FRAGMENTS

 Jill Peterson's newest book has finally arrived and it's another classic! This highly anticipated addition to her  popular series, (following Homecoming, The Settlement, and  Homestead,) is packed cover-to-cover with primitive lovers' eye candy. I sat down to peruse its offerings last night and got so stimulated, I had to put it down to pace myself! Decided to save some for today so I could look forward to more pleasure! I'll be offering Fragments at my mercantile opening next weekend, and if there are any left, I'll take a few up to my Coachman Antique Mall booth after the October 7. Fragments retails for $28 and is worth every penny! 

Garden Gifts

Spent most of my Sunday getting garden bounty brought in for future use. 

 Sometimes it pays off to not get the weeding done; I wouldn't have had all the sweet annie I do this year if I'd weeded the paths of the cutting garden like I should have! Here, I've cut the tree-like stems and loaded my EZ Go to haul it to the barn for bundling. 

Wouldn't these look great hanging over a mirror, cabinet, door frame or a favorite framed painting?

 The aroma of the fresh herbs permeate the workshop in the barn!

 The heads of the 'Limelight' hydrangea were HUGE this year- unfortunately, I waited too long to harvest  them for drying as most were already beginning to brown. :(

Here, the 'Pinky Winky' hydrangea boasts her darker color petals next to 'Limelight.'

 I "dry" my parsley in the microwave between sheets of paper towels. About 6 minutes at 1/2 power is all it takes. Then I let it cool to room temp and store it in a big glass jar in my pantry. Leave the leaves as whole as possible, then crumble just before using to retain flavor. 

 Hubby said frost was predicted, so thought I'd better pull the last of the Thai basil and make another batch of vinegar. I'd found white wine vinegar for $2.00 a bottle at Big Lots, so stocked up on that to use as the base. Making this vinegar is so simple- stuff the basil leaves and some of the beautifully colored flowers into a clean jar then pour the purchased vinegar over the top, making sure all the leaves are submerged. Top the jar with a lid (non-metallic) and place on a sunny windowsill for 2 weeks or so, then filter out the herbs and pour into smaller jars for storage or gift giving. You may add a fresh stem of the herb in the finished jar if desired, but I usually don't bother.  I use this vinegar in my homemade salad dressings and in cooking whenever it calls for wine or vinegar. The blossoms and red stems turn this vinegar a gorgeous deep- rosy color that smells as wonderful as it looks!

Remember the purple beautyberry photos I posted last week or so? Well, here's the white- berried species! Looks like it's covered in popcorn! I need to go cut some stems to see how long they last. These would look wonderful in winter arrangements with greenery and holly berries!

And lastly, a close up of the white beautyberries.

Sinus infection and seasonal allergies have kept my energy level in the lower range this past week and I need to be in high gear to prep for the next shop opening on October 6 & 7. Wish me luck with that!!! :)

A Few of my Fabulous Fall Plants

Heptacodium miconioides or Seven Sons Flower is a small tree or large shrub. I limbed it up this summer to show off its exfoliating bark. Wish you could see all the bees buzzing on the flowers when I snapped this photo! 

After the flowers fade, the calyces develop into deep red expanded lobes giving it the look of another bloom period. Talk about multiple seasons of interest!

 The purple berries of the beautyberry, I believe this one is Callicarpa bodinieri, never fail to elicit comments of  surprise and interest when visitors first see it. Here the purple cone flowers, Echinacea purpurea, echo the color tones of the grouping. 

 Another shot of the Callicarpa, minus the Echinacea. 

Harlequin Glory Bower, Clerodendrum trichotomum,serves as a lesson learned about purchasing plants on impulse in the nursery instead of researching first and THEN buying. Although I appreciate its stately size , reddish purple stems and striking flowers, I DON'T appreciate its coming up everywhere. Can you say "invasive?"

Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly'

Ironweed

 Now here's a well-behaved plant that I adore for several reasons- it's a selection of a native plant, it has fine foliage similar to Amsonia hubrichtii, pretty purple flowers that attract butterflies like crazy, hence the "Iron Butterfly" and best of all, it comes from the master himself, Dr. Allan Armitage and his trials at the University of Georgia, Athens. Anyone who knows me knows I'm still boasting on the personal tour I got from Allan when I toured the Trial Gardens in December in 2010. (Dr. Armitage will be our featured speaker at the 2013 "Going Garden Crazy" spring symposium right here in La Porte County, Indiana!!!! More on that later.)

 'Limelight' hydrangea - a Proven Winners selection that has proven itself with me!

'Pinky Winky', another Proven Winners hydrangea, with 'Limelight' in the background, 'The Fairy' shrub rose, and lamb's ears on the side. 

Need to get some photos of the colchiums before they're done, too!

Hope you enjoyed the garden tour

Puttering in my Pantry

Got to do some rearranging in my farmhouse pantry last night. Hubby calls it, "playing house" when I do this- LOL! I edited the 1920's cook stove that I used to have in there and replaced it with an old farm table . Instead of "modernizing," I keep trying to go back in time! I swear I must have lived in a previous century, because I feel most at home with possessions from an earlier time. I must admit, though, I do appreciate indoor plumbing and electricity! 

