There Are Herbs In My Chocolate - Cover Reveal

My wife and I are releasing the new expanded and revised version of There Are Herbs In My Chocolate, a cookbook we originally made for supplementing her lectures aboard Royal Caribbean cruises.  Because even the Olympic athlete who was doing performances on stage had a workout video they were selling.

We're happy to have added about 30 recipes and have given it an updated feel.  We have included one of my favorites, a chocolate pear tart with sweet dough crust.  The crust was a recipe handed down from my grandmother and, when I was growing up, was used only for special occasions.  Of course I give ALL the correct ingredient amounts.

The book is available for preorder on any of the sites listed here and it will be coming out on May 7th. We hope you are as excited to try some of the recipes, all tested by us (one recipe didn't make it into the book, it was just bad).

Flowering Beans

The green bean plants are finally flowering.  I thought it was making some flowers earlier but they turned out to be new green shoots from the main stalk.  In a day or so I should be able to pollinate the flowers and get the beans to start forming.  This one is very much a vining variety.  It keeps sprawling out. The other beans from the same packet though seem to be growing upright.  Not sure exactly what this means about my beans but so far none of my plants seem to be uniform in variety.

The mister I ordered to help out the orchids never arrived and the seller isn't responding to messages.  So it's back to the search for a mister that will help keep the humidity up for these guys.  Fortunately Amazon is probably going to get me a refund of the cost since there was a problem.  We'll see if it actually happens though, not finalized.

Thinking of planting a low ground cover in the pots at some point but not sure what to plant.  The trees of course aren't quite ready for that anyway but it's still something I want to think about and plan.  A low growing shade loving herb might be good since it's going to be indoors.  Maybe thyme or mint?  Any suggestions are welcome.

The Heat Dies Down

Although the heat is on it's way out this is not the time to get lazy and let the garden go.  Watering is still very important if you want your garden to produce well this fall season.  It's a good time to plant new crops since the heat won't wither them when they come up.

A thorough weeding of the garden is a good idea too and needs to be kept up since the heat won't keep them down either.  It's now prime growing time and there isn't any time to loose.  Before you know it we'll be having cold snaps and harvesting of late vegetables before the first freeze.

If you're stuck on ideas of what to plant here's a few ideas:
Beans will grow quickly and can be harvested throughout November if you get them in the ground now.
Carrots will always be a good idea and can be harvested around the same time.
Winter squash and possible summer squash should do well.

This is also a good time to get an herb garden started if you don't have one already.  Many herbs will grow throughout the year but now is a good time to have them root well.

Fall Tomatoes

Even after being run over with a trailer and sat on by neighborhood cats, my tomato plants are still trying to produce tomatoes for me.  The first couple had some bugs but there are several that are doing really well.
The weather seems to want to cooperate with me too.  No freezing temperatures in the near forecast and plenty of sun. All I have to do is keep them watered and happy and we'll have some good pasta sauce in our future.  Likewise the basil plants are continuing to grow and look healthy.  We'll probably harvest them soon and make more pesto and save some for making sauce.
The beet plant is still getting bigger but no flower stalks yet, a few more weeks of waiting and we'll see what happens.

Cooking with Fennel

You probably know that fennel is used in lots of italian food. For instance it's the reason my wife doesn't like italian sausage. It's also used in soups, pastas and sauces.  You can braise the bulb of the fennel plant and serve it with a mustard sauce.
What I like to do, which is also considered italian to some degree is put fennel seeds on pizza.  It just seems to add that little bit of kick you don't usually have. Not too much though or you'll be picking the little seeds out of your teeth for a while and the flavor can be overpowering.  So next time you have pizza delivered, sprinkle some fennel seeds on a slice and see for yourself.

Lavender Harvest

It's that time of year again. Tomorrow we'll be harvesting the first lavender flowers of the year and making spindles out of them.  We hope to get at least fifteen to twenty for the American Herb Society's conference this weekend where we'll have a booth selling among other things herbal sachets and of course the spindles.

