end july update, making comfrey/plantain/heal-all salve, drying borage and chamomile flowers for tea...and a really gorgeous day after all the rain!

we got a lovely surprise when we got up this morning - a gorgeous day!

we got a ton of rain yesterday and the day before - great for the garden especially when followed by a bright and sunny day! jam collected chamomile flowers for drying for tea.

i collected borage flowers for drying for tea.

 i put the flowers on a screen on the deck, put another screen on top in order to let the bugs get free - and voila! the beginning of our dried teas for over the winter.



i will harvest the flowers every couple of days for the next month and a half.

i also harvested heal-all flowers (also known as self-heal).

the previous owner had planted a variety of healing herbs and they pop up in the weirdest of places. i am just glad that we have them.

here are the heal-all flowers laying on their screen to let the bugs get away.

here is plantain - a common weed that is very beneficial for your health. i harvested a pile of plantain, too.



i also harvested a bunch of comfrey leaves and flowers. what am i making? heal-all/comfrey/plantain salve. i made a ton of comfrey salve last year, and a ton of heal-all salve....so this year i am making the combination salve with the plantain added in.

after picking your flowers and leaves and giving the bugs a chance to get off, rinse all of your leaves and flowers. put them in a big pot that is used only for making salves and soaps. dump as much virgin olive oil to completely cover them with an extra inch.



heat the oil to almost a boil, stir and turn off the stove. come back in 15 mins, heat the oil to almost a boil, stir and turn off the heat. do this all day long. at the end of the day, let the oil cool and then put it in a cool spot for overnight. i'll finish the process tomorrow and do a post about it.

we went down to the river today. it is about a quarter mile walk to the river so going down and coming back is a 1/2 mile walk every day. on top of all the physical work that we do around here, plus running and jumping and screeching like children in the sprinkler and the rain, dancing, and walking down to the river and having our dips several times a day is great exercise!

because of so much rain we have had over the last few days - this is what we had to walk to just to get to the river!

it was freekin' freezing! but also such a hot, beautiful day that it was worth it jumping in and swimming around! whenever i dive into the river i always say in my mind "thank you God. thank you river". i love that river so much. and because the ocean flows into it, it is very salty and delicious. i love that river. so does jambaloney.

here's a beautiful caterpillar enjoying himself and suntanning on a leaf.

our buddy who lives on the mainland of nova scotia, eagergridlessbeaver, came up with an awesome way to keep the deerflies from biting. check out his post as his beautiful wife A models his creation and does so just perfectly!

basically - his great idea was to put a cup on your head with tree tanglefoot smeared all over the cup. and the cup HAS to be blue. here is a pic of the tanglefoot.



jambaloney drilled 2 holes in the cup and put a string through the holes and tied it to an elastic to make a crazy chin-strap to keep the cup on his head. then he smeared the tanglefoot all over the cup. needless to say, A's look was much fancier!

here is the cup after only 15 minutes of being outside.

eventually there were 30-40 deerflies on the cup. jam periodically took the cup off in order to squish the deerflies so that they didn't suffer for too long. he did not get bit once while wearing the cup. it's cruel and horrible and i feel terrible about it - but when you are covered in welts from deerfly bites - something has to give!

much thanks to egb for such a great, crazy, horrible idea that works!

check out all of the pea flowers - woohoo!

we are now referring to the greenhouse as the jungle! i swear - it's a jungle in there!

these are my piquante peppers that my friend Dani sent me the seeds of all the way from South Africa!

and here are the bird's eye chili peppers from seeds that she also sent!

this is a green pepper plant that we overwintered.

these are some tomatoes in the greenhouse...

and these are some tomatoes in the yard.

i can't wait to start canning them - woohoo!

here's some beautifully-coloured rose buds.

here's today's harvest:

a daikon radish, a broccoli head, some broccoli leaves, some pak choi, some garlic scapes. all of which became a delicious stirfry. with ginger/teriyaki pork and some fresh fruit - deelish.

it's been an awesome day for us. more rain expected for tomorrow - but that's a good thing for the garden. followed by a gorgeous sunny weekend. you can be sure we'll be down at the river!