Where did May go?

I was downloading pictures that were taken yesterday when I noticed that there were some from quite a while ago. That's when it hit me.... I've been falling down on the blog!

It's been a very fast month. The book came out, a new issue of the magazine went to the printer, there was the farmers market and a couple of other festivals to do. In between there were all sorts of plants that burst through, needing some form of attention.

This was May of '08 in fast-forward mode.....


The week after Landis Valley Herb Faire, we went up to The Rosemary House to help celebrate their 40th anniversary. Maryanne was one of the featured artists participating, and I sold and signed books. It is still cracking me up that after 3 years, the Wild Foods for Every Table book has caught fire. It is surprising how interested people are all of the sudden. But I digress... It was fun to be a part of this momentous occasion, and watch the family together. Here are the beautiful Reppert women, toasting the past 40, and looking forward to many more. Susanna, Nancy, Marge, and Cary.
Next is the fabulous array of herbal goodies that Nancy supplied for the celebration. My goodness, that woman can cook! The strawberries were my favorite. She stuffed them with a marscapone cheese blend and sprinkled them with crushed pistachios. I could have eaten a whole platter, but there were witnesses. Sharon Magee brought that darned "crack" pictured in the front. The saltines covered in butter, brown sugar, and chocolate. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya! I wound up bringing home a fig tree and a couple of poppies, among other things.

The other day I got the still out to try working with the vast carpet of chamomile out back. It took a couple of hours to get enough flowers to HALF fill the still. There was no oil, but the hydrosol is luscious. It was good to get the still cranked up. It fills the house with fragrance and puts me back in the mood to make things. I've been planting things specifically for distillation, so as they come up, I'll report in.

We went on a tour of some other herb businesses yesterday. First we stopped at Kathy's around the corner - Cloverleaf Herb Farm. She has the sweetest farm, and the landscaping is gorgeous. Her husband John can usually be found mowing or moving something around, but they both stop and chat for a little bit.
I loved the poppies under the sign I just had to get some for the house (nice bit of merchandising, eh?), and picked up a couple of "spare" plants of holy basil. And some other stuff too.
This is the entrance to one of her greenhouses. No matter when we stop in, it is always neat and tidy as can be. They must work during the night.

Next we stopped at Marian Miller's Lavender Patch Bed and Breakfast. Her gardens are just bursting with blossoms. The little gate (which leads into a lovely pool) was just covered with roses, and the peonies and flags were going nuts. Another wonderful bit of landscaping.

On the way home, we had to check on the horses up the road. The babies just kill me. They run and scamper and kick up their heels, and then all at once they are exhausted and throw themselves to the ground to rest. What a life :-).

Under the Sun - Contents

Things are finally starting to settle down around here to a dull roar. We announced the release of the latest book , " The Essential Herbal~Under the Sun" in the beginning of May, but never posted a table of contents. That is partly because the book is divided into 8 sections so full of articles, recipes, instructions and tips, that we used the sections as a table of contents and opted to use the index in the book to list individual articles, crafts, writers, and recipes.
Just in case you were wondering what might be in such a book, here is the very abridged Table of Contents. We think there is a lot there, certainly enough to keep us all busy for the spring and summer!

Gardening
~ Creating a Garden Journal
~ Starting Herbs from Seeds
~ Zone Chart
~ Designing a Moon Garden
~ An Aromatic Garden
~ Spa Garden (recipes included)
~ Collecting Scented Geraniums
~ Saints in the Garden
~ Making Hypertufa Pots
~ Container Gardening
~ Growing Lavender
~ Composting
~ A Visit to the Herb Farm
~ Our National Herb Garden
~ Preparing Culinary Herbs for Harvest

In the Kitchen
~ Magic in the Kitchen (3 recipes)
~ Soup is Good Food (1)
~ Quick & Easy Shrimp Creole or Jambalaya (2)
~ Portabello & Radicchio Rissotto (1)
~ Favorite Crab Casserole (1)
~ Easy Aspic (1)
~ Basil (3)
~ Tomatoes (6)
~ Salad Days - Making Potting Soil AND Vinaigrette
~ Raspberry Vinegar (2)
~ Herbal Picnic Basket (11)
~ Dips and a Syrup (5)
~ Herb Cheese Dip (1)
~ Goat Cheese Mousse & Herbed Pita Chips (2)
~ Recipes from Herb n' Ewe Cafe (3)
~ Lemon Herbs (4)
~ It's the Berries (1)
~ Blackberry Memories (3)
~ Cordially Yours (3)
~ Tropical Coolers (2)
~ Mint Julep (2)
~ Herbed Lemoncello (1)
~ Rosemary (2)
~ Fairy Tea Party Delights (3)
~ Kava Tea (1)
~ Viva la Romance Tea (1)
~ Lavender Fennel Tarts (1)
~ Desserts (3)
~ Omega Three's (6)
~ Ginseng (5)
~ Storing Herbs
~ Gifts from the Sea (sea vegetables)

