Meet My Guest Blogger, Pat

Last year my family joined Pat Whetham's organic vegetable CSA* farm, here in Genesee County, Michigan. Just to give it a try see how we liked it. The food was fresh and healthy, organically and locally grown. It was a good year. And luckily, our half share was plentiful: we had more than we could use.
And, just maybe because of all of the green leafy veggies, my cholesterol level this year was better than last year's reading. All good, all good.
(*Consumer Supported Agriculture)

Farming is a real life gamble, when you think of it. We get a taste of that when we buy a share in a CSA farm and then wait to see what happens with the weather and insects and whatever else Mother Nature has in mind for us. Like with stock, 'the market doesn't always go up'. This uncertainty is what the farm family has to deal with every year for their livelihood.
It gives us a clearer idea about the precariousness of the climate change that we are beginning to experience as well.

Anyhow, this year I like to think we were first in line to re-subscribe.

We shareholders receive occasional e-mails concerning relevant topics from our CSA farmer, Pat, and upon reading the latest one, I had 'the light bulb' turn on over my head:
Ask Pat to be a guest blogger!
In other words, ask her permission to post her emails and help spread her words of wisdom and experience! So I turn this space over today to Pat.

From Whetham Organic Farm - "The Way We Live Now"

In the interests of further educating everyone I know:

[Linked] to this is a very interesting article by Michael Pollan, author of The Ominivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. ... I really want you to read it and think.

Pollan is good at making us think (at least in my opinion) and his work has helped fuel the 'eat local' movement across America by describing the production of industrial food in great detail. In this article he is very definitely equating our food choices with our environmental or carbon footprints. And it's about time. I've been trying to do that for 20 years, but no one would pay attention - including the environmentalists.

By the end of the [linked] article Pollan finally is saying Grow your own food. It's the best choice for the whole entire world and everybody in it. I agree and say also that garden needs to be organic, not chemical (because chemical gardening -and farming- uses more resources as well as being unhealthy for you and the planet).

Can you believe that many 'gardeners' never grow anything edible? Those people need to be encouraged to put some fruits and vegetables among those ornamentals!

Pollan talks about viral social change - that phenomenon where ideas spread like a computer virus. Let's help this particular virus along. Start praising all the gardeners you know for growing their own food.

Encourage others to try it. That's one of the reasons I started an organic gardening class this year - to encourage others, to show them how it's done if they don't know, to spread the word as Pollan is trying to do.

For those of you who can't grow your own, CSA is a good choice, particularly a really local CSA where you can see your food being grown, maybe help out a little, and gain some understanding of the whole process of gardening and farming and the ways it can help or hurt the world.

I have a few more "viral" ideas coming along in my mind. Expect to hear about them soon.

Pat

End of April on the hill

The beautiful stuff outside is changing every single day. I can scarcely manage to see it all. Just feeling the sun and gazing at the array of greens (how many shades can there be?) is invigorating and exciting. This time of year is just so amazing and inspiring! It took a while to get the proofs completed for Under the Sun, and we still have a good week or two until the next deadline for The Essential Herbal comes up, so I am enjoying this time.
AND the Mount Joy Farmers Market opens on the third, AND the Landis Valley Herb Faire is the following week... so one gathers ones rosebuds while one may :-).
These tulips were planted by my mother. Every spring when they come up, they remind me of lipstick. I'm not a make-up-wearing kind of gal, but this particular color may one day change my mind about that. These bulbs have managed to escape the voracious appetites of the resident groundhogs (with whom I am currently doing battle, using fresh mountain mint and the essential oil of peppermint), unlike some of the daffodils, hyacinths, and the entire plants of the delphiniums. In the next shot you can make out the fence I've erected for this year's attempt to protect my berries from the blasted beasts.

Here you see the view from the deck, looking down over the valley, and the red soap and jewelry studio. You might be able to make out the posts from the new fence which houses the new baby pygmy goats that have made themselves at home, clinging to the craggy bank among the 20 or so (hopefully safe) rugosa rosebushes. At the very far left edge of the picture, there are trees blossoming in pink. They are the new hazelnut trees, and interspersed between them are the bayberry bushes. That is the path I walk to work with my sister on most days. Soon the hillsides surrounding those plants will be ablaze with poppies, echinacea, yarrow, and cornflowers, along with many other wildflowers whose names I can't remember right this minute.
The white lilac outside my bedroom window is in bloom, and the scent wafts into the room when the windows are open. It is a large bush, and the branches are covered with gorgeous, fragrant blossoms. Soon the vitex situated next to the lilac will bush out, but it will take a few months for the spectacular periwinkle flowers to form.

