The girls and guys have been enjoying their time free ranging, especially over the last few days when the temperature has reached 90 degrees.  They find a nice cool spot under the bushes and take dust baths in the cool soil.  I have had to completely ban them from the vegetable garden, closing the gate.  They were starting to eat the lettuce and young strawberries.  They still are munching on the grass and clovers that run through the lawn.  I was told by an organic chicken farmer that allowing chickens to graze on grass and clover makes their bones very hard as well as their egg shells.  My girls egg shells are so thick you need to use a little muscle to crack them.

Grace my Bantam hen is still broody, trying to sit on eggs.  She has removed all the feathers on her chest, to help keep the eggs as closes to her skin so that she can keep them warm.  I feel bad to keep removing her, but this late in the season with the heat in the coop it is for her own health that she needs to be removed.   Poor frustrated girl.

The carrots and beet shoots are up and I will be thinning the new seedlings this weekend.  You need to thin all your seedlings, especially vegetables that grow in the ground.  They will grow in and around each other and ruin the crop if you do not thin.  I thin to about 1″ – 1 1/2″ for carrots, beets, and radishes.  I tend to allow the lettuce and greens to grow closely together, but when air can not circulate around the greens you will have to watch for mildew and pests. Thinning as needed.

The Peonies and Iris have finally opened their blooms and have been as stunning as ever.  There is nothing more beautiful than a Peony bloom.  They are a gem of the garden.  They are also hardy and carefree.  They say years after a homestead is abandoned, you can depend on the Peony to bloom every spring.  Needing no special care as long as they are planted in the right conditions.

My naturalizing bed that is 100′ long and 4′ wide is filled with different variety of perennials in a repeat planting, with various blooms coming throughout the season.  Blooming right now is the Shasta Daisies, Allium, and Columbine.  The hens love to escort me as I weed this bed, they especially love rooting around in the Lamb’s ear, I am sure under its dense cover there are bugs galore.  If you have Shasta and Columbine, try to keep up with the deadheading (cutting spent blooms) this will keep from reseeding and keep the plants looking tidy.  At the end of their bloom cycle, cut down their stems to the ground foliage.  Cut your allium down to ground level after the foliage turns yellow in late summer. Avoid cutting the foliage while it’s still green, as the living foliage provides the bulbs with energy for the following blooming season.

I have had several visitors this week.  I am a big proponent of snakes, turtles, and frogs in the garden.  Each is a great predator of pests that we all want to get rid of in our garden.  However because of their sensitive central nervous system they are very vulnerable to pesticides and poisons.  Since I am and have been organic since we moved here over 10 years ago, my lawn, gardens and home are a safe environment for snakes, turtles and frogs.  On Monday when I ran out to start the grill, I noticed this fellow laying on the back patio sunning himself.  Luckily the i-phone was in my back pocket so I snapped a photo.  My youngest son was flipping the compost pile for me and found a box turtle that he safely rescued and released into the wooded area behind our house.  The frogs have been singing there melody in the evenings.  Last but not least over the weekend, we had a visitor in the house, that lets just say “our visitor” made me scream loud enough that I am sure the neighbors heard.  I’m keeping that one secret!

xo, Amy

]]> http://ahealthylifeforme.com/2013/05/23/vegetable-and-perennial-care-in-may-chicken-update/feed/ 2 http://ahealthylifeforme.com/2013/05/20/oregano-pesto/ http://ahealthylifeforme.com/2013/05/20/oregano-pesto/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 10:00:30 +0000 Amy Stafford http://ahealthylifeforme.com/?p=8503   I would never have come up with this recipe if another recipe had not led me here.  I have been working on a Spanish Potato Salad and I knew I wanted to add a pesto and was planning on using Basil Pesto, but I knew basil was not a herb that was used often [...]]]>

  I would never have come up with this recipe if another recipe had not led me here.  I have been working on a Spanish Potato Salad and I knew I wanted to add a pesto and was planning on using Basil Pesto, but I knew basil was not a herb that was used often in spanish dishes.  I asked my dear friend Connie who has Latin heritage what herbs were mostly used in Latin cooking and oregano was on the  list.  So I went to the garden cut a large bundle of fresh oregano and went to making Oregano Pesto.

Though even though I came up with this to use in my Spanish Potato Salad, I have since used it as a topping on pasta, a bit with my scrambled eggs, topped on some grilled bread, on a sandwich and on top of mushrooms.

