They're BAccckkkk!

Another sunny day! Today I was planting seeds (in the garden beds and tree stumps)... which is always fun- but while i was putting new food into the ground i found a bunch of herbs I planted last year coming back up! This is when it feels like all the work paid off... not that it was ever work. Quite some hardy organic herbs here, because they had to withstand cold down to -20 degrees F, no sunshine at all, and feet of snow and ice piling & melting and piling again. **************************************************************** ......... Introducing the Luck Cabin's herb gardens :::: * catnip! (above) oregano! (below)

chivessss....

winter savory even lived!

some kind of fancy purple sage...

and comfrey (can not live without it, it is instant bee sting relief!)

lavender... for washing my hair in!

parsley!

Thyme!!!! mmmm

Bee balm (the red and the magenta kind)...

all my mints, including chocolate!

sage :)))

and Yarrow (i use in my homemade bug repellent oil!)

YAY!!!!!! There is lemon balm and hyssop and goji berries that came back too... the dwarf fruits trees i planted last summer are making leaves and flower blooms. This is when i feel like i am in heaven.

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XoxooxoxxoX

Red Wild Bee Balm

Lately I have been branching out far beyond my Luck Cabin to other parts of the woods within walking distance. Sometimes I trek a good few miles getting lost in the vast beauty and the strangeness of being alone in deeper darker woods. Sometimes I happen upon a clearing, a patch of something special (usually it's nettles).... today it is red BEE BALM! I have seen tiny amounts of bee balm in the forest before - even under canopies of total shade, they don't seem to be all that picky in the wild. But here in this secret spot tucked far away I found fields of it...

Isn't it a striking unusual flower? Hummingbirds, butterflies and moths LOVE it too!

There are bunches of uses for the bee balm plant, from head to ground (but not the part underground....)
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"The red variety is commonly known as Oswego Tea. It was used by colonists in place of English Tea after the Boston Tea Party, when they threw the English tea in the harbor to protest the high taxes imposed on it by the British.
Bee Balm was used as a medicinal plant extensively by Native Americans who recognized four varieties that had different odors. Wild Bergamot was used also as an active diaphoretic (sweat inducer) for ceremonial sweat lodges. A decoction of the herb was made into hair pomade. " :::: read more at -altnature.com

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You can see in the pic above the leaves are long and narrow - and when ya crush them they have a very distinct smell (similar to thyme and hippies, a deep frangrance hard to describe.). The flowers bloom June through July and come in a few colors... so now's the time to look out for them. :) My favorite flavor is the white-ish ones cause they smell like lemon yumminess!

But who can't love endless space filled with red flowers!?!

XOxoxoox Yay!

CSA Saturday! (Community Supported Agriculture)

Every saturday I go out, down the road to an organic farm that's in my 'hood - a farm that has a box of freshly picked organic veggies, herbs and fruit waiting for me! This year I was not able to get my own organic garden prepared fast enough to grow most of my own food, and I was lucky enough to remember that a few years ago at the Waynesville NC Farmers Market there was this awesome lady named Julie who was bringing boxes of food all the way from Hot Springs for her CSA members......
I totally called Mountain Harvest Organics up on da' phone and joined!

So here is how it works for me - since I am local instead of picking up my organic box of goodies at a market I go to the farm every saturday. I look forward to it all week long! I pull up to a barn, which has a second story that was converted into a house for the farm interns. (Neato, right? Right on...) Underneath that barn house are the freezers where my box is kept --- but before I show you that, check out their awesome greenhouses ... There are several greenhouses where food is being grown, to extend the seasons for their CSA members and their own kitchen table. This is in addition to the 4 acres of farmland they recently fenced in high enough to keep out the deer. There are also pigs and goats - which I hope to get to pics of another time for ya'll!

Inside this greenhouse is tomatoes - which I totally can not eat... the cool thing about a small organic CSA is that the owners Julie and Carl are kind enough to replace/substitute some other veggies for the shit I am allergic too...YAY!

I usually pick up some potted herbs and flowers too, for discounted prices - they said late in the season people don't buy them much at the market so I have been building an herb empire at the Luck Cabin for a very small fee --- herbs i use in cooking every single day.

After getting some live herbs, I go down under the barn house to the big industrial looking fridge to grab my box!

I buy the big box - there are two sizes and the big one is really for a family but since I cook every single meal from scratch every single day and rely heavily on vegetables as the part of my diet I CAN have - I pay $25 for the week of cornucopia. Pretty sweet deal when you realize how much you pay for all this in the store - I get things like bok choy, chinese cabbage, broccoli, onions, kale, lettuce, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, squash, cucumbers..... and even had two weeks of the most DELICIOUS strawberries of my LIFE!!!

I stick my money in an envelope - for this farm, I pay either per week, per month, and I bet they wouldn't mind if you paid for the year too! ;)

BTW- my last name is kinda mis-spelled here .... it's pronounced REE_SHARD.

