Category Archives: Herb Everything

Blog posts and herbal experiences

Muck Boots for Christmas

Muck Boots for gardeners

I bought a pair of these Muck boots two summers ago. And that’s why I am not showing you my shoes. I’ll be honest, I was not a great fan when they arrived in the mail. You have to admit that Muck Boots won’t be winning any footware beauty pagents.

But now, I love these garden shoes. They are confortable, easy to get on and off when I have my hands full of plants and tools. In the summer, I keep these shoes by the back door for quick on and off. After two years of season stretching garden work, these shoes are still in good shape.

The reason I’m telling you this is because these Muck Boots are on sale and any gardener would be delighted to find them under the Christmas tree. A  gift certificate wood be a great stocking stuffer.

Their website says “Muck Boots are the most comfortable, 100% waterproof rubber boots & shoes you’ll ever own. Whether you’re working hard on the farm, in your garden, hiking in the snow, slopp’n in the mud or standing on the sidelines at a sports event – your feet will be dry and warm.”

All this is true. But, I also like Muck Boots because they are not hot or heavy on my feet. The stretch-fit top keeps the gravel and dirt out of my shoes. The snug shoe top a handy feature that you may not appreciate until you put on other shoes.

I clean my Muck Boots with a garden hose.

Go to http://www.muckbootsonline.com to order online. And you get free shipping. I’m just telling you this because I like mine and I know you will like them too.

Gardeners Christmas List

What Gardeners Want

Christmas Gifts for Gardeners

Bass Pro in Springfield, MO

Go Caddy


Perfect tote for garden phographers

This Go Caddy can carry more than you might think.  It folds flat and stays in my suitcase, ever ready for my travels.


Askinosie Chocolate

Eating your way to a better world with bean to bar chocolate.

Dark Chocolate

Milk Chocolate

Peppermint


Gator Grabber

Geta Gator Grabber

The Gator Grabber it’s much easier to keep my balance when picking up

pine cone or

black walnuts.

Herbaria

Soap for Gardeners

This Herbaria soap has cornmeal to gently clean hands.

Mild

Fragrant

Long lasting

Watch your Garden Grow with Plant Cam

The Plant Cam photos can be converted to movies.

I’m going to photograph my

daffodils and

tulips

Watering Can

The Best Gift U CAN   give a Gardener

This U CAN watering can is well balanced and easy to carry.


Getta Gator Grabber

Christmas Gifts for Gardeners

Gator Grabber
is a back-saving tool that is useful well beyond fall leaf cleanup. After I tried it, I asked the neighbor to give it a try. We both agreed that using Gator Grabber http://www.patsybell.com/2010/11/13/gator-grabber/ was handy and timesaving.

Picking up pine cones is easier with a grabber

If you have balance problems or just don’t want to bend over 150 times to pick up all the pinecones in your yard, consider the Gator Grabber. I also use it to pick up a gazillion black walnuts.

Buy these ergonomic grip garden tools online or use the store locator to find a retailer. Gator Grabber is made by the folks that make the tools with Large “O”-shaped handles in “can’t-lose-in-the-garden” green

I have the Radius Trowel with that comfortable curve providing more leverage with less wrist stress. These aluminum blade tools are both light weight and very sturdy. I’ve been using this trowel for two years. It’s the kind of tool a gardener only has to buy once. Well, maybe twice, if you have a tool borrowing spouse.

Find it here.:buy on line
store locator:

Price:  $34.99

More good news: free shipping now through Decemner 31, 2010.

Herbaria All Natural Soap

A Christmas Gift for Gardeners

Herbaria All Natural Soap for gardeners contains cornmeal to gently scrub hands clean. The delightful citrus scent comes from essential oils of orange, lemongrass and palmarosa. I like that this pure product is not harsh or dry out my hands.

I keep this at the garden sink, it works beautifully to clean the garden grime from my hands. Plus, the soaps make great sachets in dresser drawers and linen closets, cars.

If you are in St Louis, on the Hill, stop by Herbaria. (The owner has designed some hand made soap dishes.) It is tempting to buy so many different beautiful, mildly fragrant bars of soap. But the good news, if you buy a  basket full of soap, they make nice stocking stuffers, or holiday hostess gifts.


Fragrant and long lasting

Facebook

Price: 4.5 ounce bar, $5.95 each

More good news: Herbaria is a sustainable products with no milk soaps or honey soaps. All Herbaria soaps contain only food-grade vegetable oils and sustainable plant materials. The soaps are never tested on animals. They really do test the soaps on their selves.

Plant Cam

Christmas Gifts for Gardeners

Plant Cam the website shows plant cam, bird cam and project cam. I received a free Plant Cam from the makers so that I can evaluate it and write about my experience. I’m staking out Plant Cam to several locations so I can literally see the daffodils and tulips bloom from beginning to end this spring.

