Other Culinary Herbs

Mint, rosemary, basil and thyme are not the only culinary herbs I grow. There are others I use quite as much, if not more. They share the raised bed with the thyme, rosemary, and lavender. (The lavender will have to wait until Thursday, by when I hope that at least a few of the varieties are blooming.)

Fernleaf Dill

First of these is dill. I don’t do much canning or pickling (as in none) but the leaves are a wonderful addition to egg dishes, salads, and fish. On the rare occasions when I make borscht, I garnish with sour cream and sprinkle dill leaves on top. Since it is the leaves I’m after, I usually grow Fernleaf.

Curled-leaf Parsley

Parsley is another herb I enjoy fresh. It often gets mixed with cottage cheese and salads. Most years I have both curly-leaved and flat-leaved, but this year I’m just growing the curly-leaved.

Chives are one of the very few herbs to be perennial up here, and they also seed freely. Their lavender flowers are decorative in the perennial bed, and I have several clumps in the raised beds as well. I should probably get rid of some of them, but they are too good in cottage cheese and salads.

Tricolor Sage

I grow tricolor sage as a culinary herb, but I don’t use much of it. Like thyme, it is often used with poultry. In addition, I like to keep a plant of pineapple sage around just for sniffing.

‘Westacre Gold’ Oregano

Oregano, for me, is the flavor and aroma of pizza. Not the modern fast-food pizza, but the pizza I remember growing up in New England. Once the zucchini starts bearing, I’ll slice it and cook it gently in olive oil with oregano and basil, then sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese.

Chervil

Finally, I try to get at least one plant of chervil. Sometimes I don’t have to, as it self-seeds vigorously. These lacey leaves are wonderful in scrambled eggs and another addition to salads.

North Pole Weather 6/23/14

The sun will rise this morning at 2:59 and set 21 hours and 48 minutes later at 12:47 tomorrow morning. This near the solstice, the day length changes by less than a minute a day, and it is bright twilight all night.

Until the middle of last week we still had red flag warnings and high fire danger, but starting Wednesday we went into a rainy pattern. In fact, we are running at about twice normal rainfall for the month, and we’ve gone from fire weather advisories to local flood advisories virtually overnight. Highs for the next week are expected to be around 70, but with lots of scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoons.

All this rain has been great for the garden. The first domesticated rose has opened. I’m not sure what variety, but it transplants easily, suckers freely, and makes a nice hedge on the east side of the lawn. It is not a rugosa, which I bought it as, but looks more like a spinosissima. Lot of little tiny spines, and a pretty but small double shell-pink flower.

The green zucchini have female flowers, and are actually showing tiny squash. The yellows are a good deal behind them, but they are showing buds. (The black stuff is IRT plastic, which lets solar infrared through to warm the soil, but blocks visible light to stop weeds.) Unfortunately the weeds are enjoying the rain also; I’m going to have to spend a morning trying to get back ahead of them.

 

Weekend Writing Warriors: Rescue Operation

Time again for Weekend Writing Warriors (click the logo above for links to other participants) and Snippet Sunday (click the logo below.)

I am still posting from the opening scene of Rescue Operation, the first book of a trilogy of Roi as an adult—but this first scene is from Zhaim’s POV.

Photo Source

It gave him a raging headache, but revenge was worth it. Maybe he could try it on Roi, the only Inner Council member who seemed to remember that Zhaim had once tried to kill him.

He’d have to make sure that Roi, Derik and Kaia were not present when the news reached the Inner Council, he thought as he prepared for today’s meeting. None of the others, thank goodness, were as strongly inclined to treat Humans as people as Roi was. Zhaim shook his head, remembering what a time he’d had convincing Roi that he was neglecting the Confederation by adopting Human slaves as children.

One of the twenty-four interface lounges in the Council Chamber remained empty after Zhaim took his place. No surprise; Wif had left yesterday to deal with a medical emergency. That left only Roi, regent and head of the Inner Council, with medical training, and the problem that had brought them here was a planet firmly convinced that the plague devastating its population was due to biological warfare waged by three rival planets.

