Stepping Away, Herbally Speaking!

I never thought this would happen. I thought I would be blogging forever. First and foremost I want to give my thanks and love to the amazing Herbal Husband. He instead of building a tennis court at our house almost 30 years ago, got me into gardening.  And by the way, he reminded me today that I was into needlework before the herb bug struck!  He has always been the hands on gardener. I just followed along, read a lot and became a master gardener. As the years have gone by, the herb garden has gotten further away from how I envisioned it. I seemed to be traveling when it needed me most and then there was the rain this year when it wasn't needed. What chaos it created! Additionally as we are getting older, we need to find a new direction in our gardening lives. It is time for that new direction. 

I started this journey in 2008 as an online garden journal. I had been inspired by Rosemary's Sampler written by Nancy Reppert of Sweet RemembrancesTearoom and Susanna Reppert-Brill of The Rosemary House.  Thank you ladies for helping me bring Lemon Verbena Lady to life. I loved sharing my love of herbs and my garden with all of you. 

I still love herbs but they have taken a back seat to my needlework at the moment. I want to thank each and every one of you that have come through this blog asking an herbal question or leaving me an herbal comment. I hope that my joy for herbs will continue to inspire. It has been a blessing for me to be a part of your lives. l will be leaving my blog here as an herbal resource for you.

With lemon verbena joy, 

Nancy, Lemon Verbena Lady

The Spearmint Lives On!

A Tiny Bit of Green in A Lot of Brown!

Wow!  Where has November gone?  I certainly didn't have a lot to say, did I?  And now The Herbal Husband has gone to visit family and friends in Peru!  I guess that is the good news and bad news.  I know I take for granted what he does for me around here each and every day!  I am exhausted chasing those darn squirrels away from the peanut caddy!!

I was out on the street brooming the leaves from our neighbor's giant oak tree into the front beds.  It is a wild and crazy thing.  The spearmint is surviving in a sea of brown!  I did get some lemon verbena and Texas tarragon cut and hanging in the basement to dry.   So I will be down in the workroom some day next week.  I really need to work on some herbal tea blends.  I have been drinking too much black tea!  Never!  But this is an herbal blog and I need to start using what I dried!

We are having spring type weather here.  It was 65° yesterday!   Supposedly the bottom will drop out next week.  I really do enjoy sweater weather.  Now on to the important stuff.  I didn't get to do a blogiversary giveaway in August.  I will however be doing a monster Herbal Christmas giveaway soon.  Please stay tuned!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Looks like turkey leftovers are tonight's dinner.  Talk to you soon.

The Beauty and Regret of Fall in the Herb Garden!

By Far One of My Favorites in the Fall!

Who would have thought that the parsley post the other day would get me in the mood to blog.  You really haven't missed all that much in the herb garden.  And as I went over what I have blogged about this season, you saw quite a bit more than I remember!   I am going to share with you some photos over the next week of specific herbs that I really have grown to love over the years. 

Margaret Hall reminded me that this is one of them, pineapple sage (Salvia elegans).  She stated she has tons of it and would I share my pineapple sage jelly recipe.  I would be happy to do so.  Here is a link for three of my favorite herb jellies, including pineapple sage:  An Herbal Jelly Recipe Marathon! I always try to encourage readers over the growing season to use your herbs.  I am not the greatest cook, but I do try to share my successes using herbs when it happens.  I would tell you Margaret to use your pineapple sage fresh in fruit salads, iced teas and baked goods.  My experience trying to dry it has not worked.  The Herbal Husband being my chief herbal sniffer and tester can tell you that it loses its fragrance and taste of pineapple when dried.  You could try freezing some fresh leaves and see what happens to them.  I have just not wasted too much time doing that.  We have also brought our pineapple sage inside when it hasn't gotten too big, but that doesn't always work out well either.  I know that there are pineapple sage pound cake recipes out there.  Here is a link to my search on Google and you can pick the recipe you would like to try Pineapple Sage Pound Cake Recipes.  There are a lot of choices.  Short of using it fresh with fruit or tea or baked goods, I don't have any new ideas.  If my readers have an interesting way they use pineapple sage leaves, please let me know and I will pass it on in a later post.  That's the beauty of the fall herb garden.

