Parsley Dill Soup Recipe and a Chopped Parsley Salad for Becca! (FINALLY CORRECTED)

Thank goodness Becca and Barbara Swain the author of the Chopped Parsley Salad are proofreading my recipes!  Here is the corrected Parsley Soup and Parsley Salad recipe!  Both are correct now, Becca.  Two key ingredients were left out, butter and potato!  Then I got a comment from the Parsley Salad's author, Barbara Swain and still hadn't corrected the recipe because I kept thinking that the 3/4 cup celery was parsley!  This is why I don't share recipes often because I can't get them correct!  Finally, I think everything is good and correct.  Please let me know if it isn't, won't you?

Becca from A Southern Garden by Becca asked me to do some posts on what herbs I grow and how I use them.  It's a great question, Becca and here are some suggestions for parsley.  I know you live in the south, Becca and don't have much cold weather, but I think you could eat this soup cold as well as hot.   It's very easy to make and you can double it very easily if you need to.  This is taken from an earlier post.  My mother always made me eat my parsley garnish when we would go out for dinner. She was right, it is rich in vitamins A, C and magnesium. This is one curly parsley (Petroselium crispum var. crispum) that has grown well in the herb garden. I love using it as a hedge in a garden. Although as it is a biennial, it goes to seed the following year. I really use it as an annual. I always have several Italian flat-leaf parsleys (Petroselium crispum var. neapolitanum) in different spots in my garden.  You always want to harvest outside leaves first and keep the core leaves in the center of the plant growing.  When I harvest parsley for the winter, I bring it in and placed it in plastic containers for the freezer. I have also placed it in plastic bags. I think the containers work a little better. Parsley does stand up to a light frost. I know some cover theirs with a basket and continue to harvest it from the garden until a killing frost comes. Here is a picture of the Italian (by way of Peru) flat-leaf parsley in bloom. An excellent larval food for the swallowtail butterflies. Here is a favorite soup recipe from a favorite herb farm of mine, Buffalo Springs Herb Farm. Sadly they are no longer in business.

Parsley Dill Soup
1 large onion, chopped or thinly sliced
2 large carrots, scrubbed, sliced thin
4-6 tablespoons butter
1 large potato, scrubbed, sliced thin
4 cups stock (vegetable or chicken) heated
1 cup fresh Italian parsley (frozen works
just fine)
1/2 teaspoon of dill seed
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine onion, carrot, butter and potato in covered saucepan and stew for about 10 minutes, add dill seed.   Add stock and simmer for another 30 minutes.  Cool slightly. Add parsley and puree in blender.  Reheat and add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with parsley and/or fresh dill garnish
Serves 4.

This is a very easy salad to make for grilled chicken, pork chop or any entree really.  It's very light and fresh.

Chopped Parsley Salad

3/4 cup lightly-packed chopped parsley

3/4 cup minced celery

1/4 minced green onions (about 4 onions)

2 to 3 tablespoons oil

2 teaspoons lemon juice or white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine parsley, celery and green onions in a medium bowl.  Toss with oil until well-coated.  Toss with lemon juice or vinegar and salt and pepper.  Makes 2 servings.

Courtesy Swain, Barbara.  Barbara Swain's Cookery for 1 or 2. Tuscon:  H.P. Books, 1978.

Barbara Swain came by to comment on this post this morning.  She writes:

Thank you, Lemon Verbena Lady, for referencing the Chopped Parsley Salad recipe from my book of so long ago. Your readers will need to know to include the 3/4 cup chopped, lightly packed parsley. Believe me, I know how this happens. The back story on this recipe is that, as a food stylist in Los Angeles, I was always left with parsley and often celery and green onions that were purchased as possible garnishes for food in commercials or magazine photos. I'm not able to waste food so I developed this recipe.

I consider almost all salads as a place to use up many produce items. This one lends itself to the addition of finely chopped radishes, mushrooms, cucumber, cauliflower, broccoli (flowers or stems) and any color of sweet bell pepper to replace part of any of the other ingredients.

Thank you Barbara for stopping by and commenting with the back story of the parsley salad recipe.  I have always enjoyed this recipe and now I will enjoy it even more since you have enhanced the story with your words!

Hope this gives you some ideas, Becca.  I'll be thinking of other uses.  Basil recipes to come.  Love answering your questions and always love your comments.  Hope you had a great day.