It's been a busy couple of weeks here, and you can tell by my lack of posts.
My friend Geri Burgert's son sent me "Flat Stanley", a cut-out character from a children's book, and Stan and I have been out having some fun adventures too. Maybe I'll post his travel story when it's done, although I must admit that my imagination is running wild. I have to keep reminding myself that this is for young children.
On another note, I received my copy of Marge Clark's new book - Essential Oils and Aromatics (available at Naturesgift.com). This is really a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in learning more about essential oils and responsible ways to use them for hearth, home, and health. Lots of information, a good number of recipes, and how-tos, all wrapped up in a gorgeous hard-bound book.
Off to enjoy some more spring!

NGJL "Hope"

"Hope" by George Fredrick Watts

A bumper sticker on the car in front of me on Hill Road got to me yesterday, while on my way to the Home Street garden to do a neighborhood walk to invite the community to an informational meeting on urban community gardening. It was a quote from Mother Theresa of Calcutta (who we've lately learned also had a jaundiced view of religious institutions) that read: "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

Most probably the owner of that bumper was anti-choice in the Snowflake Debate, but I think Sister Theresa was talking about our many daily choices. Are you on the Recession Diet yet? Are you warehousing food? Are you planting a Victory Garden in your backyard? Or are you clearing the rice shelf at Sam's "Club"?
Did the Presidents of Peru and Ecuador telling the United Nations that 'growing food grain for fuel was making the choice to starve people in the third world' affect you as you drove your SUV to the mall?
Did you write or call your congressional representatives about the Farm Bill for Agribusiness, or the Taxpayer Subsidies for Corporate Oil?

What do you think when you read something like this that arrived in my e-mailbox today in my biweekly update from OCA:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"We should not hide the word hunger in our discussions of this problem just because we cannot hide the reality of hunger among our citizens."
- Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, speaking about the USDA's annual report on hunger in the U.S. For the first time in the agency's history, the USDA avoided the term "hunger" in its report and used a new euphemism in its place. The phrase "suffering from food insecurity" is how the USDA now refers to the nation's 35 million hungry.Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_3390.cfm

I don't spend much time listening to sermons, and readers who know me know my position on organized religions. But this old sermon (posted below) that I ran across while Googling 'Audacity + Hope' got to me. Another of those coincidental discoveries on this path I'm on.

I think, beyond the message of the sermon itself, which blow me away with its truth telling, that this sermon reveals a story that our corporate owned mass media missed, perhaps deliberately. I've heard the wealthy media pundits derisively playing with the words 'Hope' and 'Change'. Are they bitter, stupid, or just plain bad people?

Next time you hear someone deride Hope, Know them for who they are.

Here it is:

"Several years ago while I was in Richmond, the Lord allowed me to be in that city during the week of the annual convocation at Virginia Union University School of Theology. There I heard the preaching and teaching of Reverend Frederick G. Sampson of Detroit, Michigan. In one of his lectures, Dr. Sampson spoke of a painting I remembered studying in humanities courses back in the late '50s. In Dr. Sampson's powerful description of the picture, he spoke of it being a study in contradictions, because the title and the details on the canvas seem to be in direct opposition.

"The painting's title is "Hope." It shows a woman sitting on top of the world, playing a harp. What more enviable position could one ever hope to achieve than being on top of the world with everyone dancing to your music?

"As you look closer, the illusion of power gives way to the reality of pain. The world on which this woman sits, our world, is torn by war, destroyed by hate, decimated by despair, and devastated by distrust. The world on which she sits seems on the brink of destruction.

"Famine ravages millions of inhabitants in one hemisphere, while feasting and gluttony are enjoyed by inhabitants of another hemisphere. This world is a ticking time bomb, with apartheid in one hemisphere and apathy in the other. Scientists tell us there are enough nuclear warheads to wipe out all forms of life except cockroaches. That is the world on which the woman sits in Watt's painting.

"Our world cares more about bombs for the enemy than about bread for the hungry. This world is still more concerned about the color of skin than it is about the content of character—a world more finicky about what's on the outside of your head than about the quality of your education or what's inside your head. That is the world on which this woman sits.

"You and I think of being on top of the world as being in heaven. When you look at the woman in Watt's painting, you discover this woman is in hell. She is wearing rags. Her tattered clothes look as if the woman herself has come through Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Her head is bandaged, and blood seeps through the bandages. Scars and cuts are visible on her face, her arms, and her legs.

I. Illusion of Power vs. Reality of Pain

"A closer look reveals all the harp strings but one are broken or ripped out. Even the instrument has been damaged by what she has been through, and she is the classic example of quiet despair. Yet the artist dares to entitle the painting 'Hope'. The illusion of power — sitting on top of the world — gives way to the reality of pain.

