A new twist

Week 16

Watermelon, pattypan squash, eggplant, onions, fennel,
tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers

Oh it rained,rained rained, forty days and forty nights, and the animals in the ark rocked to and fro. But the ark stood still after 40 days and nights and old Noah told them, "Now you're free to go!"

A silly song from my childhood but one which has replayed itself in mind over these last few days/weeks of rain. And they say it isn't over with yet. At Harvest time on Wednesday there were 5" of new rain in the gauge. And it had only begun! Head over to facebook to see pics of a very wet Stoney Lonesome - Pablo referred to it as Venice.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/121577615922/

Even so we had a great share to use on Wednesday. I was particularly excited about the green tomatoes and the cute little herb bunch. I love fresh herbs and to get such a nice variety all at the same time was really fun. I'm going to fry up those green tomatoes and I will post some pics and a recipe soon. I'm thinking about watermelon rind pickles like grandma used to make too!

But for today I want to share an idea for the flowers - yup the flowers. I started making these last year and got rave reviews so this year I grew my own field of globe amaranth to supplement those coming from Stoney Lonesome and to have enough to sell these cute little wreaths on the side.

First of all you have to save and dry the globe amaranth. If you are not familiar with the globe amaranth, it is the little purple globes found in each bouquet. These dry beautifully and you can do it one of two ways - one is to hang it upside down by the stem. The other way to dry is to cut the stem off and just dry them on an old window screen. After they are dry - a few weeks, they are ready for use. I purchased these little 6 inch wreaths at Michaels for .79 cents each. I also bought a few little silk green vines and and some dried static for variety in texture and hot glued them on four spots for some variety. Then I glued all the globe amaranth I could find around the edges. If you've been saving it all along you'll have enough by the end of the season. I have also been known to pick up all the "rejects" that end up on the ground - from broken stems to those that just don't make it into the bundles for one reason or another. We have a lot of oak trees and I have been making oak candle holders as part of my business for some time so these wreaths were a welcome addition to the candle holders. Another use for the amaranth pieces that fall off is to just add them to some potpourri. The pretty purple color adds a bright spot and freshens up the look. I added some lavender and some rose petals and put them all in a pretty glass bowl.

Hope you've saved your globe amaranth or Gomphrena Globosos as it is formally known. It really is a beautiful flower and hold its color well for some time. Has anyone had any luck drying anything else?