Project 365 – Pea Blossoms

Project 365 – Shots From The Garden

With lots of thunderstorms in the forecast and a heavily overcast sky, I had perfect soft lighting to capture images from my garden this morning.   Here’s a sampling of what I captured today, as well as a couple from last night.

These cool mushrooms popped up all over the lawn and garden overnight!  I have no idea what kind they are or if they are poisonous, but they were really fun to photograph.

Some radishes that have my father’s name written all over them as I anticipate his arrival tomorrow in preparation for my daughter’s graduation.A promising looking tomato and some new buds…

Here’s a gorgeous cone flower I captured last night.

My neighbors nest of kilsdeer hatched yesterday and I snapped this photo of this little guy last night.

Our strawberry patch has produced tons of strawberries this season.  I am amazed every time I go out to harvest just how many there are.  After my early morning photo shoot I rushed to harvest our berries as I listened to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance.  I fished harvesting these berries just as the rain began to fall.  Hopefully I will have time to make some jam in the next few weeks.

That’s all for now!  With my daughter’s graduation this weekend and family coming in town I doubt I will have much time to post any new images, so all of these will have to hold me over for a bit.  But with so many fabulous things happening in the garden and the upcoming flurry of activity I am sure my cameras won’t be collecting any dust!

Making A Basic Tincture

Ah, summertime!  It’s my favorite time of the year, hands down.  I just adore the hot summer sun and nearly every conceivable summer activity.  Preserving the fruits of my garden labor is one of my very favorite summer activities.  I find it so rewarding and even therapeutic to make jams and jellies, can veggies, and freeze and dehydrate our produce.  It is really no wonder that discovering yet another way to preserve my garden harvest has me just as giddy as a school girl.  But tincture making really goes beyond just being a method of preservation, it’s a way to extract and concentrate the healing and beneficial properties of an herb and preserve them for a long time, often for many. many years.  Cool, huh?!

As is true with many of my adventures I share on my blog, I am about a green as a bean when it to working with herbs outside of a culinary setting.  But, as is also true, I absolutely LOVE learning new things so I am finding studying herbalism and all about the healing properties of herbs utterly fascinating!  But please, please understand that I am not a certified herbalist and I don’t play one on T.V.!  Don’t take my word as gospel when it comes to working with herbs and please do your own research and consult your doctor before making and using your own herbal medicines.  Herbs are powerful healers, but they can also be dangerous depending on your medical condition and dosages.  Okay, end of lecture.   Moving right along…

About a week ago I started my first tincture using one of my absolute favorite garden herbs: lemon balm.  I am really excited about using this particular tincture.  I often drink lemon balm tea at bedtime as I find it really helps ease me to sleep.  But I don’t necessarily enjoy the middle of the night bathroom run to relieve my swelling bladder.  My hope is that the lemon balm tincture will serve the same sedating purpose as my tea, but without the middle of the night potty run.  Though it’s still steeping away and not quite ready yet for the final step of straining off the plant matter, reading all about the helpful properties of so many of my garden herbs had me anxious to get busy starting more herb tinctures.  I began tackling my ever-growing list of herbs today and would have kept right on going if I hadn’t run out of vodka!

The first tincture on today’s to-do list, red clover, was actually not something I have growing in my yard, but rather something that grows all around me in the empty lots around my neighborhood.  I first started learning about this wonderful “weed” last year during my wine making research.  I had really hoped to make a red clover wine, but sadly missed the blossoming boat so it’s been in the back of my mind for quite a while.  When I read about it’s wonderful healing properties I just knew I had to tincture it!

My littlest helper and I didn’t have to go far to find enough blossoms for our tincture.  We had just what we needed in no time and came right home to prepare the blooms.

I wasn’t sure if the leaves and stems were acceptable for the tincture so, just to be on the safe side, we set about trimming them away from the blossoms.

Once we had trimmed away most of the stems and leaves we put the blossoms in our mason jar.

I had pre-measured 2 cups of vodka to cover the blossoms according to a recipe I was following, but found I needed to add a bit more to submerge them completely.  Mold and bacteria can develop and ruin a tincture if the plant matter isn’t completely covered.

