and was immediately impressed by his candles he had for sale. Candles are candles, right? Not exactly. His are made of soy oil, so no smoke, but the better aspect, is the fragrances he uses. You can read more about his tantalizing candles on his website, Herbal Art website. I bought a candle with the scent of Dirt (really - it smells like fresh plowed garden), and 2 Peach Sangria candles. They're so good I wonder if people try to eat them. His products include soaps, body products, wedding gifts, fund raising products and a lot more. You'll be pleasantly surprised at his very creative, unusual, high quality products.

We had a wonderful visitor in the garden guesthouse last week. Pat Crocker, of Riversong Herbals in Ontario, who's best known for her books, The Juicing Bible and the The Smoothies Bible, stopped by for a visit. She was on her way back home in Canada from having been the keynote speaker at the Ozark Folk Center's annual Spring Herb Extravaganza. We know Pat through the International Herb Association and Garden Writers of America and always look forward to getting to spend time with her. Her book, The Juicing Bible won 'Best in the World' in the nutrition category in Perigueux, France, in 2000! We talked about the International Herb Assoc.'s annual conference in Collinsville, IL, in July, where she and I will be 2 of the 4 hosts for what's called, "hosted dinners." It's a great way for conference attendees to get to visit over dinner about a specific  subject, sort of like a mini-workshop, with food, in small groups. 

And next on my list of catch-up, is this wonderful book from Jennifer Vasich, The Lavender Gourmet, from Moose Run Publications. I didn't count the recipes, but there are 325 pages of them. Here are some examples of the taste-tempting recipes Jennifer has: Lavender Mint Brownies,  Vanilla Lavender Hot Chocolate, Raspberry Lavender Sorbet, Lavender Chicken with Lemon Butter Sauce, Southwest Chicken Lavender Enchiladas, Basil & Lavender  Pesto, Hibiscus Lavender Lemonade. I could go on, but the best compliment I can give this book, is, I wish I had written it. Jennifer created a book that will likely change the way you think about lavender.

My lavender isn't blooming yet, but the garden looks better every day. Even with nearly 5 inches of rain this week (including during the garage sale), the garden is coming alive. Adam, who I've written about several times, is here for another couple of weeks, and has done wonders in the garden. Nearly all the beds are fully planted, most are mulched and now we're working on expanding the garden to the south to make room for a row of grapes. Yes, I know, the garden is already more than we can take care of without help, but, it's grapes and I found some 3 year old plants in 5 gallon buckets, blooming and ready to give us grapes. 

Our irises have been beaten hard by the pounding rains, but still manage to bloom vigorously. This one is 'Betty Wold,' simply because the late Betty Wold is the one who gave it to me 20 years ago. Many of the plants in my non-edible garden are named for who they came from, rather than a distant Latin name. So when the Betty Wolds are in bloom, I stop and smell them every day, trying to memorize the fragrance for later. Much like the way different colored tulips have different smells, so do iris. These deep purple Betty Wolds are the most fragrant of all, so delicious you want to spread some on buttered bread (IF they were edible). Or stuff a pillow with the flowers and take a nap. Thank you, Betty, I think of our friendship every spring.

And because it's Sunday and the rhubarb is ready, I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie. I think it turned out pretty well, although the taste will be the real test. This is a recipe a friend gave me many years ago, simple, quick, and my favorite. It's 4 cups of cut up rhubarb (or 3 cups rhubarb, 1 cup sliced strawberries), 1 1/3 cups of sugar (I used part non-sugar sweetener), 6 tablespoons flour and a few dots of butter. Mixed together, poured into a pie shell and topped with another pie crust, it's baked at 400 degrees F. for 10 minutes, then baked for another 40-45 minutes at 375 degrees F. It will be the top-off to one of our favorite Sunday dinners tonight: meatloaf, baked beans, spring salad, and....rhubarb pie. It is the best reason for growing rhubarb!


Happy gardening.

Staying Cool

Hot hot hot! We've had upper 90s this week, hotter earlier than normal. And with rains every few days, we have the humidity that non-Ozarkers think we always have. While we humans hide out in the shade in mid day, it's just what the green living things need. Plants are amazing in how they take heat and sun. No sunscreens needed. The tomatoes are racing higher each day, although the heat has slowed the blossom set a bit.