Bandaged Bush!

Well, here is our honeysuckle bush (an invasive species) in the front garden.  It is being debarked by the squirrel who has made a nest in the front ivy.  The Herbal Husband has bandaged the bush to protect it.  I'm not sure it will survive.  I alternatively love and hate it.  Yes, it is on the front of the house.  The Herbal Husband was worried that it was making a nest on the roof.  Well, he doesn't have to worry about that.  Always something to worry about!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet today.  Tomorrow the heavy rain comes and the entire garden will be exposed again.  Hopefully, not too much more snow!  Waiting for the Oscars to start.  Hope you are staying warm or cool wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Seldom does a nursery catalog description live up to the realities of your garden.

Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender

Blooming Rosemary!

As I looked at my friend, Sharon Lovejoy's post this afternoon, I realized I hadn't posted about my rosemary that's blooming despite the cold weather!  It's blooming in the garage.  Always happy to see my rosemary doing well.  We did lose our 'Spice Islands' rosemary.  It was overwatered.  I think the pineapple sage also bit the dust.  As I remember, we aren't always lucky getting the pineapple sage through the winter.  Well, my handouts for my April talk are just about finished.  Just have to have a read through and maybe add one more herb!  I don't think I can do a talk without talking about cilantro!  Such an integral part of the cuisine in this house.  I have two talks coming up in March.  Lots of rain is coming Monday.  Oscars tomorrow!  Always a favorite night in our house.  Here is a long overdue quote.

A garden is living art.

From Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender

Talk to you later.  Stay safe and warm or cool wherever you may be.

A Cheer Me Up for You, Me and The Herbal Husband!

They were calling out my name at the new grocery store!  I don't know how they knew me as Lemon Verbena Lady!  Oh, well, they are beautiful flowers and know somehow I love herbs.  OK, enough of the weird vibe!  Just had to cheer us up and The Herbal Husband just yelled up how beautiful they are!  It worked!  Rain, rain, rain!  Been working feverishly on my handouts for April.  It's a lot of pages!  Hopefully not too many!  Then I need to get a Power Point together.  Fun to see old photos of the garden.  Hopefully the snow will be gone again over the weekend.  Hope it stays away this time, but we do have about a month more of winter!  Hope you are OK!  Praying hard for the people of New Zealand!  Hope you are as well.  Got to run.  It's lunchtime.  Will get you a quote later!

Yikes! Back to Square One!

Well, I thought I might make progress on deciding what herbs to move around in the herb garden and which ones would get a toss in the compost!  Wrong again.  Old Man Winter is just hanging in there!  I heard on the news yesterday that we in the northern areas are going to have a cold spring!  What!  It just keeps going and going!  There is a beautiful blue sky today and we don't often have a New England kind of day when it snows.

It was a wild snowstorm/blizzard kind of feel yesterday.  We went to the movies.  Don't ask what we saw.  It was one I would just rather forget and it had subtitles as well!  We came out of the movies and there was an inch of snow on the car!  Fortunately I drove home, because if The Herbal Husband had, we may have not been here today.  Just saying!  I drive for your safety and mine!  He is a very sweet man until you get him in a car and then all heck breaks loose!  Well, I'm off to do my handouts for my April class at the community college.  Going to have a big wad of paper for them to take home!  Probably will break the copying budget at the local extension office.  Usually do!

I just have to give a shout out to our great road maintenance crew in our township.  We do pay a lot of tax and they masterfully put the salt out so we get safely around the township.  You can really see the difference when you go through different municipalities.  So, hope wherever you are you are safe and warm.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of New Zealand today.  Have always wanted to go there.  Still hope to some day.  The quote of the day and because I'm thinking about soil these days is from Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

The real lowdown on gardening is . . . dirt.

Talk to you later.

A Year of Herbal Renovation!

I was looking around the herb garden the other day and discovered that I will be busy this spring.  I've made an initial plan not to buy new herb seeds and plants and work on renovation.  I will be removing extra herb plants and moving some plants around in the garden to maximize their growth.  The green in the middle of this photo are extra feverfew plants.  I'm going to move them to other parts of the garden.  Busy, busy, herbally speaking.  Hopefully you have had a good day.  Went to see The Company Men.  Very good, but if you have lost your job recently or not so recently, it is about surviving job loss.  Great cast, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner among others.  We had a new high today and cool tomorrow.  Walked outside for an hour this morning.  Always good to get outside.