 This is our little shelving pantry that was a closet in a previous owner's lifetime. The barn-board panels on the walls were old siding boards off the farmhouse where I grew up on Fail Road. 

 I love my little grey painted pie safe in which I keep canned goods. Bought it from my friend Deb at one of my shows. The Blue Bird pie rack on top even has a couple Blue Bird pie tins displayed on it.

Got the barn-board shelving at a Shipshewana auction years ago, and I still love it. Found the screen-sided single-door cupboard at the Main Street Antique Mall in Niles,

Michigan. 

Here's proof that I actually do use my food dehydrator to dry food occasionally instead of only tea-dyed crafting projects! These are the Roma tomatoes I talked about in yesterday's blog. 

Guess where I stash my plastic grocery sacks........ in the huge tin flour sifter mounted to the wall! The towel with red turkey- work embroidery is an heirloom my mom brought back from family in Czechoslovakia when she and Dad visited many years ago. 

And that concludes today's tour of my pantry- thanks for coming along!

Hittin' the Sauce!

With temps predicted into the high 30's, low 40's by next Tuesday night, thought it might be now or never to get my tomatoes out of the garden and into the freezer in the form of sauce. I did save a few Romas to slice and dehydrate, too- they taste so sweet, like candy, when they're dried. I usually throw them into a freezer bag just to be safe, then crumble them onto pizzas or into sauces when I need them. Thanks to my Victorio strainer I inherited from Mom Dailey, the tomatoes take no time at all the prep for the sauce- in fact, it takes me longer to assemble the strainer, then clean it afterwards, then it does to grind them. The pulp and juice come out the bottom shoot, while the seeds and skin come out another spout, 

Here's the sauce happily bubbling on my stove for the day; it usually takes about 7 hours or so for it to cook down to about 1/2 its bulk. then I cool it and put it in freezer containers. I saute'd a chopped sweet onion, a whole clove of garlic, a tablespoon of ground cloves, and a bunch of dried Italian herbs and added it to the pot along with several stalks of celery and a few bay leaves. My kitchen is smelling quite yummy right now!

Working my Herbs!

I'll be back in my sewing room tomorrow to work on the orders I took at the last mercantile opening, but today I'm working my basil. I swear, basil must be the Prozac of the plant world, at least as far as the gardener/ cook is concerned- just try to be depressed or anxious while making pesto- impossible! Got 3 more batches of pesto made and frozen, then made basil cubes out of the remaining leaves. This is such a great way to preserve the flavor of this pungent herb since drying tends to make it lose its flavor more quickly. I used to just chop the leaves, but since my food processor was already out from my pesto project, I just used it to "chop" the leaves. Put the leaves into the tray openings, fill to the top with liquid (I used low-fat chicken broth, but you could use veggie broth or water, too,) then freeze. Pop the cubes into a freezer bag and mark the date and contents. Now you're set to throw a cube or two into pasta sauce, salad dressing, throw into the water when cooking/steaming veggies.... use your imagination!

Now, I'm out to cut bunches of sweet Annie so I can hang them in the barn to dry. I'll be selling these aromatic herb bunches at the next shop opening on October 6 & 7!

You Might be a Primitive Folk Artist if:

As I was doing dishes the other night, I got to thinking about all the tell-tale signs of my artistry that exist in every room of my house, (even though the government only lets me take a certain percentage of the house expenses as a business tax deduction.)  You know doing dishes can be rather tedious, so my mind kept me entertained as I contemplated, aka Jeff Foxworthy:

YOU MIGHT BE A PRIMITIVE FOLK ARTIST IF:

• Your food dehydrator has never been used to dry actual food. 
• There's always a bowl/ pot of coffee/ tea dye water sitting on your counter or stove.
• You can never throw away any fabric scraps because "it might come in handy." (You can always use them for stuffing if nothing else!)
• Your family's forbidden to throw away any old thing into the trash can until you've evaluated its possibilities. 
• If bumper stickers were still in style, yours would read: I BRAKE FOR FLEA MARKETS, ANTIQUE/ THRIFT/ JUNK STORES & GARAGE SALES!!!
• When you go for a walk outside, you come back inside with your pockets full of nature's offerings that you plan to incorporate into your work. 
• People bring you bags of cast-offs because they know you'll think of something to do with them. 

I could go on, but you get the idea.

 Feel free to add more of your own if you take a notion! 

Open Labor Day!

Been oh, so busy the past two days here at the mercantile with customers coming out to select their fall decorating treasures and to stock up on great- smelling candles,  potpourris, and assorted one-of-a-kinds! (Not to mention the pumpkin whoopee pies! Yuuummy!!)

Don't worry~ you still have tomorrow, Labor Day, Monday September 3 to come out and find a few goodies for yourself!

10:00 am. to 4 p.m. Chicago/ Central time

3883 E. 700 N. Rolling Prairie, IN 46371

COME ON OUT TO THE FARM!!! :)