Been Busy in the Herb Garden and Celebrating the 2016 Herb of the Year with a Jelly Recipe!

Rosemary Sherry Jelly Was One of 19 Batches of Herbal Jelly Made!

Last Pouches of Certo Used for Hot Pepper Jelly!

Keep Finding the Ladies!  This Time on Mint!

Mexican Sage--A Late Tall Bloomer in the Garden!

One Last Monarch on the Butterfly Bush!

One Last Gasp for Our Grape Arbor!

My Favorite Flowered!

This certainly has been a different year for me in the herb garden.  I have probably had years like this before.  As I get older my May trips to England affect the herb garden and the stresses have been weather related as well.  All of the photos above are from October.  I had a brain freeze about my jelly choices and fortunately I have a couple of the Western Reserve Unit of the Herb Society of America's cookbooks which saved me for flavors.  Thanks to all of those wonderful herb ladies for their inspiration  The hot pepper jelly recipe is from The Herbal Pantry by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead.  As you can see in the photo, the peppers are suspended in the jelly which makes for a great presentation.  Here is their recipe with my notations in parentheses.

Hot Pepper Jelly
Makes 6-1/2 8 oz. jars (The half I will use for us.)
Recipe says it makes 8 8 oz. jars.  For me, it did not.

"An appealing combination of sweet and hot, this jelly is extremely good with chicken or lamb, or with cream cheese as an hors d'oeuvre.  Also you can use this as a glaze for ribs during the last 15 minutes of grilling or baking in the oven."

1 cup minced green bell pepper
1/2 cup minced hot red pepper, or to taste
1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
6-1/2 cups sugar
6 ounces (2 pouches) liquid pectin

Combine the peppers, vinegar, and sugar in a non-aluminum saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat and boil gently for 5 to 7 minutes.  Remove from heat.  (Quickly stir in the pectin and return to heat and boil exactly one minute).  Remove from heat and (Stir for a couple of minutes at least.  I stirred for 5 minutes.  Probably too much time because the Certo really started to go gloppy.  I think when you see the pepper pieces suspended you will know it is enough.)  Put carefully (because it is already just about set up) into sterilized jars that have been boiled previously for 10 minutes and use two piece rings and lids to cover.  Place the lids in hot water until ready to use.  You don't have to boil the rings.  Place all jars into a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  As long as you hear that ping after the jars come out and the lids have sealed down, they are canned.  If the lid has not sealed, place them in the refrigerator and use them promptly.

"Note:  If the only hot peppers available are green, use a red rather than a green bell pepper."

In herb garden news, I did lose some herbs from the heat and dry weather.  We did have some winners from the annuals planted especially the Mexican sage which is blooming its head off at the moment.  Love those tall late blooming herbs!  And the beneficials are still around and you can participate just like me at Lost Ladybug Project, a project of Cornell University to find those lost ladybugs.  We also actually had a monarch last week as well.  Sadly not too many of them these days.  The grape arbor is finally going to be replaced.  Need the help of our neighbor, but hopefully that will happen in the next couple of weeks!  Maybe a Halloween treat!  And then finally our crowning achievement is that the lemon verbena both in the container and in the ground thrived so much so that they both bloomed.  Very excited!

Well, those are some of the high points of the herb garden this season.  Did cut my chives and chop them for my container in the freezer.  Did make a touch more purple basil vinegar.  Do have a small bush of mint marigold or Texas tarragon to harvest before the cold sets in.  Oh and some of the parsley will be cut and frozen for Parsley Dill soup.  And finally will clip back the lemon verbena in the ground and I am going to experiment with covering it with a fiberglass cover make for roses.  Maybe it will help bring it back.  It really like the space we put it in.

The herbal containers will be coming in the next two weeks.  Have also started several projects of cross-stitch, so I will post about the garden when I can.  The months are flying by with such speed and I don't seem to want to write as much as I used to.  A beautiful day in the herb garden and I'm inside posting here.  Hope you are doing well wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.  