Not only is this Oregano Pesto easy to make, but it has a deep flavor that is extremely delicious.  Oregano is high in minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure caused by high sodium. It’s one of the healthiest and tastiest herbs you can try.  The list of health benefits from this herb is extensive.

You can store Oregano Pesto in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for a month.

Oregano Pesto

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

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Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh oregano
• ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled
• ½ cup of almonds, salted
• ½ cup of olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Combine the oregano, cheese, garlic, almonds and salt and pepper in a food processor, until the mixure resembles a coarse meal.
2. Slowly stream in olive oil until the mixture become smooth.

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The Great Gatsby is a book almost everyone has read, and enjoyed and the movie came out last weekend.  We haven’t seen it yet, but its on the to do list.  When thinking of the movie I wanted to pick a ‘Gatsby’ like cocktail.  I immediately thought of my DC Rickey Cocktail, which is one of my favorites and I am still ordering it when we go out.  Really the Gimlet is a martini version of the DC Rickey Cocktail, so it seemed like the perfect cocktail to showcase today.

The Gimlet was originally called the Gimlette, and was named after the naval surgeon who created the drink as a means to give lime juice to sailors for the prevention of scurvy.   Sounds like a great way to get your vitamin C to me, see I am all about your health!

The Gimlet is a summer refresher.  At the end of a hot day, when sipped on a porch or patio and especially when sipped while wearing anything made of seersucker, the Gimlet goes down with the greatest of ease.  Doing a bit of research on this drink it was made movie star famous in the movie The Long Goodbye which is based of the novel of the same name.

“The bartender set the drink in front of me. With the lime juice it has a sort of pale greenish yellowish misty look. I tasted it. It was both sweet and sharp at the same time. The woman in black watched me. Then she lifted her own glass towards me. We both drank. Then I knew hers was the same drink.” –Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye.

Gimlet Cocktail

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 1

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

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Ingredients

• 2 ounces Gin
• ½ ounce fresh lime juice or Roes’s lime juice
• ½ ounce simple syrup
• ice
• Lime wedge

Instructions

1. In a martini shaker add all ingredients and shake vigorously, pour in martini glass.
2. Serve garnished with lime wedge.

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Spring has finally arrived and I have been spending countless hours each day enjoying the garden.  This year I am not even a grumpy weed puller I am so happy to just be able to finally get out there.  Compared to last year the garden is a bit over a month behind on its growth because of the cold spring temperatures.  However, I am not going to complain because my garden has finally started to explode with color and I am enjoying every minute of it.

The Primrose was spectacular this year, probably because of the long cool days.  They bloomed in abundance and I took countless photos because I couldn’t resist their beauty.

The peonies will be opening in the next few days, one bud is partially open, but because of the variety that I have planted they will bloom for several weeks.  Their fragrance will float through the garden, enticing me to get in there and pull any weeds just so I can have an excuse to hang out and enjoy their glorious blooms.   The Irises will bloom along with the Peonies waving their tall slender heads above their shorter garden companion.   (When doing garden clean up of peonies and irises DO NOT compost).  If you are interested in finding out more about Peonies, check out my post ‘A Love Affair’

The vegetable “kitchen” garden has just produced its first produce of radishes.  I planted a ‘rainbow mix’, which as you can see, are just beautiful.  I planted my first batch of radish seeds along with my sweet peas.  The radishes act as a natural pest repellent for my peas, and the radishes are ready for picking long before the peas are tall and block the sun.

The strawberries are ripening from their flowers and I will have berries in a few weeks.  The lettuce will be able to be cut next week, and will continue to produce through several more cuts before I will have to pull them and reseed.  You can plant rows of radishes between your lettuce rows as well.

The chickens did a good job removing any bugs in the garden over the last month, but sadly they will be banned from the vegetable garden.  I caught several hens and a rooster, rolling in the cilantro bed together.  Needless to say, the cilantro will have to be replanted.  Naughty girls.

The girls have been laying a collective dozen or more eggs a day.  Ms. Grace one of my older hens has decided to go “Broody” again, which means she wants to be a mom and refuses to leave the coop and proceeds to roll every egg laid under her fluffy butt everyday.  I go and pop her off the eggs (several times a day), avoiding her trying to peck me and plop her outside the coop.  She fluffs up her feathers and tells me off each time.  It’s a fun little game we play!  Not really- it’s annoying, she is lucky she is so cute.

