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