Which makes Roi the logical person to deal with the problem.

The Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice is today. More precisely, it is 2 hours and 51 minutes after this post goes live at 12 AM Alaska Daylight Time.

I don’t live quite far enough North to see the midnight sun from the ground. I have seen it from a light plane, as increased altitude makes the sun look higher above the horizon. (More accurately, the horizon looks lower.) It is possible to drive about 100 miles, admittedly on a dirt road, and see the midnight sun from Eagle Summit, northeast of town.

Officially, it’s the first day of summer. It is the day that the north pole points most nearly directly at the sun, and in the northern hemisphere the days are longest and the sun is highest in the sky. The North Pole actually receives more incoming solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere over the 24 hours of that day than does any other point on Earth. Of course much of it is reflected back to space by sea ice, which is one of the reasons the Arctic sea ice is so important to the Earth’s climate.

It is emphatically not the day that the sun is closest to earth! In fact, the earth will be at its most distant from the sun in less than two weeks, on July 3. Perihelion, when the earth is closest to the sun, was last January—January 3, to be exact.

I don’t drive up to Eagle Summit myself—too crowded if the weather is good, and I’ve been up here so long the light sky at midnight seems normal. But here’s a video from two years ago.

Jarn’s Journal Year 10 Day 116

Year 10, Day 116

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It’s strange. As the time of the gather approaches each year, I am afire with eagerness. Who has been born? Who has died, or been injured? What new pairings will be acknowledged? Will they enjoy the thank-gifts I have brought them? What can I do for them without interfering? Above all, I look forward to the relief they bring from aloneness.

When they leave, as the last did yesterday, I am just as relieved to see them gone for another year.

I think ice and snow, like the salt pebbles, will be expected from now on. I had intended only a little amusement for the children, but the People quickly found other uses for what was supposed to be only a toy.

So what shall I do while the People are following the game? Rest, I think, to start with, but I know I’ll get bored with that soon enough. Continue west from the volcanic island, to see if I really glimpsed a continent of ice? Turn east from the northern peninsula, to find if it’s a peninsula or an island? Map the interior of the northern continent, which so far I have seen only rarely in fall and winter? I’d have to be careful about that, as I do not wish to influence the northern hunters as I have the People.

Perhaps I should spend some time with Patches, who at the moment is very heavy on my feet.

Basils

Basil does not grow as well in Alaska as do many other herbs, but I still manage to get a number of varieties each year. Why? Basil likes relatively dry, hot conditions, and Interior Alaska just doesn’t supply that, though the Fairbanks area is probably the best in Alaska.

In general the Thai basils are not my favorites—I just don’t care for the licorice taste. But most basils go very well with tomatoes and Italian dishes. Now that the first local tomatoes are showing up at the Farmers’ Market, my usual lunch of cottage cheese and fruit will change to cottage cheese and tomatoes, with basil, chives, dill, and parsley mixed into the cheese. Another use for basil will be when the zucchini is ready to pick. And, of course, basil is widely used in pesto.

Here are some of the basils I’m trying this year, along with a few I photographed at Basically Basil, which has a regular stall at the Farmers’ Market where they sell plants, herbal vinegars, and seasoning mixes.

 

Large Italian Basil. This is the most reliable large-leaf basil for me.

Spicy Globe Basil. This was the only bush basil I could find this year, though I prefer Minette. These little bush basils work best for me as suppliers of fresh basil.

Red Rubin Basil. About the toughest of the reds, but I find it doesn’t last as well as the greens.

Ararat Basil. This one’s an experiment to see if the purple and green mottling stans up to my climate better than the purples.

Purple Ruffles Basil. I keep trying this.

Lemon Basil.

Lime Basil

Mammoth Basil. Don’t know if this one will even survive.

Sweet Thai Basil. Used in Oriental cooking.

Siam Queen Thai Basil. Another good Thai basil.