The beehives have had an adequate spring.  My three hives seem to be getting off to a good start, but Liz has had to combine two hives and it seems the other is laying too many drones “boys”, which is bad, because the female bees are the workers of the hive.  They are the ones who go and get the pollen and nectar, turn it into honey, care and nurse the larvae, and build comb.   While the drones’ main function is to be ready to fertilize a receptive queen and do no work to grow the hive.   Liz took a frame of larvae from one of the healthy hives, brushed off all the bees and added to the drone-laying hive, in hopes that a new queen will be born and start to lay workers instead of drones.

Phew, no wonder I am tired.  However, spring is my **favorite** time in the garden.  I will be planting more radishes, beets, lettuce and my eggplant and a few more peppers for the hubby tomorrow.  (If it doesn’t rain).

I hope you have been enjoying your garden and remember to keep weeding it builds character, at least that’s what I tell my boys.  Also, water if it doesn’t rain every two to three days, as the days get longer and warmer the newer plants will not survive through a single dry spell without a little help.

Xo, Amy

I came upon this recipe via David Leite at Leite’s Culinaria.  He was showcasing this recipe from the cookbook Four Seasons: A Year of Italian Food written by Manuela Darling-Gansser.  I knew immediately after reading the ingredients that I wanted to try this Baked Ricotta.  It’s like lasagna without the noodles and sauce.  I served it along side of my pasta and meat sauce, but this could easily be served alone with a salad or baked chicken with a crisp glass of white wine.

It takes five minutes to throw together, Baked Ricotta is easy for a weeknight, but definitely decadent enough to impress friends or family over the weekend.  The original recipe called for a chile, seeded and thinly sliced, but I went for red pepper flakes instead.  Either works perfectly.  If you choose to use the chile I would go with a Jalapeño chile, for more mild heat, and a Serrano chile for more kick.

Because I loved this recipe so much and A Year of Italian Food is a **beautiful** Hardbound book I decided to give away one edition to one of my readers.  It really is a must have for any cook, new or old, or anyone who is a lover of italian food and the country.   The book is a filled with beautiful pictures of Italy and the produce and food that Manuela discovers through her travels.  The pictures are stunning and every recipe is one  you will want to try.  Especially with summer approaching the vast amount of seasonal fresh produce that we will have at our fingertips, you will be itching to dive into the kitchen and cook away after receiving your winning copy!    All you have to do to get a chance to win is head down to the bottom of the post to enter. Click on aRafflecopter Giveaway link if sign up is not visible.

Best of Luck and enjoy your Baked Ricotta!

xo Amy

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5.0 from 1 reviews

Baked Ricotta

 

Author:

Amy Stafford via Four Seasons: A Year of Italian Food | Hardie Grant Books, 2012

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

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Ingredients

• Butter for buttering dish
• 16 ounces fresh whole-milk ricotta (not reduced fat)
• 2 large eggs
• 3½ ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
• 1 teaspoon oregano, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
2. Butter a 2-cup baking dish.
3. Beat all the ingredients in a bowl with a fork until well combined.
4. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and bake until golden and puffed, 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Let cool slightly prior to serving straight from the baking dish by the generous spoonful.

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Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, so I hope all of you Mom’s out there have a Happy and Loving Mothers Day.

My boys say they have a surprise for me?  I wonder what it will be?  I have asked for a gardening bench to put in the new meadow garden that I have growing.  It looks beautiful right now with the tall grass.  I am hoping that it will keep its beauty throughout the hot days of summer and the bench will entice visitors to take a seat and enjoy the beauty of the garden.

Todays cocktail is the Bloody Mary.  What better way to celebrate Mom’s day then with a Bloody Mary during tomorrow morning’s brunch that you are preparing for dear ol’ Mom.  A simple cocktail to make and enjoy, for just yourself or a crowd.  It goes well with breakfast or on into brunch.  I prefer V8 juice over regular tomato and even went with the spicy V8 for a little added zing.

The first Bloody Mary Cocktail was made back in 1920s when Fernand Petiot, an American bartender at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, mixed up equal parts of tomato juice and vodka.

