Tag Archives: Gardening

Beans Gone Wild

24 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

 

We returned to North Carolina after nine days in Florida celebrating the launch of our daughter, Rebekah Lyn’s new novel,  Jessie. I couldn’t wait to see if our tiny garden had survived the days of neglect. I would say it has survived!

Beans Gone Wild

Beans Gone Wild

 

Gardening in North Carolina clay is very different from gardening in Florida  so our  garden is  an experimental project. The past two years we grew bush beans and they did quite well. This year we decided to try runner beans. Is this height normal? I suspect we may have made the poles too high as we have more vines than beans.  I picked this morning and the majority of the beans came from two bush bean plants  from last years seeds.

Picked beans copy

 

There should be enough for my husband and I to have one serving each for dinner tonight.

We have decided to give up on bell peppers. We just don’t have enough sunlight for them. The first year we planted, our tomato plants grew great but the last two years have been awful. We did plant them in different locations but it hasn’t helped.  Nasty greem tomato worms love to eat the foilage and have to be picked off by hand and smashed. This so grosses me out!  If anyone has suggestions for deterring them without pesticides please leave them in comments.

In the Fall we add in compost from our compost heap and in the Spring add mushroom compost to enrich the clay soil.  I have to admit, I took the Florida sand for  granted. I had no idea it was such a great soil for growing. So far, in North Carolina  we haven’t been able to germinate flower seeds directly in the soil, unlike Florida where one simply  fluffs the soil, spreads the seeds and gently push a thin layer of sand over the seeds. Within a week, the seeds have popped up.

Do you have any gardening tips you can share?

If you would like the chance to enter a super easy giveaway from Rebekah Lyn 

CLICK HERE

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Roots

16 Jun

My Take

DiVoran Lites 

 

Author, Poet and ArtistOne day I was wandering in the cleared area behind our house and I came upon a miniature liquor bottle. I have a penchant for bottles, so I picked it up, washed it out, and stuffed a small spider plant into it. The spider plant then proceeded to grow roots. I have a penchant for roots.

Yesterday I had breakfast with a friend who is a professional photographer. We like to talk about our gardens and share cuttings and clippings. I gave her some purple heart.

She gave me some plants, too. When I looked in the succulent’s bag, I saw a long root. “I’m into roots, right now,” I said pulling out a beautiful aloe plant.

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Then she asked the big question. “Why?”

I’m still not sure I can answer it, but I have a book, Finding What You Didn’t Lose, by John Fox CPT. In a chapter called, “Leaving the Roots on Your Writing: Revealing Yourself in Your Poetry.” Fox says, “When I lead workshops and people share their spontaneous poems, one of the first qualities people recognize in the atmosphere of the place…is that there is a deepened level of genuine intimacy. People begin to leave “roots” and “dirt” on their words. This intimacy is first self-honest, which then extends into the group experience.”

As I understand it, roots are the opposite of pretension. Pretension is like a plastic string—it doesn’t grow anything new or nourishing while a root does.

My mother always said, “Make yourself the best you can, and then be yourself.” I was still working on the first part, but I began to see that it was time to bring the second part into play. It seems that one way to start living with the roots is to quit trying so hard. So what if I drop the g’s off words when I get excited? So what if I wear my shorts and no lipstick to Wal-Mart? So what if I ask dumb questions or snort when I laugh? At least I’m laughing. I will soldier on as if it were none of my business what THEY THINK. Like Popeye, I yam what I yam. Ain’t we all?

 

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Herbal Remedies and Essential Oils~Herbal health from a Christian Worldview

12 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

 

When I retired, one of my goals was to learn more about herbal remedies, so I was delighted when in the process of searching for book bloggers, I stumbled upon Lydia’s Herbals. I contacted Lydia and she graciously agreed to be interviewed. Enjoy~Onisha

buffet

 

Why were you drawn to herbal remedies and how did you educate yourself in the art?

