Summers gone and fall has arrived!

From Grandma's Desk:
I can't believe it has been July since my last post. The garden has come and gone. We held our annual Lavender Festival and spent 3 weeks in Hawaii! So where do I begin. It has been a hot dry summer with lots of forest fires and smokey skies. Today we had some rain which really helped clear things up and dampen the fire season. I am snuggled into my herb processing room cleaning and distilling Geranium Hydrosol. Filling the whole house with the lovely scents of nature. While in Hawaii I had a chance to go to an aromatherpy workshop and distill Lemon-rose Geranium hydrosol. I also took a garden tour and learned about the native healing plants and foods.
Before we left for Hawaii the garden was in full blown harvest mode. The tomatoes, pepers, & tomatillas were thick in the greenhouse, ripening and ready to burst so I had my hands full making salsa and canning. The following is my basic salsa recipe complements of my friend Suzy Fenn-Shawhan, that I have adapted over the years. I use it as a basic recipe but add and subtract according to what is in my garden.

Basic Salsa

20c tomatoes chopped
2c chopped onions
4T salt
1/2c green onions
3 T pepper
10 cloves garlic chopped fine
1/2c cider vinegar
2T chili powder
2c diced green chilies
1T cummin

Mix all ingredients together and put in sterile canning jars in a hot bath for 20 min.

Roasted peppers from the garden. I roast them on the barbecue then put them in a paper bag to cool and then it is easy to peel them.

Tomatilloes and Roma tomatoes fresh from the garden.

I like to use a food processor to chop my garlic, onion, tomatoes, tomatillos, and chilie peppers.

I put all of the ingredients in a big ceramic bowl to let everything blend and to test the flavor. I also like to ad lots of cilantro. If I use pablano peppers I get a smokier taste. I also change up the chili powder I use for different flavors. I like to add a bit of fresh squeezed lime or lemon. I like to use 1 cup canning jars to give away during the Holiday Season. My husband also likes to trade jars of Karrie's Salsa at work for jerky and other interesting items.

I will be sharing pictures from out Lavender Festival, how to dry fruit quick and easy, and highlights from Hawaii. I almost forgot we also built a cob pizza oven this fall and we will share photos and how to.

From Grandma's Desk:
Today I went to the Post Office to pick up my new Essential Oil distillation still!
It is beautifully made from copper, and works really well. I cleaned everything and put it all together. I gathered some cedar branches from a fallen tree in a cedar grove near our home on Six Mile Creek. Since I knew the still was coming I thought this would be the perfect hydrosol to make my first batch with the new still. I kept the cedar in my herb room sink in a bit of water to keep them fresh. Then I drained off the water to let them dry out as I was putting the still together.

Isn't she beautiful. I think I will call her the "Copper Swan". I love the long neck and the copper condenser that has such a beautiful shine.

I then filled her with filtered water and cedar fronds that were cut into small pieces. This is a 3 liter still so I added about 2000 ml of h2o and then filled the rest full of cedar. I put everything together following the directions. 2 Hours later I had about 750 ml of cedar hydrosol. I have not extracted the oil off the surface yet, as I am waiting for it to settle out. My next distillation will be a batch of lavender that I picked this morning before the sun hit. I will let you know how that goes later today!

From Grandma's Desk: Ginger Cherry Jam

6 cups pitted sweet cherries
1 1/2 cups honey
1 Tbls. finely grated fresh ginger

Have clean jars ready this will make about 6 cups of jam. While the jam is cooking you should have your jar lids ready for putting on the jars. I heat them in a sauce pan of water that I bring to a boil for 5 min. then let them sit in the hot water until you are ready to use them.

Put all ingredients together in a large 2 qt saucepan and heat over medium until it comes to a boil. I let it simmer stirring often until the liquid is clear and the cherries are soft about a 15 min. slow simmer. I then take my hand held blender and blend for 1 min.to reduce the cherries to a nice textured pulp. Then I whip it for 6 min with a wire whip. This releases the natural pectin. I warm the mixture back up to a bubbling brew. Then using a metal measuring cup I pour it into the waiting jars. Clean off the rim of each jar with a damp cloth. Place jar lids on each jar tighten down the lids and place in a waiting water bath let this bath boil for 1o min. then remove jars and let cool. It takes a few weeks for the pectin in the fruit to fully set so don't be surprised if the jam is a bit watery at first.