Bloody Mary Recipe

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 1

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

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Ingredients

• 3 ounces V8 juice or tomato juice
• 1½ ounces vodka
• ½ ounce lemon juice
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Dash of Hot sauce
• Dash of celery salt
• Ground pepper
• Celery stalk
• Lemon Wedge

Instructions

1. In a high ball filled with fresh ice, pour ingredients and garnish with celery and lemon wedge.

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It is Asparagus season.  Even though you can get asparagus throughout the year, the spears you buy now are much more flavorful and nutritious.  Manly because the produce does not have to travel far to arrive at your grocer.

Select bright green asparagus with closed, compact, and firm tips. Also look for cut ends that are not dry.  Select asparagus stalks that are about the same thickness so cooking will be uniform. Thickness does not influence quality.  If the tips are slightly wilted, freshen them up by soaking them in cold water.

Asparagus helps to reduce the risk of heart disease in several ways It’s a good source of potassium to normalize blood pressure, and folate another nutrient important for heart health. It’s also rich in soluble fiber to help lower blood cholesterol levels. Asparagus also lowers cholesterol by another mechanism – saponins. Natural saponins found in asparagus bind to cholesterol in the digestive tract so that it’s less readily absorbed into the bloodstream. It also alters liver metabolism of cholesterol in a favorable way. All in all, asparagus is one heart friendly vegetableThis dish is loaded with healthy benefits.  Parsley, Eggs, Chia Seeds and Tomatoes plus the asparagus punch a Superfood punch.  Not only is this dish low in calories it loaded with flavor.  Great side to any chicken, pork or meat dish.

Asparagus Salad with Salsa

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 15 mins

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Ingredients

• 1 pound of asparagus, trimmed and steamed
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoon, chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoon, chopped and seeded tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 hard boiled egg, chopped
• 1½ teaspoon capers
• grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

1. Steam Asparagus
2. Add one inch of water to dutch oven bring to a low boil (barely bubbling) add asparagus, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.
3. Remove asparagus to serving platter
4. Add parsley, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, tomatoes lime juice, olive oil, dijon, capers and chia seeds in a bowl, stir to combine.
5. Top salsa over asparagus
6. Top salsa with chopped egg
7. Top with grated parmesan cheese (optional)

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Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a celebration held on May 5.  Cinco de Mayo marks an outnumbered Mexican army’s victory over an invading French army on May 5, 1862, in Puebla, east of Mexico City.

To show your support for this important holiday you must drink a margarita.  Here is the cocktail for you to toast the holiday.  In this Blackberry Margarita I wanted to use regular tequila but **fortunately** I was out and only had coconut 1800 tequila, it made one delicious cocktail.

Have a Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Blackberry Margarita

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 1

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

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Ingredients

• 8 blackberries
• mint leaves
• 1 ½ ounce tequila (I used coconut 1800)
• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1 ounce simple syrup

Instructions

1. In a low-ball glass, add fresh ice.
2. In a cocktail shaker add 6 blackberries and muddle (or smash) with spoon. Add fresh ice and remaining ingredients. Pour over ice and top with 2 blackberries on skewer or in drink.

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Being an Organic Gardner means I have to accept that my produce may have holes and unsightly blemishes from pests.  The trade off is that I am feeding my family and myself 100% clean food that has no poison on it or in it.

When you use pesticides and herbicides in a garden they do not only kill the bad insects but also the helpful insects.

So like almost all organic gardeners I choose to use the natural world around me to help repel pests and attract helpful insects.  I do this by companion planting; companion planting is growing one kind of plant alongside a different kind of plant. Some plants attract helpful insects. Other plants confuse or repel insect pests. When these plants are interplanted, they can help protect your crops from insect pests.

Now do I believe this will keep all pests from my garden? No, of course not, but I strongly believe that it helps, and cuts down on the number of pests I may have to deal with.  Another tactic that I use in the garden to lower my pest population is crop rotation.  I will cover this in a separate post later in the season.

Most vegetable gardeners have planted our first batch of vegetables and the pests are probably already moved in, so its time to think about planting strategies to deter them from munching on your lovely veggies.

Many insect pests attack only certain kinds of crops. They spread more quickly if a large area is planted with only the kind of crop they eat. If you interplant crops,

it’s not as easy for insect pests to spread and cause damage. So, many gardeners interplant with herbs and flowers that have strong scents, which may confuse or repel insect pests looking for crops to feed on. Here are some combinations that many gardeners use.

