Thyme in a Garden

Taking time this morning, making time, to find thyme in a garden.
After an early morning stroll about, can you find the time?

Does anyone really know what time it is?These old shoes silently mark the passing of time,
complete with woolly thyme tucked in amongst them.
Alas, there is never enough thyme.

What do you plan to do with your thyme today?

Day Lilies in Full Bloom!

The garden pops with color this time of year as the Day lily (Hemerocallis fulva) bursts open in all its glory. This hardy perennial will bloom late June thru early July. We have a lovely patch of day lilies near the pond. According to the book Flowers in the Kitchen by Susan Belsinger, all parts of the day lily are edible, although she suggests that the smaller buds (2 inches or less) are best for eating, while the petals can be used whole or finely shredded if desired. We like to pluck the buds and drop them into a jar of pickle juice, allow them to marinate for a week, and enjoy pickled day lily buds as a special treat. Of course, if you do this, you have greatly decreased the amount of beautiful blooming blossoms! What do you do with your day lily blossoms? We recently had an evening event in the tea room for the Cumberland Herb Society where we featured day lilies as the appetizer! Stuffed with savory cheese spread, garnished with fresh parsley, and several tasty crackers, they were served to oohs and aahs as the first course of an herbal tea party. Most of the guests nibbled their way thru blossoms, cheese spread and crackers. I did remove the stamens and pistol before stuffing with the cheese spread. They would also be pretty served on a luncheon plate, stuffed with tuna or chicken salad, perhaps hummus. Aren't they just cheery! If you were served this appetizer, would you eat the blossom?

June ~ National Iced Tea Month

We would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge National Iced Tea Month! Summertime is finally here, the sun is shining in southcentral PA, and the iced tea is brewed, chilled and ready for kicking back, 'livin the good life!The brew on the left is a botanical blend, harvested from our garden, which includes lemon balm, lemon verbena, apple mint, and a touch of spearmint. After gathering a large bunch of these herbs, I tossed them into a gallon jug and covered them with about a quart of boiling water. Let the herbs steep for 20 minutes, remove them, and fill the gallon jug with ice cubes and water. I added two large lemon verbena stems to the gallon jar to continue to flavor the herbal brew overnight. This morning we have a very refreshing lemon tisane, naturally caffeine free, and unsweetened. If you would like, a touch of lavender syrup or honey would add another flavor component to the mix. Experiment! You can't go wrong.

The tea on the right is a mint tea. Brewed using a black tea base with a large bunch of spearmint leaves added and sweetened generously with a cup of sugar to the gallon, it is a very refreshing way to celebrate National Iced Tea Month. Susanna, enjoying the bright summer morning while the kids are at vacation Bible school, opts for the caffeine kick the black tea provides.

Happy Father's Day!

Note: This photo, taken in 2001, marks the celebration of our Father's 80th birthday.

Willow Pond Farm Lavender Festival

The Lavender Festival continues today and tomorrow, June 20th and 21st at Willow Pond Farm near Gettysburg, PA. If you get a chance to stop by, there are great programs featured all day long, the opportunity to pick your own lavender, purchase plants, and order lavender-flavored items off the menu.

Tom Wajda, pictured here, and his wife Madeline, are the hosts for this fun event in rural PA. Their big beautiful farm house overlooks a field of lavender.

Lavender, shown drying, takes center stage at this event. For additional details and program schedule, visit their website.

Photos courtesy of Willow Pond Farm Herbs and Everlastings.

Pennsylvania Lavender Festival

Two of my sisters, Marj and Susanna, are vending at the PA Lavender Festival at Willow Pond Farms today thru Sunday. If you have the opportunity, I certainly recommend you take a quick visit! Located near Gettysburg, PA, this old farm has beautiful lavender fields, in full bloom. There's a great schedule of events for the weekend with lots to buy, and lavender to taste! If you happen to be in the area, be sure to tell Susanna I sent you!
(Photo courtesy of Willow Pond Farm Herbs and Everlastings.)

Strawberries & Almond Cream ~ a Reprise

Recently we served fresh, local June Strawberries sliced and layered with Almond Cream and adorned with petite impatiens. We previously featured Strawberries and Almond Cream last year, garnished with violets, one of our early Spring edible flowers. For the Almond Cream recipe, and another presentation for serving this tasty and easy classic, visit this earlier post.

simply geraniums

Flowers really do intoxicate me.

-Vita Sackville-West

A Horse is a Horse,

Of course! A few of you commented on the horse picture (Ci Ci) in the last post... alas, she is not our horse and is happily stabled in a barn in the countryside. Angelica has been smittenwith horses for a long time, even wondering out loud where we would keep a horse (her thought ~ 'parked' between the family vans) and where we might keep the hay. She even has 'clean up' duty designated.

In the meantime, we continue to feed her love affair with horses from pony rides to horse riding lessons to wagon trains.

All in the same day...

Although Afternoon Tea is traditionally taken around 4 pm, we find that our guests enjoy the opportunity to take tea beginning at 11 am or slightly later... substituting lunch with our tea fare. Hence, our day might begin by preparing and serving Afternoon Tea in mid-morning and eventually transition to cleaning horses hooves in the early evening.
We like to juggle variety in our day! How about you?

SereniTea

Every Wednesday is SereniTEA at Sweet Remembrances (well, most Wednesdays!), where we accept reservations for small groups (1, 2, 3, or more) for tea. In contrast with the Queen's Tea and other special events where we serve the Afternoon Tea in courses, we use the traditional three tiered serving tray, as shown here, for SereniTEA Wednesday.
The tea sandwiches included egg salad fingers, cucumber rounds with French style cheese spread, strawberry sandwiches with mascarpone cheese, and chicken salad in pastry boats. The oven fresh scones included traditional English cream scones and Orange Currant Scones with orange slices. The top tier held miniature lavender cheesecake, chocolate frosted chocolate cookies, and lemon curd tartlets. Edible flowers and rose geranium leaves garnished the food and plates. The menu for next Wednesday will be different than what we served this week. What's your definition of serenity?

In the Garden - Indigo

This tree like shrub is Indigo, a legume that the famous blue dye is from. It stands about 8 feet tall and is covered with these pretty pick flowers for most of May and June.

Below is Baptisia australis, a dense hardy bush that also yields a blue dye.