Originally, I wanted to start a pretty garden, but I wanted it to be useful. So I decided to make an herb garden. Then I had to learn about how to use them, so I read library books on the subject. The books didn’t provide enough hands on information, so I searched for an herb course from a Christian worldview. After nearly giving up on ever finding one, I found Vintage Remedies, Inc. and took the Family Herbalist Course as part of my high school coursework. When I finished, I decided to take the Master Herbalist Course so that I would know even more and be more equipped to use the herbs. I really like Vintage Remedies, as they are evidence based, so they try to take a safer approach than many others.

Essential oils are all the rage now. Do you have any advice about them?

 Don’t use them neat (undiluted)! There are several companies advocating the use of neat essential oils, or using them internally. Doing so can cause SERIOUS problems. Neat essential oils can burn your skin, and many oils can be toxic in small quantities, causing liver and/or kidney damage. Essential oils are very powerful, so less is more. They also work better when applied externally, as well as being safer.

Most essential oils need to be diluted by putting 3 drops of essential oil into 1 Tsp. of carrier oil. I usually use olive oil for the carrier oil, but almond oil, jojoba oil, and coconut oil are other choices.

Diffusion is also a good method to use, you can add a drop or 2 of essential oil to some boiling water and let it diffuse into the air. There are also many diffusers available to purchase. I use a terra-cotta diffuser from Mountain Rose herbs for a small room, or a pan of water on the stove or wood stove for a larger room.

As with anything, you have to know what you are doing. Do some research from reputable sources. Aromatherapy for Health Professionals is my favorite book about essential oils. It has safety information as well as many case studies. Many essential oils should not be used if you are pregnant, and there are several that should not be used on small children. There are other safety concerns as well, such as seizures. My favorite resource is one of my textbooks, because it has all the information on how to use essential oils safely. You also need to make sure the oils are good quality. The sources I trust are Mountain Rose Herbs and Native American Botanicals.

Do you have advice for someone like me who is just beginning to explore herbal remedies?

Don’t believe everything you read. Some people will recommend dangerous herbs, and say they are safe. If you can, find someone who is willing to help you learn, but make sure that they know what they are talking about.  I highly recommend Vintage Remedies, and the Family Herbalist course gives you a working knowledge of herbs and essential oils and how to use them safely, including dosing and preparing herbs.

Do you suggest a person grow their own medicinal herbs or is there a retail source for obtaining them?

If you can, grow your own. I sometimes grow my own, but I go through large quantities with my goats, so I have to order them. Mountain Rose Herbs and Best Botanicals have good quality herbs, as does Bulk Herb Store.

If one wants to start a beginner level medicinal herb garden which would be your top five suggestions and why?

  •  Calendula, because it is easy to grow and very good for your skin.
  • Peppermint, also easy to grow. It is good for nausea and headaches, as well as other things.
  • Lavender, because it smells nice and is easy to preserve.
  • Borage, because it is pretty, easy to grow, and has edible flowers. It also attracts bees.
  • Chamomile. It is calming, relieves headaches, and is actually helpful in fighting bacteria. It is also pretty and easy to grow.

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Tell our readers about the products you make, their uses and how you create them.

 I make Lydia’s Herbal Healing Salve, Lydia’s Herbal Muscle and Joint Salve, Lydia’s Herbal Sun Block, Lydia’s Herbal Lip Balm, Lydia’s Herbal Toothpaste for Sensitive Teeth, and Lydia’s Herbal Tick Repellent, as well as herbal wormer, herbal minerals, and a few tinctures for animals.

My family and I have used Lydia’s Herbal Healing Salve on dry skin, bug bites, bruises, and rashes. My friends have found it to help with eczema and psoriasis. We use Lydia’s Herbal Muscle and Joint Salve on sore muscles and joints. The others are pretty self-explanatory. I made the toothpaste for my Mom, because she has super sensitive teeth and the store-bought toothpaste wasn’t working for her.

To make any of my products, I first research. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it takes days. I look for any safety precautions on the herbs and Essential oils, and look for the best herbs to use for a particular application. After I have thoroughly researched, I come up with a recipe using the herbs and essential oils I researched. Then I order the herbs I need.