It Has Survived, Herbally Speaking!

Just wanted you to know that my 'linear leaf' thyme has survived.  It needs some trimming, but it looks like it survived the ice and snow!  Another yippee moment, herbally speaking!  Very warm here!  60's.  Going back downhill over the weekend!  Took a walk outdoors for the first time in a very long time.  Hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you may be.  A quote from Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

In comparison sometimes a garden can make the one you love seem almost easy to please.

Talk to you later.

Another Yippee Kind of Day!

We made the greatest purchase last year and it paid off big time this morning.  The hedge clippers were put to great use!  Love them!  We are really going to be mild in the next couple days, but also have rain showers  Going to the movies and out for dinner.  Thanks for stopping by.  Talk to you later.

Yippee, Herbally Speaking!

I'm enjoying going to the local grocery store these days and today was extra exciting!  My favorite issue of Martha Stewart Living is out of the stands, the gardening issue.  Means spring is just around the corner!  We are seeing more of the ground and may be 60 by Friday!  Yippee!

I'm also a little late with my valentine greeting.  So here is a Martha recipe that I made for The Herbal Husband for Valentine's Day actually I made them the day I got back from Ohio!  Now that's love!

Coconut Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

3 cups cake flour (not self-rising
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (1-1/2 cups) unsalted butter,
room temperature
2-1/4 cups sugar (divided)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup coconut milk
8 large egg whites
1-1/4 cups shredded sweetened coconut
Seven-Minute Frosting
Fresh Roasted Coconut for garnish

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners; set aside.
2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3.  In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.  Beat in vanilla.  With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl; set aside.
4.  In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy.  With mixer running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 4 minutes.  Do not overbeat.  Gently fold a third of the egg-white mixture into the butter-flour mixture until combined.  Gently fold in remaining egg-white mixture; stir in shredded coconut.
5.  Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each with a heaping 1/4 cup batter.  Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until the cupcakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.  Frost cupcakes with your choice of frosting.  Martha's choice was seven minute frosting.  I chose CoolWhip and walnuts.  Cupcakes may be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  Garnish with fresh coconut just before serving.

I have given you links to Martha's seven-minute frosting and fresh roasted coconut.  There is a link for the original cupcake recipe under the roasted coconut link.  They are delicious.  Here is a photo of my finished product.  They are about 300 calories per cupcake with CoolWhip and walnuts.   The cupcakes are about 231 in calories per cupcake.  I made 1/2 of the recipe and it made 16 cupcakes!  Well, hope you enjoy them.  Got to run.  Talk to you later.

A quote sent to me by my master gardening friend, Shelley:

Out of Gardens fleeting flowers but lasting friendships grow.

--Beverly Rose Hopper

To Spice Up Your Valentine's Day-Horseradish Jelly Recipe!

You all know one of my favorite hobbies is jelly making.  Because I do talks in the local area on herbs, I have to speak about the Herb of the Year each year.  This year if you don't already know, the 2011 Herb of the Year is horseradish.  The national Herb Society meeting will be meeting here in June and it is ironic that H. J. Heinz makes a lot of the horseradish here in Pittsburgh.   So in the photo above, I made a snack for The Herbal Husband and I of whole grain Ritz crackers, topped with Laughing Cow light Swiss cheese and a bit of horseradish jelly.  It is almost clear and it kept sliding off the cheese.  I think I will mix in the cheese next time I have it.  So here is the recipe for all of you who would like to make it.  This recipe is from The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest by Carol W. Costenbader and revised by Joanne Lamb Hayes.

Horseradish Jelly
Serve this aromatic sweet-and-tart jelly with your next roast of beef---or mix it with low-fat cream cheese and eat it with vegetable sticks or crackers.

2 cups white wine vinegar
1 bottle (6 oz.) prepared horseradish (not cream style)
6 cups sugar
2 cups water
6 ounces liquid pectin

1.  Heat the vinegar in a nonreactive saucepan and pour it into a clean 1-quart jar.

2.  Add the horseradish, cover the jar, and let stand for 24-48 hours at room temperature.

3.  Strain through a wire strainer into a 2-quart saucepan.  The mixture will measure 2 cups.

4.  Add the sugar and water, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Bring to a full boil that can't be stirred down.

5.  Remove briefly from heat and add the liquid pectin and boil the mixture for exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly.

