Stevia

In my quest to reduce the amount of sugar in my life, I discovered a plant called Stevia. The herb is a natural sweetener and a wonderful alternative to sugar that happens to be 360 times as sweet! It is on the market now under different names including Truvia, Sweetleaf, PureVia, Only Sweet, and Rebiana. It can be bought as a liquid extract or a container of the powder as well as individual packets.

In 2008 it was recognized as safe by the FDA, and since then foods and drinks containing stevia have been making an appearance on the shelves in the US.

So far, it does not have any known side effects or contribute to any health problems. Either it really doesn't have any, or there has not been enough research done on it. Some people complain of a bitter taste that stevia causes when used at high temperatures, but I have not.

I bought a plant at Hostetter's, as well as 50 tiny seeds. I don't know how much luck I'll have using these plants as a replacement for sugar, but I can at least try the leaves in my tea.

Read this article to find out how you can dry your stevia and use it in liquid form!

growing more from A to Zucchini and Zinnias

A portion of the yard near the barn has poorly-growing grass, so I tilled that section to make room for more experimental gardening.

Then I planted cucumber, zucchini, butternut squash, and cantaloupe on little mounds, a row of peas, a row of beans, and a few rows of zinnias and sunflowers. A few weeks later, I added tomato plants and another kind of bean (from Trinidad... the beans themselves grow to be longer than 3 feet!) in between the mounds.

Later I added a basil and a habenero plant! And now, 37 days later, my back garden looks like this:

moving and changing

When I realized that Brussels Sprouts grow to be very large, I thought I should transplant them while they were still young.

(See how close they are? 3 feet in between is recommended... oops!)

I moved them, still not 3 feet apart, but way better!

And put spinach in their place.

...exactly one month later:

Cloudy With a Chance of Blueberries for Sal

The air dropped about 20 degrees (down from 96) in a matter of minutes last Thursday.

The air also dropped this:

Blueberry sized hail.

Butter butter everywhere and not a drop to drink

I had the craving to make butter the other day. It just seemed like it should be something to do. It churned out to be way easier than I had expected! I bought heavy whipping cream, poured it into a cleaned out spaghetti sauce jar, added a little sea salt, and started shaking.

I got a little tired of shaking, so I turned to jumping. Also Terra and Cassie helped.

It seemed like all we were making was whipped cream until suddenly we looked inside and the butter had separated from the buttermilk!

Cassie had just brought over a loaf of Polynesian Sweet Bread that she had made, and we slathered our butter on that. Incredibly delicious!

Soon I hope to make butter with the herbs that I am growing. Apparently dairy really draws out the flavor!