I have tried to get into a groove with the new blog at my new AquarianBath website. So far I haven't managed to post much at all. I miss this blog. The format is so easy and I'm somehow attached to it. I haven't decided yet if I want to switch my RSS feeds back here or not, but for now if I feel like making a blog post here, then I'm just going to do it!
I'm busy today trying to tie up loose ends before Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I'm making cranberry sauce. I found a recipe for herbal cranberry sauces here. I'll also be making pumpkin pie with my Seminole pumpkins from this summer. Right now I have a yard full of green pumpkins that I hope will be ready by Christmas or New Years at the latest.
Starting on Friday I will be having a 10% off sale with my Daytona Etsy Team Mates. You can use the coupon code "2011holiday" through December 2nd at AquarianBath.com. Check out all the Daytona Etsy Shops participating below:
We are really getting the paper mache bowls piled up now at the Lions Club where we are preparing for Fair Share's Empty Bowl fundraiser. I was so happy when I cleaned Moira's room and found my old mythology coloring book that she had hijacked and over colored. What a perfect use for it! Cyclops and Medusa paper mache bowls are shown above. Below is my "Grow Your Own" bowl that I made with left over flyers from our last event. It looks really cool on the outside. I kind of wish I would have put the grow your own pages on the inside. I decided what I will do with it is paint the interior with "Fair Share Feeds My Family."
It has been great to have some time to just sit and make things. Here is Bernadette taking a turn with Tessa. Bernadette is my 5 star, #1, A+++ Nanny super extra. Bernadette helped me while I was showing at the Peabody last month and will help me next month when I start teaching again at the Herb Farm in Saint Augustine. That reminds me! I have room to spare in my Herbs for Cold and Flu Season Class on October 16th at Maggies Herb Farm. This is easy to remember, because it is the same day as the Fair Share Empty Bowls Fundraiser. I'll talk to Joel about the time. Hopefully we can start the dinner around 6 pm so I can make it to both! More details to follow!
Daddy has been helping out with Tessa too and has started providing entertainment at the club during paper mache. Here he is queuing up some MC Hawking or Symphony of Science. See everyone can participate at Fair Share! (Daddy just doesn't do paper mache after that bad incident with his fraternity's prize-winning 40-foot flaming paper mache Dragon).
Come out and join us again this Thursday for more Paper Mache Bowl making if you can. I'm going to break out the paint.
Many of the plants in the herb spiral at Fair Share are loving all this rain we've been having. I spy a Neem tree, Poke weed with ripening berries, Mondara punctata, and Aloes. It's about time to harvest more of that Mondara for liniment. I made a 'Fair Share Liniment' with Mondara, Lemongrass, Mugwort and Rosemary. I must say I like how it turned out. It's in a nice spray bottle, which is quite convenient.
This year my daughter's birthday coincides with lots of Earth Day happenings. We are having her birthday party at the Fair Share Garden in Daytona. Everyone is welcome for the "Earth Day's Birthday Celebration" which starts at the garden at 11.
Moira and her friends will be getting at head start at her party making pine cone bird feeders. We practiced making on earlier last week to see how it would go. We used the basic recipe from enviro-explorers.com This is a fun activity for kids and is a nice take home party favor; more healthy than candy favors and more eco-friendly than small plastic toy favors.
What you need: 1 large pine cone 2-3 feet of hemp cord 1/2 cup suet, lard, or peanut butter (avoid peanut butter for people with allergies). Some recipes suggest vegetable shortening, but I prefer to use less processed oils. 1/2 cup corn meal Handful or 2 of bird seed
Method: Tie the hemp cord to the top of the pine cone. This is what you will hang your feeder from. Mix 1/2 cup corn meal with 1/2 cup fat; I would leave that job to adults or kids maybe over the age of 7. Moira had a hard time mixing the cornmeal and fat together. Spread the cornmeal/fat mixture evenly over the pine cone. Next roll the cone in bird seed
Your bird feeder is ready to hang! Try to hang it in front of a window or at least somewhere out of easy reach from cats.
The new year is almost here! Wishing a happy, healthy & prosperous new year to all of you.
I have put together my schedule of classes, workshops, and events for the first quarter of 2010 on my website at http://aquarianbath.com/events.html where you can also watch for events later in the year.
Hope to see those of you who are in the Daytona Beach or St. Augustine area soon.
