The Modern Hippy

     Rick and I took a walk in Bellingham’s Boulevard Park last week. It was mostly grey with some sun peaking through making the water sparkle. I love this park. Though, it can seem busy, everyone seems to keep to themselves and does their own thing. Here is a place you can be alone in a crowd. It feels great. Even if the weather is questionable, you will probably find a beautiful ocean view.

     I’m a beekeeper’s daughter. The funny thing is I have been terrified of bees most of my life. Only in the last couple of years have I realized that really, they won’t all get me. It’s huge that I’ve been able to get closer to bees than before. They end up in my pictures of flowers all the time, when I don’t even notice.
     Today, I did. This bee that looked distressed, landed on a raspberry leaf and started dancing around. For a moment it looked like she was dying. Then as I watched, she cleaned her bum of the haphazardly smeared pollen and flew away. Bees really are lovely insects, and incredibly important to us. Without bees it would be incredibly hard, or impossible to pollinate all the growing things like fruit trees and plants, so that we would end up with food. Love the bee, because their “little” job is very important to us.

     I’ve mentioned this nifty surprising herb. We got it for my herb garden at my parents. Originally I bought it to feed the bees and as an experiment. A lady at the Mount Vernon Co-op said she had it one year, but didn’t use it very much. She noticed that the bees loved it though. Well, I’m all for feeding those hard working bees.
     My one plant has grown faster and bigger than any of the other herbs. It has to be at least two feet high, and four or five feet across. It’s funny looking, very hairy and gangly looking, with gorgeous, simple blue and pink flowers. It is horribly poky.

Cultivation:

     It’s a low maintenance herb, an annual that will reseed itself well. It’s spreads and loves full sun. It’s recommended to plant with strawberries, squash, or tomatoes – it is suppose to improve the flavor of tomatoes and repel tomato hornworm.
     My experience: It’s super easy. I planted a start and it’s been water a few times through the dryer months. It grew very fast and is starting to grow over a couple other herbs so I will have to cut it back. Be sure to leave plenty of space, even if you think it’s too much, it probably isn’t. I’ve read that trimming it will contain it a little. I haven’t done that with it though.

Uses:

*Culinary:
     The leaves and flowers can be used fresh in salad. The leaves can also be steamed, but for a short time because they are so thin they will cook down quickly – or added to stew and soups at the last minute. They both can be used in tea. And have been used in gin drinks. The flowers can be candied and used on cakes. The fresh flowers taste like honey.
     My experience: I’ve used the flowers several times to make tea. It has a very smooth soothing taste, like chamomile, but even softer. I like it. I have tried using the leaves in cooking a couple of times. However, I think I’ve put them in too early. Also, as far as I can see, it should be eaten and not turned into leftovers. It doesn’t keep well.

*Medicinal:
     It’s is considered to be good for PMS and menopause. Used in tea is good for colds, respiratory infections, high cholesterol, constipation, soothing to the digestive tract. It can help to regulate the adrenal glands and is a galactogogue (milk production stimulant), and emollient.

Borage Oil:

     Borage oil is extracted from the seed of the flower. It is showing through studies that it is good for eczema – on the list of things to try for me!

     Cautionary Notes: I’ve read in many places that it is furry, but nowhere did it say how pokey it is. The leaves aren’t as bad, but the larger stocks are prickly enough to be painful so becareful! One site cautioned, and I will reiterate – be careful of bees. The flowers hang down so it may be hard to spot a bee before picking a flower without looking closer.

Resources:
Borage(Borago offincinalis)
What is Borage Oil?

     It’s been about a year and a half since I’ve had to learn to cook everything from scratch. I’m getting very good. I’m also embracing the frugal side of me that lay dormant for many years. I search for deals, though if quality is more expensive then I will take a leap and buy. One thing last year that seemed to cost a fortune was all the herbs I was buying to flavor the food. I went through a ton of coriander, salt, pepper, paprika, rosemary and many, many others. Aside from the cost it bothered me that I had no idea how fresh the herbs were in those nifty little glass bottles. So I decided, after asking my parents if I could have a little plot of land in their garden for my herbs. I didn’t know what I was going to grow, or what would grow wonderfully in this climate, but I knew that I wanted fresh, cheap and quality. When you grow your own that combination is possible.
     Now a few months after spading up the lovely, sweet smelling soil I am starting to see the fruits of my labor. I’m trying to use fresh herbs in my cooking daily. I’ve noticed that fresh herbs taste completely different than dried herbs (except for rosemary, that’s about the same just more potent fresh). Previously I thought sage was boring, but fresh it has wonderful flavor.