Now to the regret!  When I first started my herb journey more than 25 years ago, I wanted to grow everything exotic and interesting in the herb world.  Sometimes too many plants of the same variety that when the fall came, I either had regret because I didn't use them at all or I had so much of one product that I couldn't use it all or share it all!  So my vision over the years has become very narrow and as much I would like to grow every new variety of herb, I will stick to my tried and true favorites and make what I can to share and not worry so much about having it all.

I bet you are wondering why is she inside writing when she should be out in the garden harvesting?  The forecasters were incorrect and it has been raining since early morning!  So much for harvesting the garden.  I will get to it sometime this week.  Snow in the forecast next week for Halloween!  Maybe they will be incorrect again!  Hope so!   Well I hope you are enjoying your day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

A Nice Lunch on a Cold Icy Day in the 'Burgh!

My Favorite Yinzer Tea, Black and Gold!

Roast Cauliflower, Mozzarella and Arugula Sandwich with Spicy Lentil Chili!

A Huge and Delicious Cranberry Scone!

Well, The Herbal Husband and I finally got down to have lunch at Tupelo Honey Teas Cafe in Millvale, PA.  Danielle the owner has been peddling her teas in a loft in an industrial park for several years and late last year opened a cafe in Millvale.  I love Danielle's spirit and passion for teas.  Her shop is cozy, homey and all about tea.  I forgot to take some interior shots, but next time.  Was enjoying the food and that scone!  And sadly we took home two more, lemon poppyseed ones and they were gone with our evening tea!  This wheat free thing isn't going too well.  I must say that the food is vegetarian/vegan and delicious.  The chili was a bit too spicy, but to the rescue was my favorite tea blend which has ginger in it and it calmed my stomach right down.  Next time they have a spicy soup, I will try one of their salads.  I also want to say that her shop is connected literally to the Millvale Community Library.  She and the library have planned lots of fun events on the first Saturday of each month for adults at nominal fees and with treats by Tupelo Honey Teas through May, 2017. 

I am looking forward to January 22nd when Tupelo Honey Teas and British Emporium & Tearoom will host The Art of Afternoon Tea with a traditional afternoon tea of sandwiches, scones and desserts.  They are having two seatings, 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM and if you are in the Pittsburgh area, think about attending. There are openings in the 4:00 PM hour or there were.  It is $27 and you must reserve a seat and pay in advance.  Hopefully the weather will be bright, sunny and snow and ice free!

As you can see by the banner page, as of this morning the snow has melted.  We are going to be in the 50's today and 60 tomorrow!  Oh the bulbs will be confused!  By Friday we will be back in the 30's again.  Off to see Hidden Figures today at the movies and have a Panera lunch!  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you later!

And The Winner Is. . .

Well I just wanted to thank everyone who participated in my little herbal giveaway and for all the lovely comments both here and on Facebook.  You are why I am still writing this little herbal blog.  You keep me inspired even though I may not be blogging each day.  As custom dictates, The Herbal Husband pulled the name out of the cheese basket.  Soo the winner of the herbal box is:

                        Sharon

Congratulations!  Please send me your mailing address to my Gmail account and we will get your box in the mail.  There may be an extra surprise in the box as well.  I HAVE HEARD FROM THE WINNER!  

We are going to be cooler and less humid today.  Hopefully easier to work in the garden.  Talk to you later.

The Infamous Cheese Basket!

Little Herbal Umbrellas!

Don't They Just Look Like Little Herbal Umbrellas?

I guess I am a little too focused on my herb garden at the moment.  The leaves of the nasturtiums are starting to look like little herbal umbrellas!  I guess the rain gauge with 2.5 inches of rain in one day has send me over the edge.  The Herbal Husband planted these several weeks ago before I went to England and I didn't know that he put some fertilizer in the planting hole.  Step away from the fertilizer when planting nasturtiums!  He just doesn't think I am right on this point.  He likes those little herbal umbrellas!  Nasturtiums like lean soil so they will produce more flowers!  There are flowers under those umbrellas and the flowers fared pretty well in the downpours we had a couple of days ago.  So maybe The Herbal Husband is a little bit correct!  Don't tell him I said so!