From Grandma's Desk:
My how time flies when your having fun. After a wonderful 3 weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii, we came home to much needed rain, and more rain and then some snow, and then some more rain. I finally stopped raining around the 4th of July. We have had beautiful cool weather until about a week ago when it warmed up to almost 100 F. But then it rained the last few days and is cool and green and beautiful. The lavender is blooming the salsa garden is abundant with tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. The cilantro is coming up everywhere. All the rain has brought us so many blessings and I feel so blessed here in the Six Mile drainage, with the rest of the U.S. having such high temperatures and storms.

Yesterday I spent the day canning organic cherries. They are soooooooo delicious. I have been eating them non-stop since Saturday when I got them at the farmers market. I am so amazed at how great they taste and because they are organic and did not get sprayed down with chemicals I am not experiencing any of the usually intestinal discomfort from eating to many! Yumm, Yummm, Yummmmmmm! But I was afraid I would eat the whole box so I did some canning yesterday to save a little summer goodness for the winter months. I also made cherry ginger honey jam and chocolate liquor soaked cherries are steeping in a jar for later use. Recipes to follow!

We are counting down to the Six Mile Lavender Festival, just 26 days to go. I will post another blog for the Lavender Festival later today!

The Stillroom, or Snowed in and Loving it

From Grandma's Desk:
We have been house bound for the past 4 days. It started snowing Tuesday did not let up until this morning early. We have about 20 to 24" of snow. We spent the last 2 days shoveling, snow blowing, and plowing with the tractor. My husband and I took turns just to keep it from accumulating to the point we might never get out! I was hoping for a bit of snow to keep the lavender plants cozy, and Mother Nature provided. I didn't really have anything important to do so we are staying close to home, and keeping warm.

In between clearing snow and keeping warm I began looking through some old magazine. I came across an article in The Herb Quarterly from the winter 2009, titled, "Wisdom from the Stillroom". I thought it would be fun to share the highlights with you. This article inspired my own "stillroom" last summer when I added an addition on our home to house my tropical plants and where I create my balms and salves, distill my essential oils, do my canning, and run my business. This article explains that a stillroom is where women made and stored their homemade remedies to keep their families healthy. Women of the 17th century did not always have a doctor or apothecary nearby so they had to rely on their own recipes handed down from generation to generation to keep their families healthy. The stillroom was named for a small still that the women used to create medicinal waters of all kinds.

My own stillroom is where I keep my medicinal herbs, tinctures, hydrosols, essential oils, flower infused oils, herbal vinegars, fruit cordials, and the ingredients to make my own herbal medicines. I also keep my home canned salsas, jams & jellies, fruit sauces, spaghetti sauce, and all my dried culinary herbs. We also store our dried fruit, wines, and liquors. It is a cool dry room much like a pantry but with more medicinal purposes. I also have pantry shelves to store jars, canner, still, herb and fruit drier. There is lots of room for empty jars, sieves, scales, mortar & pestle, and other tools I use when canning or making medicinal remedies. The sights and smells are wonderful. Sometimes I just go into my stillroom to fill my senses.

Along with a stillroom a record book or diary must be kept to hold medicinal and everyday recipes. This is an essential to every stillroom to record your ideas, recipes, and information to pass down to your own children and friends. My Stillroom Book started out in a small journal. I soon realized the amount of information could not be contained in one small journal. I now have a 3 ring binder to put this information in. I can easily record my own recipes and have plenty of room for tips, articles from favorite herb magazines. It also becomes a diary of what worked best for which ailment or feedback on my latest salve or balm. This way I keep a record of various things I have tried over the years. I keep a similar book for my garden. What a treasure to leave our children and future generations. Now we might ad a small computer to keep notes on. I like the old fashioned Stillroom Book though, it is easier and appeals to my senses. I can see and smell the unfolding of the stillroom in its pages.