Baked chicken breasts with fresh herbs:
One of my first experiments was with chicken of course. To follow my “recipe”, you will need:

• Two or more uncooked chicken breasts – not frozen (freezing meat changes it, makes it less yummy.)
• A baking dish with a lid – the lid will keep the steam in and not let the meat dry out.
• A selection of fresh herbs – I used sage, curry, oregano, marjoram, and basil.
• Salt

Simply place chicken breasts in a baking dish. Tear or mince herbs to smallish size and sprinkle over meat and into bottom of pan. Sprinkle salt. Bake at 350 degrees F, for about 30-40 minutes, or until done. Temperature for poultry is about 160 degrees F. (Chicken is easy to tell though, it will no longer look clear and pink, but solid and more white or brown than pink.)

     I’m a little behind on updating about my lovely herb garden. It is thriving! I have rosemary, sage, margoram, thyme, oregano, lemon verbena, fennel, chives, basil, borage, and two kinds of mint.

     They have now grown enough for me to use them in cooking! I’m so proud of my little herbs – I feel like a mother. Haha.

     Here is my “baby” a couple weeks after planting. It’s so cute!

     The big one in the back is the borage. It is the fastest growing herb I have. The funny thing is I use it the least. At some point I will make a post about it – I use the flowers in tea, it’s good. More experimentation will occur over the rest of the summer. From what I’ve read, it will stick around and spread crazily. I must learn how to use it well. One good thing about it is my dad’s bees love it. So honey for us!

We are holding out for true spring. Last year, after a long windy winter spring never really came. It rained and snowed and blew and then the sun came out and hid behind clouds for a few more weeks and then it was summer. Hopefully, this year will better. A little bit of sunny yellow helps. Though after all the snow I am not complaining about the rain that falls today.

As a devout beach worshiper, I can tell you there is nothing like standing or sitting while winter weather is raging around you. On this beach, you would not believe how alive it is. Winter is not calm and sleepy here, but loud and imposing. Even if the waves are not many feet tall and the sun looks so demure behind clouds, it is still so wild and untamed. A beach is more spiritual than any church.

     Sunday I spent a day in Bellingham, “touring” with friends whom live there, to experience things I have not seen. It is calling my name – nature and a smaller, slower moving community. I had forgotten how clean the air smells and feels away from the city. Later I was looking at this picture and thought something was different – I figured it out…. no concrete in this picture.

     I was in Bellingham, Washington this Friday. I love that place, have loved it forever. It’s a great hippy, college, bike friendly town with a beautiful view. I took this one from the beach next to the old boardwalk.

     Today I had to do some errands. Walking out to my car, I discovered that the snow was about 8 inches deep and level with my bumper. My little Hyundai wasn’t going to be able to get out. So I called Mom-in-law to ask if she would drive me about.
    While I was waiting for her to get to our apartment, I built my first snowman of the season. He’s huge! With his hat on he around or just over 6 feet tall. His name is Bobert. I made the bottom ball out of the snow from the walkway at our front door. I lifted the middle one by myself – it was heavy.
     Just as I was finishing him the temperature started to rise and his “teeth” – the filberts – started to fall out. So in some of my pictures he is toothless.
     It was a blast. It was not until after the first hour I realized how cold my toes where. I don’t own normal snow shoes so I improvised, I use plastic bags and tie them around my regular shoes so they don’t get wet, making my feet even more cold. I don’t have a picture of my “snow shoes” this year. The one below is from January this year on another snow day. I love snow days!

Note: That is not my car in the background. So no worries, the modern hippy is not being hypocritical by driving a fast car.