One Man's Trash...

In a post in the not-too-distant past, I wrote about some tomato starts that came up volunteer in some seed pots that I grew French Sorrel in.  The seeds must have been in the soil that I reused from back in January when I started the spring tomatoes.  Today I re-potted them so they won't have to compete with the sorrel for nutrients.  Now they have their own pots to grow in.  There's nine of them in all.

Because they kind of came up on their own, I don't know the varieties.  It'll be a little mystery until they fruit in the fall.  Hopefully they are Black Krims or Cherokee Purple.  They are healthy little plants

I wanted to show you a little something that I found in the yard day before yesterday when I was mowing.  It was a big spoon.  Someone tossed it in the front yard.  Who does that?  Were they eating a bowl of cereal and milk, finished up, and tossed the spoon out of the window?  Who knows?  I got off the lawn mower and picked it up.  I'd hate to run over it.  I put it in the cup holder, meaning to throw it away.

But the more I thought about it, the spoon had promise.  The spoon would be my new garden tool - something perfect for transplanting seedlings without cutting the roots.  It just needed some alteration to make it more ergonomic.  The 'gift' spoon had some sharp edges that wouldn't be comfortable on the hand while digging, but I can fix that!

I cut one of the sleeves off of an old t-shirt and wrapped it tightly around the top of the handle.  You might call it a cushion.  Then I wrapped some duct tape around and around it until covered up the t-shirt.  Now, I just needed to give it a test drive.  It superbly uprooted the tomato seedlings from around the roots of the French Sorrel and dug a hole in the soil where I was to plant it.

It felt good in the hand and worked good for my little task.  I think I'll keep it.

I've heard it said that some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths.  It isn't quite that way with most.  Sometimes we have cheap spoons thrown away in our front yard and we learn that we can find a way to turn one man's trash into another man's treasure.  Maybe I can patent my new Garden Spoon design?

Tea Time

Wouldn't you know that we just finished talking about how we enjoy coffee and now we have a post on tea?  As a youngster, I loved sweet tea, the sweeter the better.  Lately, when I go to a restaurant, I've gotten into the habit of asking for half and half (Half sweet and half regular).  Today we're making tea at home.  We have lots of herbs growing: Lemon balm, mint, French sorrel, oregano, basil, fennel, rosemary.  Most of those are growing in the garden or in our little raised bed herb garden back by the bees.  We do have some lemon balm and mint on the back patio, though, and that's what we'll be making our tea from today.

I picked 50 lemon balm leaves...

And then picked 50 mint leaves to add to our herb harvest...  The honeybees were really active over by the herbs.  Their buzzing was loud, and they were all congregated on the side of the four bee boxes.  I got what I needed and got out of there.  

First, I washed up the leaves and then sort of rolled them up together and cut them up.  I bruised the leaves themselves with the back of the knife, thinking that would release some of the oils from the leaves.

I got 8 cups of filtered water boiling on the stove.

Then I poured the hot water over the crushed lemon balm and mint.  I bent my head down and smelled the steam coming off the fresh herbs.  So lemony and minty!

I gave it a good stir and covered it with a plate to let it steep for about 10 minutes.

Then I poured it through a sieve and into a pitcher and set it on the window sill while we went to Wednesday night prayer meeting.

I would assume that fresh, hot, brewed lemon balm/mint tea would be great on a cold day, but the heat index outside today is 101 degrees Fahrenheit.  Hot tea just isn't in the cards, so I let the tea cool off completely and put the pitcher in the ice box.  I poured a glass of lemon balm/mint tea over ice and garnished with mint leaves:

VERY refreshing on a sweltering summer day!  If I had one change to make, I would make it stronger.  Next time, I'll cut the water down to four cups instead of eight while using the same amount of herbs.