"And isn't it that way with many of us? We give the illusion of being in an enviable position on top of the world. Look closer, and our lives reveal the reality of pain too deep for the tongue to tell. For the woman in the painting, what looks like being in heaven is actually an existence in a quiet hell.

"I've been a pastor for seventeen years. I've seen too many of these cases not to know what I'm talking about. I've seen married couples where the husband has a girlfriend in addition to his wife. It's something nobody talks about. The wife smiles and pretends not to hear the whispers and the gossip. She has the legal papers but knows he would rather try to buy Fort Knox than divorce her. That's a living hell.

"I've seen married couples where the wife had discovered that somebody else cares for her as a person and not just as cook, maid jitney service, and call girl all wrapped into one. But there's the scandal: What would folks say? What about the children? That's a living hell.

"I've seen divorcees whose dreams have been blown to bits, families broken up beyond repair, and lives somehow slipping through their fingers. They've lost control. That's a living hell.

"I've seen college students who give the illusion of being on top of the world — designer clothes, all the sex that they want, all the cocaine or marijuana or drugs, all the trappings of having it all together on the outside — but empty and shallow and hurting and lonely and afraid on the inside. Many times what looks good on the outside — the illusion of being in power, of sitting on top of the world—with a closer look is actually existence in a quiet hell.

"That is exactly where Hannah is in 1 Samuel 1 :1-18. Hannah is top dog in this three-way relationship between herself, Elkanah, and Peninnah. Her husband loves Hannah more than he loves his other wife and their children. Elkanah tells Hannah he loves her. A lot of husbands don't do that. He shows Hannah that he loves her, and many husbands never get around to doing that. In fact, it is his attention and devotion to Hannah that causes Peninnah to be so angry and to stay on Hannah's case constantly. Jealous! Jealousy will get hold of you, and you can't let it go because it won't let you go. Peninnah stayed on Hannah, like we say, "as white on rice." She constantly picked at Hannah, making her cry, taking her appetite away.

"At first glance Hannah's position seems enviable. She had all the rights and none of the responsibilities—no diapers to change, no beds to sit beside at night, no noses to wipe, nothing else to wipe either, no babies draining you of your milk and demanding feeding. Hannah was top dog. No baby portions to fix at meal times. Her man loved her; everybody knew he loved her. He loved her more than anything or anybody. That's why Peninnah hated her so much.

"Now, except for the second-wife bit, which was legal back then, Hannah was sitting on top of the world, until you look closer. When you look closer, what looked like being in heaven was actually existing in a quiet hell.

"Hannah had the pain of a bitter woman to contend with, for verse 7 says that nonstop, Peninnah stayed with her. Hannah suffered the pain of living with a bitter woman. And she suffered another pain—the pain of a barren womb. You will remember the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4 who had no child. The story of a woman with no children was a story of deep pathos and despair in biblical days.

"Do you remember the story of Sarah and what she did in Genesis 16 because of her barren womb—before the three heavenly visitors stopped by their tent? Do you remember the story of Elizabeth and her husband in Luke I? Back in Bible days, the story of a woman with a barren womb was a story of deep pathos. And Hannah was afflicted with the pain of a bitter woman on the one hand and the pain of a barren womb on the other.

"Hannah's world was flawed, flaky. Her garments of respectability were tattered and torn, and her heart was bruised and bleeding from the constant attacks of a jealous woman. The scars and scratches on her psyche are almost visible as you look at this passage, where she cries, refusing to eat anything. Just like the woman in Watt's painting, what looks like being in heaven is actually existence in a quiet hell.

"Now I want to share briefly with you about Hannah—the lady and the Lord. While I do so, I want you to be thinking about where you live and your own particular pain predicament. Think about it for a moment.

"Dr. Sampson said he wanted to quarrel with the artist for having the gall to name that painting Hope when all he could see in the picture was hell — a quiet desperation.

"But then Dr. Sampson said he noticed that he had been looking only at the horizontal dimensions and relationships and how this woman was hooked up with that world on which she sat. He had failed to take into account her vertical relationships. He had not looked above her head. And when he looked over her head, he found some small notes of music moving joyfully and playfully toward heaven."

II. The Audacity to Hope

Then, Dr. Sampson began to understand why the artist titled the painting "Hope." In spite of being in a world torn by war, in spite of being on a world destroyed by hate and decimated by distrust, in spite of being on a world where famine and greed are uneasy bed partners, in spite of being on a world where apartheid and apathy feed the fires of racism and hatred, in spite of being on a world where nuclear nightmare draws closer with each second, in spite of being on a ticking time bomb, with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God. The vertical dimension balanced out what was going on in the horizontal dimension.
And that is what the audacity to hope will do for you.