Memory Blend Aromatherapy Recipe

From Grandma's Desk:
This is a blend I started making when I was trying to learn Spanish. I think it helped some and everyone in the class loved it, even our teacher loved using it. I have read studies that state that if you study in the same atmosphere as you take a test your more likely to score higher. Also our sense of smell is our strongest memory cue. It is difficult to always study in the same room as you will be tested. But if you use aromatherapy while you study you can wear a scent or use a personal diffuser to recreate that atmosphere and trigger our memory. So here is the recipe:

For Focus use equal parts Lavender and Rosemary, if putting them on your skin directly add 1 part focus blend to 2 parts jojoba oil. This is great when you are in class and need to be able to really focus on what your are doing.

Memory blend
4 drops lavender
3 drops geramium
3 drops rosewood
3 drops rosemary
2 drops tangerine
1 drop spearmint

use a dropper full of jojoba oil to the blend if you are using on your skin, if using in a diffuser keep it pure essential oil.

apply to temples, forehead, mastoids, brain stem area, also around the ears.
Use in a diffuser or on a tissue for studying then wear on pulse points when it comes time for test taking. It is a lovely blend.

If you feel tired or drousy and need to an easy pick me up use sweet orange essential oil for an easy energy boost. I use this in my personal diffuser when I am driving alternating with zen winter mist from H2O at Home. Both oils can be purchased on www.myh2oathome.com/karrie. Click on the "shop online" button and find the essential oils. There are also great natural cleaning products and other essential oils that are great for your health

Winter Blues? Create a seed cooperative.

From Grandma's Desk:
Do you have loads of old seeds left over from years of gardening? It seems a shame to throw them out, but what should you do with them. In years past I would gather a group of neighbors and friends to have a seed exchange. Usually I have lots of seeds left over after I plant my squash, tomatoes, peppers, melons, etc. I will keep them in a drawer and reuse them every year until they quit sprouting. Occasionally I plant old seeds and nothing sprouts because they have lost their viability. It is fun to get friends together over a cup of tea or bowl of winter soup and plan your gardens together. Decide what seeds to order and share the expense. Make sure you choose from reliable catalogs or local garden stores. Beware of super deals in your Sunday insert magazine, offering trees, roses, or bushes that are so cheap it makes your head spin. I have never had good luck with this type of nursery. Two years ago my husband got an email for some blueberry bushes, the plants were cheap but they didn't tell you how much the shipping was until you had already put in your credit card. Those cheap plants went from $25 to almost $100. We ended up getting the plants in the dead of winter, we lost about 50% in the shipping, and out of the 100 plants only about 2 survived. We have yet to see any blueberries off these bargain bushes. So beware of to good a deal. My best luck has come from the local garden shop for seeds, fruit trees, and bushes. Another important aspect of gardening in Montana is to pay attention to the zones. If it doesn't list a zone it probably won't make it in Montana. It is a great time to gather with friends and neighbors over a warm cup of tea and share your gardening dreams. It will keep your winter blues to a minimum and make some life long friends.

From Grandma's Desk: Saturday brought a wonderful surprise. A box of fresh picked tangerines from my stepmother's garden. The greatest part about these tangerines is my son planted a seed over 15 years ago that turned into a tangerine tree. We kept that tree going in our house in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for 6 years then it started getting to tall for the living room. So on my next road trip to Arizona I put the tree in the car and headed south. My stepmother has a small fruit orchard in her back yard with pomegranites, oranges, grapefruit, and now tangerines. She planted the tree in her back yard and for the past 2 years has been getting a few tangerines. Last year I brought a few home to Adrian and put in his stocking. This year a whole box arrived with the most delicious fruit in it. Sweet juicy and easy to peal! Yum, I can hardly wait till he gets here this week so he can share the fruits of his labor. So this New Year I will plant seeds that are sweet, juicy and easy to peel! What a lovely thought as we enter the new year 2012. Keeping in mind it takes many years and sometimes many hands and hearts to make the sweet fruit of our lives.