The only things left to do are label our concoction, shake the jars a few times a day to assist the extraction process, and allow it to steep for a few weeks before straining off the plant material.   It’s also important to “top up” with the alcohol as the plant matter expands or alcohol evaporates.  Yes, it really is that simple!  The healing properties of red clover are extensive but include helping with respiratory problems, cancer, cleansing the liver, cardiovascular health, treating colds, infertility, digestive problems, and skin issues such as acne and psoriasis.   Now that’s just super cool as most people just look at it as a lowly weed.  🙂  I am hoping I will have soon have time before the blossoms fade to gather more red clover to make a syrup and perhaps even enough to finally start a batch of red clover wine.

For our next tincture I decided to tackle my chamomile.  I planted this last year, but sadly never did anything with it besides watch it grow and admire its beauty.  I was aware of its renown for its calming and soothing properties, but that was the extent of my knowledge.  But as is true of many herbs, the healing properties of chamomile are vast including being an anti-inflammatory, assisting with healing wounds, fighting colds, and soothing the stomach.

I particularly enjoyed the task of harvesting my chamomile blossoms.  Their petite, daisy-like appearance coupled with their sweet, somewhat earthy scent was balm to my very soul!  I couldn’t help but sniff and sniff the contents of my mason jar over and over as I collected the delicate blossoms.  No wonder there are always so many little critters flittering about these lovely plants!  They are utterly delicious and oh, so pretty!

After collecting and sniffing, sniffing and collecting I covered them in vodka.  Aren’t they lovely?  I can hardly wait to try the tincture!  I plan to mix it with a bit of water, some lemon balm and lavender tinctures as a soothing bedtime sleep aid.

So with two tinctures brewing I was on to the next!  My lovely lavender plants have been covered with blossoms for a couple of weeks and I was anxious to harvest some before they passed their prime.  So a few days ago I gathered a bunch and put them in my dehydrator.  Once they had dried I separated the buds from the stems, all the while taking full advantage of the free HBO and Starz  preview weekend on Dish!  Bonus!   When it was time to make my tinctures I had nearly enough from my harvest to make a full batch.  I added some purchased culinary lavender to my harvested buds and topped it all with vodka.

Finally, my last tincture of the day was sage.  This poor herb is so infrequently used in my garden and yet grows so well that I was delighted to discover its many touted healing properties.   Useful for not only its antiviral, antiseptic, astringent, and anti-fungal properties, sage is also great for memory issues as well as a beauty aid.  Yep, they had me at “memory issues”!  I just gotta try this!

I didn’t have to snip for long before I had all that I needed for my tincture.

This last shot is of a few Plantain leaves I found while collecting the red clover blossoms.  This powerhouse herb that can be found just about anywhere as it’s one of the top three weeds found in yards everywhere.  It is a remarkable healer for all types of skin rashes, insect bites, cuts, bee stings and even snake bites!  I plan to go plantain foraging in the near future, but decided the best way to preserver these for now was to dehydrate them.  Once I collect more I plan to make a tincture and an oil to have at the ready in our first aid kit.

With so many more healing plants growing in my garden and beyond, I am excited to learn more about them and how to use them not only for culinary purposes, but to begin understanding and harnessing their healing properties for myself and my loved ones.  Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave comments below about your experience with the healing properties of herbs, tincture making, or using herbs as medicine.  Also, if you have any corrections or suggestions for my blog, please let me know!  I welcome your input.   Blessings!

Garden Snapshots: Bugs & Such

The discovery of two of these guys munching away on my carrot tops gave me a great excuse to play around with my new camera and some new photo editing software, something I’ve had little time yet to do.  I was too lazy to swap lenses to one better suited to macro shots or even take the camera out of auto mode.  But for the most part they turned out pretty well and it was a fun evening of shooting and editing.  Hope you enjoy!

Raised Bed Garden Update: June 14

Well, after quite some time away preparing for my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration weekend I am finally settling back into a normal (whatever that is!) routine.  During my extended blogging absence we tackled some big garden projects and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.

My favorite change in the garden is our newly mulched pathways!  The transformation is astonishing, well at least it is to me.  This rather enormous project wasn’t really planned, not for this year anyway.  But because mowing and trimming between the beds was such a royal pain in the patootie, especially since we don’t yet have an in-ground irrigation system, I knew it must be done.  Our snaking soaker hose watering system, though not yet in place for this growing season, makes the task of mowing most disagreeable.  But when DH decided to rent a chain saw and chipper shredder to tame our ever-encroaching mess of a woods-line, I seized upon my good, free mulch fortune and bumped said project up a year.  🙂

After a rather Herculean effort  to remove the thick sod myself and none too few rather unsavory words passed over my lips, we ended up renting yet another piece of power equipment: a sod cutter!  Though the sod cutter didn’t quite put an end to the utterances of four letter words, at least not on my DH’s part, it certainly made the considerable task much easier.   Then, down went rolls of weed block and lots and lots of mulch.  We ended up having to purchase more mulch to finish the job, but happily most of the much came right from our own property!