"The apostle Paul said the same thing. "You have troubles? Glory in your trouble. We glory in tribulation." That's the horizontal dimension. We glory in tribulation because, he says, "Tribulation works patience. And patience works experience. And experience works hope. (That's the vertical dimension.) And hope makes us not ashamed." The vertical dimension balances out what is going on in the horizontal dimension. That is the real story here in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Not the condition of Hannah's body, but the condition of Hannah's soul — her vertical dimension. She had the audacity to keep on hoping and praying when there was no visible sign on the horizontal level that what she was praying for, hoping for, and waiting for would ever be answered in the affirmative.

"What Hannah wanted most out of life had been denied to her. Think about that. Yet in spite of that, she kept on hoping. The gloating of Peninnah did not make her bitter. She kept on hoping. When the family made its pilgrimage to the sanctuary at Shiloh, she renewed her petition there, pouring out her heart to God. She may have been barren, but that's a horizontal dimension. She was fertile in her spirit, her vertical dimension. She prayed and she prayed and she prayed and she kept on praying year after year. With no answer, she kept on praying. She prayed so fervently in this passage that Eli thought she had to be drunk. There was no visible sign on the horizontal level to indicate to Hannah that her praying would ever be answered. Yet, she kept on praying.

"And Paul said something about that, too. No visible sign? He says, "Hope is what saves us, for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he have hope for it? But if we hope for that which we see not (no visible sign), then do we with patience wait for it."

"That's almost an echo of what the prophet Isaiah said: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." The vertical dimension balances out what is going on in the horizontal dimension.

"There may not be any visible sign of a change in your individual situation, whatever your private hell is. But that's just the horizontal level. Keep the vertical level intact, like Hannah. You may, like the African slaves, be able to sing, "Over my head I hear music in the air. Over my head I hear music in the air. Over my head I hear music in the air. There must be a God somewhere."

"Keep the vertical dimension intact like Hannah. Have the audacity to hope for that child of yours. Have the audacity to hope for that home of yours. Have the audacity to hope for that church of yours. Whatever it is you've been praying for, keep on praying, and you may find, like my grandmother sings, "There's a bright side somewhere; there is a bright side somewhere. Don't you rest until you find it, for there is a bright side somewhere."

III. Persistence of Hope

"The real lesson Hannah gives us from this chapter — the most important word God would have us hear — is how to hope when the love of God is not plainly evident. It's easy to hope when there are evidences all around of how good God is. But to have the audacity to hope when that love is not evident — you don't know where that somewhere is that my grandmother sang about, or if there will ever be that brighter day — that is a true test of a Hannah-type faith. To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope — make music and praise God on and with whatever it is you've got left, even though you can't see what God is going to do — that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting.

"There's a true-life illustration that demonstrates the principles portrayed so powerfully in this periscope. And I close with it. My mom and my dad used to sing a song that I've not been able to find in any of the published hymnals. It's an old song out of the black religious tradition called "Thank you, Jesus." It's a very simple song. Some of you have heard it. It's simply goes, "Thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Lord." To me they always sang that song at the strangest times — when the money got low, or when the food was running out. When I was getting in trouble, they would start singing that song. And I never understood it, because as a child it seemed to me they were thanking God that we didn't have any money, or thanking God that we had no food, or thanking God that I was making a fool out of myself as a kid.

Conclusion: Hope is What Saves Us

"But I was only looking at the horizontal level. I did not understand nor could I see back then the vertical hookup that my mother and my father had. I did not know then that they were thanking him in advance for all they dared to hope he would do one day to their son, in their son, and through their son. That's why they prayed. That's why they hoped. That's why they kept on praying with no visible sign on the horizon. And I thank God I had praying parents, because now some thirty-five years later, when I look at what God has done in my life, I understand clearly why Hannah had the audacity to hope. Why my parents had the audacity to hope.
And that's why I say to you, hope is what saves us. Keep on hoping; keep on praying. God does hear and answer prayer.

-The full text of Jeremiah Wright's "Audacity To Hope" sermon in 1990. Maybe, hopefully, Barack Hussein Obama heard the sermon that day. He did, after all, title his book, The Audacity of Hope.

GTS: the audacity of hope - plant seeds

Shelf #1 Mine: Lemon basil, lime basil, basil 'Purple Ruffles', basil 'Mexican Spice', Thai basil 'Siam Queen', holy basil, Genovese basil, basil 'Napoletano Bolloso', basil 'Mammoth', calendula 'Flashback', calendula 'Pacific Beauty', Celosia cristata 'Red Velvet', Viola tricolor, summer savory, sweet marjoram, stevia. (Rotated outdoors: pansies and parsley, flat and curled)

Shelf #2 Herb's: tomatoes, peppers and okra.

