What Do YOU Do With Your Basil?

Pizza?

Burgers?

Spaghetti sauces?

Soups?

Smoothies?

Basil, the bunch with the bigger leaves:



Sara from the Healthy Home Economist tells you exactly how easy it is to use your garden herbs all year 'round. Dry it!

I've done that with dill. Now, I'm inspired to do it with basil. These hot sunny days will work well for this.

Dry your basil if you can't use it all fresh.

... and do try a bit in your next smoothie. Umm-mm!

So good, so healthy!

Rolling Out the Green Carpet

The simplest things make the most fun!


Our little people had tons of fun Friday evening AND Saturday morning making a green carpet for us to enjoy with Grandpa & Grandma.

Weeds from the orchard were carefully placed on our front step.

We oo-ed and aw-ed.

It was so soft and cool to walk on.


The children had so-o-o much fun!

The orchard got weeded, at least partly, hehe ... sh-h-h, don't tell them that part though. It was a nice side bonus.

Wonderful, Bountiful Zucchini

Zucchini is so-o-o-o healthy ... and so-o-o-o good!

What do you do with it, you ask?

- Baked Zucchini makes a favorite light summertime meal for us.

- fresh zucchini dippers with Dill Dip.

- toss cubed zucchini into stir-fry.

- saute sliced zucchini with onions & serve hot.

- we enjoyed sauted zucchini mixed with fried hamburger crumbles served with potatoes & gravey. Not terribly original, but we needed a quick meal one day this week. It was yummy! The crew asked for it again, so it passed the test.

- many folks use zucchini as low-carb substitute for pasta -- as spaghetti or lasagna noodles. Use a zoodler for aesthetic culinary appeal.

- Zucchini Salsa has become THE salsa of preference at this house!

- Carolyn's family has been enjoying Zucchini Relish as long as I've known them.

- Chocolate Zucchini Cake or
Coconut Zucchini Cake our family cannot decide which is their favorite.


- let the children have at carving up a zucchini ... wasteful perhaps? Cheap FUN! Or ... do both. After carving, wash it up and eat it yet anyway, lol! Make it into salsa or relish.

Who knows you may inspiring a budding chef??!!

Two Weeks ago

So, you noticed a lack of postings lately?

Life has been crazy busy 'round here. It has slowed down a bit since the chickens are now all in freezers, but the hot dry weather of July has been intense.

Chickens do not like the heat -- we lost 29 birds in two days because of the heat ... and they would have been in a freezer in a couple days. Argh!

The gardens like the heat, but not without water. It is so dry!!

We can & do water, but that is just not the same as a good rain! God does everything so much better than we ever could!

That said, we're doing our best with what we have. Now we know, with 5 acres of gardens, we know we need to upgrade & automate some kind of watering system in order to continue gardening in these sandy hills of the Spruce Woods area.

That's a project for another year, one upgrade at a time.

We've been so-o-o-o thankful to have a tractor & good rototiller and antique potato planter & digger (as well as a few other little pieces of equipment) for the 2011 garden season. The work has been much lighter with those added blessings.