Plant Roundup

Before the heat of summer comes it's nice to know what was there before it's just a dry patch of land with nothing growing.  Fortunately most of these plants should make it for quite a while save the hyacinth and snow pea plants.

The weeds last year are what really made the garden survive last year and i plan to let even more grow this year in hopes of keeping the heat at bay and saving precious ground water.  The rain barrels are full and ready for whatever heat comes our way.  Already people are complaining about the heat, 82 degrees.  I don't know what they plan to do when it actually gets hot.

Rogue Herbs

Many herbs are self-seeding.  That means that you can plant them in one place, and have them pop up anywhere they please.  This can be outside of your flower beds.  We are getting ready to do a major early spring yard clean-up, ad we've found a couple of rogue herbs -- onne chives plant, and one fennel.  We're trying to let them get big enough to transplant into thier proper beds.

Steady Rain

We planted some new plants early this week and just in time it seems for a nice steady rain to help them take root.
Among the new arrivals are four lavender plants so we can hopefully get a bigger crop this summer and fall of flowers to make spindles and other lavender crafts from.  We also got some parsley, basil, two kinds of thyme, dill and sage.
We purchased some flowers and a climbing jasmine that aren't in the ground yet but they'll get there.  In the mean time they're all out enjoying the showers.

Beauties in the Herb Garden

After a years worth of posts (365) it's a good time to look back over and see what is still working. We may have some gaps in the herb garden, but here are a few herbs which have made it  not only through the brutal summer, but are thriving in the unusual not-so-wintery weather.

Oregano -- It's making a beautiful carpet near the front door and has always been plentiful enough to use whatever is necessary for cooking.  We've even had to toss some of the trimmings when it was just too much.

Lemon Thyme -- We thought it was a goner, but it is making a comeback.  Only a few months ago it was down to about 2 stems and a few dozen leaves. Excellent in cookies.

Rosemary -- This is only one of our three bushes.  While the other two are upright, they are all as glossy and healty as this guy.  Always a pleasant smell as guests arrive and rub against it on the way in.

Cilantro -- This annual is only looking bigger and prettier in the middle of February.  A self seeder, it's come back for a few years now and just in time to miss tomato season.  May have to dry a good bit of this for tomato sauce come summer.

Sachet Giveaway

My sweet wife had decided to give away two sets of her dryer sachets to people out there who love herbal crafts. The giveaway lasts two weeks and is already three days in.
You can enter this giveaway by going to giveawaysandglitter.
Remember Even if you don't win you can still purchase these fragrant sachets from her etsy store.

Springing Plants

I don't know who told them to but I have several plants, most notably the lamb's ear and echinacea, sprouting and shooting up like there's no winter left but little do they know it's going to freeze again tonight.
One of the plants I don't think will mind too much is the snow pea plant.  I believe I misidentified it as a edamame.  Well I couldn't remember what I planted in that pot I just knew that I gave up on it when all of the pots baked in what felt like a 400 degree oven that is the metroplex...
The agave plants likewise should have no problem with the cold.  There are lots of them in the area and none of them so far have had any really bad effects from the cold.
The fennel likewise is making a comeback and the wild onion is actually a little late it feels like.  There are a few up front but the back seems a little lacking in that field...

Alum Root?

As far as I can tell the little plants we have growing outside the house are Alum.  If anyone knows different please let me know.  I'm pretty sure they aren't zucchini but I only did a quick mug shot search of other plants and can't be positive of it's identification.

Update: It's grown and I just never got around to editing the post. It turns out to be zebra hollyhock. I've added a picture (generic) of one of these below.  So far it hasn't died and still puts off beautiful flowers in the spring and fall.  It's gotten about 3 1/2 feet tall but not very wide.