Thanks to Julie and Carl for making my life 100x's easier, better, and tastier!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Off The Beaten Path: Wild Ginseng & Bergamot

You can walk the same trail 100 times and always find something new, but every once in a while it's a good idea to get off your regular path and go into the unknown (in life, in your 'hood and when hiking around the woods.) Yesterday me and my nature BFF Bort found an animal path we never saw before and decided to follow it- part way through it was obvious a small critter had made the new trail (not a deer) since a few things needed to be crawled over, under and gently pushed back to get through (plus it had left a feline/weasel/small animal track in the wet mud).While following a 'smell trail' of a dead animal towards some big rocks, the first amazing plant we found was wild white flowered Bee Balm also known as Bergamot. It has a smell similar to the herb lemon balm, except it's a lighter less astringent scent. We picked a few leaves to make some tea!

The flowers of the wild bergamot seem more delicate then the cultivated types, but no less beautiful - these things have a strong striking presence amongst the sea of green in the forest. There are several other colors this flower grows in - pink, red and magenta also grow in the woods.Once we got closer to the rocks we had moved away from the mysterious dead animal smell and found another awesome plant - wild ginseng! Apparently people hunted and stole tons of it off this property a while back, but the plant is now re-establishing itself. (If you come try to hunt it ova' here I will most likely be hiding in the woods with my big knife and will scare you so bad you'll have nightmares for all your life & I will call the Po Po's on you.... so don't do it...!!)

We didn't harvest anything from these plants since it needs a chance to spread - but we do plan to go back to both the ginseng and bergamot to collect a few seeds to cultivate.

After all that exploring, I took a big rest on some rocks and relaxed. You can see I don't have special hiking gear, shoes, clothes, or anything else for that matter. NOTE: Expensive outdoors equipment not required for major fun. XoXOooo

Hummingbird & Bee Balm

See the little pink arrow (in the pic below) pointing into what seems like the abyss of a pine tree? Right on the edge of that branch sits the hummingbird I was waiting for (see it now?), it was checking me out in my hiding spot, sizing up whether I really posed a threat to it reaching it's goal - the big burst of bee balm flowers it comes to feed on a few times a day. I don't know exactly how animals decide whether you are bad or good but I know if you stay extremely still & think nice thoughts it helps gain trust. The hummingbird made it's choice that me and my camera weren't going to do much of anything worthwhile and swooped down into the flowers for a feast! These are not the best pics in the world, but it was so exciting and exhilarating and fun to watch close up I could have exploded...
XoXo

Herb Starters, Wanna See My Babies?

I think I may possibly love growing herbs more then vegetables. This isn't to say I don't love growing veggies but just something about an herb's ability to give to every meal, that steady and unfleeting life gives it a more personal appeal (long term relationship style). I have been planting herb seeds in starter pots and then slowly moving them into my organic garden spaces... so here's introducin' a few of my babies!
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First, dis' is my babie Basil... a fancy kind too that I can't remember the name of. :)

And here is my babie, little Garlic Chive...

My very favorite babie herb is Sage because the seed isn't planted in the ground but is just placed on the surface of the soil, then becomes the strongest woody herb bush with fantastical purple flowers. Mmmm.

XoXOooo

Natural Remedies For Seizures?

I have decided to come out of the medical problem closet and ask ya'll for some help! I have been having seizures for about 2 years now, which prevent me from any travel that isn't on bike or foot. They are not the kind where your eyes roll back, you drool and flop like a fish- but more of a convulsive brain & body spasm which has gotten somewhat less strong with time. It still is very disabling and prevents me from being able to lead what most would consider a normal life- (plus they suck really bad). I have been on the hunt for something natural I can take for seizures since the grand pharmacopia drugs always give me adverse & allergic reactions. One herbal remedy I did try was too strong (I only took one pill) and that is Skullcap, it gave me a pretty hellish reaction that included seizures, slurred speech, lack of motivation or ability to stay awake & liver pain!!! OH NO! I wouldn't mind trying some other herbs still, but would love even more if anyone out there knows of a homeopathic medicine I can take?!
If you have any recommendations or know of anyone with seizures too who maybe could help please send them my way!

Harvest & Dry Your Herbs

There is nothing better then growing your own fresh herbs, but with winter approaching we know these guys have to go into hibernation too. When herbs are flowering they are at the peek of their flavor and perfectly 'ripe' for the pickin' and dryin'. This is the easiest and tastiest DIY ever- all you have to do is cut the herbs (like mint, rosemary, sage etc...) in small bunches, hang them upside down in small brown paper bags, place in a dark cabinet (with some air circulation) or dark room and within a few crisp fall days your herbs are ready to be bottled for the winter. Keep them in a opaque bottle or dark cabinet so the sunlight doesn't ruin their color. This is 100 times cheaper and more delicious then buying store bought & packaged herbs.
YAY! Go Organic!

Photo: Jeffery McCullough Photography