6.  Skim the foam if necessary.  Pour the jelly into clean jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Cap and seal.

7.  Process in a boiling-water-bath canner for 10 minutes.

(Makes 7-8 oz. jars plus 4-4 oz. jars.)

You want to make sure to boil your jars for 10 minutes prior to starting the jelly making.  Place your lids and rings in hot water.  Do not boil your lids or rings.

There is a very nice article on 2011 Herb of the Year: Horseradish by Susan Belsinger on The Herb Companion website.  Hope you enjoy all of the recipes.  I have learned a lot about horseradish in a very short time.  One thing is for certain it is very invasive and you don't want to rototill it to get rid of it!

Hope you had a great day wherever you may be.  Went out for our Valentine's dinner this evening.  A quote from Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

A garden grows more than just flowers and good things to eat; 

it also grows bouquets of kind thoughts and bushels of contentment.

Thanks for stopping by.  Talk to you later.

A Rose Petal Tea Party and Rosemary and Rose at the Flower Show!

My Herbal Companion, Bonnie and I went up to one of our favorite herb shops, The Village Herb Shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  We were treated to a rose petal tea party with both rose petal tea and jasmine flower tea with goodies like cherry chocolate cake, ginger cookies, tart cherry scones with lemon curd and vanilla/cherry mini cupcakes.  Kathleen Gips, owner of The Village Herb Shop always gives a lovely tea presentation.  The two ladies in the second photo were the educational/entertainment called Herbal Theatrics.  Connie Williams (Rose) on the left and Karen Rodachy (Rosemary) on the right were both entertaining and educational.  This was their newest program, Rosemary and Rose at the Flower Show.  Ladies, you were very funny.  They also have programs on lavender, thyme, a one on chocolate and bay.

If you would like Herbal Theatrics contact information, please leave me a comment or e-mail me (put Herbal Theatrics info in the subject line) and I will get you their information.   Have missed going to The Village Herb Shop.  It was a wonderful day!  From Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.

Will post the horseradish jelly recipe tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by.  Talk to you later.

Guest Blogging for The Herb Companion Magazine!

This is going to be a year of renovation in my herb garden.  So here is my latest guest post for The Herb Companion Magazine called Addicted to The Herb Garden Planner.  This plan in the photo needs some help, but it is a good first version.  The software is just so much fun to play with.  You can get a 30 day free trial.  So I hope you will give it a try.  Here is a link for The Herb Garden Planner.  Hope you have as much fun as I have so far.  P.S.  The horseradish jelly was very good.  I'll post the recipe over the weekend.  Here's the quote of the day from Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

Anybody who thinks that gardening begins in the spring has wasted the fall and winter.

Talk to you later.

It Clears Out The Sinsues-Horseradish Jelly!

The Herbal Husband was sneezing and irritated by my jelly making today and he was upstairs out of the way!  It didn't faze me and I was standing over it stirring!  The Horseradish Jelly recipe says it makes 7-8 oz. jars.  I was ready for some extra jelly!  As you can see, it made four additional 4 oz. jars.  I'm going make myself a sandwich for lunch tomorrow with roast beef, some light mayo and a bit of jelly.  I'll let you know how it is.  If you would like the recipe, I will add it later.   A quote from Mrs. Reppert's TwelveMonth Herbal:

Only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.

- Dag Hammerskjold (Former UN General)

Mighty cold here still!  Hope you are warm wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Resting Before the Big Day

Made this yesterday and tomorrow I will finish the process.  It is all about what I love to make, jelly and the herb of the year, horseradish (Armoracia rusticana).  So got to run and do errands before our last supper with our dear friend, Jim.  He lost his older daughter and his beloved wife last year and he is moving to the Chicago area to be closer to his only daughter.  We will miss him, but we know it is the best move for him.  

The longest journey begins with the biggest step.

Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you later.

More Snow and Tomato Sauce!

As you can see, we have a little more snow on the ground, the wet and heavy type.  A lot of it is gone already, but it is FRIGID!  So I decided before we run out of tomato sauce I would make more.

