My sweet basil has thrived.
I am sorry for the radio silence. Lots going on here but the number one reason is that I have been watching traffic to this site. I have a couple conclusions, nothing set in concrete, but I underestimated the number of viewers here who visit from smart phones. I am old, forgive me, I am a computer person, I will even venture to my smart tablets now and then but I try not to let that darn I-phone interrupt my down time. I am not traveling to work, I am not on my "lunch time" and doing a quick scroll of my hobby sites. No, I compute, usually twice a day to check email and a few other things. I set some time aside each day to find posts to share, projects to document, or just share my little corner of the blog-o-sphere. So, this time, those large numbers I have been seeing in my analytics are for real. For that, I plead unawareness. Okey Dokey, moving on.
I didn't plant any tomatoes this year. I have been hitting the local farm market and have been pleased. No bugs, no worms, works for me. On that note it is important to remember to clean our fruit and produce well. No matter how nice and clean it looks, any insecticide, critter droppings, or dirt need to be removed. My method is fairly simple and many others use similar methods.
After a clear water rinse, I fill "a for-this-use-only" white plastic tub with cold water, (it holds about 2 gallons of water) to that I add 1/4 cup of white vinegar and 1 Tablespoon of salt, or 1/4 cup of baking soda. (I tend to run out of baking soda rather often because I use it for baking, cleaning, laundry etc.) I let the contents of that tub soak for 10-15 minutes, swish them around, then under lightly running cold water, brush the surface of firm vegetables, or core the lettuce, cabbage etc, and fold out the leaves as possible then soak them in plan water, usually in my lettuce spinner. 
This is my favorite cleaning brush. It is an old fashioned bristle brush, I prefer this one to my silicone brushes, one side has softer bristles than the other.
I never cease to be amazed to see what is floating around in that white tub when I remove the fruit or vegetable. On occasion, a itcky little worm will surface. He is a floater, he does not survive the soak. Sorry, but critters and crawlies are not on the menu!
After the rinse off, if we are not consuming the produce it is dried well and packaged with a dry paper towel into a heavy duty, re-useable, silicone zip-lock bag or a silicone sealed plastic hard sided container. The exception to this is celery. After cleaning the celery, and rinsing down into the stalk, I wrap a every-so-slightly damp paper towel around the stalk and seal it tightly in aluminum foil.
These are the silicone bags I am using now, there are about a million different offerings on Amazon and in stand alone stores. 
These are in transit, cute huh?- My freezers have been emptied, cleaned, reloaded for the season. Big job done.
- I am experimenting with a recipe for banana ice cream. You may have seen this on social media. I found 4 different recipes, I'll let you know. No ice cream maker is required.
- I will share and update on the Thanksgiving panel currently on the Coronet. I have not been able to work on that for a couple days due to ridiculous back pain. Soon I will have some intervention, I will be hopeful.
- Two dear friends have had knee replacement surgery recently and both are doing well, I am thankful.
- Did a little retail therapy at a local quilt shop. I have no excuses, just saying. Fabric kits, some new scissors, thread, of course, and a load of kitchen towels to be embellished. No one can say that I do not support the local economy.
Comments