January 16th workshop at the Sea Side Herb Society Meeting in Ormond Beach at the corner of Beach St. and Granada on using locally grown herbs for body care. 10:15 a.m. Saturday
February 5th vending in Daytona Beach 5-9 p.m. First Friday Art Walk on Beach Street
February 6th Natural Salve and Balm Making in St. Augustine at Maggie's Herb Farm Saturday February 6, 2010 10:30 AM- 2:30 PM Learn to make your infused herbal oils, salves and balms. We will gather fresh herbs for making a wound salve and learn to make a black drawing salve and lip balms. Learn about oil bases appropriate for balm and salve making and a variety of herbs that can be used in salves and infused oils. A hands on workshop Fee $35. bring a sack lunch Register at http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com
February 20th. Introduction to Herbal Aromatics Perfumery and Incense Saturday at Maggies Herb Farm in St. Augustine 10:00 AM- 2:00 PM Join us for an introduction to incense and natural perfumery. We will be making all natural cone incense with dried herbs and resins and solid perfume with pure essential oils. We will be working with a variety of dried herbs including those available at the farm including Lemon Verbena and Patchouli. Bring a sack lunch $35. Register at http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com
March 5th vending at the First Friday Art Walk on Beach Street in Daytona 5-9 p.m.
March 6th Herbal Medicine Making: Tinctures, and Syrups Saturday 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM Learn the basic methods for herbal home medicine making for your family. This is a hands on class in which you gather herbs from the farm for making tinctures and a cough syrup. We will focus on methods for making preparations, properties, of herbs used during the class including Mints, Holy Basil, Patchouli, Thyme and more. Fee $35. bring a sack lunch. A hands on workshop. Instructor Cory Trusty. Register at http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com
March 27th Vending at the Sea Side Herb Society's Herb Fair in Ormond Beach at the corner of Beach St. and Granada.
It is going to be worse than the end of okra season when we are done painting this mural. It has been such a fun process. Moira and I were out again painting with other volunteers the morning after Christmas. Way more fun than looking for post-holiday sales. Yesterday for the most part I spent some time filling in a baby blue sky back ground, and working on the tricolor rainbow, which you can see in the first photo above the vegetables.
Here is a close up of the sunflowers.
I think Michelle spent more time that she would care to remember touching up the blue water way. There was a comedy of errors with mix ups with the different blue shades of paint. Luckily we were pacified by peanut butter fudge shared by another volunteer.
It's a beautiful site. You can click on the picture below to see it enlarged. I'll be sure to update with more pictures of the finished project. We will be painting again at the garden Wednesday at 4 if anyone would like to join us.
I got quite low on soaps over the holidays, and now I have just begun the process of making more. I plan to spend my free time in January stocking up as much soap as possible. February and March I have classes and shows planned. Also, I don't think I will find soap making terribly enjoyable when eight & nine months pregnant in April in May. I am dreaming that I can get enough soap made that I won't have to restock again until October when the humidity dies down, but that may be a bit too much wishful thinking.
Yesterday I made a new batch of my Pumpkin poppy seed soap. The pumpkins I used were from my garden like the Seminole pumpkins in the picture taken by Jason Aufdenberg at our Fair Share Garden. To make the puree for the soap I first roast it in the oven and then store what I don't use immediately in the freezer. The pumpkin puree I mix together with distilled water and lye. Here is is freshly poured into my two wooden molds. They have poppy seeds added as well as Ginger and Sweet Orange essential oils and a bit of Patchouli to help anchor the Sweet Orange.
Here it is all set up in the molds in less than 24 hours. I woke up at 2 am this morning with nothing better to do so I took the soap out of the mold and cut it.
The cut came out nicely.
The next step is to let them set out to cure for about a month. During the curing period water evaporates from the soap and they become harder and milder.
Is there something that you don't want me to run out of in the midst of the upcoming late pregnancy/new baby era? Leave a comment and let me know! I'm scaling back on some items but plan to have more popular ones well stocked.
We had fun day at Fair Share yesterday with the new mural in progress. It was quite cold out. Luckily we had access to the Lions club building where we also set up together with the Art Consortium and some warming beverages. Moira was so disappointed when it was finally time for her to go home with daddy, but she was truly tired. I came home to find that she had taken her tempera paint out and was mixing up a storm while I was away.
Here is Joel's daughter Hannah at the North East end of the building.
Fair share volunteer Lucy was a sunflower star!
Here is Jason who was painting from about 9 am to 6 pm. I don't think I saw him take a break. Jason also took some some great photos of the day which can be found on our meet up page.
