It is Hotter than You Know What!

It is just amazingly hot outside!  I don't know how you folks in the south do it!  I'm giving a presentation on Thursday.  Supposedly it is going to be the hottest day of the week and the talk is outside!  What was I thinking!?  I think I must have said yes during the snowstorm of February!  Going to wear my Coolibar clothing.  Well, as you can see this is a beautiful swallowtail butterfly on the monarda.  Hope you are staying cool wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

Happy 4th of July!

Sometimes you have to think of food on the 4th!  A few blueberries, strawberries and whipping cream!  Then we topped it off with blueberry muffins, the Betty Crocker way.

Really easy recipe and I could have put an herb in them, but The Herbal Husband likes his traditional muffins!  He had four, but it is the 4th!

Muffins
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease bottoms of muffin tin only of about 12 medium muffin cups, 2-1/2 x 1-1/4 inches.  Beat egg; stir in milk and oil.  Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy).  Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full.  Bake unti gold brown, about 20 minutes.  Immediately remove from pan.  About 1 dozen muffins.

For blueberry muffins:  Stir in 1 cup fresh or 3/4 cup frozen blueberries (thawed and well drained) with the milk
For surprise muffins:  Fill muffin cups about half full.  Spoon 1 teaspoon strawberry jam (or jam/jelly of choice) onto batter in each cup; top with enough to fill cups about 3/4 full.

I gave you the standard muffin recipe and you can make it your own.  It is not overly sweet and the muffins are a normal size, not too large.  Hope you have a great 4th!  It is going to be a very hot one today!  I think they call it a firecracker!  Appropriate!  Talk to you later!

Volunteers Are Best! At Least This Year!

We plant sunflower seeds every year, but the volunteers we grow from bird seed and birds in general are the best!  The petals can be eaten in salads and the young buds boiled a couple of times.  They taste similar to an artichoke.  Here is a recipe from Cathy Barash's book, Edible Flowers From Garden to Palate.

Sunbuds-Serves 4

8 sunflower buds
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
juice of 2 medium lemons

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Add sunflower buds.  Boil for 2 minutes.  While water is boiling, bring a second pot of water to a boil.  After the sunflower buds have cooked for 3 minutes, transfer them to the second pot of water.  Discard the first pot of water.  This gets rid of any bitterness.  Continue to cook buds until fork tender.  Drain and set aside.

In a skillet, melt the butter.  Add bread crumbs and stir, sauteing lightly.  When bread crumbs turn golden, toss in sunflower buds.  Pour on lemon juice to taste, toss to coat.  Serve immediately.  Garnish, if desired, with sunflower petals.

It has been a beautiful day in the 'Burgh!  Went to the doctor to get a stronger cream for my dermatitis.  I'm sure it will help.  Hope you all have a great and safe July 4th weekend!

Guest Blogging for The Herb Companion Magazine!

My angelica was big and beautiful this year.  So to keep it at bay and not get too many seedlings, I cut the seeds off the other day.  I knew some had fallen already, but I didn't want more to germinate.  Be careful what you wish for.  I have a case of contact dermatitis!  So hope you enjoy my article for The Herb Companion magazine called Contact Dermatitis Causes in the Garden.  Got a couple of batches of raspberry jam made today!  Beautiful weather in the 'Burgh!  Talk to you later.

An Insect Magnet!

I got this swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) last year and it didn't do very much.  This year is a different matter.  I guess the old saying, first year it sleeps, second years it creeps, third year it leaps really doesn't work in this case.  This milkweed just jumped over the second year!  It was a delightful day in the garden.  Picked raspberries and weeded and trimmed around beds.  Oh, made my first batch of lemon basil jelly.  The jelly season has begun!  Hope you had a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

A Hummingbird Favorite!

Lots blooming in the garden now.  The hummingbirds should start coming around.  The Monarda didyma or bee balm has started to bloom.  This one is called 'Jacob Kline' and is supposed to be less susceptible to powdery mildew.  We try to have flowers around for the hummingbirds.  Bee balm is also an edible flower.  You should use the flowers in fruit salads or to decorate a plate for dessert.  Of course, the leaves and flowers are used in teas as well.  The leaves were a replacement for tea during the early tea party days!  It is truly one of my favorite flowers in the herbal garden.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.


The Herbal Husband wanted you to see our other bee balms.  I keep forgetting that it has been warmer than usual already.  This one is a light pink.

This is the regular magenta bee balm with a dead butterfly bush in the background!  Ooops!  Click on the photo to see both up close!

I Didn't Think This Was Supposed to Happen!

Leave it to Martha Stewart to set me straight about Lambs Ears 'Helene Von Stein'.  Of course, they flower!  How silly of me to think that they don't.  I was led to believe erroneously that Helene doesn't flower and is grown for its tight mat and foliage!  There are websites that say Helene doesn't flower.  They would be incorrect.  So another misconception bites the dust or mud in our case!  Hopefully the rain is done and we are going to have some nice sunny days and NO RAIN, PLEASE!  Hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

'Goodwin Creek Grey' Lavender Up Close!

Hopefully this will help with your ID of your lavender plant, Pat!  This is from Goodwin Creek's catalog.  'Goodwin Creek Grey' is a hybrid of Lavandula dentata.  It blooms throughout the summer and will even bloom in winter in mild climates.  (It blooms through the winter on a western facing windowsill for us.)  An excellent choice of large containers and topiaries.  (Ours is not in a large container and is doing just fine.)  It has silvery grey leaves and deep purple corollas.  A good choice for hot, humid areas.  Zones 7-10.  Sentences in parentheses are my comments.

This is a French Grey (Lavandula dentata var. candicans).  Hope these closeups are a help for anyone trying to decide what kind of lavender you may have.

A Ring of King Tuts!

Here is my hand compared to the blooms of the 'King Tut' sweet peas Lathyrus sativus.  It says on the seed packet that they reach up to 3 feet and are adaptable to both cool and hot regions.  They aren't fragrant, but boy, aren't they cute?  You can purchase seeds from Territorial Seed Company in Oregon state.

I cut them so they would continue to bloom.  I put them in a shot glass for this photo!  Gardening is so enjoyable, isn't it?  Had a hot and muggy day.  The Herbal Husband watered and that brought the rain!  He can't seem to wait!  Loves his plants!  Hope you had a good day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later!