Summertime arrived last week with a barrage of tourists to the Lake. Branson has long lines of traffic, the restaurants are crowded and Table Rock Lake is full of boats, skiers, and mega floating mansions being dodged by jet skis and an occasional sail boat.

I avoid the lake. Too much sun, dodging mega-mansions moving 30 miles an hour, noise, tourists who have little regard for a lake they don't live on, just doesn't sound like a good time to me. I'm more like the floating frog in the inner tube. Let me have a cool spot in the shade and I'm fine. I garden in early morning and late afternoon and avoid the heat of the day. Even this lightning bug naps during the day on the underneath side of the Constantine fig leaf.

Our friend, Ellen Spector Platt has a timely book from Stackpole Books, Lavender, How to Grow & Use This Fragrant Herb. She gives descriptions of many of the lavender varieties, includes information about growing it, lots of sources for plants, and the various ways it's used. And, like all really good books, it has recipes! Here's Ellen's recipe for Herbed Potato Salad:
3 pounds small potatoes
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 cups chopped lovage or celery with leaves
1/2 cup chopped chives
1 tablespoon fresh lavender flowers or 1/2 tablespoon dried
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
1/2 cup edible flowers for garnish (calendula, chive, dill, borage, etc.)

Boil unpeeled potatoes until soft but not mushy. Drain and cool. Slice with skin on. Mix the herbs and seasonings with the yogurt and gently stir into the potatoes. Garnish with the edible flowers. Refrigerate until serving time. Serves 6.

Our own lavender in the garden is blooming happily although the blooms and bloom spikes aren't as robust this season. Too much rain in May didn't make the plants happy. We grow Munstead and Hidcote, the two most reliable varieties here. I've trialed 'Grosso,' 'Lavender Lady,' 'Linda Ligon' and several others and none live more than a year in the garden, so I've gone back to the old standbys. I use ours in ice cream, in cookies, cakes and mix the flowers (fresh or dry) with lovage, scallions, garlic and a bit of orange or lemon zest when baking chicken.

Molly, our Jack Russell, is the guardian of the garden. She believes she is a 100 pound gorilla, when in reality she's just a mere 11 pounds. Two nights ago she tackled a medium sized raccoon. Now you may love raccoons, even feed them which if you've ever skipped a few feedings and had one or more raccoons tear down your patio door, you know better. On a farm, with chickens, sweet corn, feed and other things, raccoons aren't welcome. Molly patrols at night and if she discovers an intruder, either deals with it or calls for help. She had to have help with this one and was so beaten up that she slept for a day and night, had to have antibiotics and in the heat is still a bit subdued. But she's a brave hunter and protects our territory very well.

Josh was out in the garden early this morning, gathering comfrey for one of his sick goats. Comfrey has lots of healing properties, and often a sick goat will seek it out if it's within reach. The goat had a shot of antibiotics and a good handful of comfrey.

Plant People Visit

(Pictured here are Rex and Carmel, Art and Sherry and our summer intern, Adam...who we've dubbed Papalo Picasso, since his budding interest in the herb, papalo and his degree and talent in art).

We were very pleased to have Drs. Art & Sherry Tucker from Delaware. They brought with them Carmel and Rex from Australia, who are commercial lavender growers. Rex said they grow 10,000 lavender plants in their fields, harvesting them by hand and running the lavender through the threshers and selling the flowers.

Art Tucker is a long time friend and Research Professor, and co-director of the Claude E. Phillips Herbarium at the Dept. of Agriculture and Natural Sciences at Delaware State University. He's the author of 2000. Herbs of Commerce, co-author of The Big Book of Herbs (with Tom Debaggio), and many, many, many more writings. We know him as the walking encyclopedia of herbs and the foremost authority of fragrance oils in herbs. One of the plants in our garden, which we dubbed, "Art Tucker's Russian sage," is a white clary sage we look forward to seeing bloom in the garden each year, and which the goldfinches also anticipate because of the abundance of seed the plants produce.

Carmel is the editor of Lavender Australia magazine and we had previously only met by email as she had invited me to write articles for the magazine. Now we have an invitation to go to Australia and visit these delightful folks and see how commercial lavender is grown.

It was great fun having serious plant people here and feeding them some of our garden produce. Even more fun were the walks in the garden, learning new things and trading information and plants. It was a great reminder to me of why it is I love to garden. Not just the plants, but the people and the food that we get from all the herbs and vegetables. What a treat for us to have such wonderful visitors.