Here are Those Peppery Nasturtium Flowers in Hiding!

 I also noticed that I seem to get more flowers that have black aphids with purchased plants than when we grow our own from seed.  Do you notice that as well?  Please let me know.  Well, we had a spectacularly warm and sunny day here in the 'Burgh!  I have been weeding like crazy!  The Herbal Husband is doing his vegetables in containers now and has relinquished some beds in the back gardens.  I have been trying to get things in shape to plant some herbs with different colors and foliage to make the back pop with interest and color.  I found an article in The Herb Companion has a lot of good information on design and I will share that with you in a later post.  So many posts to write, so little time! Hope you had a great day wherever you may be.  I will talk to you again soon!

Forgot I Was Supposed to Start Blogging!

Finished Cross Stitch for The Herbal Husband

Front Facade with New Windows!

Two Windows in the Front of the Living Room!

Two Back Windows in the Living Room!

And The View Out of the Back Window of the Living Room!

Sorry I have been very preoccupied with this windows project.  We started in February with the waterfall in the front living room window and we just finished last Friday getting the living room and dining room windows replaced!  We have moved our collections around four times!  I had forgotten what true exhaustion feels like!  We are slowly getting boxes unpacked and I was hoping to move things around a bit!  The Herbal Husband wants it just like it was!  After 27 years of living here, we had/have a lot of stuff!  My house has never been this clean!  Even when we moved in.  I guess that is a good thing!  A couple of readers have asked about growing peppercorns and I am still going to do that post. Hopefully this week.  Oh, and that top photo is of the finished framed cross-stitch to celebrate the 24th year of The Herbal Husband's becoming a US citizen!

Also I had a request from a reader who owns an herb farm in Connecticut to highlight her business.  So here you go Pat Bramley who owns Buck Mountain Herbs.  Hopefully some day I will get up to see her operations.  She had seen my lists that I did for Mother Earth Living and wanted to be added.  If there are others who would like a mention here, I would be glad to do it!  I just can't add your business to the list on Mother Earth Living!  It has been a beautiful day here in the 'Burgh! We have been indoors unpacking!  Hope you have enjoyed the day wherever you may be!  Talk to you later this week!

Four Rosemarys and Zero . . .!

Zero for lemon verbenas.  We had such a mild winter and I still lost plants, but ones that were inside.  We (or The Herbal Husband) get carried away with potting tender herbs up and bringing them in.  This year was a bit different.  We both paid less attention to what was growing or not growing inside.  We lost the savory varieties I was going to talk about.  We lost several scented geraniums.  Some did survive.  And again I killed a lemon verbena in my garden and the one we brought inside croaked too!

In better herbal news, we got four (Yes, you read that correctly.) rosemarys through the winter.  I have always heard that a dry rosemary is a dead one.  So to get four through in great shape is an herbal miracle!  So the varieties are two creeping (can't be more specific), two upright varieties, one called 'Spice Islands' and one called 'Golden Rain' that has a gold variegation.  You can definitely find the creeping variety of rosemary here in the 'Burgh and maybe 'Spice Islands'.  'Golden Rain' was developed by Thomas DeBaggio and I got mine last year on the way to the national herb society meeting at DeBaggio's Herb Farm & Nursery in Chantilly, VA.  Just got their latest catalog in the mail and it is a very good resource for how to grow rosemary.  They don't do mail order, but you can subscribe to their catalog.  It is a good one.

We are supposed to get rain today after eight days of none.  We have been moving plants around in the garden and maybe I will talk about that next time.  Still trying to get the inside of the house moved around!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later!

We Never Have This Much Luck!