Another of my favorite projects of late was making these awesome solar lanterns!  A Pinterest project come to life, I just adore how these mason jar lanterns add a touch of class to my garden.  (Unfortunately when I made these I didn’t have time blog about it, but I will try to put together a how-to post on how I made them some time in the near future.)  Making them was pretty easy, but I did have to get DH to crimp the chains to the metal band and screw them onto the jars.  The only problem with how I put them together is that I didn’t seal the gap between the solar disc and edge of the jar so it collects water whenever it rains.  The next time I make them I will try sealing them with some type of epoxy.

These awesome bamboo tee-pees were yet another of my fun springtime projects.  I found the bamboo poles at Walmart and already had the netting leftover from making my vertical trellises last summer.  I used zip ties to attach the netting to the poles.  It was definitely a two-man job, but they didn’t take very long to assemble.  One package of netting wrapped quite neatly around the bamboo frame with a little left to spare.  If you plan to make these, just be sure to shove the poles deeply into the ground or they will tumble right over in a big windstorm!   Um, yeah.  Duh!  I am growing lettuce and spinach under the trellis while my bean plants are making their way up out of the ground and finding their way up the netting.  In addition to these crops, I have a number of other plants growing in this bed including tomatillos, carrots, nasturtium, Brussel sprouts, bok choy, and Thai basil.

The rest of the photos are just a few snapshots of my garden beds.  This bed has some kale, broccoli, eggplant and lemongrass.  But most exciting is the row of plants closest to the trellis: Sugar Baby Watermelons!  Though admittedly I may have been overly ambitious to think these will make it to our dinner table, I just couldn’t help but try.  I will keep you posted…

This is my pepper bed, but  I also have onions growing at the far end of the bed.  They are all looking terrific!  There are blossoms and even some small pepper appearing, and my onions look great which is a first for me.

This bed has many plants, but pictured here I have sugar peas, lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, nasturtium, and onions… or garlic… or shallots.  I did a terrible job marking my plants this year.

I decided to dedicate two of my squares to flowers and cutting gardens.  I was disappointed that my seedlings and bulbs weren’t in full bloom for my parent’s party, but they are certainly growing quickly now.

Looks like someone needs to tend to the weed wacking!

Some of my MANY tomato plants in the right hand bed, as well as lots of herbs, flowers, and onions.  The flower beds are the two center squares and the far left one is the one with the snow peas, lettuces, onions, etc., as well as chamomile, tomatoes, dahlias, basil, and, well I forget the rest.  🙂

And last but not least, today’s harvest!  Our strawberry patch is pretty much done producing, but our strawberry harvest was beyond incredible!  I was blown away with the vast amount of berries we were able to harvest day after day.  I planted the patch last spring so I really wasn’t sure what to expect.  I assumed we would have to wait a few years before it really began to produce, but I am so happy I was wrong!  Most of the berries went into the freezer for a future jamming session, but we enjoyed every single juicy, homegrown bite of the ones that did make it into our mouths.

So there you have it.  Our beautiful summer garden is growing fabulously along with very few issues… yet.  But the hot, humid dog days haven’t really hit us yet.  I suspect there will be plenty of pesky issues to deal in my near future.  But for now I plan to grab an iced cold glass of lemon balm tea and plop down into one of my newly constructed  Adirondack chairs (oh yeah… another one of my springtime projects) and watch my crops grow.  🙂

Hydroponic Adventure – Day: I Have No Idea!

My hydroponic garden is humming along beautifully!  I’ve been completely swamped with lots of home and garden projects and shop orders so I’ve hardly had a minute to breathe let alone update the cart happenings here.  And with my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party here in just over a month I doubt I’ll be able to update the happenings very frequently, if at all. I’ve tried to put a post together a few times over the last few weeks, but I have been too busy to finish one.  I will include photos I have taken over the last week as well as today’s.

