Soap Unmolding

I am super excited on how pretty my soaps turned out! Its raining today and the house is dark so pictures here don't really do them justice.

This one is one of the few fragrance oils I still use called Russian tea. It is wildly popular and sells out every time. It colors itself this beautiful orange color.

This was a new color I tried. At trace I swirled some spirulina powder in it. Love this bright green!!

The orange turned out nicely as well. The turmeric and calendula added a nice color with specks of the ground flower throughout.

And lastly another favorite, my rosemary tea tree. I colored it with green clay. Makes a great facial cleansing soap. Though it looks gray it a mossy shade of green. I crossed posted this with our Facebook page since the colors show up much nicer on it.

Herbs All Dried

 The large pile of herbs harvested last weekend has dried and this is what I have.

 oregano

 sage

and lemon thyme.
I will give them another day or so and then will jar them up and label.

A Rainy Wednesday

I awoke to a cool rainy spring morning. I enjoyed a little extra coffee and got busy making soap. My stores are out and so am I. A few hours later 8 blocks were poured and ready to cure.

I tried some new natural colorants this go round. One is swirled with spirulina powder. Another colored with green clay and lastly a bergamont orange colored with turmeric and ground calendula flowers! Can't wait for the un-molding.

Spring Garden

This afternoon was spent getting the big garden in. It is the first time that we have had a dry stretch and the ground was finally workable. Rain is in the forecast again this week so we had to get busy!
Earlier today I raided Sis's greenhouse and came home with a truckload of plants. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and a variety of herbs were hauled home. Most of the herbs were tucked into the beds by the house. Extra basil was planted in the garden.
Hubby planted seeds while I stuck plants in the ground.
What did we plant?
Four varieties of green beans- one to can and 3 colors of filet beans. Green, purple and yellow. Some we will eat and some will be sold. 2 varieties of beets, yellow and red. 3 long rows of corn. Also carrots. Tomatoes! lots and lots of tomatoes. Better boy of course, my favorite for canning. Also Cherokee Purple, Aunt Ruby's Giant German green, Romas for dehydrating and 4 kinds of cherry tomatoes. Yellow squash, Zucchini and 3 kinds of cucumbers. Peppers- bells, banana, jalapeno, poblano and cayenne. That all done we started transplanting the strawberries and the rain came.
Good start to the garden season!

Harvesting Herbs

The herbs I planted last fall are definitely ready to harvest. I spent the better part of the morning trimming, washing and preparing to dry these pantry staples.
I harvested parsley, sage, lemon thyme and oregano today.

I washed all of the herbs. The oregano, parsley and thyme were laid on paper towels as is. I will strip the branches once dried, The sage I took the leaves off and laid them flat.

They will spend the next little while on the bar until completely dry and then I will jar them for later use.
Once that was done I headed back out to plant a few more edibles in the beds. My cool cactus went in front and center. I planted a lime basil and purple basil beside it. The lime basil has already been clipped to make a citrus vinaigrette to serve over fish. Delicious!! Also a spicy oregano that definitely has a kick to it went in next to the basils.

In the bed next to it I planted 2 horseradish plants. Between them I placed my bay tree. I keep it in the garage during the winter. It needs to be pruned very soon!

Sometime over the next couple of days I will be raiding the greenhouse to finish out the beds.

New Asparagus beds

The asparagus beds we planted a few years ago had to be moved to make room for more pasture for the pigs. I decided to relocate them in the orchard. Today the boys built some new ones and filled them with dirt.

This coming week I will be transplanting them. Not an optimum time but has to be done since the pigs are already helping!

An Unusual Gift

A sweet friend recently told me she had a prickly pear cactus for me. I had no idea what it was but was expecting a cute little cacti like I've seen at Lowe's. Umm..not so!

I arrived home from errands to find this guy on my patio! From what she tells me it is edible, along with the flowers it will produce. So, I must do some research and find some recipes! I can only imagine the look on my family's face when cactus is served for supper!