a number of things

gardens again

(Flame lettuce)

This morning I took my camera along for a quick garden check before I cut more of the lemon balm that needs picking before a frost knocks it back. I feel like every other post these days has something to do with the gardens, but I can't help it. I love this time of year. 

This photo is from Collin's garden. the lettuce is Black Seeded Simpson, but Collin always calls it his "favorite lettuce". It does very well in our warm weather and we always plant lots of it.

(little kale plants)

  (lemon balm)

 

After the big veggie garden, I slipped into the herb garden for the lemon balm. There is a nasty nest of wasps living in one of the cinder blocks that edge the beds and I am having a frustrating time trying to get rid of them. One stung me about a week ago, but luckily the lemon balm is on the opposite side of the garden, and they left me alone today.

Hope you are having a beautiful October day!

 

weekending

A fun little weekend addition to my Etsy spot.

Hope you are having a great one!

 

my helper

Lilly is one of those children that kind hearted people stare at, smile and say, "Wow. She sure is a busy one!" Ha.

The more I think about it, the more "busy" really does seem to be the right word (and so much nicer than a few others that might apply). She gets into positively everything, and keeping her "busy" is sometimes the only way we can all stay remotely sane.

This morning she helped me make a couple of the herbal infusions that we like to keep in the fridge. (We basically use this method.)

We made a nettle & rose-hip blend (with a pinch of peppermint) and a lemon balm, elderflower & rose-hip concoction which tastes wonderful and is a great immunity booster.

Lilly has always liked teas of all sorts. Now that I think about it, she has somewhat strange tastes for a two year old. Two of her favorite things are salad and salsa. Go figure.

She has a hard time waiting the four long hours that we let these steep... She asks every few minutes if "the tea is ready now?" It helps that nap time will fall during that four hour stretch. :)
 
(Linked to Simple Lives Thursday.)

 

luffa!

I have wanted to try growing my own luffa for more than 15 years (I kid you not), and this year I finally tried it. We have been picking and cleaning them for a while now, so I thought I would share a few pictures today of our most recent harvest.
 
We first selected the ripe ones (brown) and snipped them from the vines. The kids then snap off the blossom end and dump out the seeds into a bowl. Most of them come falling out (you can hear them rattling around in there) at this point and the rest come out when we wash them. (We only save for later planting the ones that fall out before washing.)

Then we peel them using fingers and occasionally a butter knife, but there seems to be several different ways of cleaning them out there. We may try other methods in the future, but this way is working great for us now.

Lilly had to have her own bowl of seeds to play in. They really are rather nice to run ones hand through and they sound so pretty hitting the bowl. Star, one of the kittens, is patiently supervising.

So this is our modest little haul for the day. They have not been washed and dried in the sun yet, but aren't they fun?

And there are so many more out there!

 

The Details:

We grew Luffa aegyptica pruchased from these very helpful people. It has a very dense fiber and a long growing season of 180 days. We really like it and have saved many (many) seeds for later planting, but I have ordered some Luffa cylindrica seeds to try next year. The Luffa cylindrica has a growing season of only 130 days and a slightly different fiber texture and I really want to see what it is like. :)

(Linked to Barn Hop .)

 

wordless Wednesday :: snack time

 

Farm Anatomy

 

Ok, this book is probably not for everyone, but if you are into art / illustration as well as all things farm-ish, then you will love it. (Um, I've had it preordered since July.)

It is filled to the brim with Julia Rothman's awesome illustrations detailing nearly every imaginable aspect of farm work and life.

From gardening, to animals, to handy and helpful tips, tricks, recipes and how-to's...

...I am relishing every bit of it.

(P.S. ~ You can see even more of Farm Anatomy here!)

 

happy feast of St. Francis!

We really like him around here. :)