Apron of the Month: August

Here is the highly anticipated apron of the month! 

August

The Pesto Apron

Note the two pockets, perfect for stuffing with herbs if you forget a basket. This is a sturdy and practical apron great for indoor and outdoor use. 

My improvised pesto recipe:

1 cup fresh basil

1 cup fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, quartered (add more to taste)

1 tsp. salt

1 cup pecans (usually pine nuts are used but I didn't have any)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (I used less) 

1/2 cup olive oil

Puree all ingredients except oil in a food processes until a paste forms. Slowly add oil at the end and process again until it's all blended. 

Warning: Pesto causes garlic breath that lasts a very long time!!!!! If you eat enough pesto you may turn into a garlic clove. (just kidding)

From the garden: sweet basil, flat leaf parsley, and hardneck garlic.

Finished Pesto! Kind of gross looking but I
promise it is deeelish! 

Pesto pizza topped with tomatoes and fresh spinach. Yum. 

Be sure to check back next month to see the fabulous apron of September. It will be delightful, I promise. 

Waterfall Braid

A Colorful Week

Eat your colors! 

Dried Marigold flowers dried in silica gel. These beauties are going to made into a fall arrangement. 

Our sunflower "Beanalope" Funny story about him. He was growing in the crack of a shopping center sidewalk. We felt bad for him so we pulled him out and planted him in our garden. We named him Beanalope because when we found him we had no idea what he was. A bean? A cantaloupe? A Beanalope!  Turns out he is a sunflower. 

Dried Lavender made into potpourri. 

Hydrangea Bouquet for my BFF. 

Apron of the Month : July

Each month I will feature an apron from my ever growing collection. 

July

Patriotic Pie Baking Apron  

Cherry Berry Peach Pie. Mmmmmm. 

Recipe 

I know you can't wait to see the apron of August! 

Lime: (A Story About Lavender)

Several years ago I became interested in herb gardening but knew nothing about herbs (except how delicious they are)  and very little about gardening. After driving past a cute nursery everyday on my way to and from work I finally decided to stop and check it out. Willow Oak Herb Garden didn’t look like much but it had a charming name and a hand painted sign that advertised a dozen long stemmed roses for ten dollars. Maybe this nursery is a hidden gem, I thought. I pulled into their gravel driveway and parked in the dusty lot.

There was no visible shop. No people. No pots of flowers or trays of herbs tempting me. Hmmm. I wandered around feeling like a trespasser and wondering if I was going to be run out by a man with a shotgun. Suddenly I noticed  a friendly looking donkey standing in front of a small barn. Right on cue an old golden retriever walked up to greet me. A rooster started crowing in the distance. After walking a little further through the garden I found a small log cabin with a tea tray on the table. Cups full of cold tea. Where was I? I was starting to feel like Alice in Wonderland. I turned around expecting to see another animal but instead saw a woman.

Maria was wearing a large floppy sun hat and was holding a basket of herbs when she found me exploring the cabin. She introduced herself as the owner of the garden and escorted me to the garden shop. Her quaint shop was full of herbs, teas and dried bouquets. I decided on an English Lavender plant and couldn’t wait to get it home and plant it. Maria told me that Lavender “likes lime” in its soil. I thanked her and nodded in understanding. I didn’t want to leave the magic garden I had discovered but I had work to do. I drove straight to the grocery store. To buy a lime. Which I proceeded to squeeze all over the soil in that poor plants pot. The lavender eventually died. I later discovered that the lime I needed is an alkaline substance obtained from limestone. NOT an actual lime.

You live, you learn!

I have been back to visit Willow Oak Herb Garden many times since my first trip and it never fails to enchant me. Something about my first time there sparked my passion for herb gardening which later evolved into herb drying.

Check out my tutorial on drying Lavender.

Summer Curls

Gorgeous party curls.

Sassy red carpet curls. 

Summer wedding curls. 

I <3 my clients.

Lavender Drying Tutorial

Dried Lavender smells fantastic and holds its scent for years. I'm obsessed! Keep it in a dresser drawer, hang it in a closet, or use a dried bouquet to decorate your home. Here is a tutorial on drying your own. 

Cut your lavender and sort it by size. Doing so insures that smaller cuttings will not fall out while drying. Be sure to remove any unwanted leaves and off-shooting stems. 

Bumblebees LOVE lavender so watch your step. 

Save some flowers on the plant for your enjoyment and for the bees! 

Use rubber bands to band together small bouquets of like size flowers. The rubber will tighten as the stems dry which keeps the flowers from falling out. Attach twine to the rubber bands so they can hang.

These can be hung in a lightly used coat closet or any other dark, cool location. (I dry mine in the upper level of a barn) The lavender should be dry in about three weeks. Enjoy! 

Dried arrangement from last years harvest. 

(also, my first ever harvest.)  

Stay tuned for the 2014 dried harvest which I predict will be much better!

I <3 Bumblebees