28 Brown Figs and Counting!

Well here I am again!  I'm just going to blog when I can.  We did get the first installment of Windows a week ago and have been totally exhausted trying to clean (historic dust) and reassemble rooms.  We use pictures like wallpaper so we just finished putting those pics back on walls that had windows installed

So The Herbal Husband asked if I was still blogging!  No because we had the chaos of the windows.  So The Herbal Husband is excited to show you the figs!  This is the kind of fig I enjoy the most!  Hope you are having a wonderful day!  Please let me know what is going on in your herb garden.  Talk to you later.

My Favorite Fig!  So Many to Choose From!

2015, An Herbal Year in Review!

January-Very Cold and Snowy!

February--'Mabel Grey' Enjoying the Windowsill!

March--Just As Snowy and Cold!

April--Signs of Spring and Coltsfoot Blooming!

May--Finally Plant Shopping, Herbally Speaking!

June--My Favorite Rose in the Garden--'Apothecary's Rose'!

July--A White Sphinx Moth and Bee Balm!

August--My First Selfie in the Herb Garden!

September--Still Picking Raspberries and Making Jam!

October--My Favorite Knot Garden Disappearing at the Garden Museum, London, England!

November--The Herbal Husband and I Celebrate 28 Years Married!

December--Almost Looks Like March in the Herb Garden!

Well, we have come to another end in the herb garden.  Even though it is finally cold in December, the herb garden has just kept going and going this year!  And I thought it was going to be a dud!  So many great photos I could have used, but you will remember your favorites perhaps with a memory jog from me!  It was nice to look back and see what was accomplished and what is yet to happen.  Had a strange year weatherwise and lost a few herbs more than usual including a lemon verbena!  That should never have happened!

Hopefully in 2016 I will come up with a different plan of attack or maybe go back to the lemon/lime garden theme.  That was a particularly great season.  So your herb garden should be tucked in if you live in the northern half of the U.S.  I am not sure what to expect going forward in the weather department!  We need to have snow and cold or I'm afraid I will lose more plants in the coming year, but on the positive side more new herbs to try!  Had fun blogging these days of December.  Hope you enjoyed it!   Even though the 2016 Herb of the Year is Capsicum, I have a boat load of posts with savory as the topic to still write.  Just want to give a shout out to my adorable and very garden worthy husband, The Herbal Husband.  Without him the garden is not too spicy or wild and crazy!  Thank you Sweetie!  And thank you to my loyal readers for reading my blog.  I will see you next year!  Happy New Year everyone!

Something for Garden AND Christmas!

Remember This Shopping Bag?  Here is What Was in it!

The Herbal Husband Gravitates to Buildings and If They Can Decorate The Garden, great!

A Table Top Tree for My Gingerbread Ornaments!

Decorated!

So had to cover both bases the other day when we went to Harmony, garden and Christmas!  They had a lot of cute items for sale.  The Herbal Husband's architecture side gravitated to the birdhouse buildings for the garden.  So I think my herb garden is decorated, don't you?  If we put them in other places in the garden, we will forget to get them before the snow falls!

And the Christmas side, I am always looking for smaller ways to decorate than what we used to do.  I found this table top tree (I know not the rosemary I usually get!) and I hoped that the gingerbread ornaments would work which I think they have perfectly.

Hope you are getting in the Christmas spirit!  The temperature has dropped here and there were snow flurries in the air!  But we will be 50 again by Monday!  Just crazy weather!  I think I will get back to talking about my England trip and the Herb of the Year, savory!  Please stay tuned!    

An Afternoon in Harmony!

A 'Shadyside' Burger with Salad!

A 'Pitts' Burgher with Rosemary Fries!

The Planter in Harmony Decorated for Christmas!

The Harmony Museum

The Museum Shop and Post Office

A Private Residence Decorated for Christmas!

The Harmony Inn Decorated Like Santa Claus!

A Private Residence

The Herbal Husband Peeked in the Window and Said It Looked Like a Museum!

Wunderbar Cafe Housed in an 1800's Opera House!

Can You Believe Lavender Earl Grey Tea!

Shared Berries and Cream Crepe!

The Bakery That Is Never Open When We Visit!  Next Time!

