Stirring and Stirring and Stirring My Brew

Oooo-oooo! Oooo-oooo! That's a song that we sang in lower school during our Halloween parade. Whoever was dressed as a witch that year would stir a big cauldron and everyone else would walk around her all creepy-like. It describes how I was feeling the night before last when Andrew and I, suddenly saddled with a ton of Anise Hyssop (which we had to cut out of the garden to give some smaller plants a fighting chance), decided to make Anise Hyssop infusion and candied leaves. First we boiled together sugar and water, then stirred the leaves in (that's the stirring and stirring and stirring my brew part!) Then we noticed all of these little red things floating to the top, which we soon realized were little bugs. Yum! Extra protein!! We spent some time fishing them out:And here's the strained brew:And the candied leaves that took a million years to unroll (after we'd given them all a good squeeze to get the juice out for the infusion.) Being slightly OCD, this was a task I was much better suited to than Andrew, but he hung in for a good, long while. We got the recipe here and will probably try the cake with marscapone frosting. Mmmmm!And I promised Laurel more garden shots than I've been putting up, so here's a glimpse of what I see every day in my yard. In the back we have beans on the right, cukes on the left, and a hanging pot of basil in between...with some dill below (trying to attract some swallowtail caterpillars, don't cha know). In front of the beans there is cilantro and chives (too tiny to see) then squash then soybeans. In front of the cukes there are peppers, then tomatoes (I've pulled one aphid off, but haven't seen any others!) and then basil galore. In between the stepping stones is an herb called oregano thyme...I have no idea what that's about...it seems more oregano-y to me. And speaking of herbs, Dad and I went to the farm today and pulled all the weeds out of the herb beds. I think that's the best smelling job on the farm:) It felt good to do some volunteer work and even better to have a job that was so satisfying to complete. The plants were freed from some pretty major weed-growth, and the resident dog and cat kept us company. It occurred to me that even though I get paid for the office job I'm temping at, I'd much rather be spending tomorrow picking weeds for nothing at the farm:) And this, my friends, is why I'll never be rich...