Tag Archives: herb

Jan14

Colder Than Cold But With Style

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I have the craziest allergy that makes winter quite the challenge. I am allergic to the cold. Cold air, cold water … It makes the winter feel like colder than cold. I wear my “Ivana hat” (see my previous post “Winter’s Chill” about this), gloves, scarf, tights or pantyhose under my slacks or jeans, socks, boots, and layered coats. I need a ski mask to completely cover my face, just holes for my eyes and nostrils. I have been itching all day and puffy with hives this cold Monday. Construction is underway in my work building, so heat is limited. Space heaters have been provided, but the radiator heat is much more efficient. Benadryl makes me wiry and irritable, so I limit its usage to more severe swelling. And an epie pin is kept in an emergency bag in our 18-passenger van or with me when I go swimming or camping just in case. Yes, I have the angiodema as well as the hives, swelling from the inside out. The weather changed again on Saturday. I loved the sunshine and 60 degree temperatures all day Friday and Saturday morning, and then it turned on us late afternoon on Saturday. Ice and snow, and those wind chills! Yes, it is January in Missouri, but love those thawing days. Saturday morning Dean worked on the screen for the back side of the greenhouse and the back door header. And I put my seamstress skills into use by tacking nails in between Dean’s original nailing to make such a neat pattern like the brass studded french seam of a denim jacket or a pair of cowboy/cowgirl jeans. FrenchSeamStuddedJeans Have to make the plastic liner more secure, yet fashionable, don’t you think?! Only a woman’s touch! While we are preparing the outer wear for our plants, they are currently housed in two semi-heated, artificially lit 2-car garages. The warm comfort of their heated greenhouse is long gone, though spring is about 2 months away. The perennials are green, yet somewhat dormant. Trimming and propagating will take place in 4 weeks. Bed designs are being decided along with seeds being ordered this week for the herbs and veggies. In about 4 -6 weeks we will be sowing. Dormancy fools you. While we think nothing is going on; really, life is continuing and a blossom and fruit will appear soon enough.

Jan10

Changes

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Mick's Tamales Changes! Isn’t that a song? It is as the saying goes “here to stay!” This week my friend Molly from EarthDance Farms shared a few words about change in her newsletter. Farming wallows in change. Our greenhouse plans definitely have! Here is a link to that EarthDance Farm publication: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/463715/e828cdbee3/1696501412/351023b5d5/. We can chose to embrace change or fight against it, and I chose to embrace it. The autumn winds, modified greenhouse designs, the death of my father, and the holidays are followed with new housing arrangements for Dean & I. The desire for a different life brought my oldest daughter and her family to our household. We are sharing our modest 3-bedroom home with 2 more adults, 3 young children, and another black lab. My father’s lab “Midnight” who we adopted on Christmas Day loves all the companionship! An adjustment for my hubby and I, young children near our feet and squeals galore. It makes for creative date nights out for us previous “empty nesters”. Rachel and Mick have a plan, to save for their own 4-walls in the countryside where their chickens and lambs will meander nearby, and a garden big enough to feed themselves and Mick’s catering clients. Mick creates these fabulous meals which are on the healthy side now. I think his mother-in-law had some influence there! Shhh! Roasted two-beet salad with goat cheese crumbles … fresh, handmade pork tamales, and that leftover pork came from his New Year’s pig roast, all on our home kitchen’s menu! Yummy! Herbs used from Deanna Greens and Garden Art, and more to come this upcoming growing season. A new opportunity is just around the corner for my son-in-law chef. And faith plays a part in change. When we expect, it happens. God is not always in the door we open, but in the hallway as my artistic son, Ben mentioned on his FB page this week. And there is an opportunity waiting for my son as well. God embraces us wherever we are. What changes are you encountering right now? And what changes are you waiting for? Apply faith and good works. Remember the movie “Fields of Dreams”? Build it, and they will come!