Snow is predicted this week. My memory tells me that for thirty years of observation (except for last year), it always snows on my daffodils. A blanket or only a few flakes, but it does. But the tender annual seeds are in the soil, safely indoors, waiting and preparing themselves for Memorial Day.

Yesterday at the Genesee County Herb Symposium, our speaker, Donna Frawley said something I that just loved that I'll try to paraphrase:

We gardeners have such imagination! Just think of how we sprinkle a few basil seeds in the palm of our hand and we can already smell the pesto! Imagine, bowls of pesto from those tiny black dots.

And of course there is the classic comment by Henry Thoreau in his last book:
"Though I do not believe a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."
Henry David Thoreau
I'm doing the happy dance today, the herb symposium is over! and it was great fun! and I think our guests liked it too. What more can you ask?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

my borrowed view

Magnolia stellata. This 40 or so year old star magnolia in my neighbor's yard has had its good years and poor years. One time years ago when the house was changing hands, the new owner came outdoors with a saw and began to clear shrubbery. I reenacted "Woodsman Spare That Tree" with tales of the fragrance and promises of a beautiful flowery show in the spring, and he just trimmed it up a bit.
The gnarled old Henry Lauder's' Walking Stick (on its own roots, not a graft) was not so lucky.

For insurance I gathered seed from the magnolia and now I have my own tree growing in a bed in front of my house. In its third year of bloom my seedling tree is not as impressive as its mother, but working on it.
I detest chain link fences, but the cedar fence that was there when we bought this house is long gone, and the neighbors in that house always have dogs so it is probably as well. I remember reading somewhere (maybe advice from one of our best garden writers, Allen Lacy?) that if you want an ugly thing such as a chain link fence to disappear, paint it black. Sounds like gardening advice from Mick Jagger.

Tidying up the Hellebores

They look like HECK before their spring haircuts, but they seem to be sturdy enough plants, and Hooray! on removing the dessicated foliage I found volunteer seedlings under the pink flowered plant. I do wish they would hold their faces up though so we could see their charming freckles.

GTS: Some Herbs Are Making Their Comeback

Motherwort: transplanted last year from Skip and Tree's yard, and Hooray! I see seedlings emerging all around it:

Lungwort: this one is a volunteer. I know, Pulmonarias have become a popular ornamental nursery plant, a favorite with hybridizers, but I like the old standby:

Lovage: can't (or should I say shouldn't) make chicken stock without some lovage:
Salad Burnet: another volunteer. In my yard burnet always makes an appearance in the gravel walks, not in the beds where I place it.

Hops: This is a prolific plant, so don't feel bad about giving it a severe cutting back. I'm thinking, from what I've seen this plant do, that if I left just a few stems, it would bear enough 'cones' for the family brewmeister, if he wanted some ... You can observe I need to do some work in the garden, cleaning up the winter debris.

My garlic planting looks good! I planted these cloves last fall.
But whew! I didn't get around to photographing half of the neat things coming up!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

The Essential Herbal gets a review :-) etc.

We were reviewed on this blog and it was so nice, I wanted to share it. Rachel has been a long-time subscriber, and has sent recipes and articles on occasion. Stop over and read what she has to say!

Yesterday Maryanne and I were at the Health Fair in Hanover. Our friend Marty Webster was one of the organizers, and although first year fairs are notorious stinkers, we wanted to go set up, be supportive... see what was shaking.

When I look back on my life someday, this will be another one of those 36 - 48 hour "we must be crazy" dream sequences. The short version was finishing the cover and getting the book to the printer... putting together the Friday night family dinner... searching the fields for spearmint under the moonlit skies (for a distillation demo yesterday)... putting together a talk on index cards....short sleep... pack the car... set up booth... set up still and get her cooking... give talk... sell stuff... pack up car... come home to hungry family... unload the car... feed said family... crash.
In between there were lots of emails and phone calls and normal everyday stuff.

The fair itself was very successful for a first time event. There was a good line waiting to get in at opening time, and the line-up of speakers kept most people there all day long. The Wild Foods for Every Table book was a huge hit, and I got some pre-release sales for Under the Sun. A bonus was coming home to find that the website had been busy working while I was gone :-). I wish I had taken Molly along because Marty brought her French foreign exchange student (Matilde) of approximately the same age. I suspect the two of them would have had a great time together and could have learned some language from each other.

Today I plan on finding some order here in the office. Lots of unanswered emails await, piles of paperwork, and (sigh) laundry are beginning to make me a little freaked out. A couple of good solid hours of work should set everything back into position.

Thankfully the past few days of exquisite spring weather have given way to clouds and a chill, so that temptation isn't quite as strong.