For the salves, sun block and lip balm, once the herbs get here, I make an oil infusion. An oil infusion is made by weighing the herbs according to the recipe, then covering them with the right amount of oil.Not sure

I put it in a warm oven for 3-6 hours. I usually let it sit for several days after having it in the oven, to make sure all the herbal properties get transferred. Then I strain the oil, and add beeswax and heat it up until the beeswax is melted. After the beeswax is melted, I add the essential oil and package it.

The tick repellent and tinctures for animals are HErbal tickcreated by making a tincture out of the herbs and alcohol or apple cider vinegar. The tick repellent then gets essential oils added.

 

The sun block basically is a salve, but it has some minerals added to it to increase the effectiveness. The lip balm is also about the same as a salve, just more beeswax.

The toothpaste has some oil infusions in it, and then I add the other ingredients.

The herbal wormer and minerals are just powdered herbs that are mixed together. Not everyone has 15+ goats, so I sell it by the pound. I make it because with the amount of animals we have, we go through a lot of it.

 

I hope our readers have enjoyed this interview as much as I have!

 

 Lydia’s Herbals 

Herbal health from a Christian Worldview

Click HERE 

herb for blog copy

 

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100 Years and Counting….

22 Apr
Today we are pleased to have our friend Patricia Franklin on Old Things R New. It is so good to have her back for the day~Onisha
Patricia Franklin
A Few Thoughts 

Easter Morning!  I’m sitting here in my backyard contemplating and marveling at the meaning of Easter and realizing He really does make all things new! 
There is new growth on my rose bushes. The new blossoms are out on the tree and a brand new baby squirrel explores the branches and discovers the delicate new growth and enjoys the sweet taste for the very first time. There are new blossoms on the strawberries in the garden and plenty of new weeds and dandelions that popped out since our much needed wet spring snow of two days ago. 
But I have been impatiently waiting  to see if our 100 + year old plant will grow this year in our garden. We brought this plant several years ago from the old family home and transplanted it here.  It was very sparse last year, and we were not sure it would make it another year.  Yesterday, I spotted little dark green leaves coming up in the garden spot. Was that the beginning of this special plant, or just another weed taking over the area?
This morning after greeting the newly risen Christ at church, I hurried home and ran to the garden spot to search again for the new life of the plant.  Lo and behold, three strong green leaves were open and reaching for the sun (Son) !!  It is not a weed, it is the 100 year old plant…. alive and well!  I realize again, He really does make all things new on this Day of Days!  Praise God!

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Gorging on Green Beans

7 Apr

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 

Author, Poet and ArtistGreen beans have almost no calories, but they’re full of nutrition and are some of those all important fruit and veggies we hear so much about. Our grocery store has wonderful fresh pole beans, right now. We’ve had them twice. But no matter how fresh veggies are, if they aren’t properly cooked and deliciously seasoned, they can be practically tasteless.

One of the weight loss plans we’ve been on, taught us to stop eating when we felt full. Another (the HCG plan) showed us that our weight was more affected by carbohydrates than by anything else. Of course, that included the supposedly magical whole grains we love. Now we try for one small piece of bread or a rice cake a day, and we’re keeping the weight off.

I was brought up to believe that for supper you should have

1 meat dish

1 salad (it could be canned pears on a lettuce leaf and some cottage cheese)

1 cooked vegetable (where I came from they were always canned, but later I sometimes served frozen)

1 carb, usually rice, pasta, or potato, sometimes two if you count the bread

1 dessert (half the time it was JELL-O®

I tried to feed my family that way. I think most American moms, in that era did.