Sturdy, weather proof

weather proof timelapse camera,

The time lapse photos blend into a seamless movie of spring in my front yard!
Read the Blog

Find it here: Store Locator

Buy online: Timelapse PlantCam

Price $79.95

More good news: There are tips for movies and e-mailing photos on the website.

The Garden Bistro – a review

The best of fresh food, dinner and lunch

The Garden Bistro in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

I get to Eureka Springs, Arkansas once or twice a year, it seems as though new restaurants come and go as quickly as I do. Or, as Dorthy said, “My! People come and go so quickly here!”

My point is, there was a decent restaurant in this location the last time I was in Eureka Springs­, but now there is a different great restaurant at 119 North Main. The good news: everything I had at the Garden Bistro was good. Bad news, I only “discovered” The Garden Bistro on my last day in Eureka Springs.

Chef Lana Campbell brings garden-fresh dining to Eureka Springs via the local farmers markets. The menu is seasonal. Meaning the menu in spring is different than the menu in fall, all based on what is fresh and local. The Garden Bistro serves the best of locally grown and produced fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs and meats.
Diners at the next table allowed me to share their opinions and photograph their food. They were pleased with their entrees, none of us had dessert. Portions are very generous.

Strawberry Lavender Soup

My fellow diners started with a fried green tomato appetiser followed by a dinner salad. I started my meal with a fabulous strawberry lavender soup*. Campbell also makes the bread. The heavy yeasty rolls are rich enough that I did not not even want butter.

My entre choice was a pecan encrusted salmon. It was a generous portion of perfectly cooked and beautifully served salmon. Side dishes are served family style, and include a vegetable and starch.

Herb & pecan encrusted salmon, hot bread, green beans, baked potato

There is a new restaurant in town every time I come to Eureka Springs. I hope The Garden Bistro makes it. It will become a favorite, like Ermilios and Mud Street Cafe.

Getting there:
119 North Main, Eureka Springs, AR 72632 Contact:Phone:(479) 253-1281.Website: not yet
Hours:Tea Room style lunches from 11 am – 2 pm Thursday through Monday.
Casual fine dining dinners from 5 pm – 9 pm every Thursday through Monday.
Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays

The recipe for Strawberry Lavender Soup from The Garden Bistro in Eureka Springs Arkansas is on my Herb Companion Garden Blog

The restaurant review for The Garden Bistro in Eureka Springs Arkansas is on my Blog, Oh Grow Up!

“Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire” by Margot Berwin

In late spring, I volunteered to review “Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire”, a first novel by Margot Berwin. I can count the books I’ve reviewd on one hand, so I thought this early work of Margot Berwin, would be a great “summer read.”

Hot House Flower

The book was free, as was my review. The paperback, “Hot House Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire,” by Margot Berwin, is published by Random House and retails for $14.95. I expected this to be a lightweight summer read and was looking forward to “discovering” a new garden writer.

I, being a slow reader, usually get the benefit of early reviews from my speed reading garden blogging friends. I think many folks took this book too seriously and were disappointed. I was expecting a light and lively summer read and that is what I got.

Corpse plant

I was waiting for Hot House Flower to blossom into a full fledged romance novel, a genre seldom on my reading list. Thankfully, it was not. There was just enough travel and horticulture information to keep me turning pages.

Margot, you had me when you wrote the words Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Our protagonist, Lila, is learning about these nine plants of desire throughout the book. Each chapter starts with a little introduction to one of the nine plants and a hint about whats coming next.


I am glad “Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire” found it’s way to my reading stack. This is a romp through the jungle and there is even a bit of beach time, some totally unbelievable horticultural anticts and even a bit of magic and mystery.

This ain’t no botanical encyclopedia. My garden blogging friends would still be quibbling over the details of this book, if they hadn’t figured out it’s supposed to be fun and fictional light reading.


Heck, Margo took Lila and me to a place I’ve only dreamed. She even started out in a place I too would have wanted to trade in for tropics. She may not be that stong female heroine we are all looking for. She can’t turn all the raining monkey poop in to compost as she drives by, for example.

I received this book as a TLC Book Tour, a virtual book tour site. Virtual book tours are a promotional tool for authors to connect with readers via well-read book blogs and specialty blogs.

Realism? You want realism, well my friends, tune into reality tv. Accuracy? You want accuracy? Join the Royal Horticultural Society or stop by Martha’s on the way home.

You rarely find this kind of fun and imagination in contemporary (adult) literature. You don’t have to learn anything, just read. Relax. What could be more fun?

In garden terms think of an informal cottage garden, a little messy but delightful, never the less. After reading “Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire”, I wonder whats next for Margot Berwin.

