HERBS! HERBS! HERBS!

    Now, when most people think of "herbs" they think of the smoke-able kind that makes you all mellow yellow. When I talk about "herbs" I am actually referring to culinary and medicinal herbs that have been passed down through all culture's ancestors, especially the Chinese Culture.

    Most people do not know that they can actually grow their own culinary and medicinal herbs for personal use. Take LAVENDER for instance. Did you know if you brew freshly organically grown LAVENDER into a tea, it actually acts as a relaxant and anti-depressant.

    Another example would be MOTHERWORT, which can be made into a "tonic" (as I call it) with the use of certain specific alcohols (brandy, and all grain alcohols). After letting this "tonic" settle for two weeks or so, I recommend putting three to four drops into your favourite tea and you will see the effects of this tonic. * MOTHERWORT helps ease menstrual pains and afterbirth pains as well as helping with menopause. This tonic will also help with keeping your emotional balance, with your circulatory systems and aides your hearts health (reduces palpitations, and strengthens the heart).

    We as a civilization have totally forgot the natural ways of curing and aiding our everyday stresses, aches and pains. We really need to get off of all this chemical bullshit and realize that these chemical drugs are doing more harm to the body than good. I hope this information helps some of you, and widens your perspective of how we treat our bodies. Remember, this is our life and we should live it to the fullest and healthiest as possible!

HyperSmash

Indoor Garden Solo Cup Update: End of Week 3

Indoor Organically Grown Herbs, Tomatoes and Peppers

    Yet another week has passed us by and my indoor organic garden is looking greener by the day. All this growth is just making me excited to start getting on the ball with my outdoor organic spring garden. I will soon be thinning out and transplanting my peppers and tomatoes so they can all have enough space to grow correctly instead of being crammed together in one cup.

Organically Grown Garlic Chives, Christmas Basil, Italian Oregano, German Thyme, Common Sage, and Giant Italian Parsley

    You wouldn't believe how pungent these herbs are, it is quite ridiculous to say the least. My Garlic Chives aren't propagating as quickly as I would like them to, but patience is what gardening is all about. Considering how fast all of these herbs are growing, I would say that maybe in about three to four weeks from now these plants will have an amazing root system developed in these Solo Cups. I am going to be planting these on the outskirts of my raised garden beds to promote bees to come to my wonderful garden.

Organically Grown Carnival, Italian Pepperoncini, Giant Yellow Monster, and Early Jalapeno Peppers 

    These peppers are going to be quite the treat once I am able to harvest from them. I chose a diversity of colors and heat so that I have a variety of uses for them. Each pepper will mature at different times, which makes harvesting at different intervals key. Sometimes I let my peppers sun-dry on fishing line and crush them for later as a spice or use them for organic garden bug spray. (Only if it is a hot pepper)

Organically Grown Blue Beauty, Roman, Bloody Butcher, Super Italian Paste Tomatoes

     You barely see any vegetable gardens without tomato plants, they are a key staple. We use tomatoes to a variety of culinary uses with recipes from all around the world. Some of these tomatoes are different colors and sizes. I love growing "paste" size and cherry sized tomatoes, they make an ideal snack. These guys will be transplanted outside once they reach about two feet in height. Once spring comes, be on the look out! You'll see my tomato plants grow four times their original size!

    Well that is it for this update friends! Thank you for staying with me through my grow-log and my plants wonderful maturing journey. Hope it has been as much fun for you as it is fun for me. Until next time friends....

Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!

HyperSmash

Growing Healthy Organic Herbs For Your Cooking!

    I love the aroma of fresh garden herbs used in our kitchen. I would live in that smell if that was humanly possible. Everyone, everywhere uses herbs to cook and enhance the dish's flavour. I love using the harder to find strains of herbs because of the added effect they give to the dishes they are meant to be enhancing. I am currently propagating a few different breeds of herbs for my indoor garden. Everything you see is grown organically and I eventually will be making some seed packets to send out to any gardeners whom wish to grow these breeds. These herbs will be fully mature about late February to early March.

Christmas Basil - A Great Britain cross-bred Basil, mix of Thai and Genovese. Has a mulled-wine aroma which most people associate Christmas with, hence it's name.

German Thyme - I chose this specific breed because I can just not worry about it dying through Winter, for it is Winter hardy. My Lemon Thyme didn't make it this year so I am giving this breed a go.

Italian Oregano - The most popular Culinary Oregano because of the flavour not being over-powering to ones palette. A bit milder than Greek Oregano in my opinion.















    Nothing will ever beat fresh herbs, especially the smell of them. Potted herbs make great house decorations, just make sure to put it in a spot that gets enough fresh sunlight. When friends or relatives come over that pot of herbs will be a great conversation and maybe pass the idea of growing your own herbs to someone else.

Until next time, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!

HyperSmash

Fall Mini Garden Update

Wow! My garden has been looking beautiful! Everything producing looks so vibrant and amazingly delicious! Look at my Santa Fe Pepper turn red, and more hot compared to the green variety. This would be a nice choice to use in guacamole, it has the right heat without overpowering the avocado and just enough to not make you tear or grab for your closest drink.

As I said, these are the milder version of the Santa Fe Pepper. I use these in my Ramen constantly, or I caramelize them with onions and eat that with sausage. These peppers are extremely easy to grow, all you need is; porous soil, manure, compost, and some care. It is probably the easiest plant I deal with.

The Thai Chili Pepper is a beautiful plant, but is extremely hot! I use gloves when I harvest off the plant or maintain it. I touched my eyes once after dealing with it, and I ended up pouring milk on my eyes and complaining constantly for about an hour straight. I use one chili pepper for salsa, if I used two I'd be screaming.

 My Thyme; completely common, it's found in woods up north of Nevada and other woodland areas. This thyme smells so great and can be used on anything pretty much. It's currently being populated in a new area of the garden so that's why it's not as clustered as before!

My French Pumpkins! These I planted hopefully in time for Christmas! I love pumpkin cookies, cakes, pies, shakes, teas, and bread! All of those things can be made from a fresh pumpkin as well. I get a nice crop and a beautiful plant to stare at until the crop comes. It's a complete win-win scenario. I'll keep you all updated about this specific plant until it's bountiful.

The Bloody Butcher Tomato, which is so-called because once you slice into one the juices flow out more than usual. This tomato is extremely flavourful and awesome in a grilled cheese, I promise you that! It takes about 80 days from flowering to get the full flavour and nutrient value from the fruit, but it's totally worth it. The plants kind of purple due to the fact of a colder climate.

Mexican Sage, how beautiful is that?! Just take a second and gaze at this picture, that's nature friends. Those buds slowly mature and dry into the sage we all use in our recipes. That process takes about 55 days to get really decent sized petals and you can dry them out in your oven on the lowest setting, just keep an eye on it time varies with altitude. Or you can let it dry by itself on the plant, then harvest when needed. So friends, that was fun going through my garden yet again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Until next time, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing! Ciao!!






HyperSmash