Thai Magic Basil

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the contexts of the quotations tweeted from @sueannbowling between June 12 and June 18, 2014. The first six are from Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey.

“Most of us are only human, and far too often our only choices are between bad and worse.” Godmother Elena is speaking to Bella.

“No matter what we do, someone is going to suffer.” Still Godmother Elena.

“I am never going to be a proper lady. I will never choose style over comfort.” Bella, after she has insisted that the most impractical of her new gowns be removed.

“Men want a wife who will fit into society.” Bella, thinking over what she will – and can – do once she returns home after being bitten by a werewolf.

“The nurturing hand also held the knife.” Bella, forced to admit that even a good king must at times be ruthless.

“It was amazing what young men would say when they thought there were no parents or young women about.” Bella has done some wandering about and eavesdropping at the parties her stepmother insisted she attend.

“You want a demonstration of how we were doing without your help?” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Derik mind-talking to Roi after the first practice teleport of the day with Roi’s help. It’s also the first one that has left the teleported boxes intact.

Thymes

Thyme is another herb that comes in many varieties. Most of us associate it with poultry, particularly with poultry stuffing. It’s also one of the herbs used in bouquet garni for soups and broths. Fresh sprigs are good as garnish, but if the whole leaves are used, it’s best to strip them off the stems or use only the growing tips. The mature stems get woody in texture, and while they may be steeped for flavor, remove them before eating. I add the leaves to salads.

Here are a few kinds I grow:

French Thyme, the standard culinary variety.

Caraway Thyme is traditional with roast baron of beef.

Lavender Thyme. From its appearance, it is related to Caraway Thyme.

Spicy Orange Thyme tastes like its name

Variegated Lemon Thyme has lemon overtones

Lime Thyme

North Pole Weather 6/16/14

Summer Solstice is almost here—at 2:51 am next Saturday, to be exact. Our days are almost as long as they get: 21 hours and 45 minutes, with sunrise at 3 this morning and sunset at 12:45 tomorrow morning. Needless to say, it doesn’t really get dark; the sun at its lowest is only a couple of degrees below the northern horizon.

The weather has not been oppressively hot, and next week’s forecast looks like it will stay nice: high sixties to low 70’s in the daytime, with nighttime lows generally in the 40’s. We could use more rain; the fire danger is still high. We do have chances of showers, but the rain is unlikely to make up for the chance of lightning.

The wild roses edging the lawn are in full bloom, and the delphiniums, still unbudded, are shoulder high. The zucchini are well budded, though not yet in bloom. Many of the annuals planted at the edges of the raised beds are in bloom. I expect more of the perennials will be in bloom next week; the daylilies and the rest of the white iris are showing a little color.

And I’m actually keeping up with the chickweed in the raised beds.

Weekend Writing Warriors: Rescue Operation

It’s Sunday, time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click the logo above for links to participants) and Snippet Sunday (click the logo below.)

I’ll continue with the opening of Rescue Operation in its current state. This one is a WIP but I hope very near publication. Zhaim is thinking to himself.

Photo Source

Derik, Kaia and Roi would be horrified by his solution, and would probably be able to sway those not solidly behind him. And since he couldn’t influence them directly….

Or could he?

Whatever Marna had done two and a half centuries ago to prevent him from doing so much as thinking of harming another, it was getting weaker with time—especially since her death, almost fifty years ago. His half-brother, Roi, had always been a weakling, and without Marna Roi simply did not have the strength to manage the regular renewal of the bindings, though he did not seem to realize how badly he was failing.

Zhaim still couldn’t manage to block conditional precognition by himself, at least not without going into convulsions. But he’d located the portion of his abilities that produced that effect, and had taught that part of the skill to another Inner Council member, one who was as appalled by Roi’s treating Humans as people as he was. The bit he’d taught that person was useless in itself, but if applied while Zhaim did the things he alone could do, the result was almost as good as the ability he remembered from the past.

Not a very sympathetic character!