In later years, it was hard for us become accustomed to fresh vegetables. I didn’t know how to cook them and because we didn’t use them fast enough they went bad in the refrigerator. Now we say, “Hmm, this broccoli, spinach, or asparagus, these artichokes, carrots, or green beans, are wonderful!Yes, we have learned to cook and season them properly. We cook them in one of three ways: pressure cooker, microwave steamer, or pot on the stove. For seasoning we use bit of salt, a chopped up garlic clove, and herbs. We grow basil, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and oregano. We have a chart that tells which foods go with which herbs, but we’re doing a lot of experimenting on our own. Every combination we’ve tried so far has been good. The only other dish we have for supper is our meat. All protein is the same except for fat count. Yes, we seem to be carnivores, maybe someday we’ll switch to vegetarian, but maybe not. Anyhow, we have semi-healthy snack in the evening and eat a few nuts. And our weight, blessedly, is holding well.

Oh, and by the way, we asked our internist who is well educated in nutrition whether we had to eat a large variety of vegetables or not, and she told us it wasn’t necessary. We buy the ones we like and for the present our weight and the food we eat are flowing together nicely. What a relief!

How do you feel about vegetables?

Green beans

 

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A Little TLC Can Go a Long Way

5 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

For the past several days we’ve been hearing a bob-white conversation from the woods behind our house. We back onto the Diceranda Scrub Sanctuary where threatened and endangered species both from the plant family and from the animal world have Author, Poet and Artisttheir habitats. We have the Diceranda (thincola) or Titusville mint (endemic, which means this is the only place in the world where it is known to exist.) It is endangered. It’s a small leaved plant with leaves that remind you a bit of rosemary with a tiny violet flower. It needs a bit of clearing alongside the trail to thrive.

We have Florida scrub jays. They are like blue-jays only plainer and more shy they are on the list of threatened species. We have gopher tortoises (threatened), great

lumbering creatures that look as if they crawled out of the swamp somewhere, but who, need xeric sandhills for their burrows. Many other animals survive because of them, the indigo snake is one that uses the burrows. Indigo snakes are threatened.

Did you ever wonder what all the hullabaloo was about when it comes to the different wildlife we talk about being endangered or threateneds? In a nutshell, what that means is that there are so comparatively few of each species that they will someday be extinct if something isn’t done to

This turtle likes bird seed.

Turtle eating under bird feeder

conserve them.

Conserving any kind of plant or animal necessitates conserving the places where they live, the food they eat, the water they drink (and swim in) as well as the nesting places where they rear their young.

So what? Animals come and animals go. Why should we worry about any of that? We have our nice homes and our lawns and picnics on beautiful summer days. We have our clean water, (we hope it is clean, anyhow).

The only trouble is that as the wildlife go, so goes the world. Prime example: have you heard about the honey-bees dying off in many countries including the U. S.? What good are honey bees anyhow? We don’t need honey, we’ve got tons of sugar. Yes, but did you ever think about what we have to have to make sugar or any other kind of food, including meat, milk, eggs, spinach, apples, and yes, sugar cane. The plants must be pollinated so they will grow, flower, turn into fruits and grains. Albert Einstein once said, “If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” I’m curious how we could last that long, but never mind. The bottom line is: no pollinators, no food.

The birds, bees and insects, all depend on each other and on plants for basic life. Throw any system off-balance and you’re asking for trouble. So what can I do? What can you do? We can start with small things, small things can make a big difference. Look at books and websites on how to create habitat in your yard. What do your birds and butterflies need? What will bring bees to feast at your place. How can you live where there are endangered and threatened species and be a part of defending them. You’d be surprised what a little bit of TLC by a lot of people can do.

We’re hoping the bobwhite will start coming to our yard again. Once a momma and daddy slipped through our chain link fence and twelve babies jumped through too and followed them all over learning what to eat and what not to. How did we ever get so blessed as to have seen a sight like that in the wild? God loves all his creatures, so obviously He’d be happy to see us find some more ways to take care of each other and the wonderful world He has given us.

DiVoran’s books are filled with her love of nature. You can learn more about her and her books at Rebekah Lyn Books

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Plans Are Just Plans

28 Feb

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Onisha

I learned last year that my plans are not always God’s plans and for 2013 I am offering up my plans and timetables to God. It is already getting interesting trying to schedule our lives in two places.