Sadly, we’ve had our first casualty in the cart.  We lost one of the African violet cuttings to rot and the other one just didn’t produce any roots so I gave up.  I am assuming they didn’t take because I don’t think they like their feet wet and in the cart they are wet all the time.  Also, one of the rosemary cuttings started looking like it was having some problems so I ended up transplanting both of them into some soil.  They are doing fine now, and now that my rose bushes are out of dormancy, I plan to try propagating them soon too.

I’ve transplanted lots of the original seedlings out of the cart and started lots more for the outdoor garden.  My original plan was to start most of my garden plants in the cart, but in actuality that really wasn’t reasonable considering the size of my garden.  In the end I decided to start most all of my seedlings the “old fashioned way”: Jiffy pellets!  I purchased a wonderful little greenhouse on wheels and I absolutely love it!  I position it over a vent in my sunroom when the heat is on and with the sun beaming in it is the most wonderful little nursery!  In addition to all of the seeds I started in the Jiffy pellets, I also have some transplants from the cart in the greenhouse (second shelf from the top on the left).

The tomato plants are growing beautifully and are a gorgeous deep shade of green like nothing I’ve seen before from even the healthiest of tomato plants.  A few days ago I even noticed some buds!  Looks like we should have some fruit growing before too long.  🙂

We had some delicious baked tilapia the other night with a fresh dill sauce.  This was one of the original seeds I started and it’s doing quite nicely.  Here’s what’s left of the dill plant after our first harvest.

It’s taken some time, but the parsley is coming along now.

How awesome does this lettuce and pak choy look?

Her are a couple “root shots” from back on the 18th.  Notice how the lettuce has grown in the last week!

And the roots of one of the tomato plants, also from the 18th.

These are the first transplants from the cart.  I love the tree bark plugs that we used to plant the seeds in in the cart.  I just plopped them into the pots and added more soil.  You can just see one of the rosemary cuttings in far back left.  The other one is hiding next to it behind a bush basil plant.  (Notice my raised bed garden in the background.  It’s currently undergoing a major renovation.  Hopefully in the next week the pathways will be mulch instead of grass…. hopefully!)

Here’s a shot from back on the 18th.  You can see how much my lettuce and pak choy have grown since then!  I’ve never grown pak choy before so I don’t really know when it’s ready for harvest or really even what to do with it.  Do leave me a comment if you have some advice.

I am pretty new to starting my own seedlings.  Last year was my first really successful attempt.  I was pretty surprised when most of them actually sprouted, and in most cases, lived a long, full life producing a nice harvest!  So, feeling like a pro I decided to start even more seedling this year.  They are doing pretty well, but I think I may have overwatered some of them, but I am hoping for the best.  I’ve started way more than I possibly have room for, but I went a little nuts when I ordered from the seed catalog. 🙂  Everything just looked so good!

So there you have it.  I have no idea when I will find time to post again.  I am completely buried with projects and there will be a whirlwind of activity until after my parent’s party the first part of June .  In the meantime, I plan to enjoy the fruits of my labor and look forward with great anticipation to planting my outdoor garden in a couple of weeks!  Hopefully I will find enough time to put up a few pictures as I’ve had a few fun additions to the garden this year (you know you’re getting old when adding garden ornaments gives you the feeling of giddiness much like Christmas morning!)

My Hydroponic Garden

I am so super stinking excited!  My long-awaited hydroponic garden is finally up and running!  My sweet husband and brother-in-law have been working tirelessly on this project for quite some time, but now it’s done.  It’s finally done.  Hooray!

If you’re not familiar with hydroponic gardening it’s a method of gardening without soil.  I am pretty new to it myself, although I did have a miniature hydroponic garden a couple of years ago and I loved it.  But this thing puts my other rinky-dink hydroponic garden to shame.  An invention of my brother-in-law, I have to admit I can’t tell you a whole lot about it at this time.  But I plan to post about my successes and failures along the way.  Today I just wanted to hurry and get a post put together because I am told I should expect my seedlings to emerge any day (or perhaps any minute) because hydroponic plants tend to grow a whole lot faster than traditionally grown plants.  I planted lots of seeds last night and more today so I wanted to share the “before” photos before the first seedlings emerge.

These four little guys (rosemary and African Violets) are cuttings from some of my house plants.  My understanding is these should root and be ready for transplanting in no time.  I can’t wait to experiment with other plants!  I think I will try my new ground cover roses as soon as they come out of dormancy.

