Jill Doughtie

These mushrooms are growing on a log near the north side of the house. They popped up in the rainy weather.

I was looking at the ingredient list for one of my favorite herbal teas (or tisanes), and I was thinking I bet I could make something that tastes a lot like this without having to waste all this packaging. I was right. Here’s what I’ve been doing most mornings for the last few weeks:

I get out my mortar and pestle and I put in…

dried tangerine peel from a tree in my back yard,
a cacao bean,
a couple of black peppercorns,
a clove,
some cinnamon stick,
a slice of ginger,

a pinch of anise seed,
a pinch of fennel seed,
and a pinch of cardamom.

I crush it.

I pour it in a cup and added a dash of cayenne pepper.

If you don’t want large particles in the bottom of your tea, you can use a tea strainer. Some days I do. Some days I don’t.

I steep it in boiling water.

After a few minutes, it’s ready.

If you like, you can add more boiling water and make a second glass of tea with the same set of ingredients. It will be a little milder, but it’s still good.

A venus fly trap lives on my window sill. Chlorinated water would kill it, so I give it distilled water. I’m running low on distilled water, and don’t want to buy another plastic bottle. We’re expecting a rainstorm soon. Perhaps rain water would do the trick.

A week or so ago, I moved two golden currants (Ribes aureum var. gracillimum).

Originally, they were in the middle of the shady part of my vegetable garden where I grow kale and other greens. Their leaves were turning yellow and they looked unhappy. They are native plants, and they don’t like to be watered regularly the way that vegetables do. So I moved them to the little strip of earth between the house and the driveway, where I don’t water. I gave them a good drenching to help get their roots established, and then I left them alone. At first, I though the move killed them. But…

…they started growing new leaves.

Me: I have an idea.

Gavin: Hunh?

Me: I think we should hook up one of our bikes to power a laptop for web surfing. I think that would be really good.

Gavin: Hunh.

Me: What?

Gavin: I think you and I might have different ideas about what really good is….

I dug up the Self-Heal I had planted in the back yard under the orange tree, and moved it to the front yard where it should get more sun.

Its tag said it could grow up to ten inches tall, but in the orange tree shade, it never grew above an inch.

I’m posting a picture of its tag here so that I can remember what it is: Prunella Laciniata / Cutleaf Self-Heal.

In the space under the orange tree (where I also pulled up a straggling kale plant and lots of clover), I planted creasy greens seeds. Those are creasy greens still standing over in the right side of the bed. They taste spicy, like watercress, and they do well in the shade.

Yesterday, we made a fire in our backyard.

The smoke drifted up into the avocado leaves.

I ate a tangerine from our tree.

Ants were walking across two of my three clotheslines like they were highways.

I am thinking about taking the clothes pins off and giving them those clotheslines. Since I’ve started composting in the back yard, they mostly stay out of the kitchen. Why not make them a little happier?

This morning I ate an orange from the back yard.

A few days ago I found this strawberry growing in the front yard. Someone else had already started to eat it, but I didn’t let that stop me.

I finished it off.

Gavin and I have been walking all over town. A few days ago we walked to Euro Pane for breakfast and reading.

I finished reading this book about growing food — The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. My sister sent me a green hat and scarf for Christmas. The hat is in the picture, too.