We were not able to finish the mural yesterday. I'm looking forward to helping finish it up the next time we work on it. Join our meetup group if you would like to know when we will be working on the mural again.
Join us on the first Saturday of December 5th for a morning of Arts & Crafts at the Fair Share Garden in Daytona Beach. This event is being hosted by the Fair Share Garden in conjunction with the Art Consortium of Volusia County.
Activities: ~ Community mural creation with public participation. ~ Plein Air painting and informal plein air demonstration by Ruth Vines at 10 a.m. ~ Holiday Decorating with Herb Demonstration at 11 a.m. ~ Arts & Crafts for Sale including fine art paintings, functional art pottery, fair trade Peruvian & Nicaraguan pottery, fair trade African baskets, fair trade Haitian crafts, handmade jewelry, artisan soaps and balms, natural perfumes, wine glass accessories, and framed art photography
This is a fund raising event for the Fair Share Garden. Nominal cash donations are appreciated, but not required for entry. Donations of used gardening equipment are also appreciated.
Please RSVP with us on Facebook and invite your friends!
One week from today, November 18, 2009 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM, the Fair Share Garden in partnership with the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Downtown Farmers Market will host the film Fresh! at the Museum of Arts and Sciences.
Unique from other previous documentaries on agriculture and farming which have focused on the horror of the industry, "Fresh" is a look at sustainable solutions to problems with our industrialized food system and offers ideas on the direction the movement should be headed.
Come enjoy a wholesome meal, silent auction, the movie, and an informative discussion to follow.
schedule
6:30 pm--wholesome meal which will include samples of Organic beer and Fair Trade Organic coffee, music, and silent auction.
7:00 pm--Fresh, the movie begins, and an interactive discussion panel with follow the movie. The panel includes Commercial Horticulture Agent, Dana Venrick of the Volusia County Cooperative Extension Service; Joel Tippens of the Fair Share Urban Garden Project; and organic farmer Pauline Copello of Pauline’s Lucky Market Garden.
Event ends at 8:30 pm.
This event is a fundraiser for the Fair Share Urban Garden Project and the proceeds support establishing new community gardens and urban agriculture projects in Daytona Beach. Tickets are $15 at the door.
Thank you to our sponsors: Orlando Brewing, Sweetwater Organic Coffee, Cafe Campesino, Access to Organics, Chique LLC, Downtown Farmers Market and the Museum of Arts & Sciences.
For further details on this event contact the Museum of Arts & Sciences at (386) 255-0285
story
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision of our food and our planet’s future. FRESH addresses an ethos that has been sweeping the nation and is a call to action America has been waiting for.
characters
Among several main characters, FRESH features:
Will Allen - 6ft 7" former professional basketball player Will Allen is now one of the most influential leaders of the food security & urban farming movement. His farm and not-for-profit, Growing Power, have trained and inspired people in every corner of the US to start growing food sustainably. This man and his organization go beyond growing food. They provide a platform for people to share knowledge and form relationships in order to develop alternatives to the industrial food system.
Joel Salatin- world-famous sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, made famous by Michael Pollan (also in the movie) - author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Joel Salatin writes in his website that he is "in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture." By closely observing nature, Joel created a rotational grazing system that not only allows the land to heal but also allows the animals to behave the way the were meant to – as in expressing their "chicken-ness" or "pig-ness", as Joel would say.
David Ball -supermarket owner, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy. With the rise of Wal-Mart and other big chains, David Ball saw his family-run supermarket dying, along with a once-thriving local farm community. So he reinvented his business, partnering with area farmers to sell locally-grown food and specialty food products at an affordable price. His plan has brought the local economy back to life.
reason
FRESH recaptures our sense of agency and makes us believe that our individual actions in fact do matter. Throughout the film we encounter the most inspiring people, ideas, and initiatives around the US. And thus, FRESH showcases real people first and foremost, connecting audiences not with facts and figures or apocalyptic policy analysis, but with personal stories of change.
producer
Ana Joanes is a Swiss-born documentary filmmaker whose work addresses pressing social issues through character-driven narratives. After traveling internationally to study the environmental and cultural impacts of globalization, she graduated from Columbia Law School in May 2000, awarded as a Stone Scholar and Human Rights Fellow. Thereafter, Ana created Reel Youth, a video production program for youth coming out of detention. In 2003, Ana and her friend Andrew Unger produced Generation Meds, a documentary exploring our fears and misgivings about mental illness and medication. FRESH is Ana’s second feature documentary.