Tomatoes

GOOD:  Plant Basil, Marigold, Nasturtium, Parsley, Carrots, Chive, Garlic and Dill

BAD:  Pole beans, Fennel, Potato

Eggplant

GOOD:  Peppers, Spinach, Marigolds

BAD:  Fennel

Carrots

GOOD:  Beans, Brussels Sprouts, Chives,Lettuce, Leek, Onion, Peas, Radish, Rosemary, Sage and Tomato

BAD:  Celery, Dill Parsnip

Cucumbers

GOOD:  Beans, Dill, Marigold, Nasturtium, Onions, Radish, Marigolds

BAD:  Potato

Lettuce

GOOD:  Carrots, Garlic, Onion and Radish

BAD:  None

Peas

GOOD:  Carrots, Celery, Parsley, Radish, Spinach

BAD:  Onion

Bush Beans

GOOD:  Beets, Carrots, Celery, Lettuce, Radish, Rosemary, Marigold

BAD:  Basil, Fennel, Onion

Pole Beans

GOOD:  Carrots, Chard, Lettuce, Marigold, Radish, Rosemary

BAD:  Basil, Beets, Fennel, Onion, Radish

Melon

GOOD:  Nasturtium, Radish, Marigold

BAD:  Potato

Try planting Yarrow, Black Eyed Susan, Aster, and candytuft to attract insects, birds and spiders to your garden to help eliminate those bad insects.  They not only add color and beauty to the vegetable garden, but attract  bees, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects.

Hope all is going well in your garden

xo Amy 

On Saturday the weather was warm and I had the whole day to do what I wanted.  After breakfast with my son, he went home to mow the lawn and I ran to the nursery to pick up a few tomato, pepper, and zucchini plants.  I spent a few hours out in the garden and then later met Liz at the beehives to check to see how the ladies were doing.  Liz lost a queen in one of her hives, I guess the girl flew off so she had to combine two hives, which was another learning experience for me.  I always learn something new when we open those hives.  I popped back in the garden to pull a few weeds and I checked on my strawberries which have filled in quite nicely and it looks like I will be getting a good harvest this year if Mother Nature continues to co-operate.

As you probably know Strawberries grown here in the States start their peak season April through June and come from California or Florida.  That being said I would **highly** recommend buying locally because nothing beats fresh, local berries.  Growing Strawberries is a pretty effortless and very rewarding ordeal.  They are easy to grow, return year after year and can be grown in pots.  Check out my post Grow Your Own Strawberries if you are interested in growing your own.

With Strawberries on the brain, it rained here yesterday so I made some bread with the basket of Strawberries I had on hand.  I used Almond Meal in the recipe to cut down on flour and add the health benefit of the Almonds.  I also added lemon zest to brighten the flavor of the Strawberries, but also to add the health benefits that lemon can offer us, lemon lowers blood pressure and increases the levels of HDL (good cholesterol).  The Bread turned out perfect, moist and fruity on the inside and crispy on the outside.  I  made two loaves and froze the second to pull out later.

Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C.  Vitamin C is one of the antioxidants that can help with cancer prevention, since a healthy immune system is the body’s best defense.  The combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents found in strawberries is well-known to fight against the onset of many different forms of cancer.

When shopping for strawberries you should NOT only shop with your eyes but also your shop with your nose. Strawberries should have a sweet, delicious “strawberry smell”.  Choose brightly colored, dry, firm, shiny, plump berries that still have fresh-looking green caps attached. Avoid soft, dull looking, or shriveled berries. Since strawberries do not ripen after being picked, avoid berries that are partly white or otherwise unripe.

Strawberry Almond Breakfast Bread

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 6-8

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

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Ingredients

• ▪ 1¼ cup all purpose flour
• ▪ ½ cup almond meal
• ▪ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▪ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▪ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▪ ½ (8 tablespoons) cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ▪ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▪ 2 large eggs, room temperature
• ▪ 2 tablespoons sour cream or plain yogurt (I used light sour cream)
• ▪ ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ▪ zest from ½ lemon (1 tablespoon)
• ▪ 1 cup of strawberries, hulled, cut in half and quartered
• ▪ Powdered Sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray or grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the and almond extract and lemon zest until blended. Add in the flour and sour cream. Fold in the cut strawberries.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Cool the bread in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack, turn right side up and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar

Notes

Easy to double recipe. Great to Freeze. Thaw overnight on the counter or in the refrigerator.