Here’s the map of what I have planted so far.  There are a few vacancies, but that won’t be for long.  I’ve just ordered lots and lots of new seeds!  I can hardly believe there are a whopping 56 spaces for planting!  I just can’t imagine what this will look like when it’s full of mature plants.

Admittedly I did plant some seeds that will probably not work in the cart, but after planting all the varieties of seeds I had on hand that I thought would work I still had a lot of vacancies and figured, “Why not?”  In particular I wonder if the poppies and the leeks will work out.  I have never grown poppies before, but I think they are pretty big and bushy plants.  The leeks might need a cooler water temperature to germinate.  Right now we have the water heater set to 85 degrees.  My hope is to get the leeks started and then transplant them outdoors in a few weeks.

My goal, besides having lots of fresh herbs, lettuces, and dwarf peppers and tomatoes growing at all times, is to start the seeds to transplant in my outdoor garden.  My brother-in-law assures me this will be a piece of cake!  I hope he is right because my sunroom was a mine field of seed flats last spring and was really quite a mess.

Here’s a close-up of the top of the unit.  Per my brother-in-law’s suggestion I turned the caps to the 9:00 position after they were planted.  There are currently only 4 vacancies (the caps at the 6:00 position) that will be fill just as soon as my new seeds arrive.

Even as I write this I can hear my cart just bubbling and gurgling away.  Such a happy noise knowing (hoping) I will soon witness the emergence of dozens of tiny little yummy seedlings.  I think I will go check it again (only the 1005th time today) to see if there are any signs of new life…

Happy Harvesting!

We have officially entered the heat of the harvest here with my square food garden!  Yesterday I harvested lots of tomatoes as well as some cucumbers, beans, and our first few ears of corn.  There are lots of peppers ready for harvesting and I think the edemame should be coming in strong next week. But I only picked what I thought I could handle for one day of canning.

My tomatoes are starting to come in strong, although we have been enjoying them for several weeks.  From the look of my tomato plants I am going to be one very busy girl for the next week or two.  I canned the larger tomatoes, but decided to dehydrate the little ones since I didn’t have time to make some Yellow Pear Tomato & Ginger Jam.

I tried a new recipe with this batch of cucumbers: Fast Favorite Garlic Dill Pickles.  I have made several varieties of pickles this summer and wanted to try something new.  We will give them a try in a few week to see if the recipe is a keeper.  The recipe was a cinch to make so I really hope it turns out to be a family favorite.

I am really disappointed in my green bean harvest for the year.  I really didn’t plant enough and will definitely plan for more next year.  The few bean plants I did put in were ravaged by some kind of bug, most likely cucumber beetles.  Grrrr….  I picked just one jalapeno, but there are lots more on the way.  Can you say Strawberry Jalapeno Jam and Hot Pepper Jelly?   Yum!

My final harvest for the day was the first, and perhaps last of our corn harvest.  I was amazed to see the kernals when I pull back the husks on these undersized ears.  The corn plants took such a beating with the weather.  This was the first time we’ve ever tried growing corn and I was really excited as I watched it grow.  But It quickly went from looking pretty good to really bad.  I think a lot had to do with the very dry conditions we had this summer.  I am encouraged to try again next year and still hold out a little hope for the other small patch I planted a few weeks after this one.

That’s all for today’s update.  Back soon for a post on Strawberry Jalapeno Jam!  Oh yeah!

Quickie Garden Update

 

After a fabulous week at the beach with my family I’ve been busy playing catch-up here at home.  The garden harvest is beginning to pick up the pace and I’m start kick my dehydrator and canner into high gear.  So far I’ve been dealing mainly with cucumbers, zucchini, and herbs, but Lord willing, my tomatoes and beans will soon be throwing everything into overdrive.

From this vantage point my garden looks healthy and really pretty darn lush.  However, there are a few problems with bugs and disease lurking.  Yet, I was really happy to see all the new growth when we returned from our vacation.  We installed a soaker hose watering system right before we left, but didn’t have time to test it to make sure it was watering everything sufficiently.  I must admit I felt much like a mamma leaving her babies with a sitter for first time all the while we were away.  I kept wanting to phone home and check on all my precious little ones.  Nurturing an itty, bitty little seed from sprout into a mature, fruit bearing plant has a way of making one a little sappy and protective.  I was so afraid I would return only to find many of my plants had keeled over due to lack of care.

