Fall festival season and state fairs have officially kicked off. There’s a lot of serious organic gardening stuff, but the vegetable judging contests are wild. Peppers are the theater king kids of the show. If you talk to a fair judge, they often point to peppers as a great beginner vegetable for both young boys and young at heart to successfully grow for 4-H and win. Someone with a sense of humor is going to have fun making a screenplay or low-budget romantic comedy around our Carolina Grim Reaper Pepper or personal favorite because of how pretty they are: the Brazilian Star Flower Pepper. Not really sure of the nutritional value of peppers, but they come in all kinds of...
Rose of Attar Geranium tea cakes are littered throughout the herbal cookbooks. They’re beautiful fairytale creations and European delicacy. A way for the rich royalty of Europe to show off owning a glass greenhouse in the 17th and 18th century, but they still taste yum. Today we can all afford scented geraniums at Lowes which seems like a wonder gift to home gardeners. Seems fitting as looking into more AI fabric zero waste dying which seems to be geared for knitting, specifically reimagining traditional woven patterns with 80s flair. Scottish tartan and plaid patterns would be the most useful for homeknitting machines testing out AI fashions as we’ve all seen NYC displays over the years that wrap window displays in...
Planting fall edible pansies this week and putting down wheelbarrows of mulch. Feels very English cottage garden. Had a number of conversations with people in the business about where AI fashion will go. Don’t know the future, but my new favorite machine being rolled out is digital yarn dying. The largest growing segment of the craft market, especially knitting, is guys making custom hats. Skater dudes. Obviously an early model which you can see here with Twine, but there’s going to be a version that rolls out and allows people to program in the EXACT colors of garments they knit for someone modifying it for the home market on demand. Yarn people are absolutely crazy in the best way about color,...
Hundreds of years ago, sunflower flowers were cooked like artichokes and served to the very rich. Today, our local farmer’s market has started selling organic sunflowers so it’s time to check out some of the pretty desserts. If you don’t happen to live somewhere that has a ready supply of edible flowers, check out dried sunflower petals which are a beautiful golden lion color. Especially, German. You can go to the loose tea section to buy bulk dried edible flowers. Amazon, Target, Wal-mart, your local asian grocery store…the list is endless and often under $20 so it can be a fun experiment in healthy fancy living. You can sprinkle sunflower petals on lots of things for a nutty pop of...
It’s fall harvest time which is all about eating the food you spent most of your year growing and stopping by the local farmers market to try grower’s produce for the next 3 months leading up to Thanksgiving. Fun. There’s no wrong way to go. A great time to try out any new recipes as fresh food will be lower priced. Also, edible flowers. Sunflowers are king here as their edible golden petals make great romantic desserts. Given North Carolina grows them wild, definitely expect some government employees to start a business harvesting organic sunflowers for special occasions since most people love them. Don’t know about you, but we’re obsessed with Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Hertzberg...