Sort of looks more orange than red.  I combined yellow and red tomatoes.  They had been canned in a rush several years ago and they are now sauce.  Here is the recipe I use from The Great Tomato Patch Cookbook:

Tomato Sauce
1/2 bushel tomatoes (16 quarts)      1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups vegetable oil                         1 cup brown sugar
3 large onions, finely chopped          1/2 cup salt
2 garlic cloves, split                          1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 sweet green peppers, diced            1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
4 hot peppers (optional)                    1 tablespoon basil
6 cans (12 oz. each) tomato paste     1 tablespoon oregano

Cook tomatoes.  Remove skins and seeds.  (A quick method is to use blender and make juice.)  Add remaining ingredients.  Simmer 4 hours; stirring so sauce doesn't stick to pan and burn.  Seal in sterilized jars or store in freezer.  Yields 10 quarts.

I just made a half recipe today so I will get about 8 quarts or so.  It seems my sauce doesn't cook down a whole lot!  I haven't had to buy Ragu or other kinds of sauces for years.  Hope you enjoy it.  Got to run!  Got to can my sauce!  Talk to you later.

Growing Dill

Right in the middle of this photo is dill in flower from 2009.  Taylor's Outback has asked if I have grown 'Hercules' dill.  I have grown practically every other type of dill but that one, TO.  In my Richters catalog from Canada, it says:

HERCULES DILL (Anethum graveolens) Heavy yielding tetraploid (having four sets of chromosomes) (not sure what that means) strain.  Slow to flower so foliage stays green and succulent longer.  Best variety for the fresh leaf market.

It is the one to grow for foliage.  Very easy to grow from seeds.  Self-sows if happy.  You can sow it early in the season out in the garden.  I would say hard to start indoors because it has a long taproot and it resents being moved.  I have grown 'Mammoth', 'Bouquet', 'Dukat', 'Fernleaf', all grown from seed.  Richters has them all.  You can also purchase slightly different dill varieties at Johnny's Selected Seeds or Hometown Herb Seeds.  Hope you have success!  Love your comments and questions as always!

Some Awards to Make Me Happy!

Yikes, my computer skills have been tested once again.  My fellow Pittsburgher, although she lives near Boston, Penny Watson bestowed this award a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway, thanks to Penny of (Penelope's Romance Reviews), I was honored with The Versatile Blogger Award. Here are the rules and regulations.....

1--Share 7 things about myself.

2--Pass this award on to 15 other bloggers recently discovered.

3--Notify recipients.

4--Link the blogger who gave this award.

Okay, first up.....7 (well, maybe 6) things about myself.....

1.  I hitchhiked on major roads around Pittsburgh in college a couple of times which was probably not very smart!
2.  Got to drink when I was 13 years old at some pretty ritzy places in Europe!  My mother let me do it!  Alcohol wasted on the youth!
3.  I enjoy watching reality TV and game shows.  Not all reality and not all game shows!  Just some of both!
4.  Ran in The Great Race 10K once and finished.
5.  Lived in Boston for a year while in school.
6.  When I was a teenager I literally ran into Tony Curtis at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas.  Mother was there as well! 

I think that's enough information at the moment!   Then just days after that I received another award from Mina of Tennessee and Green Witch with Sprinkles.  She has a beautiful German Shepard and a black cat.  I won't hold the cat against you, Mina!  I love cats when there is a computer between me and the cat.  I have to share 7 (well, 6) things about myself (See above.) and pass it along to 7 other bloggers.

Wow, ladies, I hope it is OK to put both awards in the same post, because I need to get my lists of recipients together and that will take a little more time.  I just wanted to thank both of you from the bottom of my herbal heart.  They really cheered me up after the big game yesterday.  Didn't turn out exactly how I had imagined, but as Penny said, I'm over it!  Sort of like childbirth so I hear (You forget how painful it is until it happens again.), I'll forget by next season.  I'm doing another post shortly from a question from my buddy, Thoughts from Taylor's Outback who is celebrating in Wisconsin.  Lucky you!  The quote today is from Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:
 

A house without a garden is a temporary home.

Hope you had a great day today!  Talk to you soon.

Our Garden Angel!

You can see Mary, our garden angel after being covered for a good bit of the winter season.  She is holding a bowl of sedum and red flowered thyme.  She is saying that the Steelers are going to beat the Packers today!  Go Steelers!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  From Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

Reading garden catalogs in the winter is like having cocktails

in the evening:  after one or two, your big plants begin to look feasible.

Go Steelers!  Talk to you later.  Congratulations to the Green Bay Packers!

Winter Interest in the Herb Garden and Herbal Dreaming!

