Gardening-I think I can, I think I can

I am admittedly, a horrible gardener. Every year I plant tomato plants, and hope for the best. Last year, was the best crop I have ever gotten-one amazingly beautiful tomato-deep red. Until this year, I did not know when to plant, what to plant, how to plant. I would see plants for sale, and plop them in the dirt. Mark made me a garden last year. It's amazing. It is elevated beds with rocks around them to sit on, and paths between them so that I can reach the plants. It has the drip irrigation system, which the plants seems to love, and I have a couple of rolling bin composters.

I have planted twice now, and last year, I got so many cucumbers, that I was able to make 10 jars of pickles. (Someone later told me cucumbers are supposed to be the easiest to grow-thanks a lot)

I was extremely zealous and planted 60 heads of lettuce over the winter. Our rock squirrel ate every leaf. The couple of kale I planted, he ate as well-leaving us about three leaves. Hmm, I will not be frustrated.

When in Israel, all of the amazing flowers, birds, trees, fruit trees, bee hives, blew wind into my "gardening" sail again. As soon as we overcame the flu (little goodbye gift from the airline fairy), I started zealously planting. The above photo is a hibiscus I found at Burns Nursery. I got 4 of them, the only 4 they had of this variegated color.

Everywhere we go, I pick up one more tomato plant. The last place was a bee festival, (yes, we are dorks), and someone was selling heirloom tomatoes. I have four tomato plants, all different sizes, and he said it's good to plant them at different times and stages, so that you get a continual harvest-accidentally got that right. Also, he said to bury the tomato plant 3 inches deeper than the main stalk?? I'm trying it on the plant I got from him. This year, I went to gardeners supply.com to get "professional" tomato cages. Last year, the cheap ones seemed to be too small when all was said and done.

This year, after planting each plant, I made up a gallon jug of water with a tablespoon of unsulphured molasses in it. I poured it on the flowers around the pool and on a couple of things in the garden. I've done this in years' past -not consistently, but when I've done it, my fruit trees have done very well. I happened to have a bunch of molasses, so thought I would give the plants a little hello gift. WOW WOW WOW-the flowers have doubled in size, the arrangements are going crazy, and it has peaked my interest in molasses. So, I found a recipe for homemade fertilizer which consists of Alfalfa Meal-1 cup, Epsom Salts-1 cup, 3 TBSP. of Molasses, and four gallons of water. Let the recipe sit overnight, then water your plants with it. I admit, I have not done this yet, but the Epsom Salts are supposed to help produce AMAZING tomatoes, so I will be fertilizing my tomatoes this year-a first.

We composted last year, and my garden has awesome earthworms this year-which has encouraged me to compost again. I got cute "little" com posters, but my garden is a little bit big for them, they don't turn enough to cover the whole thing, so we will be getting larger com posters when I see them at Costco again. My fingers are crossed, there may be some green in my thumbs after all!!

Honey Homemade Cough Syrup

You may not believe it, but not everything that comes out of my kitchen tastes horrible, but this horrible tasting homemade cough syrup is THE BOMB! Kim from the worship team (thank you FOREVER Kim!), has a croupy son, and has dealt with coughing, coughing, and more coughing, so she finally found this recipe for cough syrup, and it really does work.

I got this recipe about one year ago, the same time frame that Aline came from Brazil to work for us. We've had two bouts of sickness-both involving coughing, since she's been here, the latest being the flu (did you know you cough during the flu?? ), and both times, Aline has taken the homemade Cough Syrup recipe, and single handedly refused the illness and the cough.

I was downing it myself when I got the flu on Saturday, and by Saturday night, we were able to go to church. There's still a little "weakness", but the cough has mainly come and go-And you really do need all of this hype in order to "swallow", but it's WORTH it! I promise! Tonight, Michael was coughing every 3 minutes, and I instantly made up some syrup, took it into him, made him drink it…and peace has pervaded our home.

Honey Cough Syrup
**1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 TBSP. organic Cider Vinegar
1 TBSP. local Raw Honey
1 TBSP. warm water

**just a pinch of cayenne for young children

Homemade Ginger Ale

A very windy road has led me to the place of making my own ginger ale. It's one of my least favorite items to make, but the outcome is so well worth the process, that I do it. 

A few years ago, I asked my dad (General Practitioner), what should someone FIRST drink or eat after the throw-up virus and he said Ginger Ale. So, I went to the store and got a six pack of ginger ale and kept it in my pantry for emergencies....and it did help tremendously! After every illness, we start to sip ginger ale and it seems to give a major boost.

One day, I read the ingredients on the back of the can, and lucky me, I can't leave good enough alone, so I begin the process of making my own.

If you do not have it, Sally Fallon's book on the Unpolitically Correct Guide to Eating, has been my guide for all things fermented, and like most fermented "foods", this cookbook is to be "sipped" over many years, not gulped...the ginger ale being a good case in point.

To make my ginger ale, I use some serious equipment and  need to be in the right frame of mind. It only has about 4 ingredients, but each one has special features. Ginger, for instance, must be peeled and grated. Just peeling the ginger takes me about 45 minutes. I break off the off shoots and peel those and try to work around the "knobbies". Just the amazing fragrance that I get to smell while peeling helps to encourage me on. My goal is 3 cups of grated ginger, so after I peel these, I put them through a food processor with the grating disk. If you don't have a food processor, add another half hour or so for grating the ginger.

The second ingredient is fresh squeezed lime juice. Thankfully, my MIL gave me a citrus juicer for Christmas one year-an appliance I was not sure I would use, but one that has come in handy, ESPECIALLY for my ginger ale project. The last limes I bought were small and hard, but thankfully I got three dozen, so I get 2 cups of juice out of them, which is how much I need.

The third ingredients is whey. Whey is an ingredient you will need for all fermented things (pretty much), and it's the liquid that floats on top of yogurt when you open the cup. I make kefir, so every once in a while I will let it ferment too long and get a ton of whey floating on the top. I try to make a point to get 1 cup of this set aside and labelled in the fridge for when I am in the fermenting mood.

You will also need 2 teaspoons of sea salt.  Sally Fallon's recipe calls for sugar, but I don't like mine sweet up front. What I am making right now is a "base" of ginger ale. I will only use one or two tablespoons of my "base" and add sparkling water plus stevia when I need ginger ale.  At this point I have a heap of ginger, lime juice, salt, and whey and I add about a quart or two of water to this mix and stir it really well.

Get out 8 wide mouthed quart jars and a wide mouth funnel. Pour the mixture evenly into all the jars and fill the rest of the way with purified water. Put your lids on tightly and let sit for 2 days. You will start to see bubble float to the top of the jars and they are ready to refrigerate.

The third appliance I have for the ginger ale is my Soda Stream. You certainly don't have to have this, but we drink so much ginger ale, that I was running to the store just for bubbly water, so when we found the Soda Stream it was a lifesaver. We just pour (through a strainer) a couple of tablespoons of the giner mix into a glass, fill half full with carbonated water, add a stevia packet or two, and enjoy the most amazing effervescent drink ever. 

The good news is, the 8 jars of Ginger Ale base last about 6 months. The second part of the good news is if any one does happen to have a hurt tummy, throw up, or just feel a little "off", usually one glass of ginger ale sets them upright again. I got the throw up virus a couple of years ago, and the trick is to take a little sip, wait 30 minutes or so, and if you can keep down that sip, take several more. The ginger ale helped me feel SO good SO fast, that I made the mental note to always have it on hand no matter how difficult the task-and it has paid off many times over.