Making Incense (video)

A couple of weeks ago, Maryanne and I threw on our Twisted Sisters cloaks and drove north to the Old Sage Apothecarians Gathering. Our task was to demonstrate how to make incense cones from raw ingredients. We can't really figure out what happened, but the "dough" was sticky and gummy, making it impossible to form any cones - or anything else! We came home and started over. Here's the very abbreviated demo.
Find ingredients, finished incenses, burners, and charcoal here:
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Dried Persimmon Slices

Native persimmons are easy.  The pulp gets frozen in 1 cup portions and added into various recipes like this persimmon cake or added into any recipe instead of banana or applesauce.  But I have a good sized fuyu persimmon tree out back, and had no clue what to do with them, other than eat them like apples.

The tree is planted beside the deck so that I can pick the fruit right out the back door.  It is a fast grower, and within just a few years that's exactly what happened. 
They're a whole different fruit from the native persimmons, and now that I have close to 50 of them it was a stroke of luck when Bartosh, over on the TEH facebook page, mentioned that he loved dried persimmon slices.  We're deep in apple schnitz country and I grew up eating dried apple slices, so it sounded like a good idea.

Off to the google I went, finding several (very) slightly different instructions.  They all included washing, thin-slicing, wire racks on a cookie sheet, and 200 - 250 degrees in the oven for 2 hours.

I tried a few things.  One was a dehydrator.  It might have worked, but the heating element wasn't working, so... ALL of the instructions talk about oven-drying, so maybe there's a reason for that. The first batch was sliced at about 1/4" as instructed.  They were good, but by the time my oven dried them, they were a little too brown and still too pliable.  The taste though!  These are really a very mild flavored fruit, so it's a surprise how the fruit sugar concentrates and deepens.  They are delicious.  Do use the rack though.  I tried one without, and they burned and stuck to the pan, surrounded by tiny pools of exquisite syrup.

I like them much better sliced very thin and dried to more of a chip-like texture.  So good!

Here's what I've found to work for me.

• Oven at 200 degrees F
• 1/8" thickness
• Arranged closely on wire rack on top of cookie sheets
• Bake for 3 hours
• When they are curly and almost completely dry, they're done.
• Those that you don't cram into your mouth while taking them off the rack should go into an airtight container, and be refrigerated.

I was going to send some to the kids, but there probably won't be any here long enough to get them packed up to ship. If you've got these and wondered what to do with all of those fruits (currently $2.99 each at the store), give this a try.  If you don't love them, someone you know will.

These prolific fruits also bring health benefits along with them.  They're loaded with fiber and all kinds of vitamins and nutrients.  That orange color tells us that it's got carotene and lots of vitamin A and C.  There's a good bit of lutein and lycopene bringing antioxident action and supporting eye health.  That's just scratching the surface, so you can feel good about eating them.

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Lavender Distillation Video

Last spring, we made this video as part of a teaching module on lavender for The Science and Art of Herbalism, Rosemary Gladstar's online course.  Hope you enjoy!

The Conundrum of Being a Small Business

When I was a child in the 60's, my mother was a renegade.  She started a small business to support us.  I learned many rules at her knee:
1) Always say "we" and appear successful.
2) Never talk about a downturn.  See #1.
3) Smile and apologize, no matter whose fault it is - and perhaps you can imagine how much more difficult that was for a woman at that time in history.

*Being* a small business is the only way you can describe it because the business is our reputation, our identity, and one of the kids.  One does not "own" a small business.  It owns us.

So while we may be very small cottage industries, it behooves us to present our businesses as spiffy, shiny, and big.  Sometimes people treat us big businesses.  This is the problem.

What am I getting at?
This morning I awoke to a charge back for a fraudulent sale - the second in 20 years.  In the rush of the Christmas Eve mailing, I somehow missed sending out an order for a single magazine. 
It was me.  I know that because it's always me.  I'm the shipping department, the purchasing department, accounts payable, accounts receivable, editor, schmoozer in chief, social media dept., and everything in between.

So yes.  It happened. (update - no, they got the order)
An order for $7.50 is charged back with an additional $15 fee.

NOTE: This has been resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

Granted, it isn't the customer's job to check up on an order that doesn't arrive, but if you're reading this and you ever deal with ANY online business, please give them a chance to correct the situation before hitting the fraud alarm.  A simple email, maybe?

Had this customer contacted me, she would have gotten immediate service and most certainly there would have been a gift of some sort.  Almost every boxed order that leaves here has a little something special tucked into it, so we (see? can't help it) would have bent over backwards to make things right.