I think we’re all a little shocked that the trellis is actually holding up to the weight of this pumpkin.  Granted it’s just one, but it is pretty darn cool!  Unfortunately, this plant is looking pretty sickly.  I think it’s suffering from powdery mildew.  I need to do a bit more research, but unfortunately if I am right I think the plant might need to be uprooted and destroyed.  This particular bed is home to pumpkin, watermelon, zucchini, corn, sunflower and beans.  I think I went a little overboard when I planted this bed and it’s suffering due to overcrowding and inadequate air circulation.

Here’s a shot of the overcrowded bed.  It’s no wonder I have probably have a mildew problem.

This beautiful sunflower is a crowning jewel in our garden!  We’ve never grown such a tall growing variety and it is truly a sight to behold.  I planted the sunflowers in the center of my garden plot and it (albeit accidentally) has become the centerpiece of our garden.

Here’s one of my gianormous cucumbers!  We have been blessed by an abundance of long, slender cucumbers many of which are in excess of 12-15 inches!  I’ve used these for salads,  pickling and relishes though I am not sure they are known as a pickling variety.

Amazingly, after a couple terrible storms knocked our corn almost flat they righted themselves and are actually producing lots of ears!  So far they are all on the smallish side and I really have no idea if they will continue to get bigger since we have no prior experience with corn.  But we are hopeful that we’ll soon be munching some of our own delicious, home grown sweet corn!

I can just never seem to resist snapping a couple photos of the nasturtium whenever I take the camera with me to the garden.  Its vibrant flowers get me every time.

And finally, my cosmos blooms are just beginning to appear.  I wanted our garden to not only be functional and productive, but beautiful as well so I interspersed flower seeds throughout the beds.

Now, if you look very closely at the cosmos photo you’ll see one of my greatest garden nemesis just under the big blossom: a dratted cucumber beetle!  We were doing a pretty good job of keeping up with these little buggers before we left on our vacation, but I am currently facing a virtual infestation!  I’ve been so busy playing catch-up and recovering from a nasty virus that I haven’t had the time to keep up with picking and drowning the nasty little critters.  I am planning to spend some time this week fertilizing and investigating some organic methods for pest control.  I’ve also noticed some earwigs and caterpillars and a few other bad bugs, so the cucumber beetles aren’t the only pests I am dealing with.  DH sprayed everything with BT last week, but I think I’ll try some Diatomaceous earth as I read that it is a great organic pest control.  Our edamame and cucumber leaves are starting to look like swiss cheese!  Fortunately, the plants are still producing and, from the looks of it, we’ll soon be harvesting a boatload of edamame.

 

July 10 Garden Update

Such a beautiful evening to take a few quick snapshots of some fun things in the garden.  After a stifling heat wave gripped a huge part of the country, our temperatures have finally dropped back within the normal zone.  Whew!

During the heat wave my DH and I spent an entire day setting up an irrigation system of sorts, and though I really find watering the garden therapeutic, it will be nice to have the option for automatic watering.  Ultimately we’d like to install a drip irrigation system, but for now we went with soaker hoses set up on an automatic timer.

The most exciting discovery in my garden this week was the appearance of this little guy.  Our very first fig!  I was so tickled to discover this tiny fig growing on one of the two fig plants we planted last summer.  I found two fig plants for $4 each on the clearance rack at Lowe’s and I just couldn’t resist picking them up.  I am still dreaming about all the fig preserves and fig and goat cheese pizzas we’ll be enjoying some day in the not too distant future… Lord willing!

Here’s another first for our garden: butternut squash.  I am not a very experienced cooking with winter squash, but I am going to have fun experimenting with some new recipes this fall.

Some peas…

a pumpkin growing on the trellis…

and one on the ground.

This last photo is of an anise plant I’m hoping to harvest seeds from pretty soon.  I haven’t used the leaves for anything yet, but I read they make a nice addition to salads.  I’ll have to do a little more investigating to see what other things the leaves can be used for, but I love using the seeds for baked goods.  The plant is a gorgeous addition to my herb garden!

That’s all for today’s update, but there’s a lot more fun stuff going on in the garden as well as some not so fun stuff too..  My poor tomatoes are still being affected by blossom end rot so I need to try to figure out how to remedy that problem.  If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them!  In the meantime I am going to spray more calcium chloride solution and see what other information I can find about it.