Pesto Time Again

I harvested several large basil plants, some forming woody stems, to make pesto before cooler frost hit last night.  I got a mix of purple and green but after you blend it all together you can't really tell, it's just a little darker than normal.
The long part of making pesto is picking the leaves off of the plant.  You don't want the woody stem in the pesto since it won't cook down quite right when you add it to a dish. i can't imagine eating pasta with chicken or possibly shrimp and finding a hard woody piece of basil in the mix.
The recipe I used calls for pine nuts, but I used walnuts instead, along with garlic and olive oil.  As usual it took a while for the leaves to get chopped up enough to blend well but in the end it made 16 cubes of pesto.  One cube is plenty to season a pasta dish for my wife and me and should last most of the year the way we use it.  Last year we didn't get quite as much and had to get some pesto from the store.
I tossed the flower heads along with the stems back into the garden to finish reseeding for next year's crop.  There were also some smaller basil plants up front that I left. The mild freeze seemed to have mostly gotten to them and weren't many good leaves to use.

The Basil has Survived

I wasn't sure about it but going out in the middle of the night to pick basil wasn't very high on my priorities.  The weather guy said it was supposed to reach freezing but just barely.  When I got up I went outside to look and they seemed fine.  I'll check again when I get home just in case they got colder as the sun was rising.
The coldest time of day is often just after sunrise before the sun has had a chance to really change the temperature any.

Basil

Our basil is growing really well. They're the healtiest plants in the side bed, even more than the weeds. So far I can count five plants. Although I wish I had more, this should be plenty to make a small batch of pesto for the winter and coming year. Unfortunately they're already wanting to flower. I really can't blame them since it is getting cooler at night but I have to be attentive to plucking off the flowers or it'll all be gone before I know it.
This summer we had to resort to store bought pesto. I can't say it was bad but I'd rather not spend the money if I can help it.

After the Heat

What's left in the garden?
At the back of the house there are still some tomato plants that have endured the heat and kept alive as well as some new tomato plants that have decided to sprout.
On the side of the house there's basil, beets and cucumber.
At the front of the house there's chives and fennel.
At the garden there are still the zucchini and squash plants as well as a little bee balm and onion. This fall they should produce well.
Pulled some onions from the back that seemed done for the summer and they were tiny. So maybe fall onions will be better.

Camellia Sinensis Seeds

There's apparently only one tea plantation in the entire country. Here in Texas there is a company that brews and bottles the tea for sale but that's no where near the same thing.
I have therefore obtained some seeds and am trying to sprout and grow them. They are hardy in zones 7-9 and I'm in zone 7b or 8a supposedly. It feels more like zone why-won't-anything-grow-here at times. The plan is to plant the bushes between drives where the dirt has always mounded and has plenty of sun.
Below are the seeds germinating in a plastic bag. There should be moss or some such thing but I'm out of cotton balls at the moment so I'm doing what I can until I get to the store.
Hopefully I'll have sprouts soon.

Harvesting Echinacea and Other Root Herbs

Again we like to grow things that we can use but how do you harvest it?
Echinacea is one of the things we have growing in our garden but it's not the only root herb we have. The other one is orris root or bearded iris. I would suggest harvesting them and drying them the same way to preserve the roots for the most benefit.
Do not dig everything up at once unless you want to get rid of the entire crop. The roots will keep growing as long as you have some in the ground. Personally I like to keep 3/4 of the plant still planted so they will keep producing more roots.
When drying it's best to let them air dry for some time. I recomment drying orris root for several weeks in the sun. but if you're in a hurry you can always use a dehydrator. When it's dry you can crush it up in a morter orspice grinder.

Room to Grow

We have peppers! In this area we have five pepper plants, labels kept with them so we would know what they were when we got around to picking peppers off of them. Really though it shouldn't be that hard if they've ripened well enough. If I knew my peppers better then I would probably be able to tell from the look of the plant. They really do look different.

On the front porch we have another area of plant growth. The lavender really wants to be planted in a sunnier place and has decided to reach for the sun as best as it can. The marigolds are hanging off the other side apparently content with their pot in life.

Out back the garden is doing well enough. It really has grown since this picture especially in the back where the onions have taken off. It's mostly green now. Some of the tomatoes in the middle don't look so well but I'm going to wait until the tomatoes ripen before I decide what to do with the plants. I think I might have to remove some of them. Not to worry though, I have plenty of small tomato plants that are eager to take their place.