August 25, 2017

Remember those basil plants and cayenne peppers that I was drying in the greenhouse?  They were done in record time.  After crunching off the dried basil leaves into a large pot and putting them through the blender, I have enough basil for the next year or two.  Additionally, since we cut the plants down to about 8" tall, we expect another crop before frost!  It is the best basil you will ever taste.  Same for the cayenne peppers that were dried in the dental floss wreaths.  Just separate the caps from the rest of the plant, run it through the blender and let it settle before you open it, then pour it into a container.  Oila!  These are my two staple spices.





Just for fun, I had a young guest over and one of our tasks was to show her how to cook fried okra.  I wanted to start with the picking of the okra.  If you have ever picked okra, you know how much it can itch your arms.  So we started with some old long athletic socks of my husbands, cut out finger holes and put that on our arms, then we added some gloves, collected our pruning shears and our buckets and we were ready to go.



My husband is a science teacher and thankfully, he teaches Environmental Science, Earth Science and Physical Science which happens to fit right in to what we are trying to do here on the farm.  Sometimes, that means we are able to pass on some of the things we have learned that are near and dear to our hearts.  I do an annual bulletin board for him, and this one fits right in with our farm.  "Help Yourself and the Earth - Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle."


Finally, we are getting one step further toward our goal of sustainability, and we just got our new wood stove and finished tiling the hearth and back wall.