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Last Saturday night we went out to dinner with a group of friends to a new Italian Restaurant that opened here in Cincinnati, called Sotto, **AMAZING** pasta.  However, because its new and hot, and we had a party of eight our reservations were pretty early.  After we enjoyed an amazing dinner the eight of us popped next door to the hip bar Igbys to continue the conversation and fun.  Once we were there us girls found ourselves sitting in the armchairs by the fireplace and the guys ended up at the bar.

Well, let me just say us ladies were just fine on our own.  We did a sample test of a few of their cocktails, each of us getting something different and then we shared the results.  My girlie, Ms. Nicole won with the cocktail taste test with her choice  “The Black Cherry Sling”  it was delicious.  We ordered another round and we all enjoyed our own Black Cherry Sling with plenty of laughs!  There is nothing like a great night out with some friends!!

So here you have the re-make of this delicious little surprise courtesy of Igby’s and the lovely Ms. Nicole….I thought with the bourbon this would also make a great cocktail to serve at a Derby party.

I found this amazing Black Cherry Cream Soda in the organic section of our local grocery store that is made by “Virgil’s”.  It is microbrewed soda,  damn that stuff is amazing!  If you can’t find Virgil’s, Cherry Coke will work just fine.

Black Cherry Sling Cocktail

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 1

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

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Ingredients

• Juice from one lime
• 1 ounce Bourbon
• Splash of Black Cherry Soda, or Cherry Soda
• Nutmeg
• Dried Tart Cherries

Instructions

1. In a low ball glass add fresh ice, lime juice, bourbon and stir. Top with cherry soda and sprinkle with nutmeg. Add 3-4 dried cherries onto a cocktail pick and serve off the side of the cocktail glass.

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On the heels of my post yesterday on why all The Bees Are Dying, I thought I would show you guys how to set up a beehive.  It can be a very scary idea setting up and caring for bees so I thought I would do a quick YouTube Tutorial.  Let me know if it was helpful or if  I can answer any questions.  I really want to encourage anyone and everyone who is even remotely interested in keeping bees to give it a try.  If you are interested in keeping bees but are scared to death, don’t be!  If I can do it, you can do it.  If you would like bees to be part of your garden, but don’t want to take care of them, contact your local bee association and see if they have a local beekeeper who might be interested in keeping some hives on your property. You don’t need a lot of space.  Bees will travel up to 3 miles away to collect pollen and nectar, so don’t think you alone will have to feed your bees. Read my post on Why I Keep Bees to find out about how bees can impact your garden if you need anymore encouragement to give beekeeping a try.

Liz, who helps me with my bees, keeps hives all over Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.  It works extremely well for me, because she just gives me a heads up when she plans on stopping over and I suit up and mirror what she is doing with her hives with my own.  For me having her here makes the whole process of beekeeping much more enjoyable.   Liz is kind, calm and intelligent when it comes to beekeeping, where as I am usually in a bit of a rush, so she makes me slow down take a deep breath and enjoy the time with the bees.  Most beekeepers are very generous with their time and really want to foster new beekeepers so if you make some inquiries I am sure you will be impressed with the number of beekeepers that will be willing to help you.

If you plan on keeping your own bees you will need to make an initial investment.  You will need a suit, gloves, a smoker, hive tool, deep hive box, screened bottom board, medium boxes, frames, inner lid and top.  You will also need to come up with something for your hive to sit on.  I use 4 cinder blocks stacked on top of one another.  Walter T. Kelley Company, which is one of the larger suppliers of all things bees, has a starter kit that starts out at $172.00.  Again, if you contact your local beekeeping association they might be able to set you up with some used hive boxes, which may be better because you will already have foundation  (comb) that is built-in the frames for your future hive.