This is the 'Boxwood' basil that I purchased at Home Depot in the early spring last season.  It is still making an impact in the herb garden even now.  Here it is on a bright sunny day in July underneath the volunteer sunflower!  Can't an herbal girl dream?  I know I can and so should you!  Here's to sunny, warm days to come!  Can't come soon enough in my herbal opinion!


The quote of the day is from a little book I received from a hometown friend after a Rosemary House bus trip.  Thanks Marian for your friendship and the book.  From Don't Throw in the Trowel by Texas Bix Bender:

After breakfast, garden a while;

After supper, walk a mile.

Hope you are staying warm or cool wherever you may be!  Talk to you later.

I Don't Think This is Too Good-Herbally Speaking!

If you remember at the end of last year, we got this new container for my 'Linear Leaf' thyme.  Now I'm not so sure this is a good thing.  In fact once I get this posted, I'm going outside and remove the snow and try to siphon off the water and ice that has collected!

Well, I got the block of snow off, but there is a frozen layer of ice that I couldn't chip through.  I started to, but the plant was getting damaged!   Yikes!  Just hoping that it gets warm enough to thaw the container!

Been playing with the Herb Garden Planner feature at The Herb Companion magazine website.  I'm recreating the overabundance of garlic chives and angelica and thinking about how to make it more herby!  More over the top herby if that can possibly happen!  Hope you are out from under your snow and cold!  It is a bright sunny day again here.  Will post a photo of my herbal rescue later on!  From Mrs. Reppert's TwelveMonth Herbal: 

Alone in distant woods or fields, on a cheerless day like this,

I come to myself...I wish to know something; I wish to be

made better.

- Thoreau   1857

Seeing Some Green in the Herb Garden!

My buddy, Judith Patton, on Facebook mentioned I should be seeing black and gold in the herb garden because of the Super Bowl!  I do respect the Green Bay Packers so I'm seeing a bit of green as in plants just not supporting them to win!  There were a lot of black and gold plants shown on a local TV program this morning and here is the link to those plants from Doug Oster in Doug's Blog.

I think everyone in the northeastern half of the country has just HAD IT with the SNOW AND COLD!  Any kind of green in the garden is a plus.  If you click on this photo, you may be able to see a leaf or two of the salad burnet.  A very hardy plant!  Really one of my favorites because I have a difficult time eating cucumbers.  Salad burnet does a very good job of giving you the taste of cucumber, but none of the problems.  Lavender is also another one of my favorites, not really gray or green this time of year, but the sculpture of the plant defines the garden.  It is a very pretty day outside and I will share some more survivors in the herb garden over the next days.  After Phil's forecast yesterday, I think we have turned the corner, although we are getting more snow over the weekend!  YIKES!

Here is a perfect quote for today from Mrs. Reppert's TwelveMonth Herbal:

A friend is a person with whom I may be

sincere.  Before him, I may think aloud.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hope you haven't had to dig too much snow.  We were really lucky, lucky, lucky!  Talk to you later.

Phil Finally Got It It Correct! Hopefully!

It was in the 50's here this morning, early morning, but still!  The weather is just ridiculous.  I'm excited to see my herb garden structure a little bit, my wall and patio.  Haven't seen them for a month at least.  The time goes by too slowly!  Working on my class at the local community college for enthusiastic gardeners in April.  Maybe seeing my garden a little better will give me motivation.  Happy Groundhog's Day to Punxsutawney Phil!  Just because you finally got it right Phil, don't be coming in our gardens!  Hope you are warm and safe wherever you may be.   

Tufa Girl Found The Steelers A New Mascot!

If you click on the photo, we have a new mascot as well.  A squirrel up on our roof has made a home in the ivy.  Yes, that is ivy growing over the top of our roof line.  We have to get ourselves in control this spring! On to some important stuff for this week only.  You see we are in the middle of Super Bowl week here.  That's all we are talking about at the moment.  My friend,  Tufa Girl's New Found Mascot for the Steelers!  His name is Iggy!  Thanks to Fort Worth and Tufa Girl for hosting our Steelers!  Colder in Texas than it is here!  Who would have thought it!  No ice for us.  Very happy about that!  Hope you are staying warm or cool wherever you may be.  A quote from Mrs. Reppert's TwelveMonth Herbal:

I garden, therefore I am...

--Anna Pavord, Gardening Companion