Custom Seed Packets

Why not make your own seed packets?

Now that I'm saving seeds that (hopefully) will grow next year, I needed some way to box them up as nice little packets. So I created my own seed packet template. Feel free to use it, just paste or draw a photo of the plant on the back, and fill in the information on the front. Circle the water and sunlight requirements and record the height, depth, spacing, year and variety.

Click on the thumbnail to view full-sized image and print it out or copy it. Photos of the finished product finally here!

Pumpkin Petit Fours

Why not?

This is a Pumpkin Spice cookie recipe, made into a sheet pan and cut into pumpkin shapes. They've been frosted with a basic powdered-sugar icing (some were given a spice glaze as well).

Seasonal Gifts?

I have been trying to come up with some new ideas for gifts this year. Things that are consumable or reusable and not just "stuff".

A few years ago, gifts in a jar were all the rage, but it's not incredibly special to just layer the ingredients, right? Why not take this a step further and do some sand art? It isn't difficult if you have a little patience, some small measuring spoons, a bamboo skewer, and a sense of humor.

First, an online video showing how an artist in Petra, Jordan, creates images in sand.

Simple, right?!

My first attempt, making a pine tree from the Mexican Spice mix. I highly recommend you make a lot of practice attempts, perhaps while mixing up enough spices for your own consumption, because it isn't incredibly easy, and you'll need to play around with it. Also, I suggest you don't forget an ingredient (like I did with the corn starch - you can see it piled up on the top). Pick out a design that is simple, and hide the unneeded colors in the middle of the jar for 'filler' - the chili powder and red pepper are stuffed in the middle of this jar since the design didn't have any red in it.

Simple holiday designs could include:
Snowman, Tree, Christmas Tree Ornament, Star, Candle, Candy Cane - if you're ambitious try a scene or a decorated tree? Please let me know how yours turn out if you make these.

Recipes:
Mexican Spice Mix
3/4 cup dried minced onion OR 1/4 cup onion powder
1/4 cup chili powder
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 Tablespoons dried red pepper, crushed
1 Tablespoon oregano
2 Tablespoons dried minced garlic
2 Tablespoons ground cumin

add 2 Tablespoons mix and 1/2 cup water to 1 lb browned, drained, ground beef, heat through until water mostly boils off.

Spaghetti Spice Mix
1/2 Tablespoon celery seed
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 Tablespoon dried minced garlic
1 Tablespoon ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
2 Tablespoons dried minced onions OR 2 teaspoons onion powder

Add 1 Tablespoon mix per 1 cup spaghetti sauce.

Maple-Pecan cookies

A favorite fall cookie here, these are best when made with real maple syrup.


1 1/2 cups butter, soft
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed firm
2 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 cups flour
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

semi-sweet or dark melting chocolate (optional)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and syrup until combined. Beat in flour and pecans (you may need to finish by hand, some mixers will bind with the stiff dough).

Chill dough 1-2 hours to ease handling.

Roll into 1/4 inch thick slab and cut out cookies. Bake at 375° F for 10-14 minutes, or until browned on edges. Cool on wire racks.

Dip cooled cookies into melted chocolate, if desired.

I prefer using a small oak leaf cutter and an acorn cutter (dipping the acorn tops in chocolate for a cap). The smaller cookies are addictive, though, since it's so tiny, it must have only a couple calories. Be sure to let them bake until you see bits of brown on the edges. The additional browning adds a wonderful toasty flavor, although they have a good shortbread-like flavor when just barely baked.

Clean up has begun

The last of the carrots are still in the ground, and will be dug up as weather permits over the next couple months. (freezing temps seem to improve carrot flavor, I think) Everything else is long gone.

The tomato bed has been dismantled today, the rotting fruits are in the compost bin, along with vines, some grass clipping mulch, and a good portion of mud that was mixed in. If I leave the tomatoes in the garden, I'll be weeding tomato plants next year (they are tenacious buggers, too) . I should probably dig up the beans also, since a lot of those went to seed and I don't want volunteer beans next year either.

Still haven't found any onions that I planted from seed. I may probe into the bed and see if there's something in there. If there's nothing, I won't feel bad about tilling the bed, but I'd really hate to lose all those onions if they're hiding in the weeds.

