RECIPE & Herbs : We had frost last night...

Thank goodness I brought in my herbs.

I decided yesterday to take the last of the herbs in for drying. Amy and I hung them up in the kitchen/classroom window.

The house smells divine and it's really nice to see all these little bundles just hanging around. I've asked hubby to make me a rack for the kitchen ceiling for next year. I'd like to hang my pots from it and it would be perfect to hang the herbs next year.

I think I'll take all the sweet and greek basil and make pesto to freeze for the winter. I love this recipe.

Basil Pesto

1/2 pine nuts, toasted
1 cup packed basil
1 cup packed flat leaf parsley
1- 2 cloves garlic (to your taste)
Ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1/2 tsp lemon juice (if freezing to prevent discolourization)

Add the basil, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper to food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Stream in 1/2 cup EV olive oil and pine nuts, pulse until combined, transfer into a large mixing bowl and stir in the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Since I'm going to make a big batch for freezing, I will omit the cheese and just add it in when I'm ready to use it. I find the cheese doesn't take to well to freezing and thawing.

I freeze my pesto in small ziploc bags, pressed flat for easy storage in the freezer. I also make a batch or two in ice cube trays for when I just want a small amount for a recipe or meal.

I Love My Gardens

Several years ago I jumped on the square foot garden craze and Jay helped me to build 2 of them. Every year we've planted a little something. My first year there were onions, carrots, beets, lettuce, Romas, peas etc. They did really well until the weather started getting really dry and we went away to camp. Then the lettuce bolted, the peas died, the beets didn't get any bigger than my baby finger and the carrots? we won't even talk about the carrots.

The Roma's on the other hand thrived and we had a bountiful harvest, 2 big bowls full! After that I decided that Roma tomatoes were my square foot garden veggie and until 2 years ago, I faithfully planted them and gratefully harvested them. Until last year. Did you know that tomato plants can reseed themselves? I certainly didn't. That is until I noticed all these tomato plants growing in my garden. I hadn't gotten around to doing any plantings last spring, but lo and behold I had a bumper crop of beautiful juicy Roma's.

This year, I decided not to chance it again though and the kids and I planted all sorts of tomatoe seeds in March. We now have grape, cherry, beefsteak, roma, and golden tomatoes growing in our gardens and on our deck.

We also have seedless English cucumber, acorn squash, cantaloupe, mini bell peppers, jalapenos and chili peppers. We also started from seed all kinds of wonderful smelling herbs; sweet basil, Greek basil,Italian parsley, chives, rosemary, oregano, and thyme. We also grew cilantro but it bolted in the heat :( therefore, no cilantro, we'll try again next year.

It's wonderful to go outside and pick the fresh herbs I need for a dish I'm preparing. I also like to just go outside, run my hands through all the herbs and smell the different combination's. The fragrance on a hot day is out of this world.

This first picture is of one square foot garden. See the acorn squash running up the post. I read about this in a gardening book that talked about square foot gardens before it became popular. This author showed pics of squash, pumpkins, cucumbers etc all growing up trellis' and posts. The fruits/veggies did NOT fall off. As they grow they are remarkably strong and will hold on until ripe.

I figured I'd try it with one plant this year and see how it goes. This plant has 3 golf ball to softball size squash on it so far.


A mixture of Roma's, beefsteak, golden and cherry tomatoes interspersed with basil and marigolds of course.




These are my jalapeno plants. If you click on the pic you can see the tiny little peppers.






Chili Peppers


Oregano, chives and thyme


Sweet basil, cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley, rosemary, more parsley, Greek basil and more sweet basil.


Grape tomatoes


I love my gardens this year.

Now onto flower gardens.

Amy and I decided in the spring that we wanted to make some more flower gardens. So we got busy...really busy...back breakingly busy. Oh, but the payoff has been lovely.

The back of our house is a partial shade area. Full morning sun, but then all shade for the rest of the day. Therefore, we needed to come up with some shade perennials for this garden.

Here's a BEFORE pic of one corner...very nasty looking.


After we dug out the garden area...


We got the idea to take out several hostas from our front garden, divide them and replant in the back. Talk about heavy plants! It took the two of us to lift and carry each plant to the wagon.


Amy surveying the results of the hosta transplants



The next day we went to a local landscaper with Jay's pickup truck and bought a square yard of red mulch and a local store for some perennials. We picked up honeysuckle, toad lily, foxglove, and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment.






Now to do something about that back wall...can you say U-G-L-Y?


We used the balance of the mulch on the front gardens and here is the result of all our hard work.






and in bloom :)








This rose bush had the most incredible bouquet of roses on it. If you look closely you'll see all the flowers are on one stem. Absolutely gorgeous. I thought it would make the most beautiful bridal bouquet.




BTW, did I mention that for some very odd reason we have a raspberry bush in our front garden? I have no idea how it got there but we've been enjoying the berries mmm mmm mmm. Our consumed count before leaving for camp was approximately 98 berries. Will have to transplant to the backyard in the fall.