Pennsylvania that is!  Yes, The Herbal Husband and I had a meeting in Harmony which is a small town north of the city of Pittsburgh in neighboring Butler County founded by the Harmonists from Germany.   As it says on the museum's website, a small town with a big history!  We started at a local burger restaurant near Zelinople called Burgh'ers.  As you can see The Herbal Husband had the Shadyside and I had the Pitt's Burger.  Had to have those rosemary fries!  Will definitely be a stop again when we are in the area.

After our meeting we took a walk around and stopped at the Wunderbar Cafe that serves among other goodies, coffee and crepes!  I had tea and it was excellent, lavender Earl Grey!  What?  Then we shared the berries and cream crepe!  Delish!  The Harmony Inn was decked out like Santa!  Another place to try on our next visit.  Also Harmony does have a German Christmas Market in November.  Check it out with the link above.

We then took a stroll back toward the car and stopped in the Museum Shop which also operates as a Post Office.  The Museum was in the process of producing a promotional video and asked if we would be in it.  I declined but The Herbal Husband was game.  So I will try to find out when it will be up on the website.  The videographer looked just like Matt Damon and he said he gets that all of the time and his dad looks even more like him than he does!  It was fun!  And we did have a few retail experiences!

The Subject of Tomorrow's Post!  What's in the Harmony Museum Bag?

A very dreary day in the 'Burgh!  Very winter like without the snow and cold.  Although I hear the cold will be here tonight and tomorrow will be very chilly in comparison to 70 degrees last weekend! We are past the half way point of my 31 days of blogging!  Whew!  Going into the last two weeks and then what?  Well, you will just have to stay tuned!  Frankly I haven't decided yet!  So hope you are having a great day wherever you may be!  Talk to you tomorrow and you will see what treasures are in that shopping bag!  

Trialing The 'Fish' Pepper Plant for The Herb Society of America!

Still trying to figure out how to blog using my phone with Blogger.  Still not successful. 

Here is a current photo of the 'Fish' pepper that we are trialing for the Herb Society of America for next year's herb of the year as of August 26th.  It is a beautiful variegated tree or bush.  About two feet tall and so it is ideal for a container.  I would give you one caution not to give it too much water as you know who sometimes does.  It starts to drop its leaves.

A Beautiful Tree or Bush!

Up Until early August, We Had Just One Pepper!  Now Look!

I Think The Herbal Husband Will Be Making Hot Sauce!

Early on we did not have pepper weather.  For the longest time, we just had one pepper.  Since early August we finally have many peppers growing.  I think that The Herbal Husband will be making at the very least salsa for his beans and rice or maybe some hot sauce.  I will share recipes when that happens.

So it is a beautiful day here.  Actually worked in the herb garden getting out the weeds and the herbs that died including the lemon verbena.  I will report on those tragedies in a future post.  Hope you are having a great day.  It is my birthday and The Herbal Husband just prepared my favorite, causa for my lunch.  Makes me lunch and then cleans up too!  I'm a very blessed woman!  Going to see Man from U.N.C.L.E. and out to The Herbal Husband's choice for my birthday dinner, Olive Garden.  When I get the chance I'll download the photos from last night's dinner (my choice) at The Grand Concourse!  I was a V.I.P.!  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.

Herbal Harvest Time!

Busy out in the herb garden working to harvest herbs.  Summer is fleeting and we are already looking like fall around here.  So the lemon verbenas got their trim and the stevia did as well.  What marjoram grew has been trimmed and placed between two paper towels and then the paper towels smell like the herb once the herb is dried.  I cut the tarragon back the other day and will make tarragon wine jelly with it.  Recipe to follow.

Lemon Verbena Drying for Tea!

Would Like to Have the Herbal Husband Using Stevia!

The weather is very dry but the second crop of raspberries has started already.  Made another batch of jam on Monday.  No grape jelly this year.  Most of the grapes have been eaten by the birds or rotted.  Hope you have started harvesting in your herb gardens in earnest if you are in the northern half of the U.S.  I hear the water flowing.  The Herbal Husband is watering.  Been trying the blog on my phone because my photos are on that device and Blogger is not cooperating!  Will keep trying and will keep harvesting!  Still need to talk about savory!  Hope you are having a great day!  Talk to you later.