The Essential Herbal - Under the Sun!!!

After 6 months of editing, the next book is finally off to the printer. I am not sure I could be any more excited! Read on to find out how you can take advantage of my slightly altered state :-).

We are in the 7th year of publication here at The Essential Herbal Magazine. The first several years were filled with wonderful stuff, but the audience was very limited. Most of those issues sold out long ago. So we took the 15 spring and summer issues from those 5 years (Mar/Apr, May/June, and July/Aug), and put them together into a truly fabulous book. Over 200 pages, sized 8.5 x 11, filled with all the things readers have come to expect from The Essential Herbal. Internal pages are b&w, and it will be paperback bound.

We reworked some of the early stuff, combined things into reasonable chapters - like "The Stillroom", "The Kitchen", "Just Weeds", and "Herbal First Aid", and added a few surprises. There are articles on gardening, favorite backyard remedies, wild eats, and tons of crafting ideas.

The book will begin shipping on May 12. Between now and May 7th, we'll run a special on the shopping cart. Pre-order now, and instead of the regular price of $24.95 (plus $3.00 for shipping), the book will be just $20!

Hurry and take a 20% discount.

I should say a few words about the Genesee County Herb Society Spring Symposium

A week from tomorrow the Genesee County Herb Society will have our biannual Herb Symposium, "Cooking with WHAT? Herbs!" We still have a few tickets left, so I'll tell you about what to expect in case you are nearby and would like to attend.

Our guest speaker will be Donna Frawley of Frawley's Fine Herbary based in Midland, Michigan, who will give two presentations and who will during the day be selling a variety of her herbal products.

Donna's keynote talk, in the morning will be "Cooking with Herbs" and her shorter afternoon presentation will be "Herbal Breads."
I've personally been to one of her presentations for the local District meeting of the Federated Garden Clubs and she does a great presentation, complete with demonstrations while she talks and yummy samples. Donna sells herbal culinary mixes has authored cookbooks and now has gone high tech with videos.

When you come in the door you'll be given your name tag and a goody bag and be directed to find a seat at one of the beautifully decorated tables in the auditorium, but before the day starts you can shop at our marketplace and preview the silent auction. We have added a plant vendor from one of the local nurseries, 'His and Herbs', this year and asked to have a good supply of culinary herbs to coordinate with the theme of our program. The GCHS is a non-profit organization and our biannual Symposium is one of our major fund-raisers to support our educational programs so we encourage you to shop til you drop.

However, if you need sustenance we have one of the best morning tea buffets, homemade sweet and savory treats provided by our membership ... so before the program begins you should take time to choose a plate of goodies and a nice cuppa tea and get settled. By the way, the centerpieces will be offered for sale in the silent auction, so choose your favorite! Take a moment too, to look around at the springtime decorations and herbal educational display.

After a few official remarks and the Keynote talk by our speaker, we will break out into your choice of one of seven workshops that our members will be teaching.

The make-and-take classes this year are:
Dried Herbal Seasonings - Better Than Store-Bought (with recipe booklet)
Herbal Tea in a Decorated Jar (with recipe booklet)
Place Cards for your Tea Table
Post-It Note Holder Made with Pressed Flowers
Holiday Table Favors - 12 designs, make 3!
Herbal Meals in a Jar
Using Herbs for Medicinal Purposes and Cosmetics

A delicious Luncheon follows, and then we will enjoy a second presentation by our guest speaker. Donna has told me she'll have a bread machine going, to add the fragrance of her herbal bread to the air while we enjoy her talk.

At the end of the day, don't leave before picking up your auction purchases, and have a safe drive home!

The Essential Herbal - May/June 2008

The next issue is starting to reach subscribers, so it's about time I get it posted! If you aren't familiar with The Essential Herbal, click on the link on the sidebar to download a free issue from last year. It will give you a good idea of what we do around here.
The new issue was such a pleasure to put together. It's always so much fun to see what comes in, but the spring issues are so exciting! Additionally, I got to interview my friends at The Rosemary House to celebrate their 40 YEARS in business.
It started as just an easy idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how instrumental the Repperts are and have been to the herb community as a whole. It was a great honor to include this interview, just as it has been an honor to consider Susanna and Nancy friends along with the entire Reppert/Brill clan.
Their mother was Bertha Reppert, a strong and energetic woman with the ability to impress an enormous group of people to embrace herbs and to share that love of plants. She influenced people all over the world, and in my part of the world she influenced how herb businesses interact. The PA herb businesses that have become old friends are open with their knowledge, sharing, and helpful towards each other. That was Bertha's doing, and her daughters continue that attitude. We are very lucky to have that here, and I expect that it reaches far beyond my scope of friends. If you haven't come across Bertha's books, you are missing a treat! Visit The Rosemary House on-line and take a gander.

