MiHale
MiHale's JournalShe made a Raspberry Sorbet...
She made a
Raspberry sorbet
The kind you find in a gourmet store
Raspberry sorbet
And if it was warm she couldn't make much more
Raspberry sorbet
I think I love her
Fresh raspberries picked today. Dessert with Lemon Cookie.
While we wait for the veggies to come in...
The Medicinal Herb Garden is going gangbusters. Already replenished the supply of Prunella Vulgaris, harvested some elderberry flowers and looking forward to more.
Above are BeeBalm flowers, Meadowsweet flowers with attached leaves, Elderberry flowers.
All ingredients in our tea that I make to keep sickness at bay. We haven’t had colds or the like for years.
But since you didn’t ask….I’ll tell ya anyway. Shot of the straw bale experiment that’s been going on for a couple years now. These are tomatoes that popped up in the compost pile earlier, along with some lettuce that was exhausted in its original location. The second chance bale.
Trying to see how much you can put into a bale and still have it produce. Straw bale garden is going to get bigger next year. The experiment is working.
In bales or in the ground…trellising the Butternut Squash works great. Plants took to it like a mountain climber takes to the mountains.
Bob Ross' spirit stroked across the sky yesterday...
The high wispy cloud formation seem to us as though Bob’s spirit was showing us how to make happy little clouds. That formation stayed with us for about 20 minutes. It was truly special and amazing.
Going out to start the grill and found this...
An awesome cloud formation to the south of us. We are rainy with thunder up here. These clouds are beautiful.
One Beautiful Michigan Evening...
Cool with a slight breeze. Dinner on the grill. Kids laughing and playing in the background. Perfect.
Rainy garden days...
I love the way rain makes the garden look. It’s seems to bring out the lushness of the plants even the more immature. Had about an inch last night, going for more over the weekend at least it’s going to be cooler.
The gate was made out of an old pallet. A delivery truck took out our mailbox post and bent the box so we got a new one. Used the old box for garden tools. Keeps ‘em out of the weather.
The wood for the raised beds are courtesy of the Federal Government. A National Campground by us was replacing the wood on the picnic tables. The old wood was being discarded. We asked if we could recycle it and they were all too happy to let us take it. Closest bed is onions, spinach, radishes, carrots. Under the mailbox is a ground level bed with onions and snow peas.
This bed is onions, carrots, green beans. The bricks that make up the little raised beds were repurposed from my son’s patio that they replaced. In that bed are the zucchini, snow peas, green beans, butternut squash. I planted butternut squashes at various random places in the garden. They’ll last through the winter in storage.
Adding the tomato bed in this overall view.the bricks are ringing the entire compound. This is a southern facing garden. The bricks warm up the soil quicker in the spring they hold the daily heat in longer. The elderberry bushes are north of the beds they shelter the beds from any fierce north summer winds. 
This gardening is fun!
Yeah, another straw bale post.
Second year fooling around with this method. Experimenting with high density planting along with combination planting.
Here’s an example.
Planted way more seeds than ever recommended on the package, second year doing this with butternut squash. Last year over 20 squashes from one bale. The vines cascade over the side of the bale leaving the top area available for different crops.
So we’re trying carrots. They are getting established under cover of the squash leaves as I’m encouraging the plants to cascade. All that requires is a simple push on the base of the squash plant toward the side of the bale, which is easy to manipulate. They will be exposed soon.
Another example.
This bale has ‘volunteer’ tomatoes that popped up in the compost pile. Have some idea of the strain only because of knowing what we grew. Could be Romas but more than likely Yellow pear. Little snacking tomatoes. We trying a green bean plant I the front and a lone zucchini tucked in between. It should cascade away from the tomatoes.
Better view of zucchini.
If this year is any kind of success we’re planning on expanding the straw bale area into better sunlight and growing more. Straw bales are an inexpensive way to have raised beds saving backs and knees on these old folks.
Mid-Morning snack...
Rain on the way morning work gotta be done…fixed a snack to hold to lunch.
Celery with half tablespoon peanut butter, our fresh strawberries just picked, half teaspoon of decarbed cannabis.
Provides a nice pain free day.
Great day for a DU meet up...
multigraincracker and his wife, Lori came to visit yesterday afternoon. After visiting yard sales around Hale they stopped in for a visit. We toured our humble garden and chatted about various subjects but in truth stayed away from politics. It was a very pleasant afternoon in regards to the weather and especially the company.
Tall boy in the hat is multigraincracker, short dude is yours truly, Lori,mgc’s wife, is in front.
Going to lick the greenhouse clean!...
We live ‘in’ or more accurately on the fringe of a Forest populated by pine trees. Every year pine pollen covers everything, golden dust. It’s in the air to breathe, landing on the basil and lettuce leaves, spring is pollen.
Most springs it’s dryer than this most of the pollen blows away, lost.
This spring is damper and warmer. We roll up the windows on the greenhouse during the day as we were closing up this evening I found this…
Huge amounts of pine pollen.
Ate it all.
Information on pine pollen.. for even more info…Google “health benefits of pine pollen”.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924224423002145#:~:text=Pine%20pollen%20is%20a%20rich,and%20anticancer%2C%20hepatoprotective%2C%20gastrointestinal%20modulatory
Abstract
Background
Pine pollen, well-known as a “natural micro-nutrient bank,” is the male spore of Pinus massoniana Lamb., Pinus tabuliformis Carr., and other plants of the same genus. Pine pollen has a long history of use in China as a traditional medicinal and edible material due to its rich nutrients, bioactive compounds, and health potential.
Scope and approach
This review summarizes the published findings related to chemical compositions, health effects, processing and storage, and food applications of pine pollen. The possible mechanisms behind the beneficial properties of pine pollen, and the future direction for research and development are also underlined.
Key findings and conclusions
Pine pollen is a rich source of macronutrients and bioactive compounds that have demonstrated various health benefits, including antioxidant, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, glucose and lipid metabolism regulatory, antimicrobial and antiviral, antitumor and anticancer, hepatoprotective, gastrointestinal modulatory, anti-aging, and other biological properties. The nutritional quality and beneficial effects of pine pollen are influenced by post-harvest processing methods. Pine pollen has diverse applications in the food industry, such as in beverages, pastries, dairy products, delivery systems, and as sorbents for separation and purification of polar analytes. Further in vivo experiments and clinical trials are needed to deepen our understanding of its health benefits. Exploring combinations of multiple processing methods could optimize the utilization of pine pollen as a nutritional food resource.
Profile Information
Name: GregGender: Male
Hometown: Michigan, Iosco County
Home country: USA
Current location: Hale, Michigan
Member since: Wed Nov 11, 2009, 03:56 PM
Number of posts: 10,253