Just Weeds (Ideas and Recipes for Using Weeds for Food and Medicine)
~ A Walk in the Wild with Children
~ A Weed Walk in the City
~ Tasty Wild Plants
~ Don't Get Mad, Get Eatin'
~ Chickweed
~ Poke Salad
~ Wait! We're Not Weeds!
~ The Wild Weed Gourmet
~ Nettles
~ Edible Flowers

Herbal First Aid
~ Inside the Herbalist's Medicine Chest
~ Hand Sanitizer
~ Epi-Moisture Salve
~ Bruise Butter
~ Natural Remedies for Cold and Flu
~ Reduce Stress to Reduce Illness
~ Herbal Help for Arthritis
~ Spring Detox
~ Something Going Around
~ When Mommy Gets Sick
~ One Minute Miracles
~ Mother's Home Remedies
~ Favorite Backyard Remedies
~ Herbal Aphrodisiacs

The Stillroom (Recipes and Instructions for Creating Herbal Potions)
~ Soapmaking
~ Spicing Up Hand Made Soap
~ Salt Spa Bars
~ Bath and Beauty with Herbs
~ Felting Soap
~ Soap Stones
~ Tub Tea for the Weary Gardener
~ Bath Salts and Brews
~ What You Can Not See May be Harmful
~ Cleanser and Ageless Beauty Salve
~ Lotion Bars
~ Glycerin: What is it?
~ Natural Spring Cleaning
~ Take Time to Smell the Roses
~ Ancient Echoes Potpourri
~ Cedar Incense
~ Simmering Potpourri
~ Making Herb Beads

Traditions (How We've Used Herbs Over the Years, and Continue to Today)
~ The Wheel Turns to...
...the Vernal Equinox
...Beltane
...first Litha and then Lughnasad
~ May Day Celebrations
~ The Bitter Herbs of Passover
~ Rosemary Kintyre, Moss Maiden of Norwood
~ Rosebud Kissing Ball and Garland
~ Tussie Mussies
~ Natural Herb Dyes
~ Weedy Shirts (plant prints)
~ Harvest, and Flower Pounding
~ Kids and Herbs
~ Something Old, Something New
~ Hunting Four Leaf Clovers
~ Herbs for Magic
~ Old Farmers Advice

The Herbs (Articles About Single Herbs)
~ Lavender
~ Making Lavender Wands
~ Lavender Recipes
~ Roses, Queen of Flowers
~ The Incredible, Edible, Healing Rose (4 recipes)
~ Rose Petal Jelly
~ Rosa Rugosa
~ Stevia (6)
~ Cilantro/Coriander (4)
~ All About Thyme (8)
~ Comfrey is a Comfort
~ Vetiver
~ Dents De Lion
~ Albizzia
~ Ginger, the Oldest of Spices (3)
~ The Wisdom of Growing Sage (2)
~ Sage in Your Garden (1)
~ Hoodia
~ Sweet Cicely and Chervil
~ Mugwort
~ Echinacea

Herb Business
~ Running a Retail Place
~ Getting Away
~ Processing Herbs for Tea
~ So You Want to be a Vendor
~ It's Show Time!
~ Be Careful What You Wish For

So there you have it... an idea of what is inside. There are also some tidbits sprinkled over the pages, some poetry, cartoons, and herbal trivia. Under the Sun is available on our website - www.ym-health.blogspot.com

soon, salad

The cold frame is the place for my baby lettuces, and a couple of overwintered spinaches and one big head of lettuce. To keep cats and rabbits and other rascals out of them, we exclude them with a pair of screens made of wire fencing.


This big juicy butter head lettuce that overwintered has been feeding us salad already. Pat told me I can let it flower and seed, because lettuces are open pollinated and the seeds should be true to the parent. I think that's what she told me, I should look it up, too.


And hardening off the basils, peppers, celosias, and some various other herbs.

plantlings

Three Umbelliferae (what is the plural?) in a row. Big: Angelica archangelica, a self-sowing biennial great-big herb. Needs an adequately watered spot.


Smaller: Sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata, one of my favorite spring herbs for its tasty leaves and seeds. I'd call it a short lived perennial in the situation where I have it planted, so I watch for seedlings to coddle.