But of course, that's not all... Here's the table of contents for the newest issue:

Wordfind Puzzle - Into the Garden
Field Notes from the Editor
Suburban Herbie - The New Garden, Geri Burgert
All in the Family - 40 Years in Herbs, Ym-health
Healthy Garlic, Joe Smulevitz
Down on the Farm - Springing into the Growing Season, Michele Brown & Pat Stewart
List Article - First Herbal Experience
SouthRidge Treasures - Brightening Foods with Edible Flowers, Mary Ellen Wilcox
The Soap Pot - Lemon & Mint Soaps, Alicia Grosso
Getting Ready for Summer, Herbal First Aid & Travel Kit, Betsy May
Much Ado About Nothings, Sue-Ryn Burns
Never Enough Thyme - The Herb of Angels, Susanna Reppert Brill
With Seeds of Intention, Marita A. Orr
Louisiana Lagniappe - Microwave Lemon Curd, Sarah Liberta
Al Fresco Dining - Sensational Summer Salads, Susan Evans
Nettles, Kristena Roder

See? Lots of really great stuff! And yes, we did have to add 4 pages again. Someday I'll get a grip on how to whittle it down to the regular (hah!) 32 pages again.

minor bulbs and spring ephemerals

The floral calendar shifts into second gear. I hope all my little treasures will be able to adjust to the sudden sunlight afforded by the removal of the Colorado Blue Spruce that was providing shade for them during summers past.
Scilla

Dutch Iris (Sorry for the blurrrr. The wind was blowing when I tried to take the photo.)

Puschkinia

Dutchman's Breeches

Remember - for a closer look, click on the photo.

Spring Beauty

Bloodroot

NGJL - ice cream castles in the air

I was sitting in the dentist chair yesterday watching HGTV when a commercial came on for a 'green house giveaway' which reminded the dental hygienist of a story she'd heard. A woman won a really, really big lottery and paid off all of her family's mortgages. And then she won another big one, and spent it all on herself, which led the young lady working on my teeth on a beautiful Michigan spring day to comment that winning all of that money was a scary thought.
Scary?
Not exactly the word I'd have used.

So, in the usual manner of significant things just 'turning up' on my path, this morning the video posted here was in my mailbox, waiting to be connected for y'all.
What would you do with three trillion dollars?

The Three Trillion dot org interactive website is lotsa good clean fun, and makes me wonder why we don't have the collective will as a nation to spend our fortune on good things.
Go try it out: you can even put your kid's mortgages and health insurance for your grandchildren in your 'shopping cart'...

Methow Valley Update (Mid April)

We went on a beautiful evening walk tonight and I want to record all that is happening so that I can compare notes with the following years.

Today was the first day we noticed the river growing - caught us totally by surprise. A few days ago we were down by the river chasing marmots when we found a hawthorn! Quite the find. It's strange we've never seen it before, but we've been eating a lot of hawthorn berry vinegar lately and it's like it jumped out of the landscape.

So many plants have just shot out of the ground. Lomatium dissectum, or chocolate tips, is out and flowering and seems to be everywhere!







Buttercups are dotting the hillside as are yellow bells and blue bells.










It's the perfect season for harvesting yellow dock leaves - see all that green? It's all dock!









Switching from flora to fauna - can you see the marmot tracks? They like to hang out in my dock field.










Oregon grape is getting ready to bloom its tart yellow flowers.









Today we also noticed the elderberry is starting to sprout leaves and we did a little pruning to clear out the dead branches and make room for the new. (My elderberry wine is sitting in bottles right now and I can hardly wait for it to be ready... just six more months!)

Arrowleaf balsam root was just peaking it's head out of the ground a few days ago and now the leaves have grown tremendously and the flower heads are out as well.

Mullein is looking healthy and the sqaw currants are completely leafed out. The pussy willows outside the house are covered in green fuzzy tips and the bees have been busy buzzing around while the warblers and swallows have been busy eating them up. The red wing blackbirds are constantly crying out to "poke yerrr neighberrr" and at times there are at least fifty robins eating in the field.

Dandelions are growing in the garden as are little tiny leaves that are too young to identify. Xavier wonders if it will be all the squash we composted last fall... In general the hillsides are getting greener, but there is still snow in the not to distant mountains.