Dec7

The Alternative

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So much of our thinking and planning seems to align to conventional practices.  This is in every area of our lives, relationships, career paths, foods we eat, medicines we take, what we spend time with or on, the house we live in, so on and so on.  Break throughs in sciences seem to tell us that some old practices have been the best practices all along.  For instance, the present interstate highway system we have has caused major traffic congestion in the cities, and kept local commerce from growing.  The lecture I attended at Washington University last week where  John Norquist gave the alternative.  Tear down some of those interstates in the city.  Allow secondary arteries, the urban streets to be available for travelers to slow down and visit the city, create more jobs, circulate more commerce, allow pride in the citizens to show off their cultures.   Maybe more walking and biking will be encouraged with sidewalk systems.  Hooray for out-of-the box thinkers!  St. Louis City and County are looking into this option.  What do Milwaukee citizens think about the similar project that took place in their city? 

Then there is the Slow Food movement.   (There is that word “slow” again.)  This started in Europe, Rome, Italy to be exact as a direct statement to the fast food construction plans for a McDonald’s back in 1986.  According to founder and president Carlo Petrini, “everyone has the right to good, clean, and fair food”. That means quality, flavorful food, it is natural form, and produced and tranported in an ethical manner at a fair price.  A person who eats locally, is called a locavore.  Slow Food includes local food.  (There is that word “local” once again.)  Foods grown, produced, and consumed on a local level will support local folks, right?  So this is where Deanna Greens And Garden Art resides.  Local!!!  I cannot wait to get those beds raised and plant some organic seeds for herbs and veggies.  We hope to sell more seedlings to local farmers, and herbs to local farmer’s market folks next spring.  And Dean & I will consume lots of our own homegrown veggies.  Veggies are the alternative to pre-packaged, processed grain products.  Herbs are the alternative to salt and synthetic chemicals the food label lists.  Check out the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis from your local library and see what today’s wheat and corn are doing to our bodies.  Or Dr. Davis has his own blog:  www.wheatbellyblog.com.   An eye opener.  Yes, an alternative diet, yet what we ate like before WWII.  Old practices return.

Dean and I personally shop local as well.  95% of our Christmas gifts are bought locally.  Wine from Chandler Hill Vineyards and foods & crafts from local artisans.  I hope you supported Local Saturday in your community a couple of weeks ago.   Last weekend we slowed our pace down, savored a local beer and satisfied our palettes while listening to local music at our neighborhood joint, the St. Charles Coffee House.     www.saintcharlescoffeehouse.com.   What is your favorite local eatery?  In our travels, Dean & I look for those local joints, and we may visit yours!

Nov16

Green Greenhouse and Green Plants

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Green in so many ways … Green plants galore …

Also, Deanna Greens And Garden Art is using green building materials to build the greenhouse where we produce organically grown vegetables, herbs, and flowers at Boone Hollow Farm in Defiance, Missouri.  Being good to the earth!  Utilizes less electric, seeking alternative energy sources.  What ideas can you share about alternative energy sources?  Please refer to my previous blog written 2 days ago which includes recent photos of our green greenhouse.   

https://deannagreensandgardenart.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/deanna-greens-and-garden-art-greenhouse/

Sep14

Herbs, Herbs, and More Herbs

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“Much Virtue in Herbs, little in Men.”
Benjamin Franklin,Poor Richard Almanac (1706 – 1790)


 Deanna Greens and Garden Art will be at the Lake Saint Louis Farmers’ and Artists’ Market tomorrow morning bright and early.  We are having an Herb Sale.  Kitchen herbs such as  sweet basil, chives, marjoram, common and pineapple sage, lemon and winter thyme growing  in 3-1/2 ” terra cotta pots will go for 4 pots for the price of 3.  $15.  Pesticide-free.  Great for your favorite  autumn and winter dishes.  Come buy, cook, and savor.

Jul12

Lemonade Summer Evening

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It is a lemonade summer evening, maybe the hard lemonade kind tonight.  Trying to make lemonade out of lemons!  We had 2 vehicles break down this past week, one fixed and another one to go.  Then we had a fender-bender with our white beast of a van this morning parking near my work in Clayton.   Did not damage the beast, but the nervous lady’s Mercedes luxury sedan has some damage near the bumper.   I think Dean will be ready for that spiked lemonade.  Maybe watch a summer rain storm come in tonight.  What is your favorite lemonade?  I found a recipe for Lavender Lemonade, and adapted it to suit my tastes.  I cannot wait to try with the crop of lavender in harvest season right now.  This herb is beautiful, fragrant, and so versatile.  Where is the bottle of vodka in this picture???