... and little Chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium. A biennial that sets seeds early. The plant dies off in the summer so you must leave some ripening seed. A lesson in not being too tidy. The seedlings appear later in the summer or early fall, staying green all winter.


Some kind of a yellow and green variegated Artemisia that I picked up last year at a yard sale, family Compositae.


Ginkgo biloba, a whip when I planted it, now it's as tall as me, a small tree. Patience.

Mount Joy Farmers Market

Oh, joy! We can once again set up and work our booth at the Mount Joy Farmers Market. If you've never checked it out and you're local, the market runs from 8 am until noon on Saturday mornings. It is held in the breezeway parking lot of the Union National Bank on Main Street. Lots of free parking, and tons of good produce, baked goods, plants - and us, with our soaps, potions, books and the magazine. If you are visiting Lancaster County on vacation, this is a great little taste of local flavor, right on the way to Hersheypark or the PA Renaissance Faire.

For the last two weeks, our kids (my daughter Molly, and Maryanne's son Rob) have taken care of it for us while we vended first at Landis Valley Herb Faire, and then last week at The Rosemary House's 40th anniversary celebration.

How cool is that to have the kids pitch in and actually run the booth for us? After all these years they are both coming to find an appreciation for the things we do, and enjoy helping out. We never pushed them, feeling bad enough that we were taking so much time away from them, so it is a good feeling to have them come around on their own. Naturally, their days at the market seemed to revolve around the bakery stand and trips down the street for the all-important coffee blends, but hey - they were there. That was all that we really required :-).

I can't really say why it is so much fun. Over the winter we really missed it, and discussed it several times. We both love a *little* retail, for the reactions, the feedback, and because we really do love to see our customers. Because it is such a small dose, there are none of the negatives that come with a regular shop --- which I won't go into because it just isn't worth it. If you've done it, you know. If you haven't, there's no point in talking about it.

One of the really great parts of doing the market is that it gives us an answer to the eternal question of, "Where can I find you and your products?" While we were at Landis Valley, we probably told 50 people about the farmers market. People who live close by, but never knew it was there.

So I'm looking forward to Saturday. The weather forecast is gorgeous. The local berries and peas will start showing up, and our friends in the neighboring booths will be there to gossip with. What better way to spend a Saturday morning? And... I get to come home with a basket full of locally grown and produced foods.

Monday in the Backyard Herb Garden

Recap of our volunteer work day at the county extension demonstration herb garden:
Sharron and Gloria met me in garden to work, we worked from 9-1:30 with a small learning break. Mike brought 12 pails of compost. We spread it and dug some of it in.

We planted:
1 very small ginkgo tree (a bare rooted whip I purchased at Genesee Conservation District last year and grew in a pot)
1 white common yarrow (Flint Yard and Garden plant sale)
3 Achillea 'Terra Cotta' yarrow (Bluestone Perennials)
3 Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' (Bluestone Perennials)
onions in 'compost bed' (donated by Pat Whetham)
several seed packets in "compost bed": arugula, swiss chard, kale, dill (seed from Meijers), french sorrel(seed from JLHudson Seedsman).
10 calendula seedlings in culinary circle (seed from Michigan Herb Associates) .

We paused for some herb learning time:
I brought herb butter to sample on a sliced baguette.
(Recipe: whipped butter, lemon zest and fresh lemon juice, and minced chervil, chives, and a little winter savory. We discussed using and freezing herb butter wrapped in waxed paper and shaped in a log as shown in the photo.
This butter we sampled would be great served with poached salmon or chicken, eggs, or on steamed Michigan asparagus.)



I brought bottles of my dried chervil, parsley, chives, and french tarragon to compare with fresh herbs. All these herbs are ready to use fresh from the garden right now. In each case, the fresh samples I picked would be miles better to use right now than last summer's dried herbs.
We also talked about lovage and ginkgo.

I brought some useful books:
For identifying plants: The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers- Eastern by Neiring and Olmstead (Knopf)
For i.d. plus information on medicinal uses of plants: Peterson Field Guides Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Foster and Duke, (Houghton Mifflin)
A great little book on using herbs: The Herbal Pantry by Tolley and Mead, (Potter)

I'd like to say a special thanks to Kathy who the painted Herb Garden sign. The color is what I'd call a sort of French lavender blue - it looks great! I'll have to take a photo of it next time I stop by the garden.
Special thanks also goes to Mike for hauling more buckets of compost, and for working on the drainage tile quest. These additions to the garden will be a big improvement.
And loads of appreciation goes to Gloria who led the way double digging that compost into the bed where we planted the yarrow.
Thanks goes in advance to Karen for offering to be our 'watering angel' for the seeds we just planted.
Finally, big thanks to Sharron as well for the hard work on Monday - we always comment the garden looks better after a work session. Sharron offered to map the garden when she can get there on her own because we are always tired out after working on our gardening projects.
The working volunteers are what makes the project good.

a chicken mansion

Saw this on Craig's List - wouldn't you love to come home and find one of these in the backyard? In my next life: bees, chickens and a small lady goat.

