Living in the Wyoming countryside
Yes, another picture post of our snow harvesting.
The snow was deep. About 8 inches. The kids really loved it. Mostly
I was totally impressed with my snow collection though.
That’s a 3 foot deep krater filled to the top.
And the swales are even with the berms. So about 3 feet of snow collection there as well.
Earthworks are a total success!
The commercially farming neighbor isn’t keeping any of this moisture.
Lemongrass is such a wonderful plant. It can be used in cooking, to deter bugs, to make tea and medicinally. WebMD even has a page on it:
- Lemongrass is a plant. The leaves and the oil are used to make medicine.
- Lemongrass is used for treating digestive tract spasms, stomachache, high blood pressure, convulsions, pain, vomiting, cough, achy joints (rheumatism), fever, the common cold, and exhaustion. It is also used to kill germs and as a mild astringent.
- Some people apply lemongrass and its essential oil directly to the skin for headache, stomachache, abdominal pain, and muscle pain.
- By inhalation, the essential oil of lemongrass is used as aromatherapy for muscle pain.
- In food and beverages, lemongrass is used as a flavoring. For example, lemongrass leaves are commonly used as “lemon” flavoring in herbal teas.
- In manufacturing, lemongrass is used as a fragrance in soaps and cosmetics. Lemongrass is also used in making vitamin A and natural citral.
How does it work?
Lemongrass might help prevent the growth of some bacteria and yeast. Lemongrass also contains substances that are thought to relieve pain, reduce fever, stimulate the uterus and menstrual flow, and have antioxidant properties.
I wanted to grow lemongrass for a different reason, the oil attracts bees. As you know we built our own beehives. I do not want to buy a package of bees, I’d rather attract a swarm. To do that I needed lemongrass essential oil. Husband has been wanting to try his hand at making essential oil, so I just needed the lemongrass. I went to our local oriental market and bought all the lemongrass they had. I put them in a jar of water until they’d sprouted roots, then I planted them out to the kitchen herb garden. They have really taken off. I’ve harvested some for lemongrass chicken and loved it.
Lemongrass
Thai Basil
Here is Daughter helping me prep the lemongrass. Ok, she’s just chewing on it. She informed me she didn’t like eating grass.
Such a cute face!
Stripped of stalk.
All I did to prep the lemongrass was strip off the base leaves, cut the white base of the stalk off, wash it and chop it up to be added to dinner. The recipe I gathered inspiration from is this one. As usual, I didn’t follow the directions and modified as I saw fit. I used bean noodles, sliced chicken breasts, carrots, and green onions. I did not use fish sauce, cuz yuck! O let me just tell you my recipe:
Lemongrass Chicken with Bean Noodles
Ingredients
Directions
Cook bean noodles as directed on the package.
Add lemongrass, ginger, oil and garlic to a medium skillet and sauté until fragrant. Add the sliced chicken and cook through. Add lemon juice, basil and brown sugar and coat chicken. Next add the noodles and warm through. Remove and serve in a bowl with carrot curls and green onions.
Add spice, to taste with sriracha or red pepper flakes. My children do not like spice and so we kept it optional.
I think bean sprouts would be great in this dish but I didn’t have any when I first made it and it was still great.
Cooking noodles
Cooking the lemongrass, garlic and ginger.
Browning the chicken.
Delicious!
Last year I had a raised bed made from old fencing, 4 tire beds and 2 pallets. Oh, can’t forget the failed straw bale gardening experiment. This year I went bigger. I now have 4 raised beds, loads of tires next to the fence for vining plants (gourds, cantelope and cucumber), a lettuce bed and a carrot tire. I think I’ll get a few more tires. Some things did rather well in them. I’ll make more raised beds as I have time and resources. All of the things I use in my kitchen garden are free.
Oh, can’t forget the other part of the kitchen garden, the sunken corn hugel. See the linked post for more on that.
I started with cardboard, lots of it. And tires, lots of them.
This is the lettuce bed. I laid out cardboard and then put compost over it. I also have cardboard under and compost in all the tires.
The lettuce is already coming up. I had to chase a chicken out of it. Chased her all the way around the house. Then I fenced it like I should have to begin with.
If you haven’t guessed yet, I am not the best at planned design. So I simply cut all the wood in half. The new raised beds are as large as the wood would allow and that’s that.
I have cucumber and leeks in the big one, eggplant in another and okra in the last one. I have cardboard going around and in between the raised beds. Dirt is on it to keep it from blowing away. When I get it done enough I’ll be putting a nice layer of straw/hay to help with the ease of walking and to suppress weeds. Last year the surrounding plants made it almost impossible to reach the garden. I’m planning for that this year!
Here is a shot of Son’s photo bomb and asparagus in last years raised bed. Daughter is in the backpack which she loves. Oddly she’s not much for the outdoors and doesn’t like to walk much. Our ground is rather uneven and she horribly takes after my side of the family in the grace department.
I started some of the gourds inside. I have birdhouse gourds, apple gourds, giant gourds and cantaloupe. I’m hoping to make some birdhouses out of all the varieties- minus the cantaloupe.
This is pretty much it. We do have squash planted all over on the berms and potatoes as well. I think we are almost ready for growing!
