Homegrown Herbal Tea

This year, knowing life would get hectic (but not as hectic as it got), I planned to start switching over to more herbs/perennials and less labor-intensive annual food crops. This past year was herbs in addition to other crops, this coming year most of the crops will be history, back to flowers and herbs. Trying to graduate, hopefully.

I planted lemon balm, bee balm, German chamomile, and anise hyssop for herb teas. The balms (and mint from the previous year) grew like crazy. The anise hyssop never came up, and the chamomile produced only a few flowers. So I have a cup of mint/lemon balm tea in front of me now.

What do you do? Very simple. Grow the plants. Cut off parts that grow where you don't want them to go. You can prune a mint unmercifully in this climate, and it will grow even more. Bring leaves inside and dry on a towel. The low humidity of hot, dry weather and air conditioning help the process. No dehydrator required. Put crispy leaves in a dark glass container to block deterioration from light. Store until winter.

Go for a walk in brisk winter air. Come in with your face tingling and your glasses foggy from the warm house. Warm a cup of water. Crumble about a teaspoon of leaves into a tea ball (metal ball with holes to allow essence of leaves to escape). Drop tea ball into water and let it steep until it smells good to you. It won't get dark like green or black tea, unless you add those leaves to it. Curl your cold hands around the cup and savor it. Mmm.

Second Christmas

This past MLK week-end we has Christmas with family who got trapped in another city by snow during the actual Christmastime. We are having a lot of cold, wet weather. The Southeastern US was supposed to have a warm, dry winter due to the influence of La Nina. I guess that forecast was a little off.

My nephew and niece are darling children. 4 and 6 years of age. I see them once a year, and am amazed to see the similarities between them as a set and my brother and I growing up. The boy is my brother's clone. Mom played an old cassette tape from 1979 (my brother was 4), and we discovered that his son even has the same laugh he did as a child! The daughter does not favor me in the face, but she has my tall, thin frame. Beautiful child.

Snow again today, and a chance Sunday night. Winter in Memphis is usually much milder than this. Fun! Hot chocolate calleth.

New Year's First Snow Day

We had our first snow day of the year today, which meant the obligatory sleeping in (I can drive on snow, but there are too many idiots in Escalades on cell phones going full speed down treacherous streets for me to venture out), walking in a winter wonderland, taking pictures of Beautiful Winter Scenes, and getting hot drinks at the local cafe. I shoveled the driveway so that the slush would not refreeze. Must work tomorrow.

Spending some time researching vegetarian recipes. Have spent a lot of time this year learning about being vegetarian (basing diet on vegetables). Good stuff.

Snake Handling in the Park

One delightful thing about living in the city is the unusual characters you can meet in the park. One day last spring we walked to Overton Park for a most unusual day. One man was teaching another how to cast a fishing line- on land. It was fun to watch. The percussionist group showed up for background music, along with other musicians, including a Caucasian male guitarist with long dreadlocks. To top off the day of picnic and unusual sights, a couple brought their reptiles to enjoy the sun. My husband and I were graciously allowed to handle an albino python, pictured here. It was tame, and the snake-handling was quite fun.

Lovely Luffa

This is a view from inside the house of the luffa vines I grew this summer. I can't find the outdoor pictures, but they would show a tangle of vines growing over the fence, up the side of the house (hence this view from indoors and shelter for the praying mantis), and over the fence to crape myrtles down the way. They produced five-lobed, bright yellow, bee-attracting flowers, and about 30 gourds that look like large, lumpy cucumbers. When young, they can be eaten like zucchini, though my variety was rather tasteless. When the gourds are yellowish brown, it is time to process them. First, you peel off the skin. Hopefully the inside is white or pale tan and moist, smelling of cucumbers. You wash the inner skeleton with a hose or hot water to get rid of inner plant residue (squeeze and you get suds). Then bleach, especially the ones with dark or moldy spots. Allow to dry naturally, then shake out the seeds. Do not flatten the luffa before getting the seeds out! They'll get stuck. They are good for any kind of scrubbing, from pans (use as dry as possible for really stuck on stuff) to skin (let soak in water for a bit to soften the fibers). Compostable, degradable, scrubbable, expensive in the store, and practically free from the yard. Strange vegetable, but useful. This was a fun one to try.

Mexican Torch Sunflowers

These are beautiful flowers. The plants are short (4 ft tall) and branched, with many flowers per plant. I only had one plant survive transplanting out of 4 (one got accidentally weeded by someone else), but it proved attractive to people (until late in the season) and butterflies alike. If you like taking pictures of butterflies, they sit still on these flowers long enough to allow even a novice to get a good shot. It bloomed from mid-summer into the fall, but looked a bit straggly in the cooler weather, right up until hard freeze. Good plant.

Back Online

Sorry no posts in forever. A stressful life event erased my password from my memory and completely reset my priorities. I did grow a garden this year, but it survived among weeds and with much less care than usual. It was hot and dry, but with daily watering I still got 20 pounds of sweet potatoes this year! Otherwise the overall harvest was about the same as last year. And I tried growing luffa, or vegetable sponge. It grows a lot like kudzu if you let it, so I have a few fruit hanging from a telephone wire. Post forthcoming. I'm back.