I spent the morning at the Hallowgreen event in Daytona Beach, which was a fundraiser for the Fair Share Garden. There were a number of workshops, trick or treaters and vendors at the event. It was an early morning as we were setting up in conjunction with the regular City Island Saturday farmer's market. My intention was to be awake at 5:45 a.m. and set up by 7 a.m. When I woke up and sat down at the computer the clock read 7:04 a.m. OOPS!! Scott accidentally turned off the alarm that he set for me. Half awake, I headed out for the market with out my bag of items for my workshop on home remedies for cold and flu. Luckily I chose a recipe to demonstrate which consisted of simple ingredients available at the farmer's market: garlic and honey. I picked up the garlic from one of the produce vendors and wild flower honey and a small jar of gourmet pickled okra from Ms. Ocie and I was all set. I knew I could count on the dedicated fair share volunteers to help me finish off the jar of pickles so I would have an empty pint jar for my demo.
Filling up the jar with honey: garlic is helpful for resolving colds, coughs, sore throats, and sinus infections. If you would like to make some garlic honey for cold and flu season you can find the full method in a former blog post.
Dana Venrick of the Volusia Flagler Cooperative Extension Service and Joel Tippens of the Fair Share Urban Garden Project gave an introduction to organic gardening at Hallowgreen.
Dana introduced everyone to the various organic supplements for the garden. One of which was Azomite. This is a mineral rich volcanic ash which we use at the garden. It is pictured below among the other items.
Rich organic soil hand mixed by Joel Tippes of Fair Share.
Chicken mother got my vote for best costume.
Here we are: chicken child, chicken mom, pouty ballerina, and I enjoying our pretzel cigarettes. Like my pumpkin arm paint? That has lingered in the form of pumpkin tan lines.
Meet two of the hand crafting vendors:
Michelle Davidson of Daytona Beach with her son Isaac. Michelle is a talented artist who makes fused glass jewelry and a wide range of fine art. Check out her fine art America website. I'm the proud owner of some of Michelle's fused pendants.
Crystal Calhoun is the owner at Stars and Crossbones and a member of the Florida Etsy Street Team. Crystal spins yarn and makes beautiful scarves and her partner Brian makes chainmaille jewelry. See the pretty green linen scarf being fingered in the picture below? It didn't stay on the table long before it was snapped up by a happy customer.
Eighteen days was quite a few to be away from the plants and chickens. There were 30 inches of rain here while I was gone. Luckily everything drained well and there was no flooding or severe leakage.
My Moringa Trees and Lemongrass are looking lush. Strangely the chickens have not rediscovered the Moringa since they grew up after the frost. I guess that just means more fresh greens for me until that happens. The lemongrass is bushing out so nicely. I started all the little bunches from a few stalks each just 3 months ago.
Speaking of chickens, the little peeps turned into awkward teen agers while I was away. I will have to add their pictures later, but the good news is they now spend their days foraging under the oak tree where they are safe from hawks. Buffy started laying eggs of course the day after we left. Her eggs are brown, but not quite as dark as my Rhode Island Red's eggs. Here she is in a picture I took of her today. She is the sweetest of the 5 chickens.
My raised bed is doing well, so I started culivating one more raised bed to plant later this month. In the mean time while I wait for vegetables to come in in my yard we are already harvesting peppers and zucchini at the Fair Share Garden, (tomatoes too if you count the green ones that I fried) for lunch. These are some pictures that I took on Saturday.
The Seminole pumpkin mound is going to be dense and productive:
Speaking of Seminole Pumpkins, I have a fresh batch of pumpkin soap that is back in stock. I've been playing catch up this week taking pictures of new products.
These zucchini rows are going to be awesome in a month or so. We are also growing cukes and Malabar spinach to the left and black eyed peas to toward the back of the zucchini.
The butterfly garden at Fair Share is in full bloom right now. I have been neglecting annuals in my garden for too long. I must add some. They are so great for attracting pollinators.
The herb spiral is really filling in. I need to add some rosemary and a few others that are growing up in flats, Some of the herbs that are doing really well in it at this moment are Lemongrass, Rose Geranium, Mugwort and Holy Basil. I will be giving an herb demonstration with fresh herbs from the spiral at the garden on the morning of Saturday, June 20th. Check back in or email me for details.