Jun25

Create Art

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I contemplate what garden art to create as sales for starter plants have died down for now.  My antique pottery finds will make homes for some of our succulents this week, and tarnished serving spoons will make garden signs.  Relic stepping stones will feature treasures along my “gardening path”.    Pieces of  pottery,  hand trowels, canning jar lids, and  bottle caps, everything old will be cleverly displayed in these new garden stepping stones.  Creating something new from old, this is an art form to me.  Creating new recipes from standards ingredients is another art form to me.  The abundant herbs, pineapple sage and lemon thyme are needing the old branches pruned, to make way for new growth.  Those old leaves make a new crockpot dish with  chicken and brown rice for Dean & I’s Sunday dinner.   Yummy garden art!You know, God never gets tired of creating.  He is not done with me yet.  Thank you for that grace, my Father.  Many distractions, yet simply put, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”   My heart cries out to God this day, “God be My potter, I am Your vessel.”

May22

God’s Hands On Earth

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I ponder the Photo Challenge of the Week: Hands.  I keep coming back to the famous art work by Michelangelo’s “Hands of God And Adam”.  Adam literally means “earth” in Hebrew, what God called His first man.  This Hebrew word is derived from a word which means “to be red”, ruddy color like man’s skin or the Akkadian word “adamu” meaning “to make”.  According to Genesis, Adam was made from the earth “adamah”.   

With gardening, I feel the presence of God in all my senses.  I touch the dirt, the living earth.  I smell the basil as I plant it in the terra cotta pot, and hear the raindrops fall on its leaves.  My eyes and heart see the delicate pink hibuscus blossom opened wide to the sunlight peaking above the green tree tops.  And I taste the goodness of God when I indulge in my salad greens.  God is good!

Apr18

How Was Our 1st Outdoor Market Day?

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We loaded up the Deanna Greens and Garden Art van with perennials, a few houseplants, and loads of tomato and herb plants the Friday night before the opening of the outdoor market for this growing season.  And it was the first at the Lake Saint Louis Farmers’ and Artists’ Market.  We knew the forecast, and it was pretty accurate.  As I drove down the highway about 6:40am Saturday morning I approached “midnight”.  The darkness was lit up with lightning, and the wind terrific.  I prayed “Please God no tornadoes!”   God heard my plea and had mercy on me!  Dean & I were soaked putting up our new tent and unloading our green inventory.  But our plants loved the rain when sheltered somewhat from the gusts of wind as neighboring tents went up.  Not quite like the greenhouse! But the tent, their temporary home, held up through the wind and rain.  Our featured garden art were handmade pottery from my sister-in-law, Joan Bates and my sister’s photo cards.  We managed to keep them dry.  And the people came with umbrellas and ponchos!  Amazing how a community can get so excited about a farmers’ market!  St. Louis news media showed up to capture the event despite our bad hair day!  Look for Deanna Greens and Garden Art on Show Me St. Louis.  Airing time to be posted later.    It was a good market day for us!    Check out more details of the LSL Farmers’ and Artists’ Market:  http://www.lakestlouisfarmersandartistsmarket.com/

Apr13

Opening Day of Outdoor Farmers’ Market

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Deanna Greens and Garden Art will feature lovely 10″ hanging planters of perennials at the new Lake Saint Louis Farmers’ Market tomorrow held at The Meadows Shopping Center from 8:00am – 12:00 noon.  We have Boston ferns, geraniums and vinca mixed, geraniums and swedish ivy mixed, dragon-wing and charm begonias, and coleus planters and pots as well as heirloom tomato and herb plants.  This is the first outdoor market for us, and they are predicting storms, not just rain!  Hopefully, the patrons bring umbrellas or do not mind getting wet.  I know the plants like fresh rain water.  No high winds, please!  Our new tent as well as all 24 other vendors’ tents will be secured with 40# concrete weights at each peg.  Also featured will be hand-crafted photo cards and ceramic pots made by St. Charles County native artisans.  Come join opening day of the spring farmers’ market!

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