Sometime this week, when the weather is good, the whole garden will be hit with round-up and weed-whacked. I'm sure there are a few million weed seeds in there - if I get ambitious, I might try burning the weeds. Or just deal with it like I do every year - pull weeds.

The bad news...
The vintner who picks our elderberries told us there's a poison ivy patch invading the corner of our property. This is an interesting dilemma for me - I have never reacted to poison ivy, and thus never learned what it looks like. So I have spent every available moment in the last week surfing the web for photographs and hiking back there to locate the poison ivy. No luck. Hopefully K will have some time to come back and show me where it is. Thanks for small blessings, if anyone should clear out poison ivy it should be the person who doesn't react to it, right?!

The consensus of my web search says that I should find the point where the plants roots are, cut it off at the root & mark the location this fall. Then, next spring hit the young sprouts with herbicide (round-up) every time it tries to leaf out. I'll be wearing a disposable coverall and gloves to gather up the vines, just because I haven't reacted doesn't mean I'm willing to gamble!

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Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

What would you do with some extra baking apples? These cookies have been adapted from a standard oatmeal-raisin recipe, and turned out well. I've added comments on substitutions that I made.


1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1_1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups oats
1 cup apple pieces (or dried apple pieces, with sufficient water to moisten)
1 cup caramel bits

Heat oven to 350 F.
Cream butter, shortening, and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Combine flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon - add to wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in oats, apples, and caramel bits.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake 12 - 15 minutes or until golden. Allow to set on cookie sheet for 1 minute after removing from oven, then cool on wire rack.

Substitutions I have successfully made:
Applesauce for 1/2 the fat
Hot cider mix for granulated sugar

If you cannot find caramel bits, unwrap caramel squares and freeze, then crush with a mallet.

Harvest Basket / Garden Hod Project

For several years, I've seen advertisements for the "Original Maine Garden Hod", which is a harvest basket with wooden ends and wire mesh bottom and sides. The ads state that this is a design adapted from clam hods, allowing to rinse the contents of the basket without removing them from the basket itself. In essence, this is a large-scale strainer for garden produce.

Searching various supply houses, the cheapest I could find these baskets is $30 (not including shipping), and many companies are selling them for $50. With all due respect to the sellers, these look like wonderful baskets, but I'm not able to part with $30-$50. Additionally, I know several gardeners who would rejoice in receiving a gift of a harvest basket, but again, my budget does not have room for the price.

I'd like to make my own version of the hod, so I started a little search online and came up with a fellow blogger's instructions. I like her dimensions, but her design doesn't fit my needs very well. For starters, I need to be able to carry it with one hand, so we need to add a handle. I also like the coated wire mesh of the original version, and I'd prefer to have cedar or redwood for the ends, since it's likely to be very wet.

The Farmchick blog has some clever features - using small feet on the bottom to keep the mesh off of other surfaces, 1x2 side rails for strength and attaching the mesh, and a good overall dimension.

Searching for other plans online, I came across a generic tool caddy project at Lowes online. I think the two plans will serve as a good starting point for my new garden hod.

Essentially, I need to take the ends and handle of the Lowes caddy, and round off the bottom corners. Then I'll add side rails, coated hardware cloth, and feet, as instructed by the Farmchick blog.
Rough dimensions I'm using are 5" high x 9" wide x 16" long for the 'basket' part, (the handle will be 8" high overall). Ends will be cut from cedar or redwood lumber, and sanded to round off edges. The mesh will be 5/8" hardware cloth coated with PVC or Vinyl and stapled in place (If you want to get fancy, you could route a nice channel in the end pieces for the wire to fit into.) The handle will be a 1x2, as will the side rails.

I made a mock-up in cardboard, to get a feel for the size... keep in mind the sides will be almost an inch thick and there will be a handle on top (1x2, not the 3/4" round as drawn on the cardboard.)

Since I'm all for "saving the earth" (and, I'm cheap), I'll be searching craigslist, for sale classifieds, and the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore to find scrap cedar, redwood, etc. Photos of the project will follow as I build them...
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Update 1/21/2010...
The completed project can be found here.