but no matter. we can hear the snow melting and a few more days like today and that white stuff will be gone. and none too soon.
it's 1C(34F) outside but on the porch it's a gorgeous summer day of 28C(82F) - let's just say there's been lots of nekkid suntanning on the porch, then grabbing our robes, running out the backdoor and jumping in the hottub!
we have successfully overwintered 14 of our pepper plants by bringing them indoors. this little cayenne plant produced a flower in january and that little flower produced this little baby!
we'll be eating that little guy in some kind of thai-coconut milk-chili dish in the next day or so and keeping all of his seeds for planting this year. as does everyone who saves seeds, i always save seeds from my strongest, earliest producer. this overwintered monet pepper plant just put out a blossom - woohoo!
here's some rather plain homemade meat spagetti. lots of herbs and fresh garlic in both the meat and the sauce. i usually like to fancy it up a little more with mushrooms and whatnot but didn't really have anything on hand. still it was delicious and filling!
jam likes sauces on his meat when he can't bust out the BBQ so i made him some delicious garlic, ginger, honey pork chops with stir fried cabbage, carrot and bean sprouts and some pickled ginger.
last up - the remainder of our teas that i dried from a variety of wild and domestic plants that grow on our land or that we grew.
from left to right, top to bottom - catnip, lemon balm, comfrey, chamomile, sage, and mixed flower (st. john's wort, evening of primrose, rose petals, anise, dandelion and fennel fower). when i dry leaves or flowers i do so on trays and set them out in the sun making my friend Dani, who is completely off the grid, very proud (teehee). all of these teas were dried without using anything more than pure fresh sunshine!
i start each type of tea in a quart jar and as each tea gets used up, i then move the tea to a pint jar. as you can see it's time to move the chamomile to a pint jar. and the reason why there is only a tiny jar of sage? you guessed it! we loooooove sage tea! it sounded crazy when i first heard about sage tea while on my korean language course - who knew that in the far east, middle east and near eastern countries that sage tea is considered very posh?!?!?!? i certainly didn't know! and my first thought about drinking sage tea was "do i really want to drink a tea that certainly must taste like poultry?" i assumed that because sage is so commonly used in poultry dishes that the tea would be nasty and strange! needless to say - i tried it - loved it! jam tried it - loved it! and guess what???it is incredibly soothing and refreshing at the same time. if you have a sage plant - tear up a few sage leaves, put them in a cup and pour boiling water over them. cover the cup, let it steep 10 mins and then sip your soothing, delicious tea. do the same thing for dried leaves. the health benefits of sage tea are numerous and if you are interested just look it up!
Fern from "Thoughts From Frank and Fern " recently did a great post about comfrey! make sure to check out this post by her.
anyway, jam is hard at work sitting next to me. he says he will get to your comments on his previous posts once he is finished. i hope that you are all having a great day!
If you like sage tea, have you tried drying pineapple sage leaves ;)
ReplyDeleteHave you popped any of your "piquante pepper" seeds that you "received" last year into a tray and letting them germinate on that wonderful (enclosed greenhouse type) porch.
I'm frigging proud of your dehydrating - well done you clever girl!!! Time that jambaloney finally gets to making you that solar oven. You will never taste food more tender and which is cooked, completely, in it's own juices. With temps of 28oC on the porch when it's 1oC outside, a solar oven will work brilliantly :)
Dani - i don't have a pinapple sage plant and have never heard of such a thing. if you have seeds from such a thing - i will need some.
Deleteoh yes - i can't wait to plant the piquante pepper seeds that you sent me "last year" - i cannot wait!
jam has got so many projects on his "to do" list - but one of them is to "finnagle some sort of contraption like Dani's solar oven thingy"...he'll get to it don't you worry.
until then - much love being sent your way from 2 friends who appreciate what you and RMan do very much! xoxoxo
Wow on that 1st pepper! I will definitely have to try the sage tea. I think one of my sage plants made it through our slightly coolish winter. As usual, the food looks so very good.
ReplyDeletethanks DFW - we are expecting much production from those plants that we overwintered. i am crossing my fingers for you and that sage plant because sage is like bay...it is actually a tree-ish sort of thing and if you can keep it alive through winter - it will just keep on growing and producing. oh ya - we've booked our vacation for next january to come and visit you and Mike (from Living Prepared), bouncing between your houses at 2-week intervals for the duration of next winter. and we thank you, and Mike, for the invites - bahahahahah! much love hon! xoxox
DeleteWould love to have you, seriously. But you will have to take a day or 2 to visit the Country House as well!
DeleteSage tea is a new one on me! Thanks will have to try if...
ReplyDeleteplease do try it M.E. - and let me know what you think of it!
DeleteYa know if I lived up there I would sneak over and turn the heater on your hot tub down to like 40 then wait.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAAH
I kill me.
my goodness - you are so much like having a baby brother - it isn't funny! i can so see you doing that and i can so see me jumping in the hottub and then jumping out because it was only 1C outside and the hottub wasn't even lukewarm. then i can see me finding you and strangling you - to death. and feeling very sad that i had strangled you - to death.
Deletebut life is about overcoming obstacles and then getting over it - eh?
oh, i wonder at how i can love such a nutter? but love you i do! xoxoxoxo
I grow lots of sage but have never tried sage tea, even though I like my herb and fruit teas. I'm going to try that one tomorrow! Every autumn I take cuttings from my sage plants as it's not every year they make it through the winter. Of course when tehy do I've then got loads of plants! Mind you after a few years they get really long and leggy so I eitehr cut them hard back or take them out.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit though Rosemary is the one herb I couldn't do without - I use it all the time and I've got about 6 bushes that hardly grow as I take so many leaves from them! I'm planning on planting about double that number this year so they have a chance to recover after I harvest their leaves! Rosemary and garlic sliced roast potatoes is one of my favorites!
Also Not sure I could do any naked sunbathing yet. It might upset the walkers if I did!
DeleteThanks for the link to your novelette comments and my article, Kymber! (-: There is a good discussion about comfrey going on over at our place, though. It's great to learn from each other. Thanks for your pointers and another tour of the Manor.
ReplyDeleteFern
One day you two are going to be out sunning, and you'll hear a buzzing noise. When you look up , there will be a drone!
ReplyDeleteSweet Kymber,
ReplyDeleteI'll confess......Sweet Kymber has me hooked on the sage tea. Last year I grew sage, and continually went out and pulled off leaves from my plants to make tea daily. Sage tea is the cat's meow......it tastes good and helps for many things like inflammation, stress, mood swings ect....
All fresh brewed tea's taste amazing, and have healthy benefits.
If you can grow your herbs, you'll have a medicine cabinet right out in your garden or pots.
Girlie, that's one heck of a nice looking cayenne pepper. My taste buds are already feeling that pepper based on how you'll be using the cayenne pepper in a thai-coconut milk-chili dish.
Are you sure you weren't a chef in a 2nd life????
I'll be dropping by Fern's blog, "Thoughts From Frank and Fern", to read about comfrey.
Sending love to you both.
Your Friend,
Sandy
YUM!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of sage tea. I will have to try some. Also, I had no idea you could overwinter pepper plants. That is two very cool things I learned today. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteLhiats, TB