It's not a huge deal in the big scheme of things, I suppose.  The other charge back was 2 years ago.  Someone had purchased a PDF and forgot, didn't recognize the charge.  So even though my website could prove that they sent the file to the provided email address immediately, for some reason she got back her $5, and I got to pay the extra $15 fee.

Please give businesses a chance to explain.  Wouldn't you want that?  Wouldn't you do that if we were a brick and mortar shop?  Don't be quick to assume the worst of people.

UPDATE:  This was reported in error.  It won't matter.  So was the last one.  The credit card company never reverses their judgment.

Breakfast Muffins

For the last couple of years my sister and I have been attempting to stay ahead of age, and though I've still got quite a few pounds I'd love to leave behind, we walk most days and compared to when we started out, we have made giant strides.  When we visit our kids around the country we don't embarrass ourselves, at least.  Well.. much.
One of the things we've found is that having meals on hand so that thought (or work) isn't required helps a lot.  We each have recipes for a breakfast muffin, and make a batch, freeze them, and they're ready to go each morning. 

Here's the recipe that I've gradually come to after lots of additions and trials.  For instance, I used to add dried sour cherries and dried blueberries, but realized I didn't like it too much and swapped in other fruit.  Also trail mix of assorted nuts, seeds, and raisins is great.  Anyhow...

RECIPE
Dry ingredients:
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 cup oat bran
1 cup rolled oats
1 T baking powder
2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t cardamom
1 t nutmeg (or spices of your choice)

Wet ingredients:
2 over ripe bananas
1 cup applesauce (or persimmon pulp if I have it)
1 individual cup of vanilla yogurt (I really like Oikos Vanilla and toasted Coconut)
2 eggs
1 - 6 oz can crushed pineapple

The good stuff *these things area all interchangeable or can be replaced with other stuff*:
1 cup granola
1 cup coconut (unsweetened if I'm behaving)
1 cup (or more) broken walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/8 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T dark unsweetened cocoa
 NOTE:  you need to add at least 3 cups of additives.
Set oven to 400 degrees
Line muffin tins

I usually make up several batches of the dry and "good stuff" all mixed up and in the freezer. 
Mix up all the wet ingredients and blend.  An immersion blender is perfect.
Add dry ingredients and mix well. 
Makes 24 muffins
Bake for 16 minutes

I place a piece of cardboard on the bottom of a gallon sized zip-lock.  These can be used at least 10 times.  The cardboard allows them to be stacked neatly in the freezer.  Keep a couple of them out and refrigerate so you can just heat one up in the morning for about 30 seconds.  I use the cupcake liner cups to hold the muffins in the fridge - perfect.

Wild and Free Food - Greens and Eggs

Lunch today was very special! A walk around the yard yielded several ingredients for an egg scramble that also used up some things that were needing to be eaten soon.
Tame items included eggs, some mushrooms, fresh salsa, cheese, ham, and butter. Outside I found chickweed, tender dandelion leaves, and some young garlic mustard leaves. Rather than cutting into a whole yellow onion, I yanked a wild onion from the mint patch (multi-tasking at its best).
While the chopped onion and mushrooms simmered with the butter, I chopped up the greens and mixed them into the eggs along with the ham. As they became tender in the pan, the egg mixture was poured over them and stirred.
After the eggs set well, everything got a quick flip, and a hefty topping of salsa and cheese. A few minutes covered to heat through - delish!
Be sure to add some wild yard weeds to your diet this spring. It adds a little something special to any dish you prepare!

Wild and Free Food - Nettles and Mushrooms

There are so many delicious wild greens coming up right now.  The best way to learn to use them is to just start throwing them into dishes.  They are usually tender, so just the last few minutes of cooking is generally best.  Tonight I was in the mood for an omelet.  This can just as well be a topping for pasta, bread, rice - or anything you like. 
You may prefer it without salsa, or without cheese.  Make it the way you like!

Here's how mine went down...

Went outside and picked a few cups of garlic mustard leaves and stinging nettles leaves. 

Pulled out a skillet, and threw in a pat of butter.

Dumped a pint of baby bella mushrooms (use what you have) and about an ounce of water on medium heat, covered. 

Allowed them to cook til about done, added greens and another ounce of water, covered, then turned to low.



In the meantime, I pulled out another skillet and started 2 eggs.

Once they were set, I layered on top...

Single layer of super thin slices of smoked ham.

Handful of shredded cheddar.

 - cover for a couple minutes to melt cheese.

Add about 1/2 the mushrooms and greens

Slide onto plate and flip the one side over on top.

Top with salsa.

And there's enough filling to have it again for lunch.

Yum!