Showing posts with label herbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label herbs. Show all posts
Posted by
Deanna Lack
comments (1)
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| Pretty? Eh, kinda. Good? Yes!! |
I'm trying to ease up on the coffee, because I'm tired of having a headache by 1:00 pm if I don't drink it. So I cut back to 1 cup for a few days, now I'm drinking 1 cup of Chai tea in the morning.
Chai and my empty stomach didn't get along this morning, and I was getting a burning in the back of my throat and some reflux. Bleh.
So here's what I did for my green smoothie this morning... I took a handful of stomach-soothing herbs -- apple mint, and lemon balm -- and threw them in the blender with the greens, and made sure to use papaya as one of my fruits, because it's known for its stomach-soothing properties, too. Seems to have done the trick :) Here's the recipe.
Don't have lemon balm and mint? My god, why not? Find a corner of your property you don't want to mow anymore, stick one of them at one end and the other at the other end (seed, plants, whatever) and let them go to town. They will take over the area, and you will have all the mint and lemon balm you could ever wish for. They both make amazing hot teas and iced teas, and they add flavor and a load of nutrients to a green smoothie, and as far as green things go they taste fantastic. Last year I couldn't possibly have picked and dried and used all the lemon balm and mint I had growing. My plan this year is to pick it and freeze it with water in ice cube trays so I can throw it in my smoothies all winter long.
Stomach Soother Green Smoothie
10-20 mint leaves
10-20 lemon balm leaves
1 cup kale or spinach or green of choice
1 cup water
1 cup Silk coconut milk (I love this stuff!!!!)
Blend the heck out of it. If your herbs are stemmy you might want to strip leaves off the stems. If the stems are still tender and you have a good blender, throw 'em in.
1 cup pineapple, fresh preferable or if using cans you can use some of the juice instead of water
1/2 a papaya, seeded, peeled and sorta chopped
1 small-medium banana
ice cubes to taste... I like mine cold. You can seed and chop the papaya and then freeze, freeze the banana, pineapple, or all of it, for a nice cold one. If you put enough ice cubes in here and you have a Vitamix, you can turn this into their version of soft serve ice cream. Or freeze it into popsicles for little upset tummies.
Blend till smooth. This will serve 2, you can put it in a sealing glass jar or mason jar in the fridge and it'll keep for a day or two, if there's only one of you in the household braving the green stuff.
This is GOOD! Seriously, if you don't have mint and you're a smoothie-holic, get some.
Posted by
Deanna Lack
comments (0)
The first photo was taken April 15 last year, before my seedlings went into the ground. The second was taken today, 3 weeks earlier in the year... ... wow, this year's bunch looks so much better. I think I leveled up my gardening skills! I provided better light this year and I think that's what's made the difference.
That said, I thought I'd share what went right and what went wrong last year, in case there are any other new-ish gardeners who would like info on avoiding the same mistakes I made.
First, I had heard you could grow stuff right in straw bales, so to save money on dirt in my raised beds I put a layer of straw in the bottom. This would've been great, IF I'd done it the fall before I wanted to put my garden in, but I did it in March, so my plants were growing in straw and I think as a result, didn't do great. Toward the end of the season, as the straw broke down, the tomatoes went crazy, and I picked a gallon of them the day before our first frost. But that straw is nice and decomposed now, and I think I'll reap the benefits this year.
Lost a lot of stuff to bugs. Here in Tennessee it's a constant battle. The flea beetles got the eggplant, the squash bugs and squash vine borers did in the zucchini after a minimal harvest, and I got some cucumbers but then the cucumber beetles came calling with the Blight, which destroyed the cukes, and the watermelons too. I also had Japanese beetles on the beans, and the little yellow caterpillars, which reduced my harvest. Plan for this year: traps for the cuke beetles and floating row covers on all of the above.
I started squash and cuke seeds with the tomatoes and eggplant. I lost all those seedlings to rot and they got pot bound, so curcurbits go right in the ground from now on. Or, I won't start them till 2 weeks before they go in the garden.
I put lemon balm, a mint relative, in the vegetable beds. It's going to be a weed if I leave them there. Anyone want a lemon balm plant? Need to move them to a different spot, but I do love the herb.
I think grandpa's heirloom Soldacki tomatoes don't much like the climate here... I may put them somewhere they get a little bit of shade every day so they're not in the blazing TN sun.
Carrots needed something... lighter, sandier soil, I think. They came out stubby. Broccoli failed utterly, but I planted it too late. The peppers also needed something, and I think this is a crop I do not have an affinity for, but I do use them, so I need to figure out the problem. I think the straw may have had a lot to do with it.
Successes:
- Had a bumper crop of tomatoes toward the end of the season, and canned my own salsa for the first time.
- Peas! They are so easy to grow. This year's are off to a good start, too.
- Herbs. I have an affinity for a lot of them and they make my thumb feel green. My regular basil didn't do as well as it did in a pot the year before, but the purple basil produced more than I knew what to do with. I have a cabinet full of dried herbs, still.
- Swiss chard. Which, unfortunately, Russ hates.
- Determinate cherry tomatoes did really well all year.
- I got tons of raspberries on my everbearing Heritage bush, and also a decent crop of sour cherries off my dwarf North Star tree, considering it was its first year.
- I definitely learned a lot!
That's the report... I'll keep you updated on this year's organic garden and food preservation efforts as we go!
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