It's still Spring here

May is Morel Month in Michigan

That was the title of a pamphlet I picked up from the Extension years ago and it just sticks in my mind and comes out my mouth whenever I come across anything to do with these delicious native mushrooms. Talk about fungi perfecti!
I just saw a sign on the local gourmet deli/store advertising morels and it reminded me of this: A couple of weeks ago my kids took me to Eastern Market in downtown Detroit (I picked up a couple of herbs and a beautiful Rex begonia) for my birthday and my son Skip bought a pound! of morels and split them with me. Later we went to one of the very nicest restaurants I've been to in all my years, and we had a memorable meal.
We were done in when we came home, and cooking a gourmet supper (or ANY supper for that matter!) was too much to even consider! so I did what I could - I picked the primo morels out of the bunch to use the next day (I like a buttery morel sauce over pasta) and I dehydrated the rest. I ended up with about a pint jarful to store for other meals.
I took a blurry photo to remember our day.

fortunately, I like weeds...

We've had a perfect spring for weeds here in my neck of the woods. Everything is lush and green and WET. Lots and lots of rain. Combine that with the recent release of the book and the deadline of the next magazine, and you will understand that the gardens are looking ...um... shall we say neglected? May 15th is the date that we are safe to put out tender plants, so normally it is when I just get rolling - give or take a week. This year, I fear that I may not find the gardens when I finally get around to toiling in them. Want to see why?

I didn't have the heart to take a picture of the whole row of lavender. Just a couple of plants and the sage show here. The penny or field cress is all over the place, along with the false strawberry. They both have root systems that are based in China, I believe. I'll have some serious hard work to do to clear that path. Behind the fence is a mass of some white-flowered bladderwort thing that spreads like crazy too - and some lovely crab-grass.
The lavender is all grosso, and the sage is Bergarten, which has lovely oval shaped leaves. It has a huge amount of essential oil, so little is needed for culinary purposes. It makes the most wonderful wreath base!

Next is the patch that I look out the office window to see every day. The chives are so pretty right now, and the Roman chamomile and rosemary (with a couple blooms right at the top!) are doing well in this weather. This little spot has a good amount of mulch, so I've been able to find these plants and keep them safe so far.
The little rolling wagon has become a haven for the guinea hens. They drink the water from the base on dry days. I leave it there and don't dump out the water. They might also think it is "one of their own". Odd birds, they've taken to teasing the cat through the door. I'm not sure who is more frightened.

This is a group of German chamomile plants (I hope I don't have the two chamomiles confused - it happens) that I rescued from a construction site last year. At the time, they were scrawny little wisps of plants, with roots clinging to gravelly bits of dirt. Now they have sprawled out to cover a 4X6 foot area. They seem pretty happy here, along with the cress, the lamb's quarters, and the poke root. Oh, and some wild mustard and chickweed. Yes, everything just growing a mile a minute...

The vegetable garden-to-be. It's already been planted with beans, peas, beets, squash, turnips, and cucumbers. The tomatoes and peppers will go in shortly. All around the edges, the false strawberry creeps ever closer. At the top of the plot, the weeds are a wild variety of field weeds. All seem to have strong taproots. And all are already going to seed. It's a space about 10' X 100'. This should be quite a challenge. Oh - and see those holes in the dirt? Those are deer tracks. Big ones and tiny little ones. How sweet of the mama doe to teach her baby where the tender little bean sprouts grow. Grrr....

Finally - something that doesn't give me an anxiety attack. Mom's lilacs. These bloom after the white ones in the front fade. They smell heavenly, and grow next to the valerian that will be blooming soon. Right outside the door, when a breeze picks up these scents.... ah... that must be why I love gardening. It isn't because of the need for order, that's for sure :-).

A jumble of spring wildflowers

A bed of wildflowers, all in a jumble. Too many ferns, volunteer Forget-me-nots, thug Columbines but some goodies managed to settle in, too.


I'm very fond of this Early Meadow Rue: Thalictrum dioicum of the Buttercup Family. Bees love it and when the slightest breeze wafts by, it twinkles.


