I've always hung baskets of flowers from trees.  Not sure where this idea came from, maybe early Martha?  It really brightens up your yard.  I usually do petunias and these hot pink guys did great this year.  Usually in each basket is a 6-pack.  Consider the cost of reusing your baskets and just planting a sixer instead of purchasing new flower baskets every year.  Beautiful color at a fraction of the price!

Spearfish Farmer's Market on Saturdays in Summer

Recent goodies from the Spearfish Farmer's Market!  Oak leaf lettuce, broccilli, rhubarb / pineapple jam and some cool earrings.  The market runs from 9am - noon every Saturday morning at the City Park in Spearfish.  Great selection of fresh produce, bread and hand made item and it's getting better every week.  The market is associated with the Hill Horizons Community Garden.  The garden is at 590 East Elgin around the corner from the new dog park and next to the horseshoe pits.  The view is amazing!  There are plots still available and can be purchased here.  See you at the Farmer's Market!

The garden is planted!  And really it's the expanded garden.  Each year, I convince Mike that we need a BIGGER garden.  He's not always so convinced but he's a good sport.  This year, we added another 10 x 20 section to the sun garden.  Look towards the back and you will see mint, tarragon, oregano, sage and a bench.  When we first moved to the Black Hills, I thought that since it snowed, anything I planted in the ground would of course die because of the snow.  Obviously, I have never lived in a place where it snows!  Anywho, the mint didn't die and has thus multiplied.  It's sooo pretty though and smells heavenly.  Last year I dried a ton of it and made tea bags.  Just mint leaves are do good as a tea.  Again, this year I planted more lemon verbena which is amazing herb that every garden should have.  It smells like a lemon drop!  It doesn't make it through our winter but it's so worth it to plant every year.  I buy mine at Gage's on Evan's Lane in Spearfish.

The colors of fall heading to the bowl

A butternut squash from Gage's Gardens in Spearfish was unearthed today from our basement. I see a delicious and beautiful golden yellow soup in my future!

Roasted Squash Seeds

Okay, who loves roasted pumpkin seeds? I'm talking out of a fresh pumpkin - not those weird looking white 'pumpkin' seeds in bags at the gas station. Oh yeah. Love them. So if you are digging pumpkin seeds, have you tried to roast seeds from acorn squash, butternut squash, really any winter squash? Hello! If you are just tossing out the innards you are missing out on an absolutely delicious and healthful snack.

Two nights ago, I cooked a small acorn squash (from my local stash in the basement) and scooped the seeds into a bowl which set on the kitchen counter. They were a little dry this morning so I separated the seeds from the dried squash guts (just rubbing them together), put them on a cookie sheet, sprayed on a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt and into in my standard seed popping 450 oven and within 2 minutes I heard the magical popping sound and viola! Sooo delicious. I think acorn squash seeds are the most wonderful of all toasted seeds because they are very small and become very crispy.

Next time you are prepping ANY kind of winter squash, save and roast the seeds. You won't be disappointed.

Roast 'em if you got 'em!

Yes, you can eat that!

Okay, everyone knows that processed foods suck in more ways than one. Not only are most colorfully boxed and shrink wrapped food "stuffs" unhealthy, their existence alone makes people forget what real food really is.

Another take on the value of the veggie in The Atlantic yesterday from Carol Ann Sayle, co-founder and co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm, a five-acre urban, organic farm in Austin, Texas, takes a smart spin on the economic value of buying fresh vegetables and eating the whole thing. I was reminded of this concept this summer as I was in search of beat greens locally for sale. I could find beets but no greens. That was until I was directed to a huge pile behind Gage's Gardens of perfect beet greens destined for some pig (lucky pig!) food. When you consider a simple beet and the deliciously that can come from both the beet (for some) AND the greens, that's money well spent!

Think about this over the winter as you are peeling an orange and the amazing opportunity of making simple candied orange peel.

Boozy Fruit

The New York Times gets it right! I've been dunking local goodies in booze for years. In my cupboard now is a cherry, sugar, vodka concoction that I envision drinking as a cordial and using the cherries themselves over vanilla ice cream or Naked Coconut Bliss. Of course I still a bit of my two years ago, lemon verbena infused vodka which is a perfect, lemony after dinner drink.

Reading this article makes me want to try other recipes. What do you think about mint infused vodka? Sort of like a local Rumple Minze? I could be on to something!