And I'm spent!

Last night I decided it would be a good idea to start baking cookies at 9:00PM.



I improvised some rosemary sea salted shortbreads. Not too shabby. Next time I would take more care to chop the rosemary so that it doesn't look like I've wedged a giant pot leaf in the cookie! Presentation-smation...I was in a hurry alright!?

Today I completely ran out of steam. There will be no 9:00PM cookie baking sessions today, I assure you. Instead, I'm cozied up in my yellow chair, dreaming of spring-time gardening. I think that a tower of herbs is in my near future:



And I convinced my husband to build something like this for me:



Fun, no? We have to come up with a few extra dollars to buy the materials, so we'll see if it actually happens. I'm feeling optimistic.

My mom is coming over on Saturday and we're planning on pouring over seed catalogues together. I haven't quite solidified my wishlist. I'll let you know what we come up with!

Phew...I'm way to sleepy to be witty today! Tell me, dear readers, are you planning your gardens yet? What is on your wishlist? Veggies? Flowers? Tell me all about it.

Garden Update

Finally after weeks and weeks and weeks of checking out my clusters of green tomatoes - success! My first ripe tomato from my very own garden. It's a Texas Yellow, and that seems to be the variety that's done the best on my little porch. I'm so pleased with myself I don't know if I can bring myself to eat it yet. I just might take to walking it around the apartment, stroking it and calling it "Precious."

In other plant updates, the Black Prince tomato plant is no longer with us. It shriveled into oblivion a few weeks ago despite my many attempts to save it. The Striped Germans are just beginning to put little green tomatoes forth, and the Brandywine has had one huge green fruit hanging on for weeks.

I cut back the lemon balm hard a few weeks ago, and I think I went too nuts because the remaining leaves went brown and stringy and it's been water logged ever since. It's a perennial, so I'm hoping that it will come back regardless. The lemon basil and spicy globe basil are doing well - I really need to harvest it and make pesto! The thyme, oregano and rosemary are doing quite respectably, but nothing matches my mammoth orange mint.

I have enough mint to make mojitos for the entire free word. It's spilled over its container and fashioned itself into a hanging plant over the porch banister. Who knew? Does anyone out there have recipes that call for mass quantities of mint? I'm open to recommendations!

Saturday Scores - All About the Farmer's Market

This week's bounty:

* Seen above: Starter lemon verbena, thyme, lemon basil (from another farm, I can't remember the name!), rosemary, greek oregano and orange mint respectively, plus a bar of beeswax calendula soap from Ragged Robin Herb Farm

* A delicious Indian bean(?), pea(?), (can't remember I ate it too fast), dish prepared with spices and coconut with saffron flavored rice, on the side, from Divine Cuisines from Kittery. Matt and I devoured this for lunch today - so good! Apparently they're opening a restaurant in Kittery very soon. This will be a must to revisit for the future!

* Another visit to Sugar Momma for a maple candy, my beloved maple cream and this week, something new, maple coated walnuts to go into my salad. Sugar Momma told me that I'm going to need a 12-step program by the end of the year. Umm, I think she's right. I have a slight maple problem.

* A medicinal buy from Blueberry Hill. Little known fact here on the bloggy, I've suffered from mild psoriasis my whole life. I'm running out of my store bought cream that I've used for years, that doesn't really do anything except moisturize, and I'm looking for an herbal alternative. I bought a tincture made from burdock, red clover and yellow dock that you take with a little water everyday. It's supposed to be good for any skin ailments, so I'm interested to see if there are any marked improvements!

* Italian Sausage from Kellie Brook Farm

I love shopping at the market, because you always run into people that you know. I saw a few of my dance students, and I bumped into Sara Zoe from the Seacoast Eat Local blog.

That's it for me today! Tomorrow I'm going to the Sheep to Shawl NH Fiber Festival. Whoo-hoo! I'm sure I'll come back with lots to share!