The Lost Ladybug Project Submissions Update!

Just wanted to update the submissions I sent to the Lost Ladybug Project.  The information will not be posted on my page because the database doesn't include Europe and ladybugs eggs can not be identified for certain.  So here are the results. The yellow one is a Propylea quatuordecimpunctata and the other is Harmonia axyridis which is quite common to find worldwide.  I have one more photo to submit.  I will add it to this post tomorrow.  We have the ickies and stickies back again, but it is July!  Hope you had a great day!  We'll talk again tomorrow.

Maybe Too Blurry for Submission!  It is A Harmonia axyridis!

More Submissions for the Lost Ladybug Project!

As I have told you in the past, I am a contributor to the Lost Ladybug Project spearheaded by Cornell University.  Here is a link to my page of photos of ladybugs I have submitted over the years.  The native ladybugs are disappearing.  They were once common and now they are rare.  The Lost Ladybug Project's mission is trying to track whatever species you can find and plot out where they are and to try and keep the native ladybug from coming even more rare than it already is.

I was excited on my latest trip to England that I found two different ladybugs than we see here in the Pittsburgh area.  I have submitted my findings to the LLP and hopefully next week or so, I will have some results.  The first was found in the kitchen garden of Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, England on some lemon balm.  The second photo was taken at Fenton House, Hampstead, London, England on some mugwort.  The third photo was taken this morning in our garden in the raspberry patch while The Herbal Husband was watering.  He spotted the ladybug laying eggs on the underside of the leaf.  Of course, I was out doing errands and he didn't have his camera on him and no, he doesn't have a smartphone!  So when I came back he told me what happened and I went back and got a good shot of the eggs.  Need to remember to ask him spots or no spots on the ladybug.

The Hampton Court Palace Ladybug--Propylea quatuordecimpunctata

The Fenton House Ladybug--Harmonia axyridis

The Local Ladybug Eggs

So please stay tuned and I hope to have an update shortly for you.  It is a beautiful sunny day here in the 'Burgh with low humidity.  Hope you have had a fabulous day.  More tomorrow!

The Lost Ladybug Project!

Harmonia axyridis on Green Pepper Basil

So I have mentioned a while back that I am a contributor to the Lost Ladybug Project which is a ongoing research project of Cornell University, an extension university and one of the best IMO.  They are trying to discover why the native ladybugs that were once common are now so rare.  It all started for me when I wanted to get rid of (move) a patch of tansy in the herb garden and the tansy was attracting all stages of ladybugs.  I wrote about it for Mother Earth Living and my post was called Tansy, Russian Sage and and Ladybugs, Oh My!  Here is a link to my contributor page on the Lost Ladybug Project website.  So if you find a ladybug or a bunch of them, take photos and upload them to the site for identification.  We need to help map where the ladybugs are and help keep the populations up of the natives ones!

The weather has started to turn to winter and we are very gray here.  Sixth straight day without sun, but that is how it is in the 'Burgh!  Can't believe we have come down to the last day of the year!  One more post in the month!  Bet you know what it is going to be!  Hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you may be.  I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Always Glad to See These in the Garden! My Submission ID Was Correct!!

The roses across the way from this rugosa are just full of aphids.  Aphids are a favorite food of the lady beetle.  I think I'm finally getting the hang of my camera.  This little cutie was on the rugosa rose the other day.  I think it's probably a multicolored Asian lady beetle.  I need to submit the photo to the Lost Ladybug Project.  You can submit photos as well.  They are always happy to find new types and where you found them.  Just wanted you to know that I got my ID correct!  Here is a link to my submission.  The photo on the left isn't as good as the recent one, but it is of a native ladybug.  So I guess that's even better!  It is sort of cool in the garden.  We probably got over a half of an inch of rain.  The rain gauge hasn't gone outside so how can I really gauge how much rain has fallen?  Oh well, eventually we will get it outside and then the measuring will begin.  Hope you are having a great day or evening wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.