One thing that I strongly recommend is a bee suit, gloves and a hood.  Now, I have been called a wimp by another beekeeper (not Liz) for wearing my get-up, but the last time I was stung I had a pretty bad reaction and maybe, yes I am a wimp, but I just feel more comfortable and relaxed. Since one of my favorite beekeepers is August Boatwright I am sticking to her opinions on beekeeping

“After you get stung, you can’t get unstung no matter how much you whine about it.” ― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“I hadn’t been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called ‘bee yard etiquette’. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don’t be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.” 
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

You will also need to call your beekeeping association to get a package of bees to install.  Swarms will be occurring throughout the season and that may be a way for you to get bees if you cannot order them this late in the season.  If you are here in Cincinnati you can contact Southwestern Ohio Beekeeping Association for help on classes, finding supplies and who may be willing to set up hives on your property.  You can check out Liz’s blog TwoHoney’s Bee Co. to learn what she is doing with her bees and a few of her favorite poems.  Another great Bee blog is from my friend    Emma who is a beekeeper and aromatherapist and her blog is called Miss Apis Mellifera and she is based out of Northolt Village, London.  Its nice to hear what beekeepers on the other side of the pond are doing.

Over last winter all four of my beehives died.  Liz who is my beekeeping teacher and helper lost almost 3/4 of all her hives.  We weren’t sure what happened.  I knew in late fall right before winter that the hives were gone.  There was no activity and a quick peek inside showed empty hives.  When we opened up the hives this spring, there were still honey and dead bees stuck with their heads in the comb.

We aren’t alone in the mysterious death of our bees.  Hives that started out so strong last spring were dead before the first snowflake fell.

American beekeepers have been struggling with the mysterious colony collapse disorder over the last decade, but last year was particularly bad.

The New York Times wrote an article about it in March and reported that commercial beekeepers reported 40-50% of their hives were wiped out.  Scientists are studying the disorder since 2005 and can’t seem to come up with a conclusive explanation.

However, the Times article stated some interesting facts that beekeepers and researchers have been saying for a few years now, that a new class of pesticides knows as neonicotinoids that are incorporated into the plants as seeds may be playing an important factor in last years mass colony collapse.

What are Neonicotinoids?   Neonicotinoids or Neonic as farmers call them are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine.

They are systemic pesticides, often embedded in seeds so that the plant itself carries the chemical that kills insects that feed on it.

Here is an example on what may be happening, the pesticide Neonic is incorporated into a Sunflower seed and the seed grows and flower sprouts and the bees come to the flower to collect pollen and nectar that they then take back to the hive to feed themselves, and their larvae.  It is a concentrated day in day out shot of pesticide for the bees.  It would be like you digesting a bit of poison everyday.  Your nervous system would begin to shut down and paralysis would happen and then death.  Which is what is seems to be happening to the bees.

The explosive growth of neonicotinoids since 2005 has roughly tracked rising bee deaths.

Two quotes from commercial beekeepers in the New York Times article, mirror what Liz and I have seen here in Cincinnati.

“They looked so healthy last spring,” said Bill Dahle, 50, who owns Big Sky Honey in Fairview, Mont. “We were so proud of them. Then, about the first of September, they started to fall on their face, to die like crazy. We’ve been doing this 30 years, and we’ve never experienced this kind of loss before.”

Bret Adee, who is an owner, with his father and brother, of Adee Honey Farms of South Dakota, the nation’s largest beekeeper, described mounting losses.

“We lost 42 percent over the winter. But by the time we came around to pollinate almonds, it was a 55 percent loss,” he said in an interview here this week.

“They looked beautiful in October,” Mr. Adee said, “and in December, they started falling apart, when it got cold.”

 While the pesticide Neonic is not the only culprit to the decline of the bee population, beekeepers still believe there are other culprits such as other pesticides, fungicides and herbicides that are used to control pests.

Whatever the culprit may be we need to take the loss of our bees seriously.  The Agriculture Department says a quarter of the American diet, from apples to cherries to watermelons to onions, depends on pollination by honeybees. Here is a complete list of foods that are pollinated by bees. Fewer bees mean smaller harvests and higher food prices.  We need our precious bees to eat many of the foods we love.

What can you do?  DON’T SPRAY PESTICIDES OR HERBICIDES!  I know this may mean more work out in the garden, but I truly believe spending time in the garden even if it is pulling weeds or picking slugs off your plants is good for the soul.  Plant “bee friendly” plants in your garden.  You can find a good list of plants that might work for you in your garden at the daily green.

  Everyone should know how to poach an egg, not only because it is the lowest fat method for cooking eggs, but because so many delicious recipes call for a poached egg.   One poached egg contains 69 calories, 4.7 g of fat and 185 mg of cholesterol.  As always, the freshest eggs will make the best poached eggs.  To find out more on which kind of eggs to buy, check out my post; Which Eggs Should you be eating?