First April Walk in the Woods - '08

I have been wanting to visit the woods for over a week now, but things kept getting in the way. Getting the May/June issue of The Essential Herbal mailed out was one of them, amidst an avalanche of others. Over the weekend when we were traveling to and fro, I noticed that marsh marigolds and something that *might* have been dutchman's breeches were catching my glance while we whipped along on the back roads.
So this morning after doing a few necessary things, I donned my hoodie and sneakers and grabbed the camera, past the pond with the mallards and frogs jumping at my approach, and headed into the woods.
It was WONDERFUL!!!
The area was rich with natives when my sister and her husband bought it, and since that time we've been adding a little here and there. In the spring, I feel like a mother checking on her sleeping babes. Sometimes I'll gently pull back some leaf cover to take a peek at what's going on underneath. This year that wasn't necessary, as things are getting into full gear without my nudgings (as they always would - I'm just to anxious to wait sometimes).
I was a little surprised to see the bloodroot blooming all along the hillside across the stream. It took me about 30 seconds to get my feet wet and get the first splashes of mud up the back of my jeans. After all the rain we've had, another surprise was finding the stream shallow, but much wider. Last year I waited about a week too long and missed all but a few blossoms. The foliage is stunning too, but the flowers! Sigh....
Everywhere the jewelweed was starting to push up the first sets of leaves. It is easy to spot once you know it. The leaves are almost a blue-ish green, with a pale cast. In another couple of weeks there will be plenty for fresh soapmaking, but fortunately we stored plenty in the freezer so we'd have a good supply cured for the spring shows and wholesale orders.
The Mayapples are just starting to come up. The way they erupt from the ground is almost prehistoric to me. Little knobs pop up, and then get taller, finally opening up like an umbrella. If you look closely at the picture, you can see several stages of unfurling going on.
Next up was one of the trillium patches. Every year I try to add another plant or two in a different spot. This year I'd like to put them across the creek, where they would probably naturalize better. That bank hosts the most diverse plant life, so it probably would be a better (if more difficult to reach) home. These are my pet project. The clumps keep growing and it just fills my heart with joy to see them.
It would seem likely that sweet violets would be growing like crazy down there, but such is not the case. Only on the path where we walk do they grow. Not in large clumps, either... but single little plants glistening among the leaves from last fall. This year I did notice one area with a good colony. It just happens to be in the one area where we don't stick around long. There is a tree that has fallen against another, leaning precariously above the pathway for several years now. Right beneath that fall zone is a healthy group of violets, more than I've ever seen before. Made me smile to think that they are teasing me there.

The spotted, smooth foliage of the trout lily, or dog-toothed violet is everywhere, carpeting the entire woodland. Only 2 were blooming this morning. Each year the first to bloom are at the base of a particular tree, nestled in amongst the roots of the tree. I always know that if they are blooming, that will be the place to find them. Sure enough, there they were, blooming several days ahead of the rest. In another week, the forest will be alive with these glorious beauties.
Wonder of wonder, the dutchman's breeches came back again. It took me a while to find them, as a tree had fallen down the bank and obscured them from my view. But all of the clumps we put in two years ago have come back. Only one of them was blooming, and I am hoping that we were early. We're thinking of squeezing in a trip to Shenk's Ferry Wildflower Preserve later this week. They should be rampant there! Another week would probably be better, and we'd see more if we waited.

We put in two different varieties of wild ginger. The first is shiny, glossy, beautiful leathery leaves. This patch is several feet in diameter, and while the deer seem to enjoy munching on it, the plant doesn't appear to be any worse the wear. There were a few blooms under the leaves, but they are small and point towards the earth, making them difficult to see, much less photograph with a Kodak Easyshare.
The second variety has a little bit of fuzz to the leaf, and the tips of the leaves are more pointed. The stems are completely covered with this fuzz, and that will last all year long. This plant has the more classically shaped wild ginger blossoms. Although this one hasn't opened up completely, they are cup-shaped with pointed ends jutting out in four different directions. The color is scrumptious and unique. I adore them, and last year attempted to preserve one in resin. Not a great result, but I'm not giving up just yet.

Finally it was time to go back up towards the house. I had to pass Maryanne's (and stop in to finish wrapping an order of soap for delivery today...). Along the way, her driveway was ablaze with daffodils and tulips. I layed down on the warm macadam and looked closely at the different forms.

Spring is the best. It makes winter worthwhile. It reminds us of everything good in the world and fills us with hope and renewal.
The first 10 or 15 walks in the woods each year are my favorite things to do all year. No matter how many times I see these things, each year it is like seeing old friends for the first time in a very long time. I have missed them tremendously!

Green Thumb Sunday Fun with Puschkinia

Join

Listen for the hummmm, and look closer... bees are flocking to the Pushkinia. How many do you see? Two here...

Three here... or four? (I do leave a plant tag planted here and there, but not for too long, just until I learn the name of the cultivar...) Do you label plants? A neighbor used to call gardens with too many plant labels "pet hamster cemeteries."

Three here definitely...

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.