OK. So, some years ago, my husband discovered just how oddly "creative" I could be. I found these adorable little bitty yellow gourd-looking things growing wild in our apartment's garden area. I'd been thinking of growing gourds for the fun of it, and wondered just how they got them so dry! I decided the trick must be in drying them. So, I proceeded to proudly pick a number of them, take them to our apartment, cut them open, and see if I could dry them on a low setting in my oven. During this, my hubby came home and was VERY amused to say the least.
Boy, have I come a LONG way from those days!! Yes, like many of you, I had absolutely no knowledge of much of anything that had to do with gardening! I knew you put seeds in the ground, watered them, maybe gave a bit of fertilizer, and they produced food, right? RIGHT?!? Well, I was a miserable failure at it past the sprouting stage for quite some time, and really only in recent years have I gotten the hang of actually getting produce from those plants in any reasonable amount.
All of this to say, the code words around our house for my going off on a wild creative tangent is now "baking gourds." We have noticed the trend peaks in spring and fall. It's spring. Guess what??! Yep. I've been gourd baking away!
For starters, what happens when I severely trim back the apple tree? I decide that it would be fun to try and make my own basket from the branches! Note to self: while the apple branches are great for the basket shaping, they are NOT great for the weaving aspect of things. So, that got shelved for a few weeks until...
The grapevine needed trimming back! You know, grape vines fresh-cut really are quite bendable. They weave a LOT better than apple branches! So, TADA!!
Boy, have I come a LONG way from those days!! Yes, like many of you, I had absolutely no knowledge of much of anything that had to do with gardening! I knew you put seeds in the ground, watered them, maybe gave a bit of fertilizer, and they produced food, right? RIGHT?!? Well, I was a miserable failure at it past the sprouting stage for quite some time, and really only in recent years have I gotten the hang of actually getting produce from those plants in any reasonable amount.
All of this to say, the code words around our house for my going off on a wild creative tangent is now "baking gourds." We have noticed the trend peaks in spring and fall. It's spring. Guess what??! Yep. I've been gourd baking away!
For starters, what happens when I severely trim back the apple tree? I decide that it would be fun to try and make my own basket from the branches! Note to self: while the apple branches are great for the basket shaping, they are NOT great for the weaving aspect of things. So, that got shelved for a few weeks until...
The grapevine needed trimming back! You know, grape vines fresh-cut really are quite bendable. They weave a LOT better than apple branches! So, TADA!!
Yep, I did it, handle and all! It may not hold small things very well, but I look forward to putting the tomatoes in it once they start ripening!!
As if THAT weren't enough gourd baking, my lime tree has suddenly burst into bloom. And by burst, I mean completely coated itself with blossoms this year. It. Smells. HEAVENLY!! If you're not familiar with citrus blossoms, imagine something along the lines of honeysuckle or gardenia. Just wonderful!
As this blooming season has gone on the past few days, I've noticed the petals dropping off from the blossoms. You know, those petals smell an awful like that blossom smell! Enter Baking Gourds tangent #2!
I've been making lotion bars for sale and for personal use for the better part of the last year, and so I have coconut oil readily available, as one of the 3 ingredients. Somewhere in a magazine, I had read an article about scenting coconut oil being popular in some tropical island locale. Put it all together, and for the past couple of days, I've been slowly rotating out lime blossom petals to scent the coconut oil in order to make a new batch of lotion bars, and I'm hoping the scent comes through!!
Through this, I've discovered that there's some kind of freakish bee that just hangs around my lime tree. Seriously. It hovers in the air and "guards" the tree. He stares me down. And creeps me out a bit. He doesn't like me collecting the petals from the ground under the tree. From what I can find on the internet, I think it may be a male carpenter bee. He's strange. Oh, the things you can discover in the garden!!
As if THAT weren't enough gourd baking, my lime tree has suddenly burst into bloom. And by burst, I mean completely coated itself with blossoms this year. It. Smells. HEAVENLY!! If you're not familiar with citrus blossoms, imagine something along the lines of honeysuckle or gardenia. Just wonderful!
As this blooming season has gone on the past few days, I've noticed the petals dropping off from the blossoms. You know, those petals smell an awful like that blossom smell! Enter Baking Gourds tangent #2!
I've been making lotion bars for sale and for personal use for the better part of the last year, and so I have coconut oil readily available, as one of the 3 ingredients. Somewhere in a magazine, I had read an article about scenting coconut oil being popular in some tropical island locale. Put it all together, and for the past couple of days, I've been slowly rotating out lime blossom petals to scent the coconut oil in order to make a new batch of lotion bars, and I'm hoping the scent comes through!!
Through this, I've discovered that there's some kind of freakish bee that just hangs around my lime tree. Seriously. It hovers in the air and "guards" the tree. He stares me down. And creeps me out a bit. He doesn't like me collecting the petals from the ground under the tree. From what I can find on the internet, I think it may be a male carpenter bee. He's strange. Oh, the things you can discover in the garden!!
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