We always call these Canada Anemones: Anemone canadensis of the Buttercup Family.


These glossy flowered early bloomers are commonly called Swamp (or Marsh) Buttercups: Ranunculus septentrionalis of the Buttercup Family. Buttercups in general are garden thugs, but this one stays neat.


I'm pretty sure this one is False Rue Anemone: Isopyrum biternatum. Another member of the Buttercup Family. Too tiny to be a garden bully. The bigger leaves are columbines, and the purple leaves are Labrador violets.


Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis. Another member of the Buttercup Family. I wish this one was more vigorous in spreading. Too bad it's not as bumptious as it's Buttercup Family cousins, because the roots are collected for folk medicine and are becoming rare. The flowers are very temporary.


I love the way Trilliums turn pink when they're beginning to fade: Trillium probably grandiflorum. I say that because it turns pink with age, it doesn't smell, it doesn't nod, the flowers have stalks, and there is no marking on the petals. That's as far as my field guide goes, so I say T. grandiflorum. Same family as Wild Oats, the Lily Family.

How did that Wild Cranesbill geranium get there? I guess it wants to duke it out with the ferns. Geranium maculatum of the Geranium Family.


Jack in the Pulpit from the Arum Family: Arisaema triphyllum.


This one stumps me. I thought it was a skunk cabbage when I dug it up, but it hasn't bloomed - probably too dry where it's planted. Looks like some kind of Arum to me.


Now this one is Wood Poppy, a.k.a. Celandine Poppy: Stylophorum diphyllum of the Poppy Family. I'm pretty sure.


Mayapples under the quince in another bed, between the peony and some bigroot cranesbill geranium. Some people call Mayapples Mandrake, but it's not the hoo-hoo Mandrake of legend. Podophyllum peltatum of the Barberry Family. I just noticed in my field guide that Twinleaf, Jeffersonia diphylla is also in the Barberry Family.

May Blog Party: Spring Greens - Native Wildflowers

This month's Blog Party is being hosted by Darcey with the theme of spring greens.

We arrived in the Methow Valley last September, so this is our first experience of spring and the scrumptious, beautiful, bountiful greens it brings. The Methow Valley is in the Northeastern Cascades of Washington state. The ecology ranges from sage brush shrub step to alpine pine forests with several rivers and many lakes running through it all.

We've been feasting on a lot of weedy greens like dandelion and dock. It was great to get these nutritious greens long before the salad greens started showing up at the farmer's market. And although I love my weeds, lately I've been fascinated with the native wildflowers that offer a cornucopia of food (above and beneath the ground).

Spring Beauty (Claytonia lanceolata)
We've been enjoying lots of salads with spring beauties. They have a crisp distinctive taste that is completely reminiscent of spring. The aerial portions are high in vitamins A and C, and look absolutely beautiful in a salad. The corms found below ground taste like sweet potatoes. They can be baked, boiled, and eaten or dried into cakes for later use.




Blue Bells (Mertensia spp.)
Another great spring green. You can eat the leaves and flowers of this dainty plant that surely must be home to the fairy folk. Because it's in the borage family I limit my intake due to the potential alkaloids- adding a few to salads for decorum.






Desert Parsley (Lomatium triternatum)
This abundant plant in the carrot (umbelliferaceae) family has a spicy taste reminiscent of celery. Imagine celery with a kick, and that's Lomatium triternatum. Besides eating it in salads we are drying a bunch for use as a spice.





Wild Onion (Allium spp.)
Wild onions abound in the Methow. They can be used much like their less wild cousins you find in the grocery store, although they have much smaller bulbs. Tonight we had liver and onions eating both the bulbs and greens. Yuuummmy!








Mariposa Lily (Calochortus macrocarpus)
This might be cheating a bit on the theme since you don't actually eat the greens of this eye catching flower, only the bulbs. Still a great treat in the spring. I've only eaten these raw, but they have a pleasant nutty taste that I really enjoy.







Bitterroot (Lewisa rediviva)
Again, cheating a bit since we eat the below ground portions of this incredibly important food source, but I just had to include it because it is so beautiful and plentiful in the spring. We harvest the roots, cleaning off the outer papery portion and picking out its red heart in the center of the root. We then steam them for hours in a steam pit. I've also pickled them with beats before - they turned this brilliant fuschia color, but still tasted very bitter - making this a very well named plant.



For those of you in the valley (or elsewhere) wanting to try these plants, I urge a lot of caution. There are some very dangerous look alikes (death camas for example - another very well named plant you would not want to harvest for dinner), as well as a delicate ecology that needs to be tended with care.