  • Title: Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire
  • Author: Margot Berwin
  • Release date: June 1, 2010
  • Publisher: Vintage
  • Pages: 304
  • Genre: Adult fiction

Black Krim

Black Krim

Black Krim with a slightly salty tomato flavor

So you thought I was done talking about tomatoes for the year.

But no. There are more heirloom tomato surprises from zone 6 in Southeast Missouri.

Called black tomatoes, Black Krim produces a medium size (10 to 12 ozs.), dark browish-red tomatoes. This heirloom is growing in popularity and being discovered by black tomato converts every year. It has just a hint of saltiness, and rich, comomplex flavor.

Black Krim gets darker in hot weather, which may shed some light to neighbor Bill’s very colorful cooler season Black Krim Tomatoes.

Here is a bit of a surprise. (I pulled up all the tomatoes in my garden 3 weeks ago.)

Patsybell,

This tomato plant you gave me this spring has just now sprung into action. All summer it produced a few tomatoes that would ripen and rot at the bottom of the fruit
while the top was still green.

When October got here – lots of fruit, ripening evenly and the very best tasting tomato of the year. Should I save some seed from them?

Hope you can see these pictures.

Thank you,
Neighbor Bill

Black Krims are a generous sandwich sized slices.

Black Krim plants were sent to me for trial from Hort Couture®,

Hort Couture® is only available through independent garden centers and retailers- you won’t see these plants in the mass markets. While the plants arrived healthy, I shared one plant with my neighbor, Bill, The head tomato grower in our neighborhood. These tomatoes have a very tasty smoky/rich flavor that was a regular and consistant indeterminate that only sucummed to late blight as did all the tomatoes in my garden.

Grown in the heat of summer, my Black Krim had brownish shoulders and red purplish skin and flesh.  The color was not as distinct this summer. I used the black heirloom tomatoes in fresh salsa the summer. The Black Krim just seems to add another level of flavor to salsa.

two late season Black Krims

Two late season Black Krims

Happy Halloween

Bargain seed for next year.

This is an FYI. I’m just passing this information along.

Renee's Giant Pumpkin, "Wyatt's Wonder"

Happy Holloween! Plan ahead for next year’s garden – order your pumpkin seeds now at a 20% discount at Renee’s Garden at www.reneesgarden.com

Time: October 15, 2010 at 6pm to October 31, 2010 at 7pm

Location: Renee’s Garden Seed Event

All Pumpkins 20% off at Renee’s Garden

Great pumpkins come in all sizes

Order pumpkin seed now. It will keep till next planting season. Store in dry dark area. I put seed in a plastic zipper bag and then put the  plastic bag in the desk drawer.

Toasty Pumpkins Seeds

Save some seed for planting and use some for healthy snacks.

Photo by Brook Ashley

Saving seed from pumpkins and squashes

An easy seed to save, and you’ve got time. Most winter squashes will keep for months. When you do get around to eating these hardy winters wariors, save some seed before you cook the squash. Rinse the seed, let then dry, flat and in a single layer between a paper towels.

If you do have bumper crops of pumpkins and squash, save seed from your brightest and firmest of your collection.  Save the rest for of the seeds for toasting. You might just discover an inexpensive, homegrown and homemade treat to use for garnishing winter soups and breads. Stir Pumpkin seed and sunflower seeds into holday party mix,

Small sweet pumpkins selected for punkin soup. The seeds make a great garnish,

Ingredients:

One pumpkin
Salt
Vegitable oil

Toasty pumpkin seeds

Scoop the pulp and seeds from inside the pumpkin. Seperate the stringy pulp from the seeds. Compost the pulpy core. Rinse the seeds.

To make salted pumkin seeds:

Bring 4 cups of water with a Tablespoon of salt to boil. Add seeds. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Strain seeds and spread out in a single layer to dry on cotton towels or paper towels. Skip this step if you do not want salted seeds.

To make seasoned pumpkin seeds:

Heat oven to 375. Spray pan with any good vegetable oil. Spread seeds onto cookie sheet in a single layer. Spay lightly with oil. If you want spicy seeds, add seasoning now.

(Try a light sprinkle of chili seasoning mix, butter flavored popcorn salt, or onion salt. If you use a seasoned salt, skip the boiling-in-salt-water-step.)

Bake on the top rack until the seeds begin to brown (about 15 to 20 minutes). If you would like seededs darker, put back in oven, checking often until they are as brown as you like. Watch carefully, the time between browned and burned is but an instant.

Remove the tray of pumpkin seed and cool on an a rack. Let the seeds completely cool. Eat the seeds whole. If you have all the time in the world, crack open the pumpkin seeds and eat only the inner seed. I like te eat the whole seed.

Chop and use as garnish in soups and other dishes that could use a little crunch. Store in an air tight zipper bag in the frig.

If you do have any left over, roasted or raw seeds, share them with the birds.

20% off on ALL pumpkin seed ar Renee’s Garden.

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