For Christmas my husband made me a wonderful cold frame for starting seeds and the warm Florida weather has me eager to get started on our summer garden in North Carolina.  Our plan was to start our plants in the cold frame six weeks before planting time. Now it seems that isn’t going to work out and that’s ok. Plans are just plans. I don’t want to miss out on a single blessing by insisting on living life my way.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

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Does the Earth Still Call?

8 Jul

I missed my Thursday post due to a problem with my hands. This will be short but I wanted to talk about family. Last week my daughter, Rebekah Lyn took on her first solo-canning project. She had an abundance of Roma tomatoes and decided to make homemade salsa and can it. It came out beautiful and I am re-blogging her post so you can read about her experience. In the same week my son, Matt, canned eight quarts of green beans from his garden. He is an excellent gardener and has begun raising chickens too. It delights my soul to see my city-raised children taking up the skills they saw their grandparents practice. When you have a farming heritage, does the connection with the earth still call to the soul?

Rebekah Lyn's Kitchen

Happy 4th of July!  I hope you all take some time today to reflect on what makes this day so very important in the history of the United States, especially as times are so rapidly changing for us.  There is another reason this day is so important to me though.  Today would have been my grandmother’s 90th birthday.  I have been thinking about Grandma Pearl all week and wish she could have been here over the weekend to help me with my first endeavor at canning on my own.

I have many memories of helping her can preserves, green beans, and tomatoes.  I remember setting up the Coleman stove on the back porch, watching the giant pot boil, peeling the skin off the tomatoes and skimming the froth off the strawberries. Those are memories that I will always treasure.

Since I had so many tomatoes of my own…

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Dirt

28 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

In mid May we planted our second garden here is the hills. Last year we grew tomatoes, green peppers, cucumber and herbs. We missed out on most of the harvest due to an unexpected extended vacation. This year we ventured out to add string beans, garlic, squash, red and yellow peppers and added more herbs.

They are all looking great. The string beans are loaded with blooms and have tiny beans. The cucumbers and squash are loaded with bright yellow flowers and the herbs scent the garden. I picked my first tomato this week. It is named Early Girl and she lived up to her name. To me there is nothing any tastier than a fresh sliced tomato, mayo and a dash of salt all on  freshly toasted bread.

Today, as I wielded my hoe, pulling dirt to the green beans, a pleasant hum ran through my heart. I come from farmer stock and it was almost like I could see my ancestors smiles, heads nodding in approval. Do gardeners still pull dirt to the roots of their plants these days? I have no idea but that is what my parents and now that I am gardening, I’m doing it too. 

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My Newest Thing

23 Feb

I’ve added a new thing in my life and I never saw it coming. One day I was playing in the garden, canning and baking in the kitchen and the next thing I know, I am glued to my keyboard, pounding out 140 characters.

I thought I was going to spend a nice winter/spring in Florida, reversing the trend and mooching off our daughter. I planned to carry my weight with a little cooking and cleaning in exchange for a winter escape. It hasn’t quite worked out that way.

I was so proud of Rebekah when she self published her first book in the Seasons of Faith series. To be a writer has been her dream since she was a child, writing, “I’m very mad at you” on her chalkboard. She had to interpret the scribbles. Since we were mooching off of her for the winter, I offered to help her promote her book.

Book promotion has changed since the old days. Rebekah held a book signing at a friend’s restaurant and made an impact on seven people. I quickly learned social media is the way to go. Fortunately I love technology and was already a twitter addict. So here I am, pounding out 140 characters, hoping it makes a difference and best of all making new friends like you.

If you are new to social media and blogging. Check out this very short eBook by my new twitter friend. I promise it won’t overwhelm you.

How to Make a Splash Online eBook: Kathy Lynn Hall: Kindle Store http://j.mp/A2XKNM

I would love to have you follow me on twitter @onisha or @iluvscoops if you don’t mind my political side.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would Like Rebekah Lyn author FB

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