Poached eggs are not only for breakfast, they are great on salads, lentils, quinoa, and rice.  It is a great way to add extra protein and flavor to a dish.

Poaching an egg is simple as long as you follow these tips: (watch the video for tutorial)

• Crack your egg into a bowl.  Do not crack it directly into the water.
• Make sure that your pan is filled with at least 3-4″ of water.
• Add one teaspoon of vinegar to the water, I prefer to use rice wine vinegar.
• Do not let your water boil, you want the water to be just below boiling and you can tell when it is the perfect temperature when bubbles start to form in the water along the perimeter of the pan.
• Place bowl that has egg as close to the water as you can and gently, but quickly slide into the water.
• Gently swirl the water around the egg with a spoon.
• Let the egg cook for 3-4 minutes.  For more runny go with 3 minutes and 4 for a firmer yolk.
• Use a slotted spoon to remove egg.  If egg is stuck to bottom, give pan a little shake, or gently loosen perimeter of egg with spoon until it releases.
• Using slotted spoon remove egg from water and place egg on paper towel lined plate.
• Serve and enjoy!

I am really excited because today is the debut of my first tutorial video.  I have been wanting to use more videos here on the blog, mostly because I am such a visual learner and I believe it is easier for most of us if we can see it, along with reading.   The reason it hasn’t happened earlier is that I had **NO** idea how to edit a video in any way shape or form.  Lucky for me I have some pretty A*M*A*Z*I*N*G friends.  One that I am loving BIG time right now is the fabulous Ms. Shiels better known as Ms. Spielberg…  she is of course a big time famous artist in her day job, but she also is a wiz on the computer and Photoshop and i-movie.  Well Ms. Shiels I mean Ms. Spielberg popped over here on Thursday and spent almost four hours giving me a tutorial on how to use i-movie.  I was so freaking excited by the time she left, and she knew it.  She told me as she was leaving that she was worried (ha, ha) that  I would be calling her in the middle of the night with video questions because I couldn’t wait to get started.  She was right, the brake lights from her car were in still in my sight as I started shooting this video.

So please let me know whatchya’ think and if there is any “how to” or “recipes” videos in particular you guys would like to see.

With that being said please watch my “How To Make a Sangria Cocktail” video.  Here is a secret… I had to do these shots several times.  After I started editing I would change my mind on how I had made a clip and reshoot it,  so I made quite a few cocktails.  I stuck a few extra cocktails in the fridge overnight and had one Friday evening and it was still quite delicious, so I learned that this cocktail can be made in advance.  The only change would be to add the splash of wine to each individual glass before drinking or serving.

Sangria is served throughout Spain and Portugal during summer.  Sangria is a refreshing party drink around the world. In the US, Sangria was first tasted at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Sangria is typically served as a punch and it is a great cocktail to serve to a large group at a party.  Sangria is basically a mix of wine, juices, soda water and fruit. Any young red wine can be used in a traditional recipe, especially Rioja.  As a twist in this recipe I used St. Germain; because I think the Elderflower liquor makes everything taste better, and in this drink it worked wonders.

Instead of buying a whole pineapple I purchased some pre-cut in the produce section at the store.  You can use any mix of berries you would like, the only fruit I would definitely recommend you use is the orange and pineapple.

Keep your simple syrup in the fridge to use in your ice tea and other cocktails for at least two weeks.  I made a batch using raw sugar which made a more brown syrup and then with granulated sugar.  If you will be using the simple syrup in a clear beverage go with the granulated, but if you are going to use it in a darker beverage I prefer using the raw sugar.

How To Make a Sangria Cocktail

 

Author:

Amy Stafford

Serves: 1

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

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Ingredients

• 2-3 pineapple slices
• ½ orange slice
• 3-4 blackberries
• 1 whole strawberry, cap removed and quartered
• ½ lime slice
• fresh ice
• 2 ounces tequila
• 1 ounce St. Germain
• 1 ounce simple syrup (1cup sugar + 1 cup water + low boil until dissolved)
• 2 ounces of pineapple-orange juice
• 1 ounce red wine, preferrably Rioja or any Spanish Red

Instructions

1. Fill glass with ice, top with fruit and pour ingredients.

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